Gnaeus Ironspine

Gnaeus Ironspine is one of the last two remaining members of the legendary Spine warband. He spends the bulk of his time caring for his legionnaire, the venerated but ancient Galla Shatterspine, and the two of them are fixtures of the Black Citadel, with Gnaeus leading the war hero gently by the elbow as she "inspects" the Citadel's battlements and soldiery.

Ironspine is also a tutor, and at various times of the year, teaches the cubs of the Black Citadel fahrar marksmanship, long firearms handling, and history of the races of Tyria. He can sometimes be seen in Divinity or Rata Sum, buying books for his students.

## Appearance

Ironspine is a pale grey charr with thin, darker grey stripes. He is both lightly built and on the smaller side for a charr, slender and wiry. The temptation would be to describe him as "a spry old soldier", but ideally not where he can hear you.

He had a nasty fever a few years back and the medic pulled his fangs to save his life, but he's still not quite used to not having them and sometimes lisps.

## Personality

As an older charr who has seen the worst of what war has to offer, Ironspine is profoundly grateful to be living in a time of relative peace. His affect is gentle, and he is kind, friendly and well-disposed to others, in a way that non-charr (and young charr recruits) easily misunderstand.

Veteran soldiers, especially of Ash legion, understand that kindness and friendliness is a choice, and can open doors that aggression and brutality hammer shut.

* **Likes:** Salted dark ale, streetside discount book sellers, pranking cubs who doze off in his history class, Hoelbrak
* **Dislikes:** People who can't hold their liquor, Ebonhawke

## Background

Other than the events in Ebonhawke that made Galla Shatterspine a legend and the Spine warband a name taught to every cub in the Legions, Gnaeus Ironspine's wartime service has mostly been as a spy and occasional sniper. Ash Legion down to the bone, he is (or was, before he lost his teeth) a master of accents and could plausibly claim to be from anywhere originally. Not that anyone outside the Legions has much of an ear for charr dialects.

The past several years of quietly preventing the Citadel's oldest war hero from absently walking under the treads of a moving tank or off a parapet have been fairly kind to Gnaeus. There are those young Legion hotheads who disagree with his position of privilege and relative safety, and can get confrontational about it. At least until some older charr grabs them by several ears and hisses *"Do you have any idea who that is?"*

Gnaeus Ironspine has preferred the company of other males since he was a recruit, and probably doesn't have any cubs. He knows his lost warband did, however, and sometimes among the Fahrar of Young Heroes he sees a flash of familiar fur color, or a shape of the eyes, or a certain way of tilting the ears in surprise that reminds him of friends long gone.

## Relationships

### Friends

* **Téide** - BFF
* **Enfys** - friend and occasional lover
* **Valens Vineharrow** - teacher of, mentor to, now drinking buddy

## Trivia

* Theme song: "Lord, I've Made You A Place In My Heart", Cry Cry Cry
* Theme song: "The Call", Regina Spektor