Wilhelm I

Wilhelm I, King of Fatherland, was the first-born son of that country’s founding monarch. It was hoped by many that this young man, who married the popular Sadie Winters, would mark a new, more hopeful chapter in their young nation’s history. But though he strove in his youth to be less a tyrant than his father, he could not outrun the evil in his genes. It would not be until the reign of his son, Wilhelm II, that Fatherland would truly know peace.

Born Wilhelm Wolff in the year 114, the first year of Eden’s Second Age, the future king was doted upon by his mother and mostly ignored by his self-centered father. Only in public did King Oskar show Prince Wilhelm any sort of affection, and he did so then only to keep up appearances. As with several of the False Kings, Oskar hoped to uncover the secrets of immortality and to never actually need his heir.

As he came of age, Wilhelm developed a thirst for adventure. For nearly ten years, he gallivanted across the seven kingdoms of Wonderland on one quest after another. For nearly ten years, the charming prince bedded one beautiful maiden after another. And for ten years, he tried to ignore the damage his father was inflicting upon their people—feeling powerless to stop it. Only when he met Sadie Winters did his life change for good and all.

He found her in a closely guarded foundry, sealed in a glass casket by her seven dwarven paramours, and, well, you know the rest. He kissed her, she woke up, and they lived happily ever after.

Sort of.

They did have their share of good times before Oskar’s abdication in 140 put Wilhelm on the throne, but after that it was a battle between the spouses to reign in Wilhelm’s glory-seeking, war-mongering, and expansionist tendencies—a battle Sadie would only win, in the end, by outliving him.