Astra Lauriensen, First Blade of Tatsushi

Astra Lauriensen was born a minor noble in pre-Federation Tatsushi and raised for matters of court. As the third daughter of Lord Lauriensen, she had few prospects to take over the family or act as much more than a diplomatic aid through marriage. She took to military matters rather well, and secretly bought tutors to teach herself both personal combat and strategy. At eighteen, she purchased a commission with the Tatsushi military and began serving as a petty officer.   By the beginning of the Fall of Meridia, she was a major in the Tatsushi military, and volunteered to lead a battalion in the first expeditionary forces sent to Meridia. Her unit quickly distinguished itself, with Astra herself receiving four separate awards for bravery. She soon after became distinguished once more as the only known Divinomancer present during the Fall of Meridia; she never specified which deity gave her these powers, though historians universally agree that her patron was Elena Lidros.   With a combination of divine power and martial prowess, Astra was promoted to First Blade, a temporary rank effectively established as the supreme commander of Tatsushi's expeditionary forces. Despite being passed over for supreme commander of Union forces, Astra took this rather well, likely due to her friendship with the supreme commander, Vitilianus Attiliades, and usually acted as second-in-command to Union forces.   Astra Lauriensen died during the last days of the Fall of Meridia, during the Siege of Alraq. The location of her death or body are still unknown; the last reports of her location were holding the Eastern Gate of Alraq alongside her companions. There is significant historical debate about her exact fate and whether the curse of undeath consumed her, as well as how a divinomancer died such an ignoble death.