#that's the whole reason he doesn't know what his magic really is until LWS4

[commanderhorncleaver]

Maybe you've mentioned it before but I didn't see it and I'm curious, what's the exact deal with Gaius and gladia, what did he do? :0

This is sort of a complicated thing, but the simple answer is he did his job!

The detailed answer deals with his backstory as having been born in Flame Legion to an Iron Legion dam who, when he was around two, fled with him back to the Citadel, and shortly after went on her final patrol. Babby!Gaius dedicated himself to the idea of becoming the best soldier in Iron Legion to live up to/make up for the loss of his dam. Fast forward to when he's 21 and made gladium after losing his warband. After a year of self-loathing, he's able to enlist in Blood thanks to some favors, and he eventually transfers back to Iron, and eventually makes his way to Centurion.

But the problem is that Gaius has really no talent for Iron legion type things. He's a great soldier and strategist, but he's got none of what makes Iron Legion Iron. Additionally, he's not actually in charge of soldiers who are part of the things that he's good at--he's just in charge of engineers and shit, so the vast majority of his job is paperwork.

Except that he also gets to do disciplinary action, and the primary folk that get sent his way are awol wannabes being made gladium. He beats their asses, lops off a horn, does their paperwork, and they're gladium.

This was his job for around 13 years before personal story, where he was pretty much allowed to enforce his belief that the only good gladium was a gladium who was doing their best to throw themselves back into action. His personal story is separate from that of what occurs in game, where after being invited by Rytlock on an assault on Barradin's Vault (you know, the tutorial) he gets caught up being framed for actually killing a pair of gladia whose horns he'd recently cleaved. His personal story is spent being demoted to legionnaire and gathering a band to help him figure out who's framing him and why.

As you can guess from things you've seen lately--this perspective isn't something he's proud of? He's 48 at the start of personal story, and the exposure...to everything that occurs as commander really helps him grow and become more empathetic, and, well. Unfortunately, he's still got a reputation, since among Iron, he's unfortunately better known for his time as centurion than anything he's done as pact commander except IBS (you know, the phenomenon of people knowing you before you got big and since everything you did while a hero was outside their periphery--no matter how big it was--it doesn't feel as real to them).