Vol Staurrem
A heartbeat echoes too loud in the grasp of bitter quiet.The Vol Staurrem, known also as the Hunt of Staurrem, are the snarling wolves that sniff at the earth of Vuorenmaa. Though not an official branch of the nation's government, the fanged bastards are nonetheless sponsored by the vicious teeth the Blind Queen bears at her foes.
Rage Unbidden by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
In theory, they are a band of mercenaries. In theory, they must follow the same laws as all the rest. Don't be foolish enough to believe such tripe.
The Vol Staurrem are hunters in their own element, their steel flashing silver under their home's blanket of night. They are bloodhounds for foes known only to them and their hidden masters, and are as willing to howl as the very dogs they imitate.
Traitors to the country are thrown to their midst and rise as new menaces for the bloody hunt - or rise weeks later as chained lingerlights, their souls too scared to flee what comes.
Though the Vol Staurrem abide by no law set by the Queen, they do listen to her words, and do adhere to a code of their own. They work based on blood and honour, on pack and pride, and do not care for the moral quandaries that would give any regular adventurer pause. When their loyalty has been secured, it cannot be broken save by betrayal.
Structure
Careful, little pup. You're only here for fraud. Do you want to know why they fear me?The hierarchy of the Vol Staurrem is not wholly set in stone, but it comes pretty close. They are a fiercely loyal organisation - so long as they aren't interrupted, betrayed, or stolen away from this life - that train with a fury and fervour unseen by most outside of their dying breaths, and the bonds that thus form are forged in an unfathomable heat.
Yet the orders they follow come from those with more experience, and those who have committed more horrific crimes. The current leadership, known largely as the Kunutan, are a trio of hunters that have survived the Vol Staurrem's ranks and missions for decades and fought for their places. Those underneath them are ranked roughly by their abilities and hold no formal positions. Disobeying an order from a higher-up Hunter, though, is typically going to earn one a new set of scars.
Some crimes are seen as greater than others. Murders or sacrifices committed for good causes cast the hunter in good regard, immediately boosting their standing upon joining the organisation.
Crimes of extremely distasteful nature may very well see the individual killed on sight - even the Vol Staurrem have boundaries around children, for instance. The organisation holds itself to strict moral codes within its own ranks, though they differ greatly from those outside.
Pack Vengeance by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Public Agenda
Come, pretty little snake. You're behind on your taxes, aren't you?The Vol Staurrem are the lowest of the low put to use by the fury of their ill-respected Queen, and they know this well. They serve as a physical deterrent to criminals not only by their ill-restrained tempers, but by the way of their existence. Life in Vuorenmaa is not easy, but the bloodied half-life the Vol Staurrem experience is beyond anything that could be considered human.
Blood Hunter by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
Of course, the monsters revel in this. They take pains to intimidate the innocent-blooded, to paint villages and towns red in the guts of those who fall afoul of them. To join the Vol Staurrem is to lose one's morals swiftly, for there is no other way to be. They are a public threat and a public warning, ready to explode into violence at any moment.
With that said, their best use is as hunters. Those attempting to flee the Queen's justice can be sure that should they evade the kindness of her usual forces, then the Vol Staurrem will be given their scent. And where the usual guard still hold onto their humanity, the Vol Staurrem do anything but.
The Queen cannot command them to return her prisoners alive, or to recapture stolen jewels in perfect condition - they are too wild for that, too uncontrolled. If the Vol Staurrem are sent out, then recovery has been deemed a loss. Destruction, instead, shall be scarred across every place they care to step.
Only Death may Judge
Type
Military, Mercenary Group
Alternative Names
the Hunt of Staurrem, the Hunt, the Queen's Wolves
Training Level
Semi-professional
Veterancy Level
Experienced
Demonym
the Hunters
Leader
Founders
Parent Organization
Location
The Wolves
Vuorenmaa exists in a half-state of day and night, forever shadowed by the necromantic curse that forces souls to linger. It also lies not far from Haeng Na and Yulan Sheng, both of which have had significant problems with wolves in their history. It is, then, a completely valid question to ask if the Vol Staurrem, with their bloodwolf motifs and their pack dynamics, are linked to the wolf-based condition of lycanthropy. It is also completely valid to be disappointed at the lack of distinct answer, or perhaps terrified at the lunging claws. Maybe don't question them too much. They bite.You mean to tell me the Queen has her own private army? They're never getting out of that necromantic fog.
Loyalty by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
History
The grasp of Death upon our realm means little if we do not add to it.There will always be a need for those willing to value things other than morals. In Vuorenmaa, such a role is squabbled over; the Vol Staurrem are certainly not alone in their disrepute. They claim an odd position in the social hierarchy, simultaneously lurking with the dregs of society and yet being feared by those far above them. This all began, of course, with betrayal. Tuomas Tuulijäinen was a good man. He claimed the throne at only twenty years of age after the untimely death of his mother, who had held the nation for near a century, and established a number of peacekeeping, research, and religious orders in the nation to combat the blanket of necromancy that drowned their people. The Vol Staurrem began under him as a legitimate organisation, designed to take those condemned for their crimes and rebuild them as functioning members of society. Tuomas placed a warpriest comrade, Veikko of Staurre, in charge of the group and named it for him, willing the taciturn man to take their broken kinsmen and reform them as iron. The years stretched on, and Veikko grew harsher with each passing winter. Most of the men sent to the Vol Staurrem were vicious folk: bitter assassins bound in chains, necromancers driven to temptation by their land's curse, and foul-tempered labourers driven to violence by their circumstance. The death penalty was never off the table for them, but under Tuomas's rule, they were to be reformed first if possible. Veikko's blades were stained rust-red with the blood of those for whom there could be no mercy, who defied the strict rules he placed on the Vol Staurrem.
Veikko of Staurre by Hanhula (via Midjourney)
"A farm-dog that bites must be put down," she murmured, turning to face her attackers as they breached the doors that kept her safe. "For it has acquired the taste of blood, and will never spare its masters again. I despise waste. You took my husband for the crime of retribution undeserved?" Her eyes had never seen colour; milk-white in her skull, her eyes bored into their very souls. "Then you shall become the tools you were meant to be. No one will think kindly of you, for who thinks well of the dagger or the spade? No, to kill you would waste the years spent on your training. You will serve - if not in life, then in the beauty of your wasted deaths. Allow me to demonstrate." Her tone remained even, her pose remained tall. When she emerged from her room with a new stave in hand, one formed from spine-shaped bone and glowing divine light, with the Vol Staurrem obediently following behind her and Veikko nowhere to be seen - well. That changed things.
daaaaamn