Marshal Imogene Tannhauser

The Tannhausers have cast siege mortars for the Confederacy since the second succession war. Imogene is the eldest of the current generation, confirmed in her chair by a unanimous foundry vote of the eleven master houses. The Daughter of Drums carries that vote in the keel. A brass plate over the bridge lists every house-mark, hammered in by each foundry's master engineer on the day the commission was signed.

She fights at long range with paired siege batteries in a three-beat pattern, the rhythm her grandfather taught her on a workshop floor when she was seven. The drum is courtesy. It is also the count her crew uses to adjust elevation between volleys. She knows half the lesser houses hope she dies in an unflagged skirmish so a cadet cousin can press a claim. She fires on the beat anyway. The houses that voted for her deserve the dignity. The others deserve to hear it coming.