History of the von Hammerschmid family

The Von Hammerschmid Family

First generations

The earliest Von Hammerschmid patriarch on record is named Henri, he was the first known Von Hammerschmid to settle on Saihka. He had a wife called Mila and one son called Theo. Theo was the pride of the family, very gifted in swinging a hammer, not just on an anvil, he frequently and successfully defended the Hamlet they lived in from invading savages.
Theo met his wife during one of those raids in fact. Esther was a captured young Loxodon woman who was being used as a meat shield. Theo managed to unbind her, give her a hammer and together they beat back the raiders. Theo and Esther went on to have many children, all being introduced into the art of blacksmithing, a tradition still carried out by all Von Hammerschmids to this day, well most anyways.
This tradition is what ultimately sealed Hugo’s faith into having to leave home.

The Von Hammerschmid golden era

For a good 900 years, the Loxodons of the Von Hammerschmid family were thriving on Saihka. Around 8 generations after Theo, the family upheld a great forge, rivaling even most of the indigenous dwarves in the surrounding villages and hamlets. The Von Hammerschmids lived up to their names and each first born son would take over from his father. The other sons and daughters would work at the forge as well but would venture out into the land and settle for themselves, sometimes even managing a forge of their own. The family was very patriarchal, The father would always have the last say in matters of finance, stability, welfare, etc. A sense of justness and righteousness would stand above all else in such matters so for a long time everything went great.
That is until…

Maximillian Von Hammerschmid

Maximillian was a troubled boy, the 2nd son of his father Leon. He always knew that he would not be able to rise out of his brothers’ shadow and he knew that he would have to fend for himself after his brother would inherit the forge. But Maximillian had different plans. Maximilian devised a cunning plan that would make him the sole heir to the Von Hammerschmid family. Raids had pretty much stopped occurring in the last 200 years but the occasional couple of bandits would try and scare some gold pieces out of the Von Hammerschmid family safe. This is how Maximillian seized power from his brother, paying for a large number of masked bandits to raid the hamlet in the nighttime and kill his brother during. His plan worked, he had actually paid hired goons to kill his own brother.
The family was devastated at the loss of the first born son, driving Leon to near drowning himself in ale every night, and his mother being uncontrollably mournful. Leon did manage to run the forge for a time after, but the drink had affected him so much after a time that his body would not keep up with the orders that kept coming. 8 years later Maximillian would inherit the forge, basically forcing his father to do so. A lot changed to the Von Hammerschmid family after that.
Maximillian married a simple farm girl named Henrietta, he continued the family tradition of having plenty of children, however he had only one son, Felix. Maximilian would only have eyes for him, his daughters were Henriettas business. He would groom his son as he saw fit, trying to instill values that the Von Hammerschmids were not particularly known for, such as cruelty and enjoying the suffering of others. Maximillian would later in life know that these ‘values’ of his were not imprinted into his son Felix, as he planned to.
Maximilian was not a patient man, nor was he in fact actually good at managing the forge. It was his impatience that would be the cause of the downfall of the forge. Not taking his time on each piece of iron and not letting the steel reach its right temperature. His products fractured every time customers would use them.
This fracturing would be the downfall of the family forge, customers stopped buying products, and went to the dwarves who did produce products of agreeable standards. Maximillian tried to do new things to breathe life into his failing business but it would all come crashing down. He got depressed and started thinking about his life, a second son never really supposed to run the family trade now ruining it. He fell into a deep spiral of drinking, gambling, whoring and indulgence, wasting the family gold that would be the inheritance of his sons and grandsons. Maximilian eventually got murdered for late and immeasurable dept, leaving Felix to try and survive on his own. His mother and sisters all fled long before, they managed to find board and work in a nearby farm.
Felix tried his entire life to get the forge back into working order, and even did so for a bit. But the Von Hammerschmid name had been tainted and customers did not want to give him a second chance.
Felix found a wife and together they were happy, broke but happy. Felix would sire only one son with his wife, a child named Jacob. Sadly his wife died during childbirth and Felix would not remarry. As the only child, Jacob would inherit the forge, at least what's left of it. Jacob grows up like many of the Von Hammerschmid sons, learning the ropes behind an anvil, but he would not see the point of continuing the forge, so when Felix eventually died, so did the forge.

Hugo Von Hammerschmid and his brothers

Jacob fathered 3 boys and no daughters. Their names are Hugo, the eldest, Heinrich the middle one and Otto the baby brother. Growing up, Hugo and his brothers were no strangers to poverty and humiliation from other kids. The Von Hammerschmids were still a well known family but not mostly for the actions of his great grandfather. So they were not well liked.
When Hugo reached the age of 20, still very young for Loxodons, he overheard his mother speaking to his father, she was pregnant again but they would not be able to feed the baby with already 2 Loxodon growing boys in the house. and so his father decided to leave the baby at the orphanage. Hugo decided against this, that boy would be ridiculed more than he and his brother already are. Everyone would know who he is and who his parents are. By now there aren't many Loxodons still left in the village.
So when the time came and his brother was born, he held his baby brother in his arms while tears flooded down his cheeks and decided he would leave the family to fend for himself. And so his parents would be able to provide for his young brothers. Heinrich was devastated at the departure of his big brother and didn’t fully understand why Hugo had to leave. In his eyes Jacob, their father had sent Hugo away and would always resent Jacob for it. The departure of the elder brother did leave Heinrich alone for a good while, getting picked on doubled as Hugo was not there anymore to defend him. Being picked on led to being bullied and this led to beatings, randomly. After a while the bullies even forgot why they were beating him and were just doing it because they had been doing so for so long.
This however didn’t lead Heinrich to becoming successful, Heinrich managed to get the forge up and running again after many years, he studied hard in both economics and forgecraft. slowly but steadely, he manged to sell the things he forged. mostly farming tools and other every day items.
The Von Hammerschmid forge is still not where it once was, but Heinrich as the second son did manage to revive it. He has a child of his own now, breaking with tradition of marrying a Loxodon female, but with a minotaur woman whom he loves very much.
Now Otto Von Hammerschmid is a different tale. Though he has never really met his oldest brother, he always wanted to find him. It’s due to Hugo leaving home that there was enough money to support the family, something Otto only learned when he turned 30. His parents and brother never really spoke of Hugo. Otto decided he wanted to meet his older brother but had no idea on where to start looking.
It is only after he learned that a Loxodon was involved in the seizing of a ship dubbed ‘the Lion’ that he had a lead to go on. He decided to leave Saikha and join a band of adventurers that would sail the seas and explore the continents in search of his older brother.