
Folkwin Wolfspeer was a Cherusci German warrior during the 1st century AD. He was childhood friends with the future Cherusci king Arminius and his wife Thusnelda; Folkwin and Thusnelda were lovers from a young age until Arminius took Thusnelda as his wife for political purposes, and this, along with Arminius' refusal to free Folkwin from Roman slavery until he could defeat Folkwin's Roman captors at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, caused Folkwin to become a rival of Arminius.
Biography[]

Folkwin in 9 AD
Folkwin Wolfspeer was born in present-day Hanover, Germany to the Germanic Cherusci tribe during the late 1st century BC. The son of a brewer, Folkwin was childhood friends with Thusnelda and Arminius until Arminius was taken hostage by the Romans, and, as he grew into manhood, he and Thusnelda fell in love. Folkwin became the "first swordsman" of his village under Reik Segimer, and he was opposed to his tribe's submission to the Roman Empire, as it meant his already beleaguered family giving away their last lamb to the Romans. After the Roman soldiers crippled Thusnelda's brother Ansgar, Folkwin and his friends Hanno and Eigil agreed to help Thusnelda seek retribution by stealing the Roman legion's imperial standard. They infiltrated the Roman camp and returned to their village in triumph, holding the standard high as their villagers acclaimed them. While Folkwin believed that, as there were hundreds of Germanic villages between their village and the Romans, he and his tribe would be safe, the pro-Roman nobleman Segestes (Thusnelda's father) informed the Romans that Folkwin had stolen the standard, and Arminius, by then an officer in the Roman legions, came to the village with a necklace Thusnelda had dropped and confronted her and Folkwin over the standard's theft. Folkwin and Thusnelda were disappointed in Arminius' transformation into a cold-hearted Roman soldier, and Folkwin faced further tragedy after his family was publicly crucified for his crimes. Folkwin was forced to go on the run, joined by Hanno, Eigil, Luco, Berulf, and a few other young warriors. The fugitives attempted to seek shelter with the Bructeri, but Kunolf the Brukteer attempted to betray them to the Romans, leaving Berulf dead. Folkwin and his remaining followers were forced into the Black Forest, but Luco, fearing that nobody who entered the "Dark Land" would come out alive, decided to remain behind. He was captured by the Romans and interrogated before being executed, and the Romans tracked down Folkwin and the last of his followers. All but Folkwin were slain in the ensuing battle, but, when Arminius confronted Folkwin, he decided to kill the cruel centurion Metellus instead, and he spared Folkwin's life. Thusnelda arrived shortly after, but Folkwin and Thusnelda were unable to convince Arminius to join them; Arminius instead took the severed head of Eigil back to his adoptive father Publius Quinctilius Varus and claimed that it was the head of Folkwin.
Folkwin and Thusnelda were still determined to lead Germanic resistance to the Romans, so they returned to the land of the Bructeri, where they killed their leader Kunolf and allied with Kunolf's successor, Golmad, who pledged a few hundred warriors to their cause. The two once again met up with Arminius, who, by then, had succeeded his father Segimer as Reik and become disillusioned with the Romans after Varus compelled Segimer to commit suicide to make way for his son to succeed to the throne. Arminius announced that he intended to marry Thusnelda, who commanded the respect of the other tribes, and, while Thusnelda and Folkwin reluctantly agreed because of the strategic worth of Arminius and Thusnelda's marriage, Folkwin privately loathed Arminius for stealing his love. The trio then returned to the Cherusci village, and Arminius had Folkwin fake his death and leave the village. After watching Arminius and Thusnelda's wedding from a distance, Folkwin got drunk and was captured by Roman soldiers after attempting to free a group of Germanic slaves they had taken.
Folkwin suffered under Roman slavery for several weeks as Arminius and Thusnelda made plans for a pan-Germanic uprising against the Romans. Arminius noticed Folkwin's survival upon returning to the Roman camp to persuade Varus to walk into a Germanic trap, and he briefly spoke to Folkwin, who asked for Arminius' help in escaping. Arminius told Folkwin that he could not immediately do so, as he was planning to lure the Romans into an ambush before destroying their army and rescuing Folkwin. During the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, Folkwin escaped captivity and seized a Roman imperial standard. After the battle, Folkwin reunited with Thusnelda, who finally discovered that he was not the charred body she had found in the woods weeks before. Arminius then asked Folkwin to share in the spoils of battle and offered him the title of "first prince" once he became King of Germania, but Folkwin warned Arminius that, if Arminius became King, he would be the first to kill Arminius.