The Scarlet Spears

The Scarlet Spears are the largest mercenary company within the borders of the Empire. The company was formed about a century ago as a tool of proxy war to unify the eastern side of the Empire, and it is a well-structured organisation that operates all around the realm.¹

Services

The company serves warring noble houses, settlements without a proper city guard, and wealthy merchants who want protection for their goods. Powerful mages also hire it to support their research and to bring back valuable items from dangerous places.¹

Organisation

The Scarlet Spears are led by a council of seven, the Red Council, with one seat for each province of the Empire. Seats pass by election among the council’s leading members, and the leading seat, called the red tip, usually goes to the eldest and most accomplished member of the organisation.¹

Members are called spears, and the organisation has five ranks. It is structured much like the Legions of the Empire, and most of its members are former legionaries.¹

• Rank one. The foot soldiers, who form the bulk of the company.¹
• Rank two. About a fifth of the organisation, who run the supply chains, plan spending and handle desk work. Many literate recruits start at this rank and stay there for their whole career.¹
• Rank three. Lower-ranking commanders, each leading a group of up to ten rank-one soldiers.¹
• Rank four. District commanders, mostly out of field duty and usually chosen from people with a military background. They assign campaigns lasting a month to a year to rank-three commanders and their units.¹
• Rank five. The members of the Red Council, who plan the organisation’s future and assign grand campaigns and missions to rank-four commanders and their units.¹

Code of the spears

The Scarlet Spears play by the rules and wage war by the rules of the Empire. They take no part in slavery and they respect the rights of hostages. A tenth of any loot is shared among the ranks of the unit that took it, and the rest goes to the organisation’s main coffers.¹

When these rules are broken, the company’s own courts deal with the matter, and treason within the organisation is punishable by death. Spears are strictly bound to their superior officers, and each knows that every member stands for the whole of the Scarlet Spears. A colour code and uniform regulations show each member’s rank, and every spear is loyal, disciplined or a seasoned warrior. Brother Uldhaeven, for one, is always seen in crimson and white robes adorned with religious symbols and the orders of the company.²

In the Western Provinces

The Scarlet Spears are the oldest mercenary company in the Western Provinces, and their main aim there is to remain the region’s leading company. They are rivals of the Brine Blades because of that guild’s aggressive expansion, and they are looking for any contract that sets them against the Brine Blades and lets them eliminate their members.¹

Commander Gustavius, a rank-four commander, joined the company about a decade ago and became a prominent political figure in the Western Provinces. He means to stop the Brine Blades from forging close ties with the legions near Neptun, and he has set his sights on an estate within the crater, where he hopes to found a second stronghold in the region; he believes that an outpost in Vansreik would further strengthen the company’s influence.³

Auximus Tibalt, Gustavius’ second hand, joined the Scarlet Spears after Gustavius became the commanding officer of the Western Provinces, and is found at the Western Spear stronghold.⁴

Campaigns

Members of the company have fought beside the Legions against rebellious wood elven forces, and the Spears played a part in suppressing the Twinrivers Rebellion. When the Monastery of the Inner Flame asked for their help in attacking the dark elven town of Gras’ur Baer, the company accepted twenty of its monks into its ranks as payment for that aid. A raid by the Scarlet Spears on a wood elven k’re led Xaman to leave the company, and three years ago a battalion was sent against the bandit Sigusmund the Boar and cornered him in the Crooked Teeth Valley.⁵

Members

The company’s roster includes Streffan Klaus, Justinian Volkh, Zamira, Amelia Starkwood, Brother Uldhaeven, Damien Fraizer, Eleanor Ponytail, Garrick the Bold, Icarus Poeniteamus, Auximus Tibalt, Willford the Hexbreaker and Commander Gustavius.⁶

• Streffan Klaus is a rank-one spearman who has spent most of his life serving the company in many regions of the Empire. Fiercely loyal, he is highly respected in his unit despite his low rank.⁷
• Brother Uldhaeven is an unwavering zealot of the company, convinced of the righteousness of its cause and regarding his fellow members as spiritual brothers and sisters.⁸
• Justinian Volkh, a seasoned witch hunter, joined recently to confront the dark forces that have plagued his life; he knows the company has strong ties with the witch hunters.⁹
• Amelia Starkwood came to the company after uncovering a plot to desecrate the ancient groves of her homeland, and the Spears recognised her blend of nature magic and combat skill.¹⁰
• Damien Fraizer joined in search of adventure and purpose, and is proud to be a key member of the group, as much for his wit as for his blade. Zamira was initiated after asking Damien to introduce her to the company.¹¹
• Willford the Hexbreaker is the son of a Scarlet Spear commander in the Northern Provinces.¹²
• Garrick the Bold and his fellow headhunter joined to be part of something larger than themselves, and still count on the friends they made in the company’s service.¹³

Not all spears stay. Balthasar Jaeger Voll joined in his youth and rose to captain, but the company’s rigid structure, more like an army than a guild, clashed with his love of freedom, and he went his own way after the Twinrivers Rebellion; he still has friends among the spears. Aetheus Boldragon is estranged from the organisation over his poor work ethic and recklessness.¹⁴