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Dorian Kessel
Name: Dorian Kessel
Age/DoB:42, 17th of Daum 983NE
Faceclaim: Digital Art
Appearance: The years have turned Kessel's face to stone, and a face that's known nothing but military discipline doesn't know how to soften. Battlefield scars cross his body like poorly mended roads, memories of all those times he narrowly avoided Sartha's judgement. He stands ramrod straight despite every aching joint, despite every burning, protesting muscle, despite the heavy armour weighing him down.
He stands tall because he is a man of duty, a man who swore loyalty, a man who never rescinds on his promises. His hands are not the soft, pink palms of court advisors, they are calloused from sword hilts and map tables and from tilling good earth. Once, perhaps, he could have retired and withdrawn to a remote estate with good farmland. Sometimes his eyes go soft and he dwells on what could have been. But then he pulls himself together, remembers his vows, remembers his forefathers and set his jaw so hard that it might crack stone.
So long as he has legs to stand on and arms to swing, Dorian Kessel will continue to wear his tarnished silver armor and serve his king.
Personality: Kessel wasn't born to politics. He was born to war.
The council meetings drag on, each slow minute another knife in his patience. While ministers debate protocol and taxes and bushels of wheat, he thinks only of the latest news from the North. Nomadic warbands testing borders. Mountain strongholds relighting their forgers. The Duke of Andamis tripling his guards.
Someone has to be ready when the storm breaks.
He harbours no illusionary romantic ideas of the lone man still standing guard, dutiful day after dutiful day. It's cold and hard arithmetic, not romantic notions that make him tick. He knows the count of silver helmets in each corner of the realm, and they are too few. The truth is that only the centuries-long alliance with the Ashir of Velora is keeping Mohsal safe.
King Cato understood strategy, but King Casimir cares little for it and all the while the kingdom bleeds for it. But Casimir is king, or will be anyroads, and whether Casimir understands the threats closing in around him or not, Kessel will protect him. It is his duty.
Strengths: A mind for strategy, battle-hardened, loyal
Weaknesses: Impatient, blunt, set in his ways
History:
- 982NE—Dorian Kessel is born to family with a long military tradition.
- 995NE—Squired to an officer in the 4th Silver Legion and was recognized for his bravery and strategic sense.
- 1005NE—Following several promotions and a successful defense of the eastern mountain passes, Dorian Kessel became one of the youngest legion commanders in recent history.
- 1015NE—For a decade it seemed that Dorian Kessel's career had peaked, and it would have been a honorable career indeed. But fate had something else in store for him. When the fool northern tribes began testing their luck again, Dorian Kessel led a critical campaign to drive them back out, despite being outnumbered and low on supplies.
- 1016NE—In recognition of Kessel's many services to the realm and the man's undying loyalty, King Cato appoints him as senior military advisor, must to the chagrin of the High Marhsal at the time who feels undermined.
- 1017NE—A year later, Dorian Kessel is promoted to High Marshal by King Cato, a move that causes quite a few waves at court given that the previous High Marshal was well-regarded.
- 1025NE—The death of King Cato is a devastating blow to High Marshal Kessel. He mourns not just a friend, but the fate of his country also. Mohsal is weak, the 4th Legion has disbanded, the 9th teeters on the edge of rebellion. He's done all he can to consolidate forces and keep morale high among his troops, but the bitter reality is that the army is underfunded, understaffed and incapable of defending so much territory. Unless he manages to get young Casimir on his side, Mohsal will surely suffer when its enemies realize how little strength it can muster.
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