Ernst Douglas

Ernst Douglas Douglas in 2021

Positions Technological Minister of Falconia

High Councilman of The Wandenreich

Chief Architect of Buktvokter

Count of Buktvokter

Biographical information

Physical description Ernst von Douglas, Count of Buktvokter, born Ernst Douglas, also known as squeeeky, is a Falconian engineer and statesman who served as the Technological Minister of the former sovereign state, Falconia, and as a former high councilman of The Wandenreich before its merger with Ashtrokan Deguaran. A self-proclaimed engineer and inventor under a prosperous empire in a faraway land. Douglas claimed he was onboard a ship on an expedition to find new land and settlement opportunities before falling overboard due to a freak storm. On May 3rd, 2021, after washing ashore in Rathnir, he was mugged. Penniless and starving Douglas wanders around looking for resources before he was rescued by the band of the Falcon and invited to join Falconia. Later on, on May 4th, 2021, after presenting his engineering prowess he was promoted to Technological Minister. During his tenure as Technological Minister, Douglas made numerous inventions and discoveries like his steam engine on May 5th, 2021, a railway steam locomotive on May 7th, 2021, and his discovery of Falconsteel sometime in late May of the same year.

Following the subsequent collapse of Falconia on May 31st, 2021, Douglas migrated to Eldham with his countrymen, settling a town named Silbern and becoming one of the founding members of The Wandenreich. On June 2nd, 2021, Douglas was appointed as a councilman in the first parliament of The Wandenreich under The Grand Falcon TheOtakuKaiser. As councilman, Douglas was tasked with scouting and establishing a military naval base for the growing nation before his mysterious disappearance on June 22nd, 2021.

It would not be until January 18th, 2023, that Douglas would return to Eldham. Allegedly, he claimed to have been frozen in an Iceberg for the past year and a half due to an incident on June 22nd, 2021. Douglas returned to a changed world, the country that used to be known as The Wandenreich had merged with Ashtrokan Deguaran to form the A.W.E., and most shocking to him, the Grand Falcon that he used to serve was executed under the crime of treason after an attempted coup by royalists. After this discovery, Douglas went into hiding only leaving a letter to his dear friend, the governor of Silbern, Sir Bohhy. Later on the same day, Douglas was scouted by Cold Naktinmal Takormsson to join the High Kingdom of Soolia. After seeing his architectural and engineering prowess, he was given the task of renovating an old historical town named Buktvokter, where he worked as the Chief Architect and Engineer from January 20th, 2023 to February 5th, 2023. Due to his remarkable talents and capabilities, he was given the title of Baron, which later on would be elevated to Count, and the ownership of the town on February 5th, 2023, by Crown Prince Goober Godd-Fjell, where he acts as the guardian of the town until this day.

Early Life
Although the land of his birth is unknown, some information regarding his upbringing and education is known, through the many anecdotes that Douglas had given to his acquaintances over the years. Born into a family of famous navigators, Douglas shouldered huge expectations from his father since early childhood. The world saw Douglas as a future great navigator, however, Douglas's real interests lie in Engineering and Technology. He later studied Engineering at a prominent University in his Empire before being forced to drop out by his father due to his estrangement from navigation. To amend the issue, his father forcefully sent Douglas on an exploration expedition. During the expedition, tragedy or perhaps a stroke of fortune struck, deviating Douglas's ship off course before sinking it. A few days later, he would wash ashore in the land known as Rathnir.

The Rise of Falconia
After washing ashore, the stranded Douglas looked around to find a bearing for the land. To his amazement, he did not find the industrialized world he was used to but a land still in the late medieval era. While still preoccupied with how such a vast land had not been discovered yet, Douglas was mugged by bandits, losing whatever he had left after the shipwreck. Now destitute, Douglas wandered before encountering the band of The Falcon. Douglas would late recall his feeling at that moment in his biography: "I was terrified actually, I had just been mugged by bandits and this group of people in armor just appeared in front of me." This event would prove to be a fateful encounter in Douglas's life.

Young Architect
On May 3rd, 2021, Douglas was officially accepted into the band of the Falcon and their city-state Falconia. The reason for this acceptance might be due to pity, but TheOtakuKaiser's arbitrary decision at the time would prove to be a boon for Falconia. Douglas started as an Architect. He would design and construct multitudes of houses, buildings, and fortifications for Falconia. During this time, he would make acquaintances with the future Minister of Defense of the A.W.E., GregisBad, and future Grand Falcon of the A.W.E., Coolworld03, and crucially, received their recognition and backing.

Technological Minister of Falconia
Recognizing his talents, TheOtakuKaiser appointed Ernst Douglas, aged twenty, as the Technological Minister of Falconia. He was given generous support from the government, which he used masterfully to go on and develop multitudes of technologies and make discoveries. One of the most important technologies that he created was his titular steam engine. On May 5th, 2021, Combining his ideas with notes from an unknown Escarian engineer, he successfully created a machine that stably generates a spinning motion using steam. He would go on to produce tools to be used with the engine on May 6th, 2021, such as his "machine drill," "band saw," and "lathe." These tools were instrumental in his next invention, the steam locomotive, on May 7th, 2021. The result came from multiple days of trial and error in miniaturizing and increasing the steam pressure of the engine with the newly machined parts created from his machine tools. The first test run was observed by TheOtakuKaiser himself, as the so-called "train" hauled ten carriages full of cargo down a 100-meter-long iron rail stably. Impressed, TheOtakuKaiser would award Douglas with more funding, which Douglas used to construct his railway factory later on the same day. Throughout the next few weeks, he would work with Falconian miners to increase the stability of the many mines of Falconia, which would lead him to his next discovery. Sometime during late May, he would discover a strange gigantic ore vein near the epicenter of Mt. Grand Vulcano. At first, it was speculated that the vein was an abnormal formation of Iron. However, after the miners failed to break it with their strongest pickaxe, opinions changed about the vein. To get a sample, Douglas brought down one of his miniaturized high-pressure engines to core drill the vein. Even then, it required a diamond-coated drill several hours to carve a sizeable chunk of the ore. After bringing the sample to his lab, Douglas discovered the impressive properties of the material. The material is incredibly hard yet paradoxically extremely pliable at room temperature. However, the material is difficult to melt, needing upwards of 3000 C° to reach its melting point. Though, once the metal sets, the material will maintain its shape due to its almost memory-shaped properties. Douglas dubbed the metal "Falconsteel" after the country he served, hoping that the metal will be used to great effect for the prosperity of the nation. During this time, he would meet with his lifelong friend and research partner, Bohhy. With the two talented engineers working in tandem, Douglas's steam engine was further improved, so much so that it is enough to spark an industrial revolution in Falconia. Other than his prolific career in engineering, Douglas was also a savvy politician. To further the interest of Falconia, he had managed to secure a deal to construct an intercontinental railway with Aesperium Niedia after much haggling and compromises, sometime in late May. The Falco-Niedian Railroad Deal stipulated that Aesperium Niedia will offer Land and permission for Falconia to construct a transcontinental railroad, linking all major towns across the continent in exchange for exclusive rights and ownership of the railroad business to Falconia. With a lucrative deal with Niedea and two brilliant engineers working actively to industrialize the nation, the future of Falconia looks bright. However, this would be the beginning of the end of Falconia.

The Longest Voyage and the Establishment of The Wandenreich
Early on May 31st, 2021, rumors reached the ears of the Niedeian government about Falconia's plans of secession through an unknown whistleblower. This prompted Aesperium Niedea to issue an ultimatum to the city-state later on the same day. Either stay and perish in Falconia or leave for the new world. Faced with a tough decision TheOtakuKaiser, made the unpopular decision to migrate in the face of overwhelming Niedeian military might. That day, Falconia was no more. As one of the ministers, Ernst Douglas was tasked with managing the following migration dubbed "The Longest Voyage," where the entirety of the Falconian population migrated to the land now known as Silbern. Even after experiencing such humiliation, the Falconians' nationalistic zeal stayed strong. Using this sentiment, on June 1st, 2021, TheOtakuKaiser founded The Wandenreich from the remnants of Falconia together with local Silbernians. On June 2nd, 2021, The Wandenreich had its first election, where Matt C. Nerd, was elected as Chancellor. On the same day, TheOtakuKaiser appointed Ernst Douglas as High Councilman representing the Technological Ministry in the Imperial Senate. During his tenure as High Councilman, Douglas drafted a plan for a major military naval fortress near where modern Dortberg resides. He planned to construct a canal, which would allow military vessels access to the oceans just East of the Dortbergian Lake. This would not come to pass, however. Douglas went missing on June 22nd, 2021. How he went missing on that day was still questioned by historians today. However, the most reliable account came from Douglas himself in his later recollections of the fateful night. According to Douglas, he was running out of inspiration that night, so he decided to take out a rare aged wine, his friend Bohhy had given him. After downing the entire bottle in fifteen minutes, Douglas felt enlightened. He had to grasp this once in a life time's inspiration, so he headed out in the unusually cold evening on his boat to survey the area. During the trip, in his drunken stupor, he rammed his boat straight into an Iceberg, which sent him careening off the edge and rapidly freezing. By some kind of miracle, Douglas survived the natural cryonics. However, little did Douglas know, the world he returned to was no longer the one he remembered.

A Man Left Behind by The Times
On January 18th, 2023, Douglas broke through his ice coffin at the center of the Dortbergian lake. At first, he thought it had only been a single day since he left the port on the night of June 22nd, 2021. However, he immediately took notice of a huge sprawling city that completely replaced his old campsite. Confused, Douglas decided against returning to Silbern immediately and instead going incognito to figure out what had happened. It turned out that it had been over one and a half years since Douglas had disappeared, and The Wandenreichians, nay, Ashtrokan-Wandenreichian, had all but forgotten about their old High Councilman. During his disappearance, multitudes of sweeping changes occurred to The Wandenreich. The Wandenreich merged with Ashtrokan Deguaran to form the A.W.E. sometime in July 2021. The new union would expand exponentially in the coming months, growing to almost double the size of the previous territorial claims of The Wandenreich through wars and annexation of its neighbors. However, the most shocking change to Douglas is the fate of his liege, TheOtakuKaiser. After the Kingdom of Stone dissolved on September 28th, 2021, TheOtakuKaiser, allowed The High Kingdom of Soolia to take lands from the now-defunct state without prior consultation of the Imperial Senate. This event angered the slow-acting senators who voted to depose the Grand Falcon following the incident. After his abdication, TheOtakuKaiser would still participate in the empire's political affairs as a senator, earning the title of the Minister of Lore and Culture. Following the Phoenix Crisis, TheOtakuKaiser and High Scholar Xeno would form a Monarchist Faction in the Imperial Senate to face a Reformist Faction led by Minister of Foreign Affairs Archeon Draekar. TheOtakuKaiser considered the Reformists corrupted and their views on foreign diplomacy too aggressive and dangerous. However, the opinion was not supported by other senators leading to the Monarchist Faction fighting a slowly losing battle. Faced with no other options, TheOtakuKaiser decided to launch a failed revolution against the Reformist movement. Following the event, TheOtakuKaiser was given the death penalty for his actions while Xeno managed to flee his captors. Perhaps it was a cruel trick of fate or the spiteful arrangements of the Imperial Senate, but on October 10th, 2021, TheOtakuKaiser was publicly executed on the street west of the town square in Silbern, the very city that he founded, which grew to become The Wandenreich, and later the A.W.E. The legacy of the first Grand Falcon was dragged through the mud by an extensive defamation campaign arranged by the Imperial Senate in the ensuing days. At present, the name of the great founder is not revered or respected in the A.W.E., instead, the name is shunned. After learning of this, Ernst Douglas returned to Silbern on January 20th, 2023, to confirm this piece of history. However, what he saw was not what he was hoping for. Douglas saw the only remaining memorial honoring the Grand Falcon on the street he was executed. Douglas later recounted his feelings regarding his reunion with his liege that day in his biography.

The Great Architect of Buktvokter
Douglas left Silbern on that day, only leaving a letter for his friend, Bohhy. He departed for the High Kingdom of Soolia as he was invited for a grand renovation project of one of their oldest towns, Buktvokter. When he went incognito, he would trade his technical know-how and engineering prowess for information. This remarkable expertise of Douglas caught the attention of Cold Naktinmal Takormsson, who promptly scouted him to join the High Kingdom of Soolia. At first, Douglas was conflicted, however, after learning of the fate of his liege and finding a sense of camaraderie with the run-down town left behind by the times, he accepted. On January 20th, 2021, Douglas assumed office as Chief Architect of Buktvokter and immediately began work on the town. Douglas had effectively entered a state of retirement from the A.W.E. political affairs following his departure from Silbern. For the foreseeable future, his only focus is the renovation of the heritage town.