Royal Guard (Children's Anuad)

The Royal Guard is a faction that serves as the personal protectors of the Emperor/Empress of the Empire. They are comprised of extremely well trained battlemages and follow a coordinated hierachy of strict command. The faction was created by the Battlemage Raphael Fontaine and headed by him, to prevent any sort of direct attack on the throne.

History
The Royal Guard is a newly formed organisation and thus does not have much history. They were created by the Battlemage and Security Expert Raphael Fontaine, after a string of assassination attempts in the palace that claimed the lives of quite a number of people. Also, Raphael's then lover Erys nearly died.

This inspired Raphael to take elements of then affliation, the Lost Legion, and combine it with other aspects to make a potent defense force that can prevent repeat attempts, since regular guards were not enough.

The Royal Guard therefore serves a very similar role when compared to the historical blades, except they are not blindly loyal to the ruler and temper their total protection with tactics.

Ideology
The Royal Guard is trained to be extremely, but not utterly loyal to the crown. They will only lay down their lives for a just and fair ruler, and will even go as far to kill a tyrant abusing their power, if such a person comes to the throne.

The motto of the Royal Guard is "We assassinate the assassins." They guard the Palace extremely tightly and all visitors are subject to close scrutiny.

Most of the Royal Guard is human, due to the fact they simply recruit the citizens of the Imperial City, which is mainly populated by humans, and also because humans are more likely to be loyal to a human ruler. They do not discriminate between males and females.

Training
The Royal Guard consists of highly-trained men and women with rigid discipline and willingness to carry out the orders of their superiors and protect their fellow guardsmen.

All of them are trained to move in heavy armor, light armor and medium armor. Also, every Royal Guard is trained to fight with at least three different weapons, one of which is the one handed sword.

Every Royal Guard is further trained to disable and kill with their bare hands, multiple wrestling techniques and more forms of martial art. Every Royal Guard is also trained to master destruction and restoration, which obviates the need for any specialized medics.

Types
Recruit: The Royal Guards in training, who are taught magic and how to use a sword first. They will slowly be split into various roles after going though a series of psychometric tests and weapons proficiency tests. Recruits are not required to patrol the palace.

Guardsman: The bulk of the Royal Guard. They have completed the rigorous training and conditioning process required to become a full Royal Guard. They are also capable of multiple roles as part of their training, and generally are clad in heavy or medium armor for protection. They can also be sent as elite footsoldiers to battle, if needed.

Sniper: The ranged unit of the Royal Guard. They are trained further to use bows and arrows, alongside many long ranged magical spells. They rarely appear on the front lines and are strategically positioned around the Palace to cover choke points. They tend to use bound arrows.

Personal Guard: Guards who protect the Emperor/Empress directly. These people also answer directly to the Monarch and they are trained almost completely in defensive tactics after their basic training. All of them wear heavy armor, wield tower shields and are trained in spear combat. They are also exclusively trained in Templar arts.

Special Applications/Asymmetric Forces: The cream of the Royal Guard crop, which answers personally to Raphael Fontaine and is trained personally by him. None of them wear the generic Royal Guard armor and they tend to have a wide variety of skills and are incredibly adaptable. The most skilled Royal Guard are placed here. Most keep their identity as one of these secret. Known members are Raphael's son Seth and niece Celestine. Their duties include killing the monarch if necessary, handling the most dangerous opponents and even assassination missions on rival rulers, if deemed necessary.