Character Name: Wilhard Strauch
Gender: male
Appearance:
Personality: Old, stern, and sometimes cranky, it's much easier to accept that Wilhard Strauch sprang fully formed off a face of a mountain than the fact that he used to be a small child of a woodsman. Although he was brooding and conscientious when young, Strauch grew out of his isolationism by an inch as the decades wore on as he talked, fought, and executed hundreds of people throughout his life.
Although very much devout thanks to the ruthless indoctrination of the Church, his zealotry has mellowed out as his career forced him to wander the earth and meeting people of different backgrounds. Despite the impression of an overzealous, fire-obsessed witch hunter, Strauch is slightly more open-minded compared to his coworkers. Keyword “slightly” since he will still carry out his duties with extreme prejudice.
Age: 74
Occupation: A sanctioned Inquisitor, a Witch Hunter Captain, part-time bounty hunter
Likes: A Church with Integrity, new gun technology, stability
Dislikes witches, paganism, heresy
Skills:
Polyglot: He knows the languages of six nations, including his native tongue
Well-Groomed: His authority comes not from his title but from his body language and mannerism. Whenever he speaks, people listen. Wherever he walks, people get out of his way.
Expert Duelist: Despite his old age, Strauch is a veteran of many a battle and can dispatch one or multiple opponents with terrifying ease
Judge, Jury & Executioner: Practically memorized the criminal and religious laws of Vesperia. Whether a lowly bandit or witch, it’s a five-minute trial followed by a five-second beheading. A double-edged sword since most of the memorized laws is rapidly becoming outdated.
Magecraft: N/A
Items:
Two-handed Kriegsmesser
A dueling flintlock pistol
A rifled musket
A dagger
A torch
Small first aid kit
Pen and paper
Coin purse and wallet
Sexual preference Previously Hetero, Currently Asexual
Identifying features Usually tall for an elderly standing a 6’5” (excluding his hat), missing a left eye with a scar running over it, dressed up like a Landsknecht with leather and chainmail armor paired up with vibrant white and red clothes, carries a permanent scowl on his lips, his harsh gaze from his right eye, and a wedding ring.
Bio In the days before the Apocatstasis, Wilhard Strauch was born in a small impoverished village still stuck under feudalism. The environment was gripped by superstition and paganism as the people lived under constant fear for unknown nightly terrors. Strauch, from a babe to a young lad, never really left the walls of his humble hut besides helping his father gather wood. He always hated the nights without the moon.
Of course, the world did not stay idle, and sooner enough, the Inquisition descended on his small village looking for both recruits and witches to burn. They inevitably found both after a week of investigation. While an old crone was being burned at the stake, the young Wilhard Strauch caught the attention of the Witch Hunter Captain leading the hunt. Most reluctantly, his parents finally agreed to let him join the Church in the pious quest to restore the light in the world. Following the party, the sight of his lonely village would be the last thing he ever saw before he begins his witch-hunter training.
As Fate would have it, the Inquisition branch that he was conscripted into was one of the last sects of hotheaded radicals that view all magic as an antithesis of God and all other foreign dieties are pagan gods. The training was Spartan and with no one to confine in, Strauch became awfully bitter and sought refugee in the nearby abbey for solace. Still, he did not give up and channeled all of his misery and anger into his training. Although he came out with his frustration tempered and controlled, Strauch was no less grumpy and averse to his mentors.
Now a sanction Witch Hunter, Strauch was fully free to carry the Lord’s will and purge the cities and countryside of heresy and heathens. Armed only with his faith and Kriegsmesser and protected by his armor and scripture, Wilhard Strauch left the sanctuary of the Church and into the wilderness. Days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and years into decades, and all the while, Strauch brought the Lord’s light into the deepest caverns and pits to burn out the heretics and witches that continue their dark arts. His ceaseless diligence earned him his promotion to Captain once he turned 50.
But the world was changing and Strauch found himself to be the last of his kind. Apocatstasis has arrived and he watched as years of indoctrination unravel before his very eyes as magic was slowly being reintegrated back into society. The need for witch hunters and Inquisitors disappeared overnight and all his colleagues retired or sought different employment elsewhere. But change was fine to the veteran Witch Hunter: he never really liked his sect of the Inquisition anyway and he did find amusement in the new gunpowder technology. Ranged firepower was certainly useful.
Now Strauch found himself at a crossroads: he could retire and return to his wife or he could continue witch hunting in the Shadowlands. Having spent the last decade or two more hunting bandits and ruffians rather than actual witches and pagans, he made to choice to conclude his career with one final holy crusade to purge the dark arts from the world that remain in the Shadowlands. Hardened by his experience, Strauch soldiers on for there is no abyss too dark for the Lord’s light and no demon beyond Heaven’s wrath.
Theme Song: Last Hero Standing
Reason: The to cleanse the last bastion of paganism and witchcraft in the Shadowlands
