Hendrik van Raalte
Hendrik van Raalte, the Violet Blade
Champion of the Marienburg Warband
"Coin is not the root of evil. It is the proof that someone once wanted something more."
To outsiders, Hendrik van Raalte is just another sword-for-hire—an overdressed bravo with a merchant’s swagger. But beneath the silks and sarcasm lies a dangerous truth: Hendrik is one of the few sons of Marienburg’s ruling elite who willingly gave up his merchant dynasty for blood-soaked ruin and whispered secrets. And no one knows why.
He was once heir to the Van Raalte Exchange, a powerful banking house with tendrils in every dock, vault, and seaward trade line from Marienburg to Sartosa. Groomed to be a financier, Hendrik studied rhetoric, swordplay, and coin-lore at the Merchant Court. But he wanted more than margins and ledgers—he wanted something real. Something that couldn’t be bartered or bought.
He joined a fencing circle, then an underground dueling society. He killed. He learned. And when he heard whispers of wyrdstone, power, and lost relics in Mordheim, he vanished from Marienburg—leaving behind a sealed letter and the entire fortune of his inheritance in untouched vaults.
Now, Hendrik leads from the front—not with duty or desperation, but with a fire in his eyes that speaks of someone chasing a debt no one else can see. His blade is elegant, but his methods are cruel. He smiles often, but his eyes are hollow. He wears violet not for vanity—but in mourning for something no one will name.
Role in the Warband
- Champion, tactician, and first-strike duelist of the Marienburgers.
- Handles delicate negotiations, hostage exchanges, and battlefield alliances.
- Often sent to undermine rival warbands with charm, poison, or steel.
Combat Style
- Fights with a thin dueling saber and an off-hand stiletto.
- Prefers speed and deception to brute strength—turns duels into dances.
- Uses terrain, shadows, and dialogue to disorient before striking.
Personality
- Witty, calculating, and impossible to pin down.
- Speaks five languages and lies fluently in each.
- Has a private temper that only shows in combat—measured, brutal, final.
Appearance Traits
- Wears fine violet-lacquered armor over chainmail, with silver trim.
- Always clean-shaven, with black hair swept to one side and carefully trimmed beard.
- His eyes are a deep brown, but unfocused—like someone always half-seeing something else.
- Carries a ledger bound in wyrdstone-leather, where he writes debts no one else can read.
Rumors & Secrets
- Some say Hendrik abandoned his family because they trafficked in forbidden relics.
- Others claim he once dueled a daemon-host on a barge at night and won.
- There are whispers that his stiletto is cursed—that it remembers every name it has killed.
- It’s said he still receives letters from Marienburg—but burns them unopened.
Hendrik van Raalte is not a hero, not a villain, and not entirely sane. He is a man with everything to lose, who gave it all up to chase something worse. In a city of ruins, he walks like one who was already broken—and only now feels free.
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