The artwork for our hero here is brought to you by one of my favorite artists, Inessa Burnell! Check her out here! InessaBurnellArt
Appearance
Savic is a male Nasian of 28 years. He is tall, even for a Nasian, at 6’4”, and is athletic in build. Like most Nasians, he has deep black eyes and coarse, straight black hair. His skin is tan with the signature Nasian metallic sheen. Savic shaves the hair on his head, but keeps a short, stubble beard.
Here is Savic in his full preferred uniform. Full Honor Guard regalia is typically quite elaborate, and, in Savic's opinion, quite impractical. When he took over as Honor Guard Captain, he had the uniform changed to be suitable for combat, though still with a touch of pomp and circumstance.
General Characteristics
Savic serves as the Imperial Honor Guard Captain to the Cairne Imperial Family, and personal guard to Prince Tassadin Cairnat. He takes this role very seriously, but he is a very kind, thoughtful man. He often seems older than his years, preferring to approach problems with patience and tact than panic and bluntness.
He is perhaps the best swordsman in the Empire. At least, he is undefeated in his official duel record since he completed his training under the previous Honor Guard Captain. Savic is also quite well versed in strategy, battle tactics, and history, as well as the intricate societal fabric of the Imperial Court. Though, it should be noted that he’d much prefer people actually said what they mean rather than the slights, innuendo, subterfuge, and “hollow speech” that rule the discourse of so-called “Polite Society.”
Savic is perhaps closest with his charge, Prince Tassadin. The two were raised together, and have spent most of their lives together. He is deeply respectful of his parents, though they are more like honored relatives to him than parental figures. He is quite close with his sister, Anaka, who is herself a dear friend of Prince Tassadin’s wife, Alésandre. But he does not know his younger brother Tanburo very well since he had dedicated his life to a far away monastery in the neighboring Mai-Chi Kingdom.
History
Savic Heral Lexera is the son of Aeymen Heral Lonstanner and Itani Lexera. He is the last heir of the senior branch of the House of Lonstanner in the Kingdom of Vona, and heir to the head of the Lexera Clan in the Cairne Empire. His parents met by chance in a trade summit between the Vonan Kingdom and the Cairne Empire, and were immediately drawn to each other. As the House of Lonstanner fell out of the King’s favor in Vona, Aeymen and his father, Heral chose to leave the country and settle in the Cairne Empire, where Aeymen would marry Itani. Since the Lonstanner name had no standing in the Imperial Court, it was decided that Aeymen would take Itani’s clan name to ensure a place in society for his family.
The Lexera Clan had long ago been sworn to the Imperial Family, the Cairnat Clan, to serve as advisors and protectors. Aeymen became a respected trade and efficiency advisor, bringing a wealth of knowledge from the rapidly developing Kingdom of Vona. Itani designed and supervised several road and bridge projects to help bring even the furthest flung regions of the country together.
Then, on Triana 6th, of the 103rd year of the Sixteenth Age, the Age of Rising, Savic Heral Lexera was born. He would be the first of three children. In two years time, his sister Anaka Mistala Lexera would be born, and his brother Tanburo Rikardis Lexera would come the year after.
When he was still just a toddler, Savic was paired with Tassadin Cairnat, the crown prince of the Cairne Empire, to serve as his personal guard. They were roughly the same age, and had similar temperament. It came to be quite the auspicious pairing as the two became nearly inseparable in their youth. The prince considered Savic to be more of a brother to him than his own, and they got into more than their fair share of trouble together.
They both entered the Imperial Officer’s Academy, and graduated with honors. Savic was at the top of his class, and soon came to study under the Imperial Citadel’s Master of Blades, and Honor Guard Captain, Anton Visal, and formally joined the Imperial Honor Guard. He was officially made the Prince’s personal Honor Guard at the age of 18.
During the Aldetch Revolts, Savic was called into regular service as a unit commander of the 27th Ranger Corps. He was needed since several high-ranking members of the military had sided with the Revolutionaries, and the King needed officers he could trust to crush the rebellion. He soon proved himself a clever tactician, leading his men through fifteen engagements without a single casualty.
Savic proved an inventive leader who took advantage of the high mobility the new Aership technology provided. He would send scouts to locate enemy forces and use a small fleet of Aerships to maneuver his army behind the enemy. This proved particularly effective against dug in defenders, or in thwarting troop movements since he could always position his group in tactically superior locations, or overtake defenders behind prepared defenses. His wild success came to influence battlefield tactics even outside of the Cairne Empire as Aerships became much more widespread.
His incredible streak continued until the last battle of the civil war, when the bulk of the revolutionary forces marched towards the capital. Savic’s unit discovered the force while the majority of the Loyalists battalions had been committed to what they thought was the last safe haven of the rebellion in Vondasair, a good day’s ride away. The 27th Ranger Corps were outnumbered ten to one, but he chose to have his men stand their ground at the Tanenbrook River to cut off the enemy advance on the capital. Savic had his Aerships speed over to Vondasair to rally reinforcements as quickly as possible.
By the time Loyalists reinforcements came, Savic was down to twenty men, and half blind with a gash on his right brow blinding his eye with blood. But they had held the river long enough for the 9th and 15th Infantry legions to arrive and crush the remaining rebel forces. Afterwards, he refused to let healers mend his wounds. He wanted the scars that would result as a reminder of what he considered a failure in his leadership, since he had lost so many soldiers under his command.
He was awarded the Order of the Axe, the highest honor of the Imperial Court, for his desperate defense of the capital. All twenty of the soldiers that had survived came to join the Imperial Honor Guard with Savic, and were granted titles for their valor on the battlefield. After the war, Savic was appointed to Honor Guard Captain since Captain Visal had died in battle during the war.
Here pictured we see Savic's family sword, Northguard.
In his Ceremony of Oath for Honor Guard Captain, his father presented Savic with Northguard, the ancestral sword of the House of Lonstanner. It is a Black Tri-Adamant blade in the style of a Kyo Ren Datsu that had been the weapon of Thargenr Lon Santar, the first Lonstanner who rose to power before the Fall of the Vonan Republic thousands of years ago. In passing Northguard to Savic, Aeymen had passed his station as Head of the House of Lonstanner to his son.
Savic could hardly keep his composure in that moment. At the age of 23, he was a decorated war hero, earned the position he had always dreamed of, and been recognized by his father as the future of his family. Sure, he was head of a family that essentially was outcast from the Kingdom of Vona
It has been 5 year since then, and the world has changed much in such a short time. The Lakellos Sun Empire has led a campaign of ferocious conquest across the Southern Continent of Serapis. Up in the North, the Aioptum Empire has ripped through kingdoms new and old, threatening to swallow even the great and ancient Makerian Rize Empire. While currently at peace, Savic cannot help but feel the tension that weighs upon the people of the Cairne Empire. It is certain that dark days are ahead.
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