Mara Bycen

Mara Bycen was a lieutenant in the Firstlight Legion responsible for the Legion's initial landing in Leviathan Bay, specifically at Karth.

Description
Tall and muscular, and extensively scarred from her many battles, Mara Bycen cut an imposing figure. She had short blonde hair and a particularly large scar that cut across her nose.

Personality
Mara Bycen was a very serious and driven woman who had little time for fools and cowards. She was fiercely devoted to Cerielle and believed strongly in the cause of the goddess Ylle.

Abilities
Though she, as many officers of the Firstlight Legion, had some command over High Light magic, Cerielle was mainly a melee combatant and used her magic abilities only to augment her combative skill. She was a talented sword fighter and had excellent stamina and durability.

Possessions
Mara used a sword in battle, but was averse to using old equipment, and so she typically carried a new weapon in good condition. Her most prized possession was a prismatic cloak, a potent magical item given as a symbol of rank to the lieutenants of the Firstlight Legion. Her cloak was taken by Gaius Kvath when Bycen was killed.

History
Mara Bycen was a typical soldier in the Firstlight Legion when she enlisted, but proved herself over the course of many battles. Her promotion to lieutenant came in the Legion's failed attempt to invade the Hibernean Theocracy during the disastrous siege of Clearvale. Her relative success and experience in the Leviathan Bay region made her a prime candidate for landing there when Cerielle sought to use Trath's activity as an excuse to seize some of the city-states there, and so Mara Bycen led the first company of the Legion to land there, arriving at the port city-state of Karth.

In Karth, Bycen attempted to convince the then-Master Grosso to contract the Firstlight Legion as a military force. The Master refused to do so until the Chained Harbinger attacked the city with a nightwave, and then appeared himself to cut a swath through the city. At this point, Bycen was given nearly total military control, taking over Karth's existing merchant guard and declaring martial law. She moved in to the Master's villa along with most of her soldiers, turning it into a temporary barracks.

Gaius Kvath, Benedicton Carolus, Radomir Vlasak, Cid Maxwell and Androm later arrived at the Villa after initially fleeing the city to escape martial law. They were brought back to the city by a nightwing summoned by Altradus Artavan, the vampire Shield of Darkness, who had employed them to destroy the presence of the Firstlight Legion in the city. They broke into the Villa and Gaius killed Mara Bycen after a heated confrontation, using a voidcrystal bomb. Her body was destroyed utterly, but her prismatic cloak, a symbol of her rank, was left behind.

Appearances

 * Shadowborn