Grizzled Veteran Commander - Field Marshal Kurt Williams

[Medium Sized Model - 25mm Base]

 

The Field Marshal of Baldur, the ruler of the nation’s military, second only to the king himself. Kurt Williams has held this title for some thirty years, almost as long as the sovereign himself. Thus, Williams has become the face of Baldur’s modern military, his visage etched into propaganda posters across the nation: a face instantly recognisable by all. Now he is poised against his most dire challenge since the attempted coup of five years prior: his city under siege. The impregnable Grimhelm, the mightiest military installation in Tharador. In regular circumstances he would find such a task a trifle, but recent events have led these to be anything but regular circumstances. His mind is burdened and weary, slowly beginning to slip into states of unfettered rage and unbridled madness.

Baldur’s military sovereign of the last three decades. Field Marsh Kurt Williams hails from humble beginnings: a mere footsoldier and commoner, the eldest son of a tanner. His position was not one earned by favours, politics and noble birthright, but blood, valour and brutality. From the time he finished his education, he threw himself into the meat grinder. A frontline grunt who seemed to inexplicably survive any battle or situation he was thrown against: whether it be an ambush laid by Orc tribals or an explosive set off by abolitionists, he came out only stronger for it. His list of accolades of achievements were longer than most career officers by the time he was only twenty-five, having seen action in deployments in Ukrondia, Lo Fuin and domestically in peacekeeping operations. Whilst he held the rank of Captain, Williams lead his unit in an apparent suicide mission against an entrenched group of rebels near Veinril, one that held plans to destroy the sulphur mines across the region.

Whilst the mission was deemed a success, only five of the ninety soldiers Kurt commanded survived, including himself, though direly wounded. Such an act was heralded only with commendation across the land, and Kurt was deemed a hero, though the annihilation of his squad left any songs of praise feel hollow and undeserved.  It was shortly after this that the incumbent Field Marshal retired, with King Argus appointing Kurt Williams as Baldur’s new military ruler soon after. At twenty-eight, he was the youngest Field Marshal ever appointed in the kingdom’s history. Few questioned his integrity, with his long list of accomplishments and the grizzled look commanding respect from seniors and juniors alike. Though not all had this same admiration, with some among the noble caste believing the commoner’s appointment was a move to try gain favour among the plebs by King Argus, who was only a few months into his own reign.

Thus the position was coveted by the jealous for decades, and whilst some grew to respect him, others only stewed in their disdain, eventually boiling over, such as Alexei’s attempted coup from nearly six years prior. Williams had felt his subordinate’s growing ire for years, and had hoped to quell it by sending him on a campaign against a Ukrondian war tribe that was ravaging the Drylands. Though his goal of significantly thinning Alexei’s forces were met, Alexei himself survived. During the ensuing victory parade in Grimgate, Alexei and his men instigated their planned coup attempt, the city quickly falling to chaos and King Argus almost losing his life from a grievous wound.

It was Williams first and only humiliation, and he ensured in the aftermath that he would personally execute every single officer among the prisoners that were gathered that day, though Alexei himself perished in battle before Williams could have the pleasure. Now, years later, Williams is overseeing a similar rebellion, though one that extends far past the bounds of Grimgate’s walls. All cities across Baldur have been sewn with malcontent, uprising against their rulers. Whilst the Field Marshal has done his best to contain the chaos, even his own city of Grimhelm faces peril. In the initial attacks, Inquisitors, upon his orders, destroyed Draksborne’s embassy. In the past he had uncovered a plot instigated by them to assassinate and displace many of the kingdom’s nobles and merchants, with them having funded rebels across the land. He hoped the destruction of the embassy might blind or slow them in funding the rebels in Grimhelm.Yet it seemed he underestimated the battle-readiness of the kingdom across the Grey Sea. He thought they would still be crippled by Dragonblight, yet instead their ships arrived at Grimhelm’s shores only weeks after the embassy’s destruction. Grimhelm was besieged, and once again he was humiliated. Madness and anger are now slowly beginning to take his mind, as the battle against rebels and Draksborne alike rages on. Only the divine may know what kind of havoc the Field Marshal might wreak when his mind fails, and his body is driven by bloodlust and hatred alone.