Branimandua
Branimandua was a Britonic Princess from the 1st century. She was one of a few Briton leaders who were openly mistrustful of the War Chief after he set himself up as the "god of the Sacred Wood" as part of a plot to interfere with the Roman conquest of Britain. In the process of foiling his plans, she met one or more Time Lords, who may have included the Third Doctor, the Colonel and Leora. She may thereafter have become a companion to one of them.
Biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Early life[[edit] | [edit source]]
Born in 20 AD in the Scottish lowlands, near the boundary between the Britons' and Picts' lands, Branimanua was the daughter of a king who hoped that she would become a warrior. She had a a sister. As she grew up, Branimandua was taught the ways of war and leadership, becoming "adept and confident with many weapons and all manner of survival and woodcraft skills" — notably being able to brawl bare-handed, wield a longsword, spear, dagger or short bow, all with significant proficiency. She was also an even more competent swimmer and charioteer. However, she proved more interested in "the arts of the Druids" than her warrior training, gaining a good knowledge of Druidic law and poetry, as well as a smattering of medical sciences. Nevertheless, she ultimately surrendered to the king's wishes and became a war leader rather than a teacher or priestess. "Charming and persuasive, an excellent speaker and a good judge of character", she took to it well. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
The Sacred Wood affair[[edit] | [edit source]]
When the Time Lord known as the War Chief began to send holographic visions of himself to war leaders across the North of Britain, in order to build up his cult of the Inner Mysteries, he did not initially select Branimandua, underestimating her due to her youth and gender. However, her sister had recently become betrothed to Cunovellasus, one of the leaders the War Chief did contact; thus, Branimandua learned of his call for Britonic war parties to gather in the Sacred Wood and ambush the Romans' army to try and turn things around after the historically-recorded defeat of Cattigern and Caractacus. There, her relation to Cunovellasus, who had emerged as a leading figure, entitled her to considerable respect from and influence over the other Britons, which her own charisma compounded. However, she was still never formally initiated into the Inner Mysteries — which was a blessing in disguise, as she was thus spared from the hypnotic brainwashing which the War Chief performed on the initiated leaders. Thereafter her natural restless inquistiveness resulted in her becoming quite the sceptic — not so much of the War Chief's divinity as of the nature of his plans and intentions. (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
After one or more other Time Lords — who may have included any of the Third Doctor, the Colonel, and Leora — and their companions detected the War Chief's TARDIS's presence in 43 AD, they became stranded there due to the War Chief's hypnotic rho wave field messing with their TARDIS, and had to travel on foot from their initial landing sight to the Roman encampment to try and warn Emperor Claudius about the ambush and put history back on track. Some or all of the time-travellers were eventually captured by the War Chief's Bitons and brought to the camp. There, they witnessed Branimandua trying to reason with Calagundus and the other Briton leaders, telling them that she had snuck to the edge of the Sacred Wood and seen that the War Chief also had Romans in his thrall.
The hypnotised leaders, however, swore that they had seen otherwise, and Branimandua lost some support due to spying on the Inner Mysteries being considered blasphemous for a non-initiate. Though she was not sanctioned for it, her suggestion of interrogating the prisoners was dismissed as the council decided to simply drop them in the Sacred Wood as offerings. Left alone and thoughtful in the centre of the camp after the prisoners were taken away, (GAME: "In the Briton camp" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"In the Briton camp","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) she again snuck to the edge of the Sacred Wood and watched from a safe distance as they were captured by the War Chief's core force of fully hypnotised soldiers and taken into the "sacred tree", in actuality the War Chief's TARDIS. (GAME: "The Sacred Wood" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"The Sacred Wood","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
Conquering her fear, she then wholly entered the Sacred Wood, "escaping detection because the surveillance systems were concentrated on the adventurers themselves" at the time, and entering the War Chief's TARDIS itself. There, if they did not manage to free themselves first, she would be the one to intervene to free the time-travellers from the holding cell into which the War Chief had stuffed them to await hypnotic processing into more loyal servants for him. Either way, Branimandua participated in the final battle against the War Chief, (GAME: "Escape" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Escape","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) which ended with the "destruction of the War Chief's hypnotic compulsion apparatus" including "the processing machinery" as well as "the facilities controlling the recon drone that boost[ed] and direct[ed] the rho waves used to control the War Chief's subjects". Though the adventurers were also liable to attempt to capture or otherwise subdue the War Chief, it was most likely that he would make a last-minute escape to fight another day.
After the War Chief's defeat, Branimandua arranged for the time-travellers to return to the Briton camp as respected ambassadors and speak with the council of other Briton leaders. Now freed from the War Chief's divine command and — in the leaders' cases — hypnotic compulsion, they ultimately agreed that they had little to gain by fighting another bloody war against the Romans who had yet to show an interest in their Northern territories, and all agreed to return to their own lands. (GAME: "Ending the Adventure" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"Ending the Adventure","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
As a companion[[edit] | [edit source]]
As Branimandua's inquisitive, restless personality, chafing against the limits of the life which awaited her within her native society, made her "in short, perfect TARDIS-fodder", it was a strong possibility that after the War Chief was defeated and she learned of "the wonders the adventurers represent[ed]", she would go on to become a companion to whichever benevolent Time Lord or Time Lords had been involved. This may have been through stowing away on their ship, or else by persuading them to do so. Indeed, the hope of winning them over may have been a motivator for her to be "eager to work with them" prior to the War Chief's defeat, if she had found out they were time travelers during their stint in the camp ("or at least realise[d] they [we]re from some far place", given that "time travel [was] not a concept she [was] likely to grasp quickly"). (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"})
One account (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"512-513","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"}) showed that the renegade Time Lord which whom Branimandua began travelling with was Leora, (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}, PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"512-513","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"}) whom she had fallen in love with. After making love, the "Princess", as she later became known, held a dagger to Leora's throat and made Leora swear that she, or anybody with whom she was affiliated, had no allegiance or connection to Rome. She later reminisced to a "man in black" who had forgotten his name and identity that had Leora confessed to being affiliated with Rome, she would have killed herself. (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"512-513","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"})
Settling down[[edit] | [edit source]]
Many years later, just over forty years before 25 December 31233, she would settle down, and come to live at 23 Ceridwen Road in the city of New Helena, on the pleasure planet of Silveni. Nobody in the city of New Helena knew anything about her, despite her frequently visiting dances and theatre performances. Daily, she ran through the Central Park. She lived with many people several millennia younger than her, all but two of whom were women, and one of whom was related to her, and some of them were partners, and some of them were servants. On the 25 December 31233, she visited somebody's birthday party, got slightly drunk, and came home to find a tree in her living room, (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"504-506","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"}) in reality the War Chief's TARDIS. (GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"], PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...["The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"]) She attempted to kill the "man in black", who had come immediately from seeing her last, as soon as he emerged from his tree. He then hypnotised her, and once she broke his hypnosis they sat down and had a drink. They talked of the man's identity for a while, and he eventually revealed that he had forgotten it, as he had hidden his own identity to stop (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...["The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"]) the Colonel, (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"519","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"}, GAME: The Legions of Death [+]Loading...["The Legions of Death (game)"]) as the man feared him going rogue in his pursuit of him. He then left, but not before she told him to grow a beard, as she believed him to look like a Roman. (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...["The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"])
The next day, she received a telephone call from the man, now much older, in a new body, and trapped in his tree, which was now going by the name Lilith. She revealed that she had been beginning to believe that she had dreamt the previous night's encounter, and they discussed the possibility that due to people believing in the false persona the "God of Mysteries" had constructed, and the Observer Effect, it might have become real. She then asked him to tell her the entire story of his life, which he said would take roughly sixty years. (PROSE: Our Finest Gifts We Bring (part 10) [+]Loading...{"page":"776-779","part":"10","1":"Our Finest Gifts We Bring (short story)"})
Physical appearance[[edit] | [edit source]]
At 23, Branimandua was "a beautiful young woman with long, untamed auburn hair". She typically wore "a short, somewhat ragged tunic" which belied her rank, though she did also wear "ornaments indicating her high birth and status", such as a coiled metallic armband on her left arm. She kept her arms bare but wore fur-tufted cuffs around her forearms and wrists, leaving her hands free. She was "generally quite well-armed". (GAME: "Non-Player Characters" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedpart":"Non-Player Characters","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"}) When retired on New Helena, she wore hand-made boots outdoors, but when indoors went barefoot, save when wanting to annoy a host. She continued to wear a ragged tunic, and wore also "priceless" golden jewellery on her ankles and wrists. She had long white hair, which when untied reached down to her back, but which she tied in braids when running. She was slightly taller than the God of the Sacred Wood and Inner Mysteries. She had "she had that ageless quality of the truly ancient, those who had outgrown any self-involved impulse to wear every wrinkle and every scarf, yet could not bear to look young". Her physical form was "hale and hearty", and "full of life". Her face bore a few creases described as "calculated", which complemented her dark-grey eyes, in which floated "vast expanses of time". This body was described as the "sculpted masterpiece of a hundred nanosurgeons". (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"504-505, 510","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"})
Personality[[edit] | [edit source]]
She liked her meat very rare, and was described as "ador[ing]" garlic. (PROSE: The God Who Came For Christmas [+]Loading...{"page":"505","1":"The God Who Came For Christmas (short story)"})
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The notes prefacing the "Non-Player Characters" section of The Legions of Death explained:
Three characters are, however, more fully detailed. One is the War Chief, the renegade Time Lord who is the villain of this adventure. The other two, the Roman tribune Falco and the warrior-princess Branimandua, are not only important to the story as a whole, but could potentially become new Companions to the Time Lord leading the players' group. A player whose character is killed or a new player who cannot otherwise be introduced into an ongoing campaign might wish to complete the adventure with one of these characters rather than trying to introduce a completely new one.
Due to the multiple-choice nature of The Legions of Death's plot, not only is Branimandua's eventual graduation to companionship optional, but so is the identity of the Time Lord protagonist: any combination of the Third Doctor, the Colonel or Leora were available as possible Time Lord protagonists. Thus, Branimandua may be considered a potential companion to all three including the Third Doctor, as, arguably, could Marcus Cornelius Falco, although the prose epilogue "The Sibyl's Prophecy" [+]Part of The Legions of Death, Loading...{"namedep":"The Sibyl's Prophecy","1":"The Legions of Death (game)"} commits to him becoming a companion to the Colonel and Leora.
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