Abel Tsalaev

Abel Tsalaev was a Terran-born legionnary of the Black Stars Legion. While the vast majority of the old Marauders had been purged once Absalom took control of the Legion, sent to their deaths in hopeless missions and ground to dust, a handful of them were spared from the terrible fate of their brothers owing to their uncharacteristic obedience and a rare display of mercy on Absalom's part. Those remnants of old would keep their lives, but would never be viewed as equals to the Skandran Legionaries, and their progenoid glands would not be harvested but instead destroyed to put an end to the legacy of the feral IIIrd.

Chief amongst them was Abel Tsalaev, a mere Captain by the time of Absalom's discovery, but a warrior graced by both the savagery of his brethren and the noble spark of his gene-father. Intolerant of excessive violence and brutality, he tried to rein in his charges to the best of his abilities. This saved him from following his brothers to an ignoble death, and as time passed Tsalaev was the only Terran Star to reach the high rank of Company Captain.

A figure of controversy in the Legion, he was admired for his wisdom borne from centuries of experience and his temperance and loathed for his radical views. Never one to pursue glory, highly critical of the obsessive compulsion to improvement and the oppressive competition cultivated by his primogenitor, Tsalaev amassed a number of detractors as well as followers. An outspoken critic of Absalom's questionable practices, his concern only increased as he witnessed his father's actions take an insidious turn as well as his brothers' blind acceptance and strove to make a difference, cooperating with Tobiah Stolar to rally like-minded sons of the IIIrd in a secret movement to put an end to Absalom's madness.

Their plans, however, never came to fruition as they were discovered by the Spahdien, Absalom's secret operatives led by Cyprian Wiez. Tsalaev took full responsibility for the conspiracy in an effort to cover up Stolar's involvement in the hopes that the Equerry would succeed where they failed. The last Marauder, as well as another ten of his partners, were executed before the Legion, a grim example of the fate that befalls those that betray the Amber King.

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