Roderich 'Austria' Edelstein

Roderich 'Austria' Edelstein



{Heil dem Kaiser, Heil dem Lande, / Österreich wird ewig stehn!}
(( Hail the Emperor, Hail the land, / Austria will stand forever! ))

I Feel Like We're Summoning The Devil

[/color]:[/b] Roderich Edelstein
Nickname/Alias: Roddy, the Aristocrat
Gender: Male
Character Type: Country
Country or Country of Origin: Austria
Canon or Original: Canon
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When I look into all of your stupid faces

I think how fun it will be to pound them into dust

[/color]:[/b] Amethyst
Hair: Dark brown
Height and Weight: 5'11" [181cm] / 165lbs [75kg]
Other Distinguishing Features: His hair has a wild strand that always sticks out proudly; Mariazell, named after an important pilgrimage site in Austria. He has a beauty mark on the corner of his mouth. He also wears glasses. They represent the musical history and talents of the nation; he's rather unimpressive without them.

Overall Appearance: Roderich, to put it simply, has a very aristocratic alure; very proper but very outdated. His clothes look very old -fashioned (e.g. a tendency to wear long trenchcoats, shirts with frills and, notoriously, cravats or jabots). His brown hair is always nicely combed with the exception of the already-mentioned strand that is simply untameable (or so he claims). He typically wears glasses despite having a normal eyesight (reasons were mentioned above). His amethyst eyes look quite natural and uncommon (he's probably the only one with such eyes, for all he knows), but it is indeed his eyes' natural colour. Finally, he never looked very physically strong, but he was born for combat and has numerous wars under his belt. He is a quite a bit stronger than he looks like.
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Man up or I'll beat you with my peace prize!

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- Hungary (He doesn't really show his affections in public, but he's actually really affectious towards her behind closed doors)

- Music (Do I even need to explain?)

- Sweets (He loves cakes and many different pastries.)

- Dressing elaborately (The Habsburgs were very showy. Being a noble, he is not an exception. Just look up Austrian military uniforms up until the Great War)

- Edelweiss (his favourite and national flower)

- Tea and Coffee (he surprisingly has no preference over the two)

- Radetzkymarsch by Johann Strauss is his favourite song. Haydn's Kaiserhymne comes to a close second.

- Alcohol (He is German, whether he likes it or not. He actually drinks more than Ludwig if you look at the statistics. It's what happens when you hang around the Hungarian too much. He just prefers wine and spirits over beer)

Dislikes:
- War and fighting and general (he will, however, gladly take up the sword in order to protect his loved ones)

- Prussia (He always found his attitude and arrogance irritating. He was always mocked by him, always teased by him, always fought him. Who's laughing now, huh?)

- Getting lost (happens a lot, he's extremely shameful about it)

- Untidyness and unpunctuality (he likes things clean and organised. Tardiness is unacceptable)

- Being ordered around (he was an Empire for centuries, damnit. He has a terrible time taking orders from anyone that isn't a Habsburg)

- Paperwork (Typical Austrian attitude; prefering hobbies over work)

- Serbia (he blames him for starting the Great War that led to the end of his Empire)

- Teaties of St-Germain-en-Laye and Trianon (ended the Great War, disolved his union)

Strengths:
- Perfectionist in some tasks (could be a weakness as well)

- Music-playing (after centuries, he can play almost any instrument well, and quite a few perfectly)

- Organisation and Punctuality

- Frugality

- Strong-will and wit (compensates for his physical weakness)

Weaknesses:
- Protectiveness

- Shyness and aloofness (though he hides it extremely well)

- Stoic attitude towards most people (makes him seem cold towards others)

- Physical weakness compared to the others (he was in quite a good shape in his youth, but being dismantled and forced into neutrality does things to you...)

- Extremely self-critical and self-depricating (blames himself often for his past mistakes)

- Mistrusting (he was surrounded by enemies for centuries. Didn't help that many neighbours eyed his wife...)

Fears:
- Losing Hungary forever (his worst fear; led to terrible depression during the Cold War despite being physically well)

- Being forced into a wheelchair again (see bellow)

- Nazism and Communism (both regimes were horrible to him and his ex-wife)

- Being shoved into a concentration camp again (see bellow)

Secrets:
- He fell in love with Hungary way before they wed. He simply was unaware of it for some time and outright denied it afterwards.

- He doesn't need to wear glasses, he just likes the style and thinks that he looks boring without them.

- Despite not baking or cooking very often, he actually loves it. He often spends time helping his wife out with the food when they are together.

- Habsburgs today: Otto von Habsburg, the son of the last Emperor and crown prince, was a great friend of Roderich. He deeply mourned his death. He is a strong supporter of the cause for the last Emperor's, Blessed Karl I's, canonisation (becoming a saint in the Catholic church). He is a monarchist and a staunch supporter of the return of the Habsburgs and the revival of the Dual Monarchy as a constitutional monarchy. He also holds Franz Josef I in very high regards. Finally, he is a supporter of the 'Black-Yellow Alliance' party in Austria.

- After his humiliation and dismantlement after the Great War, he was forced to use a wheelchair for a few years. His body was simply unable to cope with such large territorial and population losses in such a short period of time.

- During the Second World War, he was put under house arrest by the Gestapo right as Germany invaded and annexed him. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern Front in 1943-44. When he attempted to desert, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Buchenwald. He escaped after a few months, but what he saw scarred him.

Any Quirks/Habits:
- When he is idle, he absent-mindedly taps his fingers against whatever is closer; his lap, a table, Hungary's hip... as if he was playing the piano.

- He tends to pour all of his feelings into his music. Therefore, the music he plays often matches how he is feeling.

- Playing with Hungary's hair. He loves the feeling of his hand through her hair and finds her hair incredibly beautiful (he finds her incredibly beautiful herself but that's not the point).

Overall Personality: Not only does he look like an aristocrat, his personality seems to match his looks well. He is a very reserved person and appears very distant towards others. In fact, he never really opened up to many people. Anyone would think that he is an uncaring and cold individual, but that's not true. Those who truly know him know how much he cares for those he loves. He tends to actually be very protective towards the ones close to him. He fears losing them and, despite being a calm and peaceful nation, is more than ready to shed blood in order to protect his loved ones. If he seems cold towards someone, it is because he believes that the best way to teach is through discipline (again, he IS German). Around others, he is very quiet, soft-spoken yet authoritarian, and has an enormous amount of self-control that is unmatched by any other nation. Of course, there are a few things that can completely shatter is strong self-control (Mostly, if not always caused by Hungary). In public, he acts in a dignified manner as much as he can. Insulting his dignity usually doesn't end well, since he takes it rather personally.

Although he doesn't show it, he's actually a rather bitter person. Both towards himself and others. He is still bitter towards the old Entente countries for dismantling and humiliating him and his wife, and especially dislikes America for demanding their divorce. He still hates the hippocrisy of the peace treaties and their demands. Surprisingly, he actually mistrusts and still dislikes Italy these days, calling him a traitorous, back-stabbing, greedy brat among many other insults. He still holds a grudge for keeping South-Tyrol and Trent, both historically part of Austria for centuries and having Austrian-German majorities. He hates Serbia as well for starting the Great War and snatching Croatia, Slovenia, and Bosnia away from him, only to double-cross them.

However, despite all the bitterness, he has learnt to forgive those who are close to him. He holds not grudges towards the nations who left him after the Great War (Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and even Hungary), but in fact respects their decisions and views it as if they were 'moving out of the familly home'. Surprisingly, he personally considers his old Empire more of a familly than the Germans, whom basically disowned him in 1866. If anything, he only blames himself for them leaving. He believes that he failed to protect them, and therefore deserved to lose them. He is incredibly regretful for many past events, but he knows it is too late and that he can't change them. Although he believes that he needs this nostalgia in order to keep similar events from happening again.

On a happier note, his musical talents are probably the most well-known part of him. His international reputation today relies on the numerous classical composers from Austria, many of them considered the best in the world. Even non-Austrian composers ended up in Vienna, the greatest of them having patronage in the Imperial family. The Habsburgs were patron of the arts and so is Roderich. He holds other nations with rich musical cultures (e.g. Poland (Chopin), Hungary (Liszt)) in high regard. Of course, he himself is a great musician and composer. After centuries of playing many different instruments and composing many songs, he can nearly play any instruments he can lay his hands on very good, many of the perfectly or almost. However, his favourites remain the piano and the violin. Because he is quite reserved and somewhat shy, music tends to be his medium for expressing his emotions. Therefore, his music-playing tend to match his feelings, so those who listen to him often enough would slowly start to be able to read his feelings as he plays.

On a more alcohol-related note, Austria is still German. He no exception despite his looks and attitude. The significant difference is that he actually dislikes beer (except Czech beer, which he finds decent), but he likes quite a variety. He prefers wine, which he has plenty of, and spirits. Because he stays with her so often, he likes to drink Pálinka and Hungarian wine. When he drinks, he tends to be slightly more open towards others. When he drinks with Hungary, he tends to be a lot more affectious if they are in public. However, if he drinks in a bad mood, his bitterness and regret often slips out and he becomes quite emotional. Thankfully, it doesn't happen very often thanks to his self-control and if it does, the others are usually just as drunk as he is and nobody remembers.

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I'm the hero!

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976 – The “Eastern March” is founded by the Bavarians to stop Magyar expansion into Holy Roman lands. The land was a fief of the Babenberg family.

1246 – The Babenberg family becomes instinct and Bohemia invaded the Archduchy and the local lords proclaimed Ottokar II, King of Bohemia as their archduke.

1278 – Rudolph I of Habsburg, the Holy Roman Emperor, made an alliance with Hungary in order to fight the rebelious Bohemians. The combined Habsburg-Hungarian forces crushed the Bohemians and, thanks to the Hungarians, Rudolph was able to secure Austria. This began the Habsburg rule over Austria that would last until 1918.

1315 – The Battle of Morgarten ends in a decisive Swiss victory, expulsing the Habsburgs out of Switzerland (although the Habsburg Castle would remain in Habsburg hands for another century).

1438 – Albert II of Habsburg becomes King of the Romans (Holy Roman Emperor), King of Bohemia and King of Hungary, starting an almost uninterrupted Habsburg dominance over the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806.

1477 – Mary of Burgundy marries Maximilian I of Habsburg, HRE. The Burgundian lands became Habsburg possessions.

1504 – Joanna, daughter of Queen Isabella of Spain, is crowned Queen. Philip I of Habsburg becomes King-Consort of Castile.

1516 – Habsburg control over Spain is effectively secured as Charles I of Habsburg is crowned King of Castile and Aragon. He had also inherited Spain’s overseas possessions and the Habsburg possessions in the Holy Roman Empire and everywhere else beforehand.

1526 – At the aftermath of the Battle of Mohács, King Lajos II of Hungary died in the bloodbath. Queen Mary of Habsburg, the wife of Lajos, fled to his brother, Archduke Ferdinand I of Habsburg. Bohemia and, by law, Hungary became part of Charles V’s massive empire. Sadly, the Habsburg could only secure western and Northern Hungary from the Ottomans. The Ottoman-Habsburg wars began, succeeding the Ottoman-Hungarian wars.

1618 – The Holy Roman Empire is in shambles. Protestantism spread throughout the north of the Empire, in Bohemia and in Hungary. The Thirty Years War began as the Habsburg tried to reconquer and reconvert now-protestant lands. It quickly turned into a Franco-Habsburg conflict.

1648 – The Treaty of Westphalia is signed. The Holy Roman Empire is decentralized to near-nothingness. The Habsburgs are able to regain control of their Bohemian and Hungarian lands, able to reconvert most of them to Catholicism with the help of the Counter-Reformation.

1683 – The Great Turkish War begins as the Ottomans besiege Vienna. This lead to the well-known Battle of Vienna, where the city was saved as the Polish-Lithuanian Hussars effectively saved the city from the Turks.

1699 – The Great Turkish War ends with the Treaty of Karlowitz. The Habsburgs free all Hungarian lands from Turkish control after well over 150 years of Ottoman domination.

1701-1714 – War of Spanish Succession: Habsburg rule in Spain ends but they are able to keep the French Bourbons from ruling Spain, effectively stopping a united Franco-Spanish Monarchy at the loss of Spanish lands. The Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) become the Austrian Netherlands.

1740-1748 – War of Austrian Succession: The Prussians gain Silesia and Austria loses their Central Italian lands to Spain. Empress Maria Theresa married Francis of Lorraine. Due to the Habsburg dynasty becoming instinct, the House of Lorraine took over at Maria Theresa’s death in 1780 as the House of “Habsburg-Lorraine”.

1754-1763 – Seven Years War: With the help of France and Russia, Austria attempts to retake Silesia. Unfortunately, the table turns when Russia backstabs the alliance and defects to the Prussian side, destroying Austrian attempts to retake lost lands.

1772 – To avert another Austro-Prussian War over Silesia, Frederick II of Prussia instead suggest partitioning lands from the weakening Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between Austria, Prussia and Russia. Austria gains Galicia. Austria does not participate in the second partition.

1778-1779 – The War of Bavarian Succession begins between Austria and Prussia. The Prussians attempt to invade Bohemia but are defeated. Austria gains some Bavarian lands in the process.

1792-1815 – The Napoleonic Wars. The Franco-Austrian alliance is broken over discord. War breaks out as Maria Antonia, an Austrian, is decapitated by the revolutionaries. The borders shift repeatedly as well as the alliances. Austria loses the Austrian Netherlands.

1795 – Third and last Partition of Poland. Poland ceases to exist as a state.

1806 – Napoleon dissolves the Holy Roman Empire. Francis II of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, becomes Francis I of the Empire of Austria (Kaiserturm Österreich).

1815 – Under the leadership of Klemens von Metternich, the Congress of Vienna ends, redrawing the map of Europe. Austria now leads the “German Confederation”, successor of the HRE and gains control of Lombardy and Venetia while Habsburg princes are restored in Tuscany and Modena.

1848 – Nationalist Revolutionaries spread all over the Empire during the Liberal Revolution. Croatian troops attack Hungarian troops, starting a nasty war between Austria and Hungary which would only end with Russian Intervention on the Austrian side. Metternich is ousted as well.

1866 – The Austro-Prussian War: Without the Diplomatic Leadership of Metternich and without good military leaders such as Radetzky, who crushed the Italians a few years back, the Austrians are completely humiliated by the Prussians and Italians. Austria is formally excluded from German Politics and lost Lombardy-Venetia to Italy.

1867 – The Austro-Hungarian Compromise (Ausgleich/Kiegyezés) reforms the Austrian Empire into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Dual Monarchy would survive until 1918.

1908 – Bosnia and Herzegovina is annexed by Austria-Hungary. It mostly became an experiment for a more centralized multicultural state, governed by the Imperial and Royal Finances Ministry.

1914 - Franz Ferdinand is assassinated by Greater-Serbian ultranationalists likely funded by Serbian officers. Austria and Hungary send an ultimatum to Serbia with unreasonable demands. The Great War begins as Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, starting the system of Alliances in Europe. A few days later, all the Great Powers of the continent are at war.

1918 – The War ends. Austria-Hungary is defeated, humiliated and completely devastated. The Habsburg are ousted and forced into exile, nobles stripped of everything.

1919 – The Treaty of St-Germain-en-Laye is signed, effectively the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the loss of all non-German lands (and even some German lands) while acquiring Burgenland and forbidding a union with Germany.

1934 – The Austrian Civil War: The Austrofascists take over the country in order to “save it from Germany” while the Social-Democrats fight back in order to preserve Austrian democracy. The Social-Democrats are crushed and their party outlawed.

1938 – The Anchluß: Nazi Germany effectively invades Austria. The Nazis held a plebiscite but the annexation was already considered a fait-accompli and few actually voiced against the Nazis. Austria ceased to exist.

1945 – The Allies liberate and occupy Austria the same way they do with Germany.

1955 – Austria is saved from the same fate as Germany as is not divided between the victorious allies. Austria declared its independence and its “Eternal Neutrality”, forbidding it from forming any alliances or participating in any foreign wars unless it was to defend the nation.

1956 – The Austrians proudly supported the Hungarian revolutionaries, disregarding their proclamation of Neutrality. When the revolution failed, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled to Austria. The country welcomed them with open arms even if it nearly destroyed the country. It would take a few years before the Refugee crisis would end and Austria gained distrust from both the USSR and the Western Allies.

1989 – The Pan European Picnic: Hungarian democrats, anti-communists and Austrians organized this picnic, calling for the end of Communist rule in Hungary and in other Eastern-bloc states. Soon afterwards, the communist regime falls and the rest of the Eastern Bloc follows suit.

1995 – Austria enters the European Union, technically breaking the “Eternal Neutrality” once again.

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You've got it backwards! Backwards!

Hurry up and throw it! If you don't hurry up and throw it, you'll go "boom"!

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The Austrian quietly made his way into the stable. When he entered in the large enclosure, he made one last quick inspection of his hussar uniform. He proudly wore the Imperial colours: The coat was black with the front nearly filled with rows and rows of gold braids and buttons in a very Hungarian style. The ends of his sleeves were gold like the braids while the trims on his collar and on his waist were gold as well. His trousers were black like the coat, with gold trims as well. However, he had decorated his collar with two bright silver badges, one on each side, in the shape of Edelweiße*. It was obviously against the uniform regulations, but it did not matter. Of course, he also wore the typical headgear of a hussar; a large black fur hat, which was decorated by a gold badge in the shape of the two-headed Imperial eagle. Finally, he was wearing a red-white-red sash that held the sheathe of his sabre and the blade itself. Roderich had to admit that he felt very proud of the uniform. After all, how can he not feel pride with wearing the colours of his Empire?

Of course, his uniform did not have a single stain. Not that it would have been very visible considering the choice of colour, but it was a good idea to lead a perfect example. With that, he walked up to his horse; a white horse. It was fine breed from the Hungarian plains and a great gift. Austria gave the horse a few pets and murmured a few niceties to it in German before climbing onto it with surprising elegance. After a moment of making sure that his oversized hat was still in place, he rode out of the stables to meet up with the one waiting for him.

“Forgive me to have made you wait.” he said as he approached the other hussar that was indeed waiting for him. This hussar wore the same style of uniforms as he was, but the colours were different: The rider had a dark-green coat and red trousers. The braids, buttons, and trims were white. There was a lack of collar badges, but the hat was exactly the same. The trousers had white laces on each side, marking this hussar as a Hungarian. The sash was also the same; red-white-red, either as an act of allegiance or just to match with him, perhaps.

“Don’t worry, I just got here myself.” was the reply. The voice was unmistakeably a female one, but it did not seem to bother Roderich at all. After all, it was quite obvious; the womanly curves were more than visible, especially with the uniform, even if her chest was cleverly hidden with tape. When Austria was next to the woman, she grinned as she quickly inspected his uniform. “I have to say, Roderich, you ride as elegantly as you dress,” she teased, “but I have to admit, you really improved your riding. At this rate you’ll be as much of a hussar as a Magyar!”

Roderich simply nodded at the compliment. “Thank you, Miss Héderváry,” he told her in return, “What do we have for training today?” he asked.

The Hungarian pouted. “Seriously, Roderich… For the last time, you can call me by my first name…” she paused and frowned at him, “We’ve been friends for centuries already, we really don’t need those formalities when nobody is around…”

Austria suddenly felt guilty, though it was only visible with the very small frown he made. “Ah, sorry, Elizaveta. Of course we’re friends, it is just a habit… It is how it is in the German language…” He had to admit, it was pretty incessant. Then again, he couldn’t help how much his people loved formalities and to be addressed by their titles…

Hungary huffed this time, but grinned afterwards. “Well, I did hell of a better job than any German to train you!” she teased, referring to Vash when he used to train him in his early days.

“That is true,” he replied, “Perhaps all I needed the best horseman to teach me,” he paused, “or a beautiful horsewoman, in this case.”

The Hungarian blushed, but she kept grinning. “Oh shush, Roderich,” she said, probably not seeing the sincerity of his words, “but hey, we Magyars are the best riders! Why do you think everyone is starting to copy us? Or that the emperor recruits most of his cavalry in my lands?” She looked down at his uniform for a moment. “Or that you’re wearing this very lovely, Hungarian-styled uniform, hmm?” she teased. “In which you look quite nice in, by the way!”

Roderich huffed, taken aback by the sudden counter-compliment as his cheeks reddened slightly. “Point taken…” he mumbled, making her grin wider. After a moment of slight awkwardness for Roderich, Elizaveta suddenly drew out her sabre, the same grin still visible on her face. “Come on, we wasted enough time. We haven’t practiced our sparring in a while!” she said, full of energy and enthusiasm before galloping away. Austria took the time of watching her for a moment as she rode away. There was this strange aura when he was near her. He could not explain why he felt so different when she was there.

He sighed, but allowed himself to grin as he drew out his sabre and galloped away in pursuit of the Hungarian. He was going to think about that later. For now, it was time for training…



(( Note that when I'm describing the uniforms, 'gold' means heraldric gold... which is just basically yellow. I just like the sound of gold better...
*Edelweiße/Edelweisse is the plural form of Edelweiß/Edelweiss in German. ))


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I Summon thee from far away lands, come forth!

You called?

[/color]:[/b] Alex
Timezone: EST

(( Please note, I am also the Austria at Darker Reflections. You will find some similarities in the apps and the history part is the same. ))
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