Henrik Ulriksen
Information
Name	Henrik Ulriksen
Species	Dwarf
Gender	Male
Born	201 BGE Kemmelslott Palace, Kemmelreich
World	Asleep Universe
Occupation	Prince of Kemmelreich (201 BGE - 114 BGE) King of Kemmelreich (114 BGE - )
Native language	Gamla'isch

Henrik Ulriksen (201 BGE - ) is the King of Kemmelreich, the largest and most populous realm in the Asleep Universe.

Appearance

King Henrik is a bearded, brown-haired dwarf who stands much shorter than a human being (only reaching three-quarters of a typical adult male's height). However, he's about twice as heavy - with much of that extra weight being muscle.

Unlike other rulers (who tend to wear luxurious and brightly-coloured coats), Henrik almost always wears at least a partial suit of armour. In particular, he keeps his steel battle helmet on at all times (sometimes with his crown worn on top of that), and even when he isn't wearing his full steel armour, he usually wears a padded leather tunic.

The last, but arguably most important, aspect of his appearance is his oversized iron hammer. The face of this hammer has been charmed with a special 'softening rune', to cushion the impact of his blows. This makes the hammer suitable for punishing people who annoy him: it won't kill them, but it will give them bruises that will last for at least a week. It is possible to deactivate the charm (by pressing a button on the handle), but this makes the hammer truly lethal: Henrik only does this in war or in self-defence.

Personality

Ever since childhood, Henrik has been very greedy: he's known for his obsession with ginger biscuits and Dwarvish ale (or, in his youth, Dwarvish honeyjuice). He's also violent and ill-tempered, and has a mentality of "Whack with me hammer first, ask yer questions later!". This is one of the reasons why Henrik has very few friends: he usually keeps himself to himself, and others prefer to keep a safe distance from him.

Nevertheless, he does have a deep sense of honour and loyalty - and he'll stop at nothing to defend his family and his kingdom. For example, as annoying as he sometimes found his parents, he never once hit either of them with his hammer - and, until his father passed away, he didn't hit his brother with his hammer either.

Relationships

Ulrik - As a child, Henrik was the favourite son of his father, King Ulrik. As a result, he was quite lenient with Henrik, and allowed him to get away with more mischief than he probably should have done. Nevertheless, even Ulrik's patience had its limits - and he sometimes saw the need to confiscate Henrik's hammer, or limit the number of biscuits he could eat. This caused Henrik's relationship with his father to become strained, particularly during his adolescence; however, once Henrik was an adult, he began to appreciate that Ulrik was just doing what was best for him. As a result, when his father passed away, the now King Henrik ordered the construction of a new port city, to be named 'Ulrikshaven' in his honour.

Harald - Henrik's younger brother. During childhood, they feuded like any pair of brothers - but nevertheless, King Ulrik was just about able to keep the peace between them. However, once Ulrik passed away, the relationship quickly fell apart - and Harald became jealous at having to serve under Henrik. When they had to meet up, Harald would often play sneaky tricks on Henrik... and, on one occasion, he even dared to eat all of Henrik's biscuits while he wasn't looking. Of course, when Henrik found out, he was absolutely furious: he immediately revoked Harald's royal title (as Jarl of Lyþmir), and banished him from the realm. Now, Harald has fled to the Academia Magesteria, where he consistently tries (and fails) to prove that dwarfs can use magic wands.

Otto - Due to their close cultural and linguistic ties, the Kings of Kemmelreich have always enjoyed a strong amicable relationship with the Archdukes of Waldia. This cordial state of affairs has been perpetuated by both King Henrik and his counterpart, Archduke Otto. As such, they make a point of writing to one another every week, and meeting up with one another every month. Furthermore, Otto enjoys a number of perks and privileges within King Henrik's realm. First of all, Otto is one of only 12 people to have been designated a "Hallowed Unstrikable": Henrik never hits him with his hammer, and it has been charmed in such a way that, should it be swung at him, it will always miss. Secondly, Otto is allowed free personal use of any weapons from Henrik's forges, and a discount on any that he purchases for his army. Finally, Henrik makes sure to send Otto two hundred biscuits for every birthday (which is usually enough to last him the entire year).

Demas and his descendants - For many years, King Henrik has been resentful of the rulers of Leocadio Kingdom. This is in part due to Leocadio's immense mineral wealth: they are the only kingdom capable of rivalling Kemmelreich in this respect, making them fierce economic competitors. However, the feud also dates back to Henrik's first meeting with King Demas I, when both of them were in their youth. A rather scruffy-looking Demas had escaped from home, and, in desperation for food, had stolen some of Henrik's biscuits. Henrik was so enraged that he bashed the young Demas with his hammer, and banished him from the palace. From that day on, Henrik never saw eye to eye with this "stupid squab" - and even today, after nearly 200 years, he still takes extra care to lock his biscuits away whenever King Demas IV comes to visit him.

Story

Prince Henrik was born in the year 201 BGE, to King Ulrik and Queen Astrid, in the Jade Chamber of Kemmelslott Palace. It was in these luxurious surroundings that Henrik and his brother Harald grew up. Thanks to their father's wealth and status, they grew used to having whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted it - and they became very temperamental when they didn't get it. In Henrik's case, this meant the palace cooks were obliged to prepare as many biscuits and as much honeyjuice as he wanted, or risk being bashed with the young prince's hammer. They duly obliged - and, he simply ate and ate to his heart's content. King Ulrik urged Henrik to stop - but, nevertheless, he didn't listen - and he eventually grew so fat that he was unable to fit through his own bedroom door, much to the amusement of the rest of the castle.

As Prince Henrik entered the early years of adulthood, he graduated from honeyjuice to ale, and reined in his unhealthy habits slightly, by limiting himself to two hundred biscuits per day. King Ulrik was pleased to see Henrik maturing (a little bit) - and so, he expected him to start searching for marriage partners. However, Henrik had other ideas: whenever the subject was broached, he would protest that "I be lovin' me Dwarvish ale an' ginger biscuits more than I could ever be lovin' any woman!". As such, he never did find a partner: he simply never had the need or desire for one.

Eventually, in the year 114 BGE, King Ulrik passed away - and, Henrik took over as King of Kemmelreich. As a ruler, he continued his father's military-focused, yet strictly isolationist, policies: he invested a great deal of resources into his kingdom's armed forces, but he only ever used them defensively, as he preferred not to engage in the affairs of foreign realms wherever possible. However, in other areas, he had a reputation as a progressive reformer. For example, one of Henrik's first acts as king was to give his parliament full control over the budget (although this was not because he had any commitment to democratic ideals: instead, it's simply that he found economics extremely boring, and preferred for someone else to take care of his finances!)

Later on in his reign, Henrik became slightly less isolationist, and slightly more involved in foreign affairs. For example, he created the language of 'Athkeni', designed to be readily understandable to dwarfs, humans, and dragons. Then, once the dragons had learned it, he negotiated a treaty with them to get them to stop raiding his farms, in exchange for a small portion of the realm's livestock. Furthermore, as King Kei of Lennart Kingdom became increasingly despotic and bloodthirsty, Henrik began covertly aiding Kei's enemies, such as Duke Nestor of New Atlantis. However, his attempts at social reform were far less successful. For example, he proposed a new law to allow men to marry other men (and not just women). This suggestion simply got laughed out of the council chambers - and, after bashing a few unruly councilmen with his hammer, Henrik wisely decided not to pursue the matter any further. Instead, he simply handed full control of social issues to his parliament - as he had previously done with the economy.

It is not known what King Henrik's next plans for Kemmelreich are. However, it's thought that he'll eventually pass all responsibilities to his parliament, and reduce the role of King to a purely ceremonial one. This is because he has no children of his own - and therefore, the next in line to the throne is his hated brother Harald, whom he wants to spite by stripping away all of his power. However, Dwarvish lifespans are incredibly long - and so, before that becomes an issue, Henrik is likely to have at least two more centuries of biscuit-munching, ale-drinking, and hammer-smashing ahead of him.

Trivia

Henrik speaks an impressive 16 languages: Gamla'isch, Kemmelisch, Arkisch, Lyþmic, Fjordic, Stálmal, Arkon-Pyrrhic, Vest-Arkonsk, Suð-Arkonsk, Upper Florian, Modern Archonian, Athkeni, Standard Lennartine, Novoatlantean, Modern Lumic, and Waldian. As he is over 200 years old, he has had plenty of time to learn all these languages.

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