Sigmund Raastad
Standing roughly six feet tall and weighing roughly three hundred pounds, Sigmund Raastad was not a man who blended into crowds. His shoulders were roughly the same size as a pick-me-up truck. Silver-white beard cropped close to the chin, braided silver hair, and hands that had personally broken in nearly every citizen of Dominus Columbia between the ages of fourteen and fifty. He was the Drill Leader, responsible for overseeing all training at the Red Embankment, and he had become something rare in the wasteland: a folk legend who actually existed.
Raastad oversaw a team of trainers, each focused on a different aspect of basic training for the Drafted Service. But managing a team was never enough for a man built like that. He joined training days alongside young recruits and weathered outsiders when the mood struck him, which was often. He took personal charge of outsiders in particular: the people seeking entry into Dominus Columbia who had not yet proven they deserved to be there. If they met his standards, they could stay. If they did not, that was their problem.
His reputation carried across the entire Bailey. Nearly every citizen between fourteen and fifty had either been beaten by him personally or had watched it happen to someone they knew. That kind of reach creates stories. Some said he would not give up his position until one of his instructors bested him in every form of training. Others claimed Sigmund Raastad was not one person at all but a title handed down across the ages within a Pure Blood family. A quieter rumor suggested he personally dispatched any outsiders he judged to be a potential threat to the settlement, though no one seemed eager to confirm that particular detail.
Whether one man or many, the result was the same. The Red Embankment produced soldiers and citizens who had been tested by something immovable, and his name was spoken with the kind of respect that sits close to fear.
Raastad oversaw a team of trainers, each focused on a different aspect of basic training for the Drafted Service. But managing a team was never enough for a man built like that. He joined training days alongside young recruits and weathered outsiders when the mood struck him, which was often. He took personal charge of outsiders in particular: the people seeking entry into Dominus Columbia who had not yet proven they deserved to be there. If they met his standards, they could stay. If they did not, that was their problem.
His reputation carried across the entire Bailey. Nearly every citizen between fourteen and fifty had either been beaten by him personally or had watched it happen to someone they knew. That kind of reach creates stories. Some said he would not give up his position until one of his instructors bested him in every form of training. Others claimed Sigmund Raastad was not one person at all but a title handed down across the ages within a Pure Blood family. A quieter rumor suggested he personally dispatched any outsiders he judged to be a potential threat to the settlement, though no one seemed eager to confirm that particular detail.
Whether one man or many, the result was the same. The Red Embankment produced soldiers and citizens who had been tested by something immovable, and his name was spoken with the kind of respect that sits close to fear.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Massively muscular; shoulders roughly the size of a pick-me-up truck
Facial Features
Silver-white beard cropped close to chin
Mental characteristics
Personal history
By approximately 115 DC, Raastad was already entrenched at the Red Embankment with the kind of authority that comes from having personally demonstrated, over years and possibly decades, that no one under his command could outperform him.
His training regime shaped the character of Dominus Columbia's defense. Every born citizen owed three years of Drafted Service, and prominent families like the Lords sent their children for ten. All of them passed through Raastad's system. The recruits who emerged were not merely soldiers; they were survivors of a process designed by a man who believed standards existed to be exceeded, not met. Whether that process made the settlement stronger or simply made Raastad indispensable is a question the records do not answer cleanly.
The rumors surrounding him suggest a figure who had become larger than any single biography could contain. The theory that 'Sigmund Raastad' was a hereditary title rather than a single individual speaks to how long the name had been a fixture of life on the Embankment. His fate after the fall of Dominus Columbia remains unknown.
His training regime shaped the character of Dominus Columbia's defense. Every born citizen owed three years of Drafted Service, and prominent families like the Lords sent their children for ten. All of them passed through Raastad's system. The recruits who emerged were not merely soldiers; they were survivors of a process designed by a man who believed standards existed to be exceeded, not met. Whether that process made the settlement stronger or simply made Raastad indispensable is a question the records do not answer cleanly.
The rumors surrounding him suggest a figure who had become larger than any single biography could contain. The theory that 'Sigmund Raastad' was a hereditary title rather than a single individual speaks to how long the name had been a fixture of life on the Embankment. His fate after the fall of Dominus Columbia remains unknown.
Employment
Drill Leader of the Red Embankment. Oversaw all training for the Drafted Service, personally responsible for breaking in both born citizens and outsiders seeking citizenship in Dominus Columbia.
Drill Leader of the Red Embankment, folk legend of the Bailey.
Title
Drill Leader of the Red Embankment
Lineage
Pure Blood
Status
Unknown (post-fall)
Era
~115 DC
Children
Hair
Silver-white, braided
Height
Six feet
Weight
Three hundred pounds
