Steelboots mercenary companies

It will be done -- Motto of Steelboots mercenary companies

Overview

Steelboots is term used to described a family of mercenary companies. They share a common past, some You would be hard-pressed to find any organization better equipped and disciplined then these.

Specialty

They can do anything from waging wars, laying sieges, protecting cities to sabotages and assassinations. However, the more specialized and localized the job is, chances are better you can hire specialist group for way cheaper that would arguably do a better job. Steelboots are generalists and they are at their best during long-running campaigns and similar operations.

Another reason is their almost legendary determination to fulfill their contract. While complications happen, such as stalls and unexpected expenses, they always fulfill their part of the deal. There has, so far, only been a single case when that did not happen (see later).

Structure

What might be somewhat contrary to usual power structures, these companies are being run by capable people that can stand their ground in the field. They are being lead by soldiers, not bureaucrats... maybe that is the key to their success?

Commander

Each company has some form of a leader of varying amount of importance. They are usually referred to as Commander, but exact naming scheme differ per group. As their first decision in office, they must appoint the new Lieutenant. In some companies they merely have a veto power, but in some they also gain additional rights and powers.

Current Lieutenant is promoted to Commander on former commander's death or after Vote of No Confidence (which so far, has only been called by the commander). Should both Lieutenant and Commander be dead, new pair is usually elected from Senior Officers. Further than that remains a mystery. There was only a single time this question needed to be answered... well, let's just say we still have no answer.

Lieutenant

Where there is officer in chief, there must be second in command. This person is, of course, the Lieutenant.

While Commander is usually concerned with strategy and more broader scope of the mission, Lieutenant handles the tactics and their job tends to be more narrow in scope. Think of this as though Commander decides what to do, Lieutenant decides how it gets done. They oversee most of the high-level logistics and such.

Senior Officer

In practice, however, the company is run by a closed inner circle, usually known as Senior Officers. Commanders and Lieutenants just tend to be designated desk-smashers.

They decide who to admit to their ranks, who to promote, who to fire, what the policies are, which jobs to take. They make the decisions that actually matter. Senior Officers have years of service under their belts, and are pretty dangerous on their own. You would do well not to get on their bad side.

Senior Officers are appointed from Junior Officers (by other Senior Officers), whenever they feel it is appropriate. The magic number of officers varies from company to company from as few as 4 to around a dozen.

Junior Officer

While Senior Officers handle the high-level stuff, someone needs to run the day-to-day operations. They are the next link in the chain of command. They rule over the rest of the company and usually are divided into well-defined departments.

Rank & file soldiers can be promoted to Junior Officers with approval of Senior Officer, but this almost exclusively happens as a suggestion of fellow Junior Officer, usually after some significant display of combat prowess.

Specialist

Due to the sheer breadth of the scope Steelboots deal with, they need way more diverse staff than just soldiers and the surrounding military structure.

Spies, mages, scribes are often members of these companies, and are considered above rank & file but below officers.

Rank & file

The bread and butter of every mercenary company. They are the bulk of the company's strength. The first line of defense.

However, Steelboots do not let just anyone join their ranks. There is a pretty harsh entry procedure to ensure only the able bodied are admitted. Not every person is a swordsman, but all are able to stand their ground.

Many join for glint of gold, some for the stories they tell, some genuinely believe this is their way of life... people from all walks of life find themselves here.

Ideals & policies

• Honour your contracts. Steelboots are careful in their precise wording of their contracts, but once a contract is signed it will be followed. Contracts are not to be dropped.
• Maintain the balance. Never accept a contract that might endanger the plane or balance of the world. When in doubt, support the weaker party.
• Respect the Steelboots. If at all possible, avoid direct and open conflict with other companies. Contracts, naturally, are an exempt, though Seniors are usually careful enough to avoid such conflicts.
• Lead by experience. All higher officers should have extensive experience on the battlefield.
• No past. When you join Steelboots, you have to swear there is nothing in your past that might interfere with interests of the company. Otherwise, your past is your own. You will neither be judged nor privileged from your life before the Steelboots.
• No names. Steelboots exclusively use code-names.
• Retirement. Any soldier can at any point decide to cash-out - to get their share and retire in peace.
• Contract bound. At any point, when you break your contract, you may be expelled from the company. The exact contract tends to be different for different people and different company.
• Reputation. Avoid, if convenient, any behaviour that might endanger the reputation of a given company. This very much depends on exact company, but some will refuse to hire unstable individuals.

The Boots

"You can achieve much with kind words. You also achieve much more with kind words and a sword." -- Commander Diplomat

History

Boots are the original and thus the oldest of the bunch. In fact, that is where the name came from. It is not absolutely clear when they were founded, but the oldest records we have come from Elven chronicles, during the Orcish invasion. Before Steelboots fractured into its child companies, it fought in the Orcish Invasion wars.

After the Orcs were defeated, the company started to fracture and eventually split into child companies. Boots consider themselves the remaining bit of the original company.

Boots spent a little while protecting the western border after the defeat of the Orcs, however, with the threat neutralized there was not much need for them. Despite the invasion being more or less a complete fiasco, it scared the western continent and so Boots pushed the major powers of Laurasia into signing the Treaty of Turrimton. Historians argue how direct their influence was.

Since then, we know only of a handful of contracts, all of which seem benign and less violent. Good chunk of these were solved by careful maneuvering and some diplomacy.

Relative peace was quickly interrupted by growing Ragnarian threat, when it in nearly 15 years conquered Ionic and Verilic empires, wiping them off the world maps for good. Most of the population assimilated (thanks to the fairly tolerant nature of Ragnarian people), however, many were not that happy with the result. This eventually lead to foundation of Independent land of Acaadia. However, it's borders needed to be defended. This is where the Boots stepped in. Militarily, the mission was success, with very little of open war, but the Battle of Tomaros pass is worth mentioning. Some say this was the deciding incident to lead to the full independence. Others believe that Ragnarians just found another, non-military way to control them.

It was fairly clear that once the dust settles, Lynxians will be next on the chopping block, though the war dragged on way longer than either of the empires anticipated. Near the final years of Ragnarian-Lynxian war, Boots settled in Bryten kingdom and supposedly aided in negotiations.

Present

Ever since the peace treaty between Ragnaria and [Lynxia|Lynxian empire]] was signed, Boots were (at least as far as we can tell) almost exclusively working for League of Kingdoms, essentially acting as their executive power whenever needed.

It is rumoured they also participated in some black-ops to ensure that some peace-critical decisions were made by Lynxians, but nothing was confirmed.

Relationships & reception

Boots find themselves in a tight spot. Elves scoff at the idea of a mercenary company. Humans on the other hand, think of Boots as the elven company (even though only about 40% of the company is actually elven) and thus not exactly popular. Furthermore, despite the fact the Steelboots companies are on equal footing, they do have more experience and respect among seniors and have handles and intel on each company. They are the organizer and diplomat among the steelboots, which is naturally met with some disdain from the other companies` more junior officers.

As for the global powers, naturally, Ragnarians and Lynxians pretty much hate them. Elves keep their distance, as they always do. Bryten (and by extension the League of Kingdoms) would back them up if need be, due to their long-lasting service and mutually beneficial relationship. The rest of eastern continent is otherwise at fairly good terms with the Boots.

Misc

Boots can be (surprisingly so for mercenaries) considered a player in The Great Game (although not particularly powerful one). They understand that a lot of contracts can be fulfilled using diplomacy. Unlike their counter-parts, a significant portion of their contracts is bloodless (to the surprise of pretty much everyone).

If you want to have something done in clean and (mostly) legal manner Boots are the ones to go for. They value lives of both their soldiers and their enemies, and thus they tend to minimize necessary violence and body count. This often causes the job to delay, but this has earned a kind of merciful reputation to them.

The Shield

"Nobody invades Nordmenia in winter... unless you're The Shield. In which case you still don't invade Nordemnia in winter." -- Historian Jorn Kleivik

History

The Shield is the first company to branch off the Steelboots. This happened shortly after the Orcish invasion. During these times Orcs lost a lot of land to human kindoms until Elves negotiated some form of peace. Bryten kingdom was quickly expanding its reach and forming colonies at various corners of Laurasia. Boots were employed to protect its wide borders and this proved to be very difficult for a one cohesive unit. The split first began as a change in power structure, but eventually it became clear the new company needs to be born - The Shield.

In their early years, once counter-attacks were less and less common, Boots moved on with their own business, while the Shield remained protecting the colonies. In fact, it was during this time most of the colonies declared independence. Much to everyone's surprise, there was little backlash from Bryten. They were even still bankrolling the enlistment of The Shield on their behalf!

Regardless, after the Treaty of Turrimton situation became more stable for the colonies and thus Shield could focus elsewhere. There a couple of minor contracts (at least as far we know) they picked along the way, but after a couple of years they settled near the edges of Infinite Desert. Historians speculate they got a contract from Lynxian empire, though nothing is confirmed. Over the years they picked up a couple of more contracts from various other parties, all situated in / around the Infinite Desert - a couple of escorts, few assassinations - the usual. Historians believe they were looking for something in the desert. Others think they just became good at navigating the desert and so capitalized on their advantage.

Whatever was their game, they left Eastward for seemingly no reason. To Nordmenia. In winter. Which sounds like a bad idea - because it is. That leads us to believe they ought to have some sort of an urgent contract there. However, The Shield stayed in Nordmenia for just under a decade. The Shield was fairly secretive as far as Steelboots go, so naturally we only have speculations and rumours. We do know that their numbers shrank significantly (by factor of 2 according to the best sources). However, this was not due to mortality rates, but rather due to increased churn rate of soldiers. I suppose you really can't invade Nordmenia in winter...

They later stood away from Ragnarian-Lynxian war and focused their attention on Southern waters. At first, everyone thought they are just picking up random jobs across the seas just to get away from the fires of war. Later, we found out that they were actually on a mission all along (and the random jobs were just quick opportunities along the way). The real mission was to sink the flagship of the legendary member of The Black Guild - the one and only John Firebrand. And it turns out, the legendary criminal that survived decades of prosecutions is pretty good at evading mercenaries too. Well, given the relentless resolve of Steelboots, his ship was sunk. With the infamous pirate on board.

After the war and with their business in the saltwaters concluded, The Shield stayed quiet for the most part. Whether they were working on something secret, or whether they were just picking small jobs here and there is anyone's guess.

That being said, there is one contract that is worth mentioning. Dwarves enlisted The Shield for something. Dwarves do not like outsiders on their island, not to mention in their underground tunnels! How and why they reached out to The Shield is great source of conspiracy theories and debates. We only know 2 things about the contract - The Shield only sends a couple of squads on the island, and they generally get back as far as we can tell. Secondly, this seems to be periodic and still ongoing contract. They send some troops each year, roughly around the same time.

Relationships & reception

The Shield is well respected by their peers, especially The Gate. They are on good terms with almost all the other companies (with exception of the Boots). It is often the case they exchange wisdom of what works and what does not, trade intel for resources or vice versa.

As for the outer world, things are more interesting. The original Bryten colonies are fond of them, since that is where they began. Bryten, however, is somewhat passively aggressive towards the Shield. They still remain neutral publicly, but if you read between the lines, it is clear Brytens are not really happy with the Shield.

Other kingdoms merely seem to recognize the existence of the Shield and have respect for their skills and abilities.

As for the minor states, Nomads of the Infinite Desert are generally angry with them, as they trade in assassins and other services of legally questionable nature, Shield's business in the desert likely had something to do with the decrease of criminality around that region. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there is a mutual camaraderie between Nordmen and the Shield.

Elves, naturally, scoff at any mercenary company. Steelboots or otherwise.

Misc

There are two things The Shield is renown for. Secrecy and Resilience. If needed Shield can keep their mouth shut. As you can see, we only know a fraction of their history (and not for a lack of trying), which is a considerable feat for organization of this size and publicity.

They are also surprisingly good at working in harsh environments and adapt quickly. Their resilience may (arguably) be second only to Nordmen. Whether it is salty waters of sea, sandy dunes of Infinite desert or snows of Nordmenia - they can cope with it.

The Tower

"We call them traitors, for we did not heed their warnings..." -- Guardian Cailin

History

The rest of the companies (i.e. The Tower, The Chain, and The Gate) were founded after the Treaty of Turrimton was signed. This was fairly pivotal point in the history of Steelboots. You see, there was a mutual enemy and a need to work together during the Orcish invasion. Steelboots grew in size significantly during that time.

However, since the treaty was signed, it sent a signal that things were okay, at least for a time. As Steelboots could catch a breath and think for a moment, it was obvious that there was a lot of contradicting ideology and goals within the company. Without the outside threat that would unify them, it began to fell apart. The obvious solution was to split the company.

The premise of the tower was to be more stable and more grand. They did not like the idea of having multiple active contracts, and preferred to only have one, or at most multiple contracts for same entity. They believed working for multiple entities might introduce conflicts of interests. With this in mind, it appears they were forced to pick a side, specifically Lynxian empire. Mind you, that this was early human history, and Lynxia was fairly little kingdom, not the militaristic superpower it is today. We could safely say they were the underdogs of those ages, and between the invading parties and natural forces it seemed it was a miracle they even survived. However, you might have noticed, from your other history classes, that there are (inexplicably) a lot of dwarven mines scattered around Lynxia and many of them still contain valuable metals and gems to this day. This fact, arguably, changed the course of history. Since Lynxians were in dire need of more soldiers and were sitting on a considerable amount of gold, there was a solution - a perfect job for The Tower. They worked almost exclusively for Lynxia.

They became the advisors and muscle in the early days of Lynxia, acting as a buffer, while Lynxians developed their own armies and ambitions. They later used those armies to expand and used The Tower only as advisors rather than front-lines. At this point, Tower was mainly only deployed on the borders with Infinite desert after Lynxians conquered that territory. There was some inter-play with The Shield, but all-in-all, with their flanks covered Lynxians focused their expansion to the north and east. However, after a couple of years they reached a dead end. Nordemenian weather made it impossible to move further north-east and Galicia was well protected by mountains surrounding the region, which was not what the Lynxian troops were trained for.

It seemed the situation was relatively under control, since the expertise of Lynxian troop in direct and fair combat surpassed even the Steelboots and the size of their army was not to be taken lightly. Lynxians relied on Tower's support less and less. However, it would not be Lynxia without a ton of bad luck. It was hit by floods from the north, drought from the west and the central Lynxia was hit by earthquakes. This resulted in multiple mass uprisings. When Tower refused to suppress the revolts by force, they were transferred to Fort Bai Lo. It is not clear what happened, but we can speculate Lynxian emperor at the time called in The Chain in desperation. The plan seemed to have back-fired as he was assassinated in a coup half a year later.

After that, chaos ensued. With nobody supplying the Tower with gold, resources, and orders, they mostly just sat idle getting some minor contracts in the area to protect and escort a couple of nobles. In addition, there was near constant struggle for the throne. One coup followed another. People were unhappy. Military received contradictory orders all the time. Something bad was bound to happen.

And indeed, Nomads of the Infinite Desert saw this chaos as an opening. There was a small invasion, but around this time, Lynxian powder became common place for wealthy Lynxian nobles and generals.The offensive was fairly easily repressed by certain military unit. People tend to label them rogue and paint them as the independent heroes, but keep in mind there was no authority, no emperor... so the notion of rogue unit is a bit blurry here.

However, this unit is fairly important, as the general leading this unit, which almost single-handedly defended the eastern border, is no other then soon-to-be Empress of Iron.

Unfortunately, at the same time, some other unit supposedly received orders to conduct a raid on a Ragnarian camp dangerously close the Lynxian borders. While the raid itself was a success, this proved to be a grave mistake. This provoked Ragnarians and started the Ragnarian-Lynxian war. Whether the war would happen anyway is matter of debates and in general a touchy subject for both. Shortly after the raid, Empress of Iron declared herself an Empress, and almost immediately started to fix all the damage. She tried to unify the broken country - only to be hit by a new war in a couple of weeks.

While this may seem unrelated to the history of the Tower, they WERE stationed at Fort Bai Lo - also known as Towering Bastion. It was the last major fort, closest to the Lynxian-Ragnarian border. Given their size and training, they had to know Ragnarians are preparing for a full-blown campaign and were about to launch an attack. At the same time, they had no real contract, nobody was paying them and they saw the broken country in disarray and chaos.

We know the Tower left Lynxia a couple of weeks before Rangarian attack, but we don't know why. Some say they warned Lynxians, but their warnings were dismissed. Others, namely Lynxians, see them as traitors - running away to save their skin.

Afterwards, they almost exclusively took only advisory contracts around the Eastern continent for almost any interested party. We even have the original contracts for most of these. Almost anyone had at least once requested their advice. Seeing a war happening at their doorstep Galicia wanted to know how best to bolster their borders, Brytens were almost always moving troops somewhere, and wanted to know what the proper routes should be. Nomads tried to employ them a couple of times, probably for their deep knowledge of Lynxian military strategies and wanted to get a foothold in their territory. However, they were denied all the time - it is, after all, why they left The Boots, to prevent conflicts like this.

Present

During the last years of the war, Tower moved to Kingdom of Kolkia on the Western continent.

However, we know they are now protecting those lands as the contract is now in public domain. The contract is still active and The Tower was not redeployed elsewhere since. There is a fair amount of wild-life attacking from the south and a lot of bad will from orcs from the north, but during the long history of the kingdom they were managing to get along just fine. We can only speculate why they thought hiring an elite and expensive mercenary company was a good idea.

Relationships & reception

Since the war, Lynxia actively hates The Tower (for obvious reasons). They have never accepted any aid or reached out to the The Tower since they left.

Nomads, albeit they initially concerned (since they worked mostly for their enemies), eventually reached out and today they are on somewhat good terms with the Tower, although there is still some bad.

Surprisingly Ragnarians, Lynxia's sworn enemy, are quite fond of The Tower.

The rest is generally on good / netural terms with them.

As for their peers, they might just be the most popular. Partly because they have quite some fighting under their belts, but also because they worked for one nation for so long and yet they did not compromise their values or values of the Steelboots group. They also maintain good relationships with all other Senior officers and update them whenever they think it is helpful.

Misc

The Tower is known for their strategic prowess more than anything else. They are capable fighters - as all other companies are, but strategy is what distinguishes them from others. Their advice is highly sought after.

They are also the go-to (non-lynxian) experts in regards to Lynxian weaponry, history and tactics... however, given their stalwart nature, it is unlikely you get anything out of them that is not public knowledge.

The Chain

"The Chain. They are brutal... but honourable." -- Advisor Lathrael

Steelboots companies each have different ideals of what the group stands for. The promise of The Chain is simple: gold.

They are cold and merciless. But first and foremost - efficient. Many may mistake this quality for blood-thirst and recklessness when it is anything but. They are lawful in their nature - fulfilling all of the contract and only the contract, using the shortest possible route. This usually means a lot of collateral damage and losses on both sides.

The Gate

"Gate is to the Inquisition what Boots is to the League." -- Historian Philips

History

They fractured off the Boots after the Treaty of Turrimton. The idea Gate had for the group were somewhat different to what others had in mind. While many joined the mercenaries for gold and fame, The Gate saw itself as a force for good.

Their early history was not impressive. They mostly just picked up random jobs for minor earldoms who did not heave army of their own. They protected nations from the wildlife, escorted nobles, guarded borders. While they still were payed for their contracts, they were considerably cheaper than their counter-parts. However, they only took the contracts when they deemed a country in need of their help. This was mostly fine, but it did go wrong once.

During those times Ragnaria was little more than a city state. Now, you could easily point out signs and what-not and you could predict what would happen. But keep in mind that this was just one out of potentially hundreds of contracts the Gate took. Ragnarians, being master strategists (even back then), abused the protection they received. They stationed the Gate on the borders and kept them misinformed on what was happening inside the country. Soon enough, Ragnaria started invading neighboring empires, which is not something Gate would just let slide. However, they were strategically posted on the edges of the empire, with limited supply. To them, it seemed as a losing battle, the nation fighting for survival. Plus they still likely were bound by the contract (although that is subject to speculations). In addition, as if these measures were not enough, Ragnarians were careful not to fire the first arrow - Ragnarians only fight defensively. The fact that they practically baited the raids or attacks in the first place is usually lost to history...

Regardless, after a couple of years it was obvious that Ragnaria is not the victim here. Gate dropped all contract offers and moved out. We have contradicting records at this point. We know for sure that they eventually landed in Republic of Galicia, but some sources claim they stopped at Nordmenia first, where they met up with The Shield. This is strange as it does not match anything we have from Shield.

Having just learned that their usual mode of operation (helping out nations at random) will not work in the long run, they decided to work for some neutral organization. One that is aligned with their ideals. That org, of course, is The Inquisition.

If Inquisition is eye of gods then The Gate is the hand of gods. The unique pairing of elite detectives and army of zealous mercenaries is a potent combination. Inquisitors would determine what happened, track down the culprit... and the Gate would put them down. They were working on some high profile missions and allowed Inquisition to now not only seek out the evil, but also prosecute it.

This went for quite some time - even through all of the Ragnarian-Lynxian war. And would even probably last to this day.

However, once they were laying siege to a castle of certain Lich to retrieve an artifact. The details about the artifacts are not well-known today. We know it was spherical and filled with blue substance (or the sphere itself was blue - records were not clear) and most importantly it was seriously endangering the weave. Some say this was an Elven conspiracy to get rid of the The Gate and The Inquisition, but the artifact was truly tearing the weave which is something Elves particularly do not like.

Either way, the artifact was retrieved but Gate learned it was cursed. Specifically, the curse would summon an army of aberrations 7 days after it was removed from the vicinity of the castle. Gate quickly evacuated the local area, and dug-in in The Boarstall tower]. All of the Gate was there and they called-in an arcane advisor, Vulwynn Presgella to help them. On the 7th day, the hell broke loose. We only have the chronicler's scribbles during the attack, but we know people were dying left, right, and center. Even though The Gate put up a good fight, they were outnumbered 100 to 1. The monsters just ran them over. We do not know whether their heroic last stand was in vein. The artifact was never found. The Gate's scribe died in the battle so after his death we have no documents from the attack. Interestingly, the body of the advisor (Vulwynn Presgella) was never found too.

Today, there is a constant blue rain in the area. The Boarstall tower is open to the public and now serves as a monument to sacrifice of men and women of The Gate.

Relationships & reception

General public regards the companies as heroes who fell to save the rest. Given they are disbanded now, not much else is happening there. Interestingly, even Elves, who really do not like soldiers and mercenaries, occasionally visit The Boarstall tower to pay their respects.

Their peers mostly regard them as that naive company, but also respect their dedication and sacrifice. Boots is the only company of the group that publicly visits The Boarstall tower and donates money for its maintenance.

Misc

The company is now disbanded but when it still functioned, it was regarded by with respect by general public. They presence meant security and stability for most.

But it also foreshadowed that something bad is happening in the vicinity.

See also

• The Boarstall tower and the blue rain - Reminder of sacrifice. A warning to the brave.