The Iron Legion
Those who don’t die of anything else inevitably die from old age. The Iron Legion lays claim to all those victims of too many years — and a few others besides. Disputes between the Iron Legion and other Legions occur when a person’s cause of death directly relates to old age: an octogenarian falls prey to a life-ending accident, an elderly woman starves to death because she is too weak to eat, or pneumonia takes the life of an old man in his nineties. The Ashen Lady also claims the junkies who may have only lived a few decades but whose bodies bear the burdens of those much, much older.
The Ashen Lady is a shrewd bargainer, however, and knows when to pick her battles and when not to press for individuals who do not quite fit her mold. After all, she does not lack for recruits. When the other Legions have claimed their marked ones, the Lady gets everyone who remains behind, and they are legion.
The Ashen Lady rules her Legion from her opulent Seat of Shadows, rebuilt to exemplify the glory of the Renaissance and a leading “tourist” attraction for wraiths visiting Stygia. New wraiths come there with their Reapers for a brief period, during which they learn everything necessary for survival among the ranks of the Iron Legion. Some may stay on, or return later, if they qualify for any of the groups in residence within the Seat. Others depart, the image forever seared in their memories as an idea of what Stygia should be.
The Lady’s personal bodyguard, her Council of Ministers and their entourages, and members of the Lady’s prestigious “Salon” number among the permanent residents of the Seat of Shadows. A permanent support staff also exists to maintain the art gallery, private library, and cutting-edge research laboratories. Because she rules over wraiths who come to her at the end of long and often busy lives, the Ashen Lady has access to a great reservoir of experience in many fields: Generals, financiers, architects, lawyers, scientists, mob bosses, and dynastic patriarchs and matriarchs all contribute to the affairs of the Iron Legion and its Mistress.
The Legion encourages new recruits to take time off to track down deceased relatives, realizing that people who have lived long lives may have several generations of kin who have predeceased them. Enabling a Legionnaire to reconnect with her loved ones in Stygia or the Shadowlands not only helps build cross-Legion relations but frees the Legionnaire from worrying about her family’s fates. Also, so many elderly wraiths have strong ties to their kin in the Skinlands; wraiths whose mortal lives encompassed many generations of sons, daughters, grandchildren and beyond often have living descendants as Fetters. Understanding the particular strength of these ties, the Lady of Shadows allows her Legionnaires to bend the Dictum Mortuum just enough to visit their mortal kin, reaffirming their connections and, incidentally, forging potentially valuable links that can prove advantageous to the Legion and its Lady. Ironically, the Iron Legion shows a surprising ruthlessness toward members of other Legions caught Skinriding or otherwise making forbidden contact with the Skinlands.
The Ashen Lady is a shrewd bargainer, however, and knows when to pick her battles and when not to press for individuals who do not quite fit her mold. After all, she does not lack for recruits. When the other Legions have claimed their marked ones, the Lady gets everyone who remains behind, and they are legion.
The Ashen Lady rules her Legion from her opulent Seat of Shadows, rebuilt to exemplify the glory of the Renaissance and a leading “tourist” attraction for wraiths visiting Stygia. New wraiths come there with their Reapers for a brief period, during which they learn everything necessary for survival among the ranks of the Iron Legion. Some may stay on, or return later, if they qualify for any of the groups in residence within the Seat. Others depart, the image forever seared in their memories as an idea of what Stygia should be.
The Lady’s personal bodyguard, her Council of Ministers and their entourages, and members of the Lady’s prestigious “Salon” number among the permanent residents of the Seat of Shadows. A permanent support staff also exists to maintain the art gallery, private library, and cutting-edge research laboratories. Because she rules over wraiths who come to her at the end of long and often busy lives, the Ashen Lady has access to a great reservoir of experience in many fields: Generals, financiers, architects, lawyers, scientists, mob bosses, and dynastic patriarchs and matriarchs all contribute to the affairs of the Iron Legion and its Mistress.
The Legion encourages new recruits to take time off to track down deceased relatives, realizing that people who have lived long lives may have several generations of kin who have predeceased them. Enabling a Legionnaire to reconnect with her loved ones in Stygia or the Shadowlands not only helps build cross-Legion relations but frees the Legionnaire from worrying about her family’s fates. Also, so many elderly wraiths have strong ties to their kin in the Skinlands; wraiths whose mortal lives encompassed many generations of sons, daughters, grandchildren and beyond often have living descendants as Fetters. Understanding the particular strength of these ties, the Lady of Shadows allows her Legionnaires to bend the Dictum Mortuum just enough to visit their mortal kin, reaffirming their connections and, incidentally, forging potentially valuable links that can prove advantageous to the Legion and its Lady. Ironically, the Iron Legion shows a surprising ruthlessness toward members of other Legions caught Skinriding or otherwise making forbidden contact with the Skinlands.
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