After several years of decadence and over-indulgence the Marienkäfer family of Hellerhain Barony, once renowned and respected, has fallen so low as to lose their familial lands in a reckless night of gambling. Crushed by his self-inflicted downfall, the old lord tried drowning his shame in liquor and found his untimely demise at the bottom of the bottle not too long after. That left his two children - an estranged daughter and a neglected son - to be the last remaining carriers of the family name, the latter inheriting both the title and the foul reputation that came with it. Despite all, the young lord, while not showing any exceptional talent or wit, has proven to at the very least be in possession of a superior moral character to his father’s and thus managed to land in a marriage with his long time sweetheart, their union bringing Martin into this world.

The first few years of Martin’s life were no different from any other child blessed with a loving family. Not only did his parents sustain a happy marriage, their hard work and good nature were paying off in both the family’s reputation and financial state's slow improvement. However, this bliss was short-lived as when Martin was only 4 years old his mother suffered a difficult childbirth that took both hers and the infant’s lives away. Unable to handle his grief, Martin’s father slipped into the unhealthy habits of his predecessors and tried to drown his despair in wine. And when even liquor stopped providing the stupor he needed to dull the pain, the man chose to go with a more permanent way to find oblivion. Thus Martin was left under the guardianship of his aunt - the last remaining adult of their family.

Frieda Marienkäfer - a proud and stoic woman - has made a choice to remove herself from the disgrace of her family back in her youth. While her younger brother’s modest behavior began to warm her up to the idea of a reunion, it wasn’t until his tragic demise that she finally stepped through the doors of her family home for the first time in many years to meet her orphaned nephew. Even though Frieda had years of tutoring children of noble families behind her back, this was the first time she found herself in a role of a caregiver to a child as young as Martin and her inexperience with this kind of care together with her strict character unfortunately played a detrimental role in forming Martin’s own personality going forward.

Frieda cared deeply for Martin, but at the same time demanded him to uphold a certain level of maturity from a very young age. Being fully aware of the reputation their family had among the nobility, the woman could not let Martin become an object of ridicule. While she at first tried to introduce the boy into the noble society through the company of his peers - her students from the Siegel and Rotherzog families - she soon found their influence to be harmful and chose to instead isolate Martin from distractions and put all of the little resources she had into his education. Her goal was to turn the boy into an exemplary aristocrat by the measure of his character instead of the measure of his fortune which was quite obviously lacking. Looking for a possible career for her nephew and disappointingly finding him quite as unexceptional as his father, Frieda encouraged Martin’s interest in the military, deciding that he had the best odds of succeeding in this field through hard work and dedication alone, which he had in abundance. So, from the age of 10, Martin was trained in fencing, tactics, and military arts by teachers that Frieda hired with whatever money she could scrap.

At the age 19 Martin finally completed his private education and immediately joined the Koben Army to start his military career.