Let's take a moment to talk about this guy, Karl Franz. Now I know there are a lot of Warhammer 40k fans here but today I'm going to tell you about the fantasy side of the spectrum. Karl Franz was a human born in to the early Empire. The king that had come before him had done an incredibly poor job at leading the nation and many of the humans were at war with themselves. However, once Karl Franz took the throne things got interesting. He wanted more than anything to prove to his people that he was going to be a worthy leader and felt the best way of doing this would be to lead a massive military campaign against the enemies of the Empire. This did indeed strengthen his position as the Emperor and at the same time proved both to his soldiers and nation that he was going to be a leader that could unite the Empire under a single purpose. In time he'd prove to be both a brilliant leader and incredible tactician owing to the training he received as a child and the constant supervision of Sigmar himself from on high. For the time being he was just a mortal man but in the hearts of all his subjects even before being recognized as the heir of Sigmar he was already a god to his nation.
His work was cut out for him. Between the Cult of Sigmar and Cult of Ulfric constantly arguing for his favor he proved to be an extremely talented statesman. He elevated like minded officials who could lead with neutrality and not favor either side. This only increased his popularity and further endeared him to his citizens. Had there ever been any doubt before he truly loved his people it had been swept away. His ability to raise a nation was only equaled by his ability to fight, and fight he did. The primary focal points of his military campaign were when the Orcs attacked. As an interesting side note there were three major battles against the Orcs with the earlier humans losing each one because the Chaos dwarfs had taught them how to make iron weapons while the empire was forced to use bronze ones. It was a completely different story once Karl Franz took the helm. During a massive battle against a particularly powerful Ork warboss Karl Franz was completely outmatched. The flanks of his army were exposed and crumbling while more orks poured in. In the middle of the fighting Karl had met with the warboss on equal ground and challenged him to single combat. The ork who stood over 12 feet tall accepted. The result was so intense that both armies stopped to watch. Karl, being only human up until that point found himself on the losing end and slowly gave more and more ground until faltering to a knee. Sensing their beloved emperors death his soldiers cried out. The warboss prepared to deliver the final blow but beneath his breath Karl had been praying to Sigmar, to deliver not himself but his people from the tyranny of the orks. His prayer was not ignored and a shining beam split the skies and befell his battered form. The ork warboss could only look on in horror as the ones battle weary human before him had now assumed the image of a towering barbarian god, a god so powerful they recognized the entity as Sigmar. With one massive blow to the warbosses head, he fell to the ground and died almost instantly. Karl Franz had transcended a simple mortal coil and was now fully recognized as the true heir of Sigmar himself.
Karl Franz lead numerous campaigns but as mentioned before he wasn't an idle leader. He preferred to wage war upon his beloved demigryph Deathclaw. Whenever Karl Franz entered the field of battle it usually was enough to almost instantly route the enemy forces. Such was his reputation in war that even his most hated enemies revered and respected him for his ability in combat. Of course he did have a little help from the dwarfs who had fashioned his armor and weapon for him. His weapon was made by the leader of dwarfs at the time and its name was Ghal Maraz. Due to the success of his ability to lead a nation and wage successful war on the enemy the remaining empire secessionists quickly submitted and joined beneath his banner. The neighboring kingdom of Bretonnia did not submit to the authority of the empire but did recognize their power and proposed an alliance which was accepted and ultimately that alliance saved the Bretonians on two different occasions. Karl Franz didn't only care for his people but all humans beneath his banner or not. Life held meaning to him and that alone made him a god long before Sigmar endowed him with all his divine power.
For all the problems which plague a nation, in fighting became most common. Greedy nobles constantly attempted to rob one another of lands and riches which caused Karl a lot of problems. For all his work to unite his people it was his people which became the greatest issue. Karl was not alone in handling this however. He had equally powerful friends and allies in the empire which helped him deal with these problems as soon as they would rise up. Throughout his entire life he remained a benevolent and beloved leader and constantly found new ways to improve the lives of his people and defend them in equal measure against the darkness that plagued the early world. Chaos was an ever present threat just as much as the orks had been but despite this he was destined for great things and lived his life in accordance to that single minded goal: Peace, prosperity and strength of arms.
(Future comp will be about Skarsnik the Goblin.)
