Mace Gefühllos

Born to a poverty-stricken peasant family in the Empire, Gefühllos was abandoned as an infant at an orphanage ran by the Yggdist Church in Dreisland. While having nothing to his name like many other at the orphanage, it was obvious from even a young age that Gefühllos possessed an above average intelligence and a ruthless cunning.
At the age of 13, he was chosen by a talent scouts from the Imperial military looking for talented low-borns that can be groomed into servicing as future non-commissioned officers. From there, he was able to receive an education vastly superior to that of the typical Imperial peasant, with Gefühllos spending most of his free time in the library, having a deep fascination with the art of war throughout the ages.
Given a posing in a cavalry unit in the Imperial Alliance's military at the age of 16, after several years of ruthless cunning and doing everything he can to get in the good graces of his superiors, Gefühllos was able to enter the Imperial Alliance's finest military academy.
It was the academy that Gefühllos found himself getting the first taste of the viper’s nest that is Imperial palace politics: His fellow classmates, the thoroughbred sons and daughters of the Empire's aristocracy with families having centuries long worth of military traditions, despising the very idea that some no-name peasant with no family ties and often several years their junior studying alongside them as an equal. Unfortunately for them, Gefühllos quickly proved himself not only to be one of the academy’s top students, but also a ruthlessly vicious manipulator, with several of his most blatant critics finding themselves humiliated and disgraced. Afterwards the rest of the student body wised up, and avoided any form of confrontation against Gefühllos, and largely leaving him to his own devices. Eventually he graduated two years later, just in time for the outbreak of the First Europan War.
For the entire course of the war, Gefühllos served as a cavalry captain in the Gallian theatre. As the conflict quickly became bogged down in trench warfare, his unit was quickly rendered ineffective with both sides turtled in entranced defensive positions. As a cavalry commander, however, he quickly noted the limitless potential of mechanized warfare as the Empire’s first armored fighting vehicle rolled onto the battlefield, especially their ability to replace the role that his cavalry played in previous existing war doctrines: A fast moving, hard hitting unit that quickly move though an exploit weak points in enemy positions, and chase down the defeated enemy as they flee, instead of playing the role of merely providing infantry support.
While lacking the means or influence to gain access to getting his hands on any of the tanks himself, Gefühllos was able to develop his own method of breaking the stalemate of trench warfare instead of sitting around until the next major offensive: In the form of his ‘Shock and Awe’ Special Forces tactics. Where he and his handpicked ‘Stormtrooper’ units would put on camouflaged, armed themselves to the teeth, and crawled through no man’s land towards the Gallian trench lines under the cover of night. Once there they will begin systemically killing the defenders in their sleep, destroying artillery emplacements, taking out machine gun nests, setting fire to supply depots and just simply causing as much chaos and mayhem throughout the Gallian lines as possible, softening them up before the actual offensive.
Here, for the first time in his entire life, Gefühllos’ background of poverty actually became a significant asset to him: Since even when facing the atrocious conditions on the front lines and the brutal realities of modern warfare, there were strict rules of engagement imposed upon the mostly aristocratic officers of the Imperial military, preventing them from fighting in a manner that was deemed by those in power back home (Who were utterly detached from what was actually going on in the field) as ‘ungentlemanly’ or ‘dishonorable’, even when it might be tactically advantageous, or just plain non-suicidal to do so. Gefühllos, however, was a low-born commoner, and hence was not expected to ‘know any better’, giving him and his unit almost total free rein to do whatever they want as long as they come back with the results.
Throughout the war, Gefühllos was only matched and rivaled by the Gallian's own Belgen Gunther, as the latter was one of the few military leaders on all sides during the war who understood the potential presented by mechanized armored warfare, and was able to fully utilized Gallia’s small armored division (Consisting mostly of captured or hastily reverse engineered Imperial tanks) to devastating effect, claiming many victories for the small nation despite being massively outnumbered by the enemy.
With Gefühllos gradually developing a (one-sided) grudging sense of respect and admiration for the ‘Hero of Gallia’. The two of them will develop a long-lasting vendetta against each other, however, during a surprise commando raid on the Regimental HQ of the unit under Belgen’s command, capturing him and most of his senior staff. The official version of history was that the Imperial Stormtroopers massacred everyone, including the non-combatants, at the Regimental HQ, while the officers fought to the last man and the last round with pistols in their hands, ultimately forcing the Imperials to retreat, with General Gunther being the last person left standing. What actually happened, however, was that when faced with the risk of a major intelligence leak that can shift the already fragile balance against Gallia, if him and his command staff fell into enemy hands, Belgen made a painful decision in calling in an artillery strike on his own position before he could be incapacitated. Successfully wiping out most of the dreaded Imperial Stormtroopers and preventing his staff from being captured (Gefühllos himself barely managed get away), but at a heavy cost to his soul as he was directly responsible in causing the deaths of many of the people whom he had fought with and considered as his close to him as his own family. Gefühllos and Belgen would face off against each other one last time in the final hours of EW1, just as the two opponents locked eyes across no man's land, ready to finish this once and for all, the armistice agreement was announced, and the war between their nations was over… for now.
After the end of EW1, Gefühllos, now a colonel, was reward for his loyal service to the Imperial Alliance, not just with a promotion and a chest full of medals, but also a rare elevation into the Empire’s aristocracy with him being given a hand in marriage to the only daughter of a noble family of moderate influence in court. Together he sired five children with his wife during the inter-war period, while he stayed on in the Imperial military, carefully studying Belgen’s tactics and using them to develop war plans of his own, hoping to one day use it against him to finish what they have started. Though Gefühllos loved his children in a ‘strict, but fair’ way and was never abusive towards his wife. A part of her would always be terrified of him. Since she knew just how much of demon he was underneath his cover of noble soldier. Not to mention they shared very few interests and were never able to relate to one another, with Gefühllos literally having no hobbies or interest that is not related to warfare and military affairs. Though she noted that in 1926, when Gefühllos received word that his Gallian rival from the war, the now retired General Belgen Gunther, had died from illness, he was deeply saddened and raised a glass to his fallen foe during dinner with his family, remarking that he was hoping to face Belgen personally for one final time on the battlefield, one worthy adversary to another in respectful combat… Then he would have ‘gouge out his eyes and snap his spine’. Gefühllos then let of a deep sigh and reached for the bread across the table, completely unperturbed by what he had just said in front of his family while the entire table remained silent for the rest of the meal.
With the outbreak of EW2, Gefühllos once again took to the field of battle. This time against the Imperial Alliance's hated ideological foe: The Atlantic Federation. Masterminding the initial spearhead into Federation territory, he was at last able to put his war plans to work, with his armored blitz strategy successfully smashing thought he Federation’s defensive positions and capturing large swaths of territory early on in the war. He was only taken away from the front after being shot by a sniper’s bullet from a failed assassination attempt, widely believed to be a spec ops mission orchestrated by the Federation High Command, but was in reality order by Prince Maximilian, who was worried that Gefühllos might win the war on the western front too quickly, throwing a spanner in the works for his own plans of overthrowing the Imperial establishment upon finishing the subjugation of Gallia, and declaring himself Emperor while the rest of the Imperial military is out west finishing off the last remaining holdouts of the upstart Republicans.
By the time Gefühllos was able to return to the front over a year later, the tides had turned against the Empire, with the Imperials now slowly but surely being pushed back. But even at this point, even while being short on men and materials due to the Empire’s defeat in Gallia, Gefühllos was able to enact a bloody toll against the Federation, while maintaining minimum casualties amongst his own men. He widely hated throughout the Federation, for allowing his men to readily take part in rape and pillage against the civilian population in occupied territories as the slowly retreated, so long as it does not interfere with their combat effectiveness or the Imperial Alliances overall war effort. This brutality was partly fueled by the deaths of three of his children died during the war while he was out of action from his injuries, with his eldest son, Ty, perishing on the Gallian front after having three separate run-ins with a particular Gallian Militia unit under the command of his late nemesis's son, Welkin Gunther. With Ty being defeated and seriously injured every single time, until he was ultimately killed during the Second Battle for Vasel by a mortar round fired from the Edelweiss, Belgen’s old tank piloted by his son.
During the East Europan Revolution, Gefühllos shocked and surprised many in East Europa by actually remaining loyal to the Imperial government despite his low-born background, largely because he found finding one of his daughters brutally violated and murdered by a group of radical revolutionaries when her expensive clothes and finery identified her as a member of the aristocracy. Rallying other loyalist troops to his command, he followed the lead of other Royalists in withdrew his forces to the North-western territories. Along the way, he ordered his troops to enacting various atrocities against his own fellow countryman in a policy of scorched earth: Stripping everything of value they could carry in their path along the way while destroying everything else.
Afterwards, due to his loyalty, Gefühllos was promoted to the rank of General. However, for his open support of Grand Duke Ossman's advocacy for reforms (With him recognizing that just like on the battlefield, leaders must be flexible when confronted with the realities of the situation), he was ‘transferred’ to the Empire’s Alkuban colonial Enclaves, where he assisted Governor Reinhardt Krenz in putting down various native uprisings. Eventually, after military coup succeeded in allowing the reformers to take control of the Imperial Remnant’s government, he was allowed to return to Europa, and was appointed as the Chief of Staff for the Imperial military (He was seen as being too compromised with extremism, not to mention harmful to the IR’s diplomatic efforts due to his past records, to be part of governing council).
In public, Gefühllos was given the nickname as the ‘Peasant General’: A high ranking military officer from humble origins who, despite now being in his 70s, continues to serve the Empire as a patriot, and is deeply loyal to his men. A pragmatic leader who had stated in some interviews that if cooperation or reconciliation with Gallia or the Federation proves to be necessary in order to push back against the Communists, then ‘it shall be so’.
In private, however, Gefühllos is a person whose greatest pleasure and passion is war itself. Holding a deep disdain for cowardice, peace lovers and weaklings but he does not take joy in killing people through just the challenge in it. While viewing conflict as a great forge allowing men to achieve greatness and rise above their mortal selves, as well has ridding society of it's most unworthy members. As for cooperating with the Federation and the Gallians, Gefühllos noted to his most trusted confidants that he was indeed telling part of the truth, leaving out the last part in that ‘…We can always turn on them later once the dust settles but let’s avoid it if we can’.
Category:Males
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Category:Civil War Universe