HISTORICAL STUDY OF OTTO BARUCH

[Zanthuz 1835]

Spoiler

 

COUNT OTTO BARUCH

OTHO MARUS VAR EIRIK BARUCH

OTHO MARCIUS FILIUS ERICUS BARUCID

 

[!] A portrait of Otto Baruch painted by a farfolk serf, circa. 1620

 

@KIIWIKILLA

 

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PREFACE.

 

“Since the establishment of the House of Baruch in the year 1581, there has been a great many notable Baruchs that have amassed insurmountable amounts of prestige for themselves, which evidently many have failed to be aptly recognized in Haeseni history.

 

Lord Otto Baruch, Count of Ayr is among the many members of the honorable house of Baruch that has failed to be mentioned as a notable Lord of Hanseti-Ruska.

 

In this study, you’ll find the beginnings of Lord Otto’s life, his family life, and his ultimate turn to become the second Lord of House Baruch; which hosts a great many noteworthy achievements that have gone unmarked for far too long.

 

With this study, I seek to dedicate it to the life of the second Lord of House Baruch, Count Otto Baruch. May you read this and be enlightened on the enriched life of the Honorable, Otto ‘The Just’.”

 

Sir Viktor Kortrevich.

Krusev, 355 E.S.

 

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CHILDHOOD.

 

The young Baruch was born at Saint’s Rest, Ayr in the year 1581. Otto was fathered by Count Eirik and mothered by Lady Valeria. His early youth matured around both his brother, Sigmar and sister, Katherine. Despite taking place during the Deep Cold Uprising, his childhood was predominantly uneventful. Later in his youth, he spent a vast amount of time with his future in-laws at the Margraviate of Vasiland. 

 

As bonds were formed and strengthened, the Houses of Baruch and Vanir would find themselves tied by marriage as a behthoral between the two houses was arranged between Otto Baruch and Linnea Vanir. 

 

Prior to his dawn to adulthood, Otto continued to grow closer with his immediate kin while rekindling forgone relationships with his kin that was resulted by the rebellion of King Andrew II. As Otto neared the age of majority, his father’s untimely demise encroached ever-closer, by the time Otto reached the age of twenty-winters he succeeded his father as the second Count of Ayr, which began the mark of a thirty-six year long reign as the patriarch of the whaling House of Baruch.

 

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MARRIAGE & FAMILY LIFE.

Years following the marriage of his brother and the marriage of his sister, his brother Sigmar fled Haense on a voyage which left Otto assuming tutelage of his niece and nephews as his own. This followed with the rekindlement of estranged relatives through his Roswell grandmother. Throughout his marriage to his closest friend and lover, the two just like any butted heads during the vast majority of the Courlandic occupation of Haense. Despite this, Otto and Linnea would bring two sons and two daughters onto the war-riddled continent of Axios; Tatiana Baruch, Astrid Baruch, Aldrik Baruch and Siegfried Baruch.

 

[!] A painting of Lady Linnea Vanir, circa. 1603

 

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LIFE.

 

Count Otto Marius Baruch, second Count of Ayr and retrospectively the second Lord of the whaling House of Baruch began his tenure as Count from age twenty-five following his father’s death by Courlandic forces up until the elder age of fifty-nine. A thirty-six year long tenure as the patriarch of one of Haense’s higher nobilital houses saw the existence of the Greyspine Rebellion, Restoration of the Sixth Empire and the ultimate reunification of the dual monarchy of Hanseti-Ruska.

 

Otto among other lords the likes of Ruthern and Kovachev pooled together a group of collaborators to prompt an open rebellion against the House of Staunton. First began with the assault on the ancestral Baruch seat of Saint’s Rest- ultimately failing against opposing odds, the grouping persisted and longed to retake Haense in the Barbanov namesake. The then young Count met with the Baron of Rytsburg, Lord Adolphus Vyronov in hopes to obtain his support in suing for Haeseni reacclimation. Soon enough, a deal was struck which consisted of the Vyronov’s hand in marriage to Otto’s sister, Lady Katherine Baruch.

 

Despite plots of murder being set against the Count Baruch, Otto dealed favorably against those who opposed him. Rumor serves that during a card game with Edward Von’Krennol, Otto managed to convince Edward to place a bet on the holding of Liefgaard. To everyone’s surprise, Otto won his hand and subsequently took control of Liefgaard and consolidated all of his landings and holdings that came with his household.

 

Nevertheless, Otto’s reign continued as his House grew to greater prominence. Up until the restoration of the Sixth Empire underneath Emperor John V, Peter II and John VI, he maintained his allegiance solely to the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska until he was suddenly appointed as the High Magistrate of Oren. Throughout his short stint in the legal position, he worked to modernise the legal system, updating the legal codex and ultimately establishing a more modern legal structure. He would serve in this position until the untimely destruction of the Empire. As a result, the Baruch Count returned to his homeland and served as King Otto’s chief legal advisor; making modifications of his own to the Haeseni law codex with the help of his young grandson, Marius Karl Baruch.

 

Overall, the House of Baruch in the Kingdom of Haense up to the Coalition Wars was but of middling influence, as they owned poor estates scattered across the shattered coast. After the Kingdom of Haense’s vanquish, Baruch would remain on top as high nobility. Throughout the entirety of the sixty-six year long reign of Count Otto Baruch, he brought together many of the smaller Haeseni vassals into rebellion, most notably the Standoff at the County of Ayr, which would ultimately play in part the reunification of the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska.

 

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DEATH.

 

Later in his life, the elder Count of Ayr would reach the senior age of fifty seven before grievously beginning a two long year fight with dementia. Nevertheless, Otto continued his service to his Kingdom in any way he was suited for before ultimately losing the fight to the overbearing illness. Fortunately enough, it is known that he passed by bedside surrounded by his loved ones including the like of King Marius I of Haense. Following his passing, his eldest son Ser Aldrik Baruch succeeded his father as the third Count of Ayr underneath the vassalage of the Kingdom of Hanseti-Ruska.

 

“Courlanders are a deplorable bunch of half witted trollops.” -Otto Baruch to King Otto II

 

 

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Published by Baruch & Kortrevich Publishing

Written by Sir Viktor Kortrevich

Edited January 10, 2021 by Zanthuz