Walt Vanheesem

***Early Life***

Walt Vanheesem was born early in the year of 1577 A.T.F in the city of Aldurias, Walt was one of five children within his family. Growing up Walt was afforded all of the luxuries that could be given, his family were the owners of a powerful merchant company that held subsidiaries in Freeport and Teratime. As a child Walt attended The Aldurian School of Intellectual Arts, and at the age of 15 graduated from the school. His parents wanting to continue his studies would have the young boy sent to Reichland in 1592 A.T.F to attend a University in the city of Reichlandia. The University was renowned for its wide array of knowledge and arts due to its location being centered atop an old Duvanian Library. Years after arriving in Reichlandia Walt would find himself stranded on the continent due to the deteriorating political stability of Reichland coupled with the sudden death of High King Fredrick Barbarossa. By the time Walt was 25 he had lost all contact with his family, and was unable to pay for his studies at the University.

***The Mercenary Lord of The East***

With nowhere to go, Walt was left stranded in an unknown land without any resources at his disposal. For the next two years Walt would take on minor jobs as a message peddler, or running errands for the locals of the city. Walt's luck would change when disputes for who would become the next High King and the Yurak Tribes being unified would kickstart The First Reichlandian Civil War. Walt approached a military recruiter in hopes of joining The Royal Army of Reichlandia, but was given a different offer. The military recruiter offered Walt a position in his private mercenary company, stating that he had only taken the position as a royal recruiter to circumvent recruits for his own private use. Walt understanding that the offer he was being given would enable him obtain a higher pay, and better loot immediately accepted.

***Later Life and Death at Axony***

By 1603 A.T.F Walt was a renowned mercenary, over the last few years Walt had became a skilled warrior and had even acquired his own mercenary band. Walt primarily worked for independent cities and lords who were unable to protect their borders from the recent influx of banditry the Civil War had created. Walt's conquest over the bandit hordes had reached the ears of the Yurak Khan, Tarkhan Khan, who was preparing for a final showdown with the Eastern Lords. In 1606 A.T.F Tarkhan Khan had hired Walt as a military commander and in the early summer of 1607 A.T.F ordered to marshal what men he could and rally at Axony for an upcoming battle.

In the first few days during The Battle of Axony, Walt was ordered to command 10,000 Acrabian Mercenary Horsemen and patrol the Glasgov River to prevent an Eastern Sovereign Alliance push. Within the early days of the battle, two foraging parties from both sides engaged in a Skirmish along the Glasgov River. The Eastern Sovereign Alliance responded with a premature push into Yurak Controlled Axony. Walt responded with haste and managed to drive back the 25,000-30,000 man force consisting of 10,000 soldiers. It was a decisive victory as Walt employed his strategies he learned from fighting the Bandit Hordes who often outnumbered him years ago. Using an elite vanguard of Dismounted Acrabian Mercenaries who volunteered to the be the distraction, Walt moved a much larger contingent of the Acrabian Horsemen to the flanks and lured the Donnington's lines of Pike and Shot into the open. Once the Donnington's infantry was far enough out in the open flatlands Walt ordered his heavy horsemen to slam into the rear of the Pike and Shot formations. Within minutes all hell broke loose, and the Donnington lines broke in full retreat suffering heavy casualties. The Donnington Army suffered extensive casualties during the retreat, as the disorderly and chaotic retreat across the river resulted in many of the Donnington Soldiers drowning. Alexander himself almost nearly drowned, had it not been a foot soldier who carried him to the other side.

Although Walt scored a decisive victory for The Yuraks Forces. Tarkhan Khan opted to replace Walt as a general with his son Tolui on the frontlines, Walt was instead reassigned to camp duty. Although Walt was angry by this decision his pay would still stay the same, thus he accepted the terms and for the rest of the battle he remained at the main Yurak camp without issue. During this time Walt surprisingly became good friends with his replacement Tolui Avskuro, and the two would often go hunting during the occasional intermission of fighting in the battle. Their friendship would be cut short as on August the 2nd 1611 A.T.F the Yuraks had lost the Battle of Axony. Although the battle was over resistance by pockets of Yurak soldiers would continue until February the 23rd, during the same day Walt was captured attempted to flee the region with a group of refugees. On February the 29th 1612 A.T.F Walt alongside his friend Tolui Avskuro were executed by hanging.

***Personality***

Walt Vanheesem was known to be hard working and intelligent, and was regarded as being dedicated to his work. Walt was said to have passion for the best life he could by himself, and thus was often considered to be a loner leaving him unmarried and fathering no children by the time of his death. Walt was known to be jealous of those who he saw as more successful than him, and would often try to take as much credit for any glory he obtained.

***Appearance***

Walt had white skin, and dark brown eyes. He had brown hair and a small bridged nose, it was said he had freckles on his face and that his eye brows were well defined. Walt possessed a small beard, and wavy hair. Walt stood at 5.7 feet tall and weight around 165 pounds. When not in battle Walt would wear commoners clothing, and in battle he dawned a blue button up trench coach with wolf paws on either side of the shoulders. Underneath the trench coat was chainmail reinforced with a thin layer of gambeson. The weapon of choice for Walt is unknown.