Lady Maria

**Key Features** | »» Sword of Saint Joan (ambiarically heated)»» Talon Steel shield w/ personal heraldry»» Full plate Talon Steel clockwork-powered armor»» Ambiarically-powered halo»» Mechanical wings give angelic appearance

*"I am not afraid... I was born to do this."*

- Lady Maria

## Tactical Analysis

* **Avatar of justice**: Lady Maria is the Talon commando, and as befitting the Talon doctrine, Maria can survive harrowing amounts of damage and remain in fighting shape long after any of her rivals would be dead. Thanks to her powered armor, Lady Maria is completely uncrushable, even by the mightiest war machines, and it takes a formidable amount of firepower to meaningfully harm her. And with her ambiaric greatsword, Lady Maria is one of the few commandoes who can stare down the barrels of an Apocalypse Tank and smile calmly. She can't swing as often as a gunslinger can shoot a firearm, but when Maria hits, anyone fortunate enough to survive will definitely feel it.

* **See the light**: Heretics of a cowardly - if sensible - disposition might think they can simply evade Lady Maria or pick her apart via *"kiting"* tactics. The last thing such fools ever see is a flash of light overwhelming their motor functions as Maria suddenly sprints towards them, blade held high to deliver the killing stroke...

* **Still not God**: Mighty as Lady Maria is, she is still vulnerable. Although few foes indeed can best her in single combat, she is ill-equipped to fight an army and can be overwhelmed by an enemy with no concern for their own losses. Nor can she defend herself against airborne assailants, and in the event of such an attack, her Halo might very well be called upon to help her escape.

* **But is chosen by God**: Of course as Lady Maria grows in strength she would show the Talons why she is the prophetic saviour. Wearing a banner that inspires forces around her, and increasing her stubbornness, her sword and shield gets alight with holy flame which she can throw out as flaming arcs while her shield reflects incoming attacks, a Thermobaric jumpjet and Zealot grappling hook that lets her leap into combat and pull herself towards aircraft to cut it apart (though she’ll need time to recover once she crashed back down), and finally she glows with such radiance that not even weapons that kills infantry in a snap affects her, at that point only massive numbers, preferably aircraft, could kill her.

## Background

*"Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem. Dona eis requiem sempiternam."*

- Lady Maria about to slay a group of legionnaires.
In 1919, the Lord Marshall of the Talon, Lord Eli Constantine, lay dying, a festering wound from the trenches having wasted a once-impressive figure to a gaunt, hallucinating ruin of a man. As the last rites were administered while he drifted in and out of consciousness, his eyes suddenly snapped open, and he described a prophecy in great detail to the scribes and priests surrounding his deathbed.

In 1948, the patron saint of the Talon, Joan of Arc, would return to Earth and be reincarnated as a child born in the midst of *"Heavenfall"*. The child's parents would be infidels, but the child would be rescued from them and grow to lead the Talon. This child was destined, he said, to slay the Anti-Christ that the cult waited for. As the life faded from his eyes, he described that the child would be born of the greatest enemy of the Talon, but that their father would not be a warrior.

Over the next few decades, the greatest theological minds of the Talon struggled to decrypt the meaning of the Lord Marshall's words. Did the Talon have enemies that did not fight? What did *"Heavenfall"* mean? Why would a Saint be reincarnated, and to infidels of all people? Nevertheless, the Order kept faith that the prophecy would be fulfilled. As 1948 came, they waited with baited breath for their prophecy to come true. Instead of salvation, however, 1948 seemed to bring only despair.

Two years prior, in Saudi Arabia, famed oil baron, multi-millionaire and philanthropist Muayid Kanasani received terrible news. His brother's plane had been destroyed on a return flight from Italy, where he had been negotiating a business deal for him with an up-and-coming coalition of corporations called the Mediterranean Syndicate. The plane's wreckage had been found in Turkey, where it had been determined that the plane had been shot down, and then all survivors of the crash landing killed. Using every connection he could, Kanasani eventually discovered the Order of the Talon and their agenda.

The plane was carrying an agent of a cult that the Order hunted, and so it had been destroyed to send a message to them. Enraged that anyone would do such a thing, Kanasani called his contact in the Syndicate and hired a massive force of Legionnaires, ordering them to arrest or kill this *"Order of the Talon"*, resulting in the Second Siege of Hawk's Perch.

In the aftermath of the siege, agents of the Talon tracked Kanasani down to his home, breaking in on Christmas day. As Kanasani read his newspaper in his sitting room, a Rogue's arrow struck him down, followed shortly by his wife. As the Rogue and Templar Lord turned to leave, they heard the crying of an infant from within the room. Fearful that she would expose them to the servants, the Rogue turned to silence the child.

As he brought back his knife and whispered a prayer for forgiveness, the Templar Lord saw through the window a shower of meteors streaking across the sky. Remembering the prophecy, the Templar Lord stopped the Rogue and instead bundled the child up and took her with them. The child was christened **Maria, Lady of the Talon**.

Maria's life was one of austerity. The Talon hadn't had a female general since Joan of Arc herself, and few in the Order, mainly the sect that still refused to accept the Scriptum Reforms, were outright furious their new saviour was another woman. During her early life, she was isolated from all but a few veteran Crusaders, both men and women (but mostly men), inside the Talon, and her instructors were strict and she reacted to awkwardly by all but a few veteran Crusaders inside the Talon, many treating her like their platonic ideal of Joan of Arc. Taking refuge in her faith, Lady Maria grew to hate the Order almost as much as she did the Cult they faced.

Though the prophecy states she was to lead the Talon, she was used as little more than a pawn, a symbol to be paraded about for the morale of the footmen, mainly done by the conservative sects who still believe that Maria was a simple fluke. Finally, in 1967, Maria began to gather a retinue of sympathetic individuals in the bishopric, and then struck out on her own with half of the Order of Temple, which were her sentinels from the very beginning of her training. If the Lord Marshall or any archbishop wanted her help, she told them, they would no longer be able to order her. They would have to ask. Politely.

Lady Maria was a gifted and fearless fighter, and probably one of the best duelists to have ever lived. Her skill with a blade is almost unmatched; she can weave a pattern of destruction across the battlefield, protected by a fine suit of Talon Steel, her movement enhanced with clockwork joints. Those fortunate enough to have seen her in battle and survived have noted her uncanny resemblance to an avenging angel, with shining halo and silver wings. Despite her archaic way of fighting, she is one of the deadliest people on the planet, and she has proven time and time again that she will let nothing stand in her way.

## Known Activities

* Bested a Satyr in single combat, evading his monowire before decapitating the twisted assassin with a single blow.

* Single-handedly stormed a Black Hand training camp, killing all the soldiers inside.

* Downed a Cryocopter attempting to apprehend her with a fallen Fanatic's grappling hook, surviving despite the machine crashing atop her.

* Assassinated Valor Avionics' Board of Directors in Arcadia, crashing through several Praetorian bodyguards to get to them.

* Thrust her sword so strongly that it pierced the front armour of the Scorpion Tank *"Muezza's Meow"* and killed the driver.

## Behind the Scenes

* Lady Maria's is designed to wear historically accurate full plate armour. This is to defy the tired trope female armour in fantasy, mainly cheesecake ones like most anime, being ridiculously skimpy (also known as chain mail bikini) and would realistically protect nothing, while also drawing comparison to most of PEQAN PIES commandoes, who are often dressed in very little and/or skintight clothing (yes, this includes the male commandoes). And because such armour wouldn't thematically fit with the straight-laced and conservative Talon.

## Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Talon Steel Shield Battlesuit

 **Kill Reward** | 20000

 **DPS** | 25

 **DPS** | 50