Ashlynn d'Elyse is one of the last surviving Llaelese warcasters and the supreme military leader of the Llaelese Resistance. Since the occupation she has turned to freelancing to fund her ongoing operations against Khador. Though she has no love for the Protectorate of Menoth and blames Cygnar’s withdrawal for Llael’s defeat, she gladly accepts their gold. Ashlynn d’Elyse is considered the Resistance’s strongest military asset with her personal combat expertise and power as a warcaster. The coin she earns funds the continuing effort to liberate Llael.
Ashlynn uses her formidable arcane abilities to enhance her blade skills. Transforming the air around her into a blur of motion, she can unleash a storm of saber attacks against anyone unlucky enough to cross her path. Enemy formations are torn apart by furious gales that kick up clouds of obscuring dust and debris, plunging the battlefield into chaos. Her allies move as if propelled by the wind itself, evading bullets and charging into battle with stunning alacrity.
History[]
Ashlynn was born in 577 AR near Merywyn, the only child of Sir Benoir d'Elyse, a master duelist of the Royal High Guard, and his wife Lady Elwynn. Her mother died of a wasting ailment when Ashlynn was eleven.[1]
Ashlynn grew up in training academies and target ranges. She fought and defeated some of the finest swordsmen in Llael by the age of fifteen, and her warcaster talent earned her a place at the Royal Arcane Academe where she blossomed. She graduated head of her class and went to serve as one of her nation’s few warcasters.[1]
Ashlynn soon became one of the most renowned duelists in Llael. Despite her warcaster talents, she had to work as a freelancer just to earn a wage, due to Llael's ludicrously poor support given to its warcasters. Finding her early assignments, such as guarding the Council of Nobles or garrisoning Merywyn, tedious, she began to seek out danger wherever she could find it and soon became a renowned duelist, fighting petty duels and trivial combats.[1]
When Khador invaded, Ashlynn joined Llael’s 2nd Armoured Brigade of the Western Division. On the battlefield, she surprised even herself with her martial prowess and proved herself a true warcaster. Even given the superiority in numbers and firepower of the enemy, she inflicted substantial losses. After Laedry’s mercenaries folded, Ashlynn spent weeks harassing Khadoran supply lines, operating with little support.[1]
In Casteus 605 AR, Ashlynn led a bold attack, bursting through a gauntlet of Men-O-War to buy time for the besieged garrison at Fort Llernas north of Merywyn. Her attack allowed the garrison to abandon the heavily damaged fort and fall back to Merywyn before the encirclement. When Khador struck at Merywyn, she was given a small skirmish group and assigned to conduct periodic reprisal strikes beyond the city’s walls.[1][2]
After the fall of Merywyn, Ashlynn's father was among the thirty-seven nobles who attempted to organize a revolutionary force. This initial attempt failed, and he was executed by the traitor Prime Minister Deyar Glabryn as a potential threat to the Khadoran occupation. Ashlynn retreated with the rest of the surviving Llaelese military to the last free city of Rhydden, which became a refugee gathering point and the center of the Llaelese Resistance. Following the end of the war, she participated in escorting nobles across Llael’s occupied borders to sanctuary in Cygnar. She was fortunate enough to have 'liberated' a substantial stash of Golden Crucible mechanikal parts after the occupation, including access to several Vanguards.[2][3]
Ostensibly turning mercenary after the occupation, Ashlynn proved selective in choosing clientele. Nearly all of her employers belonged to the enigmatic Highborn Covenant, a loose affiliation of former Llaelese nobles.[1]
When the Northern Crusade, led by Grand Scrutator Severius, arrived in Llael at the same time as a full Khadoran assault legion was moving on Rhydden, Ashlynn welcomed them to the city, agreeing to build a temple and follow Menite pre-Orgoth policy towards Morrowans in exchange for their help. With the aid of Severius' forces, the Resistance managed to repel the Khadorans. However, Severius' new policies started to raise concern among the local Llaelese populace.[3][4]
At the beginning of 607 AR, Cygnaran remnant forces struck several significant logistical targets in Merywyn. They expected assistance from the Resistance, but Ashlynn was unable to provide it, being occupied with a thrall horde headed toward Rhydden from the west. Aided by the Northern Crusade, her forces pushed the Cryxians back across the Black River, while Cygnar ultimately failed to loosen Khador’s grip on the capital.[4]
Sharing a common foe, Ashlynn decided to join forces with Severius to liberate Leryn, a city so fortified that the Resistance couldn't take it alone. Though she didn’t trust Severius, she needed his help to seize Leryn as a new base of operations, since Rhydden was indefensible in the long term from Khadorans. She dispatched Anastasia di Bray to discover the religious leanings of the ranking Greylords of occupied Leryn.[5]
Through Severius' efforts and the intelligence provided by Anastasia, when the Northern Crusade arrived at Leryn, the city's gates were flung open to them. However, Ashlynn hadn’t expected Severius to declare Leryn the seat of the Northern Crusade and impose Temple law. The city was liberated from the Khadorans only to become a territory of the Protectorate of Menoth. Despite her resentment, Ashlynn had no choice but to continue working with the Sul-Menites, without whom the Resistance stood little chance of victory against the Khadorans.[6]
Personality[]
From a young age Ashlynn had a disregard for discipline and her own safety, and was unable to take seriously the consequences of her actions despite Lord Benoir's stern demeanor and low tolerance for nonsense. She gloried in her skill until she hears of her father's death in the fall of Merywyn. His death crushes her childish joy in the rush of battle and turns her cold and ever more ruthless.[1][3]
Vengeful and independent, she takes a grim satisfaction in killing Khadorans wages a personal war against her hated enemies. Though only biting at the Motherland for now, Ashlynn hopes not only to repel the invaders but also one day to drive her saber through the heart of the men she holds responsible for ending her father’s life. Most notable among these is Kommandant Gurvaldt Irusk, who led the invasion, and the traitor Deyar Glabryn, whose collaboration paved the way and who signed his death sentence.[3]