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This will be a thread for colorful figures from history, and specifically in the Baltic region (though not only) upon whom to base characters or NPCs or to mine for ideas for campaigns.
The first one is Martin von Golin, a mercenary and free lance killer (latrunculus) working for the Teutonic Knights in the 13th Century. Story is he saw the pagans kill his sister as a child and harbored a grudge against them ever since. Did a few dirty deeds in his time.
Here is another interesting one, also associated with the Teutonic Order, and a quite abhorrent individual. A Dominican Friar who took his hatred of the Poles to another level, and ended up getting himself thrown in prison.
Another interesting cat. This guy is a Büschenmeister -a master of artillery (and firearms).
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Merz
Mainly known for making a well illustrated kriegsbüch (or variously Büchsenmeisterbuch, Feuerwerkbuch etc.) in the later 15th Century, (Codex Germ 599 – 1473) which is a guide to cannons, firearms, fireworks, pyrotechnics, and fortifications.
Son of a master of artithmetic, he apprenticed as a gun and bell founder and was soon hired as a Büchenmeister. He fought in several sieges and in the Mainz feud, and worked for the Emperor Frederick III. He made improved handgun designs with covered priming pans and match-locks, and is credited with improving (or inventing) gun carriages for various types of cannon. The wiki doesn’t explain how he lost one of his eyes. In his epitaph, shown above, he is praised for his fame “in the art of mathematica Buchssenschissen”
Another interesting guy who wrote (or maybe just illustrated) a war manual with a heavy emphasis on firearms and gunpowder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jost_Amman
His manual has some very interesting illustrations in it
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb00036875?page=126,127
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