The Royal Gardeners

"It is the God-Fae who bestowed upon us the garden of the world. It is they who deigned us to be the caretakers, the knowers, the leaders. And thus, it falls upon us as well to weed and prune that which will harm this garden. Ye mighty few, go and do what must be done."

— Royal Decree to the first Gardeners Unit

Let us not mince words about it, Hippolyta is a nation of imperialism greater than any other in Edda. Even compared to Afallon and Agartha, its peers in nationhood, its monarchy and hunger to expand has been unparalleled and been the subject of many wars and battles, even with allies. Among the various rulers, generals, noblemen, and religious leaders that’ve pushed for this result, no tools are as efficient and terrible in their purpose as The Royal Gardeners. Despite their unassuming title, their garden is the nation, and their tasks are to prune it of unwanted weeds and pests, and leave nothing behind to grow anew.

History

While many reprehensible actions had been taken by the Hippolytan military in the past, the specific jingoistic strength of the Gardners did not begin until The Selenite Campaign. For the most brutal campaign against the Orc population of Western Hippolyta, an elite group of destructive and ruthless soldiers were brought together as the Knights of Selene under Queen Benigna Palmira Camacho with the goal of razing their population to the ground, leaving them with the option to either surrender to Hippolytan rule or perish.

Unfortunately, it was a mass success, and the Knights of Selene became the first of many Royal Gardener units that would serve the crown. Throughout the centuries, even under different rulers, social climates, and humanitarian eras, the Gardeners have grown in strength and population, with their talents in war magic, combat, torture, and sabotage second to none. For every piece of combat from minor land skirmishes to all out campaigns such as the Forests Wars and Border Wars, the Gardeners will work for their nation to a brutal end and commit any action they see fit. The only rule they recognize is Hippolytan rule, the only rights they care about are Hippolytan rights, the only suitable victory for them is Hippolytan victory, and the only truly worthy people are the Elves of Hippolyta or those who know their place beneath them.

While on paper they are regarded as dismantled and reformed until the current political regime, their mission and attitude has not changed, save for the fact that they now work in the shadows, undermining social efforts and other nations radical humanitarian efforts, in order to preserve and promote Hippolytan supremacy, High Elf supremacy, and Royal supremacy.

Structure and Methods

Each Gardener Unit has a different purpose, and thus a different structure, but by and large they receive orders from a General of high rank, typically a nobleman, and are otherwise staffed with Captain to Sergeant ranked soldiers. While new recruits may be referred to as Private Gardeners internally, they receive the respect and rewards of their military rank outside of the unit, since ones membership is often secret. A few units are public facing, and are used to portray a noble and honorable societal face to cover up the horrors in the background.

A Unit typically has between half a dozen to a dozen individual soldiers, not including their commanding officer. Larger groups with multiple purposes range to the 30-40 range, while smaller covert units might have five at the smallest.

Once deployed, the Gardeners will have only one objective: Destruction. While the exact road to destruction depends on their purpose, it’s the end result either way.

If quelling a rebellion, the loud dissenters will be silenced and the quiet participants will be jailed or otherwise removed. If removing a cultural complication, items will be confiscated and eradicated, as will any willful dissenters who created them. If sent overseas to undermine a potential international issue, they will remove the architect of the idea and ensure that the idea does not follow through on logical, social, or theoretical levels. Whether this is social espionage, subterfuge, government sabotage, acts of terror, mental torture, or straight up murder depends on the specific knight and the methods they are allowed to perform.

Assets and Abilities

As an elite military group serving the most depraved of national desires, they are given a blank check as to their requisitions, expenses, and materials. The finest pieces of armor, cutting edge pieces of engineering and artifice, any and all magical reagents from the common to the rare to the unethical, and most importantly endless resources to test new methods of mental control and torture, both financially and subjects.

These resources make it even more possible for Gardeners to receive the best training money can buy in the art of war. Their typical weapons are one-handed swords, freeing their other hand for use of magic in combination with their fighting styles. While other styles of combat are focused around disarming, tricking, or subverting the foe, the Gardeners typical technique is meant to dismember and kill as quickly and silently as possible. As far as their magic focus, clearly destructive elemental magic is key, burning away evidence and creating all manner of elemental means of death, but illusion magic for sabotage is also taught to certain soldiers, as well as mental magic that serves to rob targets of memories and their wills.

All methods of fighting and spell craft are possible to be taught, so long as they result in death and control, and above all else the Gardeners will be taught to put them together, creating an elite force of might and magic alike to decimate the undesirables of Hippolyta.