[Ravensfort] Personae

[HerrDetlef]

I was just reading my copy of the new Known World Handbook, and the thought
occurred to me that I don't really know a whole lot about Raven's Forters'
personae. I mean, I know general geographic stuff and all that (the Baron is
Norman--UGH--the Baroness is Irish, the coming baron and baroness are
Italian), but I don't really know details. I don't remember the last time I
sat down and talked persona with anybody.

So, in that interest, I'd like to open up a thread so that I can ask you all
some of the nitty gritty about your own personae. And I will start.

Detlef von Marburg is a Frank living in 12th-century Thuringia (Land Th
üringen). He was born in the town of Marburg (soon to be the site of the
Elisabethskirche, one of the first non-transitional Gothic churches to be
built in Germany) but currently resides in the town of Eisenach. In the late
12th century, Marburg was a part of Thuringia; in future years, the western
portions of Thuringia will break off and form the nucleus of the Land
Hessen. By the end of the 13th century, Thuringia will fall through
accidents of inheritance into the hands of the Wettin dynasty that also
controls the March of Meissen; the two states together will merge into the
Duchy of Saxony (Herzogtum Sachsen), which is also under Wettin control.

Detlef aspires one day to be the chamberlain to His Highness the Landgrave
of Thuringia, and for the moment he occupies his time as a clerk for the
current chamberlain. He was educated at a Benedictine monastery in Erfurt,
although he is not as accomplished a reader as he'd like to be (he doesn't
have enough confidence in his Latin to tackle Virgil's Aeneid just yet), and
even though he's pretty skilled at rhetoric, Detlef has never mastered the
art of writing. Detlef once aspired to enter a Benedictine monastery, but
he's quite taken with court life at the Wartburg right now, and he feels
himself too secular for the life of a religious. The Wartburg is quite an
exciting place, now that Hermann II is Landgrave. His Highness constantly
invites knight-poets to his court, and the pieces they perform in the great
hall are absolutely magnificent. Many of those poets are inspired by the
work of the French poet Chretien de Troyes, and stories of King Arthur and
his Knights of the Rount Table abound in the hall of the Wartburg. Even
though he has been trained in archery and owns two swords that the Landgrave
had given him, Detlef has never armored up and participated in a tournament
or gone to war. Detlef often dreams of following the knights on Crusade to
the Holy Land, if only as a standard-bearer. He also dreams of having his
own dairy farm near Eisenach, with a half-timbered house where he can
entertain guests on a much smaller scale than the Landgrave does. One day.
One day...

Detlef's English mother, Lady Alix de Curci, actually knows Eleanor of
Aquitaine (by the Wrath of God, Queen of England), and she took him with her
to Westminster Abbey to witness the coronation of King Richard in 1189. That
was a rather daunting experience, since most of the people in attendance
were speaking French (Detlef only knows German and English and a few phrases
in Danish, and can read some Latin). The connections that Detlef's mother
has with the Plantagenets create some awkwardness at the Wartburg; Henry II
and Eleanor's daughter Mathilda married the Saxon duke Henry the Lion, who
in 1180 was deprived of his duchy (and also of the Duchy of Bavaria) by
Friedrich Barbarossa. The Landgrave of Thuringia has supported the Emperor
in his conflicts with Henry the Lion, and at times he has been suspicious of
Detlef's sympathies, considering the family connection (suspicions, one can
be sure, that were fuelled largely by the Emperor's staunchest supporters in
the Landgrave's court). Detlef has never met Henry or Mathilda, and he has
never really had any interest in the conflict between Henry and the Emperor.

Okay! Who's next?

Yours in these Current Middle Ages,
Detlef von Marburg

-- 
Hwæt! We Gardena         in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,         þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas         ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing         sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum,         meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.         Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,         he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum,         weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc         þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade         hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan.         þæt wæs god cyning!
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