By the way, I just finished writing fluff for thisi char, it's actually more of a story.
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The story of Luke Leitdorf
Marius Leitdorf was put in a coffin; his body lay in it, surrounded by all sorts of laurels and rosaries, his eyes were closed; he was still in his armour, but it was cleaned and there was no sign that the dead Elector Count has been actually killed except his face, which still reminded the agony of his last moments. Runefang laid in his hands, shining in the morning sunlight.
The people all visited the dead Count already, and even the Emperor himself, Karl Franz, visited the dead Count in the morning; he was now standing on the side of the quick-made wooden rostrum, surrounded by the Reiksguard and Averland Greatswords (which were merely a few left after the battle). No family relatives visited their relative; Marius was renown that he didn't have any family; he never married, his parents died already, and he was the only son. The more distant relatives, however, always blamed Marius as an crazed man who would not have the right to be in their family, so they didn't come either.
Then, slowly, four people stepped out of the crowd and grabbed the handles at the side of the coffin, preparing to lift it up.
»Wait!« From the other side of the square, coming from one of the many streets of Averheim, someone was riding; he stopped at the entrance to the square and dismounted; now people, gathered all around the square, could see him; he was very tall, all clad in bright full plate armour, including a shining helmet; he looked pretty rich; his horse was barded in black armour; two pistols could be seen hung on the man's belt, while his sword was left on the horse. His face could not be seen as he wore a dark red scarf over his mouth. »Don't leave yet! Let me see my father!«
A sudden whispering spread among all people. The city major shouted:«Remove this madman! Marius didn't have a wife, nor does he have a son!«
Some State Halberds put their halberd-heads against the unknown man's head; they were ready to strike. »Please, at least listen to me! I didn't suffer and drudge just to be put aside at an event like this!«
Then Karl Franz replied:«Leave him to visit Marius's body. Can't every man in Averland at least for a moment take a look at such an important man as Marius Leitdorf was without being stopped?«
»Thanks, Sire. I'm really grateful for your mercy.« And without further words, he walked to the coffin, the people staring at him; he was looking the deceased for about three minutes and people could see his wonder as he watched the dead body of the man he never knew; then, in surprise of the crowd, asked directly Karl Franz:«What will you do with his Runefang, my Lord?«
Karl Franz looked surprised for a moment, but then he looked the intruder in his eyes and realised, besides this unknown man's physical strength, a great mental strength too. At least for some time, he decided to trust him:«We will have new Elections, as always; and the new Elector Count will get it, as usual.«
Then, the man put away his mask and people could see that his lower part of the face was heavily deformed; he had a big scar over his mouth, and the skin there looked sick even from where the crowd stood. Seeing the surprise of his observers, the man smiled, and that smile was really a sight to behold; it truly looked as his wounds disappeared, and for a moment, he really looked as a true nobleman, proud and wise. Then, he slowly began to speak, and his face became deformed as before:«This may sound really ridiculous for some of you, but I am the son of your dead Count, Marius. I know it sounds impossible to …«
He was stopped in the middle of his sentence. The representative of the church of Sigmar, who was at the funeral just by accident, started raising his voice as he turned towards the soldiers who raised their halberds again:«Don't listen to him! He may spread the disease! He was surely touched by the hand of Chaos, and I believe it is the priority of the Church of Sigmar to deal with such people. Capture him, men, but watch out: he is mad, and could bear a disease; no mercy for him, or you will too become the victims of the Chaos.«
The soldiers followed his orders, starting to walk towards the deformed man, raising their halberds. The representative was an important person and they feared the consequences if they wouldn't listen to him. The Emperor couldn't do nothing even if he wanted to save the strange man, as his reputation with the Church of Sigmar would surely go down with such an act; besides he too supported such acts as the Chaos was one of the biggest enemies of the Empire all the times.
»No! Let me speak! I won't fight you, guards, just let ..« He was shouted down by the strong voice of the representative:«Don't listen to him. Just tie him, I'll then take care of him.«
The deformed man could barely look at the Emperor for the last time, and the Emperor realised his thoughts; he looked so determined to get his rights as nobody the Emperor had seen before. Then, the man suddenly felt a strong blow in his back part of his head and he fell unconscious.
He woke up in a small cell, beneath the ground. He looked around; the walls were all wet, and there was only one torch, giving the cell a creepy feeling. They took his armor and pistols and he was wearing a torn prisoner's cloak. Before him, there sit the representative that captured him on the funeral. His arms instinctive raised as he realised he was chained and couldn't move his arms at all. The representative seemed to be looking for him to wake up, as he just looked at him for a while, and then, without saying a word, stood up and left the cellar. The peace however didn't last long; the representative came back with a young man who seemed to be his servant; he had a parchemnt with him, holding his pen ready for writing.
The representative suddenly asked:«Your name, man?«
The man was thinking a little, but then he answered the question with the calm voice:«Luke. Luke Leitdorf.«
»And how comes that you have the surname Leitdorf. Explain yourself!«
Now Luke looked angry; he was thinking about telling the whole story of his life to his interrogator, but he quickly changed his mind: »I believe that a noble man as I am don't have to answer such rude questions, especially related to his past.«
The representative gazed at the courage of the man for a moment, but then said back: »You had your chances to get a nice clean death. You answered me nothing, and for that, I must declare you a heretic. You shall be burned tomorrow morning. Let Sigmar decide about your sins, heretic!« He then yelled at the key keeper who now appeared out of a shadow: »Now get me away from this monster!« They left, and the Luke was left alone in the cell; his face showed no expression, but he was thinking heavily about his guests.
While Luke was sitting in his cell, a man appeared at the entrance to the Averland prison. The streets were empty; it was in the middle of the night, and even the beggars and rogues didn't dare to stay in the vicinity of the prison for night. The man knocked on the heavy doors of the prison; there was even a small wall around the inner yard, and the gates were big enough for the horseriders to enter. The hole in the doors opened and a city watch's head apeeared, looking surprisingly at the stranger; the stranger wore a big black cloak, and had a hood over his head, so the watcher could barely see his face. »What do you want at such late hour, stranger?« His words expressed annoyance as he was just called out of his warm room for nothing as it seemed. Another beggar who wants to get something to eat, as always. But the stranger quickly said: »I'll be short, guard. I bring you the ransom for the prisoner you got today. The one caught because of, as they said, herecy.« »There is no ransom for the herecy. The heretics can be saved by nothing. They are to be salvated by the rightieousness of the fire.« »I know. But perhaps he was not a sinner; take this bag and rethink the whole thing, please« And the stranger gave the guard a big pouch, and the guard looked in it; it was full of golden coins. He shouted after the man, but the stranger already disappeared in the darkness of the streets.
The guard wasn't sure. How could this man get so much money? And, how did he know that the heretic was prisoned here; this information was secret. The more he thought, the more he began to think about releasing the prisoner. He should give the ransom to the representative who was just having a meal at the moment, but he just couldn't do that. He saw himself rich, in a noble company with no worries about his economic situation; all he needed was to release the prisoner and escape into other part of Empire so they won't find for him. In a moment, he decided. He stepped inside, slowly stepped behind the key keeper, who didn't notice anything as he was very busy consuming his meal. After a few moments, he fell unconscious, struck by the wooden shaft of the halberd. The traitor planned to leave the prisoner inside and just escape, but somehow he just slowly stepped down the stairs to the cells. He stole the keys from the key keeper. An unknown force forced him to slowly put the key in the lock, and the prisoner surprisingly stood up and looked at the rescuer. But the rescuer already disappeared. The guard ran up the stairs, took the money and his personal stuff; his will was free; that political prisoner will escape, but who cares; he's rich. And in a happy mood he left the prison and escaped into the night; he was never seen in Averland after that.
Luke didn't hesitate. He ran into the guard room, took all his stuff, which was surprisingly there, waiting for the inspection by the Priests of Sigmar as it seemed. He silently sneaked on the streets of Averland; there were some guards patroling the streets, but his skill of hiding helped him reach the exit of the city; he was just crossing the bridge, leading out into the fields of Averland, when a man appeard out of the night; he was the same beggar that gave the ransom to the guard. »Good evening, sire Luke.«
Luke was surprised and quickly withdraw his sword, but as he looked the stranger, he just answered: »Dolph! What a great mind trick! I owe you my life! How will I ever repay you for your loyalty?«
Dolph put away his cloak, and he was dressed in a long, dark blue robe, resembling the member of the Celestial Order.
» I'd die defending you, sire; you saved my life, I just returned the deed.«
»I'm proud such people exist still in the Empire. But let's not chant here. Where are our companions?«
»Herwyn went to the forest to refill his powers and mind, while Dale's on his way to the Emperor with your message, and your medalion.«
»Great! You took care of everything. Now let's move into the forest, someone might suspect something seeing us two here.«
Dale the Just, Luke's fellow comrade, was soon in Altdorf as he went with his loyal pegasus. The Emperor Karl Franz received the letter, and the medalion of the Leitdorf family, a proof that Luke was really a Leitdorf's heir.
»Your Highness, I am Luke Leitdorf, and in this letter I will confirm my Leitdorf heirloom.
Marius Leitdorf is known for his unwillingness to have a son, but still, he couldn't escape the love to hit him; he had a short relationship with his female cousin, Anna, in his youth. This can be confirmed by some of his close servants. However, the thing the servants didn't know is that she got pregnant with him; all the servants know is that one day he just got one of his madness attacks and he kicked Anna out of the castle, shouting after her that he don't want children. That was when Marius was still around the thirties. Anna then joined the armed caravan of the Hargard, who was a close friend with her; only there she got the support she needed; as you know, Hargard's caravan was created to track the Beastmen herds that were raiding the farms and villages in the Averland and defeat them, including their leader, a great brayshaman Ungrol the Dire. Winter came, and Anna gave birth to me, and named me in the Bretonnian fashion because she was ashamed of my father.
However, the very sam winter, the caravan was camping in the south of Averland, near the Black Mountains. It was in the night when the Beastmen ambushed our camp, kiling and slaughtering our men; my mother was also killed, and I was left to the brave Hargard's men alone. They taught me how to wield a sword, how to trick my opponent, and also how to behave in good company. And when I was old enough, they told me about my mother and father;they also gave me the medalion which I am now sending to You, as a proof of my heirloom. I grew hateful towards my father, but my main hate was pointed against the Ungrol and his herd who murdered my mother. He was still ravaging, pillaging the Averland, and Hargrad was always a few steps behind him; they were way faster than us, and were totally familiar in the mountainous landscape of Black Mountains. On my 20 birthday, however, the very same Beastmen herd attacked and nearly ruined the town of Hochslebery. It was then when Hargard decided to put an end to this malice. We prepared ourselves for war, and followed the path of the Beastmen high into the mountains. We tracked them day and night, and high in the cold peaks, we finally catched them; we were outnumbered and tired, but they seemed to be full of energy after a week of constant running. We were in grave danger; Hargard and some of his closest friends, including me, decided our only hope was to attack and kill their leader, the Ungrol himself. The battle started, and Ungrol was on the front of his horde, wielding his braystaff in one hand and sending clouds of disease and illness from the other hand; he was a great sorceror of Nurgle. Hargard attacked him at once, rushing from our front lines, but the Ungrol retreated, leaving Hargard to be mercilessly slaughtered by many beastmen. We all rushed into the battle, but the beastmen were too many; each one of us slaughtered at least three beasts, but it didn't matter; we were losing. Then, Ungrol appeared again, and he soon stood in front of me; the poor soldier standing before me was hit by an ill looking green light, casted from Ungrol, and just fell to the ground, dead. Ungrol fired that light towards me too, and I would surely be dead if there weren't a wizard in our ranks, Dolph, who deflected the spell in the air, using all his energies. My heart filled with hate, and I attacked immediatly; my greatsword cut through his Braystaff as he tried to defend himself with it. He immediatly took his axe from his belt and stroke towards me, but I luckily evaded the blow; then I realised he had Hargard's head already on his belt; I became totally enraged, smashing my greatsword right into the shaman's gut. He sighed and for a moment, I could look around; there was only suffering; the Imperial men lay on the field, everybody dead as it seemed; the only one I could see alive was the Jade wizard Dolhp who has just created a ring of light around him so no-one could harm him for some moments; he looked exhausted. But my opponent wasn't finishd yet; Ungrol silently raised his axe again, and I just had a time to jump under his feet and leap my greatsword upwards; he impaled himself on my greatsword, and that was the end of Ungrol the Dire; however, I was crushed by his weight, and could barely crawl away from the body; my body changed, and I was feeling the curse of Nurgle on my skin; my mouth began to morph as I was realising that I was hit by plague. The beastmen army retreated and was never seen again in the Averland as their leader was dead, and if it weren't Dolph I would surely be dead. He conjured a small homing pigeon, and sent request for help, and very surprisingly, after some hours, a wizard came out of the woods, coming to me; I was already unconscious at that moment, and luckily, the wizard's life powers could bring me back to life so I was saved; but I will carry a scar for the rest of my life. The life wizard that saved me, who later introduced himself as Herwyn, told me that if I didn't have this Leitdorf medalion, I woud surely die to the plague curse of the shaman, but the medalion protected me from the disease.
Of course, none of those things came to the Empire cities and villages; all that came were the news that all of Hargard's men were slaughtered and that the beastmen retreated. After that, me and the two wizards, and a warrior named Dale, have traveled around the whole Empire, fighting evil and chaos on every step we could until this tragedy.
I really hope this letter explains a lot, and I hope in your belief in those words, but let you decide; I, however, demand my place as the Elector Count of Averland, and I believe I'm fully suitable for this position. If you have questions, ask my messenger, Dale; he is my best friend and knows all about me.
In hopes of Your good will, Luke Leitdorf«
The Karl Franz has been asking Dale long into the night, but he then showed his wisdom and trusted Luke with his full authority as the Elector Count, and when the story spread through the Empire, the Averlanders were also happy to have a Count that actually saved their country not long ago. However, the Church of Sigmar was opposing to this decision, as it clearly stated that everyone touched by the hand of chaos must be cleared of his sins through death. The highest conspirators were even plotting an hidden assasination as Luke was elected...
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Okay, please, let some of you fluff experts just read through it and give me some comments I really don't have any sense wheter it's good or bad.