During a fencing lesson in a barn, Volger tells Alek that politics is his birthright, and hints at the letter to the pope, which Alek does not know about. On the journey to Switzerland, Volger keeps abreast of the latest military developments by listening to a portable wireless set. The crew of the Stormwalker obey Volger instead of Alek, so Volger is more-or-less the real leader of the Stormwalker crew, although Alek is ostensibly in charge.

When Alek becomes suspicious, it is Volger who breaks the news of Alek's parents' deaths, and Volger also drugs Alek when he begins to panic. Volger convinces Alek to come with he and Klopp for a midnight piloting lesson, although Alek wonders why Volger would be coming along, as he hates walkers. But despite this, Volger still treats Alek as inferior, to keep up the illusion that the boy is common since the terms of the Archduke's marriage must be kept a secret until the emperor dies.Īs part of this plan, at the beginning of Leviathan, Volger flees Austria-Hungary with Alek, Klopp, Bauer and Hoffman in the Stormwalker after the assassination of the archduke. He also went hunting with Franz Ferdinand, and Alek remembers that they shot almost two-hundred stags.īefore the series begins, Volger went with Alek’s father on a trip to Rome to visit the pope in order to change the terms of Alek’s parents' marriage, thus naming Alek as his father’s heir. He was also a close personal friend of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Alek's father, and had advised him not to marry Sophie Chotek sometime in the late 1890s.

Volger grew up in an aristocratic family that owns “just a bit of forest.” Volger was previously a cavalry officer.

Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld