The Nauzica Brigade

[EddyTheBrave 643]

 

 

 

“Let the boy win his spurs.”

Ser Drevin on the training of young Michael Sunfield.

 

THE NAUZICA BRIGADE

His Imperial Majesty’s Bodyguard of the Honorable Nauzica Brigade
 

  

 

 

 

The Nauzican Brigade is regarded as the jewel of imperial escort. It has rapidly changed, not only with the fashion of the times, but with the exigencies of their patrons, the Johannian dynasts; this military corps is more pregnant in history than one would imagine from its present appearance, which differs exceedingly from its inception as an auxiliary force of the Horosid armies.

 

The mounted escort and honorguard to the emperor, the Nauzica Brigade accompany the sovereign in all walk of life to preserve him and his house. They enjoy distinction as the emperor’s own personal retinue, adorned in impeccable dress and granted golden spurs, whilst endeavoring to maintain martial excellence in homage to empire.  As the nearest guard to the monarch, the Nauzican Brigade attracts an aristocratic and aspiring membership, who often later go on to serve as a cadre of officers or bureaucrats due to the talents gained at court. The Nauzican command is made up of five senior officers, all named knights, whilst the main body of the brigade consists of a troop of gentlemen.

 

OFFICER RANKS

Captain of the Nauzica Brigade

The Captain of the Nauzica Brigade serves as paramount officer. He is expected to maintain order among Nauzican rank and lead efforts in defending the monarch and palace. The Captain wears the gold badge of office, with the insignia of a skull.

 

1st Captain of the Nauzica Brigade: Charles Henry of the House of Horen, Prince of Alstion (1487-1498) - [dibliusmaximus]

2nd Captain of the Nauzica Brigade: Ser Vulpes Roke (1526-1542) - [_Owl_]

3rd Captain of the Nauzica Brigade: Ser John Jrent (1542-1546) - [xhipsteratheistx]

4th Captain of the Nauzica Brigade: Ser Drevin de Sarkozy (1556- ) [EddytheBrave]

 

Lieutenant of the Nauzica Brigade

The Lieutenant of the Nauzica Brigade acts as the penultimate authority in the corps. He serves as deputy to the Captain and commands when the Captain is unable to. He holds a prominent advisory and administrative position by aiding his superior in his duties. The Lieutenant wears a silver badge of office, with the insignia of a skull.

 

1st Lieutenant of the Nauzica Brigade: Frederick ver de Linde (1487-1498)

2nd Lieutenant of the Nauzica Brigade: Michael Sunfield (1560- ) [erik0821]

 

Standard-Bearer of the Nauzica Brigade

Oft-regarded as the greatest duelist or most chivalrous of the officer corps, the Standard-Bearer bears the imperial standard of the Emperor’s honorguard into battle. Given the standard’s critical role in maintaining morale and order on the battlefield, he is entrusted high honors to preserve it. The Standard-Bearer wears an ivory badge of office, with the insignia of a skull.

 

1st Standard-Bearer of the Nauzica Brigade: William Chamberlain (1561- ) [TorahLover]

 

The Adjutant of the Nauzican Brigade

The disciplinarian of the Brigade, the Adjutant is responsible for drilling the gentlemen corps in both arms and etiquette. The Adjutant wears an ivory badge of office, with the insignia of a skull.

 

1st Adjutant of the Nauzica Brigade: Thomas Wettlock (1561-) [Ser_Jacko]

 

The Quartermaster of the Nauzica Brigade

The Quartermaster is responsible for ensuring that the corps remain well-supplied. As chief supplier and manager of both ordnance and finance, he must arrange all lodging, equipment, and pensions to the brigade to ensure their well-being. The Quartermaster wears an ivory badge of office, with the insignia of a skull.

 

1st Quartermaster of the Nauzica Brigade: John Montney (1561-) [Colin_Ginger]

 

And in an honorary capacity…

 

The Colonel of the Nauzica Brigade

The Colonel of the Nauzica Brigade is the imperial sovereign, who functions as figurehead of the corps.

 

1st Colonel of the Nauzica Brigade: John I the Relentless, Holy Orenian Emperor

2nd Colonel of the Nauzica Brigade: John II, Holy Orenian Emperor

 

GENTLEMEN CORPS

 

The Gentlemen Corps are made up of noble cadets and honored commoners who function as the brunt of the Brigade. Many are the sons of gentry and burghers aspiring to gain influence at court. However, it is up to the discretion of the high command on who may don the Nauzica uniform. Rank and file members of the Brigade are regarded as gentlemen and accompany the emperor in his duties. The troop of gentlemen vary in size, according to funding and accommodations available. Those that aspire to the corps must be invited by one of the presiding officers, though one may petition to them in hopes of enlisting.

 

HISTORY

 

 

 

 

“True gold does not fear the test of fires.”

Tom Wettlock upon his mount to the Nauzican John Montney, before the great flames of Seahelm.

 

The time of the establishment of the Nauzica Brigade can be attributed to the onset of the Hexer Uprisings in the Aeldinic province of Agathor. There, in 1487, the exiled prince Charles Henry of the House of Horen found himself charged by his host the governor Benda Chivay to quell an arcane insurrection in the prefecture of Nauzica. The governor invested the young pretender a body of two-hundred archers, one-hundred men-at-arms, and two dozen demi lancers to serve as his personal escort. Along with this host, Charles was granted command over the Bullion Band, a landsknecht-mercenary company led by the infamous cavalier and minstrel Frederick ver de Linde. The Prince of Alstion and ver de Linde soon grew to be close companions in their travels hunting down seditious practitioners of maleficium. Their exploits on the field of battle earned them immense renown; it was not long until the Audemar, Emperor of Aeldin, son of Horos the Usurper, caught wind of their feats. In an uncommonly merciful ploy to secure the Horen claimant's allegiance and neutralize him as a threat, Audemar had the pair and their armies return to Nova Horos, the seat of the Horosid usurpers, to serve the empire as a vanguard.

 

This new and sumptuous company of soldiers was christened the Nauzica Brigade, a regiment and company in service to the Empire of Aeldin. Charles Henry had no intent of betraying his new liege; already used as a pawn prior in countless Aeldinic civil wars, he contented himself with this pardon and bore no indignities over his birthright. Yet the ambition of Frederick ver de Linde knew few bounds. Sowing the seeds of dissent, he inflicted the young prince the notion that he could challenge the might of Aeldin and reclaim his father’s rightful position.

 

Their rebellion in the early winter months of 1498 collapsed within a year’s time. The expected de Sola detachments needed so desperately for the Horen claimant to prevail had arrived after the Battle of Ronda, where Emperor Audemar decisively prevailed over Frederick’s armies through the tactical brilliance of a double envelopment. The skulls of the avaricious Lieutenant ver de Linde’s along with thirteen of his senior officers were sent to the Horen prince’s camp; forced into exile in face of this staggering defeat, Charles fled to the continent of Athera in hopes of gathering fresh hosts to press his claim once more, leaving his wife and infant son at Governor Benda’s palace. Yet he would arrive in King Andrew’s court to only be forced to the cloisters, the paranoid sovereign wary of the prince’s intentions. Henceforth, the might of the Nauzican Brigade had dwindled; once a standing army, it now consisted of ill-more than a minor retinue in service of The Old Pretender Polycarp, Prince Charles’ new moniker as a friar of faith They took a new sigil thereafter, fourteen skulls on a black field in honor of those defiled at the Battle of Ronda.

 

Yet in 1526 with the ascent of Polycarp’s son, John Frederick, to the title of Holy Orenian Emperor, the Nauzican Brigade was once again granted imperial authority. At his coronation, the whole corps was on duty at the Cathedral of Saint Lucien, being formed into two guard companies in homage to the brigade’s roots. Under the helm of the veteran knight Vulpes Roke, ardent Horen loyalist, the Brigade once-more attained a level of distinction they had lost in exile. It was remarked that the band of soldiery lingered to the Emperor as wraiths, their presence never unnoticed by the courtiers of Praha Palace.

 

When Vulpes had expired of natural causes, the emperor’s baseborn son, John of Peremont presided over the palace guard. His ineptitudes, missteps, and greed had caused a decline in the corps’ ability; choosing to restyle the force as the Impera Brigade to appease Vailor natives, he lost the support of many veterans of the band who cherished their Aeldinic heritage and replaced them with the unsavoury sons of Felsen’s political elite in turn for bribes. John Jrent was exiled and the Nauzicans disbanded in 1546, after the imperial bastard and the corps were found embezzling city funds.

 

For ten years, the security of the imperial line and the palace of Ancelcourt was left to watchmen and conscripted courtiers of the palace. This martial atrophy was not noticed until the reign of John II, where incessant dreadlander raids managed to threaten the governance of the state. In an effort to restore order in court and defend the imperial household, he proclaimed the Nauzican Brigade to be reinstated once more, and charged Ser Drevin de Sarkozy as its Captain. Composed of of noble cadets, various members of the gentry, and a smattering of lowborns, the Nauzican Brigade now serves with utmost distinction and discipline as stalwart honorguard and task force of the Emperor.

 

 

BATTLE HONOURS

 

 

1487 - The Sack of Caer Mant

• The inaugural major battle of the Nauzica Brigade, the Sack of Caer Mant was where the Hexer School of the Griffin’s uprising was quelled on behalf of Governor Benda Chivay. The stronghold of Caer Mant was devastated through siegeworks, with the Nauzican Brigade assuming the vanguard and thrashing the host of seditious Marked Men in bloody assault. The legendary duel between Prince Charles and Hexer Hieronymous of Lex is recorded in the song The Half-Hand Hexer, recounting Charles’ feat in maiming the Hexer against considerable odds.

1492 - The Battle of the Westgate

• The most famous of the original Nauzica Brigade’s exploits, where under the joint command of Charles Henry and ver de Linde the detachment successfully held off the vastly numerically superior army of Marcus Antipatros (Coincidentally the paternal uncle of Charles’ future wife, Clara de Sola) in a narrow pass in Exeter known as the Westgate, thereby preventing the rebels against Emperor Audemar’s rule of the Province of Exeter from advancing to the region’s capital, Vesetta, and winning the revolt for the Horosids.

1498 - The Battle of Ronda

• At the hamlet of Ronda, the Nauzican Brigade suffered an emasculating defeat at the hands of Emperor Audemar. Commanded by ver de Linde, the Brigade attempted to ford the Rond river at the stroke of dusk in an attempt of ambushing Audemar’s own camp and capturing the Aeldinic emperor.  Their feint was uncovered by forward sentries, who promptly stirred the armies from their slumber and apprehended the Nauzican skirmishers in pitched conflict. The battle ended in gristly defeat as an entire contingent of the brigade were massacred.

1536 - The Battle of White Mountain

• The last battle in which the Nauzica Brigade were commanded by Ser Vulpes Roke, the Nauzica Brigade served with distinction in safeguarding the Emperor’s life. They managed to preserve perfect order throughout the onslaught, not losing a single soldier to the dwarven legions.

1558 - The Battle of Dogger Bay

• Led by the Nauzican youth Michael Sunfield, the Nauzica Brigade prevailed over Rurikid rebels and Dreadlanders. They commanded from the rear before charging into battle to mop up the retreating enemy forces.

1559 - The Sack of Seahelm

• The Nauzica Brigade played an instrumental role in the swift victory at Seahelm. Captain Drevin de Sarkozy was charged with leading the imperial vanguard into the city. Nauzicans served with distinction as they decimated the enemy force in a fierce blitz, leaving only stragglers in their wake.

 

THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

 

Those inducted to the Nauzica Brigade are to recite the Oath of Allegiance;

 

I swear to be true to the Lord, the Emperor, and his realm and not to maintain silence about any evil that I may know which is being contemplated against them. I swear also not to eat or drink with traitors and not to have anything in common with them. On this I kiss the cross.

 

ENLISTING

Enlisting into the Nauzican Brigade involves being handpicked the officer corps. Youths are preferred as they may be molded by their military and civil service into enduring loyalty, but there have been exceptions where adults have been permitted to enlist. Those interested in joining should seek out and win over the troop of gentlemen in order to be raised to the office.

[Taketheshot 3834]

Balgruff nods reading the battle honors

 

"Fock.....pitty tae teh man who focks wi' t'ese guys."

[AGP 3169]

Arthur frowns at the antiquated spelling of his name.

[GloriaPreussens 798]

John would note that he was told to name it the Impera Brigade was was never exiled

[Birdnerdy 1539]

Osgod rests easy in retirement, knowing the Brigade that which he served briefly in was still going strong.

[AGP 3169]

★☆☆☆☆