Royal Yolkadra

Yolkadras: babysitting bodyguards work for nobles in guarding and raising their children.

The primary royal family - those directly related to the Monarch of Lamara: The Nation of the Gods' Gift Peninsula - take this concept a bit further. The only ones that it's not shameful to be a Yolkadra for if you're nobility are those far higher up the hierarchy than you, such as the highest nobles and the royals.

The royals specifically get Yolkadras for their kids who have magic abilities, especially fellow Krysa - Crystal Magic Family as the royals are themselves Krysa and it helps to ensure each child has at least one caretaker who can immediately understand any problem like skin-splitting that many young Krysa experience.

That said, it's still considered important to get a mixture of members of different magic families guarding each child for different possible situations.

Additionally, the fact that these kinda Yolkadra come from noble families and both they and the noble families providing them need to actually be paid in things other than food and shelter means that there's a massive amount of prestige gained both for the royals employing them and the nobles providing them, and since there will often be many noble families who are a part of or who have members who are part of a magic family there is some degree of competition between noble families with magic children to make at least one of their children badass enough to become a Yolkadra for a royal.

Royal Yolkadra, each having multiple other Yolkadra bearing the whole "being more of a parent to the kid than their actual parents" thing with them, have more time to focus on being utter badasses to defend the royal children they're assigned to.

They're also given more drugs to increase their protectiveness of the children they're assigned to (yup: Yolkadra are given drugs that make them parentally love the kids they're assigned to to the same and sometimes even more extreme degrees than their actual parents), and after they're done raising the child to adulthood they'll usually marry royalty (marrying the child they've raised is extremely rare and considered gross, but has happened. The norm is to marry the older cousin or sibling of the child you've raised) or other Yolkadra, which often creates bonds between royal and noble families.

These royal Yolkadra are almost always also royal "mandatory guests." In short, noble families are required to provide one of their children to be a "guest" (*cough* hostage and pawn who gets brainwashed into loving the royalty *cough*) that lives with the royals in their massive palace, and these children often become Yolkadra if they have magic abilities.

Composition

Manpower

Usually 4 or 5 royal Yolkadra per royal child. The number of Yolkadra per child decreases as you get further than the direct bloodline of the current Monarch. There will also be collective Yolkadra shared by multiple children and who interact the most with the children, basically just the ones the kids like the most.

There are also regular Yolkadras: babysitting bodyguards and of course normal guards and servants, who they are allowed to command in situations that threaten the lives of the children they guard.

Equipment

Whatever's available to them at the time. Weapons are of course hidden all over for them to memorize the locations of and pull out at a moment's notice, as well as them having both visible and hidden weapons on them. They also have poisons and all sorts of other funky stuff.

Structure

Each child gets a lead Yolkadra, and the lead Yolkadras answer to the Monarch employing them and their personal head bodyguards whenever shit's going down.

Tactics

Their tactics are always focused on ensuring the survival and safety of the children they guard, so it mostly consists of "all but one or 2 Yolkadra make life hell for a numerically superior foe while the 1 or 2 remaining run away with the kid."

Training

Usually starts at age 7 or so when they're sent to the palace. Being a Yolkadra begins when they're 13 or 14 years old and are assigned to a royal child aged 7 or so until that child is 15 years old, an adult in Lamaran culture, and just has regular bodyguards rather than ones that double as babysitters too, which the Yolkadra can become one of.

Those who choose to continue being Yolkadra are assigned a child from birth, being that child's lead Yolkadra, and get additional royal Yolkadra assisting them once the child is 7 years old and considered out of the "will probably drop dead at any moment from some random disease that no amount of bodyguards will prevent... actually too many bodyguards could increase the odds of this" range.

They're often allowed to get married and have kids (who they themselves do not raise: yup royal Yolkadra getting their own kids to be raised by Yolkadra) at the same time as raising this child, and if they don't do so or don't get married and pop off at least one child once they're finished raising this royal child they're considered failures by their families.

Usually, however, they'll either get married to a royal or noble of a similar age (they're usually 21 or 22) and be released from their duties as another noble child and their accompanying Yolkadra are sent from the noble family they came from to the royal palace.

History

Yolkadra started as a practice due to a Krysa Empire Monarch becoming paranoid about the safety of his 3 remaining daughters after his oldest was poisoned. He got a fanatically loyal young woman who'd trained since she was a child in the hopes of being a great hero of the Krysa Empire and assigned her the duty of protecting his daughters.

This led to them all being overly sheltered due to just how far this woman took her duties and the daughter that succeeded the Monarch being incompetent but 17 known failed assassination attempts is 17 known assassination attempts and with many of the royal cousins and noble children being killed the need for specialised, trustworthy bodyguards who would prepare the food and so on of the children so that potentially disloyal chefs couldn't poison them was clear.

Royal Yolkadra developed from the practice of taking consorts and concubines, who would also be used as Yolkadra for the children the Monarch had with their husbands/wives.

Taking concubines and consorts, and later polygamy entirely, were fully banned with "I am going to shove my serrated spear up your a** and make you beg me to twist it" - A Holy Declaration of War, but had become an important part of building relations between major families.

The hostage / "no guys they're totally guests not hostages see they get to bring their Yolkadra to protect them and eat lavish food and stuff guys totally not hostages haha" system was fully implemented about a generation later and it just clicked with the Monarch at the time, who also wanted an excuse to bring her high-noble Brijilds - The Fire Family (this was before the Brijilds did a little naughty naughty) girlfriend into the royal palace.

That said a royal Yolkadra did kill the child they were assigned to because it was beneficial to the noble family they were from, which led to the drugs being used on royal Yolkadra in addition to the normal ones despite the protests of the nobles who didn't like their kids being drugged.

Historical loyalties

It quickly became a "no u" way for the noble families to be holding royal children just as much hostage as the royals were holding noble children ("they're totally guests guys I swear. Now agree to the increased taxes or your kid gets it") because they could just secretly tell their royal Yolkadra child to kill the kid they were assigned to protect, but the drugs thing mostly prevented that once it was brought in.

Royal Yolkadra are almost always entirely loyal to the children they guard. This has actually sometimes caused problems for the Monarchs employing them since every now and then you just gotta kill one of your own children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews or what have you.

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Overall training Level

Elite

Assumed Veterancy

Decorated/Honored

Used by

• Krysa Empire, or "just Lamara": It rules Lamara