Thridag

Thridag was Colonel-Commandant of the Dwarven Marines and was most famous for founding the service and leading them in their first armed conflict, the Aechalas War.

Thridag was famous for his doggedness in pursuing what he wanted, nagging the Army leadership for two years until he was finally granted a battalion to work with. In this stressful period of two years, Thridag became addicted to tobacco and alcohol, becoming dependent on them and finally dying from them at the age of 120, roughly middle-age for dwarves.

Childhood
Thridag was raised by a group of dwarven pirates who used a stolen AGC. Because he was not a member of a clan, Thridag did not prefer land, air, or sea, and this allowed him to create the Marines.

Thridag had been left with the pirates by a group of dwarves right before their ship was destroyed by an elven bomber squadron. He was named Thridag, after the mythical dwarf who had managed to use three battle-axes simultaneously.

Until he was fourteen or so, Thridag spent his time with the pirates, helping them loot ships and keep the carrier functioning. He quickly became lean and strong for a dwarf, thanks to years of rowing a gunboat, swimming, fighting, and climbing.

Initial Military Life
At fifteen, the pirates were captured by the authorities of the Dwarven Domain, and the whole crew was offered a choice of years in prison or joining the Dwarven Military. Thridag made the obvious choice and joined the Dwarven Domain Navy, at first as a normal soldier. He easily beat the other cadets in all forms of combat and physical exercise, along with being amongst the top of the class in geography. He was quickly transferred by the director of the Naval Training to the officer training program. There, he continued to defeat the rest of the class in physical exercise and geography but struggled with naval theory, not understanding why the dwarves wanted very complex plans where simpler ones would do.

He finally graduated at the rank of Captain, serving under then-general Wedmog. Thridag, however, did not want to remain in the administrative position he had been assigned (then combat positions were posted based on aristocratic position). He began a two-year campaign of nudging Wedmog and his commander, Thilmeg Silversage, to allow him to establish a special force of commandos trained in all forms of warfare.

At the same time, he rigorously trained himself and created specialized equipment. His training consisted of riding a gunship to several miles from the shore and jumping out, using his wingsuit to fly as far as he could, then folding the wings and swimming to shore, where he crawled out and stood while two men fired at him, their bullets bouncing off of his armor. He then walked through a massive bonfire, jumped off of a cliff, flew through a ravine to a three-hundred foot stone wall, which he would traverse and at the top use all of the weapons he had brought with him.

Finally, Wedmog said that he would be allowed to give Thridag one thousand cadets of Thridag's choosing if Thridag proved the effectiveness of the Marines. Thridag told him to establish his most powerful defenses and he would attempt to enter the military building. Wedmog agreed.

Thridag did what he always did, this time carrying rifles with dummy bullets that would bruise but not badly injure the men he shot at. He repeated his typical training exercise, managing to avoid fire from three aerial destroyers, swim around numerous gunboats and destroyers, along with a submarine. He then emerged on shore, dual wielding repeater rifles, managing to completely defeat two battalions of foot soldiers, along with two gunships and beach entrenchments with another two battalions. He ran through a forest, pursued by cavalry, and jumped off of the cliff. Wedmog feared that Thridag was dead, but instead saw Thridag busy climbing up the wall of the military building, still managing to fire at ground soldiers with his repeater pistol and dodge artillery fire. He then climbed to the roof of the military building, engaging two battalions in melee combat (with wooden weapons) he managed to dodge all of their blows and enter the building, after which the drill was called off.

Thridag was granted the dispensation to choose one battalion of cadets to train, along with a promotion to Colonel-Commandant. Thridag immediately chose several of his old friends who were now in the NCO training program to be the captains of his companies, then sent them to choose their soldiers while he chose his own.