Grandmaster Edvard Stern
of the
Wolf Knights of Mount Lykos
Images via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
The 49th Grandmaster of the knightly order properly known as the Free and Sovereign Fellow-Soldiers of the Wolf on Mount Lykos and commonly referred to as the Wolf Knights, Edvard Stern was born into a well-connected family active at the Ducal court of Middlesbrooke and received a comprehensive education in both the arts and military matters. Knighted by the Duke of Middlesbrooke at a young age for his daring rescue of two young siblings trapped in a burning building, Edvard travelled the continent, even leaving Realmgard for several years to adventure on the continents of Arena and Laodike, where he fought several battles in service of the Emperor of Archipelago in the long campaigns against the enroaching Arslani Empire.
It was during his travel across Realmgard as a knight-errant that Edvard first came to the attention of then-Grandmaster of the Wolf Knights Ludovico Areni, who recruited him into the order. Although a relatively junior member of the order itself, Edvard’s long experience with errantry soon made him an ideal instructor for the order’s young squires and applicants. It is often joked — though rarely when he’s within earshot — that Edvard Stern is the most aptly-named member of the order, due to his strict and demanding but ultimately even-handed teaching style. However, his results speak for itself and the elder members of the Order have noticed a marked increase in the aptitude of recent generations of applicants and squires.
While the Wolf Knights rarely engage in large-scale military operations, instead focusing on sending its members out into Realmgard as knights-errant alone or in small groups, the Wolf Knights did muster most of the order’s strength to assist Middlesbrooke when the Duchy was beset by rebellious vassals. Edvard fought with distinction during this campaign, establishing him as one of Order’s foremost individual combatants and commanders, which played a major role in his eventual election as Grandmaster of the Order.
Edvard’s election as Grandmaster was largely without controversy. Even the members of the Order who did not personally vote for him at least conceded that a proven veteran would make a capable Grandmaster for the Order. Edvard has proven himself worthy of his fellow Wolf Knights’ confidence. Although, like his election, his tenure as Grandmaster has been largely unremarkable, he is known to a competent and capable. As Grandmaster, Edvard has overseen renovation of the Cathedral-Fortress of the Wolf Knights, building up the complex on Mount Lykos into one of the architectural marvels of Realmgard.
The castellans of the Order who worked on the renovation of the Wolf Knights’ fortifications have become sought by rulers throughout Realmgard as advisors and overseers of the construction of their own fortifications. Even the Emperor of Archipelago, already familiar with Edvard for his past services to Archipelago, has requested builders from the Wolf to Knights to oversee the fortification of his own cities in preparation for the inevitable next invasion by the Arslani.
Even as Grandmaster, he continues to take a hands-on role in the training of the newest generation of Wolf Knights.
Discover the rest of the Encyclopedia Realmgardica here:
Follow me here:
If you’ve enjoyed my content, please consider supporting me through Ko-fi or Patreon, or through Paypal by scanning the QR code below:
Follow Realmgard and other publications of Emona Literary Services™ below:
Subscribe to the Emona Literary Services™ Substack newsletter here.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author prohibits the use of content published on this website for the purposes of training Artificial Intelligence technologies, including but not limited to Large Language Models, without express written permission.
All stories published on this website are works of fiction. Characters are products of the author’s imagination and do not represent any individual, living or dead.
The realmgard.com Privacy Policy can be viewed here.
Realmgard is published by Emona Literary ServicesTM
