Veit Kaufmann

Sir Kaufmann is a knight in the court of Baron Ulrichstein and currently serves as the Bailiff of Luckau. Sir Kaufmann is a steady man, never quick to either condemn or praise. He has been a strong hand over his lands and they have prospered under him. His dislike for the petty games of court, even in this remote barony, means that he rarely visits Ulrichstein - preferring to send his oldest son Eckerd, who is a squire in the baron's court.

• Temporal: Age of Heroes
• Born: Winter 399
• Parents: Julian (M, 372-425) and Lea (F, 382-402)
• Knighted: Summer 438
• Spouse:

  • Fenja (F, 399-425), Married 416-425
  • Hille (F, 415-), Married 439-
• Issue:

  • Fenja

    • Leona (F, 418-425)
    • Selma (F, 420-425)
    • Ensar (M, 423-425)
  • Hille

    • Squire Eckerd (M, 439-)
    • Helena (F, 441-), Married
    • Elif (F, 445-447)
    • Georg (M, 451-)
• Holdings: Manor, 6.5 km² (1600 acres)

Veit grew up the son of a trapper who lived near a small mining camp. His father would sell meats and furs to the miners who rarely cared upon whose lands he killed them. The local lord did not care either as long as the ore from the mines continued to flow. Veit spent a great deal of time running his father's wares into the camp and selling them. He became well known to the sons of the other miners who envied his “carefree” life. He was their recognized leader and on days off he would lead them through the woods hunting small game.

During one of these excursions the gang of boys stumbled upon an goblin scouting party. Veit immediately sent the younger boys back to camp, while him and three others harried the goblins. Only Veit had a boy - but all of the boys had spears and slings. When the men from the village finally found them the four goblins were dead, but one of the boys was seriously injured. Veit led the miners back to the goblin encampment and carried himself well in the battle. Phillip, the young boy who was injured ended up losing his arm from that goblin dart, but he lived only because Veit knew how to clean and care for wounds.

Veit grew into manhood and became a huntsman and trapper like his father. After he helped the miners kill the goblins he was well-regarded by the other men of the camp. In 416 he married Phillip's eldest sister Fenja, who gave birth to three children Leona (F, 418), Selma (F, 420), and Ensar (M, 423). In the deepest part of Winter 425, while Veit was away hunting a elk, the goblins came down to raid again. This time the outcome was far different as his father, wife, and all three of his kids were killed during the raid. The miners rushed to the smoke from the burning buildings, but only managed to kill a few stragglers who stayed behind.

This attack prompted the Reeve to clear out the goblin encampments, so he paid a sellsword (Tobias Kuhn) to raise a company of mercenaries to accomplish this task. During early Summer 427 Veit was hired as the scout for this new company. For the next several years the company harried and hunted the goblins in the forest. Each time they they wipes out the nearby encampments the goblins would come down during the winter and rebuild them. Each winter Veit would spend his days tracking the goblins while the company stayed in the mining camp. He would mark the new encampments so that come Summer they could be destroyed.

When the snows melted in 430, Sir Tobias led his company into the Iron Mountains to shatter the goblin tribe that was sending the raiders. During the battle Veit saw Sir Tobias pulled off his mount and rushed to his defense. For the rest of the battle he stood over his unconscious body and defended him from attack. By nightfall, the goblins were defeated and the few survivors fled north. Veit spent the evening binding wounds and applying polstices as his father taught him.

Sir Tobias and the surviving members of the company left the mining camp during Late Summer of 432. Veit went back to hunting and trapping in the woods. He was deeply affected by not only the slaughter of the battlefield, but finally had the time to mourn his family.

So, he was surprised when Sir Tobias, along with several knights and their retainers, arrived at his house in the High Summer of 437. Sir Tobias simply stated that he was newly named the Baron of Ulrichstein and needed his services once again. There was nothing keeping him here but memories, so he packed up his things and left with the knights.

Veit was very surprised when they reached Ulrichstein and Baron Ulrichstein knighted him. Veit had no difficulty swearing fealty to this man, but did not like the idea of holding lands and being responsible for the people of it. The Baron had already mapped out several locations along the Aland River that were defensible against the dangers of the Elfenwald. He granted Sir Veit enough lands at the most northern reach of his barony to maintain himself as a knight.

In 453 several houses along the Aland River south of Sir Veit's lands was named the village of Luckau and Baron Ulrichstein named Sir Veit as the bailiff. In the first years, Sir Veit paid for a stout wall around the entire village and has held numerous tournaments to keep the steel of his men sharp. He continues to pay for several additional huntsmen from his privy purse to watch the woods to the north and east.

Veit knows nothing about his mother other than the stories told to him by his father as she died from fever when he was only three. His father said that she was a tough woman that could fight off a bear with nothing but a stick if it came rooting around the house.

His father, Julian, lost his own parents when it was eight and lived the rest of his early life earning a living running errands. He ate what he could catch in the forest and what scraps other families gave him. For five years he worked in the mine, but in time he found that he could earn more selling furs. By the time he married Lea he already had a “cottage” in the woods where he lived year-round.

Veit was their only child that survived into adulthood.

Julian was killed defending Veit's family from goblin raiders in 425.

Veit met Fenja when he would visit his friend Phillip's house to check on his recovery from injuries suffered from a goblin scouting party. In 416 she told him they were getting married and that was that. They had two daughters Leona (418) and Selma (420), and one son Ensar (423). Veit was very happy with his life and only rarely complained too loudly when Fenja would drag him out of the taverns in the evening.

Fenja died defending her home from goblins in the same raid that killed his father. The three children were also killed.

Veit remarried not long after he was knighted. Hille is a stout woman whose husband died on the journey west to Ulrichstein. Their marriage is not one of passion or love, but instead is based upon mutual need and loss. Strangely enough they complement each other enough to knock sense into the other when they are being stubborn. Hille mostly stays at the manor and sees to the daily running the house and its lands, while Sir Kaufmann spends his time as the Bailiff of Luckau and in the woods with his huntsmen looking for trouble. Hille understands his need to kill any monsters that he finds.

Together they have two sons, Eckerd (439) and Georg (451) along with a single daughter Helena (441). Another daughter Elif (445-447) died of sickness. Helena married Richard, one of her father's huntsmen, in 457 but she still lives in the manor with him.

Main Article: Eckerd Kaufmann

Eckerd was accepted as a squire for Baron Ulrichstein and spends almost all of his time in the Baron's court. Veit is less happy with his son's behavior at court, but he very grudgingly admits that his son does get along better with most of the baron's knights that he does. He would prefer his son help him guard the northern border rather than spend time in town, but his son has managed to find some additional craftsmen willing to move to Luckau.