Matthew Marshal is a name that draws one of three responses from those who hear it. Some will be confused. Who is that? Others would be curious, hearing the name only in passing. Isn't he a young officer in the engineer corps? In the tents of higher command, though, they dread the rumors of experimentation and the relentless pursuit of martial excellence.
Matthew was born in the year 1000 in a villa in the Capitoline. His father Fabian Marshal was renowned for his capability of law and statecraft, being appointed to multiple administrative advisory roles in the empire’s bureaucracy over the course of a distinguished career. Fabian, among other things, was known for his disdain of dueling, common amongst the Imperial civil servants - something that Matthew at a young age showed talent for. Matthew’s mother was Countess Aurelia, who while not known as a powerful stateswoman, she was known as a brilliant academic. Among her bibliography was a treatise on mathematics and another on governing philosophy, both of which circulate regular through academy classrooms and the staterooms of civil servants alike.