Lions of Dun
The personal retinue of the current monarch of Dunsland.
The royal family of Dunsland, currently led by King Justinian, has its own honour-guard, the Lions of Dun. They are a fearsome unit usually seen around the royal palace in Dun. For additional experience and training, they are rotated out of royal guard duty on a regular basis to aid the wider military where they act as honourary officers who get directly involved with missions. This ensures that they do not get complacent in their training.
As part of a longstanding diplomatic tradition, Lions spend a year training with battlemasters in the city state of Thir Met. This gives them a reputation for using surprising tactics and skills against a wide variety of foes.
Composition
Manpower
There are roughly 400 Lions in total, although only two thirds are on active duty. The majority reside in Dun, protecting the palace but a small proportion have duties that take them around the whole country.
Equipment
The Lions are heavily armoured soldiers with carefully maintained equipment. The royal guards wear full plate under a gold-trimmed purple surcoat emblazened with the Dunsland crest. They have white capes with a gold trim to match their surcoat. Their helmets are closed basinets with white and purple plumage standing proudly on top.
The Lions also have a more mobile division - warriors specialising in quicker combat. These members wear chain shirts under the same surcoats and forgo the capes in exchange for a quiver.
Weaponry
Coming from a background of already exemplary military service, Lions are trained in the use of many different weapons. In active service, most are equipped with halberds, shortswords and crossbows. The mobile division use both shortbows and longbows, depending on where they are stations.
Officers have more freedom to pick their own weaponry - both to allow them use of what they are most specialised in and to use already existing magic weapons.
Vehicles
While they are not used often during guard duties, each Lion of Dun has a horse and is trained in mounted combat. These are used when travelling across Dunsland and during times of open combat as heavy cavalry.
Logistics
Auxilia
The Lions of Dun have close ties with the palace arcanists and may seek magical assistance in the form of potions, beneficial spells or magical bombardment against foes. Clerics of Ghomar, God of Battle are also known to lend assistance when required.
In times of actual war, the Lions form solid strike forces within the wider Dunsland military and are usually supported by archers and spearmen.
Recruitment
Lions are recruited almost exclusively from the wider Dunsland military in order to ensure that they already understand the tactics and structure of the force. Those who do come from outside invariably have some military experience elsewhere. Adventurers are not suitable recruits, instead more likely to become Knights of the Lily, a more honourary position.
Summer Camp 2021
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This was an article originally written as part of the 2021 Summer Camp challenge. I have edited the article since then, so what appears on this page no longer reflects the original competition entry. - Theoclymenus
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