Ludwig Waltz

Ludwig Waltz is Werner's brother, and the eldest child of the Waltz family. He was injured almost fatally while sacrificing himself while in the Capricornian military during the Reservoir War. He was told by a Transmutationist that, after his injury, he would never be able to walk or use a conductor ever again. He is an ally of the Verbundene Augen.

## History

### Early Life

He is shown to have been a prominent member of the Capricornian military before his injury. He was raised as the son of Ulrich Waltz, the "Cold Wall of the South," and was brought up with very high expectations.

### Post-Reservoir War

He has a wife who works at a newspaper branch underneath the Capricornian Enlightenment Committee.

> It had taken a month after he returned for the realization to settle in. It started when Mother began deferring her expectations of him to Werner, who irritatingly met all of those expectations head on. As time passed, Mother had even asked off-handed questions whenever he was in earshot: “Werner, you want to be like how your brother *used* to be, don’t you?” Her disappointed sighs whenever he had to ask Werner or Viktoria to get something from a higher shelf for him were just the icing on the cake. But her ever watchful, judging ice-blue eyes—flecked with the prettiest of golds and silvers—had been the real terror.
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> The last straw was when he’d made his way into their household trophy room and saw a newspaper article clipped above all of his medals and honors. The headline was still burned into his mind to this day—“*War hero makes the ultimate sacrifice: saves subordinates to fight another day*”. The article was encased in a golden frame.
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> - *Ludwig, about his time at home after the war*
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Although his subordinates treated Ludwig no differently, his mother began transferring her high expectations of him onto Werner, thus instilling a sense of inferiority in Ludwig. Ludwig began resenting Werner internally, as Werner met his mother's expectations that Ludwig couldn't meet, and "cruelly revelled" in Werner's failures. When Werner came to Ludwig for comfort, Ludwig simply said that there was no such thing as luck or chance, meaning that "it was all [Werner]'s fault."

He sought redemption after that incident, and tried to take the opportunity when Werner asked him what family meant to Ludwig, but "no words could come out of Ludwig's mouth," and the moment passed.

### Verbundene Augen

> He had stumbled upon one of the meetings of a group that would eventually become the Augen when travelling to the capital for the required annual ‘Health Assessment for Non-Service’ check-up a couple years ago. It had been much smaller back then—too small and unfocused to be called a ‘movement.’ Just a collective of bitter, retired Conductors who came together to speak about their grievances. He’d met Heimler there and the love of his life too. It was much later that Marionette took the reins and harnessed their feelings. Ever since then, his wife had been hard at work weaving the Augen’s messages into the newspapers. Meanwhile, he’d been gifting esteemed officers limited edition watches for joining the movement.
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> - *Ludwig, about the Augen*
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He was an early addition to the Augen, and he considers them allies. His wife is a member.

## Personality

Ludwig has an extremely rocky relationship with his mother. Even before the incident, he seemingly resented his mother for the high expectations that she inflicted on him; and the resentment increased after his mother transferred those expectations to Werner. Ludwig has been shown to be calling her a hypocrite.

He feels inferiority to Werner, who met all the expectations Ludwig couldn't after his injury. He also feels inferiority towards Viktoria - he thinks that, even if they'd started clockmaking at the same time, she'd still be the best at it; and Ludwig says it took months to realize that he'd never be the best at even clockmaking. After his injury, he is shown to take months to process that he doesn't "need to be the best," contrary to what he's been told in his childhood; the conclusion coming without the weight of his mother's expectations.