Valdred Hoch

"You're walking on the same streets where Sigmar walked when he was young. He grew into an Emperor. You happy growing into a thug?"

- Valdred Hoch

Valdred Hoch grew up on the docks and like many there he grew up hard. Eager to prove himself, he joined the Hooks as soon as he was able. As a boy he’d seen the story of Sigmar performed by the players of the Circle Theatre and had taken away a simple lesson: to be a hero, you have to be really good at hitting things. As a Hook, Valdred proved himself against the Fish and the Wharf Rats again and again, adding new tattoos to celebrate each victory.

This simple life of alcohol, thuggery, and ink changed when a recruiter came through the Docklands drumming up support for the war in the north. With visions of Sigmar, glory, and heroism swimming through his head, as well as a fair quantity of cheap gin, Valdred signed up to join the Street of a Thousand Taverns Free Company and Drinking Club.

This motley group of adventurers and bully-boys proud to serve their Empire marched northwards alongside Altdorf’s army, though they were kept at the back alongside the flagellants and other camp followers where they wouldn't disrupt the real soldiers. Camaraderie formed bonds among the men and Valdred found a shared sense of pride in marching alongside dockers he would have tried to beat to pulp in the previous weeks, joining them in minor petty skirmishes against bands of Mutants and Goblins as they marched.

Outside Untergard they saw their first real combat. Deployed as a human shield to protect the more valuable regiments, the brave men of the Street of a Thousand Taverns Free Company and Drinking Club absorbed a charge from a herd of viciously horned Beastmen and were crushed. Valdred was savagely gored in the leg and left for dead among his dying comrades.

A year after he left, Valdred returned to Altdorf a changed man with more than a slight limp and a new tattoo—a hammer intersecting the hook on his arm—to show for his experience. He returned to the docks, but not to the Hooks. He sees things differently now. Sigmar did more than just hit things with a hammer to become a hero. Sigmar was the great uniter, who brought together the squabbling tribes and formed an Empire out of them. He spends his days walking the Docklands with fire in his eyes, spreading the word of his better way to anyone who will listen. So far, only a few impressionable youths are with him, but their numbers are growing.

Personality
Valdred is a driven man, seeing a new and greater destiny for himself as the man who unites the bickering gangs into a force that can make the city and the Empire a better place, through force of arms if needs be. He still has a sense of humour and a taste for life the way the dockers live it, but when the passion takes hold of him he transforms into a driven ideologue.

Appearance
Valdred is a tough and scarred individual, with dark hair and fire in his eyes. As well as the hook and hammer tattoo on his right arm he has a skull of Altdorf on his chest, a rat on one leg, an anchor on the other, and a mermaid on his left arm who does something lewd when he flexes.

Source

 * : Warhammer Fantasy RPG 2nd ED -- Shades of Empire
 * : pg. 11
 * : pg. 12

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