Bertram

Bertram is the son of the former Sidonius, the former Giebe Wiltord and Laurenz's half-brother.

Bertram is the son of Sidonius and his second or third wife. When his mother died, Sidonius' first wife agreed to take Bertram on as her own son at his baptism.

The year before Bertram's Baptism, Aub Ehrenfest enacts a purge of the former Veronica faction. As someone name-sworn to Georgine of Ahrensbach, Sidonius was among those sentenced to execution, though it is unclear whether he is captured alive and executed, killed while resisting the arrest or committed suicide. His first wife and older son Freuden are also among the lives claimed by the purge.

Thanks to Lady Rozemyne's influence, the unbaptized children of the killed criminals are not executed by association as is tradition, but spared and moved to the Temple's Orphanage to be raised as gray priests, with a chance to earn back their status as a noble, should Aub Ehrenfest find them worthy. To this end Rozemyne makes sure the affected children receive training in excess of what regular grey priests and shrine maidens go through.

Initially Bertram is frustrated with the duties of a regular grey priest, since he fully intends to earn back his noble status and doesn't see how the knowledge of how to foraging for food or cleaning will be of any use to him once he achieves this, but upon a visit to the temple Rozemyne explains how this time in the temple are a great opportunity to form bonds with merchants, which will be in high demand in Ehrenfest in the near future. She also demonstrates how she can re-assemble a broken feystone - a feat thought of as impossible by other nobles - and explains that she only ever attempted this, because growing up in the Temple and learning the regular noble ways give her a broader horizon and thus enable her a wider range of visualizations than anyone experiencing only one or the other, which has some very practical applications for magic.

After Bertram passes a preliminary questioning by Hartmut to get a Magic Tool, he also manages to get through an interview by Aub Ehrenfest himself and thus lands the coveted position of becoming a ward of the archduke. In the coming winter, he will be baptised as a parentless noble, with Aub Ehrenfest as his guardian. Unfortunately he will have to give give his name to a member of the archducal family, when the time comes. Since he get's along so well with Lord Melchoir at the orphanace, he chooses him as his future master.