Wilhelm
Quote: “The town and its people want no trouble... please!”
Appearance: An overweight, balding man with grey hair and a thick mustache, Wilhelm is in his early sixties but moves as if he was much older. He is typically dressed in a dirty linen shirt and old leather pants stained a uniform dark brown and an unwashed smell of fear follows him wherever he goes. His most distinguishing features are his jowls and the sad, resigned eyes of a pathetic bulldog. His shoulders are stooped with the weight of his responsibilities and failures.
Behavior:Wilhelm is a good man who genuinely cares about the town, but the werewolves have beaten him into submission. He will do everything he can (in the most respectful way) to ward off the Band’s involvement. Having been around the supernatural the majority of his life, the Avatars’ obvious power causes him great anxiety. Fearful of upsetting the delicate balance of the town, he believes the best course of action is to not rile the Band, but send them on their way as soon as possible. Part of him recognizes the potential aid the Band could offer and he might (through some serious cajoling) be convinced to turn a blind eye to their doings. Wilhelm is a scared and sullen man who is resigned to the status quo, seeing no way out of the situation he and the town are in. Wilhelm must be assured of a positive outcome before he is willing to take a risk.
History: Wilhelm Steiner is the son of a Roman soldier and a Germanic woman. His father deserted his post after witnessing the horror of warfare first-hand and fled to the hidden village of Wolfsheim with his wife and young son. Wilhelm had a sheltered childhood where his cowardly father indoctrinated him with the social mores of his new home, which included the Kindernacht.
Wilhelm married young, having hardly ever left village, and became Bürgermeister in his late twenties after the death of his father. A few years after taking office, Wilhelm was approached by the werewolf followers of Ulrich Schwarzenegger. With knowledge of his father’s past, they strong-armed him into granting them territorial and mining rights to the area in return for the promise to end the goblin’s reign of terror. Wilhelm could only watch as Ulrich’s werewolves wrested control of the entire town and the surrounding area from him over the course of a few months.
Since then, Wilhelm has personally lost two wives and his son to the werewolves. His first wife was killed when Wilhelm refused to accept the werewolves’ version of Kindernacht. His son, Helmut, was chosen and survived the new Kindernacht to become a loyal werewolf follower of Ulrich Schwarzenegger. Helmut devoured Wilhelm’s second wife years later as he was forced to watch. Wilhelm has become a shell of man who daily handles his father’s old crossbow, wondering if he will ever have the courage to use two silver-headed quarrels to end his families’ stain upon the world.
Fate:
Nature: Caretaker. Wilhelm truly wants what’s best for the people of Wolfsheim, even if that means remaining submissive to the werewolves.
Powers: None, Wilhelm is a sad mortal in his declining years.
