Elias Gustavsson

Template:QE Character Infobox

General Elias “Sledgehammer” Gustavsson, infamous for his actions as the highest ranking ECA officer in the Scandinavian region during the Fall, has cast a long shadow over the Federal military since. Gutsavsson is nevertheless entrusted with overseeing the most critical tasks Parliament could task him with: Tasks where casualties are acceptable, but failure is not.

## History

Little is known of Elias’ childhood, as the man himself rarely speaks on it, and records prior to the fall have either been lost or intentionally destroyed, however a note is made on his Federal medical records that he had previously been diagnosed with low-severity antisocial personality disorder.

Prior to the Fall, Elias was an unknown Swedish officer of the Livregementets husarer stationed in Örebro, however the sudden appearance of Vannai Puppets, the formation of the ECA, and the period of turmoil that followed both events led to Elias coming to prominence as his commanding officer was killed in action, leading to him being quickly given a field promotion so as to fill the gap in the chain of command. Serving at first with distinction, Elias proved himself to have a knack for fast and decisive action that the opening volleys of the war to come would demand.

However, as his meteoric rise continued thanks to the deaths of his peers and superiors, it quickly became clear that while an exceptional tactician, Elias lacked in charisma and moral fibre. This came to a head during the evacuation of Stockholm, following loss of communication with ECA high command, Elias took control of the relief force and countermanded high command’s standing orders to rescue civilians. Instead he opted to hold his forces back while the Vannai Puppets wracked the city, waiting until the Puppets had exhausted themselves destroying the city and had begun to scatter before using his organized force to mop up the now much smaller groups.

While highly effective at drastically reducing the number of Puppets in the area, and thus protecting nearby cities and industrial centres, this earned him no friends among the other high ranking officer, or even his own men. However, as the war became more and more dire, Elias’ strategies remained as effective as they had been at the start, slowly converting more and more of the ECA commanders in Scandinavia over to his philosophy.

With the following campaign of distraction and encirclement, Elias was able to destroy many large groups of Puppets by luring them away from major industrial and population centers, and into smaller population centers, where he would then exploit the natural tendency of the Puppets to fall into savagery to surgically eliminate dozens at a time before the larger group could muster a response. This resulted in remarkably low casualties for a post-fall military, at the expense of unsustainably high civilian casualties.

However, fortunately for the Scandinavian Federation, the formation of the European Federation proved to be the injection of money, manpower, and arms that the area needed to stabilize and secure the region once and for all. This left Elias without a standard post, and the near seamless integration of ex-ECA assets into the Federal military hierarchy left Parliament with a conundrum: What do you do with a man like Elias once his time has past? While it was easily concluded that such drastic action was no longer required, Elias still represented a wealth of experience and knowledge that the Federation could not easily afford to lose.

It was decided that, rather than put him out to pasture, that he would be set up in Münster as an instructor to up and coming officers, that his knowledge and experience might be tempered with a steadier hand. However, as planning for the invasion of Mauritania began, Parliament once again turned to Elias to act as the commander of the forces. However, before the invasion could commence, events in China forced Parliament to reconsider the invasion, and refocus their efforts on the more immediate threats - in doing so, unleashing the Sledgehammer on the embattled people of China.

## Appearance

Elias is an imposing figure even when out of armour, towering over most people at 6’6”, with the muscles to match it. His facial hair is roughly groomed to a short stubble, and his blonde head hair is similarly rough, varying in length on a weekly basis, though often trimmed to only a few inches. Should it grow any longer, Elias opts to braid it in order to keep it out of the way. Pale, with greenish-blue eyes.

## Personality

A man with a painfully grim demeanour, Elias is physically incapable of seeing the brighter side of life, and is instead focused entirely on his duty to the exclusion of all else. Despite this, Elias is exceptionally sharp and observant, noting the thoughts and feelings of his subordinates and acquaintances with a clinical eye.