The Argosilan of Karathos

The Argosilan of Karathos

The Argosilan (singular: Argosil) are a special forces branch of the Karathian military that typically act in a paramilitary capacity. The Argosilan report to Major Shane Relegath, the Commander of the Argosilan, who in turn reports to General Varka, the highest-ranking officer in the Karathian army.

The command structure of the Argosilan is fairly straightforward. Argosilan are typically organized into teams of 12, each commanded by a Lieutenant, with 11 enlisted Argosilan under their command. There are a number of Commanders, each of whom commands a division of 10 teams of Argosilan, and these commanders report to Major Relegath.

The Argosilan are sometimes sent on missions that overlap with those usually assigned to the Shadows, but usually, the two have separate focuses. While the Shadows specialize in clandestine work - kidnappings, assassinations, blackmail, sabotage, fomenting unrest, spying, anything that might embarrass the Crown if it were discovered, the Argosilan missions tend to be more direct and combat-focused.

Trained in both land and aquatic warfare, the Argosilan are masters of guerilla combat. With the aid of magical items, they can swim long distances underwater to sabotage enemy ships or attain strategically or tactically valuable positions within enemy cities or behind enemy lines. They possess almost superhuman endurance and can even outpace horses on forced marches, allowing them to quickly cover large amounts of ground and respond rapidly as situations develop that require their tender mercies.

Although the Shadows boast many members who are as tough and as deadly as any Argosil, the Argosilan possess much more formal training - they are the most highly trained members of the Karathian military and every Argosil is a fearsome warrior, wielding all manner of melee and ranged weapons with deadly results. The Argosilan officers are highly trained in tactics and strategy as well and regularly use their small teams to disrupt, route, and decimate much larger forces, with few if any losses on the part of the Argosilan.

The Argosilan seem equally comfortable in all manners of terrain, in just about any weather or climate, and at any time of the day or night; that is, nothing ever seems to bother them or hinder their terrifying combat prowess and physical strength and durability. They are an astonishingly effective and formidable organization at what they do, and what they do is kill and destroy.

While most Argosilan missions are directly combat-oriented - e.g. putting down rebellions, fighting border skirmishes, and during wartime, disrupting enemy supply lines, sabotaging defenses and ships, separating and decimating sections of armies, and even serving as shock troops in some battles, the Argosilan also serve as guards to the Crown, the Pontus, and high-ranking nobles and government officials. The Argosil assigned to these roles are invariably older, combat-seasoned members who have served their time in more dangerous roles and were allowed to “retire” to lighter duties as guards and deadly escorts. It is rumored that no Argosil ever truly retires, that they use arcane means to prolong their lives and health until they are finally slain in battle, but this has never been confirmed.

History of the Argosilan

As tensions mounted between the humans, elves, and dwarves in Karathos in the early 1300s SD, members of all three races foresaw the coming wars and the devastation they would wreak throughout the land. Like the Thaumatic Order, these people saw these wars as pure folly and as the slide into violence accelerated, many of them cast their lots in with the Thaumatic Order, abandoning their people and setting out for Argus. Many were from the lower and middle classes and knew that they would inevitably find themselves on the front lines of wars in which they had no say. Among these people were many of the mightiest warriors of the three races, people who had decades or in some cases centuries of experience with war and its attendant horrors and thus chose to take no part in what they saw as pointless and unjust wars.

A Karathian general known as Pericus Wyrmbane assembled a contingent of elite Karathian soldiers and officers whose allegiance was to him rather than to Karathos or the Crown and in an event that became known as Tobin’s Folly because of one of Pericus’s aids’ failure to report the impending desertion, Pericus and his followers cast their lots with the Thaumatic Order and aided them in establishing Argus as an independent kingdom.

Pericus spent years secretly assembling his loyal followers and with astounding subterfuge managed to put them all through a great deal more training than any other Karathian soldiers; he sold this as the creation of a special division of soldiers who could wage war effectively in small groups using their mobility and flexibility as powerful weapons. As a result, Pericus’s followers were a mighty military force despite their relatively small numbers and with aid from elven and dwarven warriors and Thaumatic mages were instrumental in ensuring the safety of the civilian emigrants as they traveled to Argus and in holding the northern border against the Karathian army in the Siege of the Narrows.

Outnumbered 50 to 1, Pericus’s band, reinforced by the elves and dwarves, held the narrow land bridge against the Karathians for six days while the Thaumatic mages assembled enough sources of arcane power to finally erect the Shimmering Wall from Stormward Bay to the Great Sea. This wall stopped the Karathian assault dead in its tracks and has proven impenetrable by land save by permission of the mages ever since. Although these warriors of Argus suffered grievous losses, the cost to the Karathian army was so great that Karathos did not dare attack Argus for nearly 70 years, despite the Crown’s fury over this desertion.

Once the Wall had been erected, Pericus shifted his attention to the creation of a defense force for Argus. Pericus resonated strongly with the values upon which this new kingdom had been established - peace, justice, equality, and nonaggression and wanted to ensure that the army he created would not be used in contrary to those values down the road. He used his position of power that he earned during the establishment of Argus to codify into Argosian law a cap on the size of the Argosian army - large enough to defend the kingdom but not so large that it could be used as a weapon to invade other nations. In order to ensure the safety of Argus within these restrictions, Pericus developed the most rigorous, effective military training regimen in Karathos and the soldiers this training produced became known as the Argosilan Clypeus - the Sword and Shield of Argus. The weakest of these soldiers is a force to be reckoned with, the strongest are among the mightiest warriors of Rift. The Argosilan Clypeans are masters of combat with any weapon, in any terrain, in any weather. Any with the talent receive magical training as well, so many of these warriors draw upon the Arcane and the Divine to heal their companions and enhance their combat prowess while disorienting and destroying their enemies.

This military structure established by Pericus has proven astonishingly effective at both of Pericus’s aims - it has never been used by the rulers of Argus for anything other than defense and it has never been beaten in battle. No ship from Argus has ever been successfully beset by pirates thanks to small contingents of Argosilan guards on board, no foreign invaders have even managed to push beyond the shores of Argus because of the swift and brutal response from the Argosilan. Pericus also effectively carried out his vision of an egalitarian military. All races and genders are equal in Argus and any who choose to serve are welcomed into training, although few endure the trials and become Argosilan.

The Argosilan in Karathos should not be confused with the Argosilan Clypeus. At the request of King Belegrath, Argus sent eight Argosilan to ensure peace at the signings of the Treaties of Veredain and Peleth’nor. These eight were chosen because the Thaumatic mages could see that their hearts longed to return to Karathos. Because King Belegrath, crowned partway through the Elven and Dwarven Wars, appeared to be a benevolent ruler and Karathos as a whole seemed to be heading in a peaceful direction finally, the Thaumatic Mages granted these eight the chance to return to Karathos with honor - released from the Argosilan Clypeus with honor rather than forced to desert with dishonor provided they carry out this last duty.

Belegrath seized this opportunity and employed these eight as military officers tasked with training a similar special force for Karathos. These eight produced highly trained soldiers but deliberately held back the greatest secrets of the Argosilan Clypeus. They taught nothing of their magic and selectively left out large parts of the combat training of the Argosilan. Nevertheless, they created a powerful military force for Karathos in its own right, a force which King Belegrath named the Argosilan in order to conjure in his enemies the fearsome might of the soldiers of Argus.

Over time, Belegrath sorted through the Argosilan as they were trained. Those loyal to the Eight found themselves sent on suicide missions to the frontiers while those whose loyalty Belegrath could ensure were assigned leadership and training positions within the Argosilan. Finally, the Eight themselves were split up and sent into the frontier where they were systematically eliminated, leaving behind the Argosilan of Karathos whose loyalty lay entirely with the crown and who spearheaded Belegrath’s later attempt to besiege Argus, at which point it became painfully clear for Belegrath that his Argosilans could not hold a candle to the real thing.

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