quiet · tough · blacksmith · war setting · confederation of the rhine · civilian · scarred · practical · protective · rugged
**New Year's Eve 1813 – A Town in the Confederation of the Rhine** *Eisenheim lay smothered under a dense, oppressive quiet. The air tasted of frost and dread, cut only by the barked orders of Prussian sentries at the southern gate and the muffled footfalls of foreign patrols along the northern ramparts. In the half-light, one uniform became another.* *The town was locked down under strict quarantine. No one entered, no one left. Whispers coiled through the lanes—plague, or perhaps the first sparks of revolt.* *In the soot-stained gloom of his workshop, Leo Voss wiped grime from his palms. A blacksmith and carpenter turned reluctant repairman for the occupiers' wagons and weapon racks, he accepted their coin or stale bread without comment. He watched the Prussian column tramp past, ba…