Background - Detlef Henzler

[Misroi]

Detlef Henzler was born in 1640, and is the second son born to Rolf and Claudia Henzler, sworn vassals to Erich Sieger. Along with his brothers Klaus, the elder, and Ulrich, the younger, each of them were born with certain expectations when they grew older. As the firstborn, Klaus was to take over as the ruler of the Henzler lands once Rolf was too old to rule. As the second son, Detlef was sent to the most prestigious military academy his parents could secure. His younger brother was sent off to an Objectionist monastery to learn the ecclesiastical arts. Detlef and his brothers realized what their eventual fates would be early on.

The War of the Cross was raging at the time, so there was a need to get skilled warriors and officers onto the field as fast as possible, so by 1657, Detlef found himself in charge of a small batallion of men. He soon realized that there were two philosophies in war: that which was drilled into him at academy, and that which actually worked. He would lead his men in battles for the next few years, and gained notoriety for his tactics. What some would call ungentlemanly warfare he called necessary practices. He led midnight raids on towns harboring known Vaticine troops; he ordered his troops to target opposition officers; he staged ambushes and weakened the enemy lines before he ever engaged them.

In 1660, Detlef's commander received a letter from the Henzler estate - his father was sick and upon his deathbed. He requested that Detlef return home immediately, and the commander granted this request to the young Eisen officer. He packed away his broadsword and panzerhand, mounted a fast steed, and urged his mount home as quickly as he dared. A few nights out, as he rested, he was set upon by a half dozen men, each carrying knives long, curved and sharp. Separated from his panzerhand, Detlef was able to fend them off for a time, but eventually one of them got the better of him, and stabbed him in the side. As the six gathered around him, Detlef fell to the ground, his vision swimming out of focus. His head struck a stone, and as he lay on the ground, helpless, Detlef thought he heard the sound of battle before he slipped into unconsciousness.

Detlef was half surprised to awaken at all, as he wondered if the men would slit his throat or merely steal his money, horse and weapons, but awaken he did. He heard a voice caution him to move; the lisp gave the speaker away as a Castillian. Never one to let a stranger, much less a foreigner, tell him what to do, Detlef sat up and stifled a scream as he popped the fresh stitches in his side. The Castillian offered him a bottle of strong spirits as the foreigner retrieved fresh sutures. As Detlef was patched up, the Castillian introduced himself as Enrique, and it was thanks to him that Detlef was not killed. Detlef noticed that Enrique wore a tabard with the heraldry of the Rose & Cross, and dispised the Castillian's involvement - he hated the fact that he owed Enrique his life. After resting for a day, Enrique offered to travel with Detlef the remainder of the way, but Detlef simply snapped that that was unnecessary, and the two parted ways.

The next few weeks were heartbreaking to Detlef. He returned home, only to find his childhood home in ruins. The bodies of his father, mother and elder brother lay out in full view of anyone approaching the Henzler residence, and the animals had been at them already. Worse, the dracheneisen panzerhand inscribed with the Henzler coat of arms was missing from the residence, and was not on either his father or brother's arms. Not only had someone killed the Henzler line, someone had removed that which made them nobility in the first place. The village nearby was equally razed, but Detlef found a young woman in hiding by the name of Marlena that saw the men responsible for the chaos both here in the village and back at the estate: a dozen men, led by a Montaigne missing the lower half of his left ear, and a large man dressed as a Vendel savage with more gold teeth than real. In this moment, Detlef knew he had to find the man who visited so much pain upon his family, avenge his father's death, and restore the Henzler name to its former glory, and swore this upon his father's remains.

Detlef raced to the monastery where his brother was cloistered, only to find it barred from the outside and set to flame. Detlef realized there was no way anyone could have survived the fire, and it became clear that someone was trying to exterminate the Henzler line. He knew that he could not return to the army, not while his family's murderer walked free, and so decided to begin calling himself Detlef Einsmann, a travelling mercenary. He headed into the heart of Eisen, heading towards the city of keine fragen, Freiburg. Here, a mercenary would be lost amongst the sheer throng of people in its walls, and if anyone knew who the Montaigne and Vesten were that killed his family, it was very likely they would be in Freiburg.

For three years, Detlef hired himself out to anyone who needed a competant swordsman. As he lived on the streets, he slowly learned the skills necessary to survive in this remorseless city. Sometimes he lived in squalor; others, when he could afford it, he lived in dirty rooms upstairs of inns. He told himself that each day brought him closer to avenging the deaths that he avoided on the road. Somedays, he actually believed it.

While he made little to no progress in finding the mysterious assailants, they, however, found him. As he walked home from a particularly long night of drinking at The Three Sheets, Detlef was set upon by a dozen men with familiar knives. He knew he was outnumbered, and that these men wanted his lifeblood upon the ground. He was determined to make them pay for every drop they wished to spill. As he began to loose his broadsword, a noise from overhead started everyone, and three figures leapt from the shadows of Freiburg's roofs. Within a matter of moments, the figures were either laid out upon the road, or retreating into the dark. Stunned by the sudden appearance of these figures, Detlef found himself thanking a pair of men and a woman for their sudden involvement. One of the men and the woman were of Eisen descent, but the second was a familiar face to Detlef; he recognized the face of Enrique, and all three figures wore the tabard of the Rose & Cross. In this moment, Detlef realized that Enrique saved his life this night for the same reason his life was saved over three years ago: it was the right thing to do.

The very next day, Detlef presented himself to the Rose & Cross's chapterhouse in Freiburg. He began training in their ways for the next several years, practicing their training methods for days on end - performing menial tasks around the chapterhouse, training with fencing weapons in the courtyard, studying ancient texts by candlelight, and racing across Freiburg's rooftops in the dead of night. Eventually, Enrique took Detlef as his Tyro, and mentored the young man, training him to become a Wandering Knight much as himself.

Then, in the spring of 1668, Enrique took Detlef aside and told him that his study here in Freiburg was at an end. It was time for him to head to Altamira, and learn at the feet of his old master. Detlef initially refused, and wished for nothing more than to stay in Freiburg and help those in need of his skills. However, Enrique had other reasons - one of his sources said that there had been a sighting of a man with a Montaigne accent in Altamira, missing the lower half of his left ear. In that moment, Detlef dropped to a knee and thanked his master for this information; he would ride to Altamira that night. He gathered his belongings again, preparing to make the journey down the long and winding road to Altamira...

[Black Jack Rackham]

Now THAT is a BACKGROUND!

I also noticed that you changed to R&C. I'll get to work on the one armed man, er, missing earlobe Montaigne right away (or as soon as you tell me how many points you put into Dracheneisen Heir)

Mark

[Misroi]

Yeah, I knew it was a bit long, but I tend to write more than is truly necessary. Detlef's got two Backgrounds: Vow (avenge family's death) at 1, and Dracheneisen Heir at 2. The item in question is a panzerhand, which costs 6 Dracheneisen points.

[Sister Sonya]

Yeah, I knew it was a bit long, but I tend to write more than is truly necessary.

Nonsense! Your character history is as long as it needs to be!