The Purgers

There are, at any given time, only around three-thousand Purgers active at any one time. It may seem a small number, but they are an extremely elite fighting force and besides, there are not that many outer-planar incursions at any one time (in a normal case). No location exists that will always contain Purgers. They can often be found at the Necromantic Research Sites, but they usually travel around to wherever they are needed. Of course, present conditions are an exception to this rule -- meaning that the Ghostlands is now a semi-permanent base for nearly one-thousand Purgers, though there are two-thousand who take turns rotating to the Ghostlands (meaning only half of them are present in the Ghostlands at any one time). Once the curse is resolved, I imagine that the Purgers will again disperse throughout Ultor. In our time, in fact, recruitment into the Purgers has greatly stepped up due to the Uškayan crisis, and it is expected that there shall be four-thousand by 1125.

The equipment carried by a particular Purger varies according to many factors: the enemies to fight, the terrain in which the fight will occur, the personal preferences of the Purger, and what is on hand at the time. Typically, however, the Purger can be counted on to have the following: three days of rations on their person, a magical weapon of their choice for dealing with wandering spirits, a magical artifact or weapon for banishing or slaying demons, any survival gear necessary for the region they will be deployed in, magically reinforced adamantine plate armor -- imbued with magic to be made to feel as light as cloth, relevant necromantic tomes, manifestos, or scripts pertaining to their specific quarry, antivenom, poison cures, cures for paralysis, spirit scarring, mind infection, and freezing touch, and an anti-magical staff that can create a barren area of approximately twenty paces in a circular diameter centered upon the staff. It is the trademark of each Purger squadron and is decorated with that squadron's paraphernalia.

The Purgers use any and all steeds, pack animals, and/or beasts of burden available to them.

The squadron is the be-all end-all unit of the Purgers. No larger unit exists, and I imagine that if one was needed the times would be dire indeed. While several squads are given oversight by a commander, there is never any level of coordination between squads that could allow us to call them a "legion" or anything of the sort. Rather, the Purgers all operate independently and coordinate their actions only with those squads with which they come into direct contact. Of course, there is some form of oversight for the squads -- someone has to oversee operations -- and this is exemplified most obviously by Aragog Whitehand Feorutsson holding the position of "Overseer of Purger Operations in the Ghostlands."

Most Purgers are trained for at least ten years as a Tier II researcher before becoming a Purger (and it often takes several years to rise to that rank). After they are granted entry into the Necromantic Purger academy, they are vigorously trained day and night for half a year. Many of those who enter the academy will either be forced to leave it or will die in training, as the final rounds of training are incredibly lethal for those who make it that far. The vast majority of Purgers who die in service die in their first training mission, or on one of the first ten missions of their career.