Ferdinand the Great of the Rothenbaum Dynasty was a nobleman who became the first Belkan Emperor (1852—1861), and was the former King of Dinsmark (1838—1852). Considered by future Belkan generations to have been a great statesman and brilliant military leader, Ferdinand unified the warring kingdoms of Belka and formed its first unified state. He accomplished this by defeating the Osean Federation during the First Belkan–Osean War, and later set up many of the institutions during his reign that would last throughout the Belkan Empire's history.
However, he was also a brutal ruler, killing over a million Belkan republicans and other dissidents. The infamous politician and future chancellor of Belka, Waldemarr Rald, praised Ferdinand, making the first emperor a symbol of Belkan nationalism. However, after the Belkan War, the postwar government changed the official view of him.