The Collector Corps
The Unified Bandit Clans of the Western Desert, beaten into shape and made into an army
Description
The Collection Corps is a group that was formed out of the scattered Bandit Clans that once roamed and controlled much of the western desert, who now have been unified into a single, cohesive organization founded by Zara Isfa El-Khayat, were subequently given extremely brutal and intense training to break each of them down and reforge them as soldiers, and afterwards became enthralled with her words and her promises to them so much so that they unified beneath her banner. Afterwards, they ascended into their current status as a loosely organized paramilitary organization that serves as the single massive army The Golden Sands has to defend itself against the forces of Kor'sarro Krieg and The Sultanate of Malthri, who seek to conquer them and impose their laws on them. With this as their justification and with absolute obedience to Zara Isfa El-Khayat and her ways of discipline and order, they fulfill all their bandit desires within the boundaries of her command and rob, steal, extort, and demand payment and tribute from the creature all over The Golden Sands to "thank" them for their continued protection of the lands against Kor'sarro Krieg and his armies who seek to destroy the Anarchy most of the residents of The Golden Sands hold so dear. So, while they are appreciated as the only thing protecting the anarchic ways of the land, they are feared along with their leader Zara Isfa El-Khayat as an entire army of bandits and thugs who have the entire country hostage.The Soldiers of The Corps
Owing to their former nature as bandits, the soldiers that make up the battalions of The Collector Corps place heavy emphasis on freedom and greed...only now, those same values are tempered by the absolute discipline beaten into them by Zara and her Drillers. As such, the soldiers of the Corps are brutal, cruel, greedy, raucous bandits who appear to the outside to be chaotic brutes gathered together in a chaotic band of ruffians doing whatever cruel things they wish...and while they are these things and more, they have all been broken upon the rack of Zara's brutal training, and are as much a single cohesive whole as they are a collection of chaotic bandits. Each relishes their personal freedoms and is selfish, greedy, and brutish, but these traits have been tempered and beaten into submission beneath the banner of unity, and strength found only when standing united with their brothers in arms...as such, each member of the Corps is now a bandit beaten into the life of an elite soldier, and each values the bonds of brotherhood and the power of working together...trained in group tactics and to temper their cruelty with obedience, they have become a dangerous force of criminals and thugs who have learned the value of following orders as a means to achieve their cruel and hedonistic desires.Ranks within The Corps
Though they were once bandits, The Collector Corps has been beaten into line by Zara Isfa El-Khayat and now has a loose set of ranks that symbols one's rank within the larger organization. These ranks are given below, from highest ranking to lowest:
- Commander - Leader of the Entire Collector Corps. Runs the entire organization and directs the various battalions and all other ranks.
- Driller - Lieutenants and personal Adjutants to the Commander, hand picked for lethality, loyalty, and efficiency. They serve as the Drill Instructors and Trainers that teach all new recruits of The Corps, and are the ones who assist the Commander "Re-Educate" current members who display incompetence or inadequacy, or somehow come to deserve a punishment. They are personally trained by the commander in the most efficient training and torture techniques to best break down other creatures both mentally and physically, to reforge them as stronger beings.
- Master Sergeant - The Leaders of the various Battalions that make up The Corps. They report to The Commander and act as independant generals given reign to command their respect Battalions and dole out rewards, promotions, and punishments as they see fit. All are trusted by the Commander and have survived and endured one or more "Strengthening Sessions" at her hands, and have accumulated large personal "Hoards" of things or belongings taken from others.
- Sergeant - Second-in-command of the Battalions that serve the Master Sergeants in their day to day activities. Each have shown promise both in loyalty, discipline, and order, but also demonstrated great ambition, greed, or desire as well. Many have endured a "Strengthening Session" by this point, or are planning to so as to prove themselves.
- Corporal - Captains of The Corps that command the Privates in operations and other various duties. Oversee the rank and file and keep them in line with a mixture of brutality, cunning words, discipline, and good old fashioned bandit beatings and promises of loot, power, fame, and desires made reality.
- Private - The Rank and file members of The Corps, and the rank where all new recruits begin their careers, greedy or eager to accomplish great things and achieve their basest and greatest desires beneath the banner of The Corps.
- Ranger - A Special Rank outside of the normal command structure of The Corps which serves as an elite rank given to those of exceptional talent or promise that report directly to the Commander, and rarely trusted Master Sergeants. They are given permission to wander the land achieving the goals of The Corps, or range far afield to scout distant lands on adventures or missions. Each has undergone numerous "Strengthening Sessions", have had their loyalty tested and proven, and are said to be worth a dozen lesser Corpsmen.
- Slave - The lowest rank of The Corps outside of The Gelded, reserved for both members of The Corps demoted for incompetence or some offense or crime, as well as those captured in raids, those that fail to make payment or tribute to The Corps, or those bought in the desert's slave markets. They have no rights, and are used by all ranks for whatever whims they have, usually cleaning weapons, armor, gear, and performing other menial tasks to upkeep and maintain The Corps and its equipment or lodgings. They are treated according to the whims of their masters, but since they are fairly valuable to many Corpsmen, many are treated with at least some care so they don't die or break wantonly. If a former Corpsmen proves themselves worthy again, they may be re-promoted into the ranks of The Corps from Slavery.
- Gelded - The emotionless slaves that proved too incompetent or proved unable to follow orders properly, and were stripped of their feelings and emotions by a mysterious ritual known only by Zara Isfa El-Khayat known as "The Purging". They all invariably serve as her personal slaves and assistants, living a life in servitude devoid of emotion carrying out the will of their Commander with no chance of returning to their old life. What exact purpose they serve is somewhat unknown, and known only by Zara herself, but they are commonly seen doing menial and administrative tasks, chores, cleaning, and whichever other tasks she demands of them. Rarely they can be seen lended out to the service of the other ranks, but this is not common, as the actual ranks of The Gelded are few...since to truly earn Zara's wrath enough to be made a Gelded is a suprisingly hard thing to do.
Strengthening Sessions
These feared sessions typically take the form of Zara herself or her Drillers enacting brutal tortures on unfortunate members of The Corps who prove themselves weak, who fail or displease Zara Isfa El-Khayat in some way, or fail to obey her or the demands of The Corps or show incompetence in some way. Once they do, they become the target of Zara herself or one of her lieutenants, who offer them an ultimatum: Accept a chance to redeem themselves, or be discarded and kicked out and left to die. If they accept, they are subjected to a "Strengthening Session", where Zara or Her lieutenant systematically begins to break them down both physically and psychologically. If they endure or come out of it stronger, they will return them to service as better subordinates...and if they fail to endure or break and cannot be remade, they discard them as trash not worth the effort of killing. However, displeasing Zara Isfa El-Khayat or failing The Corps in some way whether through weakness or incompetence or another reason is not the only way to earn one such session. Members of The Corps can volunteer to undergo such a trial, whether to prove their strength and loyalty to the cause, to punish themselves for a perceived weakness, or to simply impress the higher ranking members.Structure
They are structured loosely like a military organization, and the clans were broken up as they joined the Corps as their members were integrated into a larger, cohesive whole to promote integration and foster bonds of brotherhood between members who formerly belonged to different clans or cliques. The Corps is organized into several "Battalions", each of which correspond to a specialty, area of expertise, or preferred method of warfare or espionage...each of these Batallions is commanded by a "Chieftain", whose position is granted based on a mixture of merit, loyalty, and brutality as well the greed inherent to the bandits that make up the group. Each Battalion has the freedom to choose its own specific force organization and layout and even tactics, as the specialties of the Clans that were absorbed to create the Corps still live on within the various Battalions that now make it up.
Each battalion that makes up The Corps is given a large degree of autonomy and command over a region of The Golden Sands, and is in charge of enforcing the will of Zara Isfa El-Khayat and collecting the tribute owed to her and The Corps from each of the settlements in these areas...as well as "collecting" the appropriate price from those traveling the roads.
Above the battalions are an elite rank of bandit lords given the title "Drillers", hand picked by Zara Isfa El-Khayat herself that serve the all important role of serving as the trainers and instructors for each of the brigades and for all newcomers, inflicting the same pain, suffering, and masterfully torturous training regimens designed to torture and break down creatures bodily and mentally and reforge them in brutality into true soldiers. They each learn the sacred art of training and torture from Zara herself as a reward for their talents and loyalty, and are the first members of The Corps new initiates ever see...and are often the last thing full members of The Corps wish to see, as seeing them means they have earned the displeasure of Zara Isfa El-Khayat herself, or have proven weak somehow to earn a "strengthening" session. Thanks to these sessions and the brutal means by which they are inducted into The Corps which has a shockingly high fatality rate, scars are somewhat of a status symbol within The Corps, both as a symbol of one's strength and worth and as proof they have endured one or more "sessions" with Zara herself or her "Drillers".
These Battalions report to the Commander of the Corps, Zara Isfa El-Khayat, who most Corpsmen refer to as "Sarge", as an honorific and a sign of respect that they have for her for teaching them of how to best put their skills to use to keep their freedoms(and of course, to become more effective bandits). They see her as the "ideal bandit", and most look up to her in some form or fashion...whether it be love, lust, greed, envy, or more, all respect her power and, to those who survive her brutal training and are broken by her torturous touch, she is something close to a Bandit Goddess, one who treats them all evenly, with a type of brutal respect, and who will give them fair treatment so long as they follow her and obey her harsh but fair standards. To many of them, as outcasts and thugs, this is incomparably valuable to them and all many of them ever wanted.
Public Agenda
The Collection Corps is the Unified Paramilitary Force made up of the former numerous Bandit Clans of The Golden Sands that now serves the unofficial "Leader" of the area, Zara Isfa El-Khayat, as her personal army of bandits, cutthroats, thugs, and killers organized into a military force. Their primary agenda is to protect The Golden Sands from the lawful and orderly influence of Kor'sarro Krieg and The Sultanate of Malthri at any cost, as well as to keep the western desert in line beneath Zara, paying their "Collection Dues" and giving them tribute as thanks for The Corps' continued protection of The Golden Sands from the forces of The Sultanate of Malthri who would seek to destroy their anarchy and replace it with law. They often flout this power and use this as a casus belli to do all manner of horrific acts of banditry, which others have no choice but to accept most times.
They are in charge of bullying and browbeating the villages, cities, and settlements in the western desert into servitude and collecting their tolls in either "Money, or Meat" to line their own pockets in exchange for serving as brutal and savage, if not effective, mercenaries who keep the more nasty monsters and creatures of the desert away from the very same settlements they extort.
They also have gained control of the freshwater supplies of the western desert, and use this as a blackmail item to force them into compliance, to follow the will of their leader Zara Isfa El-Khayat and accept the anarchy of the land instead of the brutal law of the east, and of The Sultanate of Malthri...being bandits, they obviously care nothing for how they achieve this, and extort, bribe, blackmail, pillage, and murder any who they come across if it suits their whims.
Far from being a force of Law, they are a force that protects the The Golden Sands and keeps it in a constant state of anarchy and loose servitude, united only to resist the law of Kor'sarro Krieg and his eastern desert nation to "Protect the freedoms of the people", and use this "righteous" goal as a means to justify their extortion, robbery, murder, and more.
Assets
As a force of bandits turned into a Paramilitary Group, their equipment is varied and often looted, though with the "Collection" dues they were given their name for that they collect with such fervor they have gained a large amount of wealth and assets they use to improve their equipment and line their pockets. They also control The Saltfort, the bandit citadel located in the Faminespire Mountains, and with their control over most of the desert's freshwater springs and overwhelming power, they almost entirely control most settlements in the desert or hold immense sway over them...lest they disobey and be slaughtered, or be cut off from fresh water.
History
Formed by Zara Isfa El-Khayat when she fled The Impaler Prince Kor'sarro Krieg after his conquest of the eastern desert and the defeat of her cultist hordes at the hands of his armies. Fleeing his wrath to avoid execution, she fled to the west and rallied the bandit clans there to her cause after beating them into line, forcefully recruiting them and rallying them to serve as her new army, with which she fortified the western desert and collected enough forces to stall The Impaler Prince's conquest of the west and made him pause his advance for the forseeable future.
Formed out of these circumstances, The Collection Corps gained its name after Zara Isfa El-Khayat used them to bully and browbeat the western desert into anarchy and into docility, forcing them to accept her dominion over them lest they be exterminated, enslaved, or cut off from fresh water. Soon after, their bandit natures and official jobs to collect tribute even if they had to murder and kill to do it earned them their name, as they ambushed and robbed and killed travelers on the road and freely extorted villages for their coin and servitude.
Many assume them to be an attempt by Zara Isfa El-Khayat to rebuild her former cult that was destroyed at the hands of Kor'sarro Krieg, which attempted to conquer and enslave the entire desert to fulfill their goal of "protecting and establishing human supremacy", and the degredation and enslavement of non-humans. So far, the Collection Corps has no displayed outwards tendencies of this behavior, but for now, due to their overwhelming power and the anarchic nature of the western desert, nothing can be known for sure.
Money or meat, We collect all the same.
A place to belong, and the means to take what we want...that's what she offers. And unlike other bandit lords, she'll never beat or torture you if you don't deserve it, or if she didn't think it'd make you any stronger. Who wouldn't want that? — Attributed to the Chief of the Saltfort Bandit Clan
Tow the line, don't fall behind! Stay strong, beside your brothers long, and she can't go wrong! Go soft, fall back, and she'll break you on the rack! — Zara's Marching Chant
Founding Date
2042
Type
Military, Paramilitary/Militia
Alternative Names
The Collectors, The Corps, The Horde
Training Level
Elite
Veterancy Level
Veteran
Demonym
Collector/Clansmen
Leader
Parent Organization
Notable Members
Comments