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Joachim Grobba

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Joachim Grobba
Physical information
Biographical information
Date of birth 23.VII.1607
Date of death 14.IX.1685

Joachim Grobba (born 23.VII.1607–14.IX.1685); a native of Maltenstein, then located in Overdolor, a lawyer by profession and noted as an amateur breeder of Benacian Sablehounds.

Biography

Early life

Grobba made the most of the limited educational opportunities available to a non-Lich denizen by attending a charitable night-school in Maltenstein. Thanks to the sponsorship of an indulgent aunt, who had received the boon of elevation to undeath and prospered in consequence, he was able to afford the fees for attending the John Metzler University in Shirekeep where he studied law, economics, and the languages of lesser races. In 1634 he received his doctorate of law.

As a relatively low status "Breather", Grobba had served in a variety of junior posts, first in the thankless task of defence counsel in the notorious courts of the Lich-Queens, and subsequently as legal officer for the "representative office" of Lichbrook in the Sangunese enclave of Karalakh, where he was able to witness first hand the creeping necrotisation of the undead polities as the Empire of Sangun folded into Minarboria, and that state too declined towards a moribund decreptitude. The symptoms of decline had reached into Lichbrook itself by 1644 when the manifest incapacity of the Lich-Queens had resulted in "Breathers" gaining a seat on the Crown Council, whose Councillors, an uneasy coalition of liches, humans, and 'synthetics', increasingly acted as regents.

Grobba became radicalised by the final and absolute collapse of Lichdom (the dominion of the undead over southern Benacia) in 1648 which exposed the bankruptcy of Lichbrook's posthumanist ideology. The crumbling away of the Liches to dust removed a significant proportion of the consumer class from the Shirerithian economy, caused civil society and economic activity in Lichbrook to grind to a halt, and resulted in the collapse of civilisation in central Benacia, disrupting the trading networks of the entire continent.

With the loss of his salary and in the absence of any higher authority capable of issuing instructions, Grobba prudently quit Kurpla, ahead of the arrival of the local variant on the theme of marauding Laqi kossars, and returned to Maltenstein. Like many during the time of acute economic hardship, Grobba, along with his parents, elder brother and two younger sisters, ecked out a living by reselling items, building materials, and scrap metal, including copper wiring, ripped from the abandoned mansions and townhouses of their disintegrated Lich overlords.

During the suppression of Lichbrook by Imperial Forces, Grobba proved to be an enthusiastic supporter of the invading forces, joining the partisans of the Imperialist faction in Overdolor who drove out the supporters of the Countess of Amarr in advance of the arrival of the Palatini Corps at the gates of Maltenstein in 1650.

Grobba was one of many to join the Nationalist & Humanist Party in the wake of the Auspicious Occasion of 1651, which in many respects marked the high water mark of the power of the military-industrial complex in the Imperial Government.

Imperial Service: Karalakh, Lywall & Siyacha

The entry of Imperial Forces into the chaotic Minarborian enclave of Karalakh was a brief but bloody affair. As a partisan who had rallied to the Imperial banners, and who had some experience of life in the territory, Grobba was inducted into the ranks of the Auxiliaries as an Optio (Lieutenant). The Optiones, prior to the Octavian reforms of the Imperial Forces were subaltern officers, so denominated from their being selected by the option of their superior officers, to do their duty as their substitutes or lieutenants in case of sickness or other accident. Rather than being assigned to a squadron, the lowest tactical formation for which an executive officer was required, Grobba was posted onto the staff of the XXX Legion Vasilescu to serve under the Tribune of the planning and operations section.

After several columns of Horjins were decimated trying to force their way along treacherous and winding mountain passes, succumbing to ambushes laid by Church Partisans and the remnants of the __ host, the Imperial Forces resorted to scorched earth tactics, notably the use of coordinated firestrikes and reprisal raids against communities in locations where ambushes were encountered. As an optio tribuni (assistant to the tribune), Grobba's primary duty consisted of prevailing upon local magistrates to certify lawful killings and death by natural causes where appropriate as the Laqi dead were driven in by the truckload. Dates on death certificates were left blank for Grobba to fill in, so that the records of the period would not record a sudden spike of mortality in the regions where the XXX Legion was operating. Grobba would later receive a commendation from the judicial bureau of the Imperial Forces administrative service for the meticulous record keeping which allowed the MoMA to keep the Imperial Inquisition appeased throughout the pacification operation.

ESB Service

Founded the ESB-Jagdverbände on 18.XIV.1662. Shareholder and member of the Court of Directors of Expeditionary Services Brigade, a private military company registered in Constancia, since 7.VI.1663. Shareholder and member of the Court of Directors of Euran Secure Biosafety Remediation Corporation. Granted nationality of the Imperial State of Constancia by Autokratorial Decree, on endorsement of senior echelons of the Honorable Company in 1664.

Imperial Constancian Service

Appointed Imperial Constancian Consul-General to Talenore IX.1670. Appointed to the Dependency Council of the Zylenisí Dependency, 5.VII.1677. Appointed Imperial Senator to the 5th Imperial Synkletos, 10.VIII.1680, 6th Imperial Synkletos, 5.XIV.1683, and 7th Imperial Synkletos, 17.VII.1685. Died in office, 14.IX.1685.

Dr Joachim Grobba Memorial College in the Zylenisí Dependency is named in his honor.