Franz I of Marlund

Franz I (Franz Joseph Merlinger), born 24 October 1505, was the first King of Marlund. His twenty year reign was a prosperous one for his new nation, seeing the foundations of what would one day become one of the four major nations in Ambara. Franz was originally the son of a German prince and an early convert to Lutheranism. Seeing little hope for long-term religous peace in Europe, Franz gathered together a community of his coreligionists and set off to find a new home where they might practice their faith in peace. They sailed throughout the wide world, lost, for years, before finally finding a green and growing land where they planted their new nation with Franz at its head.