Meet the Stingelhelms

The Stingelhelms are a proud old family with extensive estates in Telemere. It is generally expected that every young Stingelhelm will grow up to become a paladin, most commonly of the Torch. To deviate from this career path is to risk the unbridled ire of the rest of the family.

• Nicoletta Stingelhelm and Stout-In-Battle Stingelhelm are the mothers of Fight-the-Good-Fight, Lamentation, Jeremiah, and Hatevil Stingelhelm. Nicoletta married into the Stingelhelm family, and is - if anything - more zealous in upholding the Stingelhelm tradition of extreme religious devotion than her wife is.

• Justice Stingelhelm is Stout-in-Battle’s brother, married to Penance Stingelhelm. Their children (most notably Humiliation, What-The-Torch-Says-Goes, Fly-Aberration and Help-The-Helpless Stingelhelm) are all exemplary paladins, as Justice and Penance are extremely fond of pointing out. Because of course it’s a competition.

• The youngest Jeremiah Stingelhelm is named after his late Great-Uncle Jeremiah, a prominent Paladin of the Torch. Jeremiah Sr died when Jeremiah Jr was seven.

• A little over a century ago, before the birth of Has-Descendents Stingelhelm, there was some kind of family feud that led to the split between the Stingelhelms and the Fitz-Stingelhelms. The details have been lost to history, and the two families now seem to be on good terms - to the extent that they are now intermarrying (Penance, married to Justice Stinglehelm, is of Fitz-Stinglehelm stock).

• Sly (originally Fight-the-Good-Fight, or Fie for short) suspects the family of - among other things - having framed an innocent kid for treason. Griselda Blurt, one of Fie’s best friends during their rebellious teenage phase, was arrested for defiling an icon of the Muses and taken away to the Imperial Palace. Fie’s subsequent confrontation with their mother Nicoletta immediately preceded their decision to run away, aged sixteen.

• Immediately following the events of Viam Inveniam Aut Faciam, the Stingelhelm family mansion collapsed overnight. Most of the family were out celebrating the Day of Liberation, but, alas, the bed-bound Joy-In-Sorrow Stingelhelm (who was too elderly to attend) and her loyal servant were crushed to death in the rubble. King Crescentius I of Telemere extended his formal condolences to the family, and offered to help them rebuild.