Dioscuros the Steadfast
Marshall of Korinthos
Dioscuros the Steadfast is charged with overall command of the nation’s military and naval forces. A true career soldier, Dioscuros has worked his way up the ranks of the Hobgoblin military machine, but that does not mean he is simply adept at flying a desk. A formidable combatant in his own right, Dioscuros has frequently been placed in the thick of it in numerous battles, and he is still never afraid to get himself stuck in to a melee if it is calculated to be the right thing to do.
In Dioscuros the Steadfast, the Korinthos’ Council of 100 has found themselves a ruthless and formidable individual to lead their Legions to war.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Dioscuros the Steadfast’s athleticism is obvious on first looking at him. His height, build and musculature all look as if they have been specifically designed to make him into the most effective killing machine as possible, and in part this is true, given that his body has been shaped by his military service.
Dioscuros’ body also bears the marks of the dangers his military profession has put him through. His body is covered in numerous scars, and his left eye not only has a large scar running across it, and the eye itself is a milky white in colour, having lost his sight in it. Characteristic of other Hobgoblins, Dioscuros has a long pointed face, with a large bulbous nose. His green eye stand out vibrantly against his orange-brown skin and his hair is long, black and worn long in a style typical of Korinthos. Standing at 6’2”, Dioscuros is unusually tall for a Hobgoblin, and this adds to the intimidating aura of his presence.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Born in 508S.E., Dioscuros was one of nine siblings, and was brought up just outside the city of Piraeus in Atenos. His childhood was very much like those of other Hobgoblin children. Most of his days were spent studying or working to help out the family. Dioscuros’ parents dug peat for use in fires for a living, and their children were expected to help out in this as often as they could. At the age of 12, when Hobgoblins are legally declared to be adults in Korinthos and Atenos, Dioscuros joined the Vth Legion as a Private foot soldier.
He then spent 2 years serving as a Private, during which time the Vth Legion was stationed within the city of Piraeus, acting as city guards. This rather relaxed posting came to an end when in 522S.E. the Vth Legion was deployed to the Underdark beneath the continent of Tafran. Here Dioscuros fought alongside his comrades for 7 years against a faction of Deep Dwarves that was contesting the space immediately below Atenos. The bitter conflict, conducted in the cold, damp gloom of the Underdark was truly brutal. Beneath the earth no rules of decency seemed to exist, and the Hobgoblins and Deep Dwarves fought one another with a ferocity and brutality that even the most battle experienced troops of the Vth Legion had never seen before. The conflict truly put Dioscuros to the test, and after two years of fighting his commendable and consistent service was recognised through a promotion to the rank of Sergeant.
His big break, however, came two years further down the line, when the Vth Legion was ambushed whilst making camp in a large open cavern flanked by an underwater lake. Dioscuros and his detachment were on patrol duty that evening, and when the Deep Dwarf attack was launched, it was he, not the officer who was in command of the watch, who began to rally the men, and bought the rest of the Legion enough time to rouse themselves and make ready for combat. It was during this fight that Dioscuros lost his left eye, and reportedly, when he was found after the battle, drenched in his own blood, he stood on top of a pile of at least thirty Deep Dwarf corpses. The office commanding the watch that night was executed for his cowardice, and Dioscuros was promoted into their commission. His actions in this battle also earned him the honorary title that has stuck with him throughout his career, ‘the Steadfast’.
Shortly after this engagement, the Vth legion was rotated back to surface duty, and was given a significant rest period to replenish its numbers. As a newly commissioned Centurion, Dioscuros was sent to the Military Academy in Piraeus for officer training for an entire year. On his return to the Legion he was given command of a Cohort, around 100 troops, and the Legion was rotated back onto active duty. For the next eight years, the Vth Legion continued to fight the Deep Dwarves in the Underdark below Tafran, and by the time that they emerged victorious from the conflict in 535S.E., Dioscuros had been promoted to the rank of Legate, and was in command of the entire Legion.
In 536S.E. Dioscuros the Steadfast was given orders to board the Vth Legion onto ships to take up their next posting in the colony of Korinthos on the continent of Turoza. Their first postings in Korinthos revolved around patrolling and defending the borders of the new nation, but in 540S.E., all of the Legions in Korinthos were called to arms when the nations Goblinoid Auxiliaries, drawn from Goblin and Bugbear tribes who had migrated to Korinthos, revolted. At first, the hit and run tactics of the Auxiliary forces caused devastation amongst the more static Hobgoblin Legions, with several Legions were all but wiped out when they were lured into carefully planned ambushes. Leading the Vth Legion in a carefully choreographed and disciplined push from the south to the north of the country, Dioscuros began to turn the tide of the revolt back in favour of Korinthos. After nearly three years of constantly exerting pressure on the Auxiliary Revolts, and meticulously destroying their key resource bases, Dioscuros forced the Revolutionaries into making a final stand in the far north of Korinthos, their backs to the Estrill Ocean. The battle that followed was brief and bloody. Dioscuros led the Vth Legion, and a collection of other partial Legions he had picked up along the way, to a decisive victory. The revolting Goblinoid Auxiliaries who were not killed that day were taken back to Scapoli in chains to be publically executed.
Dioscuros the Steadfast was rewarded for his actions by being promoted to the rank of General, and was placed in overall command of the Vth, IXth and XIIIth Legions.
In the following years of relative peace, Dioscuros focused his efforts on training his new Legions up to the standard of the Vth, and his training programme caught the eye of the Council of 100, who requested he expand his programme to all units that were present in Korinthos.
As the strength and stability of Korinthos grew, talks began of the nation becoming fully autonomous from Atenos, a topic that was hotly debated on both sides of the Estrill Ocean, but widely supported. The Hobgoblins of Korinthos wanted more autonomy and self-rule, primarily so that they could make their own decisions about how to approach the other nations of Turoza, whilst Atenos was becoming overstretched with trouble brewing beneath Tafran once again. When Korinthos was granted its autonomy from Atenos in 547S.E., all of the Legions stationed in Turoza, including Dioscuros’ command, were gifted to the new sister-nation of Atenos.
The new status of Korinthos did not sit well with some, who felt that they had now been marooned in Turoza, far from their native homeland. This included a Hobgoblin named Themistocles the Proud, who had been appointed to the newly created position of Marshall of Korinthos, and had been placed in overall command of all Legions in Turoza. Unfortunately for Themistocles, word quickly got out, and before the group of malcontents could gather strength, the Council of 100, who ran Korinthos in its entirety, came down hard on the would be traitors.
As Themistocles the Proud was being executed, word was sent to Dioscuros, summoning him to the capital Scapoli, where he was brought before the Council of 100. In 548S.E., Dioscuros the Steadfast was sworn in as the new Marshall of Korinthos, a position that he has continued to hold, and excel in ever since.
Education
As a child, Dioscuros underwent the basic training that all Hobgoblin children in both Korinthos and Atenos were required to undergo, which teaches basic arithmetic, writing and reading along with acquainting them with the basics of self-defence. He then underwent more rigorous military training on joining the Vth Legion, which was then augmented by further training in the theatre of war. When he was made a full officer in 526S.E., he then spent a whole year in the military college in Atenos’ capital, Piraeus learning in depth about military strategy, economics and history.
Employment
Dioscuros joined the Vth Legion as a Private at the age of 12. At the age of 16, he had been promoted to Sergeant, and the age of 18, he had been promoted to the rank of Centurion, and was a fully-fledged officer. Following this promotion he rose rapidly up the ranks and by the time he came with the Vth Legion across the Estrill Ocean to Korinthos in 536S.E., he had reached the rank of Legate, and was in command of the Legion. Following his actions during the Goblinoid Auxiliary revolt of 540S.E.-543S.E. he was promoted to the rank of General, and was placed in overall command of the Vth, IXth and XIIIth Legions. When the Marshall at the time was indicted for treason and summarily executed, Dioscuros the Steadfast was summoned before the Council of 100, and appointed as Marshall of all of Korinthos’ armed forces.
Social
Social Aptitude
Dioscuros is well known for his absolute calmness in the face of adversity, and it is this trait that has earned him his title, ‘the Steadfast’. Dioscuros has been known to be unflappable in the face of horrific adversaries and overwhelming odds. It is partly this characteristic that encourages and inspires the troops around him, but is also the sense of fear that they feel in his presence.
The Marshall is known for being absolutely ruthless when dealing with enemies, and his own troops. Dioscuros has been known to completely destroy communities of Atenos’ and Korinthos’ enemies, down to the last child, and he is not adverse to showing his own soldiers this ruthless side as well. Those whom Dioscuros spots retreating in battle are personally slain by his hand, and three times in his career, once when a General and twice as the Marshall, he has punished an entire Legion through decimation. This is the practice of killing every tenth soldier in a Legion and is a punishment that is only dealt out for the most grievous of disgraces.
If any of Turoza’s nations decide to go to war with Korinthos, they will have to face an adversary who is not afraid to work his own troops down to the last man to achieve victory.
Wealth & Financial state
As Dioscuros has managed to work his way up through the ranks of Korinthos’ armed forces relatively quickly he has managed to secure himself a significant amount of capital that has been supplemented by prize money awarded to him following several significant victories. As Dioscuros leads quite a frugal lifestyle, in part dictated through spending the majority of his time in military encampments, the majority of his income is kept and saved for the future, gathering dust and increasing in value thanks to some savvy personal investments.
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