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Caelwyn possesses a grand-sounding mix of titles even for a man well past his fortieth year, worn down by the demands of his family, the service of the Pancreator, and the relentless pressure of three decades of war. Devout and intense, the Flavian Crusade has kept his inner torch burning where otherwise it might have guttered, and like many Li Halan, wherever he goes, a churchman is never far away: scholars, confessors, and political specialists. It is that faith in the Pancreator's manifest will that keeps him going, energises him, and drives him, and that sent him across the stars to Yathrib. His family estates lie on far-off Kish, providing both wealth and Ishwin Confederacy shock troops: these and his vassals, together with holdings on Midian and lands seized on Rampart during the occupation, are being bled of men, technology, production, and treasure, to fund the cause of Flavian's Crusade. The Pancreator's will is clear: Revelation must be returned to the arms of the Universal Church.
A veteran like so many others of the Emperor Wars, Caelwyn has risen from commanding his own regiment of levies through greater and greater responsibilities to his present rank. He participated in many battles and campaigns of the Li Halan during the Emperor Wars, from the Conquest of Rampart to battles against the Decados and even as a small contingent of Li Halan forces in the final battles of Alexius's final victory at Byzantium Secundus. His reputation is that of an expert grand strategist, able to plan wide-ranging military campaigns even at the planetary level with great skill, although his once formidable skills at command of smaller formations have atrophied slightly over the decades of high command.
The Li Halan style of battle, augmented by Hazat thinking in years past and still full of the lessons of Sun Tzu, combines deception and diversion with a willingness to spend the lives of his troops like water poured onto the desert when necessary, yet preserving them carefully from needless losses. Caelwyn's pseudonym of "The Thousand Flowers General" came to be from an incident during the conquest of Rampart. Rather than imprison, ransom, execute or impress any captured self-identified 'Leaguers', they were offered the choice of making a thousand origami flowers to be offered to the altar of the new Orthodox cathedral, and when that task was done, they could swear an oath not to return to the battle and be released back as productive members of the new society - albeit carefully watched ones. The cathedral in Sa'frya even now contains hundreds of thousands of preserved paper flowers, proof that even the techsophists can be changed to productive members of society by compassion and the care of the Pancreator.
The General returned for a year after the crowning of Alexius to participate in the ongoing pacification of Rampart, before beginning a tour of his fragmented, battle-won holdings that lasted only one more year before, on Midian, Flavius announced the formation of his Crusade after the discovery of Yathrib's plight. Pledging his sword, his men, and his holdings to this great Holy Work, Caelwyn gathered his troops and supplies from across his holdings, marshaling and preparing, recruiting and gathering support from vassals or nobles who could be persuaded by passionate argument, careful poems, or religious exhortations. When the time came, his forces, and those Li Halan crusaders who pledged their own resources and companies to him as their Captain poured through the Yathrib jump-gate in company with the others of the Flavian Crusade.
After years of grinding island to island warfare, these territories are now secured, and with the support of Duke Maximino, the Lord-General has now taken his forces north into the battle for the Holy City and the support of the Crusader State.
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