Meredith Petraeus

"Blessed are those who stand before the corrupt and the wicked and do not falter. And shield the weak from the darkness."

- Meredith's prayer Still working on it. Meredith Petraeus is a character played by Myles. Meredith served as a Brigadier-General in the Royal Ardougnian Armed Forces under Field Marshal Garrus Dae before being sent on a 15 year long mission to uncover a rare relic. After assisting High King Augustus Dae and Val Dae to hunt down their relative, Garrus Dae, she became a high ranking Crimson Knight acting as the Kingsguard to Augustus.

Appearance
Meredith stands at a modest height of 5'7" with a lean build, that comes from a lifetime of being either a Knight or Military officer. She has curly blonde hair and a pair of dark blue eyes that seem to flare red while channeling her magic. With high cheekbones, a well built nose and a heart shaped face she has often been viewed as a beauty at first glance. Meredith has been spotted with mainly women hanging off her Army, quite known as being a lesbian. She often wears her blonde hair tied up in a single braid and in private wearing it down flowing.

She has either been seen wearing the standard issue armor of the Grand Royal Legion or the red armor of a Crimson Knight. At social or formal events she sports a usual white and red dress.

She has a large scar on her right inner thigh from when she was stabbed by a spear during battle, and a few lingering smaller scars scattered around her form from different fights.

Personality
Meredith was raised into a minor noble household and from a young age was told she would be a commander of men. Her Family, hating magic, suppressed her abilities, causing Meredith to hate her own natural ability as a mage and threw herself in being the single best soldier and officer she could be. A level of self hate and self doubt started to grow and rot inside of Meredith causing her to hate magic and herself more and more. She was jealous of those who had the free will to practice the art while she was bounded by her Family rules.

Due to the lost of her first and true love, her ideas on relationships are often simply physical, taking women at whim though never lasting. Her only lasting relationship was with Maela Aerendyl, before she too, left Meredith.

Before the events of the Relic hunt, Meredith was a loud, in your face type of commander. She was well liked and respected in the military circles of Ardougne. Though following the dark events of those 15 years she came out scarred both mentally and physically. She is rather quiet, at times only offering dry remarks to things on hand, but mostly she is silent, as if afraid to speak out loud.

Though during moments of battle, when she allows her emotions to run free, she can spark up something she calls "Bloodfire", a mix of Blood and Fire magic that in powered by her emotions, this tends to be in grand fits of anger.

Currently, she acts as the silent watcher and protector of the High King and is often viewed as his left hand.

Blood Magic
Something she had an natural gift with, most of her studying before the relic hunt was very basic. She had to test things by herself and without proper learning. During and after the relic hunt, her ability with Blood Magic was strengthen tenfold, mainly due to the influence brought by Garrus Dae.

Holy Fire Magic
Similar to Blood Magic, it was something she naturally caught onto. She was more public in her use of fire magic, she was commonly seen in battle swinging a flaming sword back and forth, cutting through lines of enemies. She used the same magic seen in Holy spells to further the power of her fire magic, giving the fire an edge in burning through creatures of the darkness.

Swordsmanship
Her weapon of choice, Meredith is quite skilled with a sword. Being taught since she was a small child she is never far from her blade called ''"Lightbringer". ''

Intelligence
Like most of the Cadets and later Officers of the Ardougnian Military, they were selected from a young age to study under the very best teachers money could buy. Meredith was as very studious student and took to subjects having to deal with History and Writing. She is of a high level of intelligence mainly due to the experiences she has gone through

Languages
Common - Mastery in spoken and written

Karamjaian - Skilled in both spoken and written

Notable items

 * A full set of Crimson Knight armor, Mirthril quality, dyed dark red
 * A mirthril sqaure shield dyed to meet the Crimson Knight armor
 * A mithril sword called "Lightbringer" 
 * A dragon longsword
 * A locket from Lesia Aakhus

Early Life (Pre-Rp)
Meredith was born into the minor noble family of Petraeus, who earned their nobility by being public servants to the Crown and always giving capable military officers. They were on the bottom of the noble society ladder though, not like the Daes, Blackwoods, and Aerendyls who ruled from the top. Her Father, Coriolanus Petraeus, was a retired Ardougnian military officer and would do nothing to raise in power. Due to an accident as a child, Coriolanus was raised with a strong hatred for anything magic. When Meredith and her siblings started to show a natural ability towards magic, Coriolanus fell into a rage of anger and was ready to beat the "taint" out of them. Due to this, Meredith found very quickly that any dream she had of being a scholar mage was gone. She would do her Family honor and become the military officer she was meant to be, even though she hated every moment of it, and started to hate herself for allowing her Father to control her life.

The War College
Sent at the tender age of 15, Meredith was sent to the Blackwood War college in the heart of Ardougne. Though the War college was mainly used for active duty Army personal, there were classes for younger men and women to take if they wished to. Meredith's father wished for her to have an early start on her military career, still unsure of herself, Meredith pleded with her Father to send her to the Wizard's Tower instead. It was the first and last time her Father laid his hands on her, in a fit of rage he slammed his fist into Meredith's eye. From the moment onwards, Meredith forgot any dream of becoming a mage and hated her Father with a burning passion. The next morning she was shipped off across the City to the War College where she sent the next 5 years studying and training.

There she met her first love, Lesia Aakhus. A tall, dark skinned female cadet that was in the same class of Meredith. It so happened was the same time Meredith found her attraction to the same sex. The two became the best of friends within weeks of meeting and by the end of their first year they had entered a secret relationship. Though same sex relationships were generally accepted in Ardougne and the Army, the two still found it odd being touchy in public.

The two, over the course of the four years of schooling, fell deeply in love with one another. They had found what they were always searching for in each other. Meredith feared her Father finding out about the two though, Coriolanus had drilled it into Meredith's mind that she must find a respectful husband to marry and bear him grandchildern. For the two, they were lucky, once they earned their commission they could be free to open about their relationship, beyond the reach of Meredith's Father.

Magic of the Blood
Though she was being trained in the art of sword fighting and the sorts, Meredith never did lose her thirst for magical knowledge, and the War College held a wealth of knowledge on all matters of magic, both Light and Dark.

It was during one of her late night studying moments when she cut herself badly while working on her knife work. Cursing herself for her ill moves, she looked for something to dress it, but she felt and odd pull towards the blood. She found that if she focused on the blood dripping from her hand she could form shapes with it. This lead to a number of nights studying how far she could take this.

Little did Meredith know her Family's past with Blood magic, and that she had stumbled on just why her Father hated magic.

A love lost
"There are somethings that can not be, I will always love you Meredith."

- Lesia's final words to Meredith

During their fifth year of the War College and their last, Meredith, Lesia and a number of other would be officers were sent on one of their many intense training missions. Given personally by Aegidius himself, their group was to land on the shore of Kamaja, locate a local rebel leader, and ensure his plans were put to an end. What the Field Marshal didn't tell them, was actually how to do it.

This being one of their final tests in everything they had learned, Lesia was the one who stepped up and took natural command over this, something that Meredith did not mind. The group landed in the middle of the night and marched through the jungle until dawn to reach this would be rebel camp. Meredith, herself, questioned what was the purpose in this, the risk of the entire group dying was high. She tried finding some source of comfort from Lesia, but she only met a stonewall, Lesia was fully committed to the mission and passing this test.

The group of 5 or so Cadet Officers plus a company size force of regular Ardougnian soldiers, moved into position around the jungle camp. Lesia gave the command and the force fell onto the Rebel camp with a brute efficiency. The Rebels were not ready for the attack at all, and most were still waking up or sleeping. Meredith did her job and cleaved her way through the soldiers that were awake.

She watched in horror as Lesia gave the command to drag the sleeping soldiers and executed the rebels. Meredith rushed forward channeling the order, Lesia only glared at her and forced the soldiers to hold Meredith back from stopping the killing. "Orders are orders, Meredith. The Field Marshal said to leave no one living."

Those would be the last words Meredith ever heard from her love, as they marched through the jungle again, it seemed the rebels had a few men lingering in the trees, Lesia's life was ended with a cross bolt to her chest. As Meredith held her in her arms, she felt her heart breaking for the first time, Lesia gave her the other half of a locket they had gotten together during their third year at the War College, "Remember me, I love you so much."

Meredith picked herself up, taking the locket and placing it around her neck. She raised a different person, colder and harder than before. She denied anyone else to carry Lesia's body, and for hours through the jungle, she carried the body of her love on her back or in her arms. No one commented on the exchange of love vows from the two, there was no need.

Meredith finished up the end her final year in the War College in an almost silence. She ended the top of her class and was offered a slot in Task Unit 1, she refused though, Lesia's dream was to be that, she couldn't. Instead she earned her commission as an Army Lieutenant, still broken inside.

First Blood
Following her years education at the Blackwood War College in the heart of Ardougne, Meredith finally earned her commission has a Lieutenant in the Royal Ardougnian Armed Forces. She would go to serve under the Homeguard Brigade which acted as a reserve unit that would be called up in times of war or national emergency. Due to her Family's last name and history of service she was placed away from any active battle zones and did not serve in a battle until the Imperial Crisis in Ardougne.

She was along one of the few Ardougnian soldiers there and fought next to Ausar and Aegidius on the bridge and then into the White Castle. Though she personally had a lingering distaste of both Ausar and Aegidius, she was a soldier and as her Father told her, that is all she would ever be. Meredith was wounded during the fighting after taking a spear to her inner thigh that tore though her harden leather.

With a spear still in her thigh she felt something break inside of her, as if a seal had finally been broken down. Her sword caught fire suddenly as her blue eyes glowed a dark red. Her flaming sword swung down onto the White Knight who was cooked slowly in his plate armor. Breaking the spear she assisted in leading the charge across the courtyard and into the castle itself, earning her a fearful respect from her soldiers and a glare from the Field Marshal.

She later returned to Ardougne having been promoted to the rank of Captain, Meredith was unsure if she had angered the higher command due to the fact her new promotion kept her deep underground underneath Ardougne dealing with issuing supplies to the Armed Forces.

A Second Chance
Following the Battle of Hemenster against the Pravens, Meredith was finally moved out from the supply position she held and back into the field. Stationed the Citadel she met Maela Aerendyl, another strong willed female Officer. With Aegidius Blackwood leaving the post of Field Marshal and Garrus Dae taking command, the two were switched to work on his personal command staff.

Though in reality, the two and the rest of his Staff actually ran the Army, as Garrus did not seem to want the position or did not care for the running. It was during this that Meredith and Maela formed a physical relationship. The two blondes did not hide the fact that they were with eachother anyone that commented on that fact was quickly swept to the side.

Meredith, though, found that this was becoming more than just a physical relationship. But, when Maela was sent away from the Citadel, in doing so she broke off her relationship with Meredith. She hated herself for allowing her to fall for someone else yet again. She felt that she had cheated on Lesia, it had been years now, and she still couldn't let go of the dark skinned girl that claimed her heart.

She shared one last night with Maela before they parted their ways, she tried to ignore the feelings that had formed during it, but Meredith crushed them the best she could. She hugged the locket that Lesia had given her, at least she had this small thing to carry with her forever.

The Major
In return, Meredith was promoted to the rank of Major and placed over into Garrus's newly formed Praetorian Regiment. A group used as the personal Field Marshal's guard and a special force for missions that the regular Army could do. These missions ranged from taking out political enemies in Ardougne, seeking and killing Rebels, and finding ancient relics. Meredith spent the rest of her Army career here with the Praetorian Regiment.

The Red Countess
One of the very first missions that Meredith undertook as one of the commanding officers of the Praetorian Regiment was investigating into a Ardoungian Countess who the Field Marshal thought to be arming a rebellion against the Queen. Meredith and a small group of members from the Praetorian Regiment were sent into the Countess Household to act as a Sellsword group who wished to become new members of the Countess Household Guard.

The Countess took a liking to Meredith and quickly she was brought into the inner circle of the Family. Garrus was correct in thinking that they the Family was planning a takeover though the means sent a shiver down Meredith's spine. The Arenberg Family, Meredith found out, had a long connection with the Zaorsian Imperium from ages past. The Family were rumored to have blood connections with Mahjarret that lived and served during the time period.

The Countess, Maria Arenberg, formed a friendship with Meredith. The Countess being older and a motherlike figure to Meredith, something she never had growing up. She slowly forgot what her mission was and set into a day to day life in the Arenberg Family, serving as the personal guard to the Countess.

Garrus demanded for Meredith to either eliminate the Countess or ensure she swears fealty to himself. Meredith opened up to Maria about her past issues, from the issues with her Father, her blood magic to the lost of Lesia. The women in returned offered advice on how to let go from the past and how to start living. Maria also showed Meredith the dark secrets of the Arenberg Family, giving Meredith much needed lessons on how to improve her Blood Magic and Fire Magics.

Though the small moment of peace and happiness Meredith had was forced to come to an end. Garrus was sending a force to kill and burn the entire Arenberg Family, Meredith had to pick; either warn Maria or allow Garrus to kill the only thing she had to a Mother.

Meredith, picked love over duty, she warned Maria who was able to flee just hours before the forces of Garrus apperaed. Meredith told Maria everything, why she was first sent and how over time she looked to her as a Mother. Maria understood and thanked Meredith for picking her, calling her the daugther she wished she had. That was the last time Meredith saw Maria for a very long time.