Who: Ilsa Centrella
Aka Ilsa Liao-Centrella
What: Magestrix of the Magistry of Canopus
When: 3068 – Alive as of 3145
Weapon of Choice: Politics
Cunning
Manipulation
It is very easy to dismiss the Periphery nations, smaller, less well-resourced and relatively isolated compared to the Successor States, early sourcebooks gave them significant social advantages that had little or no impact upon the militaristic Battletech game, but served as a gentle reminder that these supposedly barbaric provinces have had an impact upon the setting far in excess of their size and reputation.
Enter Ilsa Centrella, aka Ilsa Liao-Centrella, first born of Sun-Tzu Liao and Naomi Centrella-Liao, out of wedlock and technically illegitimate, however since Sun-Tzu wouldn’t do something like bed his bride to be for any personal reason her birth was probably a calculated move to ensure that there was at least some sort of immediate heir to the Confederation who wasn’t Kali Liao.
Ilsa herself would not object to that, despite her surname she is far more Liao than Centrella, very much her father’s daughter in terms of priorities, cunning and ruthlessness.
She is still very much a Canopian, for that is the culture and freedom she champions over the more controlling and restrictive Confederation, it is simply that her attitudes are shaped very much by Sun-Tzu. Background material outright states that to her the Magistry comes first, followed by the Confederation with herself somewhere off in the distance. Aside from the presence of the Magistry of Canopus in the calculations this sounds exactly like dear old Dad.
Legitimacy aside her birth order is a bit of creator convenience. While not planned to be a joint throne it would have been preferable to many alternatives, and in this case means that the Canopian throne requirements are easily met, Ilsa is the eldest female heir, that’s all they require. By having her born before Daoshen but illegitimate the writers avoid any sort of dynastic tangles between her and Daoshen, something that may have cropped up if she were second or born during marriage. In short there will be no repeat of the FedCom.
Though considering how things went on that front Sun-Tzu probably wished Ilsa had been born male or the second daughter.
This is something of an odd line of thought because although she is not a mere place keeper as a character Ilsa, as a consequence of not being fully fleshed out, is not fully developed. So far she has appeared in one novel and as a side note in a number of sourcebooks. So far her direct contributions to the universe, aside from her daughter, have been minimal, and there has been little backfill of her history, unlike Daoshen.
We know little of her early years aside from being a literal poster child for the CCAF and being made an honorary sang-shao of the Red Lancers while a teenager. Background materials reveal she is a MechWarrior, or at least received the training, and does have military skills, but we have no idea for which military, let alone which unit she served.
This is most telling in the Wars of the Republic Era. Daoshen is all over the place, Sun-Tzu is doing his thing and Naomi is acting as she sees fit. Where is Ilsa? If Daoshen is taking a larger role in events why isn’t she? Is she in training, is she handling behind the scene matters, what?
Ultimately Wars of the Republic Era is written, two thirds anyway, as the rise of Daoshen, a dangerous and unpredictable factor in the Dark Age era, it is only natural that he overshadow any other character in the book.
While it would be very easy to dismiss Ilsa because of this, to class her as a two dimensional character of no import who did nothing between being born and her sudden appearance in the Dark Age.
But that’s a long time, almost seventy years, we have to wonder if she is a future player or if she has made all her moves, or if she has made all her big moves and is now simply awaiting the results.
Why? Danai.
We know that she is the product of a relationship between Ilsa and brother Daoshen. It is almost certain that Sun-Tzu and Naomi knew, hence the fiction that Danai is their third child. As freewheeling and liberal as the Magistry is a child born of incest would probably still produce a stigma for the ruling line, to say nothing of the potential reaction in the Confederation. Quite the risk all being said.
So Ilsa hooked Daoshen, put Sun-Tzu and Naomi in the position of backing her play and provided an heir for all four of them.
This means that Ilsa is in fact a political operator in a very long term sense. Leaving aside whether she planned on absorbing Andurien prior to the 3140’s or even 3130’s Danai was conceived as a part of a plan to control and manipulate Daoshen, who obsessed over his sister in a very unhealthy way.
Given that Daoshen is crazy there would be few ways to control or manipulate him, Ilsa apparently showed no hesitation in using the obvious and probably only lever available: his interest in her.
Deciding to behave like a Lannister in one manner means you may as well do so in others, and her brief showing in literature shows a consummate political operator with a high degree of cunning.
Even then it begs the question of whether or not she planned it all to go like this.
And by it I mean creating a situation where Danai is the only heir to three nations.
Officially Daoshen has no offspring, and someone who considers himself an immortal deity would probably not bother with such frivolities as an heir, either the creation or naming of.
Likewise Ilsa has no official offspring, Danai by virtue of being female and the last official offspring of two previous rulers of the two nations can easily inherit both. Did Ilsa ever consider having other children? Was Danai a hedge, a pawn or part of a master scheme?
The rub is that Ari Humphries, Ilsa’s husband, ruler of Andurien, also has no heirs. Unless there’s a spare Humphries around (and there may very well be) that particular throne would devolve to his wife’s offspring or heirs.
At least in theory. If nothing else it makes for a very interesting plot thread wherein a Periphery nation takes over one and a chunk Successor States, fulfilling her Great Grandmother’s ambitions.
But look at it, all those threads, individually very cunning, if they were designed to be woven together from the beginning they’re brilliant, if they were woven together as they developed it’s some damn amazing on the fly thinking.
Regardless, this sort of thing shows exactly who and what Ilsa is supposed to be. So what if she has MechWarrior training? That’s not where she’s lethal.
This is what prevents her from being a stopgap Magestrix. We have no idea if she has finished playing her role, let alone what her role is in the grand scheme of things, leaving her a rich mine of potential who seems to have very definite plans about what is going to follow her.
As a result of travelling to see family I had several hours of nervous flight time to knock together a few rough outlines for future articles and have five or six planned, starting with the Free Worlds League, followed by some mercenaries, but feel free to make requests, if it's someone who takes my interest then naturally they'll take priority.