Lanya

Brave, bold, and begrudged, Bann Lanya inherited not only her father’s lands and title but also his distrust and bitterness for the folk of Orlais. To Lanya, though, these are not her father’s lands, her father’s ideals - these are fibers of Ferelden, the core stuff that makes the realm what it is. Her lands are hers only because her people share them with her and so she loves and fiercely defends her people. She knows full well that, as her parents’ only child, she was the only option to take up the mantle. Therefore she aims to do it as best as it can be done by anyone. Banns aren’t born; they’re made, day by day.

Lanya is no one’s idea of a courtly lady. She’s muscular, huge, and squarish. Her hair she keeps in braids bound together down her back. A fine scar, sustained while battling brigands, runs across her nose from her right eye to the left corner of her mouth. Even without that scar, her face would seem locked in a serious squint and cautious frown - as if years of grim thoughts were slowly turning her to stone.

Followers and Forces
Bann Lanya has roughly 450 men and women under her command. Her militia consists of citizen infantry who remained at home while their neighbors with combat experience went off to answer King Cailan’s call. The women and men who therefore make up the current militia are a mix of older, experienced combatants and younger, inexperienced would-be combatants who stayed home to defend their lands in case the darkspawn came. These are tough folk, some of them still bearing grudges against the Orlesians, like Lanya does.

Lanya’s militia might be counted as seasonal soldiers-at-arms, in some lands, and indeed one reason she would have to muster them is to get them the necessary experience to upgrade their skills and reputation alike. What truly holds them back, however, is their equipment. Even with the courage and skill to wield sturdy blades in battle, Lanya’s people are held back by limited funds from bad harvests and dispatch of their better-equipped troops to the east. They fight now with dinged and pitted blades, homemade shields, and armor that’s patched and fatigued. Lanya hopes that she can better arm her people by looting well-supplied mercenary dead.

The knights from her territory are in considerably better shape, thankfully. Many of Lanya’s knights stayed home to protect their hearths and families out of fear that Orlais would step in and retake parts of Ferelden without blades to defend it in the west. True or not, it kept knights on hand who might otherwise have gone seeking glory with the king. These knights, clad in simple but sturdy armor etched with emblems inspired by the banners of Fereldan revolutionaries, are heroes to the militia and respected peers to Lanya’s neighbors in Bryton’s and Kail’s territories.