Gerhard
is the third of three sons, born to minor Pösener nobility during the
middle of the War of the Cross. As a third son, he was given a small farm
to share with a cousin, and taught to fight in the Drexel School as a Doppelsöldner,
because he wasn't going to be getting lands or title. The last years of the
war changed all that. He was earning decent money and seeing some excitement
as captain of a small mercenary company, die Greifenfenge ("The Griffin's
Claws"), before Fauner Pösen ordered it disbanded. In rapid succession,
he lost both brothers, and both parents, and now the family consists of himself,
two elderly aunts, and a cousin who's more or less lost to the world. Responsibility
has landed on his shoulders, both to continue the family name, and to uphold
the dignity he imagines attends his title. He gave himself a year to grieve
and see Théah, and to see something besides war.
He's been unimpressed by most of what he's seen, thinking it pretty enough, but as he'd say, "It's just not home." Food, people, landscapes, and everything else have been rather the same-- nice, but it's just not like at home. While in Montaigne, he fell in with a towering fellow Eisener from Hainzl, Rolf Müller.
Sticking with Rolf, in part because Rolf actually speaks Montaignais, he's also met up with two other companions, an Avalondish sailor named Veronica, and a rakish Montaigne privateer, Robert La Croix. Together, they've been hired by the Vendel to recover lost freight (a present for L' Empereur), brought back survivors of a shipwreck, uncovered and destroyed a small group of Harvesters from the Invisible College, and stopped a plot among the blacksmiths of Kirk to discover the secret of making Dracheneisen, before returning to Gerhard's lands with the Panzerhand that the party recovered, which has cemented his claim to the title of Freiherr (Baron). Most recently, he's taken his Journeyman's rank in Drexel style, and together with his friends helped his family matriarch, Aunt Helge, to root out a gang of bandits that had been raiding the crops of his tenants.
He's also become quite taken with a beautiful Vodacciana, whom he is escorting south to Caligari Island with his comrades. It looks as though he may even seek her out again after the merry band does their part for Montaigne in the invasion of naughty, old Castille!
Gerhard can be humorless, exacting, and even insulting at times, filled with the arrogance of youth and the prejudices of an upper class upbringing. At others, he can be passionate, eloquent, considerate, and filled with a sense of the debt he owes to others, and the obligations that his nobility places on him as a representative of Eisen to the foreigners he meets.
His personal takes on his comrades:
Rolf-- good in a fight, steady and dependable. He'll be the last one standing, always. A good fellow that knows his limitations.
Veronica-- pretty, talented, gets herself in over her head at times. She often serves as Rolf's conscience and advisor, to the credit of both of them. She can be a bit of a tease, but has a good heart and a solid core of integrity that has earned respect.
Robert-- If you see a party or a celebration going on, you can bet that Robert will be at the heart of it. He's talented and capable in combat, a good man to have at your back, even if the fellow does tend to rely on low cunning a bit more than real skill. Still, he's never broken his word and has always come through for his crew and for all of us.