The Azure Guard

WIP - Summer Camp 2023

The Azure Guard is a peace keeping and law enforcing organisation based around the archipelago of the Jasperic Isles. It is made up of merfolk from a number of different societies that live amongst the islands. Both men and women make up its ranks, though men are the overwhelming majority. Currently, there are three hundred and twenty nine members of the Azure Guard, and only twenty two are women.
When a person joins the Azure Guard, they leave their old life behind - their families, their loyalties, their identities. They are given a new name and have to move to the settlement where the rest of the Guard live.
They see themselves as the protectors of the ocean. They make sure peace reigns between the different merfolk societies in the archipelago, as well as keeping an eye of the activities of other sapient species. The people who hunt and fish in the area make sure to be aware of their laws, as they do not look favourably on illegal poaching.
The Azure Guard are recruited around the age of sixteen, before they are officially regarded as an adult in most cultures. Most often, they take youths who have been causing trouble in their societies, but sometimes they take volunteers as well.
The Azure Guard go on regular patrols of the archipelago, leaving their settlement for months at a time. They always travel in groups of three or four. Some instead stay and work at the Azure Guard's prison facility, taking care of the prisoners and day-to-day administration.
The Azure Guard carry three different weapons with them when they are on patrol. They carry a polearm (spear, trident, etc), a dagger or a knife, and a woven net.
Each of the Azure Guard carry a crest made of mother-of-pearl.
They were formed by mutual agreement after a particularly nasty conflict decimated many of the merfolk societies in the archipelago.