"When in Luccini, pay homage to Luccina. It's foolish to risk offending a god just because we don't worship her back home."
- —Lorna of Wurstheim, merchant[2a]
Lucan and Luccina are the legendary founders of the Tilean city-state of Luccini. Luccini takes its name from the Luccina, who was considered a powerful sorceress, while her brother Lucan was a skilled warrior.[1a]
There is a legend that the city of Luccini was founded by the fraternal twins Lucan and Luccina who were king and queen of a pastoral tribe which settled around the ruin-strewn acropolis. On its summit they built their palace.[1a]
The city was named after Luccina who is regarded as a sort of patron goddess by the present-day folk of Luccini. Lucan is also venerated as a deity and there is a fine temple to the divine twins located on the city's acropolis.[1a]
The ruling princes of Luccini usually claim descent from these two legendary figures which means that there are two rival factions: those claiming descent from Lucan and those claiming Luccina as their ancestor. Lorenzo Lupo, the current prince of Luccini, however, proclaims to be a descendant of both Lucan and Luccina.[1a]
Leopard of Luccini[]
The legendary Leopard of Luccini is the badge and mascot of the city-state of the same name. It is said that this leopard was the guardian of the divine twins Lucan and Luccini, the founders of the city. According to the story, the twins became lost in the wilderness when they were still only children and took refuge in a cave on the 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. The leopard protected the twins just as if they were her own cubs until shepherds found them. The shepherds also found the bones of many Orcs, wolves, bears, and Trolls around the cave which the leopard had slain protecting the twins.[1a]
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 disappeared into the cave and was never seen again.[1a]
Cult[]
"Mother of Luccina!"
- —A common exclamation in Luccini[4a]
The Leopard Company, a Tilean mercenary company that once served as guardians of the temple of Lucan and Luccina in Luccini, still send part of their captured booty to it.
The temple of Lucan and Luccina was built over the cave in which credulous people still believe the legendary leopard lives. The guards 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 legendary leopard it used as its badge. Unfortunately, there was always fighting in the principality between the two lines claiming descent from Lucan and Luccina. This only ended recently when Prince 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 Leopold who claimed to be a direct descendant of Lucan. Under Leopold's command the Leopard Company held the acropolis for many days against Lorenzo's troops. The state of civil unrest persisted until the priests consulted the oracle of Luccina which came down in favour of the rule of Lorenzo, albeit 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 that the city could provide in food, wine and entertainment. They were extremely angry at their dismissal for political reasons. 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 the soldiers defiantly held out against Lorenzo for a further two weeks of bloody siege. Finally Lorenzo decided to offer Leopold a deal he could not refuse. He would allow Leopold and the Leopard Company to march out of the city in return for ending the siege and promising never to make war on him.
Leopold reluctantly set aside his claim to rule the city under pressure from his troops who wanted to get away with the gold from the temple rather than lose their lives to Lorenzo's superior forces. Also, they were afraid they had offended the two patron gods of the city withtheir sacrilegious actions and were anxious to leave the acropolis before divine vengeance struck them, possibly in the form of a rampant two-headed leopard! And so the regiment marched out of Tilea and took service with various other princes as a mercenary company.
After much hard campaigning, the regiment 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. Leopold, anxious to hold his regiment together, called a meeting on the stricken battlefield of Terramorta and told his troops they must regain the favour of the gods. So they voted to appease the leopard by sending back a portion of everything they had captured as loot to the temple in Luccini.
The next battle ended in an overwhelming victory against all the odds, with the Leopard Company taking the lion's, or rather the leopard's share of the loot. For Leopold, 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 of Lucan and Luccina at Luccini.[1a]
Notable Temples[]
- Temple of Lucan and Luccina of Luccini - A temple dedicated to the Cult of Lucan and Luccina built above the sea, on the acropolis over the cave in which credulous people still believe the leopard who saved the divine brothers lives. The guards 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 as its badge. But now they follow Leopold di Lucci in his exile.[1c] Beyond its golden doors, the priests take care of their functions while the oracle foretells cryptic prophecies.[1b]
- Church of Lucan of Nuevo Luccini - There is also a church of Lucan and Luccina managed by Father Brannardi in the Tilean colony of Nuevo Luccini in the New World.[3a]
Notable Descendants[]
Lorenzo Lupo, the prince of Luccini, wielding the Sword of Lucan.[1]
- Luciano Catena - Luciano Catena was the mercenary general who in 1501 IC recaptured Sartosa from the corsairs of Araby.[1]
- Leopold di Lucano - Leopold di Lucci was the a descendant of Lucan and the former Prince of Luccini who is now in command of the mercenaries of the famed Leopard Company.[1a]
- Lorenzo Lupo - Lorenzo Lupo is the current prince of the city-state of Luccini, and has proclaimed himself to be descendant of both the city's legendary founders. He also wields the magical items known as the Sword of Lucan and the Ring of Luccina.[1]
- Stabbio the Bad - Stabbio was an exiled Prince of Luccini and the first to train his bodyguards as expert duellists, in what will become the traditional duellist style of Tilea.
Notable Relics[]
- Sword of Lucan - Lorenzo Lupo's sword, the Sword of Lucan, is believed to be the actual sword used by his remote ancestor, Lucan, one of the twin divine founders of Luccini. The sword's razor-sharp edge cuts through any armour with ease.[1b]
- Ring of Luccina - Lorenzo wears a ring which bears a cameo gem depicting Luccina, and which may even have been hers. The gem has the ability to restore soldiers' morale, returning their will to fight for their lord again.[1b]
Trivia[]
The Pardus's infantry liaison officer, Herodas Lucan, Captain of the 8th Pardus Armoured is an imperial Guard tribute to Lucan in Warhammer 40K.[5a]
Luccina's name is a reference to the Roman deity Juno, Lucina is one of her epithets as the goddess of childbirth who safeguarded the lives of women in labor.
The legend about Lucan and Luccina is a play on the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus, twin brothers who were left to die as infants by their great uncle after he displaced their grandfather as the king of Alba Longa, saved by a she-wolf who let them suckle on her until they were found by a sheperd in a cave.
Romulus and Remus would latter restore the rightful king of Alba Longa to the throne and left to found their own city. They discovered a land ringed by seven hills and fought over which of the hills they should found their city on. Romulus won their argument after slaying his twin and went on to name the city after himself -- Rome.
Strangely the name Lucan was changed to Lucio in the Italian version of the book Dogs of War, instead of its correct translation "Lucano".[1a]
Sources[]
- 1: Warhammer Armies: Dogs of War (5th Edition)
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition: Tome of Salvation - Priests of the Old World (RPG)
- 2a: pg. 123
- 3: Town Cryer 15 (Magazine)
- 3a: pg. 17
- 4: The Empire: Omnibus (Novel) by Chris Wraight, Nick Kyme, Darius Hinks
- 4a: Ch. 15
- 5: Inferno 30 (Magazine)
- 5a: pg. 37