Editing Character:Mnemon Ai (Once more, with feeling) (section)

=Backstory and Personality=
==Backstory==

===Early Life and Schooling===
Mnemon Ai was born as the grandson of Mnemon, the second child of Mnemon Anel and Gan. He showed to be a bright kid from early age, and maybe his combined interest of assembling large constructions of playing blocks and vast arrays of toy soldiers he arranged as young was an indication of what he would come to be later. During his childhood he did the normal activities, but was also interested in craft and strategy more than the other children in the household. He exalted one month before he was scheduled to go to primary school, proving his strong blood.

When going to primary school his interest of battles and construction grew, in fact so much that he was considered a "scroll worm" by a number of his classmates. One night some of those who thought he was weak and only read all time decided to "beat some sense to him", but Ai proved to be almost as skilled with the sword as with his reading and the rest of the time he was left alone by any potential bullies.

When finishing primary school he was given the choice of either pursuing to be an architect or going to the House of Bells to become an officer. In the end his interest of war won, and he was enrolled in the military school. While doing ok in the physical tasks he shone in the mental parts, especially when it was about large perspective strategy and sieges, traditional Mnemon areas.

===Early Military Life===
After getting through the House of Bells as the student of his class he was transferred to a legion in the field. He quickly moved up the ranks and only two years after getting his post as a scale lieutenant he became talon-captain and continued on steadily to becoming a dragonlord in a short time. Some of the more notable confrontations of this time is the Breakout of Blood Canyon, the Hound Dog Hunt and the Gold Hawk Uprising.

The first of these happened when Ai was a fresh Talon-captain, he and his unit had been on a scouting misseon and was returning to base when assaulted by a greatly larger barbarian horde. With little option left his unit ran with the howling barbarians in his heels for four days before being cornered in the Blood Canyon by nightfall. Blood Canyon was an old battle site where two large armies had clashed long ago, and the barbarians still believed the restless souls of those dead soldiers still roamed at night. Their leaders decided to make camp outside, leaving the legionaries to their own fate in the haunted canyon.

But Ai knew of the barbarians fears and retreated only a short way in before resting his troops. Three hours before daybreak he roused his troops, using white and black clay to paint his soldiers before they would charge the sleeping barbarians. The barbarians were stricken hard, they had never anticipated that the enemy would try and break out and security was lax, many barbarians still sleeping off the pre-victory celebration. In addition the white-gray soldiers stirred fear in them, many cut down where they stood, paralyzed in terror. In less than five minutes a dragon of barbarians lay dead while all that the legionaries had sustained were a few cuts and bruises.

The next day the barbarians would continue the pursuits, but morale was low and desertion a factor, making them an essentially worthless excuse for fighting force.

The Gold Hawk uprising was happened when Ai had been a dragonlord for quite a while, an anathema mastermind had slowly and secretly gained much power in the area. During the first night a number of teams of assassins managed to penetrate the defenses of a large number of higher officers in a well planned operation. Not all attacked died, but those who didn't become so were badly wounded and knocked out of action, the only to remain unscathed was Mnemon Ai who was forced to take command of the whole legion.

This was a deliberate tactic, the resistance had presumed that since Ai had been so kind and generous to the people he would be reasonable to talk with, and could be persuaded to leave the area. Thus the assassin squad that had been sent was supposed to fail, to spare him.

But the plan was flawed, Ai had no intention to talk, only hours after the assassination attempts he had taken control of the legion, leading them to quickly crush the rebellion before it had time to really start. Only half a week later the whole region had been pacified, the mastermind behind the whole thing executed.

===General of a Legion===
Shortly after the Gold Hawk uprising Ai was promoted general and has stayed so since then. He has been offered to join the high command a few times the last twenty years, but have turned them down, not wanting to abandon his legion. His time as a commander is marked by many victories, but is characteristics of his use of his troops to build roads, forts and other constructions in the areas where they have been stationed, often greatly improving the region. Thus he has gotten the nickname "the Builder" and his legion "the Bridge-builders".

But building is not all his troops can, at many occasions his troops have proved their fighting worth and he his skills as a general, the most notable one the South Helat Campaign.
This was a four year campaign approx 15 years ago where Ai had been given the overall command over two other legions in addition to his own to defeat a rising anathema warlord in the southeast. Upon arriving at the area his own legion and one of the supporting legions clashed with the warlord's army. 17,000 legionaries and support troops went head to head with the more than two times as large force. A hunt had joined the Realm army and constantly nagged Ai to charge straight ahead, killing the anathema general, but he refused. Instead he played it carefully, advancing slowly, taking in the enemy force. After three hours of both armies sizing up each other they clashed together, the elite legionaries making up for them being outnumbered. After a short time it showed that the two forces, and their generals were equal. As night fell both armies, who both had sustained large losses, pulled back.

This was the beginning for the four year campaign where Ai built up his strategic position, fortifying his army and sending diplomats to surrounding areas. He constructed the vast series of fortifications, towers, tunnels and trenches that would be known as Ai's Moving Castle. It started with the erection of Fort Gan, where Ai located his headquarters, and from there started to reinforce and expand the construction. After a while he started building trenches, and at the ends of these, forts and towers during night, rapidly gaining some secured hundred yards or more every night. At the end of the campaign the series of fortifications stretched some 100 miles with numerous branches in different directions.

His actions were often criticised by outsiders of him being slow, and there was voices that demanded that he would retreat, charge or be replaced. Ai was unfazed by this threat, but considered annoying enough that he left his army to go to the capital and speak with the empress herself. After talking he returned to his army, now carrying an order to continue his campaign in the way he pleased until he had defeated the warlord or got an explicit order from the empress.

The war continued for a long time, marked mostly by minor clashes and the legions steadily advancing. At times the enemy would capture a newly built fort at the end of the line, this would be answered by initial fighting, but if the enemy was too big they would retreat to a safer location, and after that often level the fort with siege weapons, fortifications could easily be built again. At times they would build booby-trapped constructions, with one or two weak points that could be struck as the call of retreat sounded to topple the building over the enemy. After some time the enemy grew tired of this and stopped attacking.

The end would come as Ai managed to surround the castle where the enemy warlord resided. It was an impressive castle, nigh-unassailable, and if he would succeed it would take a huge toll on his forces. Ai, however, never had a thought about charging the castle. Instead he cut off all connections to food and reinforcements before starting the half-month long bombardement of the castle that in the end reduced the impressive castle to nothing but a pile of rubble. The warlord's body was found naked under a large stone, mashed into a pulp.

It was this this campaign that gave cause to the famous quote "I came, I waited, I crushed". This expression was coined during the celebration of his victory in the Imperial Capital, as some dynasts asked for details about the campaign. At last he, quite irritated at this point, answered with that, which since then has been a popular expression, especially among the Mnemons. The real quote is really "I came, I waited, I grounded him into the dust", but the other version is easier to say and is more widely spread.

===The Bound Devils Conspiracy===

After several years of dutiful work as a threshold General, there seemed to be an opportunity for promotion. One of the five high Hydra Lords, the Imperial Army's highest instance of command, was stepping down and the general was one of the stars of the upcoming chain of promotions. In the back rooms, however, Ai had already been promoted. Ai was chosen to become part of a group of select young powerful exalts who were granted access to the Imperial Manse and to become some of the Empress' closest advisers and agents. Chosen from all aspects of Realm society they were individually not too powerful, but together formed an impressive array of capabilites and skills. They were all also chosen due to extreme loyalty to the Empress.

Ai was however dragged away from his new duties as troubled started brewing in the very lands his legion was stationed in. As events unfolded the rebellion turned out to be orchestrated by a woman calling herself the Sole Claw, who turned out to be the very anathema that had been his way to generalhood. After the loss of his cousin, friend and legion-sorceress Mnemon Jemala to the lures of Anathema, Ai killed an immaculate chaplain to cover up the failure of his cousin, shipping her home to his grandmother to take care of. Jemala would later recover and be put under Ai's command again, if because of nothing else so that he could keep an eye on her. Spurred on by this he hunted down and killed his old enemy once again, gaining great acclaim.

Serving as a part of this gave Mnemon Ai several close friends and powerful contacts in the high end of dragonblooded society. He was also promoted into a chief command role organising several Eastern thresholds. This promotion was not happily recieved by the general, however, as he far preferred the front work where he felt he was contributing, nonetheless he accepted and worked diligently as this promotion had been brought by the Empress herself. This would have been all well and good had it not been for Sesus Liusa.

As Ai was now stationed again on the Isle he attempted half-heartedly to move into politics, but the military man was not adapted to the back-room intruigings of the Imperial City. Furthermore it came out that he had had a child with Sesus Liusa, one of his dragonlords and long time lover. The child had been planned by Liusa, and unable to give up on his second big love in his life he sped up the separation from his wife and applied to marry Sesus Liusa.

The Sesus refused. It was unknown what caused this, Ai petitioned to his grand mother to help him, but no such was given. Left without wife and bethrothal Ai was an almost crushed man, and was gone by in the eyes of the Isle politics. He achived no further promotions during the five years until the fateful year.

===The Disapperance of the Scarlet Empress===
As a member of the Bound Devil Chambers Conspiracy and with access to the Imperial Manse, Ai and his comrades were among the first to know of the Empress' disapperance and quickly started investigating. But even with their vast power and intelligence the disapperance proved an elusive quest and slowly the brotherhood fell apart. As the Imperial Legions were converted into House Legions Mnemon Ai managed to talk his grandmother to return him to the 22nd and adopt the legion as a house legion. In doing this he expended a lot of his favor with his grandmother who expected him to stay extremely loyal to her during the upcoming battle for the throne. By offering good marriages for the remaining Dragon Lords he managed to keep most of his High Command in store.

Since then Mnemon Ai have been doing what he does best, support Mnemon satrapies with his legion, co-ordinating the legions in the east, while at the same time look for clues regarding the disappeared Empress. Until five months ago.

===The Destruction of Nexus and What Happened thereafter===
Five months ago the Deathlord known as Mask of Winters invaded and destroyed the city of Nexus, immediately marching on Grey Forks. This move could not be ignored by the Realm and Ai soon got his orders. Gather whatever troops he could gain and lead them to the siege of Great Forks. Hastly assembling his Legion, calling in five more in the region, among those the Mnemon 3rd led by his old comrade and brother-in-law Mnemon Zeni T'Hor and the Sesus 5th where his old lover Sesus Liusa served. Gathering a this huge army together with assembled Auxillaries the total number of soldiers easily made some 50,000 armed men and women under his command.

However, assembling the army took time and marching as well and when he arrived the lands around Great Forks was well under the Mask's control. Trying to by pass the enemy armies he soon received word of a greater enemy, the Fair Folk advancing from the edges of Creation. Caught between Oblivion and Wyld the General did what he always did.

Dug in and stood firm.