Koyon Mountain Guard

The Koyon Mountain Guard (Kosanboja) is an elite unit of the Koyon military known for its bravery, ferocity, and prowess fighting in the harsh conditions of the high mountains that surround the country.   The Koyon Mountain Guards are recruited from the small towns and villages tucked in the high mountain valleys that surround Koyon. From a young age, the boys of those villages run up and down the steep and treacherous slopes, tending animals and crops. Their hearts, lungs and muscles are adapted to the cold temperatures and altitude of the mountains and conditioned by running up and down the mountains day after day, so their bodies are incredibly tough. In addition, they face danger from wild animals and even Orkrim tribes from the deep mountains raiding their villages, so they train to fight beginning early in their lives as archers and with short, curved, long knives called kojrin. The Koyon warriors usually fight with two kojrin, one in each hand, and they are brutally effective with them.   When young men from the mountain villages are recruited into the Koyon Mountain Guards, many are leaving their villages for the first time. They travel to the Koyon capital city, Amir, and inducted first into the regular Koyon military. Only the most capable are taken into the Mountain Guards, and the competition to be selected is fierce. The tests and training to become a Mountain Guard are demanding. The boys from the mountains are trained to swim (most do not know how beforehand). They are trained in jungle warfare (at which, despite their upbringing in the mountains, they excel). They are trained in formation and group tactics, covert communication, hand-to-hand combat, and the myriad other things an elite warrior must know. And once they complete their training, they practice all of it rigorously, every day.   In their patrols of Koyon's territory and borders, the Koyon Mountain Guards occasionally encounter one of Sudland's Southmarch Rangers, with whom they have a mutual respect. Typically, the Mountain Guards deploy as a squad of six, while the Southmarch Rangers work alone or sometimes as a pair, and the two organizations serve similar, but different, purposes for their respective countries. Nevertheless, the Mountain Guards and Southmarch Rangers both recognize the skill of the other organization.