The Immortals

The Immortals in the current modern day of the Empire operate off of an extremely decentralized form of authority and command system. There are essentially no ranks or classifications above one another, aside from Immortal Commanders, and the Immortal General Shakan himself. The Red Circle is composed of the most feared, talented, intelligent, and skilled Immortal Commanders the Empire has to offer. There are roughly ten thousand Immortals at any given moment, and so it was decreed that there would be one hundred Immortal Commanders who would lead an Immortal Battallion of one thousand Immortals. Those one hundred commanders would report directly to Shakan. The top seven are taken to join the Red Circle. The elite personal body-guard of the Emperor himself, the Red Circle is comprised of the absolute pinnacle of their kind, led by Shakan himself. Each, the legends say, are granted a Red Dragon in a form of respect and friendship between the Emperor and his soldiers, and House Morgana of Althia.   Generally though for more practical purposes, Immortals work alongside one another, not underneath one another in the field. The only exception to this is when an Immortal invokes their number of deaths. Death, and dying in battle is seen as immensely honorable and an Immortal's duty. Nothing was more pure than dying in the name of the Emperor only to be brought back by his holy power. So, the Immortal with the higher number of deaths technically takes seniority, although this is somewhat of a technicality. In the culture of the Immortals it's rather frowned upon to exercise this authority of another Immortal who is somewhat close in death count, but in squad settings (3-6 Immortals), the de facto squad leader upon agreement is the highest death count Immortal.

The culture of the Immortals is one of unrelenting martial worship and martial prowess. They value skill with blade, firearm, bow, hand and fist above all other merit. Some rely upon magic, others are orators, strategicians, and investigators, but all are supreme combatants when push comes to shove. Inside the Arce Inmortalium, the central headquarters of the Immortals, peer spars against peer in brutal sparring matches to first blood and sometimes, even to first death. Victories in these cage matches brings honor and glory to the Immortal amongst his brothers and sisters and may prove their superiority among others should they find themselves working together in the field.   They are an organization of brotherhood and sisterhood, bound together in their eternal service to their god-king. Never shirking from their duties, unwavering in their dedication, and unfeeling regarding fear, hesitation, or any other human and mortal forms of weakness, the Immortals strike with relentless ferocity.   Candid, matter of fact, and almost rude with one another, the Immortals see each other Immortal as a close ally, and some even see each other as true friends and brothers or sisters. Humor is not foreign to their ranks, but to see Immortals jest could be easily misconstrued to the normal mortal viewer of such an exchange.

The public agenda of the Immortals is simple. Protect the Emperor, his land, and his people, in that order.

The Immortals have the greatest assets in the Empire, themselves. Aside from this obviously they are granted the greatest and most superlative wargear, smithed from the greatest of dwarven smiths in the mountains of Jinsa or finely detailed and shaped by the most delicate of elven hands in the forests of Southern Turas. Anything and everything an Immortal could want from the Imperial arsenal, they do and can have at their request before setting out upon a mission.

The history of the Immortals is long, detailed, and storied. They were the first out of the breach behind Harbinger and Shakan themselves, their ten thousand strong legion of undying warriors chanting their Otheran war-chants, shaking the mountains with their heavy footfall and booming voices as they echoed off the tall peaks of the Hallowed Range. Any who could hear those booming voices would hear them as a whisper on the wind, an omen of the apocalyptic confrontation that would come.   At first, it was mostly The Immortals with Harbinger. A decently sized host of insane cultists and raving madmen and former soldiers of The Other would emerge to form up the bulk meat shield masses that would hold the armies of Meria while The Immortals would flank upon massive steeds that could support their immense weight, or simply run at speeds that a humanoid figure should not be able to achieve. Slamming into enemy lines with brutal force and cutting them down with blade, fist, and even firearm, the Immortals quickly earned their names as savage warriors who knew no quarter and accepted no surrender. If Harbinger ordered them to raze a town to the ground, it would be put to the sword, without question.   And so it was that the Immortals would help ensure the slow, but always grinding attritional and sometimes bloody massacre war that was the War of Consolidation. Major battles that they would find distinction in would be the Battle of the Walk, The Headsman Woods Massacre, Dragon Death at Yngrim, The Assault on Jares, The Battle of the Golden Plains, The Conquest of the Sands, and many, many more. Awarded distinction after distinction, Harbinger would honor his unique and special soldiers.   Ultimately, the world of Meria and its governments could not resist. A'akaro Yvsa, the Great Fool, was cast down into the Abyss itself by Harbinger after a cataclysmic duel known as The Great Duel. After this, when it was clear that all hope was lost, that there was no point in continued resistance, that their greatest champion had been cast down and their gods abandoned them, did the world of Meria finally break.   The Glorious Dawn, that is what it is called. For as the last remaining generals knelt in the blood, mud, gore and ashes of their fallen comrades and enemies before Harbinger, Shakan sounded a clarion call, a long drawl of three calls, trilling over the whipping pennets and blood soaked, exhausted soldiers. The Immortals stood behind their god-king in formation as the remaining generals kissed the hand of their new lord, their new god. It was a glorious dawn, for a new and glorious age had begun. The Era Imperial.   As the Empire was established, massive efforts were undertaken to ensure its stability and safety. Immortals were dispatched in two squads of three to six Immortals each to notable towns, chokepoints, former fortresses, redoubts, and other locations of interest. One squad would be sent to smaller yet important trading towns, mining villages, and other important but not militarily viable defense points. Perhaps the 'worst' of the assignments would be the one to two Immortal pairs sent to small checkpoint hamlets and villages who subsisted off of passing trade and farming. Regardless, all of these Immortals dedicated their work to supressing the obvious and ever growing resistance movements. They were varied, fractured, multitudoness, but always an annoyance.   A human supremacy extremist cell here, a monarchist restorationist cell there. All throughout the conquered world of Meria would those subjugated people begin their resistance. And the Immortals, much like during the war, had their orders: kill all who resist Harbinger's rule. And so it was done.   They did not relish slaughter, they did not relish the killing of these hopeless, hapless, foolish men and women, and yet they did it without qualms. They did it as the ruthless, idiotic rebels would have done to them. Cut them apart, nailed them to buildings in the main streets. For in those early days, The Years of Blood, the streets ran red with the blood of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, lovers and enemies. All bound together in their hatred for the empire, yet none would ever succeed in their ultimate goal. The Immortals would await the inevitable intel from the emerging Assembly, or themselves be informed by a loyal citizen of the meeting place of this terrorist cell.   Beneath a local tavern, inside a nearby farmer's barn, perhaps even in plain sight in a government building, the rebels would meet and plan their measley attacks, their ideas to perhaps strike a wound that would have them remembered in the annals of Imperial history. None would succeed. The Immortals would break down their doors, fire explosives into their hideouts, slaughter by hand those that dared to defy their Emperor. They were not worthy of the honor of their blades. One such notable group of Immortals became known as the Bloody Ten. Ten Immortals steeped in war honors for their courage, honor, and most of all, their brutality became the forefront in anti-insurgent activity. Led by one Immortal Commander Esharon, the Bloody Ten were the perpetrators of some of the most heinous, brutal, and even to some Immortals, extreme persecutors of rebels. The Bloody Ten made their name by the appearance of their armor after they would finish with a cell of rebels. They fundamentally refused to use their blades and grant the rebels a dignified death. As such, they simply tore them limb from limb with their bear hands. Crushing skulls, pulping ribs and internal organs, ripping out spines, tearing off limbs, the rooms where these rebels would die would be said to be so coated in blood, so smeared in the viscera and gore of the victims that they could never be salvaged. They would be condemned, destroyed and rebuilt for the memory, the stains, the screams could never be erased.   After the Years of Blood, when the rebels and terrorists had been so savaged and abused that they would for the most part fade into the background of reality, did the Immortals take upon their new duties, that of the Emperor's messengers, eyes, and blades. Now sent on an as needed basis to locales of interest but also deployed into so called 'Roaming Watches', where an Immortal simply travels the continent they are on to maintain watch over its roads, smaller towns, and other important locales to ensure their safety. Deployed for up to one year before being rotated out to a stationary watch location at a large town or city, the Roaming Watches are simply traveling 'federal officers' of sorts with the authority of the Emperor to dispatch his will, investigate new and disturbing occurrences, and report back with any concerning developments from the wild frontiers of His Imperial Majesty's lands.   There are approximately at any moment 3,000 Roaming Watchers anywhere throughout the world, evenly dispersed amongst the seven continents which means that at any moment there are 430 or so Immortals patrolling the lands. The stationary watch garrisons amount to in total 7,000 Immortals. A minimum of 2,000 reside in the Arce Inmortalium at all times to defend the Imperial Palace should it be needed. Another 2,000 reside in the Hallowed City/Red Cathedral garrison to defend the most holy from any and all attacks. The remaining 3,000 are divided up amongst major cities, towns, strategically important objectives and points of contention should the unimaginable, another war, break out. Ever vigilant, ever wathful, the Immortals await, death, denied.