Cassius Asclepius

Cassius Asclepius is oldest member of the Shardbearers, though one of the most recent to join the group. He has been a soldier longer than many of his companions have been alive, and has the scars to prove it. He is rarely seen out of his armour, and without Causarius (a name which means "Weakness"), an artefact of the Seventh Legion leant to him for his Imperial mission.

Early Life
Despite the grandeur of his last name, Cassius was born to a relatively poor family in the cheaper parts of Avum. He was the second child of five. His family were not model citizens, and indeed his older brother was at times a petty crook; however, after an early encounter with a charismatic legionary, Dotius Startian (see "Cassius young" in the stories section below), Cassius became enamoured with Avum and the military and joined up as soon as he was able. He was assigned to the seventh legion.

Early Military Career
Cassius' first campaign, the annexation of West Arban, was in retrospect a gentle introduction to warcraft. Cassius was part of a Hasti of heavy infantry, and had his first exposure to killing, tactics, and the reality of war. He thrived, and it so happened that all 25 of his original Hasti survived in that campaign. Some of them yet live. He was promoted to Venturii by the end of it - amongst the youngest in that position in his legion.

The war against the hordes of the Lich Goronus Vald was of a different stripe. Whilst brief, this was undoubtedly the darkest of Cassius' campaigns. The Dead seemed unending both in their number and in the depth of the horrors they could bring to bear. The sight of the dead walking out of the river Ponve having crossed the riverbed on foot and of amalgamations of flesh made from the citizens of Edunium nearly broke courage of the Imperial line in which Cassius stood. It did not, and that was in no small part due to his presence and fearlessness. There are accounts of him pausing to grab the collar of a fresh recruit who was turning to run and hurling him bodily back into the fray. One soldier reported afterwards that "the dead were terrifying, but if I had fled, Venturi Asclepius would have killed me". The campaign did leave its mark on him - he persists in an unease sleeping anywhere too far above ground level, after the Dead launched one horrifying attack where they burst from the ground beneath the camp. He needs to be able to hear the sounds of tunnelling. This lasting paranoia aside, Cassius was again commended for his bravery, and again promoted young, to the rank of Optio.

Late Military Career
What followed were a few years of peace garrisoned in the Palatine Peninsular. Cassius became very involved in the training of new recruits - much needed after the heavy losses against the Lich - and maintained his reputation amongst cadets for being "more scary than the enemy". However, it was here he met Aurelia. She was a scholar of weather magic and meteorologist, usually working for the shipping companies based in Nostrum but occasionally acting as consultant for the Legions when they needed specialist input on weather patterns in the area. Cassius acted as her guide and chaperone on the base on these occasions. He fell in love with her competence, her knowledge and passion for her subject, and she with his bravery and drive to protect and grow. Their marriage came quickly and [redacted until revelation]. A few years later, Cassius and the seventh left for the north and the campaign against the Hobgoblins.

The defining feature of this campaign for Cassius, and many other legionnaires, was its length. The Hobgoblins could be crushed in a straight fight - but were sneaky fighters of attrition and retreated regularly to dark networks of tunnels. Cassius and his Maniple descended into these a number of times, each time his iron will holding their courage together. However, it was on this campaign that his bravery gained a tint of anger and rage, that he developed more ruthlessness. At one point he and some other med were captured by a party of Hobs; subject to torture, he found within himself strength enough to actually break through the ropes binding his hands and kill his way through the whole band. He was not stealthy, and over subsequent years he and his platoon became known to the Hobs as something that roughly translates as "The Clanging Death". He was again commended for his bravery, but turned down any promotion to the officer ranks - he felt his current rank was as far from the front lines as he should be.

Over this period, [redacted until revelation].

Retirement and Return
Finally, at just over fifty years of age, with painful knees and slowing down, Cassius took the retirement his superiors were increasingly pressing upon him. However, he found civilian life hard. His father was dead, and his siblings and mother he could hardly connect with (minus one sister, a legionnaire herself, away on another campaign). The messiness and lack of purpose frustrated him. [Redacted until revelation], a disappointment to Cassius. Finally, he moved with Aurelia to an idyllic cottage in the mountains. He tried, he really did, and he and Aurelia discovered they were still very much in love. Another couple of years and he might have found peace and happiness with his new life.

However, that was not to be. Hiking alone one day, he discovered in an ancient grove a shining crystal - a Fragment, which became bonded to him. His only thought and emotion was of happiness and satisfaction - "Now I can serve Avum once again". The parting with Aurelia this time was hard, as she had given up quite a lot in city life to move to this retirement with him. Whilst there may be scope for reconciliation, when he left to re-enlist, she told him not to write to her at their cottage address as she would move back to the Nostrum to continue her work and research, and that she would eventually write to him when she felt ready. He has received only brief notes saying that she is safe, and working on something new, with no return address.

The parting with [redacted until revelation]. After re-enlisting, Cassius had undergone further training and testing, and to his initial dismay was not to re-join the seventh; instead, he was sent to [Redacted, BY ORDER OF THE EMPIRE].

Finally, then, Cassius left the Avum once again, this time alone. His mission - to protect and serve the Empire, against whatever threatens it, however it is needed.

He was sent as a lone operative, to gather shards and respond to threats, and was ordered to take up a place with the Shardbearers some months later.

=Stories=

Cassius Young
This story takes place when Cassius was 13, and begins his fierce dedication to - some may say fanaticism regarding - imperial ideals.

Avum was where Cassius' family lived, but no one would have said they were the model Avian citizens. "The soldiers do their jobs and they get paid," his mother Heria would say, "Same as your father or Perrus down the docks, same as me down the river with the clothes, same as those lettered types in the offices or my grandad out in the fields. Difference is, we die less - and don't you go giving them airs just 'cos they die more". She said this often, usually whilst wrangling with one of Cassius' two younger sisters (Tritia, Brunia) or youngest brother (Ritus), each of them whirlwinds of mess, sticky paws and stolen treats. Her mood worsened with any military parade, the excitement, pomp and circumstance whipping the younger children into a frenzy she struggled to control.

Of course, she knew that Cassius' older brother Perrus only spent a third of his time at the docks, another third being spent lounging on corners and in any bar he could get into. The remainder of his time, which was not time spent working or time spent squandering the results of his work, were taken up dreaming of ways to convert more of the former into the latter - grifts buying and selling trinkets door to door, borrowing money in one place to make more elsewhere, even the opportunistic re-homing of some items left "forgotten" at the back of the warehouse he had been employed in. The 13 year old Cassius was roped in to act as mascot, beast of burden, or lookout in these endeavours. Needless to say, Perrus ended up out of a job more than once, and nearly in a cell several times. He never did see the inside of a jail though - on the one scheme that went that wrong, Cassius took the fall for him.

---

The clang of the barred door as it opened seemed deafening after the quiet of the night in the cell. The noise was fucking welcome - I had never experienced such quiet at night, and at that point found the lack of noise godsdamn unsettling. My family were always a racket.

Standing in the door was a soldier. A huge man, armour scuffed but clean. He spoke.

"Get up, boy. I'm Optio Dotius Startian, of the Seventh Legion, currently acting as city guard. We're going to have a talk."

His voice was like cut marble - hard, with clean edges. He stood motionless, at ease whilst I dragged myself off the palette. I wouldn't talk, I told myself. I'd be a hardass, protect my brother, who's idea the whole thing was. A godsdamn 13 year-old hardass.

He lead me to a room - a table, two chairs. Sat me down and looked me in the eye. "So," he said, and waited.

The quiet oppressed me. The regularity of the room, the neatness of his armour. I wasn't used to it. Hadn't learnt it's beauty, it's purpose.

"I'm not going to say anything,", I whispered eventually. It can't have been a gosddamn minute.

"No?", asked Optio Startian.

"No,", I said. "It was all me. Just a dumb prank. Jump out and scare the stall keeper, have him chase me for fun. No idea who ran in and took the shit. Nothing to do with me." I'd found my nerve. I glared up at him.

He looked back. I saw my glare was having no effect - it was like bouncing off a wall, trying to punch the ocean. He was a mountain of confidence and calm. That was the first moment I realised he had something I wanted. Eventually, he grunted.

"Loyal,", he said. "Just loyal to crap. Ok, kid, what's your name?"

"Cassius Asclepius," I told him. I don't know why I didn't lie - but from then on the truth became a fucking hard habit to shake.

"Alright, Cassius. Let me show you something. Follow me closely."

He lead me back out of the room, and out of the guard house. We were fairly close to the centre of the city, and it was to my shock that we headed that way, and kept going - to the base of the Household itself. And to my even greater shock, after a discussion and showing of paperwork, a greeting and grasped hands of brothers in arms, we entered. We climbed stairs - so many godsdamn stairs, I thought my legs would crumble. Just as I was going to break, and as to rest, we finally came out, onto the first tier of the walls.

And there was the city in front of us.

It was still morning, and the sun shined off every roof and every tower. I could see people - not crowds yet, but light traffic, and groups, looking so small and fragile, like motes of dust drifting through the streets. The roads and houses and boulevards and gardens stretched on and on as far as I could see, losing their colour and merging with the distant pale horizon.

Optio Startian waited until I had drunk it in - until he could see the godsdamn tears forming in my eyes. The he gestured with a sweep of his hand.

"All this", he growled, "could fucking burn."

It was as if I'd been thrown into ice. I must have turned to him in horror.

"It's happened before. Nineteen times, this city had burned. Nineteen times, all you see down there was nothing. But. ASH."

His voice was rising. The mountain of calm had been a volcano.

"And why not again? We are shit! We scrabble around in the dirt, looking for gold! We are born and we eat and we fuck and we die! We steal from each other! We are weak! Why shouldn't it BURN?"

I wanted to run - but his voice held me there, and he pinned me down with his eyes. I had no answer. Finally, he told me.

"It does not burn because we prevent it from burning. We are weak, but we make ourselves strong. We can choose to be better. And when we choose otherwise - when we choose to betray society, lie rob or steal - we move this city one step closer to the flames."

The calm was returning. The anger, the passion, was put away for when it was next needed. And now, he looked at me like something like hope.

"Cassius. Whoever stole from that stall - they dumped the goods one street over whilst we chased them, and high tailed it away whilst you were caught. You want to be loyal, fine - they can go. But I'm going to show you what loyalty can really do. Every morning without fail, you will be at the guardhouse where you spent the night. You will polish the armour, repair the training dummies, and swing a damn sword until your arms ache. You'll do this until I say. Are we clear?"

We were clear.

Four years later, I walked into that same guardhouse for the thousanth time, and took the Empire's Dagger, to my joy being assigned to the Seventh. I was still weak, but choosing to hold back the flames.

Cassius and Skull
''This story takes place just a day or two before Cassius meets with the Shardbearers. He had been given orders to investigate and recover a suspected fragment, but ran afoul of the gnoll warbands marauding in the area.''

The Deadlands had been dusty and fetid, it's people skittering from villages and away from danger like lizards. Cassius had yearned to gather some of the young men and women he saw skulking in the towns together and drill some spine into them - discipline would do them good. That said, he had to respect them for sticking it out in that goblin-ridden hellhole at all; that took guts.

Dahan, meanwhile, completely stuck in his craw. Disorganised and diffuse - village fete's and pageants, and fat nobles running things differently in every city. He passed through quickly and quietly, a grim figure moving efficiently from inn to inn on the road.

The mountains were too cold and Kier was a mess. Finally, though, he reached where rumours of the Fragment had pointed: A hidden grove, South of the White Woods. Just his luck that some stinking, disease ridden gnolls had gotten there around the same time. --

"Touch that and die," I growled, stepping from the shadow of the trees into the clearing where the two gnoll scouts were nearing the lightning split tree within which the otherworldly glint of the Fragment could be seen. Just in time.

They froze. There is a knack to stopping people with your voice - one I'd trained on a thousand cadets who thought they could goof off. Worked just as well on these damned dogs. For a second - then they started to turn towards me, going for blades.

"I have a full contingent coming from the south." A lie. But one that would scare them. "Kill me and they'll catch up to you - but that's assuming you can kill me."

I hefted my Causarius from my back and slowly advanced, pushing out with the power the first fragment had given me - fear. I doubt it would have been as effective for another man - but I had been making grown soldiers wet their pants for decades. I lowered my voice to a whisper.

"And that… I'd love you to try,"

I lunged forwards - they broke and lurched back. They were too slow and Causarius caught one in the throat. I misjudged the distance, however, and the other ran scampering into the bushes. I took the shard - I absorbed it, no way to preserve it for now and keep it safe from my persuit - and withdrew. Later that night, from atop one of the first peaks of the Hills of Wist, I looked back, drawn by howling behind me. In my newly sharpened vision darkness was no impediment, and I could see in the distance the bands of the hound-men, only miles behind. I reckon I could see at the front  the pale face of one whose head was but a skull.

I hurried on - there was sure there was another fragment in the area, command had told me there was a group going to explore the temple where I believed one could lay, and the dogs would not be far behind us.

=Miscellaneous=

"The legions come down like the wolf on the fold,

Our cohorts all gleaming in purple and gold;

And the sheen of our spears are like stars on the sea,

When the blue wave rolls nightly in deep Ostari.

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

Our host with our banners at sunset are seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

Our foe on the morrow lay withered and strown.

So we shall not bend, and we shall not fold;

We shall strive onward, until bowed and old.

The empire once broken, now rose to new peaks

March on, strive on, and recall: we are weak!"

- The Anthem of the Seventh Legion, as ingrained into Cassius' mind as the scars are on his skin.