Tobias Kuhn

Baron of Ulrichstein

Sir Tobias is the unrecognized bastard son of Sir Wernherus of Grohn and Nell, the baker's daughter. When his mother died, Sir Wernherus gave him a horse, sword, shield, and a small bit of coin - then told to get out of the village. Tobias gathered his remaining belongings and followed the trade roads west. He spent some time as a mercenary before he finally made enough money to return east. Several years on the edge of King Reiner IV's court eventually gained him a frontier barony along the Bornheim trade road. He currently serves as the Baron of Ulrichstein.

• Temporal: Age of Heroes
• Born: Winter 404
• Parents: Sir Wenherus of Grohn (M, 363-446) and Nell (F, 392-422); unrecognized
• Knighted: Summer 434
• Spouse:

  • Marjorie Kuhn (F, 414-), Married 436
• Issue:

  • Fuchs (M, 439-)
  • Heinr (M, 441-455)
  • Selle (F, 442-)
  • Lyse (F, 451-)
• Holdings:

Tobias is the unrecognized bastard son of Sir Wernherus of Grohn and Nell, a baker's daughter. At the insistence of his wife, Sir Wernherus dismissed Nell from the manor before the child was born. His mother had wed Mazzi, a villein, when he was 5 - so Tobias does not really remember a time without a father. During his young, Tobias was like many other kids, he played, explored, and worked - there was always work to do. He was a strong lad and rarely complained, as that led to nothing but a harsh beating from his new father. Unknown to Tobias or Lady Wenherus, Sir Wenherus arranged for extra land for their family and in 419 Mazzi became a free tenant when he purchased a small measure of his own land.

When Tobias turned 17 he began courting several different girls in the village and its surrounds. Regardless of his family's station he found that most families turned down any advances he made on their daughters. He did find out that Lady Wernherus had let it be known that she would make things difficult for any family who allowed their daughter to marry or sire children from Tobias. Tobias knew that Sir Wernherus was his real father, but this was the first time that he knew of Lady Wernherus interfering in his life. Tobias wanted to do something about it, but his mother still had not recovered from a sickness she got the previous winter.

In Winter of 422 his mother, who never fully recovered, died. Mazzi, who had several kids with Nell during the years, told him that he could stay on and work the land for his kids as long as he wanted. Tobias thanked him for the offer, but since he didn't get along with Mazzi's eldest son Varin he thought it would be best to leave. Mazzi gave him some money and told him that he was welcome back whenever he wanted.

A few days later Tobias was in the tavern when Sir Wernherus walked in. He took Tobias to the innkeep's room and sat his son down. He did not apologize for what happened nor try and make amends. What he did do was tell him that he would never find peace as long as Lady Wernherus could harass him. He was proud of the man that Tobias had become and wished him well on what will be a difficult journey. He told Tobias that there was a horse, shield, sword, armor, and saddlebags full of supplies waiting for him in the tavern's stable. His suggestion was to travel west and hire on as a sell sword.

During the Winter of 425 Tobias had spent two years as a mercenary along the mining camps built in the shadow of the Iron Mountains. At one of these camps he was spending his hard earned coin at the tavern when he was approached by the camp's Reeve. The man wanted to pay Tobias to raise a mercenary company and kill the goblins that had built encampments in the nearby forest.

During the Summer he raised a mercenary company and hired a local hunter named Veit Kaufmann help him located the camps. For two years he harried the goblins, burned their camps, and slaughtered them by the hundreds. Still, each winter they moved back down from the mountains and built new camps while Tobias and his men stayed neared the camp. The Summer of 429 was a bloodbath, which the company losing nearly half of its men as the goblins attacked the camps directly in strength.

So, Tobias hired more men in 430 and this time he cleared a path through the goblins camps, but continued on into the Iron Mountains. With Veit leading the way he burned their villages and put any goblin no quick enough to escape to the sword. He spent the winter in the mountains and raided several of their villages for food and supplies. Just as snow began to fall in 431 he marched out of the mountains with less than a third of his men, but the goblin tribe destroyed and its few survivors scattered.

The company went their separate ways, except for Tobias and a few of the men who wintered at the camp. When the roads became passable again Tobias, Bernahard, Konrad, and Lothar traveled to Aufhausen the seat of Duke Wracwulf Stoyan. The Duke had been charged by King Reiner IV with the disposition of royal lands into new baronies. Tobias had seen much of the west and desired the land that was denied to him by the fate of his birth.

For five years Tobias used his skills with sword and lance to win accolades at the various tournaments while Konrad and Lothar moved among the the nobility in search of likely supporters. During the Summer of 434 he led a dozen guardsmen to the defense of a nearby village against an orcish attack. They not only drove off the orcs, but Tobias himself slew the chieftain. When he returned to Aufhausen Duke Wracwulf knighted him and accepted his oath of fealty to the realm.

His new knighthood catapulted him into the upper ranks and gave him access to new avenues of power. He used the money he had saved and what he had earned to gain enough support to “purchase” a western barony. It cost him nearly everything he had saved, but in 436 Duke Wracwulf created the barony of Ulrichstein and named him its baron.

Sir Tobias arrived in the burned out remains of Ulrichstein in the Summer of 437 after he raised enough money to buy some mercenaries, craftsmen, and a wagon train of supplies. By 454 Ulrichstein was a thriving town and the Baron's patrols along the Bornheim trade route cut down on the number of lost caravans.

As a frontier baron he exercises a great deal of control not only over his own lands, but the royal lands that surround him. Duke Wracwulf has named him bailiff over the surrounding lands and the the villages they contain. For his part Sir Tobias can be a difficult, but fair man. He does not tolerate failure or incompetence lightly, but he believes that praise should be given when it has been earned.

He has fathered 4 children with his wife - and in memory of his father, none with any mistress. In fact, he has never taken a mistress to his bed since he was wed in the Chapel of the Waters in Aufhausen in 436.

His mother died before he left and he heard that his father passes away a few years ago as well. His step father is probably dead as well; although he has never entertained the idea of returning “home.”

Marjorie is a spitfire of a woman skilled in the use of sword and spear. She is not a mercenary, but she is no coddled noblewomen from the east. She enjoys falconry as well as a few of the more traditional “womanly” activities.

Fuchs is definitely his father's son.