Commander Vlad-Mer

Vlad-Mer circa 1489

**Vlad-Mer** (pronounced: *vlad-MEER*), most often referred to as the **"The Commander"** by his soldiers, is one of the most well known and skilled military geniuses in all of Faerûn. He was also considered one of the Realms' most prominent commanders—whose name is known by the resistance, to the Shining Planes and as well as Frozenfar― as well he worships Uller, God of the Hunt and Winter. Over the course of his life, Vlad-Mer had brought Frozenfar to glory as well as brought his people freedom from the New Order

*The New Golden Age is Presumably here but in our eyes its a Dark Age*

— Commander Vlad-Mer

## Description

Vlad-Mers most distinguishable feature is his long orange beard which he grooms all he can, he loves his beard as much as he loves his army. He has blue eyes and and wrinkled white skin. His hair is covered by his fur ushanka he wears aswell as most of his body is covered by his fur gear.

He is shorter than most people as he is a Dwarf, though this doesn't stop him from riding a horse as he says pony's aren't for battle. Vlad-Mer is still considered young for a dwarf as most live to 350 years old, so he is not very aged. His wrinkles are caused by the stress of being in his position and battles he fights in.

## Personality

"Pour me more beer, Herold!"

- Vlad-Mer to Herold in the Underdark Swamp

Vlad-Mer is not a very loud person and is a good listener, he is usually very serious unless around acholol which than he gets wild if he takes even a single sip. He doesn't like to speak to people unless he knows them very well or if its his soldiers. Vlad-Mer is mentally indomitable, he doesn't get upset over small things as he always looks toward bigger things, but this same thing is used against him as he doesn't care for anything small and is very ambitious. He has a burning hatred against his enemies like The New Order, he wishes to burn "The Great Imperator" to a tree

Vlad-Mer doesn't align with the radical ideas and oppressions of the new world or the absolutism and conservatism of the old world but instead aligns with his own freedom and the people being free, he cherishes the people. He has no opinion on magic as long as its not used against the people he protects or anybody for that matter. He teaches his soldiers not to fight for themselves or the state or even The Commander himself but to fight for their families and people back home.

As much as The Commander is charismatic and brave in battle and to his soldiers, not so much to other people he doesn't know well, alot of people mistake him as nervous and cowardly if they do not know him though this is sometimes true, this is mostly not him. He will only save his own soldiers and his own people as they are very important to him and he knows them all very well, but mostly he will not save somebody he doesn't know well as he doesn't think its as important.

Vlad-Mers favorite drink is Beer, any acholol he likes he calls "Beer" even though most of the time it isn't, at this point its a joke he makes but anytime he drinks real beer he gets crazy and usually passes out from over drinking it.

## Skill

Before Vlad-Mer joined the Bryn Shander Winter Army he was very good at riding a horse and hand to hand combat, even as a Dwarf he could beat multiple humans, he did this by exploring there weaknesses and being smart with who he fought, he also taught himself how to use abilities like cure wounds and speaking to animals, he is outstandingly intelligent compared to normal dwarves and humans, he has great quick thinking and can out maneuver his enemies in any encounter

### Weapon Melee Combat

The Commander as much as he is good at hand to hand combat, he isnt too great as using a weapon such as a sword or axe unless he is on a horse, as on foot he is slow at swinging a weapon because of his short arms but this still doesn't stop him from being able to defeat any enemy in a fight if he has the help he needs.

### Ranged Combat with a Bow and Arrow

The Commander is exceptionally good at ranged combat using a bow, this is one of his specialties, before his army days he hunted a lot for food, and has great accuracy with his bow and arrow, he also likes to shoot from horseback as this gives him speed and range. The bow is one of his main weapons and its easy for him to use with his short arms.

### Magic Use

Magic is something The Commander doesn't use often as hes not too great at it but he sometimes speaks to horses and cure wounds, other than that he doesn't use magic but he doesn't hate magic either like The New Order and instead likes to see it used against them, he has "Horse Sages" in his army which shoot magic missiles from horseback.

### Commanding and Military Strategy

This is what Vlad-Mer is exceptional in, he fights "New Order Knows No Borders" like a knife against butter, hes known for his modern asymmetrical combat and his use of guerilla warfare in the snow, he loves using his terrain and his mountains to destroy his enemy, not just destroy but starve and mentally torture them into submission. He developed his skills over the War against Barbarianism in Frozenfar before The New Order, this is where he got his skills and his exceptional military genius from. He's also the first to effectively use artillery and horses in a combined arms way to destroy them, he launches strikes behind enemy lines at the food convoys and supply, encircles them with his cavalry, and effectively starves them to death before attacking, than he launches a massive cavalry attack to kill them off. The New Order has no counter strategy against this because there "New Order Knows No Borders" is made for quick warfare, not slow, cold, starved warfare.

## Possessions

Vlad-Mer carries around his bow and his ushanka everywhere, he is never seen without those 2, he is seen without his battleaxe but not his bow. His hat is one of his most important possessions right next to his beard. He also likes to carry around camping supplies for his hunting and battles, he keeps a special fur tent he likes to sleep in if he has nowhere else to sleep.

He doesn't carry magical items as he has no clue on how they work, they are too expensive and there are little easily avalible in Frozenfar, even when he steals some from The New Order he doesn't like using them and instead hands them to his soldiers.

Battleplans and maps are a big thing he carries as he likes to know where he is at all times and where to go next.

## Activies

Horses are the biggest part of The Commander, from racing, battle to even hunting he uses them all the time. He was a natural horse racer beating all his opponents in racing because of his skill controlling them, he chases animals with them in the same way he chases New Order soldiers with them, hes generally a very talented and skill horse rider. He uses horses alot because of his size, he is slow at doing things like combat and slow at running so he uses horses to help him to do all these things quicker and efficiently, he implemented into his army so they could be fast against the enemy, cut them off and destroy them.

Another one of The Commander's favorite activities is drinking, of course. Drinking is a natural part of a dwarf but he likes it more than most and if he gets his hands on acholol he will drink it all, especially if he hasn't had acholol for a long. This hinders him if he has alot because he wont be able to do anything properly though afterwards it makes him feel way better, its like a drug too him almost.

### Works

The Commander is working on his "Art of War" book where he speaks about fighting the Barbarians and The New Order, he has a journal with everything he knows and remembers. He's also not a bad drawer and musician, he can play a flute, he doesn't really play it ever but he can. Hes drawn himself on paper, pretty well and can draw nature and other things decently too.

## Recognition

The Commander is very famous throughout the resistance for stopping the New Order, The Wizard Nation has had multiple meetings with him to work with him and many partisans support him. The Commander has many paintings of him even before The New Order as he was seen as a revolutionary to warfare and he invented the combined arms strategies.

He is also the de facto leader of Ten Towns and Frozenfar, currently ruling over the whole region as nobody else is. This helps him make fast decisions for what and how things need to be done.

## Relationships

The Commanders family is mostly unknown other than a few details as he doesn't reveal much, he says his father was an officer and his mother was a trader, thats all he said. His biggest relationships are with his soldiers and his people in Ten Towns who he cherishes dearly and defends them.

### Allies and Army

His allies are his army as said before, they are his only family that he has and he leads them. They are skilled veterans and most of them are cavalry soldiers, notable people that he knows are Herold, a professional mercenary who he has gotten to know well as they've gone on many missions together and Herold has also fought in the field, Herold is not a cavalry soldier but instead is an expert at axe combat, though Herold is not talkative, he is still a very capable person. Another person is Jones, a former soldier for Baldur's Gate, he is a protector of Cear-Konig and is great at using a spear and horse, he likes to meet new people who come to the run down town, he isn't as close to The Commander as Herold is but he is part of The Bryn Shander Winter Army, being a captain. One last person is Metal, who like his name is very heavily armored, his true name is unknown but that is his nickname, he is a Knight who uses a mace and is feared in battle, he sometimes stays at Targos and Cear-Konig and he is also pretty close to Jones, hes the least known to the Commander but he is still respected by him.

### Apprentices

The Commander has many soldier he trains especially in the field of cavalry, many partisans and general people join the Bryn Shander Winter Army to fight The New Order and they must get acquainted with The Commander as well with there captains. Speaking of captains he also trains captains in the Winter Army as they are the main leaders when he is not around. He's trained his generals too which he hasn't spoken about yet but they seem to also command when Vlad-Mer is not around.

### Enemies

His most prevalent enemy is most obviously The New Order, they have ravaged Ten Towns and the rest of the world and they are the last bastion of some sort of freedom. The Commander has been fighting the New Order since they reached Frozenfar and early 1491 DR and has been for almost a year, They began at first kidnapping people to be sent as "slaves" for Imperia, than they began trying to burn down the villages and slaughtering people like animals, which The Commander immediately took over and began total war against the New Order and declared war on the idea of the New Order itself; The Great Imperator.

He believes the "Utopianism" of the New Order is just a fantasy and they are simply elegant slaving- Barbarians. He has also fought Barbarians far before the New Order as it was his first tasks when he became an officer, he climbed the ranks after destroying the Barbarian armies in the War against Barbarianism, so The Commander believes the New Order are like barbarians so hes using the same tactics, and they seem to work.

## History

### Early Life

Not many details are known about Vlad-Mers early life but there's still enough to put stuff together, he was born in 1462 DR in the city of Targos, he left early to Bryn Shander because of the better trade, his father and mother died somewhere from 1462 - 1489 of unknown causes but Vlad-Mer said "They were old and dying." What is known is his racing career with horses which made him a lot of early income, he was spectacular to watch as he outpaced everyone in a race. He most likely didn't have any formal education except his cavalry academy but this fact is not confirmed by Vlad-Mer, he also wasn't very wealthy but still had enough as his father was a officer.

### Beginning of his military career

###### Academy Acception

Vlad-Mer got denied many times to the officer academy because he was a Dwarf, they believed dwarves couldn't ride horses or even fight. He showed the academy his racing records, his medals and his skill but they still wouldn't accept his just because he was a dwarf, he had to bribe them to get in with gold. He saved up alot of money from hunting and racing and used it to get in, he says it was his best decision.

###### Vlad-Mers Training

Vlad-Mer said he was at the top of his class in cavalry academy which came to the surprise of nobody considering how skilled he is at horse manuverments. He used his horse racing days to help him in his academy, he met a lot of new friends there too. The academy is where he met Jones who was also there, and he met some of his good generals as well. After training because of how ahead and well he was, they immediately made him First Class Officer.

###### Early Combined Arms Warfare and War against Barbarianism

After leaving the Cavalry Academy, he was assigned to take out a barbarian camp near Kelvins Cairn during the Frozenfar war against Barbarianism. Other officers were failing as they said the barbarians were too fortified in there fort and were collecting food from local villages, so Vlad-Mer suggested to use cannons to destroy the food collectors than to wait until they starve than finally cavalry charge after destroying the fortification. Nobody has thought at this point to use cannons outside of ships so they reluctantly agreed as this would cause minimal casualties to the already drained Winter Army. They modified the cannons slightly and began destroying the food collectors, than Vlad-Mer waited for them to come out, which they did not. He said to destroy the walls after a week of no food. They did this and they found the barbarians barely able to fight, and took them all prisoner. He was promoted to 3rd class Major

### Defeat of the Barbarians and the improvement of the Winter Army

Vlad-Mer began doing this same thing too many other barbarians, because of the minimal casualties the Winter Army began healing from its poor state. They began getting more trade because of the lowered barbarian attacks, finally they destroyed the last barbarian presence near Ten Towns after a full cavalry charge as they were trying to flee. He was promoted to Third Class Commander and his soldiers had major respect for him

The Winter Army was a state that it had never been in before, it could spread influence all the way to Neverwinter and could take on a strong foe without collapse. Especially now at this point because of the minimal casualties a lot of the soldiers were now veterans and very experienced, even some that started as conscripts became great because they were not killed as The Commander's tactics were perfect for minimal causalities.

### The New Order

The Winter Army would takes its true test in Summer, 1491 DR, the newspaper headlines were "Continental Empire reaches the north, to bring New Order to Frozenfar." The Commander watched them, he sent reconnaissance which didn't return, one time a single spy returned and said the recossaince were all executed by brutal execution after they enslaved Luksan. This spy who barely escaped reported the general said "This Frozenfar will be easy to capture, they don't even have an army!" The Commander took action and declared war against the idea of The New Order, the heart of it, The Great Imperator himself. At this point The New Order believed they could take over Frozenfar, get some musketmen, swing there army back around, take over the Shining Planes and declare Imperia to rule for eternity, but The Commander would not allow this, as the New Order began its military operation into Frozenfar they expected to be met by flowers and slaves as there horses marched into Ten Towns, people waving red flags and cheering "For New Order and Imperium!" As everyone else has, but instead they were met by cannons and the Winter Army.

###### The Commander's War agasint the New Order

The Commander fully reorganized the Winter Army, he began burning the fields and there own villages where the New Order were adopting "Empty Snow" policy, The New Order is built off fast campaigns so at this point they attempted to charge to Ten Towns as fast as possible before winter and there logistics run short but there was a big problem in there path, The Spines of The World, they were stopped by its towering peaks and the Winter Army's fortress, They began a full battle which they were losing, The Winter Army was professional in the snow, they knew the land well and of cousre they were acclimated to the snow. The New Order did not bring winter clothing and once they were stuck in this position, The Commander began firing artillery at there long logistics lines and destroying it. This was the New Order's first decisive defeat, New Order general "Sfyrodos" said they should retreat from Frozenfar and focus on The Shining Planes but the New Order said they have to win or else the Wizard Nation would use this as a counter attack and theyd fall apart. They continued the campaign, than it began snowing, now they were in a 2 front war, against a level 20 Wizard University and Elminster himself, and a relentless Winter Army as there army was frozen in the snow. The New Order knew it needed, an item to turn the war around, so they redirected there army instead of Ten Towns, towards the legend of the Compass, an artifact so powerful that a person cannot comprehend it. The Commander declared they must get there first and he called an expeditionary group from the the resistance of the free world, he brings Herold too with him.