Freiherr Yelch departs for Scotland

* Reich FreiHerr Franz Yelch:
This young (26 year old) soldier of fortune is the fourth surviving child of an impoverished noble seeking to establish his fortune in the path of honor. A cheerful, optimistic prankster, he views himself as a kind of gallant knight errant. As an Hauptman in the Infantry Regiment Von Hottatrot, his energy and initiative sustained that corps’ conquest of the key redoubt in the Battle of Bad Tannes after the Margrave was wounded. As a reward, Franz has been promoted to a Major de Battalion in the Sage Guard. Since he has distant cousins (in-laws of an older brother) among the Stuart and Frazier clans, he volunteered to represent Frankszonia in the restoration of the true kings of Scotland.
Though he obviously is ambitious and talented as a military officer, his ultimate dream is to establish a horse breeding farm in America, far from the barbaric Prussian / Germanian hordes. While he avidly attends horse races, he doesn’t really gamble (having barely adequate funds anyway) but instead studies the breeding lines and characteristics of the outstanding beasts. In quiet interludes, he plays on the organ or attends local operatic productions; pining away for the lady singers whose company he never can afford.

(Inspired by my own ancestor Yelch, who did immigrate from around Frankfurt to get away from the Prussians right after the American revolution and who is thought to have brought the first organ down the Ohio into the Northwest Territory. His estate was established near modern Bloomington, Indiana and endured until the 1950's. One tradition is that as a child he was usually fed burnt toast lest he eat more bread than the family could afford ...)