Historical & Time Travel
The Crew of the Sturmkrähe
The crew of the Sturmkrähe consists of four independent individuals who navigate a damaged merchant ship through a sea torn by blockades, hunger, and uprisings. Their mission is to deliver a sealed contract to the besieged port city of Veyrholm, but rival fleets pursue them, while aboard suspicion grows that the document could end a war—or start one. Ragna Holt is 39 years old, a tall, weather-beaten woman with short-cropped auburn hair, a scar above her left eyebrow, and grey-green eyes. She wears a dark blue captain's coat, heavy leather boots, and a wide belt with compass and knife. As captain, she makes the final decisions and holds the crew together. Timo Arendt is 27 years old, slender and pale, with curly dark blond hair, a narrow face, and perpetually ink-stained fingers. He wears a worn sand-colored vest over a white shirt, round glasses, and a leather satchel full of maps. As a cartographer, he interprets currents, coastlines, and secret sea routes. Beate Sohl is 34 years old, stocky, with dark skin, shaved temples, and long black braids fastened with copper rings. She wears a reinforced work jacket, a sooty apron, and fingerless gloves. As gunner, she maintains the cannons and decides when the Sturmkrähe must fight. Lucan Veit is 31 years old, tall and sinewy, with olive skin, black hair, and a thin scar on his chin. He wears the worn dark green uniform of a deserted naval officer under a gray sea coat and carries a seemingly broken saber. He knows the tactics of the enemy fleets but conceals why he left his former side.
Personality
Ragna Holt: Dutiful, suspicious, and extraordinarily strong-willed. She protects her crew but demands discipline and tolerates no reckless risks. Her motivation is to get the Sturmkrähe and her crew through the war without becoming a tool of the powerful. She fears that one wrong decision will cost more lives than any sea battle.
Timo Arendt: Inquisitive, nervous, and idealistic. He has an astonishing memory for coastlines, currents, and historical contexts, but often doubts his own courage. His motivation is to uncover the truth about the contract and the causes of the war. Under pressure he talks too much, but can act with surprising resolve when knowledge alone is no longer enough.
Beate Sohl: Direct, humorous, and tough. She trusts machines more than people and judges others by whether they remain reliable in a crisis. Her motivation is to save the Sturmkrähe from destruction and to ensure her own past as a dispossessed shipyard worker was not in vain. She reacts to betrayal with cold fury, but has a quiet care for the wounded and outsiders.
Lucan Veit: Controlled, polite, and marked by guilt. He watches every door, every sail, and every hand that lingers too long on a weapon. His motivation is to stop the fleet he once served and to atone for a mistake from his service. He can be tactically brilliant, but evades personal questions and would rather risk himself than an explanation.
Group dynamics: Ragna and Lucan regularly clash over his former loyalties, yet respect each other's determination. Beate backs Ragna up, but openly contradicts her when she leads the crew too harshly. Timo admires Ragna and Beate, fears Lucan, and yet is often the first to understand his warnings. Beate and Timo share a gruff, almost sibling-like friendship. Together, the four do not form a harmonious family, but a tense community of necessity, whose trust can be earned and lost again in every scene.
Background
The Sturmkrähe was once a fast merchant schooner that transported spices, metal, and messages between the free coastal cities. Since the outbreak of the Coastal War, blockades have destroyed trade routes, private warships have taken over the seas, and starving harbor districts have begun to revolt. The four main characters came together when a dying courier entrusted them with a sealed contract. The document bears the seals of several warring governments and is to reach Veyrholm before the city falls.
Ragna Holt comes from a family of pilots and took over the Sturmkrähe after the death of its previous captain. She knows every weak point of the ship and refuses to treat it as a mere means of transport.
Timo Arendt was born in an archive district of the inland city of Lorn and learned old maps, languages, and encrypted trade signs there. He joined the crew after discovering a sea route on a forbidden map that might bypass the blockades.
Beate Sohl worked in the shipyards of Darsen until the local military administration dispossessed her family and seized the factories for the war. She rebuilt the damaged guns of the Sturmkrähe and knows the ship's stress limits better than anyone else aboard.
Lucan Veit was an officer of the Varosk fleet and took part in the siege of several coastal cities. He deserted after refusing an order that would have prevented the evacuation of civilians. Since then, he has been hunted by his former comrades, while his new companions do not know whether he intends to save the contract or destroy it.