Friedrich is a boy of roughly 13-15 years old (exact age is known to him) who is friends with Natt. He is part of the newest 2019 arc and has not been in any written parts of the NES yet.
Creator: Jill
Name[]
Friedrich Kraus; Age: 13-15 (exact number undecided) Friedrich is a German name meaning "peaceful ruler" (fred: peace; ric: power) This name was given to him because his family had a higher social status, and were likely nobles. Friedrich believes (had been told) that their family was distantly related to ancient kings, which was the reason he had been given this name (as told by his mother) As for his surname Kraus, this doesn't really come up often. Before the [early 11th century], surnames were not popular (in England/the British Isles. I couldn't find substantial data for East Europe.) Back then, given names only consisted of what we now consider first names; if two people had the same name, anything ranging from occupation to home town to physical/behavioral traits could be used to describe different people with the same given name. (A good example is Pepin the Short, who was, surprise! short.) In the early days of surname usage, surnames were also often dropped or coined at will, and it wasn't until later that surnames stuck and started becoming family names (i.e. being passed down from generation to generation) and most of Britain had surnames in 1400. However, since Friedrich lived in the 1200s and was therefore in the middle of this transitional phrase, (1000-1400) I like to believe he had one but it was not often used. Kraus means "curly", a reference to his hair (which is, in fact, curly. As is most of his family's)
Gender and Sexuality[]
Cis Male, Sexuality unknown Friedrich is rumored to have a bit of romantic tension with Natt, but there is no known source.
Appearance[]
His family looks a lot alike and they have the surname Kraus- most of his family's hair color is a caramel color (that could also be described as a dark blonde or a light brown/auburn/whatever) which curls naturally, and he usually keeps it at an average length. His eye color is blue.
Friedrich isn't very lean-and-fit, as he does get enough to eat in his family, so he is wider-built, but not so much that one would describe him as 'chubby', since he does exercise regularly. However, since his misadventure with the Crusade, he now is unable to completely shed the hallow, slightly hungry look.
History[]
Friedrich was born in 1203 to a wealthy family in what is now southern Germany. He is fluent in German (close to modern German at this point, it's different but as a whole largely recognizable) and knows a little bit of French (also older French) and spent his childhood in one place for the most part. His family looks a lot alike and they have the surname Kraus- most of his family's hair color is a caramel color (that could also be described as a dark blonde or a light brown/auburn/whatever) which curls naturally, and he usually keeps it at an average length. His eye color is blue.
Friedrich isn't very lean-and-fit, as he does get enough to eat in his family, so he is wider-built, but not so much that one would describe him as 'chubby', since he does exercise regularly. As a child, he started to be trained in courtly etiquette and "noble" things like horseback riding, etc. He had a fairly normal childhood, but he was not the oldest son of his family (he has two older brothers, unnamed) so he always feels kind of overshadowed. He doesn't really get to inherit much land or property from his parents, so he'll have to make a path for himself- most likely as a knight. His parents know this too, and sends him to learn swordfighting, and while Friedrich was not a particularly bright or talented pupil, he remains slightly above average and is keen to learn. He has a fundamental grasp on the finer points of sword fighting when he joins the Children's Crusade.
As a noble, his personality is really only expected to be a bit proud, haughty, snooty, and pampered. However, compared to others he interacted with, he is significantly less so because he knows his social status at the time was not very high (as mentioned, he doesn't really get to inherit anything from his parents) and he understands that he will actually have to put in a bit of work to get what he wants. He is hardworking and studious, and he doesn't despise those better than him, but looks down on those do not do as well as he does. In his opinion or knowledge of the world (at 9 years old), "talent" isn't really an excuse for anything- hard work determines all. (Of course this is only partially true- an in-born talent helps loads with lots of stuff, but yes hard work can make up for a lot of it. At 9 years old, though, he does not agree with this.)
[Now for a bit of historical background here before we launch into the more tragic parts of Friedrich's backstory: the Children's Crusade was the 4th Crusade that happened in 1212 to 'retake the holy land (Jerusalem)' which was currently taken by Muslims, which ended up being a scam and consisted largely of children. Most children didn't survive the journey from central Europe through the Alps, and a good number of those who did were later sold as slaves.) The movement themselves were started and led by children, and as mentioned, participated by children. Recounts of the Children's Crusade vary in details as it is thought to have been purged from records by the Catholic church, but this quote on Wikipedia sums it up pretty well]
Quote:
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A boy begins to preach in either France or Germany, claims that he had been visited by Jesus, who instructed him to lead a Crusade in order to peacefully convert Muslims to Catholicism. Through a series of portents and miracles he gains a following of up to 30,000 children. He leads his followers south towards the Mediterranean Sea, in the belief that the sea would part on their arrival, which would allow him and his followers to walk to Jerusalem. This does not happen. The children are sold to two merchants (Hugh the Iron and William of Posqueres), who give free passage on boats to as many of the children as are willing. The pilgrims are then either taken to Tunisia, where they are sold into slavery by the merchants or else die in a shipwreck on San Pietro Island off Sardinia during a gale. |
Friedrich, beliving that he has no place in his family when he grows up decides to follow the preachings of the boy [mentioned in the quote] and follows him through the Alps and to the Mediterranean sea, where he boarded a boat under the belief that he would be taken to Jerusalem, but he was instead sold to slavery in Tunisia, later sold again to Egypt. His journey through the Alps was filled with (relatively) less pain, hunger, and exhaustion, as he had funds from his parents (who may or may not have been happy to see him go) to use during the Crusade. He brought with him his sword and his horse, both of which were lost to him. (His horse to an avalanche- it could not fit in the crevice Friedrich hid in and ran off, assumingly killed by the avalanche but could also be wandering the Alps; his sword as well as the rest of his money to a bunch of bandits they encountered towards the end of their journey. He did have a bit of extra money hidden in his shoe, but it was only enough for one or two more cold meals for him and a handful of friends.) Still, it was difficult, and a lot of children died from either hunger or cold.
Egypt is where he met Natt. He was sold to Natt's family as a ↵personal slave for Natt's 10th birthday, and for the better part of ↵his first few months there, he was too exhausted and scared from the ↵Crusade to put up much of a fight, and spent a lot of time healing both ↵mentally and physically. However, as time passed, he remembered his ↵original pride and could not stand to serve Natt, and the thought ↵that he was 'worse' or 'lowlier' than Natth to bear after a while. He tried in secret to contact his family, but in an Arabic speaking country, he couldn't really do anything. He tried to write a letter to his family, and stole some money to pay a German merchant to take it to his family, but whether or not the letter reached its intended destination could not be known, as his family never came for him. (As to whether they didn't recieve the letter or didn't come for him is really up to interpretation...)
In the rest of the first year and half of the second while he was serving in Natt's house, the two boys didn't get along well, as they were both pride, impatient, headstrong boys on the surface. Of course, Natt did feel sympathetic for Friedrich sometimes, and Friedrich did have a deep aching sadness, emptiness, and world-weariness digging at him inside, slowly chewing him alive. (He probably got depression at this point.) However, due to the nature of boys not willing to talk things out and Friedrich being a slave to Natt, it took very, very long for them to reconcile their differences, and eventually become even friendly towards each other.
This was due to Natt being lonely and isolated from his family and kids around his own age- he started muttering to Friedrich in Arabic, first spitefully, then telling Friedrich about his worries, not expecting Friedrich to understand. However, Friedrich, who had grown used to 'pointing and yelling' as a signal that he messed up, wanted to do things quicker and with more efficiency, therefore getting yelled at less and perhaps getting more sleep and more time to himself more. So, he'd started trying to piece together a basic knowledge of Arabic, which was really hard, but after being immersed in the language for a year and a half, plus his own hard work, he was able to speak crudely in Arabic.
So, he understood Natt more and more, and eventually grew bold enough to reach out and comfort Natt in fragmented Arabic. This caused Natt to be surprised, and a bond grew between the boys after this. With Natt's help, his progress in Arabic sped up, and Friedrich even began teaching Natt some German as well. This caused Natt's parents to be unhappy- their son was already somewhat of a social outcast (he was not liked by other children because he was wealthy in an area that was generally well-off; he couldn't defend himself well so he often got mugged by poor kids bigger and older than he was. And now he was being friends with a lowly slave?) His parents tried to stop Natt from communicating to Friedrich, even going as far as to threaten to cut off Friedrich's tongue, which caused the fear of the two children. After finding each other as unlikely friends, and unwilling to lose each other, they ran away at the age of 12 and 13 respectively.
Afterwards, their timeline starts to become mixed and jumbled. They stumbled upon an entrance to the dimension of the Mansion, and found themselves unable to return. Every time they went through the door they'd originally come through, they would end up in Egypt (but in a different time period), or somewhere else on the Earth, or even in spaces that were completely multi-dimensional and obviously not part of our normal world. They tried for years to return to their original home, or perhaps even somewhere better, but they were two ethnically different pre-teens who didn't have a dime of money, sometimes in a completely different era than where they were from, with technologies that were either primitive or completely unknown to them. Every time they tried to leave the Mansion and settle down, though, the Mansion would come 'claim' them every once in a while. They would walk through a door and find themselves in an all too familiar setting'; they would be followed by some mysterious people and get knocked out, only to wake up in the Mansion again. They'd even tried to form a suicide pact once, but the space underneath them simply twisted and churned, and they were once again back in the Mansion. (They don't know if they had even left the Mansion while they formed the pact- either they had but the Mansion 'caught' them as they were falling, or they had been in the Mansion the whole time. Sometimes they'd also be greeted with 'false' realities, seemingly they'd escaped into the real world again, but it would be an illusion, sometimes a conjured up farce, or a parallel timeline...)
They tried to avoid going back to the Mansion too. Sometimes it was three days, sometimes it was two months, but they always ended up returning. Time was obviously not linear in the Mansion, and the two boys didn't really know how old they were at this point. They'd met some people in the Mansion as well, but none of the people they'd met so far spoke Arabic or German. (or French.)
The longest they'd escaped (and they counted every day, fearful that they would be claimed every hour of every day) was a year, three months, and seventeen days (so they're at least 13/14 by that time) and was spent in a modern day orphanage in New York. In modern times, people cared less about ethnicity, and they didn't recieve the hostile responses they had recieved elsewhere. They were taken to the police, who realized they were still young and didn't speak a lick of English, and eventually figured out that the light-haired boy was speaking German. They got an officer with German roots to talk to Friedrich, but sadly he didn't believe their story, and they ended up getting sent to an orphanage/home. They spent their year in the orphanage learning modern English, and finally was able to communicate well with their peers, and hoped maybe they had really escaped the Mansion for real this time. Unfortunately, they were soon claimed back to the Mansion. (Neither could say what method the Mansion used to bring them back this time- neither could recall.) This time, though, if they meet someone, perhaps English will work...
Relationships[]
Was originally a slave to Natt and his family, later the two became friends and traversed the Mansion together.
Recent Activity[]
Friedrich is part of the new arc and has not been written for yet.