Characters

Reginald was born in 1881 as the only child of Dr. Corman and Matilda Newbury of High Ballenshire, Decorus Insula.  His father, a highly regarded doctor, was descended from Dr. Lewis Newbury, one of the original settlers of the Queen’s Hope Colony.  Unfortunately, both Dr. Newbury and his wife died in the smallpox epidemic of 1894 whereupon, at the age of 13,  Reginald became the ward of the Wittleford family.  Major Rowland Wittleford had been both a patient and a very dear friend of Dr. Corman, and when he heard of the fate of the boy’s parents, he immediately petitioned the court for stewardship over the lad.

Reginald did not know the Wittleford family, and hadn’t even bet the Major, but came to be very appreciative of their generosity.  He  was entered into the Helmsford Boarding School to finish out his primary years, staying with the Wittleford family during holidays.  It was at Helmsford that he became friends with Hendrick Stapleton, a camaraderie that endures to this day.  Instead of continuing on to university upon graduation however, Reginald had decided to join the military, and has completed his training, proudly bearing the crossed  rifle beneath airship insignia of the Imperial Anglican Airborn Riflemen and has been stationed aboard the Dreadnought Indomitable.

Constance is the middle of five daughters born to Major General Rowland Wittleford and Lady Adelaide Wittleford in the year of our Lord 1882.  Of her sisters, the eldest is Lillie, four years her senior, Charlotte, three years her elder, Elspeth, two years her younger, and little Mary, six years her junior.

Constance is currently enrolled a The Blixley Finishing School for Ladies, where she is one year outside completion of her curriculum.  During the holidays when Reginald would come to stay with her family, she immediately took to the boy, and they became fast friends.  Over the years their friendship evolved into a great fondness, and just before his departure in to the Army, Reginald and Constance were engaged.

Hendrick was born in the Pendleton Happins colony on the fringe world of Oreggador in 1881 to Malcolm and Sophia Stapleton.  His father was an architect and had moved to the colony with his wife in 1880 because the expanding colony promised a great deal of work in his profession.  Unfortunately, 6 years later, when Hendrick was of the young age of five, he and his family were involved in a Zeppelin crash while returning for the Island of Manchura.  It was later determined that the airship’s destruction had been the work of Manchuran terrorist separatists who had plotted the attack as one of the opening salvos of the Blackshear Revolution.

Hendrick survived the attack, but his parents and his older brother did not.  Authorities immediately transferred his custody to his paternal uncle Clive Stapleton, a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Navy stationed on Decorus Insula.  While his uncle was indeed a fine guardian, his devotion to the career military path and lack of ever taking a wife confined young Hendrick to grow up in boarding schools.

Hendrick had never had trouble making friends, but it was with Reginald at Helmsford that he became very close.  He would spend holidays with his uncle when his leave overlapped, but inevitably would spend several a year the Wittlesfords who were always willing to entertain a friend of Reginald.  In this he became very close with they and their kin as well.  Upon graduation, and influenced by his uncle’s fine service, himself now Captain Clive Stapleton commanding the Dreadnought Dauntless, Hendrick joined the Imperial Anglican Royal Marines, has completed his training and awaits his post assignment.

Known by everyone simply as “The Major”, Major General Rowland Wittleford, husband to Lady Adelaide Wittleford is one of the most eminent pillars of the Decorus Insula community.  Scion of the prominent Wittleford family, a line that can trace their proud military service to the Empire back seven generations, Rowland made his mark in service on the burgeoning frontier through the height of Caeliverse expansion.   Beginning his command in the Royal New Ballenshire Fusiliers, he was instrumental in dealing with a variety of enemies to the Crown from Republicans and their mercenaries to pirates and aboriginal insurgents.  Veteran of numerous campaigns, Rowland ascended the ranks, not so much as a military genius (although he was not without the skills of a shrewd tactician) but as a sound organizational mind whose diplomatic skills were as sought after as any.  He negotiated the Seifortshire Treaty which brought the Mandarin Celestial into the Empire, and the Plaxow Compact which almost completely squelched piracy along the Wensford Route by offering amnesty to the disenfranchised privateers and guaranteeing them legitimate transport work along the heavily traded highway.

The Major is a colloquialism carried over from when he assumed a field commission to command the 11th Batallion of the Royal New Ballenshire Fusiliers when the original commander, Lieutenant Colonel Harold Mumford, died as his airship erupted into flames during combat.  He accepted command of the Battalion, but would not assume the rank of Lieutenant Colonel out of respect for his commanding officer, whom he regarded as his mentor, insisting that he simply be called “The Major”.  Ever since then, the nickname stuck.  Though retired, the Major is very involved in the current politics of the Empire, often as a trusted consult to officials who seek diplomatic solutions.

Lord Banastre Carleton is the only son of Lord Lesley and his wife Lady Harriet Carleton.  The scion of a prominent Decorus Insula family renowned for political service Banastre has followed in the footsteps of his father and has replaced the elder statesman among the regional House of Lords.  Nearly two years on in his marriage to his wife Abigail, the Daughter of the Sir Charles Dobson, the notable Economist to the Governor.

Banastre has always had a flair for the political and building relationships with notable people, even in his school days.  An outspoken supported of the Earl of Rhed, though not an actual member of the Rhed League, Banastre is generally seen as a rising leader in the conservative and hawkish branch of the Tory party.

The Earl of Rhed is a prominent and outspoken politician from the industrial planet  of Far Wellington.  As a senior member of the Greater Parliament House of Lords, the Earl has used his position to promulgate a conservative rhetoric that espouses the need for a strong military and a heavy hand when dealing with confrontational governments. From his position he has formed the Rhed League, a consortium of like minded Tory Lords have an interest in strengthening the Empire throughout the Caeliverse.

An extremely eccentric individual, the Earl bears a positive passion for opulence, holding exuberantly lavish wine tasting parties and grand state balls.   Although a widower, he maintains an extremely energetic social life, and appears almost tirelessly at almost any function invited to.

Captain Leander Pritchett is an officer in the Confederated Colonies who the Wittleford family met while on holiday in Landekker Plantations for Queen’s Founding Day.  Dapper and sophisticated with his Antebellum charm and slow drawl, he made an immediate impression on both Constance and the Major as both a intellectual and a gentleman. Originally from the Condfederate planet of Cavendarton, he is the son of William and Penelope Pritchett, notable tobacco plantation owners.  He has been in service of the military for nearly ten years serving in multiple campaigns on multiple fronts.