The Vandrachen family has long since traced their proud lineage to the high, sky-towers of Sira-Se. There, Brennus was schooled in the noble arts; reading, writing, history, and the like. Steeped in rigorous tradition, Brennus, as the eldest among his siblings, was expected to join the Empire's military. Join he did, squiring for several years before joining the Imperial military school, where the elevation of Sira-Se ingrained in trainees a unique strain of stamina. Five years of training, drilling, and conditioning of the body as much as the mind, preparing the trainees for both arcane and classical warfare. Many among the trainees would go into public service, serving as peace-keepers in various corners of the Empire. Brennus, having expressed noteworthy martial aptitude and stringent adherence to the Empire's word of law, was placed in the Imperial capital.
There, basked in the shadows of the Empire's highest social echelons, Brennus was terribly out of his depth. Those in Giredania seemed to follow their own rules, entirely separate from written law and the customs of Sira-Se that he was so accustomed to. His years of preparation left Brennus ill-equipped to cope with the lace-veiled nuances of Giredanian life, leading to a series of events that, if they had not gone in Brennus' favor, could have ended him and shamed the Vandrachen family beyond repair.
In his eyes, a great many individuals of the Empire's social elite enjoyed excess in all things, including magic. Frivolous expenses of power for mundane matters. In their lofty seats of power, they were far above the reaches of law enforcement, who were all to ready to turn a blind eye. Earning the ire of such powerful men and women could kill surely and slowly. While the high lords might be out of reach to most, Brennus built his case against the high lords over two years of investigation. Hoarding and collecting of arcane foci, large and small, debauched affairs in the late night where spell-craft was used as a parlor entertainment and unspeakable carnal accessory. Two years of delving into the rotten core of Imperial high society on his own accord, not knowing if he could even trust his fellow guardsmen with his findings.
When Brennus felt his case was concrete enough, he made his accusations. The time was dire, as the Calamity was soon approaching, but it was perhaps such timing that drew the attention of the High King's late father. While the high lords decried Brennus' accusations and made grandiose efforts to smear him as a traitor, he did not waver, bow, or break under their relentless assault against his professional and personal lives. Such was why Brennus made the accusations alone, so that no others would share in Brennus' folly should he fail. On and on the trials went, Brennus proving incapable of bribery, and those sent with the intent to threaten him into complacency were smote low.
His back to the wall, he proved himself to be a tiger.
Eventually, sentences were passed, high lords and ladies imprisoned or exiled for their crimes, and Brennus was thrust into a sociopolitical spotlight, garnering as much favor as fury from various political parties and guilds. He had upset the status quo, drained the swamp, but at the same time he had cost several hundreds of people a hefty sum of money. Politics were unbecoming to Brennus, those particular muscles atrophied from lack of use, all but forgetting his formal tutoring as a boy. It was bookish and "womanly". What care would it be to him?
Yet, it was a woman who swept in and kept Brennus from ruin, both at his own bumbling hands and those of the Giredanian sharks, drawn by a floundering young man in waters too deep for his own good. His savior introduced herself a Nyrah, an avian woman of a owlish suggestion. When they first met, Brennus bedecked in his maille, her in her silk and lace, he felt that Lady Nyrah measured him like a plump mouse. Nyrah and her family had been notable merchants in the Empire for some time, wealthy enough to stand among the council of lords as much as the multitude of guild halls. The underhanded machinations of the high lords had been squeezing Nyrah's family for years, the ripples of Brennus' "elevated form of patriotism" touching more than he had ever imagined.
Nyrah's interest in Brennus, as well as her tutoring of him, sent a murmur through the still-electric higher castes of Giredania. Out of necessity as much as a desire to not look a fool before such a noble creature as Nyrah, Brennus buried his nose so deep in studies it was a surprise his nose wasn't stained black by ink. Through this education, as well as support from his family that of Lady Nyrah's house, Brennus could masquerade as a proper nobleman, but no amount of cotillion could hide the tigerish nature of his stride or the resting pensiveness of his brow. Never one for ponce or extravagance, Brennus attended his first several functions of court appearing a pauper in comparison. Even with Nyrah at his arm to soften some of his jagged edges, he was a fox in the hen house.
Apparently, that was what the High King felt he needed.
A year and a summer's time had proven eventful as it was fruitful. Brennus and Nyrah were married, deafening themselves to the jeering of naysayers, within their own Houses, as well as without. The High King and his court too blessed Brennus with the mantle of a royal guard, having shown gallantry in the face of insurmountable odds. While Brennus was not selected for the Lion Heart of that cycle, he was entrusted to watch over High King Seig Virelius as he grew up into his own insurmountable burden.
Even when he became a father himself, Brennus kept his vigil tirelessly. Fumbling at times, being overzealous in others, but never fully failing. Being a martial authority figure, he would always be scrutinized for every measure - whether it was too lax or too firm. He could only do his best, as a guardian of the King, of the Empire, and of his family.