Juan Santiago was a normal boy raised in an impoverish part of Georgetown, Guyana in South America.  One day in his youth, he snuck into the Providence Stadium to watch a small group of archery competitors compete for state championship.  He was so overwhelmed at their skills that he decided to steal one of their bows and a quiver to use for himself.  Eventually, Juan was caught and placed in a youth jail for his theft. After a few days in jail, the archery team's coach showed up to talk to Juan, asking him why he stole the bow and quiver.  Juan mentioned his interest in the sport, but his family had no money to get those things.  The coach got him out of jail the next day and presented him a work-exchange plan; Juan worked for him doing menial tasks and cleaning and the coach would teach him archery and let him use some of the team's equipment in the process.  Elated, Juan agreed and worked very hard at his job and his training.  By the time he was 16 years of age, he was the best archer on the team and won the national championship that same year.

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Thanks to a medal winning competition in the 2011 Pan-American games, Juan was sponsored to be one of six representing Guyana athletes attending the 2012 London Olympics. There, he easily advanced in the men's division.  Amidst serious competition, Juan was proving to be a serious threat to the other national competitors, none of which even knew who Juan was or expected him to advance as he did.  That same year, the rogue nation of Oceania was allowed to compete for the first time ever in the Olympics amid incredible international consternation and controversy.  One of the Juan's competitors in the archery field was a man from Oceania named Darren Gregory.  Gregory was 'denoted' to be the top of his field, and although he'd never competed internationally, it was rumored he was a highly talented archer, even though some thought he was cheating most of the time, but couldn't prove it.  Juan and Gregory came down to the final heat before the medal round, with both showing off their skills effortlessly, earning some of the highest scores in their field. That's when Juan saw how Gregory was cheating.

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A small and dimly lit light would always light up when Oceania's Gregory was perfectly aligned for a bulls eye shot.  Juan saw this, while no one else did.  Juan, feeling it he needed to report the cheating, told his coach what he saw.  As such, Juan's coach called for an on-site equipment inspection against Gregory.  As such, they found Gregory's bow had a highly-complex targeting system built into it, thus disqualifying him from competition and earning Oceania a lifetime ban from participating in Olympic archery events.  Juan was considered a hero of the moment, challenging Oceania as he did, however, Oceania got even with Juan very quickly.

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Guyana, until recently, had severe laws about gay couples and marriage, imposing penalties of up to life imprisonment should any citizen ever be found guilty.  Juan had a childhood friend that he'd grown up with named Ariz Bandu.  Ariz and Juan eventually advanced their relationship into a same sex relationship between themselves by age 15, but kept their relationship a secret from everyone, including their parents.  Oceania's Darren Gregory, the day before he was evicted from the Olympic village, saw Juan and Ariz making out through their village dorm window.  Knowing Guyana's laws, Gregory had 'other people' take pictures of Ariz and Juan and had them immediately taken to the Guyana embassy in London.

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Hours before Juan's medal competition the next day, Juan and his archery team (including Ariz) were called in to the Guyana embassy in London.  Upset over the timing, Juan and his coach tried to reschedule the meeting, but instead, several strong men from the embassy's staff arrived and stuffed the Guyana archery team into a van and drove back to the embassy.  There, the archery team was questioned about Juan's affair with Ariz.  Since no one else on the team knew about the affair other than Juan and Ariz, the rest of the team were dumbfounded.  As such, the coach and the rest of the team begged the embassy and their ambassador to let them go to the competition before he'd have to forfeit for not appearing on time.  Instead, after a phone call with the nation's president, the ambassador ordered the entire team to be jailed and sent back to Guyana for trial.  Although the ambassador was apologetic, he was told he 'had no choice'.  Juan instead broke from his captors and freed Ariz, both making an incredible escape out of the embassy and onto London streets.  There, they made their way back to the Olympic venue, where, even amidst high security, both Ariz and Juan were able to sneak back into the stadium.  Once there, Juan hid until it was time to show for his medal round in archery competition.  The Guyana embassy's strongmen arrived at the event, but it was too late; unless they wanted an international incident played out on live TV, the Guyana embassy's men couldn't arrest Juan in full public view.  They did, however, find the hidden Ariz back behind a food vendor court.  Juan saw  Ariz arrive on the sidelines with the embassy guards just as Juan was about to compete for the medal round, knowing full well that after the medal round was done, he'd be arrested as well.

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The competitors were tough. The stress was high.  Juan was truly in a unique hell that would've broken most men.

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As the final shots were cast in the archery competition in compound bows, Juan was 10 points in the lead.  He could completely miss a shot and still tie with the next highest competitor for the gold medal.  On his final shot, rather than go for the gold, Juan turned about and shot one of the embassy guards in the knee.  Juan immediately jumped form his platform, grabbed his reserve quiver of arrows and began taking down each of the embassy guards.  Sadly, one of the embassy guards pushed Ariz in front of his own body to shield himself, causing Ariz to receive an arrow to the heart shot by Juan and meant for the embassy guard's hand instead. 

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Ariz fell to the ground, instantly dead.

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As the crowd looked on in absolute horror, the terrorist response teams converged on the site.  Overwhelmed with grief and anger, Juan wheeled around, stealing two other competitor's reserve quivers and began shooting killing shots at the anti-terrorist troops, all the while screaming in agony and despair, tears streaming from his eyes.  Eventually, he was able to elude the squad, making his way back to the Olympic village, where he intended to turn himself in.  Once there, he had another problem - Oceania's Gregory was just leaving with bags packed when the two crossed paths.

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Gregory saw Juan and quizzically asked why he hadn't been arrested at the embassy yet.  Juan wheeled around and asked how Gregory knew of this, only for Gregory to see anti-terrorist troops bearing down on Juan (and initially, thinking himself as well).  

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Before Juan could add up Gregory's involvement in this, Gregory broke out his bow and an arrow and aimed it at Juan, demanding to know what Juan knew.  Juan then figured it out.  He figured out Gregory was the cause of the embassy arrest on him and his team. With lightning speed, Juan planted three arrows in Gregory's chest before Gregory even knew it.  Before Gregory's body even hit the ground, Juan sprinted behind the Olympic village and made his way off the campus and out into the London streets.

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The ensuing manhunt never found Juan, and as such it was believed he'd died trying to swim the Thames during his escape, or at least that's what the media said.  Juan was considered disqualified in the competition, with Guyana banned for a lifetime from the Olympic event.  Ironically, due to Gregory's reportedly 'heroic' attempt to stop the murdering Juan, Oceania's lifetime ban was lifted and Gregory was given a posthumous medal for Olympic bravery instead.  Juan, however, was now considered an international terrorist, murderer, and expatriate of Guyana.  All references to Juan back in Guyana were stripped from records, paintings, murals, etc.; even Juan's parents, as well as the rest of Guyana's Olympic archery team, disappeared, never to be seen again.

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Juan did survive.

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Juan made his way into the London sewers and eventually made his way  to the docks, catching a cargo ship to the United States.  That cargo ship, however, was a secretive front ship for the Gold Syndicate.  While aboard ship, to earn his keep, Juan showed the crew his archery skills, all the while doing menial labor on the ship during its run to Florida.  Once in Florida, the captain of the ship introduced Juan to the Gold Syndicate's operations team leader, Goldmaster. Not only was Goldmaster impressed with Juan's, archery skills and lack of morality, but was also impressed in Juan's ability to get past the expansive and highly-trained anti-terrorist squads at the Olympic venue - a feat not easily done.  With that, Juan was offered a job with the Gold Syndicate.

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Today, Gilded Archer, bereft of any feelings or morality, continues with the Gold Syndicate turning all despair and anger about the loss of Ariz unto the rest of the world. He has been emotionally shut-off from everyone since then, but of late, it seems he may finally be ready to move on with life and has actually been 'looking' at other men for the first time.  He's still a cold, mercenary-like killer with his arrows and seems to actually enjoy showing others that he is superior to them by simply killing them.

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