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| Publication Date: | July 21, 2021 | ||
Meet the Character - Lucilla Caprenia
A request for deployment of an apprentice Imperial Battlemage
- I hereby request consideration for provisional deployment and special training on behalf of Potential Lucilla Caprenia.
- The need for more experienced battlemages in the field during the Three Banners War has far outstripped the Battlespire's current reserves and diminished the fortresses [sic] readiness to dangerously low capability. Without the Empire's support and a steady supply of new recruits, our current objectives will not be achieved before attrition forces us to fully retreat to the Spire.
- We must make better use of our current crop of Potentials, both to relieve our overstretched Battlemages and to better prepare the apprentices for their trials. We cannot sustain the usual casualty rates and expect our numbers to hold. Allowing worthy Potentials to gain practical experience outside of the Spire is the only way to improve their odds of survival without compromising the value of fully commissioned Imperial Battlemages.
- Lucilla has been a model apprentice since her conscription at the age of six, half the standard years of those identified with the makings of a Potential. And she was head of her class before she turned seven. Despite numerous provocations by members of her cohort, whose pride could not bear being overshadowed by a child, Lucilla has never once retaliated, and her record remains free of demerits. She has demonstrated a level of discipline most veteran soldiers cannot muster, even from an age when keeping her hand out of the cookie jar would be a high standard to uphold.
- Lucilla has earned top marks in each of the schools of magic, magical and martial warfare, and contemporary studies. She took first place for single combat in the Potentials Battle Tourney three years running, won the Spire Council's Commendation for Spellcraft last year, and earned an Imperial Medal of Valor for defending her classmates from rampaging atronachs during a botched summoning exercise six years ago. She banished four of them herself. Had we allowed it, she very well could have completed her trial before reaching adulthood.
- Lucilla's admiration for the ideals of the Empire we all hold dear borders on worship, and her commitment to our mission to restore it is unquestionable. Traits that are becoming harder to come by in an age where, for most of our recruits, the Empire exists only in books. Lucilla longs for a return to the glories of the Empire with a passion that might rival some of you on the Council who had actually served while that august institution still existed. My only concern for Lucilla is that her devotion lacks a critical eye, blinding her to the hard choices required to maintain order in such a vast Empire. Ending the Three Banners War will require a great amount of sacrifice and she is not yet prepared for the harsh realities of war.
- I fear we have done her a disservice by keeping her within the Battlespire all these years without opportunities for deployment or advancement. Most of our recruits have plateaued in development before their trials due to our inability to embed them in Imperial Legions, and Lucilla reached the apex of what can be learned within these walls years ahead of them. She is one of the most highly trained Potentials in the history of the Spire, but no amount of preparation can replace real experience. It is time we rectified that.
- Should the Spire Council grant this request, I would ask they assign Lucilla to me during my next deployment. It is of a sensitive nature and her fierce loyalty should be an asset in maintaining secrecy.
- Humbly,
- Battlemage Martus Tullius