Black Ice

Ferrus, emissary of His Divine Majesty. With his wife.

Biography.

Born Edmund Franz, a mindless dog of war, mercenary and thug, he fell in his twenty-fourth year of life. Not on the battlefield, split in two by a demonic two-handed sword in the heat of a glorious battle, but in a ravine on the edge of a forest, spitting blood and involuntarily voiding himself, calling for his mommy, trying to hold in his intestines spilling from a pierced abdominal cavity and reach the intensely itching spots on his back that had taken a volley of crookedly carved arrows fired from an ambush. New territories had passed under the jurisdiction of the Ataraxian Empire, which secured its holy rights through military might, and the more cunning blades had long since sensed which way the wind was blowing. As they say, there are no old and brave mercenaries, but young Edmund had not yet had time to realize this, and so, for three pennies, he put his neck where he was told.
As it turned out, this was the most successful and wise act of his life, for he was called to holy service by none other than the Emperor himself. Through the incredible efforts of healers, he, along with many other fighters, was plucked from the clutches of oblivion and put back on his feet — sometimes the Empire gives stray souls a second chance. No oaths were taken from Edmund, no interrogations were conducted, and he was not shackled in chains. Observing the lives of the Emperor's loyal subjects, he was utterly stunned by their way of life — without suffering, without doubt, united by a single goal and a single worldview. His further fate differed little from hundreds of thousands of other converts — he merged into the bosom of Mother Empire and accepted the imperial cult.
As a voluntary penance, he wandered the empire for many years, barefoot, clad only in home-woven rags, living off the kindness of his newly found brethren, performing any work, carrying a huge heavy wooden cross on his back day and night and maintaining a vow of silence. Every week he remembered another of the victims destroyed by his own hand, both in battle and beyond, mourned her for six days, and on the seventh, he seared his flesh with a hot brand and left a notch on the cross. Upon completing his repentance, his body was almost entirely covered in burn scars, and the carved cross had left many bleeding wounds on his shoulders.
During his pilgrimage, he gained considerable knowledge from doctors and village healers, which he regularly applied in practice to heal His servants, who waged an endless struggle against the spawns of the Void in the territory of the hellgates, where he subsequently served. And it would have continued so until death, had his hard work and fanatical devotion not been noticed by the God-Emperor Himself. His holy countenance nearly blinded Edmund and was forever imprinted on his consciousness. With a thunderous voice, echoing simultaneously in all corners of creation, He commanded him to serve as an eternal beacon of righteous light for His humble servants. Furthermore, He handed him a ceremonial hammer, by which He ordered him to contribute in every way to the planting and strengthening of faith for those who were deprived of the imperial blessing. Edmund Franz entered the imperial palace, but he left it as Apostle Ferrus, firm and unyielding as iron, stubbornly forging a glorious future and perfecting the present.
However, he did not carry his newly acquired burden for long: as it turned out, the Emperor had His own plans. Three years after that day, the Lord blessed Ferrus in his fifty-fifth year of life with two things: marriage and an emissary appointment. Ferrus would never have considered himself worthy of either, but the Emperor has His ways. Hedwig was a righteous, wise, and quiet woman in domestic life, while her true talents lay in the field of interpreting holy dogmas and organization. And although the newlyweds had little time to get to know each other better, they undoubtedly felt a kinship of souls.
Together they traveled beyond the borders of the Ataraxian Empire with new instructions: to strengthen imperial influence in the territories of the Nine Kingdoms and stabilize the unrest, it is necessary to establish contact with the Wizard and bring them the light of the Emperor. The task was considerably simplified after Ferrus joined a local order, but his loyalty to the empire, of course, surpasses all else.

Gear:
- various simple and ornate clothing;
- holy scripture — a collection of the wisdom and commandments of the Emperor, as well as His biography, with a narrative stretching back through past centuries;
- currency of the nine kingdoms in abundance — the Emperor never skimps on the needs of His emissaries;
- old blunt sword — despite the fact that Ferrus's past life was rejected, he does not wish to forget it, therefore he always carries his old blade on his belt, with which he committed much evil and with which he perished; however, he vowed never to raise this sword again for the purpose of harming anyone;
- a one-handed hammer blessed personally by the Emperor, covered in holy inscriptions and mottos;
- a set of medicines and tools necessary for treating wounds, diseases, infections, and so on.

Skills:

Emissary III (13)

One-handed weapon II (6)
(I (3) Ability to parry an enemy strike is acquired. II (3) In case of a successful parry, the opportunity to knock the weapon out of the opponent's hands appears)

Doctor I (6)

Knight II (10)