[hider=Wulfberht][b]Name: [/b]
Wulfberht

[b]Appearance:[/b]
By all accounts Wulfberht is an imposing man, towering over most of his fellows.  That isn’t to say he is a giant, for surely there are taller, let alone stronger, men, but in any given room the chances Wulfberht isn’t immediately obvious are slim indeed.  He possesses a well kempt beard that extends perhaps a hand of fingers past his chin and acts as the anchoring feature of his face.  Hazel eyes peek out from behind his long hair, grown out in the Chlotar custom.  Most often Wulfberht can be seen in Chlotar armour or garb rather than the native styles of his Eodaen culture and heritage, perhaps intentionally so.

[b]Kingdom Allegiance:[/b]
Chlotaringen 

[b]Tribe: [/b]
Eodaen

[b]Background:[/b]
Wulfberht was once a powerful Earl in Eodaland, a distant relative of the king Aethelberht, who was never too far from Cantaware to ride back with a moments notice at his lieges request.  It was in those days, more than a decade past, that he began to doubt the Kings brother, Badastan.  Despite Badastan’s standing Wulfberht, who already saw the Prince as an unrepentant apostate, became suspicious he was conspiring against the king Athelberht.  This suspicion was turned to conviction after the untimely death of a fellow advisor of the King who’d only recently voiced concerns about Badastans heresy.  Seeing Badastan’s complicity in the act as a given Wulfberht flew into an accusatory rage, going so far as to call out Badastan in court and in front of his kingly brother.

This would prove to be a grievous mistake.  Despite his certainty Wulfberht had failed to find anything to substantiate his claim, and given the severity of the allegation this gave Badastan the only edge he needed.  With a few honeyed words in Aethelberht’s ear the Prince had Wulfberht and his family exiled.  Out of respect for the king Wulfberht went willingly, but not before he denounced Badastan’s heresy once more, going so far as to call it a cancer which would consume Eodaland unless it was excised.  With no king to declare his fealty to, and a burning sense of righteous indignation, Wulfberht packed up all he had and set sail for Udos.

The holy city was, if nothing else, the one place he knew he would never again be subject to the perverse whims of apostates and heretics.  Beyond that, it was in need of fighting men.  When Wulfberht left Eodaland it was without shame, and far from alone.  He had not been a poor, or unpopular, man, and with him he took a small number of ships and men who were unwilling to abandon their Earl regardless of what the King demanded.  Upon arrival at Udos Wulfberht would pledge himself, his wealth, and all those whose loyalty he held to the defence of the holy city.

As it happened, it was not an unneeded gesture.  The blasphemy of the Lamperts was well known, but rumours had begun to reach Udos, rumours of a heathen army assembling intent on breaking the sacred walls once and for all.  It would take more than a year, but before anyone knew it the armies of the abomination Dalgiserius were at the foot of Udos.  However, Wulfberht and his men were not unprepared.  Months earlier they had departed Udos, and as the Lampert horde made assault after assault on the city Wulfberht waited.  It would take another few months, with the Lamperts slowly wearing themselves down, Wulfberhts men poisoning their food and raiding their camps in the night, but when the fateful moment arrived it was all too sweet.  As the Lamperts surged forward to make what they hoped would be the final attack, Wulfberht swept in alongside an Eodaen mercenary host.  The Lamperts outnumbered them by more than eleven to one, but the Eodaens were fresh and charge stuck the stooges of Dalgiserius unprepared.

It was, in truth, an unwinnable battle, but victory wasn’t the point.  The mercenaries Wulfberht had paid retreated even before the Lamperts had fully become aware of the slaughter of their rear guard, but the damage was done.  The Lampert camps had been ransacked, their supply trains burned, and their morale all but finished.  While the mercenaries had cost Wulfberht the majority of what he had brought to Udos, they had done their job as any Eodean should and in the name of god, and money, rescued the holy city.  When the Lamperts withdrew Wulfberht rode through the gates of Udos a hero, and in recognition of his role he was declared Protector of the Holy Sepulchre, conveniently replacing the last one who, by means of an unlucky arrow to the neck, had not fared quite as well in the siege.

For years Wulfberht would settle into his role, hearing of the terrible events in Eodaland with only passing interest.  Aethelberht had betrayed him, and the blasphemer Badastan would fall, in time.  Such was gods will.  What [i]did[/i] interest him was the young Chlotar King Cauroman arriving at Udos to solicit the favour of the Vestal Virgins.  Wulfberht was among the first to greet the wounded Cauroman, and when it was declared the young King had been chosen by god to end the plots of the unholy, Wulfberht sought permission to accompany him.  Leaving his son Oswine, now a veteran warrior himself, to protect Udos in his stead Wulfberht accompanied Cauroman on his journey back to Chlotaringen, and in the act came to know the young king well.
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