Wilhelm van Astrea (ヴィルヘルム・ヴァン・アストレア), né Trias (トリアス), is a member of the Crusch Camp and is Theresia van Astrea's husband.
Appearance
Wilhelm has white hair and blue eyes. He wears a white shirt, white vest, black bowtie, black dress pants, and a black and blue coat. Due to his daily training, he is still muscular at his old age, and his back perfectly straight.
When he was young, Wilhelm had brown hair, and wore the Royal Guard uniform.
Personality
When he was young, Wilhelm was serious and strict in his duty to become a Royal Knight, reserved, lonely and too cold with other people. Even so, he knew how to analyze a situation, always finding a way out. Nonetheless, Theresia van Astrea greatly influenced his personality, becoming increasingly sociable and protective, achieving more results during the Demi-Human War. Hoqever, he became angry when he discovered that Theresia was the Sword Saint, thinking that all this time she was making fun of what he had achieved, although later he realized that it was not true, which shows that Wilhelm simply wanted to main his pride.
With training, Wilhelm learned to keep control over his emotions and when he defeated Theresia, he decided to take responsibility for carrying the sword for her, since he needed to protect people in his place, and revealed that he would only tell her that he loved her whenever he wanted. However, already old, when informed of the death of Theresia because of Hakugei, Wilhelm was completely sore and full of revenge towards the Demon Beast, which caused a bad relationship with his son and grandson to consider them responsible for his loss while he had another assignment with the royal family. Since he could not protect Theresia as promised, plus the guilt for not doing anything and the problems in his family, he decided to leave the Royal Knights.
From that moment, Wilhelm returned to be the person with the characteristics of before, and simply dedicated himself to his work as the butler of Crusch Karsten, since she promised to hunt the Hakugei. Later, after Natsuki Subaru helped him in the Hakugei hunt, Wilhelm was grateful and was loyal to him. After slaughtering and successfully killing the Hakugei, he shouted loudly his love for Theresia. This also prompted him to try to settle the situation with his family, and at first he had hoped to solve it, but eventually chose to ignore them when Reinhard mercilessly murdered the Theresia which was being controlled by the Witch Cult in Priestella.
History
Wilhelm was born the third son of the Trias family, whom lived in the countryside of the Kingdom of Lugnica. They were an old house of nobility situated in one of the kingdom’s most remote northern province which bordered Holy Kingdom of Gusteko, and had the responsibly for managing the some of the territories there. Once a proud warrior family, their days of military glory were a thing of the past, and by the time Wilhelm was born they were little more than a small barony running meager lands with small population of serfs. Unlike his much older siblings, Wilhelm had neither the claim to inherent leadership in the family or knack for civil governance leaving him little hope in his own future prospects. That is until the day,r he the now then 8 year old Wilhelm picked up his family's treasured sword which would start him down the path of the sword. Enchanted by the blade, he would spend much of his youth there in the mountains swinging it day and night as it gave him a sense of peace and purposed that his life had lacked up til now and each time he swung it he felt himself growing stronger. By the time he has 14, he had become the most skilled swordsman in the domain. However one night due to a severe quarrel with his eldest brother over his future, would leave his family and travel to the royal capital to become a knight.
At the time country had been going through a civil war with Demi-human Alliance, a group of demi-human tribes for some years that began in its eastern region when Wilhelm enlisted. From the time of his first battle on would stand out make a named for himself due his near unparalleled skill despite his age. On field he was a ferociousness and tenacious soldier who leaped into enemy formations leaving nothing but scores of corpses, as he cut through with reckless abandon and wicked smile on his face. Wilhelm's abnormal strength fueled by his bloodlust would give birth to his moniker "Sword Demon" called by friend and foe alike inspiring awe, fear and hatred. However despite his military achievements and national renown skill Wilhelm would receive no promotion. Partly because he refused, but also becasue of the fact that Wilhelm very anti-social, barely having anyone he called friends, rarely conversing with anyone and fighting heedless of the danger it brought his allies. Knighthood which rested on things beyond battle like bonds between people seemed ill-fitting for him as someone who only fought to take lives. Just as he did in his homeland for the next 3 years Wilhelm spur all worldly thoughts and devote himself solely to sword, as if cover the growing emptiness inside him until a chance encounter.
At one point Wilhelm now 18 years of age was called back from the front due to expansion of the battle lines to take a forced leave and remain in the royal capital. It was during this time that a dissatisfied Wilhelm with little to do met Theresia in the abandoned construction site within the royal capital where eh had come to train regularly. This meeting although being innocuously at first would eventually change Wilhelm's life in a profound way. Despite his best efforts to remain detached from her company in the first 3 month he find himself gradually conversing Theresia more and more often whom would refute and rebuffed his crude and afoot persona. Unaware of subtle changes in his heart at first, subconsciously he started looking forward to their ritualistic meetings which eventually led him to question the real reason why he had continued to walk path of the sword which he had been avoiding his life up until now. Coming to epiphany, Wilhelm realized that he had been using it as an excuse to run away from his problems at home. Wanting to do something his older brothers couldn't and support his family in his own way as they did. Accepting this fact Wilhelm found himself caring about things he hadn't in a long time, becoming less and less concerned with taking the heads of his enemies over prioritizing the safety of his comrades which they welcomed though with some apprehension. His rendezvous with Theresia shifted from training to simply wanting to see her. Wilhelm soon found himself promoted to knight due to insistence of his friends and his own changed attitude where he once used his sword merely strike down what was in front of him for his own self-satisfaction protecting the people he cared about and safeguarding Theresia's happiness most of all.
Disaster would strike shortly after he achieved knighthood where news of highly intensifying civil war had spread to north and his homeland was caught in it. Wilhelm defying conduct would race home only to finds his hometown already sacked. Faced with more demi-humans than he ever fought before Wilhelm had seemed finally hit the limits of his ability and nearly perished as a result. Saved by the newest incarnation of the Sword Saint who turned out to be none other than Theresia. Wilhelm feeling humiliated, but captivated by her display swordsmanship he could never reach, and most of all indignation at war, society and his weak himself that had forced her resign to herself inescapable fate to take up mantle of "Sword Saint" would confront Theresia leaving them to partway with their resolve to protect the other. 2 years would pass before their saw each other again at the ceremony to celebrate the end of decade long war. There a much stronger Wilhelm would enter an impassioned duel with Theresia in which after a close match former would defeat later. Making good on his promise Wilhelm would free her from the duties and burden of Sword Saint and take them up in instead her stead so that she could live the life she wants.
Abilities
Master Swordsman: Through years of training and effort, Wilhelm is highly skilled with the sword and honed his swordsmanship skills to the point where he was able to defeat the previous Sword Saint in a duel. He was also considered to be a threat to the Demi Humans during the Demi Human War, and his menacing appearance earned him the alias of Sword Demon (剣鬼 Kenki).
Trivia
- According to the author, Wilhelm's birthday is May 7.
- Wilhelm looks similar to Valkenhayn R. Hellsing from BlazBlue.
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