Oof, finally done, hope it's alright.
Character Application
Name: Stanislaw "Дозор Смерти" Baranovskiy
Age: 40
Personality description: Stanislaw is a hard and serious man, albeit with a dry and cynical sense of humour, who rarely smiles and doesn't take well to aloofness: a real disciplinarian. He is rather stiff, not very comfortable or sociable when it comes to long-winded social conversation, and is also a very blunt man. All of these make him a rather uncharismatic man, yet these are somewhat compensated by his sense of fairness and justice, not being a man prone to instantaneous bias or discrimination by race, gender or class. This is further reinforced by his tendency to better fit with the common soldiery, often disliking the extravagance other officers cover themselves with and would prefer to live in the same conditions as his men. He is also much more a man of action, though does not crave glory as others would: rather, he is more motivated by a sense of loyalty and duty to his country, more so than any real ideology.
Appearance:
Faction (Either member of or sympathetic towards): National Patriotic Front
Position in leadership (if any): Lieutenant General in the Armies of the North
If Military or Militia leader, how many troops under command?:
7th Armoured Shock Guard Division "Железные дьяволы"-15,000 men
-560 tanks
-150 artillery pieces
An elite mechanised division filled to the brim with veteran officers from the last war, the 7th is among the former united military's most modern divisions, yet had been "exiled" to the north due to the division's declining sympathies to the republic.
Political Ideology: Stanislaw is not particularly a political man, some might even call him apolitical. Yet he sees the King's forces as illegitimate rebels who lost the mandate to rule, the Communists as terrorists, and the republic as too corrupt to lead any longer. The NPF, in Stanislaw's mind, seems to be Valania's best chance at stability and order:
Valania Over All Else, above petty ideology and above Kings and Bolsheviks. Though there are certain subfactions in NPF that disgust Stanislaw even more than the Communists, such as the Racialists, Stanislaw still sees the NPF as Valania's best hope and seeks to perhaps help change things once the NPF takes over.
Goals: Secure supplies and defences in the North, eventually join with the rest of NPF forces in the south, march on Kurmutsk
Biography (Minimum 2 paragraphs): Stanislaw was born into the aristocratic House of Baranovskiy, a family well within the Valanian Nobility and having familial connections with even the royal family itself. Stanislaw, like many of his peers and siblings, was raised in such an aristocratic environment, with a strict upbringing and the pressure of expectations driving out much of Stanislaw's childishness from an early age. A middle child, Stanislaw exemplified himself in his studies, yet found himself constantly overlooked in favour of his older more "manly" and charismatic brothers. Where his brothers were the creme of younger nobility, actively socialising and often fraternising with the...
opposite sex, Stanislaw was awkward and stiff, more interested in his books than with women: a preference which was mistaken as both arrogance and immaturity by both his parents and his siblings, something that his father constantly tried to beat out of him. It was from those days that the seeds of Stanislaw's resentment for unequal treatment rose.
Stanislaw like many of his other siblings and ancestors were sent to some of Valania's most prestigious military academies: Stanislaw from an even earlier age due to his father's attempts. Where many of his fellow royal cadets simply saw the academy as a jumping-off point to more prestigious positions or a way to further impress women in social circles, Stanislaw took his studies seriously and devoted all his time towards studying the arts of war. Stanislaw began rising through the ranks of the academy quickly outpacing many of his peers, which shocked his siblings and, as usual, made many of his peers envious. He became the target of bullying and mocking by his peers, being given the nickname "Дозор Смерти" or "Death Watch," to mock the rumour that Stanislaw was a complete sociopath and that even if everyone around him died Stanislaw would not care: he would just keep that steely gaze he always has.
Stanislaw would weather through these tumultuous times, his heart only hardening further in order to compensate and protect himself. Stanislaw's views would further be influenced as he would take part in volunteer military patrol duties as a teenager, something many of his noble peers thought beneath them. It was on those streets that Stanislaw saw the suffering that was occurring under the Kingdom: of workers being overworked, of peasants being walked over by his noble peers, of the beggars being forced to live on filthy streets.
His faith in the monarchy had been broken: an army is measured by the quality of its men after all. The same could apply to nations too: and if this was the quality of their citizenry, then how great a nation could Valania be? Stanislaw would graduate from an officer's academy at 17 years old and immediately join the Royal Army as an officer. This was just in time for the Valanian Revolution, and it was no surprise that as the people rose up, Stanislaw was among the first officers to defect and join the Revolutionaries.
With the rest of his family fleeing the country and disowning him, Stanislaw dedicated himself completely towards the military. As one of the few fully educated military officers who had joined with the revolutionaries and had not fled with the Royalists, Stanislaw proved his worth helping educate other younger officers and showing valuable leadership qualities.
Due to both his own military prowess and the power vacuum in the military, Stanislaw continued to rise steadily through the ranks. Stanislaw proved himself a stalwart and flexible tactician and strategist: often advocating for relentless advances to catch the enemy off guard and telling his subordinates to try and seize opportunities whenever possible
within reason: he would not tolerate standing idle if an opportunity presented itself, yet he would also not tolerate exceedingly reckless behaviour.
Stanislaw never really understood the concept of asking men to only do what he himself would be willing to do: he preferred the statement "expect men to do what
they are capable of doing," as in understanding the strengths, weaknesses and limits of each unit themselves and respecting those boundaries, while at the same time making sure to use them up to their limit, rather than merely comparing them arbitrarily to unfair standards. Stanislaw earned a reputation in the army for being merciless yet fair: he never showed disrespect to anyone unless given disrespect by them, he treated both officer and common soldiery equally and was never unnecessarily cruel, though he would still give out cruel punishment if deserved. The men under his command never
loved Stanislaw to say, he was far too unsociable and stiff to love (some less dignified and more crass figures might even describe him as a,
*cough* asshole), but they respected him and above all, they
trusted him to do what was best.
By the time he was 38 he'd be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General and was given command of the 7th Armoured Shock Guard Division, one of Valania's finest and best equipped. Yet at this point, Stanislaw began losing faith in the Valanian Government. Not only had their efforts to crush the Communist terrorists so far been less than successful, but they were only encouraging further rebellion with their unstable policies. The Republic had become a bloated beast filled with corruption and bureaucracy, it was no longer the Republic Stanislaw had so long ago decided to fight for.
Slowly, Stanislaw began showing his beliefs, his blunt nature making him rather clearly state his opinions on the Republic. Things became even more unstable as many of Stanislaw's subordinates began sharing their commander's opinions, growing more and more resentful of the republic. Soon enough, many soldiers and NCOs in the division began registering as members of the National Patriotic Front: though Stanislaw himself, being less interested in ideology or politics, never did, many in the higher echelons of the Republic began seeing the division as compromised.
Soon enough, as Communist riots began sprouting up and the government began to stamp down on dissidence in 1939, Stanislaw and his 7th Division found themselves posted from their position in the south all the way to the relatively isolated region of the Peninsula in the extreme north. The official order was to secure the peninsula against Communist sympathisers, yet both Stanislaw and his men knew full well what it really was: exile. This was the final straw that broke the camel's back: Stanislaw always valued duty above all else and though he was displeased with the Republic, his oath as a member of its military made him unwilling to betray it.
To see himself be simply cast away in some far corner, after all those years of loyal service: It broke Stanislaw's resolve for the Republic.
So it was no surprise that as the civil war began, with the Communists and the Royalists now rising up, that Stanislaw (on the advice of his staff) decided now was the chance to bring real change. With the 7th Division at his back, Stanislaw cut off all communications with the Republic and began attempts to establish communications with NPF forces to the south.
Cut off and surrounded on all sides, Stanislaw and the 7th began building defences while at the same time mobilising for a potential counter-attack, stocking up on supplies and declaring martial law on the peninsula.
Stanislaw had rolled his die: time will tell if it will make him or break him.
Do not remove - 2088