[b]Name:[/b] Rote Kaufmann [b]Age:[/b] 18 [b]Physical Description:[/b] [img]https://i.imgur.com/ii2WWIc.jpg[/img] [b]Important items:[/b] Slave Rags and Chains. [b]Short Bio:[/b] [hider=Biography] The Kaufmann Family was a rich and prestigious noble house of the Reich des Goldenen Grahles, swollen with privileges granted by the previous monarchs of the Schwanhueter Dynasty. However, just before Rote's birth, these privileges were threatened not by the Throne or other members of the nobility, but by a more insidious enemy - The infertility of the current head of the Kaufmann family, who had failed to sire a child even after three wives. In desperation, said current head, Braun von Kaufmann, went on a personal trip to the Blackwald, a dark forest once dedicated to the 'Goddess' of Fertility, to find a cure for his sterility. What happened there, only he knew, as he went with no guards. But when he came back to his wife, he managed to sire a son, who was named Rote (Red) due to the color of his hair. The baby was healthy, and the family was happy to finally have an heir - A setup for said heir's own happiness. Rote was raised as befit his station, with a strong sense of his own privileges and how to prove himself worthy of them, not just in battle but in the intellectual field. It was rare that he played with others, as he was too busy training how to read, write, and fight. Nor was there many people who were his social equal, even among the nobility's children. It was also a time of tension among the Reich des Goldenen Grahles, where the Crown's increasing assertiveness was causing waves among the nobility. Braun Kaufmann was among the opponents of Emperor Karl Maximillian as the latter sought to centralize rule, and Rote fully agreed with his father on that. But then one day, something happened to make the young man question what he had been told. This was just two months before the Nobles' Rebellion, and Rote was unable to sleep due to anxiety about how the revolt was going to fare when it finally begun. So he decided to walk the halls at night and perhaps read a book in the castle study. As he walked down, he began to hear voices, voices which belonged to his father and a stranger. He snuck into the study, hiding behind a bookcase as he listened to Braun indigantly talking to a hooded man who spoke of provoking the Emperor of the Reich Des Goldenen Grahles into an act that will ruin the Empire's reputation forever. In his anger, Braun revealed that if [i]Rote's[/i] well-being was the cost of the bargain that was made in the Blackwald long ago, then he would not have had Rote in the first place. All the hooded man can say was that it was too late to stop the Rebellion - All they can do is try and win it for Rote to be safe. And he said it in a way that implied that he knew Rote was there, even though Braun did not. So when the rebellion finally begun, Rote desperately tried to ensure that his side won, fighting in several battles that paved the way to the final engagement at the plains before Kaiserstadt, where the Emperor unleashed his Gunpowder Army at a dry and rainless day. It was a massive slaugther for the Nobles and their armies, with the Crown's army crushing their opposition with almost laughable ease. Braun was mortally wounded in the battle, but not before whispering Rote his last words. "I failed you - Do not let Prince Otto die, [i]do not get sent to Venedig![/i] The Old 'Gods'... They are planning..." And then he died. It was only in the Imperial Dungeons when Prince Otto went to the prisoners to assure them of clemency, that Rote realized what his father meant. As the hooded figure from before appeared behind the heir to the Empire and his two guards (he had brought only those few), Rote raised his voice to warn the Prince but it was too late - With a gesture, the hooded figure had mystically incited the prisoners to riot and stab the hapless prince and guards to death with improvised knives. And although Rote was not part of the murder, he knew this - That his life had been part of a pre-ordained series of events, a series of events that now culminated in the Iron Decree and his coming enslavement in Venedig. Filled with resentment at how his birth had been part of a plan to bring back the Old Gods, and how they had toyed with his life as part of a plan to destroy the Church of Existence, Rote vowed this: That whatever humiliation and enslavement he experienced, that he'd bring down the Cult that caused all this! [/hider] [b]Starting Faction:[/b] None. [b]Spell List:[/b] Soulfire Enchantment (High) - Causes an object that one holds to burn with silver-white flames that burn Nonmagi (anyone without Spells) like ordinary fire but inflict damage unhealable by Magic (but not Ex. Skills) to Magi, Magical Creatures, and Magitech. [B]Exceptional Skill List:[/b] Ex. Swordsmanship Ex. Athletics Ex. Academics. Ex. Riding. Ex. Endurance.