Caunen

The son of peasants living in the Northern Territories, Caunen was orphaned at the age of eleven by a barbarian raid that burned his village and slaughtered the inhabitants. He was adopted by the general of the relief force sent to fight the invaders, General Hartmann. At the age of eighteen, he sought and gained admission to the elite warrior caste of Veracia, the Myrmidons.

Caunen was an excellent soldier, but the discipline of the Myrmidons never sat well with him: after seven years of hard fighting against the barbarians on the northern frontier, he left the Myrmidons and raised his own company of light infantry. But the barbarians were drawing closer, and aged twenty-nine he saw his company slaughtered at the battle which led to the fall of Veracia.

In the chaos that followed, Caunen found himself leading the armies of Veracia's barbarian allies in an attempt to regain the northern territories, but the increasingly desparate situation and a sudden shift in fortunes meant he was forced into service as a captain of a band of ex-Veracian mercenaries for the kingdom of Arduin. Later, he led a group of bandits in a daring assault on a fortified keep.

Soon after, Caunen led the army that restored King Sertorius V to his father's throne of Samnium and, at the age of thirty-two, he was the senior general in the Samnite army that destroyed the barbarian kingdom and restored Veracia. Sertorius, the new emperor, rewarded his general by making him Duke of the Northern Marches, granting him estates and giving him responsibility for Veracia's northern borders. Caunen retired to his estates, where he died aged seventy-six: he was succeeded as Duke by his son, Hartmann.

Caunen was a skilled general and an able warrior, although only of average height and build. He took defeats badly, but his talents in inspiring men to victory were an essential asset to the men he served.