Revlan Kursdorff
Revlan Kursdroff holds the rank of General Major and serves as Commandant of the Republic Marine Corps. A towering woman of amazonian proportions, Revlan is reputed to be the only cabinet-level adviser who could bench-press the rotund Kenny Brackhaven.
During the Great War, Revlan joined the infantry of the Republic Expeditionary Force when it was still quite uncommon for women to serve in a front-line unit. Revlan to do every thing twice as good just to get by. She faced even more prejudice when the REF was folded into the multinational Grand Army. Many of the soldiers she served with came from countries that were much less progressive then Tasnica; some believed she shouldn't be able to serve at all, and most believed she was almost certainly a lesbian. Revlan again had to commit to the craft of soldiering. Whereas the great theorists and generals of the war learned grand movements on a map, Revlan became a master of the nitty-gritty, day-to-day business of being a Grenadier. She learned how a soldier could keep their feet dry while marching through pouring rain and mud, how breakdown and re-assemble virtually every personal weapon in the GA arsenal, and exactly how to flavor combat rations so they were palatable. Her commitment impressed her superiors, and she served a few tours as a drill instructor training Grenadiers before becoming Torstensson Lenart's Command Sergeant Major. She ended the war Sergeant Major of the Grand Army, the senior-most enlisted soldier in the GA and the representative of non-commissioned officers and enlisted soldiers on the Soldierly Council.
Rhodes Palmerston tapped her to whip the Republic Marine Corps into shape, a task she took on with great enthusiasm. In the early years, the RMC was comprised of 'odds and sods' and that she was able to assemble them into something resembling an army at all is quite an accomplishment. Revlan deserves credit for imbuing the Corps with its 'every man an infantryman' ethos embodied in its motto: 'Jeder kampfen, Keiner quittiert' (Everyone Fights, No One Quits.)
She had been brought on board as a 'technician of soldiering', but her limitations soon became apparent when she actually needed to lead the Corps in battle. Though Revlan deserves to be known as "the Mother of the Corps", her leadership in the Kakkara campaign of the Leviathan War revealed severe limitations as she was unable to defeat a vastly smaller and less well-equipped army. A political scandal over the Foreman's Rebellion almost cost her her career.
However, she has gained an unlikely patron in Kenny Brackhaven. One would think a brusque ex-drill sergeant would be an odd fit for the halls of power, but Kenny actually finds her ability to give clear, concise answers and complete lack of political ambition a quite refreshing change from the rest of his cabinet. It is, however, likely that Revlan would mainly serve as a military adviser to the Prime Minister and leave field command to another general.
