Legate: Flavius Martialis (Military Rank 7)
Primus Pilus: Nicolai Kirov (Military Rank 6)

The High Imperial Guard is an elite group of bodyguards responsible for the security of the Emperor and the members of his administration. They number as much as a normal cohort, but are much better trained and equipped. They are best pictured as Rome's Praetorian Guard or as Byzantium's Varangian Guard. In some ways, they also resemble the Waffen-SS of the Third Reich: a military force loyal to the ruling administration (in this case, the Emperor instead of the Nazi Party) rather than to the state. In other ways, they are a lot like the modern U.S. Secret Service: a secret police and counterintelligence force entrusted with the duty of protecting the head of state (among other things).

The officers and tribunes of the High Imperial Guard are all one Military Rank above equivalent officers and tribunes in the legions, but they are not in the same chain of command. They cannot give orders to any of the legions. Their superior Rank simply means that they get more pay and better equipment, and the Emperor is more likely to heed their counsel.

The army of the Empire is form of X number of legions. Each Legion is composed of 8 to 10 cohorts of around 600 people (500 legionnaires and 100 support personel, like archers and cavalrymen). Cohorts are numbered 1 to 8 or 9, in order of troop quality. Each cohort is in turn formed of six centuries of 100 men each. A legion is commanded by a legate, its six "peacetime" second-in-commands, called tribunes, and its wartime second-in-command, the primus pilus. Each century is lead by a centurion. The Primus Pilus is the centurion of the 1st Century of the 1st Cohort.

Lately, all but the 1st Kapital has been sent to the South for a new campaign of conquest against Teclá, leaving only the 1st Kapital to insure the security of the Empire. After the death of Emperor Nicolai XIV and the reported assassination of Titus Pilatus, the Legate of 1st Kapital, Ruinas took control of it, but not before Vasili had convinced Mushamee to move the 1st Cohort out of the city.

It also seems Ruinas has some supporters in the legion legates, because, as we saw in the mountain pass, entire legions supposedly sent to the South have joined Ruinas' side in the incoming civil war.

Prior to Ruinas' coup, the army's formal hierarchy was as follows:

• Rank 8 (Emperor Nicolai XIV)
  
• Rank 7 (Legate of the High Imperial Guard)
  
• Rank 6 (Tribunes and Primus Pilus of the High Imperial Guards; Legate of 1st Kapital)
  
• Rank 5 (Tribunes and Primus Pilus of 1st Kapital, which includes our friend Mushamee)
  
• Rank 4 (All centurions of the 1st Cohort, like Salvatore)
  
• Rank 3 (All other centurions)
  

Back to start

The Mercenary's Guild is a loose organization who's goal is to provide a central place for mercenaries to offer their services to potential customers. Each member of the Guild must pay a yearly fee to be able to use the Guild's services. Each paying member can present himself in any of the Guild's chapter and expect to be lodged freely for at least a couple of days, until a contract is found. There is a local chapter in each of the main cities of the Empire. Each of them operates more or less independently for the others.

On the surface, the Guild's services are exclusively run-of-the-mill jobs, like bodyguarding, smuggling products, beating the odd bad payer, etc. There is, however, another type of jobs reserved for elite and/or special members. Those that have spent five years or more in the Guild and/or show special aptitudes for infiltration and mastery of many killing methods, are offered to participate in the second level of services offered by the Guild, assassination (political and otherwise). Of course, rumors of such services are well-known in the Empire, but nobody had ever tried to bring the Guild down since it counts many important officials as its most regular clients.

Vinz has been a member of the guild for the last eight years. Vasili is the Master of the Guild chapter in Kapital.

In the wake of the current civil war, the Guild has been dissolved.

Back to start

The Night Guard is the "special operations" branch of the Temple of Necros. While regular Temple guards are responsible for taking care of physical attacks against the Temple, the Night Guard is responsible for the security of each of its individual members.

To help in its mission of foiling any assassination attempts, the Night Guard must also deal with information gathering and espionage. To help them, they have hired the services of Vinz to establish a new cell, and act as a bodyguard to Recnam every time the priest has to leave the Temple.

Back to start

(Note: again, this is the information we were able to garner during the game. You can be pretty sure that some of what's below is misleading, incomplete, or even outright wrong.)

The Church of Necros is certainly one of the most powerful churches in the Empire. Although not popular with the general population who doesn't want anything to do with the God of Death, it is certainly one of the most respected because everyone knows they will have to face Necros at the end of their lives.

Necros himself is the God of Death charged with accompanying dead people to their final repose in the after-life. Although he is associated with death, he is not considered evil and has nothing to do with killing and murder. In fact, he hates it when people are sent to him when it is not "their time." He doesn't seem especially fond of undeads, although he won't hesitate to use them when necessary. He and his church are some of the most serious opponents to the Inquisitors and their goal of opening the gates of chaos. Necros himself doesn't hesitate to take matters in his own hands when needed. His most obvious intervention to date is certainly the regrowth skeletal left hand of Rufus.

There is a Temple of Necros in or near every major cities in the Empire. Smaller churches are found everywhere, some having even become holy places. Each Temple is lead by a High Priest or Priestess. The leader of the Church is the old Patriarch in the Temple in Kapital. The Church is pretty hierarchical and really well organized. Not only the main Temple in Kapital have its own guard, it also have its own information gathering group called the Night Guards (of which Vinz is a member).

In the current civil war, the Church of Necros has made a truce with both Vasili and Ruinas, but in fact is a third side that is more interested in transforming the Empire in a theocracy with the help of other churches (of which the Temple of the Sun is not part since it seems to have allied itself with Vasili and the Inquisitors). All of the Church's actions are based on a prophecy announcing the conflict between the Son of the South (Ruinas), the Son of the Emperor (Vasili), and the Son of Necros (which, it seems, is none other than Recnam). Following our actions, the Temple of Necros in Kapital has now an undead army at his disposition, of which Mushamee Potemkin is the commander.

Back to start

Since we do not have any followers of the Temple of the Sun, we don't have much information about them. Contrary to the other Churches who seemed to have joined the side of the Church of Necros to support a theocracy, they have allied themselves with the Inquisitors for the formation of an immovable and eternal Empire.

They seem to have temples in most of the major cities in the Empire. Most of them seem to be open areas surrounded by structures on two sides. They use different amulets to single out the people working for them, and they change regularly. Finally, the Temple in Kapital seem to possess a lot of magical equipment, as the stuff they gave us after we had brought them the Tome of Power was taken from a room full of such items.

Back to start

The Amazons are a legendary group of beautiful warrior women halfway between a human and a valkyrie. Their appearance is definitely human, but their average height is higher than most men. They are strong and powerful, with a much longer lifespan than humans. They all wear heavy golden armor and use golden weapons, which aren't actually made of gold, but of a strange, very fine metal they have lost the secret of.

A couple of thousand years ago, the Amazons, led by their high priestess Hyppolite, fled our dimension for another dimension they built by using the Eternal Flame, the Artifact of Fire. In this dimension, they are immortal, and spent their time training for their eventual return.

Our recent arrival into their dimension signaled the end of their isolation. Following some negotiations that assured them of a good portion of land, they decided to come back to our dimension and fight the demons (which they know pretty well). Hyppolite, now their Queen, used the Eternal Flame to destroy their homemade dimension and return to ours.

Immediately upon their arrival, they proved great allies in the battle for Tenosia by 1) agreeing to give the Eternal Flame back to the fire elementals in return for their help, and 2) by playing a really important role in the battle itself.

Back to start