Clotilde E. Ackermann

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Admiral Clotilde Erica Ackermann is one of the most influential officers of the Jardin Republican Navy, commander of the Gardenia Fleet and a major leader of the political reformation that has occurred in Jardin. The definition of a Jardin career officer, she's spent over three decades in service and shows no indications of slowing down or retiring to a peaceful life in the countryside. Although a staunch proponent of democracy and republican ideals, she differs from the leadership of the Blanche Faction in her belief in a strong interventionist Republic exporting with democracy and collaborating with other fledgling nation pulling away from the decaying aristocratic center of the Phoenix Empire. With the La'Reinnes weakened and the reform ascendant with the election of First Minister Jacques Desmond, the rift between the Ackermann Faction she leads and her erstwhile allies in Blanche Faction may begin to form.

Her early life is well-documented, having grown up in a mountain village in northern Haven. Her parents owned a small estate and a flock of sheep and sold wool as part of a cooperative. As the eldest of three daughters, her childhood was one of toil and strict schooling, aised to eventually inherit her family's meagre lands and accounts. A youthful misadventure lead to her having to leave home at eighteen and abandon the inheritance, leaving the child in the care of her grandparents who lived in the city while she ran off to join the Republican Navy to make easy money for remittances while she thought of a way to sort her life out.

Her wit and work ethic were noticed by an officer recruiter early on, allowing her to get transferred to the academy and join the officer cadre. From there, her rise has been meteoric thanks to a combination of good social acumen, work ethic and the cultivation of an image as a loyal officer, becoming a staff officer aboard a patrol ship to a command of her own, to eventually becoming Vice Admiral and second to republican firebrand Admiral Hugh Morgan, previous Admiral of the Gardenia Fleet. From there, her status was all but assured.

Although Gardenia was not present at Jardin during the political turmoil due to being forcibly assigned to patrol and secure the captured starforts of the Red/Blue Line by the La'Reinnes' puppet admiralty, its support was felt and made clear by proxies. At all times did they loom like the Sword of Damocles, ready to return and impose reformation by force if the La'Reinnes and their allies rejected the restoration of true democracy demanded by the people.

Clotilde was married to Jardini explorer and poet emeritus Orsino Sullivan for over twenty years until his untimely suicide seven years ago, and had two daughters by him ages eighteen and twenty-five by him, in addition to her thirty-two year old firstborn son. Her son is a staff officer stationed aboard her flagship, while her eldest daughter is an acclaimed oil painter specializing in portraiture and youngest has an aspiring career as a writer of pulp serials for young girls.

Her present image is mature but not old, prim but not ostentatious. She wears few if any of her numerous awards, limiting herself to campaign and service ribbons only out of respect for her fellows and subordinates and their shared trials and experiences. Her image as an ordinary but refined woman of strong opinions and stronger loyalties is strongly cultivated.

• Virtue: Patient and Flexible
• Vice: Tragically Principled
• Rank: Admiral, Commander of the Gardenia Fleet
• Allies: The Ackermann Faction of the Admiralty, the Blanche Faction of the Admiralty, Admiral (ret.) and Planetary Governor Hugh Morgan
• Enemies: The La'Reinnes and their rebellious puppet admirals
• Goals: To keep the Republic standing and nurture the Reform Faction.
• Foreign Policy: I have no pretensions that upholding democracy isn't a burden, but the republican tradition can have no pride if it does not fully engross itself in the task of transmitting freedom to all corners of space. By allowing tyrants and demagogues to rule elsewhere, we allow them to undermine the existence of our own free and just societies. Their very existence is a challenge.
• Religion: Is God real? I cannot find myself believing that all that happens in the world happens for a reason, and the troubling paradoxes of theology make it difficult for me to retain my faith. Too much is bad. I will live the most virtuous life I can, doubting god. If I am accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven, I will never doubt again. If God exists and sends me to hell for my impious thinking, the Devil will find himself with a good admiral.
• Class: At many points in history we have allowed society to fracture into the classes which rule and those who do not. Patricians and plebeians, nobles and serfs, capitalists and workers, donor class and working class. Dividing our society in this way only limits our imagination and capacity for great works. Class must be recognized and addressed, the lowest of us given means to extract themselves from entrenched social inequalities.
• Economics: Capitalism, regulated by the state and with some public ownership of the corporations most essential to good civil life, is the kindest of all economic systems.

Skills:

Respectable Dissident: Expert

Career Officer: Professional

Animal Husbandry: Professional

Legal Philosopher: Layman

Poet: Layman

Knitter: Actually pretty good, you jerk.

Attributes and Skills

Attributes

IQ: 4

Wits: 6

Charm: 4

Cunning: 6

Durability: 2

Physical Action: 2

Skills

Chummy: 2

Bureaucracy: 1

Legal: 1

Speech Giving: 3

Ship Command

Helmsmen: 0

Gunnery: 0

Leadership: 3

Squadron Command

Maneuver: 2

Formation: 1

Command: 3

Fleet Command

Maneuver: 4

Formation: 4

Command: 4

Allies and Crew

Captain Richard Orsino Ackermann-Sullivan

Eldest son and staff officer aboard the flagship Roman de la Rose under Clotilde's command. Dutiful and competent, with a slightly rough edge from a misspent youth. Although mostly over his abandonment, newly-married and content, his wife being one of the junior of the current generation of La'Reinnes has not made his life easy.

Nussbaum

Ship's Cat of the Roman de la Rose, a light brown shorthair with a wide and somewhat thick body, round face and large yellow eyes. Can smell hostility.