Gieselfried

Gieselfried is the archduke of Ahrensbach, husband of Georgine and father of Detlinde.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 5 Unlike in Ehrenfest, in Ahrensbach it is tradition that once a new Aub is chosen, all other archduke candidates lose their status and are reduced to regular archnobles. This was also the case for Gieselfried's own little brother, who was given a province and made into a Count when his brother took up the mantle of leadership, thus eliminating Gieselfried's nephews and nieces from succession of the title.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 5 Gieselfried's first wife was from Dunkelfelger.

His second wife was the little sister of Aub Werkestock.

During the civil war Gieselfried positioned his duchy on the side that would eventually win the conflict, putting him in direct confrontation with the former home of his second wife. Despite this, Ahrensbach was not spared the purges that the victorious royal family and Klassenberg insisted on and despite being married to an active ally, Gieselfried's second wife was still executed. She was not directly implicated in any disloyal acts, but due to being the little sister of Aub Werkestock - a supporter of the first and later the fourth prince - she was still condemned and executed. Gieselfried was able to successfully negotiate with the king to spare her children - two boys - under the condition that they would be demoted to archnobles and thus eliminted from the race for succession.

A short time after the purge his only other son Wolfram died too. With all his remaining unmarried children having mana capacities unbefitting of an Aub of a great duchy, Gieselfried approached the duchies into which his daughters married to try to adopt his own grandchildren to gain more archduke candidates, but due to the mana shortage affecting the entire country, only Drewanchel agreed to allow the adoption of Letizia, the grandchild of him and his first wife.

Around the time Rozemyne was adopted into Ehrenfest's archducal family, Gieselfried's first wife died and his former third wife Georgine was promoted to first wife.

He has several daughters of whom only the youngest, Detlinde remains unmarried.

Right now Gieselfried and Georgine are looking for a suitable husband for Detlinde. Since the successor has already been decided and they want to avoid strife within their duchy, they are looking for someone who lacks the ambition or standing to push Detlinde to try to take the title of successor away from Letizia. With his tarnished reputation and family ties to Ahrensbach, Wilfried appears to be a perfect candiate, but unfortunately he has recently been announced to be betrothed to Lady Rozemyne and the king already gave them his blessings, dashing their hopes of arranging a marrage between the cousins.