Lucio Varentes

He dresses in practical field plate marked by a crimson officer’s sash, immaculately maintained even on campaign.

Lucio Varentes was born in Tiberia, the son of a shipwright, into a modest branch of a once-proud family. The Varentes name, though diminished, was ancient: local lore held it to be a remnant of Varenthia, the lost fortress-city that fell to the Elves in the early centuries of their dominion. Among Tiberians, the name carried connotations of old defiance and endurance, though no lands or titles remained.   As a youth, Lucio showed little interest in guild affairs, preferring soldiering. He enlisted as a caravan guard, rose through a pike regiment, and quickly earned a reputation for coolness under pressure. In 189 IE, after mercenary companies shattered under Beastman raids in the Varen Hills, Lucio gathered the remnants into a single disciplined host: the Swords of Varentes   Over the next five years, he won a string of victories against the Beastmen, most famously at the Battle of Cora Vale (191 IE), where his pike line broke a horde three times its size. The campaign secured Tiberia’s caravan routes and earned him the epithet “The Pike Wall of Varen.” As his company grew, he became known less as a tactical genius than as a commander who never squandered lives and never lost cohesion.   In 196 IE, he contracted briefly under Novayan coin to defend Frontier fortresses, where his insistence on sparing civilians gained him the loyalty of rank-and-file soldiers but cost him favor at the ducal court. Later, during The Mevanian-Florian War, he refused lucrative contracts from both sides, choosing instead to defend neutral ports and caravan routes. This decision preserved his neutrality and his independence, though it kept him out of the war’s great battles.   By 202 IE, Lucio commanded nearly 4,000 veterans in the Swords of Varentes, one of the largest and most respected private hosts on the Velvet Coast. Though never flamboyant, his record of victories, his neutral Tiberian origins, and the enduring resonance of the Varentes name forged him into the natural compromise choice for a commander should the Velvet Coast unify.