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"For the Leopard!" they roared, and charged the Greenskins. The Orc line swayed, then fell apart under their assault and the rest of our army took up the victorious cry. "For the Leopard!" we roared and charged too...We'd all share the glory -- and the loot."

Filimir Tzapinka, mercenary sergeant, on the battle of the Frozen Lakes[1a][Note 1]

Leopold's Leopard Company is a famous band of mercenary pikemen that has its origins within the ancient Tilean city-state of Luccini. The Leopard Company takes its name from the legendary Leopard of Luccini, which is a badge and mascot of the city. It is said that this Leopard was the guardian of the divine twins Lucan and Luccina, the founders of the city.[1a]

The troopers of Leopold's Leopard Company believe they have to earn salvation in the eyes of the Leopard God of Luccini. Firm in their faith, Leopold, the captain of the band, and his men are fearless in battle.[3a][6a]

History[]

"Stiffen the sinews, summon the blood, disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage and imitate the actions of the Leopard!"

—Slogan of the Leopard Company[1a]

According to the story, the twins became lost in the wilderness when they were still only children and took refuge in a cave carved on a great rock, later to be the acropolis of the city. The cave was the lair of a leopard, but this was no ordinary leopard, for she had two heads and three tails! She could also speak prophecies from one of her heads and warnings from the other.[1a]

Leopard Company

Leopold's Leopard Company resisting an enemy charge.

The Leopard protected the twins just as if they were her own cubs until shepherds found them. They also found the bones of many Orcs, wolves, bears and Trolls around the cave which the Leopard had slain protecting the twins. According to the myth, the Leopard prophesied that Lucan and Luccina would found a great city on the rock and rule it as king and queen. Then the other head warned that the descendants of the twins would fight each other for the realm. After having thus spoken, the Leopard ventured deeper into the cave, and was never heard from again.[1a]

The temple of Lucan and Luccina was built over the cave in which credulous people still believe the Leopard lives. The guardians of the temple, hired by the priests and paid for by pious donations from the merchants of the city, were called the Leopard Company because their sworn duty was to guard the acropolis as ferociously as the Leopard. Thus the regiment adopted a leopard as its badge.[1a]

Unfortunately, there was always fighting in the principality of Luccini between the two lines claiming descent from the city's gods Lucan and Luccina. This only ended recently when Lorenzo Lupo claimed descent from both and anyone who disagreed either came to a bad end or has since fled the city. Unfortunately for them, the priests of the temple of Lucan and Luccina supported the claim of Lorenzo's rival Leopoldo di Lucano who claimed to be a direct descendant of Lucan.[1a][Note 2]

Leopold's Leopard Company WD132 SPA

Leopold's Leopard Company at war.

Under Leopoldo di Lucano's command, the Leopard Company held the acropolis for many days against Lorenzo's troops. This state of civil unrest persisted until the priests consulted the oracle of Luccina which came down in favour of Lorenzo, albeit in a very cryptic augury. The priests promptly cast the Leopard Company from their employment in an effort to placate the vengeful Lorenzo. The soldiers had grown used to extremely good pay in gold and always dressed immaculately and enjoyed the best the city could provide in food, wine and entertainment. They were extremely angry at their dismissal.[1a]

Consequently the Leopard Company, forgetting their sacred duty, broke down the golden doors of the temple, took the pay owed to them and laid hands on the priests who were thrown off the acropolis into the sea. Then they defiantly held out against Lorenzo for a further two weeks of bloody siege.[1a]

Leopard1

Record of a Leopard Company recruitment drive

Finally Lorenzo decided to offer Leopoldo a deal he could not refuse. He would allow Leopoldo and the Leopard Company to march out of the city in return for ending the siege and promising never to make war on him. Leopoldo reluctantly set aside his claim to rulership of the city under pressure from his men who wanted to get away with the gold from the temple rather than risk death. Also, they were afraid that they had offended the two gods of the city and were anxious to leave the acropolis before divine vengeance struck them, possibly in the form of a vengeful, two-headed leopard.[1a]

And so the regiment marched out of Tilea and took service with various other princes such as Ettore Rinaldo[2a], the prince of Trantio. After much hard campaigning the regiments had been mauled in many unlucky battles. The superstitious soldiers regarded this as the vengeance of the Leopard which they had sworn to protect and whose temple they had pillaged. Leopoldo, anxious to hold his regiment together, called a meeting on the stricken battlefield of Terramorta and told his troops that they must regain the favor of the gods.[1a]

Warhammer Leopolds Leopard Company

Leopoldo di Lucano and his Leopard Company

So the regiment voted to appease the Leopard by sending back a portion of everything they captured as loot to the temple in Luccini. The next battle ended in an overwhelming victory against all odds, with the Leopard Company taking the lion's, or rather the leopard's, share of the loot. For Leopoldo, it earned him the nickname "di Lucci" meaning "the fortunate." Since then the regiment has gone from strength to strength fighting in many far distant lands, but always remembering to send something back for the coffers of the priests of the temple at Luccini.[1a]

During the Turmoil of 2512 that racked the Empire many Tilean mercenary captains travelled across the Vaults and sought employment. The famed Leopard Company fought for Emmanuelle von Liebwitz in her campaign to annex the province of Sudenland, and the Birdmen of Catrazza were hired to scout for the forces of Talabecland.[2b]

Regiment Appearance[]

The Leopard Company's troops are known to wear burnished brass plate armour with a very ornate muscle cuirass with a leopard's face embossed on the breastplate. Leather tassets are attached to the cuirass. They were white uniforms and white crests and gilded or real wreaths of laurel leaves around their helmets.[1a]

The banner bearer and drummer of the Leopard Company drape leopard pelts over their shoulders. Their banner shows a leopard with two heads and three tails.[1a]

Miniatures[]

Sculpted by modifying the miniatures of the Alcatani Fellowship, Leopold's Leopard Company were sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry and inspired by the artwork of leopard pelts by John Blanche. Their aesthetics were based on Italian late 15th and early 16th century infantry. They wear a barbute-style helmet.[7]

Notes[]

Note 1: The frozen lakes of Kislev are renowned for being colder than the rivers that run from the Worlds Edge Mountains or the Sea of Claws.[5a]

Note 2: The surname "Lucano," is the Italian translation of Lucan, the god of the city of Luccini from which Leopold descends.[1a] Curiously, the Italian edition of the book, Warhammer Armies: Dogs of War (5th Edition), changed this name to Lucio.[4a]

Trivia[]

The leopard skin wore by some of the members of the company could be a reference to the one used by Alexander the Great.

A curious coincidence has it that Lucci is also the name of a famous character in the manga One Piece by Eiichirō Oda. This character not only lives in a city that is a clear reference to an Italian city, like Luccini, but is also able to transform into a leopard, the symbol of Leopoldo di Lucci's mercenary company.

Sources[]

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