Even before the Cataclysm, the society of the old Kingdom was one positioned on a constant war footing. The depredations of raider clans from the North, the expansionist tendencies of the Western city-states and the ever-present threat of the return of the Dark meant the Kingdom's military Orders rarely, if ever, knew rest. Young males were taken by the Orders early in life to face trials of strength, endurance and intellect matching them to their role in society; in theory, men could through merit alone rise above the station assigned to them by birth, although in a society where few lived to die of old age this mattered little.
One tradition that did not die with the collapse of the Kingdom was the use of women in the military structure of the surviving Orders. The women of the old Kingdom had also been expected to serve, whether as healers, engineers, auxiliaries or even rarely in the battleline itself. Whilst elsewhere the domain of war was for man alone, in the Kingdom women enjoyed no such distinction. The Orders took in a limited number of young girls each year to face the same trials the males did; each year, a select number of the brightest, fastest and most adaptable of the Kingdom's womenfolk passed the trials and joined the Orders under the rank of Sister-Martial.
Milana was one such individual. She was with us before Black Cross, and served as one of the founding officers of the Black Order. In many ways she is an exemplar to the surviving Sisters-Martial, for she combines the talents of warrior, leader and healer with a keen intellect that has become one of the Order's great assets.
No warrior or war-leader is without flaw, though, and for Milana, the sin of pride has almost been her downfall. Ever keen to prove herself the superior of her brothers in the Order, she has acted rashly, foolishly, more than once in the past and almost paid the price. When she challenged Tancred during the slaughter at Black Cross she was lucky only to lose her right eye; Tancred would have taken far more than that had Baelden not intervened. Milana still bears the bloodied dressing of that old wound, but as a reminder of the wages of pride or as a token of regret for what we did at Black Cross I am not sure.
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