On a point regarding politics and something that came up recently, I'd like to see more consequences of Fredrick's lack of pride. The character has been effectively characterised as self-sacrificing, willing to go to unnecessary lengths to safeguard his people, that sort of thing. That's fine and is a joint result of his characterisation and of the general discussions in thread (apparently, I haven't been here reading for 6 years after all), however this humbleness would realistically result in people not taking him seriously.
Something to take into account is that in the Medieval Society the monsters that are an everyday reality on this setting does not exist IRL... And when a crazy motherfucker is capable of killing by himself several creatures capable of annihilating armies, you will need to take him seriously, no matter how humble he seems, because in this case is is impossible to mistake his humbleness for weakness...
Yes, but I'm more talking about non-direct confrontation. Yes I doubt many people would be interested in fighting him, but there's plenty of different people who might confont Ostland in a more indirect manner, relying on Fredreick's previously established humble and self-sacrificing nature to deflect and mitigate any negative outcomes.
How exactly is this "humble" though? I mean, how/why is this humble, specifically?
What you described -- "The character has been effectively characterised as self-sacrificing, willing to go to unnecessary lengths to safeguard his people, that sort of thing." -- isn't necessarily humility. But rather
physical courage and
valor.
Freddy is willing to put
his physical body in the way of threats to his people. To shed a lot of sweat and blood, in defense of his people. That's physical courage.
You're right that people would be meeting Freddy in underhanded challenges, but that's entirely because they would be seeing how good he is at head-on challenges and martial prowess and going "Nuts to that! Why would we want to face him in his area of
strength? No, let's do something sneaky instead."
You're not describing a weakness of humility and people looking at humility and going 'Aha, we can afford to take him!' People would be looking at him and going 'He's the Steel Bull, as stubborn and valiant as any exemplar of a bull... but how is he at
intrigue and subtlety? I bet we can beat him there!'
It won't be his demonstrated virtues that would lead people to decide to attack him though. It would be people's own motivations -- like, e.g., competing economically with Ostland -- and priorities that would lead them to want to clash with him. And then, people's assessment of Freddy's accomplishments and personality will lead to them preferring stealthier methods of messing with him.
If they want to mess with him.
And even then, some people -- like Gunthar -- would probably be still perfectly willing to face him head on, because of their
own personality and character and strengths. Somebody like Gunthar would look at Freddy and go "Ehh... I think we're fairly well-matched in thews. I think I have a good shot in a duel."
