Dread Cohort of Malaborg

The Dread Cohort of Malaborg is a now-defunct Alderni military unit, which was active in one form or another for over six hundred years. Once commanded by Ilse Sarren van Malaborg, the architect of Gildenschloss and Tonnenkreek Schloss, it had close ties to the Gilded Tower for much of its history.

History

The Dread Cohort was originally the name given to the military forces of Malaborg, a settlement on the banks of the Tonn which is the present-day site of the citadel of Tonnenkreek Schloss. It is said to have emerged from a force of insurgents against the Empire of Kataris, and consisted of a mixture of rathi from Lith Kala, human and orcish mutineers from the Katari slave-legions, goblins from Steppa Nezr, and assorted others.
During Malaborg's independent period, the Dread Cohort was the principality's primary line of defense; it is said that they were masters of guerilla warfare, able to defeat significantly larger forces through stealth, preferring not to fight their foes head-on but rather to outflank them and prey upon their supply lines and baggage trains. They cultivated a fearsome reputation for their use of terror tactics, with one account claiming that in 657 AK they caused a much larger force loyal to the Balthan Prince of Ulfenbroeg to rout  - supposedly after sending scouts to sneak into the Balthan camp under cover of darkness, slitting the throats of every tenth Balthan soldier as they slept, and leaving the corpses to be found by their horrified comrades in the morning.
After the accession of Malaborg  to the Sovereignty of Aldernord in 694 AK, the Dread Cohort was incorporated into the Alderni armies. They fought in the War of the Frog  against the Batrarchiarchy of Verag, and whilst under the command of Ilse Sarren van Malaborg were responsible for the rediscovery of the Howling Hill, on which Gildenschloss is now built.
During the War of the Queen's Knife , they fought on the side of Queen Heliodora against the forces loyal to her aunt Kydomene; when the Gilded Tower was formed a few years later, the Dread Cohort was assigned to act as its military wing.
Over the following centuries, the Dread Cohort provided a rudimentary military intelligence force which worked closely with the Gilded Tower and with the Queensknife; however its existence was always a point of some contention as it stood somewhat outside the military hierarchies of the the time, loyal only to its own appointed commanders and not to the High Houses. House Sarren made repeated claims that the Dread Cohort should for historic reasons be under their sole command, whilst House Ysern argued that as a military unit functionally headquartered in the Ysberwaal, it was by rights theirs to command. The Dread Cohort was significantly reduced in size in by Queen Hildegard II Ysern in 875 AK, and after the Disappearance of Queen Hildegard III Ysern  in 900 AK, the Cohort was scapegoated for failing to prevent the magical accident in which the Queen was lost - with some even going as far as alleging that members of the Cohort had deliberately sabotaged the portal on the orders of Hildegard's rivals in House Sarren. Whilst the truth of the matter was never settled, and the chaos of the Year of Six Queens soon eclipsed the controversy around the Cohort, they had lost a great deal of the trust and goodwill of the High Nobility.
Following the ascension of Queen Helena I Sarren to the throne in 924 AK the Dread Cohort was placed under the control of the priesthood of Ektrophos, and its membership restricted to members of the nobility. Under her rule, it was reformed significantly, and given the exclusive tasking of acting on esoteric threats identified by the Gilded Tower, rather than more mundane military intelligence. From the 970's until 1042 AK the Cohort had once more reached a position of significant influence and prestige, and was redeployed to the citadel of Hennentoren in Alderni-occupied Corlindale. Alas, when the fortress fell in 1042 almost the entirety of the Dread Cohort were wiped out, with only a handful managing to escape the trolls that rampaged through the citadel.
Though the Dread Cohort remained active for a further century following the loss of Hennentoren, it never truly recovered. Their last major deployment was in 1076 AK, when they supported the uprising against the vampires of Nachtzahn in Viraky; following this the organisation gradually fell into decline, and was finally disbanded in 1162 AK during the military reforms of Queen Hildegard V Bheuren, its functions split between the Seventh and Ninth Grand Regiments.

Type

Intelligence

Founding

550 AK

Dissolution

1162 AK

Overall training Level

Elite

Assumed Veterancy

Veteran