Johann IX
King Johann Steiner (a.k.a. The Martyr)
Johann IX Steiner, later known as the Martyr, was King of Edelweiss from 4295 A.C. until his death in 4300 A.C. at the hands of the Dwarves of the Imperium Vulcanalia. He inherited a strong kingdom at the height of its fame from his father, Leopold IV, which following their settling of a civil war in the Weald was well prepared for the challenges it faced in a post-Imperium world.
Personal Biography
Johann was betrothed shortly after his birth to Amalia Rosenvolk, later known as The Late Rose, and a distant cousin of the Royal Family. The two were raised in the capital as part of Leopold's plan to raise a perfect King, though Johann was proving a soft child who would rather spend quiet time reading psalms in the walled gardens with his betrothed, with whom he was deeply smitten all his life, than working on his swordplay or his griffon riding. It was plain, however, that Johann was a clever child and attentive to the personalities and plotting of the nobles at court. Though he lacked his father's martial senses Johann was an exceptional mediator and diplomat and had found another path to being the King his father expected him to be. The Royal Couple, as they were known, were married on Johann's seventeenth birthday in a lavish ceremony in the capital, Konigstein. It is said to have been, and remain, the largest and most extravagant wedding the kingdom has seen. It proved a happy thing, and a child quickly followed. They would go on to have four children, including a single son, the future King Matthias II who was just two years old when the crown passed to him. Leopold IV kept his son close at hand through much of his later reign. Though Leopold was given to bouts off great wroth, Johann always had his ear and with their minds paired they were able to expand Edelweissan influence as far east as Tcharnovog after bringing the Weald firmly under their control. Johann even proved an able military commander in this time, successfully commanding his father's army when Leopold was taken with the ague, an affliction which often plagued him in his final decade of life. The fever did eventually take Leopold, and Johann, who was ever popular with the nobles and peasants alike, ascended to the throne with great hope for the future.War With The Imperium
For much of his father's later reign the men of Edelweiss had received diplomats from the human Republic of Actium and the Elven Ahuran Empire telling them of a new race of people who had dug their way out of the ground and had begun to wage war upon them. Leopold was slow to believe these reports and initially dismissed them, but Johann was keen to learn more. He dispatched learned men to the eastern lands to ascertain the truth of this, and the more he learned of the Dwarves the more he felt a kinship with them. Their Invictus sounded much like Elior, the Lion God, and they were clearly a great people. He resolved to make peace with the Dwarves a priority of his reign. The Dwarves did not share this feeling. Following the Declaration of Imperium in 4288, and a brief respite to consolidate their new Empire, the Dwarves turned their legions west to the mountains of Edelweiss. The first battle was fought in 4294, the final year of Leopold's reign, with the young Emperor Tiberius Marius Dio leading his legions himself. The fighting would not end for over a hundred years, though Johann could not know it. Pious and with peace in his heart, Johann sought a diplomatic solution and insisted on a meeting between King and Emperor. Though Tiberius demurred on the proposal, he finally accepted the request following a crushing defeat of his legion at the Cliffs of Bervenia. The two rulers assembled their hosts and met in a large, wide mountain valley deep within Edelweiss. A pavilion was raised in the middle of the valley, by a stream, and the two found they hand much in common, drinking and getting to know on another late into the night - for Johann had even learned a little of the Dwarven language. In the morning, however, the men of Edelweiss woke to find that the Tiberius had gone in the night, and left only a cross on the hill under the white and gold cloth of the pavilion. On the cross was nailed the dead and naked body of Johann IX Steiner with his slain honour guard dead and naked at his feet. The Dwarven legions turned, and fell on the knights of Edelweiss in the bloodiest massacre of their conquest.Succession
Though Edelweiss has had a long tradition of female rulers, a woman cannot be Queen so long as she has a male sibling. Fortunately for Johann's wife and daughters, his eldest son was a babe of two years. Amalia quickly filled the role her husband had left with his death, for she had long been his most trusted confidant and advisors. She relied heavily on her daughters in both running the kingdom, avenging her husband, and raising her son to be a king worthy of his father's ideals. Amalia, now known as the Late Rose, would be so effective in succeeding Johann that Matthias II would lean heavily on his mother and sisters for his entire reign."peace i leave you with,
my peace i give to you."
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
King of Edelweiss
Date of Birth
1st of May
Life
4266 AC
4300 AC
34 years old
Birthplace
Konigstein, Edelweiss
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Short Ashen Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale White
Height
Tall
Weight
Average Build
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments