One personality aboard the Talion is neither alive nor a person—though the gunners speak to it like another member of the crew. A special legacy of the MLS Exeter mutiny, the Commodore is a massive royal-weight cannon like those typically found only on first-class ships of the line. Combined with a healthy store of various deadly ammunition, the Commodore is a powerful and versatile weapon able to change the course of a battle with a single deafening roar.
The weapon’s name is a sardonic tribute to former Captain Laross Fargen of the Exeter, who once demanded his crew address him as “Commodore.” It is his skeleton that hangs from the cannon’s wide barrel, proof of the surviving mutineers’ morbid humor. In the fight after his crew mutinied, Captain Fargen accidentally set off an explosion in the Exeter’s powder room that broke the ship’s back and forced it to crash ashore and be abandoned.
After taking Captain Fargen captive and hauling him ashore, Bosun Grogspar strapped the hated tyrant to the cannon and fired it repeatedly until the man was dead. The crew still whisper about this grisly execution, further reinforcing Grogspar’s cruel reputation and spawning the legend that the captain’s restless spirit haunts the cannon. Some swabs claim to have spotted his ghostly specter lingering near the cannon as it sits quietly between battles, while others discount the tales as rum-sodden nonsense.
Costing a small fortune, royal-weight cannons represent the apex of Cygnaran naval gunnery. Their barrels incorporate advanced metallurgical and casting techniques that allow for particularly heavy powder loads and repeated firing without risk of damage. When such a cannon is manned by a skilled crew, these traits provide it with tremendous accuracy and extended range.
The navy ordinarily reserves such weapons for their premier vessels; Duke Waldron Gately of Southpoint, the most influential noble backer of the Mercarian League, had advocated in the Cygnaran Royal Assembly to grant a special dispensation for the Exeter. If the other charges against Phinneus Shae do not forever guarantee his infamy, his ownership of this cannon will. Its seizure during the mutiny technically constituted an act of war against Cygnar, though no one has yet successfully enforced this fine point of maritime law. Certainly Shae has accumulated enough counts of piracy not to worry himself with this particular crime.
The Talion crew consider it a privilege to serve as a gunner or gunner’s mate for the Commodore despite the hazards of manning a gun that Shae’s enemies consider a priority to neutralize. Given how often the crew use smaller cannons, both aboard the ship and ashore, Shae expects each of his sea dogs to know his way around the Commodore and to stand to task as a gunner if needed.