Royal Guard Champion Lore
Every ruler and warlord of Teleria has their elite warriors. For the High Elves of Aravia, who already see themselves as Teleria’s finest, the expectations are perhaps higher than anywhere else. Their standard of excellence is the Royal Guard, who answer directly to the reigning Aravian monarch. Drawn from the military’s best soldiers, they are master warriors trained in polearm-based defensive combat. Their first and foremost duty is to protect the monarch’s life, and those of the royal family, and beyond those duties they can be deployed at the King or Queen’s discretion. They are an effective means of projecting the monarch’s power and personal will, useful when courtly politics and factionalism bog down the royal agenda.
Royal Guard candidates have their backgrounds exhaustively researched and their psyches probed deeply. Ideal Guards are emotionally resilient, loyal, and driven. Many are drawn from the upper echelons of the Aravian army by referral, others are scouted by Aravian spies and recruited. The selection process and associated induction ceremonies are steeped in a thousand years of tradition, as are their traditional arms and armor. They wear impartial masks, to symbolize their renouncement of their past lives and former selves. Their coat of mail incorporates designs reminiscent of leaves, for the Elves’ natural purity, and scales, for the longevity and tenacity of Elvenkind.
Once inducted, Royal Guards serve for life. They adhere to strict schedules based on the movements and activities of the royals, while allowing for needful rest and periods of training. While martial excellence is the primary selection criterion, in their lives as Guards their skills often broaden to include various domestic duties, clerical tasks, and other courtly functions. Regardless of what duty they are seen to be performing, a Royal Guard is prepared at any moment to defend their liege. A monarch may converse in a relaxed way with a visitor, only for a wall of steel spears to coalesce around their royal personage at the slightest sign of danger or affront, as the Royal Guards nearby suddenly turn from silent onlookers into fierce guardians.
One Royal Guard known as Clerebon is lauded to this day as an archetype of the Guards’ fidelity and bravery. He served the royal family during the long and tumultuous War of the Elves, when families and loyalties were torn apart by the schism between the Elves who followed a dream of Darkness and freedom, and the Elves who stayed true to their ancient ways. Always a breeding ground for schemes and paranoia, the Aravian royal court was in a rolling boil of uncertainty and danger at this time, with Dark Elf agents and sympathizers constantly trying to enact a coup d’etat to end the war with a decapitation of the Aravian state. Clerebon was already a trusted veteran who had served for over six decades, and he was put in charge of safeguarding two of the royal heirs, a prince and princess who were fraternal twins.
Clerebon did not leave the royal twins’ side for days at a time, sleeping only for short intervals. He watched them at play and while they studied, their tutors and attendants scrutinized at all times by the hawk-eyed, silent, and stern-masked figure waiting always in the wings. His presence alone deterred many would-be assassins. One attempt, involving a venomous snake placed in the children’s’ playroom, was thwarted when Clerebon grabbed the serpent by the head without hesitation and crushed it to death. It is said that the spirit of Aravia itself protected him from the serpent’s fangs, to repay him for his years of selfless service.