Aub Dunkelfelger

Aub Dunkelfelger is the archduke of Dunkelfelger and the father of Lestilaut and Hannelore.

Aub Dunkelfelger is a muscular man of tall statue.

Aub Dunkelfelger has a tendency to let his passions override his manners and rush into decisions if one of those passions is involved. For example, the first time he met Rozemyne of Ehrenfest, he immediately challenged her to a match of ditter before giving her a chance to initiate the exchange of proper noble greetings.

According to his daughter, he also loves to surprise people, which often leads to quite some stress for the surprised people, since he often disregards ranks and statuses in these outings, like when he personally delivered a book his daughter wanted to lend to Rozemyne, instead of leaving this task to a scholar or attendant.

Like many other nobles from his duchy, the archduke is very enthusiastic about ditter.

Through his daughter Hannelore, Rozemyne of Ehrenfest had petitioned Aub Dunkelfelger for the rights to produce and sell copies of a book on Dunkelfelger history she had borrowed from Hannelore and translated into modern language. To make sure that she had made no errors or misunderstandings, she gave a copy of her manuscript to Hannelore and her brother, which they passed on to their father.

Aub Dunkelfelger saw this as an opportunity to finally get Rozemyne to agree to a re-match for the match of Ditter the previous year in which she had personally beaten his son.

Aub Dunkelfelger and Rozemyne first met at the Interduchy Tournament in Rozemyne's second year at the Royal Academy. Right after making sure he was talking to the right person, he immediately challenges Rozemyne to a ditter match over the publishing rights of the manuscript she had written, before even giving her the change to initiate proper noble greetings. This causes Hannelore to go into a near-panic and ask whether her mother knows about this and immediately sends an Ordonnanz to her.

Rozemyne naturally is neither willing nor able to make such a decision on her own and suggests to have Aub Ehrenfest join the discussion, which Hannelore emphatically agrees to. While Ferdinand volunteers to get him, Rozemyne and Aub Dunkelfelger can finally exchange the proper greetings, and Rozemyne offers a sampling of a new kind of pound cake she recently made with the Rohres she received from Hannelore, soaked in wine.

Despite Aub Ehrenfest and Rozemyne trying their best to talk Aub Dunkelfelger out of a ditter match, he insists. Due to Ehrenfest being much shorter on manpower in general compared to the greater duchy of Dunkelfelger and also currently being low on supplies on account of the hunt for the Lord of Winter, Aub Ehrenfest suggests a very small-scale competition between just one knight of each duchy, which Aub Dunkelfelger accepts and immediately asks for Ferdinand to be Ehrenfest's champion.

Ferdinand turns out to be very reluctant to participate, seeing no personal gain for himself in the endeavour, but is eventually convinced to join when his old student-days rival Heisshitze wagers several valuable materials for the chance to win back his old cape from Ferdinand, which he lost to him during their shared time at the Royal Academy. Apart from the personal bets of the two champions, the duchy of the winner will receive the rights to produce and sell books from Rozemyne's manuscript. For reasons beyond their understanding and very much to their dismay, Rozemyne and Hannelore are pulled into the match, with both knights declaring they wouldn't let anything happen to their respective ladies. Since Ferdinand is eager to get this matter over with as soon as possible, the match will be held immediately, so they can be back in time to watch the second part of the ditter tournament, in which the apprentice knights of both duchies are participating.