Wilhelm Wartensleben

Wilhelm Wartensleben is a Walstadt-born Natopian, Elwynnese and Norse military officer (Riksamiraler) and politician (Einhornselskapet). Former Supreme Commander of Keltia Command. Formerly attended the Council of Eliria as a State Minister for Normark (1690 AN–1692 AN). MP for Riddersborg (1703– ; first elected to the Nordisketing in 1664), Minister for Defence and Security (1703– ).

Commander of the UDF Maritime Forces during the Second Elwynnese Civil War, his promotion to the non-standard rank of Riksamiraler was concurrent with his appointment to the UDF Fleet Resurrection Command (naval rebuilding programme) in 1693 AN, following heavy naval losses during the early stages of the war. Based for the duration on the UGB administered island of Florencia, Wilhelm planned and executed Unternehmen Verschlinger (1693-1694), an operation which culminated in the reconquest of Station Kaamiozyr and the vigorous reprisal action carried out against the rebellious Tarr settlers. For this success Wartensleben was rewarded with confiscated estates in Mishalan, a selection of imported luxury cars, a collection of catamites and concubines taken from captured Amokolian refugees prepared and curated by the Guild of the Lotus, and an annual pension of 500,000 cräites held in his name and discretely administered by the Imperial and Emirati Bank of the Sathrati Islands. Although a formal member of the Commission for Defence at the Court of the Princess, his commitments in Florencia caused him to be absent from Islus on the day of the Scouring (20.XIV.1695 AN), sparing him the fate of many of the senior leadership cadre caught in the city. As one of the most senior surviving officers of the UDF, Wilhelm was invited to join the Council of State for the Reunification and Pacification of Northern Benacia, an entity established by Benacia Command to enforce martial law across all of Elluenuueq and the rebel held areas of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn as public order collapsed.

Demoralised by the effects of the post-war hunger in the ensuing "Perpetual Winter" of 1695 AN–1697 AN and the brutality of the Black Legions in extorting reparations from the defeated and starving populace of the north, Wilhelm allowed himself to be marginalised from the course of the First Congress of Chryse where he attended as a member of the UDF delegation. With the rapid absorption of the UDF into the Benacian Defence Force in the years between 1698 AN and 1702 AN, Wilhelm declined to transfer into the new service, instead liquidating his holdings in Mishalan and purchasing property in and around Riddersborg, Normark. His long history of association with Normark, and membership on the State Council, recommended him to the Einhornselskapet, for whom he would stand as a candidate in the 1703 Nordisketing election, winning election to office as MP for Riddersborg and subsequently accepting a place on the cabinet of (Ric name) as Minister for Defence and Security.