Lord Rucksted is a Lord Marshal of The Union, the most senior commander of the Union Army, alongside Lord Marshal Brint; both have seats on the Closed Council. He has a penchant for beards and tall tales, and is married to Tilde dan Rucksted.
Appearance and Personality[]
Lord Rucksted is a beefy man with a great wedge of brown beard and bushy brows. He has a penchant for tall tales, and a flamboyant dash, but can be notoriously stubborn for anyone but his younger wife, Tilde dan Rucksted.
History[]
A Little Hatred[]
The Rucksteds are dinner-friends of Savine dan Glokta, Adua’s most cut-throat investor. Savine sometimes uses Tilde's reputation as a blabbermouth in her negotiations, and plans to persuade her to invest in Dietam dan Kort's canal project.
The Trouble With Peace[]
Lord Marshal Rucksted sits on the Closed Council, and grumbles to King Orso about the Breakers and Styrian scheming. After the assassination attempt against the king at the demonstration of Honrig Curnsbick's steam engine, the King’s Own are split up and sent into cities all over Midderland to try and rounding-up Breakers and Burners. Rucksted is dispatched to Keln in the south, with the most of the cavalry.
When it is apparent that Leo dan Brock's forces will invade Midderland in open rebellion against the crown, King Orso orders the army to converge on the little town of Stoffenbeck. But as the Battle of Stoffenbeck begins, Rucksted is nowhere to be seen. The confrontation begins well for the royalist: Arch Lector Pike mauls the Open Council's forces with cannons on the left, while Lord Marshal Forest on the right and the king himself in the centre hold back the Northmen and Anglanders in fierce fighting. But gradually the rebel's superior numbers begin to turn the tide. Just when it seem all may be lost, Lord Marshal Rucksted arrives with a great many reinforcements. He nonchalantly scatters the Open Council's mauled men, and prepares to outflank the Anglanders, prompting Lord Brock into a heroic but ill-fated cavalry charge.
King Orso takes no pleasure in his victory, but Rucksted tries to assure him that the carnage is not his fault; he had not been the aggressors. Later, he is in the audience at the hangings of the leaders of the rebellion in the main square of Stoffenbeck.