Talk:People of the Magnate War
Commanders
ZOCU
Admiral Lee Dorington
One of the few classroom-trained ZOCU officers, Dorington had served as an officer in the EU fleet in the two decades before the Breakdown, eventually being the CO of a local monitor assigned to Londenium. Consequently he became the nucleus of the Londenium star fleet and was tapped to be the commander of the Nidaros relief force of 2165.
League
Fleet Admiral Manmohan Zhang
Manmohan Zhang, like most war-era luminaries of Minkowski, was one of the early members of species homo caelum. He was gifted with an abnormal genius for space-time reasoning even among his fellows, and blended it to great effect with a distinctly un-Minkowskan taste for the unconventional and for needling his superiors. This kept him from the admiralty during the initial formation of the navy, and saw him despatched to bother the commanders of other League navies, but this policy betrayed the admirals when he returned from Eastern operations with a glowing recommendation from his Mazulan commanders, crediting him with reforming their entire approach to small-ship warfare. Once elevated to the admiralty ability, innovation and no little politicking and luck saw him achieve high command by the mid-70s. His defining moment was set to be the Battle of Midway, until injury during the crippling of the Behemoth forced his withdrawal for treatment over Ares. Heated debate can often be seen among the League's historians and partisans over the consequences of this for the battle and the war; Zhang himself maintains an public disinterest in 'the fantasies of hack authors' but is said to have remarked in private that he 'could have sent those Hitlers packing'.
In the postwar period Admiral Zhang's slumbering anti-cancer finally became prominent, forcing his retirement. He has largely withdrawn from public life save for occasional lectures and speaking engagements, but this has not impeded and has possibly enabled his hagiography as a flawless hero and unparalleled military genius. The real Zhang remains cloistered with his surviving friends and family.
The Ghost Marshal
It's ironic that Sarreva's most brilliant and best known wartime leader has neither a face nor a name. Known only to the League General Council and the highest echilons of the Sarrevan military, he is the strategist and logistical mastermind responsible for keeping the besieged world's war machine grinding forward through fifteen long years. Too important to the war effort to risk assassination, his identity was withheld from the world at large and his location a jealously guarded secret. Unwilling, or perhaps unable to lead from obscurity, the Ghost Marshal manifested as a voice on the radio during the darkest moments of the war. Well-spoken and passionate, his words were a source of confidence and inspiration to a beleaguered people. In the absence of a name, the Marshal's image and reputation have become legend, maybe too much for any real man to ever live up to. Some suggest that's why in the years since the Solomon treaties that the Sarrevan general has never come out to receive his due. Most believe though that he never wanted to be famous, and once his nation no longer needed him he simply faded away.
Commodore Jasny Kocinski
Silesian-born Jasny Kocinski was one of a number of EU officers who felt the isolated worlds which had long depended on the deep range patrols for security would be left too vulnerable as they withdrew to the Core worlds at the onset of the Breakdown. Feeling obligated to ensure their continued security in the absence of the deep range patrols, he was one of the few volunteers to remain behind when the last ships departed the Rim to train the local militias so they could stand on their own through whatever troubles lay ahead. With the onset of the Magnate Wars he became something more than an advisor to Sarreva's nascent military. Then-Captain Kocinski was best known for commanding the Canopus class battleship Invincible during its near mythical exploits during the Second Battle of Sarreva. Among a long list of honors and decorations, the rarest of his titles remains being the captain of the only known vessel to have survived an encounter with the legendary Magnate 'mothership'.
General Annika "Death Wish" Matus
Annika Matus earned a reputation for being a fearless leader that fully lived up to the mantra of Lead From the Front. She earned her nickname for her near suicidal tendency of commanding from the front lines in a time where any easily accessible high-profile Sarrevan officer or offical was assassinated within a scant few months. Surviving a record number of attempts on her life over the course of the war has surrounded her with an aura of invulnerability, inspiring those under her command to feats of relentless tenacity and stubborn, spiteful resistance. Whatever divine favor that spared Death Wish Matus during the war didn't extent to her subordinates though, and she is more darkly known as the widow maker for the numerous officers that have died in the attempts on her life and from the dangers at the front. Sarrevan fatalism suggests that every such officer took the bullet for her, and every man or woman who has fallen due to enemy action in the immediate presence of General Matus has been given a hero's funeral.
Magnates
Exarch Castar
An Eternal Dawn ground forces commander, Exarch Castar was responsible for many of the early victories of the Eternal Dawn. A veteran of the Adharan Schism and the brutal urban fighting there, Castar quickly became one of the primary ground forces commanders of the entire Continuum's overall invasion plans. Although both tactically and strategically talented, his brutal style of combat did much to exacerbate civilian casualties and cement the stereotypical view of Magnate invaders as butchers, a League propaganda coup. Sarrevan and Vimelan headhunting teams attempted unsuccessfully to eliminate him throughout the conflict, partially due to the heroic efforts of his personal guard and partially due to Castar himself being an extensive adopter of combat cybernetics and cutting-edge augmentation. An Advancer, Castar looks mostly human, although virtually his entire body save for vital organs have been entirely replaced by cutting edge combat cybernetics, and every bit of him that has not been replaced has been overhauled repeatedly for optimal performance.
Grand Admiral Jeffery Vickers
The first Delten to hold the rank of Grand Admiral, he rose to prominence during the first part of the war. After getting wounded, he was recalled back to Delten where he was the first to undergo the experimental genetic treatments to increase the aptitude of commanders. Gained sphere-wide recognition for his command of the Magnate fleet during the Battle of Midway. Under his command, losses were less than after-battle projected outcomes, and his cunning tactical fallback forced League forces to grind to a half over Dogma.
Aces and other Important Soldiers
Unlike in the ZOCU war, where ZOCU held a monopoly on Mobile suit technology until the closing days of the war, the Magnate War saw the use of Peltasts and Peltast variants on all sides of the conflict.
ZOCU
Sharyoh Nanasy Drugon
The youngest Kanonian deployed with the Nidaros relief force. Became much more famous fifteen years later as a top ranking ace of the ZOCU War.
League
Thom Samson
A Nefertan Mobile Armour pilot, White flew with distinction throughout the war, serving primarily in a first strike role. Towards the end of the war he piloted the incredibly expensive and still classified 'Super Mobile Armour', Testament Dawn. Unfortunately, the Testament Dawn was destroyed in the battle of Canaan's Breach, a major engagement between PYRAMID's 56th Layer, and the Magnate Forces under Admiral Daedalus Canaan.
Magnates
Aleph-0
Heinously expensive prototype (therefore better). A cute girl because that's the rule.
Acolyte Morgan Levant
Acolyte Levant served as a member of the Magnate combined military unit, ECHELON, fighting in the war as a member of Psychological Warfare as one of its "Headhunter" squadrons. Using Aleph technology, Dawn biotech, and Syntha aerospace assets, the Curate and his squadron killed many a Bilad aerospace ace in their time. Although by raw kill count he does not rank anywhere near the top, his "trademark" of putting craft-scale weaponry into and through the cockpit of the enemy (as well as the pilot) made him one of the more infamous aces of the war. Aleph instabilities gave him a split personality when in normal and combat reflex response modes, ironically making him far calmer, more likable, and controlled in combat rather than not. Despite his prodigious skill and veterancy he has continually been passed up for any recognition or promotion, and is still an Acolyte attached to ECHELON, quite possibly to keep him as far away as possible from the rest of the Eternal Dawn military, where he has few friends.
Replica 0625
One of the prototype Series VI Combat Replicas, 0625's career is distinguished by participation in having fought in both significant ground campaigns on Sarreva and Finnegan's Folly as both pilot and commando, in both cases primarily in sabotage and psychological warfare missions with the rest of his team of VIs. When the VI program was cancelled, 0625 was reassigned, with the other Series VIs, to the Lux Dei, with which he served in until the end of the war. Heavily wounded several times in the combat and preferring to replace missing components rather than regrow them to hasten his arrival back into the field, 0625 ended the war almost entirely machine, with the only remaining biological components being the portion of his brain that was modified from human tissue and 15% of his spinal cord. 0625's post-war career was unusual, as he became an artist and painter under the alias "Arnold Harmon", creating works representing the Magnate War that caused extensive displeasure in the League, the Magnate Continuum, and ZOCU. 0625 sought political asylum and fled to the CIS, where he now resides.