An order is only complete if you come back alive
The thing she cannot tolerate is someone treating dying as loyalty. When it actually happens she loses her temper on the spot — one of the very few moments her manners fail her.
Commander of the White Rose Knights, Kingdom of Lanviris · Head of House Zephyris
Cecilia Zephyris
Cecilia von Zephyris
“White Rose Knights — Cecilia von Zephyris! This road is mine to hold. Not one of you falls behind!”
- Lanviris
- White Rose Knights
- Gale Swordswoman
- Called
- Cecilia
- People / Age
- Human / 21
- Birthday
- 21 June, 966 ST
- Affiliation
- Kingdom of Lanviris — the White Rose Knights
- Office
- Knight Commander, head of House Zephyris, military witness to the Twelve Oaths
- Inherent class
- Gale swordswoman / mobile guard
- First appears
- Chapter 1 — The escort incident outside Lucentrystel
- Role
- Off-tank / counterattack / protective swaps / wind combos
- Fond of
- Flatbread straight from the oven, the training yard at dawn, the patched-up toys border children bring in
- Not good at
- Taking leave. She starts inspecting patrol rosters without meaning to.
Spoiler-free
She is not much for fine speeches. What she does instead is check the load rating on bridges herself, learn every wounded soldier’s name, and put her own signature on the loss reports. Dawn training is not only swordwork either — she runs evacuation routes with the recruits, practises carrying casualties, practises counting off in heavy smoke.
She became commander at twenty-one and still doubts she has earned it. But she is clear about one thing: that doubt is not allowed to travel downhill to her subordinates. So she puts it away and goes on getting each thing right.
If you go down on a battlefield she will shout you back onto your feet in a tone harsher than any order. Once everyone is safe, she will add, embarrassed, “…that came out too hard. Sorry.”
How she got here
Zephyris is an old Lanviris knightly house. Her father Adrian commanded the White Rose Knights before her.
In 979 ST a border withdrawal case saw Adrian accused of forging orders and losing a village. He died in prison the following year. Her brother Roderick vanished afterwards, and the family’s name collapsed.
She was fourteen. Over the six years that followed she started again as a squire and won back both the house and her place in the order, one rank at a time. In 986 ST she became one of the youngest commanders in the White Rose’s history.
She insists on reading every equipment maintenance record personally — because the hinge of her father’s old case was a set of forged ordnance receipts.
In 987 ST she handled an attack on an escort party outside Lucentrystel, and pressed the question everyone else had skipped: why was that new rift not marked on the guild map?
Traits
A whole crate of charms
Border children give the knights mended old toys as luck charms. She labels every one with where and when it was received and keeps them carefully. Beside each fallen knight’s effects box sits the matching one.
Excellent at sutures, hopeless at rabbits
Her wound suturing is among the best in the order. Sewing a stuffed toy straight is beyond her. She has admitted this. She has not given up.
Timeline
- 966 ST Born into House Zephyris
- 974 ST Begins knight training
- 979 ST Her father Adrian is arrested over the border withdrawal case
- 980 ST Adrian dies in prison; her brother Roderick disappears
- 982 ST Enters the White Rose Knights as a squire
- 985 ST Earns full knighthood and reclaims the headship of House Zephyris
- 986 ST Becomes Commander of the White Rose Knights
- 987 ST The escort incident outside Lucentrystel, and the meeting with the Stranger
Ties
- The Stranger (you)
- Conscripted as an investigative assistant, later one of the few comrades willing to object while she is giving an order.
- Claria
- A long-standing partner in relief work and escorts. Both are required to always look dependable, which is why each sees straight through the other.
- Rhavaniel
- An opposing commander on the border. One joint evacuation showed each of them how the other treats civilians.
- Roderick Zephyris
- Her missing brother. She has never stopped looking.
- The White Rose Knights
- Her subordinates admire her; some also worry the commander has put her family’s case ahead of her office. Both of those are true.
Voice
- First meeting
“White Rose Knights — Cecilia von Zephyris! This road is mine to hold. Not one of you falls behind!”
- Asking for help
“Ser — take those three to the north gate. Please. …I know we only just met, but you are the only person I can entrust this to right now.”
- Small talk
“This is an inspection, not slacking. The flatbread? Public welfare, obviously… please stop smiling quite so openly.”
- Setting out
“Equipment counted. Three withdrawal routes. Rally point is the north gate. …Right. Move out!”
- Combat start
“Get behind me! —That isn’t an order. I’m asking you.”
- Ultimate
“By the White Rose Oath — with this blade, I open the way!”
- An ally falls
“Stand up! An order is only complete if you come back alive — how many times have I said it? Stop trying to prove things with your life!”
- Receiving a gift
“Eh, for me…? Th-thank you! I’ll keep it safe. …Really, I’m very good at keeping things.”
- Late at night
“Tomorrow’s patrol roster is done. …Hm? No, I am not working again. …Fine. I am working.”
Drawn from the KTM2 WorldDict. Only the public layer of each entry is published here.