Siegfried Karrotte

Background

Firstborn son of Pascal Karrotte and former heir to House Karrotte, Siegfried left the house a long time ago for unknown reasons.

He is an anti-fundamentalist, believing that men should decide their own fate, not the gods. The Siege Knight is pretty popular nowadays, but for the wrong reasons. He abhors the idea of honor and chivalry, making him usually reviled in circles of Knights and uninvited to banquets or galas. Siegfried never plays fair, another reason to make him a pariah among the knights. He can be considered the complete opposite of everything is younger half-sister, Flayne la Karrotte, stands for, and vice versa. Yet, the reason he's not a public enemy is that, despite his ruthless tactics, some Lords benefit from having someone like him in their employ. Siege works for the highest bidder with his own agenda on the side; no job is too low for him. He is occasionally hunted, but always manages to elude or just outright defeat his hunters. There have been many knights who tried to put down Siegfried, but they have all failed. In a hypothetical game of chess between Flayne and Siegfried, the former would win. Siege knight would throw the game until there’s a wager, then proceed to destroy her.

Even though they both work in the same field, Siege takes things way too far for Xiang. However, he admits that she's an extremely capable alchemist, it’s just that she isn’t willing to go his path. Even Maria Iglesias considers Siege as going too far, and too deep into heresy. On the other hand, he views her as too zealous for her own good, for he is an agnostic sort, a man of science.

He wasn't always that evil and dishonorable. The reason he grew to have such a view on the world is definitely tied to his elusive history. As he witnessed more and more things gone awry, on top of the fact that he is but a mere human, made him decide to try to make a change, whatever it takes. The Siege Knight has a court alchemist badge, which indicates his likely former position and status as a very accomplished alchemist serving a crown. He was directly responsible for the invention of several highly effective medicines, but the formulas are kept under lock and key, and said medicines are now sold for a premium. His experience as an alchemist also helped him greatly in his siege work, giving him insight on very dangerous matter like sulfur. Siegfried was and still is known to be a hero for some, especially in his earlier years after his stint with the previous Chosen Knight of Diligence. Siegfried is, after all, a hero's name, and he was at a certain point a hero worth respect, powerful and promising, before something clearly happened. He wears the one crown seal that mattered to him close to his heart.

The crown on his face is not just for style; he's wearing someone else's.

Powers

The Siege Knight's personal gear is not very unrealistic, simply wearing armor and wielding a shovel, with the only thing truly high-tech being his mask, which he often uses as an alchemist. In contrast, his gun stands out. He's one of the few people who have one outside of United States of Littlefolk, only being able to lay his hands on one thanks to being very resourceful and having traveled a lot. Siegfried Karrotte's armor is partially made from Avalicite that he looted from Exalted corpses. He also uses bullets of the same material, which are extremely difficult to produce.

Siegfried is ahead of his time in terms of pragmatism, and represents limitless human ingenuity. He's one of the currently most technologically advanced people in the Familiar Lands, but more as an outlier. As his nickname states, he is a one-man siege, his primary goal being to break the will and morale of any castle he is tasked to siege. A wounded fighter is a drain on resources and demoralizes the defenders after all. Siegfried will always try to avoid killing as much as possible; he'd rather wound people and have others busy trying to treat them, both for effectiveness and his studies on the body's function. Known to employ biological warfare strategies like plaguing a city with dead bodies, Siegfried understands honor, but then outright ignores or manipulates it to his advantage. Because of his pragmatism, he has committed many war crimes and can be considered the closest thing to pure evil for many people. But despite his ruthless tactics, there's a method to Siege's madness. He doesn't siege randomly, only when it benefits him, as if he’s working towards something. Most of his strength comes from his cunning plans and flawless preparations though. Without them, his own fighting capacity can be considered just above average for a knight.

He has underlings under his command, but when he was younger and just starting out as The Siege Knight, he was doing his missions alone. Rumor has it that he has slain a Chosen Knight during one of his sieges, thus making his threat level quite high. This one feat was not enough to warrant a dedicated hit squad from The 14 Fundamentals, but enough to have a target painted on his back.