The Crimson Legion

---   1. Core Host — The Legion Proper   This is the permanent, salaried force directly under the command of Lady Sabrina Stormblade. They are always active, trained, and ready to mobilize within a fortnight.   Component Personnel Description   Knights of the Five Orders 2,500 Fully inducted veterans of the Sentinels, BladeKeepers, Justiciars, Battlemasters, and Warbringers. Levied Soldiers & Professional Men-at-Arms 2,500 Non-initiated fighters under long-term contracts; serve as footmen, scouts, and garrison troops. Engineers, Healers, & Support Staff 2,000 Permanent engineers, siege specialists, artificers, medics, scribes, and armorers.     Core Standing Force: ≈7,000 personnel     ---   2. Provincial Garrisons & Feudal Auxiliaries   The Crimson Legion maintains or oversees dozens of chartered garrisons throughout the High Kingdom’s provinces. These forces technically belong to local lords but operate under Legion contracts, pay, and oversight.   Component Personnel Description   Garrison & City Watch Forces 10,000–15,000 Legion-trained soldiers stationed across the realm, wearing the crimson tabard but serving local contracts. Border Defenders & Frontier Riders 5,000 Mounted patrols and scouts; largely drawn from frontier territories. Logistic, Civil, & Construction Laborers 5,000–8,000 Civilians under Legion pay maintaining infrastructure, fortifications, and supply routes.     Provincial & Auxiliary Strength: ≈20,000–28,000 personnel     ---   3. The Crimson Levy   In war, Lady Sabrina can invoke the Crimson Writ, compelling every city, fortress, and province under the Legion’s “protection charter” to raise additional men. This functions like a kingdom-wide draft — except these soldiers are paid by the Legion’s coffers, not by the crown.   Component Personnel Description   Conscripts & Militia Levies 15,000–20,000 Trained irregulars drawn from contracted provinces; armed and organized by Legion officers. Contracted Mercenary Companies 3,000–5,000 Independent groups hired for specific campaigns or seasons of war. Supply Train & Civil Support 5,000–6,000 Carters, blacksmiths, armorers, and camp followers bound by oath of service during campaign season.     Mobilized Levy Strength: ≈25,000–30,000 personnel     ---   Grand Total Estimate (3 AGC)   Formation State Estimated Personnel Description   Peacetime Standing Strength ~7,000 The Core Host under constant pay and readiness. Provincial & Auxiliary Forces +20,000–28,000 Garrisoned and contracted troops across the High Kingdom. Full Wartime Mobilization +25,000–30,000 Levies, mercenaries, and supply corps raised under the Crimson Writ.     Maximum Effective Strength: ≈50,000–60,000 total personnel     ---   In-universe perspective (Merenth’s closing note):   > “At the last count, the Crimson Legion’s strength stood near sixty thousand souls— enough to field ten Roman legions, enough to garrison the realm entire. But their true power lies not in number, but in coin and unity. The High King commands crowns; Lady Sabrina commands paydays.” — Merenth Val Carth, The Annals of the Crimson Dawn (3 AGC)

The equipment of the Crimson Legion reflects its philosophy: every piece of iron, every buckle, every whetstone serves the cause of order. Nothing is ornamental; nothing is waste. Each of the Five Orders bears its own war-gear, forged in the forges of the Battlemasters and maintained by entire guilds of smiths and quartermasters sworn to the crimson oath.   The Sentinels — The Crimson Law   The Sentinels wear half-plate and chain, tempered for endurance rather than splendor. Their two-handed longswords are fashioned for both cut and guard, capable of cleaving plate or turning aside the blows of giants. Every Sentinel carries a satchel of parchments, seals, and a small ink-kit, for their swords impose law as often as they spill blood.   The BladeKeepers — The Veiled Blades   The all-female BladeKeepers fight unseen. Their light armor of blackened mail and oiled leather allows silent motion. Twin curved swords rest at their hips; beneath their cloaks they carry poisons, signal powders, and surgical tools—implements suited as well to healing as to killing. Their equipment is compact, precise, and personal; no two kits are ever the same.   The Justiciars — The Iron Scales   Encased in full plate engraved with the scales of judgment, the Justiciars wield poleaxes of formidable weight. Their belts bear chains, manacles, and wax-sealed warrants. To see one polishing his halberd in the town square is to know a verdict has already been passed.   The Battlemasters — The Crimson Anvils   The Battlemasters are smiths first and warriors second. Their flails and hammers are tools of both construction and destruction. Each wears reinforced brigandine suited for climbing walls and manning forges. Their kits include chisels, measuring cords, folding picks, and small forges carried on pack-mules. Where they march, machines of war follow: rams, trebuchets, and engines that breathe fire.   The Warbringers — The Flame Unbound   The Warbringers stride into battle in heavy crimson plate, crowned with black plumes. Their flamberge greatswords ripple like tongues of flame when they catch the sun. Each bears torch-oil to ignite banners, brands, or even their own blades, for they believe war itself is a sacred fire. To the Warbringers, weaponry is prophecy made steel.     ---   Supporting Arms and Tools   Behind every knight stands a host of artisans. The healers carry bronze scalpels, distilled spirits, and runic stones of pain-dulling light. The cooks wield pans of beaten iron large enough to serve a cohort. The quartermasters record every nail and spoon in crimson-ink ledgers, their styluses chained to their wrists to prevent loss.

The legion is divided into ten cohorts, each containing six centuriae or 60 soldiers, for a total of 600 soldiers per cohort. Each cohort is commanded by a centurion, with a senior centurion acting as the cohort's second-in-command. The entire legion is commanded by a legatus, who is supported by staff officers and aides.   In addition to the legionary structure, the Crimson Legion has specialized units for communications, logistics, and medical support. The communications unit is responsible for maintaining contact between the different cohorts and with the legion's command structure, using signal flags, horns, and drums. The logistics unit is responsible for ensuring that the legion is adequately supplied with food, water, and other provisions, as well as managing the transportation of supplies and equipment. The medical unit includes healers and physicians who are trained in battlefield medicine and first aid, and who are responsible for caring for the wounded and sick.

The Crimson Legion primarily relies on scare tactics to gain an advantage over their enemies. They refuse to use any strategy that is seen as cowardly or dishonorable. They believe that fear is the greatest weapon, and use it to demoralize their enemies and break their will to fight. They often employ gruesome displays of violence, such as public executions or impaling their enemies on spikes, to strike fear into the hearts of their foes.   On the battlefield, they often use unconventional tactics to catch their enemies off guard, such as sudden charges or feigned retreats. They believe that a show of strength and fearlessness will cause their enemies to hesitate and make mistakes, giving them the opportunity to strike.   The Crimson Legion also values discipline and order above all else. They maintain strict hierarchies within their ranks, with officers leading by example and enforcing the rules with swift and severe punishment. They are highly organized and efficient in their operations, with specialized units for different tasks such as siege warfare, cavalry, and archery.   Overall, the Crimson Legion is a fearsome force on the battlefield, relying on their reputation and tactics to strike fear into their enemies and gain the advantage in combat.

The world forgets quickly. Magic died in a single year, and the mighty thought themselves mortal.
  In 1243, the Mage War ended — and with it, an age of gods who bled like men. The towers burned. The tomes turned to ash. And the mages who once commanded storms found their hands empty.
  They called it justice. I call it balance.
  The powerless rose, and the powerful fell. Yet even stripped of their sorcery, the proud still believed themselves above the rest.
  So they took up steel instead of spell. They traded their runes for armor, their sigils for banners.
  They formed the Crimson Legion — the first of many legions born in the shadow of the old mage orders. They believed themselves chosen still, destined to lead by right of what they were, not what they had become.
  For a time, they were not alone. Sister legions rose beside them — the Gilded Flame, the Azure Blades, the Kostrine Legion. Each a reflection of what remained of magic’s arrogance, wrapped in steel and pride.
  They sold their blades to kings and conquerors, not for coin, but for relevance. Every mage-turned-knight sought to prove that they were still necessary.
  And for a time, they were.
  But pride is a slow poison. One by one, the sister legions rotted from within. The Gilded Flame consumed itself in greed. The Azure Blades fractured over honor. The Kostrine Legion froze to death on its own vanity.
  The Crimson Legion endured. Not because it was pure — but because it was ruthless.
  They learned that steel is a better master than the arcane. That a sword obeys when a spell falters. That men follow strength, not light.
  Centuries passed. The names of the others were forgotten. The Crimson Legion became the only banner left to hire, the only army left to trust. Kings built their wars around it. Queens paid fortunes for its allegiance.
  For hundreds of years, the Legion decided who ruled and who fell. Until its commanders forgot why it existed.
  They grew soft. They believed the Legion was meant to preserve peace, not enforce it. They forgot that we were born from the arrogance of power and survived by destroying the weak.
  I did not.
  When I took command, I tore the rot from its heart. The council of commanders was buried beneath the Bastion they built. Their titles were carved into their coffins. Their failures were burned with them.
  I took what they left — their discipline, their coin, their legend — and forged it anew.
  The Crimson Legion is not a company of mercenaries. It is a reminder.
  The gods fell once. So will kings, should they forget who keeps their peace. - Lady Legate Sabrina Stormblade Commander of The Crimson Legion