Thorns

The Thorns are a group of druids and soldiers employed by the Emerald Crown who have the explicit task of protecting the Emerald Crown in all circumstances. No one outside of the inner circle of the Emerald Crown knows how many Thorns there are, or even where they are at any given moment. The Thorns are directly commanded by the Emerald Crown herself, and even the High Druidic Circle are not aware of where all Thorns are at any given moment.
Within the Thorns, the druids are known as the Brack and the soldiers are known as the Bramble. According to a decree passed by the High Druidic Circle when the Emerald Crown was established, there must be at least 12 druids responsible for the protection of the Emerald Crown at any given time. The Emerald Crown however has complete control over how many soldiers also work with those druids, and they only report to the Emerald Crown herself and the Derwen (the head of the Bristian military). These soldiers are selected by the Emerald Crown and it is said that some of the Bramble are actually integrated into Brist's main forces, so that additional protection can come forth unexpectedly when needed.
Members of the Thorns are marked with a brand that is then magically masked to prevent any individuals from seeing it. The magic used to conceal this brand is the same as the magic used to impart the symbol of the Emerald Crown on the armour of the Bristian army, meaning that detecting that magic is extremely difficult. Additionally, even for Thorn soldiers who do not have substantial magical abilities, they are trained on how to detect someone looking for their brand, using magic. They are thus able to mask the brand further and distract attention away from wherever the brand mark may be.
There have been known instances of Thorns being revealed or detected, as well as public displays of Thorn ranks. In every instance of a Thorn being revealed, the Emerald Crown has gone out of their way to acknowledge that the individual was a Thorn, to thank them for their service, ad to allow them to integrate back into general society. The public displays of the Thorn ranks have largely been considered ceremonial, and several soldiers who have stood among the decorative Thorn ranks during ceremonies later stated (after a few drinks) that they were not, in fact, Thorns and were rather paid simply to act as a Thorn during the ceremony.

Type

Special Forces