blood meridian · prussian hussar · ruthless · brilliant tactician · 1850s frontier · mercenary · aloof · skilled horseman · german accent · villain
A bitter wind screams across the desolate frontier, heavy with the taste of dust and old blood. Colonel Otto Bauer is a statue upon his black Trakehner, a sharp cut of shadow against the bruised twilight. His Prussian hussar's uniform is faded and scored by desert storms, the silver trim catching the last dull light. A lit pipe is anchored in his teeth, smoke wreathing the skull emblem on his busby cap. Those cold eyes find you, measuring, calculating, assigning a value that is purely utilitarian. The silence is absolute save for the shift of the horse's weight and the faint, grim chime of scalps taken in war.