Caladus au Grimmus

* Bellona Lancer
* Ash Prince

Caladus au Grimmus is the youngest child of Cyrus au Grimmus, and current Imperator Classiarii for the Solar Republic. He is known to be serious, dour, and generally unfriendly. Beneath his prickly exterior, however, he loves fiercely and cares wholly for the people closest to him.

## Biography

### Early Life

Born Caladus au Thracii to the Martian House of the same name, Caladus was a child designed and trained for war. His family life was one absent entirely of love, and his father, Ignatius, and mother, Eritrea, treated him more as chess piece than child. He was well fed, tutored by the highest value instructors the Thracii could acquire, and prepared his entire young life for his time at the Institute.

### The Institute

No child is guaranteed a position at the Institute, least of all a child from a House as small and denigrated as gens Thracii. But Caladus was strong and tall, intelligent and ruthless, and he earned his place as a HighDraft for House Diana. His Passage passed with little fanfare. He was set to a smaller boy, and did not hesitate once it was made clear that only one boy would be leaving the room alive.

In the first days of the Institute he made fast friends with Victus au Valii-Rath, Elisia au Tyren, and Gaius au Voloxes. They named themselves **the Pinecones**, an homage to a friendship grown in the woods of Forest Diana, watered with the blood of fellow children. They were Caladus' first friends, and the ones to impart upon him the nickname "Cal" which would follow him the rest of his life.

At the Institute, Cal developed a crush on Elisia, but unexpected injury and disease forced her to retire from activity in the first month. Cal gained the title of Primus of House Diana and led a raiding party south of the forest. Half the House stayed back at the castle to hold it, and Cal and his Southern Raiders took the Standard as they caused havoc amongst Neptune and Apollo. They claimed castle Neptune, but had not yet taken Apollo when a messenger revealed that Castle Diana had fallen. And so the Southern Raiders turned northwards again.

Back at Castle Diana, they discovered that Victus had given up their castle to a Martian nicknamed "the Reaper". The Southern Raiders, hardened by their time in the wilds and at war, did not take kindly to the trespassers and began a violent campaign against part of their own House and the Reaper. It concluded when Victus tricked Cal into a confrontation with the Reaper himself, leading to a wrestling match to determine Primus. Cal lost, and begrudgingly fell in line behind the Reaper.

When the Reaper came for Olympus, Cal and his Pinecones were at his side. This moment became a cornerstone of Cal's worldview, and he often references the stupid courage necessary to take the risks that return great rewards.

> *"Only bold takes Olympus."*
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### The Lion's Rebellion

After the Institute, Cal accepted a position as Lancer to House Bellona, under Praetor Brutus au Bellona. After several years, the Bellona sent him to the Academy, where he won his year and gained a small fleet. He sailed alongside Brutus in the Battle of Hildas, impressing his Lord his quick thinking and ruthless tactics. Following that success, a lunchroom duel with the new Joy Knight brought Cal to both his knees and the Ash Lord's attention. He lost the duel, and both his arms, but gained the respect of several prominent men, including other watching Olympics.

#### Battle for Ceres

In the Battle for Ceres he further distinguished himself, playing a pivotal role in the ground campaigns to shut down the AA guns, destroy the largest ripWing facility in the area, and take control of Ceres' agricultural lands. During the campaign, his friend Gaius au Voloxes, fighting on behalf of the Augustus, was captured in battle, life threatened by Nikolaos au Lahcen. For a guarantee of his friend's lives and safety, Cal accepted a dangerous mission by the Ash Lord to falsely defect to the Reaper and then destroy the Verdant Citadel from within.

He was confronted there by Nikolaos, just as he was setting the bombs that would burst open the Citadel's doors. Nikolaos, who had levied a Blood Feud against Voloxes, offered Cal a killing blow against himself, in an attempt to convince Cal that he was still loyal to the Ash Lord and Society. Cal did not believe him, but did not kill him either. It would be months before either man understood his decision.

#### Black Wedding

Following the events at the Verdant Citadel, the Ash Lord offered for Cal to join House Grimmus as his Dux and Heir. The Thracii Primus, Lord Ignatius au Thracii, accepted the transfer of his son in return for a generous grant of funds and genetic leeway for his next offspring. Thus, Cal attended the marriage of Marcade au Lune to Artemesia au Raa and Saren au Augustus to Sheba au Grimmus as **Caladus au Grimmus.** When the event turned violent, he worked with Gaius to protect the Voloxes, and pulled an unconscious Elisia away from the fighting. Victus was lost in the chaos. The Ash Lord then tasked him with gaining control of the orbit over Mars, which he did with a grieving Nikolaos at his side.

After reestablishing control, Cal sent Gaius to hunt for their missing friend. All signs pointed to Victus having been murdered. Consumed with a grief more intense than he had ever felt up to that point, he goes to Nikolaos, similarly grieving a person lost to the Black Wedding. They begin a romantic affair together. Cal now understands why he did not kill Nikolaos at Achae, but Nikolaos would take several more months to realise.

> *"Tell me again. Tell me again that you never lie."*
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### The Second Moon Lord's Rebellion

The Ash Lord named Cal Imperator of the Sword Armada to bring the Rim to heel, once the Moon Lords had declared open rebellion. Before the Armada departed, A man they were led to believe was Victus was recovered from the Manticore's lair at Attica. Elisia confessed her romantic feelings to Cal, but he turned her down, afraid of spoiling their friendship and the dynamic of the Pinecones. Gaius remained behind, hunting Sons of Ares operatives in the Core.

Their first target was the Lux asteroid city of Hektor, which proved an easy and mostly empty target. The Armada paused there long enough for Saren au Augustus and Sheba au Grimmus to join, and before departing the asteroid Sheba held a dinner. There, Darius au Saud insulted Nikolaos, now Truth Knight, for his clandestine relationship with Cal. The event ended without much bloodshed, and afterwards, in private, Nikolaos confessed true affection to Cal.

#### Jovian Orbit

Pasiphae and Carme were the first Rim targets of the Sword Armada. There, the Fear Knight enacted terrible war crimes, directly going against the mandate of the Sword Armada - to pacify the Rim through noble warfare, and thus bring them back into the Sovereign's peace. The Fear Knight blamed the crime on his second, but during the man's trial, Fear's hand in the crimes was revealed. Caladus, Imperator of the Sword Armada, was not informed of this, and the trial's defendant was changed, mid-proceeding, to Fear. The Olympic council, presiding over the trial, absolved him of his crimes after having him walk a gauntlet.

When word of this reached Cal, he sets into a motion a coup against his own Armada. With the support of Saren au Augustus, Rage Knight, and other young and ambitious members of the Sword, he regained control, and threw Fear into a private holding cell. Fear would remain there for several months, until the fall of Discordia.

Throughout the coup and events leading up to it, Nikolaos and Cal suffered a strained relationship. Nikolaos was being blackmailed by a mysterious figure to provide intel on Cal, and the two could only speak in secret, subtle ways.

#### Major Moons

After Pasiphae and Carme, the Sword sailed on Europa and Callisto. At Europa, Daxos the Joy Knight sacrificed his life for a last shout of pride, and in doing so destroyed the enemy Imperator's flagship. Nikolaos and Cal fought side by side in the battle for Discordia, and enjoyed a beach day together afterwards. After reporting back success to the Ash Lord, Cal was named Navarch of the Society.

At Callisto, Nikolaos fell in the first Rain, and was thus separated from Cal for the entirety of the ground campaign, as Cal presided over the naval battle from orbit. Before he can properly appreciate the victory, Elisia brought Cal word that Nikolaos has betrayed him. Together, Elisia and Victus worked against Cal's wishes to have Nikolaos confined and shipped back to the Core to stand trial for subterfuge and treason.

#### Battle for Ilium

After Sheba led a convoy away from the Armada, the Sword began its siege of Ilium under Cal's command. However, only weeks into the siege, Cal received a secret communication from someone claiming to be the true Victus. They claimed that the Victus with the Sword was in reality his brother Nihlus, sent by the Manticore to control Cal and report back on him. Caladus goes to a meeting with the man claiming to be Victus and is shot, stabbed, and kidnapped by the Victus and the Sons of Ares ambush team he brought to the meeting.

As a prisoner to the Rising, the Reaper tried to convince Cal to work against the Society. He leveraged both true Victus and the information that Cal was an actual blood-relation to the Ash Lord. Cal convinced the Reaper to hostage him back to the Ash Lord at the Core, implying that he would be an asset for the Reaper in his war against the Sovereign.

Thus fell the Sword Armada to the Reaper's fleet under Tristan's Imperium, lacking many of its highest command.

> *"Thank you for your useless words, Alec."*
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### Return to the Core

Cal was returned to his father on Earth, and the Ash Lord convinced Cal to spend some time in New Sparta familiarising himself with his ancestral lands before he left for Luna to begin preparing for the Reaper's attack on the Core. He was reunited with Nikolaos, now stripped of Olympic cloak, and the two began plotting to take down the Manticore and the Sovereign, and stop the Rising. Cal met with Gaius and Elisia as well, and warned both about the true Victus and his eventual arrival.

#### The Manticore's Nukes

The Sovereign informed Cal of the Manticore's hostaging of Luna. He made a plan with the Pinecones and Niko to search Attica, the Manticore's fleet, and the Manticore's Lunese estate for the controller to the atomics. They also recruited the Strigo to aid in this, to the Strigo's dismay. Just before this, Cal and Niko shared a tender good bye, and Nikolaos left with Gaius to secure Attica.

After the party at the Manticore's estate, and without consulting Cal, Elisia enacted her own plan to assassinate the Sovereign. She was betrayed by the Strigo, and Cal's last dinner with Victus was rudely interrupted as both men rushed out to help their friend. To help Elisia get off-planet, Cal sacrificed himself, drawing attention to the Citadel of Light in a confrontation with his father and the Sovereign. For this, the Sovereign had him condemned to the Pandemonium Chair.

#### The Chair

The Ash Lord and the Sovereign sent Cal to the Chair with the intention of wiping from him his love of his friends, transforming him into a perfect tool for the Society, free of attachment and weakness. He was still in the Chair when the Reaper attacked Luna. Once discovered, he was not immediately released. Alec and Elisia decided together to keep him in the Chair long enough to finish removing his attachment to Nikolaos, and to transfer his affection to several important Rising figures to secure his place in the new Republic.

Elisia greeted him when he finally awoke, and helped him navigate the new world he found himself in, devoid of many pivotal memories. He developed a crush on her, and she reciprocated. She has encouraged within him a healthy distrust of Nikolaos, now au Fabii. When Gaius returned alone from Attica, Elisia reintroduced him to Cal, after ensuring Gaius would say nothing positive about Nikolaos to Cal.

### The Solar War

Once cleared to leave the Citadel of Light, Cal was sent to help secure the latifundias of Terra with campaigns across the Americas and Europe. He swayed the American Grimmus to flock to the Republic's banner, but before he could move on New Sparta, he was called back to the Ink to help in the defense against the Ash Armada.

He now commands the Ashen Hart fleet, with flagship The Wuffykins.