“When times were simpler and sometimes all it takes to be appointed a general was to be really good at killing people, you might get the warrior types who tacticians and strategists these days would often point out as bad examples from the past.

I have a different view on this point. Fact spoke louder than words, and fact was, for their time and place, these warrior-generals worked. In fact, several of our nation’s most famous generals were arguably more warrior than general.

They inspired their troops to heightened morale or even a frenzy by leading courageously from the front, their martial prowess often making them appear as if a Deity had stepped onto the battlefield in person, especially for the mightier generals of this sort. Naturally, such displays would also impact the enemy morale, on top of its benefits to their own troops.

Rather than mock or push away a doctrine you disagree with, why not embrace and incorporate it for your own benefits? Is that not what a tactician was supposed to be doing in the first place? To make the most out of whatever they had in hand?” - From a recorded debate amongst the graduating class of the Ambervale Military Academy, Al-Shan, circa 1042 FP.

Xiao Jiangjun Xingl Liat of the Al-Shan Imperial army came to her current position by a series of incidents that some would call coincidence, and others might call fated.

She hailed from a minority tribe in one of the islands furthest west in the archipelago, where the winter lasted for most of the year and summertime was brief. Her people were so isolated that they were only found and assimilated into the Empire after the unification war, and even in the present day were rarely seen outside their oft-frozen home island.

Liat was a warrior, the best of her tribe, albeit one who found herself without purpose in a world where all the tribes had been incorporated into the Empire as its people. Where inter-tribal warfare used to be common amongst rivaling tribes, such incidents were basically gone due to the Empire’s pressure for the tribes to behave themselves.

Since her homeland could no longer grant her a purpose and she felt that being a warrior was truly her calling, Liat had left her home island and traveled the archipelago as a wandering warrior. She was neither of the chivalrous nor of the dastardly bent, and mostly sought after challenges where she could discover one.

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As fate would have it, the succession war broke out around a decade after Xingl Liat left her home island, and she soon found herself embroiled in it after some soldiers attempted to capture her just because she happened to pass by when they were rounding up some of their enemies. Liat naturally took offense to their attempt at capturing her and slaughtered those soldiers, unintentionally aligning herself with those she rescued by accident in the process.

Those soldiers she rescued happened to be supporters of the prince that became the current Emperor, and when they invited her back to their base, it had not taken much convincing for her to join their cause. It was the best and actually legal way for her to satisfy her lust for battle, after all, and she would even get paid for it at the same time!

Xingl Liat gained fame and fortune throughout the succession war in equal measure as she fought at the frontlines, repeatedly throwing enemy formations into disarray with her expertise in the arts martial. Her success led to a group of impulsive and courageous soldiers to follow and emulate her feats, people who later in the war would end up being her followers, the starting point of the infamous Gatebreakers.

They earned that nickname when they broke through an enemy formation known to be as difficult to breach as a city’s gate in one of the last battles of the war, and the moniker stuck with them ever since. As the Empire settled down, Liat was made a general for her feats of arms, and her subordinates arranged into an official unit that bore their moniker proudly.

She found pride in her achievements through the war, and spent the decade that followed either training her subordinates in the arts martial to her exacting standards, or pestering the more warrior-like of the Empire’s generals to violent spars, which furthered her infamous reputation amongst them. Some viewed her as a barbaric brute, and while she definitely had no head for tactics and strategy, the effectiveness her unit had spoke for itself.

So far, Liat had found the invasion somewhat boring. Neither she nor her soldier found any worthy challenge as every enemy they faced crumbled like paper before them. It was only when the old Long Jiangjun asked her to come along to the north to reinforce the troops there that she felt some excitement. She had wanted to fight against the odd enemies they faced in the south, but she realized that it was likely that those same foes were responsible for the defeat of the northern detachment, so she would get to fight them either way.

In the end, the enemies at the north not just met but directly exceeded her expectations.

Not only were the short, stout, heavily armored foes present in large numbers, but there were also other foes she had never seen before in her life. By happenstance, when the command for her unit to move out was given, it was to reinforce the right wing, which was crumbling apart before the enemy offense, and there, she also saw foes she could not wait to cross blades with.

The sight of massive beasts that wore armor and wielded weapons like people was something she had never seen before in her life, and she knew that it would be a challenge unlike anything she faced thus far, which further incensed her fighting spirit. Even under such excitement, though, she did not lose sight of her goals and still directed her soldiers towards the enemy flank, intending to cut their way through from there.

It was to her surprise – and excitement – that the enemies there also proved to be tougher than any she fought in the invasion thus far and held steady even against her gatebreakers, and she directly made her way to the front to fight them in person, blade in hand.