Geneviève Frankling

Simultaneously a hereditary noble and a zealous exemplar of social mobility, chevalière banneresse Ermengarda Geneviève Frankling Ponvarorum belongs to one of the more peculiar aspects of Frankonian culture. As a member of the Frankling lineage, Geneviève traces her ancestry to the first settlement of the island, to a noble clan from the time of the Solar Exodus. Today, the Golden Republic is ruled by merchants and inhabited by everyone else, and what once was the landed elite have since turned into the most ardent advocates of justice, liberty, and equality on the island.
This small cadre of vestigial nobles tread a fine line between being merely outspoken to borderline revolutionary. Geneviève has crossed that line many times – after all, true justice is blind.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Geneviève was born and raised in Ponvarus, growing up in the Franklings’ dynastic Rannvois Estate in the Golden Arrondissement of the capital. With six siblings her senior and three her junior, each one bursting with ambition and one-upmanship, the private classes afforded to the family’s scions often turned loud, rowdy, and on occasion, violent. As a disciplinary measure, all but one of the young Franklings were sent away to train under private tutors: Geneviève was sent to squire Sir Horzin Thornleaf, a ranking paralictor in the Hellknight Order of the Nail. Belittled as “Little Lady Justice,” Geneviève learned to despise her mentor and the merciless Hellknights, though his lessons were ultimately welcomed.
On her 18th birthday Sir Horzin’s tutelage ended, and Geneviève marked the occasion by leaving her armiger’s equipment wrapped in a woven banner bearing the Old Frankonian words DAMNATUS, PRODITOR ET ADVERSARIUS in front of a statue of Lady Justice. She was consequently indicted for public disorder and grave libel, serving a reduced sentence of eight months in house arrest. Still, as higher studies are expected for members of the Frankling lineage, Geneviève used this time to prepare for entry to the Constitutional State Academy; however, her family refused to sponsor her, for reasons unknown. However, they did bestow her with a title, chevalière banneresse (meaning banner knight), perhaps indicating affection, or perhaps it was issued as a living reminder of her crime.
Instead, then-legate Edwige de la Fleur de Lys was willing to sponsor Geneviève’s education, in return for her signing a contract with the Golden Legion. She accepted her offer, studied for three years, passed the Legion’s officer candidate examination, and signed on to serve as a laurifer, a junior officer permitted to have a gilded laurel wreath attached to their helmet. She was assigned to the IV Golden Legion, colloquially known as the Shadow Legion, serving in the first centuria of the first cohort, which is a prestigious assignment. The benefits of serving in the Golden Legion may seem favourable: complete income tax exemption, ready access to legionary clerics for any ailment, and minimal exposure to real danger (notwithstanding a posting in the Yelanid Alliance). But for Geneviève, the act of taking risks in service of immaterial ideals comes first. Which the Golden Legion simply does not allow.

Legionary Durées and Venture Pledge

Golden Legionnaires are stationed on active duty for three consecutive two-year periods, known by the Frankonian term durée, followed by a two-year venture pledge. During the venture, legionnaires are effectively placed on paid leave but are expected to keep themselves fit for duty. Geneviève spent her first durée as a customs and duty officer in Ponvarus; the second as a drill instructor on behalf of the Great Trade League's representation in Zimmerheim; and the third as a guard commander in the Republican ambassadorial retinue stationed in Gardagrad during the Great Succession Wars. Though the wars never reached the Kaliyevan capital, Geneviève saw its silent wake: empty streets in broad daylight, quiet evening taverns, and busy temples on the days when couriers arrived with dire news from the front.
When her venture pledge started, Geneviève set out to walk some of the war’s notable battlegrounds: her first destination was the fortress-city of Makhattala, where the united forces of the Three Winter Realms drove back the Kang invaders. She visited the dynastic mausoleum of the extinct royal house of Chermogiev, butchered to the last by Kang assassins during the siege. Thereafter she headed for the wooded outskirts of Karakhasa, where the bolts, halberds, and countermagics of the White Sentinel Grand Company decisively crushed the remnants of the Avatar's Jun Banner and forced him to flee in disgrace. She stood on the ridgeline where the Spears of Heaven had made their last stand, their valour immortalised in a humble battlefield memorial established by the regimental commander of the Sentinel’s vanguards. The last site on her journey ended up being the frozen town of Davgorod, now only populated by frostbitten corpses. The once-prosperous Yarskoviyan charter town was suddenly destroyed by an unrelenting onslaught of blizzards and hailstorms after its boyar council denounced Svetlana’s rule and declared allegiance to rebel autonomists.
All in all, travelling through war-torn landscapes and listening to tales by garrisoned foreign mercenaries provided Geneviève with a much richer sense of the world, and served to strengthen her existing beliefs:
Sic semper tyrannis.

Relief Officer on the Swift Mermaid

During the transfer from Zimmerheim to Gardagrad, Geneviève received word from Jeanne de La Brouhaha, a Chancellery official and friend through correspondence, who persuaded her into joining the adventuring crew of the Swift Mermaid in an official capacity. Most of the ship’s crew could fight, but they were poorly disciplined and could not fight as a cohesive unit. And so Geneviève joined the Swift Mermaid, serving as the vessel’s principal drill instructor.
For one week.
For that was all the time spared until the ship descended, in a literal sense, to the bottom of the ocean in order to infiltrate an underwater temple containing scores of illithids led by an aboleth. Geneviève was a part of the relief force. Which was made up by, more or less, all the non-essential crew members and the ship itself. Almost as if a living, breathing, thinking madman was in charge of this operation. Nevertheless, even though the Swift Mermaid came under direct attack by mindflayer-manned ships, Geneviève and the crew stood fast until their objective was fulfilled. She stood at the fore, absorbing as much of the incoming fire as possible; her shield snapped in half from a stray grapeshot projectile; her body turned numb from all the arrowhead impacts absorbed by the armour; until finally, the force impact from a ramming vessel sent her flying back-first into the mast, sustaining spinal injuries and losing consciousness. In need of divine healing, she requested to be taken to a magister clericus in Ponvarus, but the Swift Mermaid did not wait for anyone’s recovery. Jeanne and Geneviève maintained their correspondence afterwards.
And for a ship that ultimately recorded an alarmingly high casualty rate for its crew, nearly one out of every two shipmates, one can hope that the Golden Legionnaire’s efforts prevented it from being a statistically even one.

Social

Mannerisms

The fires of liberty and equality, the two republican virtues, burn bright inside Geneviève. And though she has tempered her aggressive personality since becoming a legionary, she remains incredibly proud of Frankonia and is a model of what the Republic stands for (and not what it actually is). A pragmatic tactician and unconventional combatant, Geneviève values honour, honesty, and strong personalities, and dislikes material greed, deceitfulness, and blind conformity to tradition.

Relationships

Condottière, noble, and unwavering idealist.

Character Location

Vael's Rest

View Character Profile

System
Pathfinder 2e
Class
Fighter

Current Location

Vael's Rest

Species

Human

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Little Lady Justice (by Sir Horzin)

Age

27

Spouses

Siblings

Gender

Female

Eyes

Light blue

Hair

Short blonde

Height

6'7

Aligned Organization

Golden Legion

Other Affiliations

• Frankonia

Known Languages

Common
Frankonian
Old Frankonian