Irmingard Abeln

“We do naught but scratch the world, frail and fraught. Every vast drama of civilizations, of peoples with their certainties and gestures, means nothing, affects nothing. Life crawls on, ever on.”
-Irmingard Abeln
== History ==
The daughter and only child of a military officer stationed on the border of the Reich Nördlich and Jotunheim, Irmingard Abeln's mother passed away when she was a little girl. She grew up learning much about military affairs and the relations between those two countries, and otherwise enjoyed great autonomy. She joined the Hexenjägers and pushed forth with great ambition and a desire to prove herself. She worked twice as hard as any of her colleagues, making herself a useful instrument of those in power. She was frequently underestimated; the depths of ruthlessness never fully realized, and those who ought to have seen her as a rival never took her seriously. And so, she rose to the position of Gauletier of Jotunheim, being an expert in the region and a far more talented officer than any of her peers. And yet for Irmingard Abeln, that was not enough. As Gauletier, she quickly endeared herself to the Council of Clans, taking their concerns seriously and working hard to be a a fair and impartial arbiter of their disputes. She frequently takes their side against her fellow Hexenjägers, and many have begun to whisper that she dreams to secede from the Reich and crown herself Kaiserin of Jotunheim. The fact that she has never outright denied this rumor has left the chieftains of Jotunheim convinced that the day will come when they will earn their freedom by fighting for their once and future queen, Irmingard Abeln. 
Irmingard Abeln was responsible for pioneering a number of innovative and controversial strategies for catching witches. With her blessing and material support, numerous Clans in Jotunheim turned over suspected mages to the Reich, or killed them themselves. Abeln's detractors accused her of turning a blind eye to massacres and purges, under the guise of "self-policing." In addition, it was Irmingard Abeln who pushed for the creation of a bounty system that spanned the North, offering lavish rewards to anyone who could claim to have killed any mage on her list. The system's proponents argued that it empowered local communities to take justice into their own hands, while detractors blamed Abeln for innocent killings that occured as a result of fraud and over-zealousness. Abeln's bitterest rivals charged her with instituting a reign of terror with extra-judicial murders perpetrated by third parties, allowing her to claim plausible deniability. 
== Personality ==
With a jaded and world-weary demeanor, Irmingard Abeln is content to let others project what they wish to see upon her, all the better to hide her ambition. She can play coy when she needs to be, but those who have worked with her know her to be ruthless beyond measure. No degree of victory is enough for her, and she will rise in the world until she is stopped. 
Abeln has a reputation for paranoia that she herself likes to laugh off, but she in fact is in fact full of anxiety and obsessed with controlling people and events. 
== Great Awakening ==
After the disillusion of the Reich, Irmingard Abeln was crowned as the Kaiserin of Utgard by the Council of Clans. She would face her first crisis upon the fracture of her newfound kingdom, upon the breakaway of the Kingdom of Ostoria, led by Queen Damaris Tkerekin and supported by half the Lords on the Council of Clans. Undaunted, Kaiserin Irmingard would rally the loyalists with the promise that the perfidious clans would be wiped out, their land given to her supporters, and the ancestral homelands of Valusia and the Rimefire Glacier conquered and restored to the Yuan-Ti and the Uldras respectively. In this she would make common cause with the new King of Guilddon, Talfryn Goronwy, through the intermediary of Admiral Walter Walkenhorst, a former colleague of hers. 
Despite losing half her kingdom to Ostoria, Irmingard Abeln would make common cause with Damaris Tkerekin against the Reich Nördlich. To do otherwise would invite destruction; she knew Alexander Braband's cause was doomed. After the fall of the Reich Nördlich, Irmingard Abeln would declare herself the Commander of the Hexenjägers, attracting many of them to her cause. Her symbolic victory paid off. Nonetheless, Irmingard loathed Damaris Tkerekin with a burning passion, and must have been worse at hiding her resentment then she thought - for she was quickly sought out by Pontiff Leo Calixtus of New Arendur, who wanted allies for his Great Northern Crusade. The fact that this would align her with the great old ones meant little to her: half her allies were descendants of the Hyperboreans anyway, or idol worshipers of some kind or other. The Knights of the Iron Glacier be damned. If anything, she saw perfectly clearly that obedience to the gods was a small price to pay for being on the winning side. 
With the return of the Windwalker, Irmingard Abeln was quick to weaponize Wendigo Psychosis and formed a military unit called the Wendigo Brigade. Nor did she shy from sending carriers to infect enemy civilian populations with the very same illness. 
Irmingard Abeln would eventually be transformed into a Windwalker herself, and perish in battle with Damaris of Ostoria. Category:The Reich
Category:Hexenjäger
Category:Wild Abyss
Category:Gauleiter
Category:Monarchs
Category:Neutral Evil