Abyssal Guard

The Abyssal Guard are an elite band of esaanla warriors trained in deep sea combat.
They are best known for maintaining the habitable aquatic zones from deep-sea gigapredators and protecting workers and mining sites in the abyssopelagic zone of the Kolokolou ocean. As vital as this work is, it is merely training for the true role of the Guard: maintaining the wards that imprison the god Nēwou at the bottom of the hadal zone. The earthquakes and storms in the region are the product of the god straining against xir bonds, and the Guards' duty lies in directing this energy away from locations likely to cause catastrophic tsunamis.
Membership of the Guard is open to everyone, regardless of background, status, or caste. The fish-iron armour plates the distinguish an Abyssal Guard are implanted into their body, obscuring the visual markers of ethnicity and making membership a lifetime commitment. After prolonged exposure to the dread god's magic drifting up from the abyss, a member of the Guard begins to physically adapt to the harsh environment and they are no longer able to return to the surface.
With the promise of a lifetime spent underwater and in the coldest, darkest parts of the ocean, it is difficult to say what motivates people to volunteer for the role. Nonetheless, the company is a volunteer force and, at various points in its history, the Guard has been obliged to resist efforts to turn its duty into a punishment. The heads of the Guard know that willing self-sacrifice is necessary to maintain the wards.
The company dates back at least to the Early Modern era of the Fourth Age - the earliest documented mention of the Abyssal Guards is in a ljudoy library shard from 4.1626, which describes ljudoy miners working in "thee Horr'd Deeps under the watchf'l eys of theyr sorrowful gards" . The description of the Guards as 'sorrowful' is apt - the esaanla's natual tendancy towards playfulness is entirely absent in members of the Guard and they are notoriously grim, even by surface-dweller standards.

Type

Military, Special Operations Force