Marcella Pethros (Bannerlord)

## Marcella Pethros

*For lore character, see Marcella Pethros.*
**Marcella Pethros** is the empress of the Southern Empire, leader of the Pethros clan, and is a claimant to the imperial diadem of the Calradic Empire. She is initially the owner of Lycaron, Onira, Chanopsis Castle, and Sestadaim Castle.

She is one of the nobles who can provide information about the Battle of Pendraic for the quest Investigate Neretzes 'Folly'.

## Official Description

> The southern third of the Empire is ruled by Marcella, daughter of the late Empress Rhagaea. She is known for her kindness, brave and a fair ruler. Throughout the Empire, she is called the Peacemaker and the Wise. Like her grandfather the late Emperor Arenicos, Marcella is also well-beloved and even inherited a poor side of the Empire. She is believed to end civil wars and conflict is by wisdom and peace.
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## Background

Marcella was born in year 1058 to Arenicos, emperor of Calradia and his wife Rhagaea who became the ruler of the Southern-part of the Empire. After her father was either assassinated or mystery murdered prior of year 1083, her mother became the "ruler" of the Empire, dispute the Calradian Throne was contested as Senator Lucon and General Garios declared the "rightful heir of Calradia" respectfully, this however lead to a three-way Calradian Civil War.

A year after of her mother's reign, she died at age 47 after contracted a devasting disease, and Marcella inherited the throne in Onira who became her *de facto* capital. As empress, she will make sure to to unite the Empire under the Pethros once more by peace and wisdom. She is also known to have the imperial capital of Lycaron as the Empire's capital after unification of the Empire.

## Politics

Marcella favors a hereditary monarchy over the Imperial title, with a more feudal system of absolute governance under the Emperor. Marcella believes politics and history is defined by the law of succession — hereditary claims and dynasties that define right from wrong, and believes that the Calradic Civil War is a result of this fundamental law being broken to prevent her and her daugher Ira from succeeding the popular Emperor Arenicos.

### Claim

Marcella's claim to unify Calradia as Empress is purely feudal, and the matter of contention that sparked the Calradian civil war. As Emperor Arenicos was assassinated before he could select his heir (or whether there would be an heir at all, as the Senate traditionally appointed Emperors) Marcella asserts that, as his wife and the mother of Ira whom he might have been grooming for rule, she is the rightful Empress and the only claimant whose succession is not a matter of ambition but purely civic duty.

Istiana, former spymaster of Emperor Neretzes, considers Marcella the "cleverest ruler" out of the three claimants to the Empire.

### Quotations

He was one of the emperor's trusted commanders. He could not stop Neretzes from marching to defeat, but he managed to salvage something from the disaster. When the Sturgians came over our barricades, he managed to lead a group of Neretzes' guardsmen out the back.
My father's small force held together, and were joined by stragglers and fugitives. He described the march back - no food, little water, marching day and night to keep ahead of the enemy's outriders. But they survived - the only organized imperial force to do so.
*The city was in a state of panic after hearing rumors of what happened. Arenicos kept things from descending into chaos. When it came time for the Senate to choose the next Emperor, there was no question that it should be him. I loved him before as a man, but that day learned to love him as something more: what a gift he was to the people of Calradia!*

We are the family of the martyred Emperor. Every man wishes to leave what he has to his children, be it a tiny patch of land or the imperial throne. Everyone in Calradia, rich or poor, grasps this. The universal principle of inheritance, not the obscure laws of the Senate, is what makes an Emperor in the eyes of the people.
I will strive to be a good Empress. I'll do my best. But I know well that whoever wins this civil war, landlords will still cheat tenants, city guards will still demand bribes, warriors will still kill men to steal their cattle, drunken fathers will beat wives. The plague and the labor of childbirth will take more lives than all the evils of man put together.
*Still, men are willing to fight for me, though it gains them nothing, for no other reason that the throne is my right. I will not betray these men. If I win, in centuries to come, people will think back on my victory and think, 'Heavens smile on those who fight for their rights.' That is all one can do.*

## Trivia

* She is the only NPC in the game that wears a Jeweled Crown, a unique head-like crown of the Empress.
* Alike her lore counterpart, Arenicos is her uncle. However in *Bannerlord*, she is a daughter to Arenicos, making Ira as her sister. Her lore parents, Baldimos and Terea, nobles and members of the Pethros Clan.
* Like most monarchs had mixture of good and bad traits, she is the only monarch that had none negative traits while having all positive traits.
* While Marcella had no children, and being married with Presciana Argoros, a former noble of the Northern Empire, their children as well as the names is random generated.