The Corpus Knights
The Corpus are the knights charged with retrieving the bodies of citizens of Evergrace who die abroad so that they may be returned to the pools, their knowledge and experience not lost to the city.
As with most things in the city of memories, different tiers are treated differently. Low tier individuals merit fewer resources for the operatives sent to retrieve, with the youngest and less experienced often taking the job whether they like it or not.
A higher tier individual, on the other hand, might merit a squad or more of the best the organization has to offer. This tends to happen even if circumstances suggest that the mission will be routine, such as picking up a body from another city that is keeping it for Evergrace under the Treaty of Forms.
That said, the leadership are not fools, and consideration is given to circumstances. Bodies in dangerous areas are typically assigned to mid-ranking knights, who have a wide range of perspectives on the wisdom of risking a knight of the corpus to retrieve individuals below a certain tier. Some knights believe retrieval is a right shared by all citizens (which by law, it is). Others are cold pragmatists who won't stick their neck out for anything less than a certain tier.
Ranking up in the knights is handled via something akin to a bounty system, with more valuable and/or difficult retrievals leading to more renown and responsibility in the organization.
Naturally, the knights themselves are highly valued by Evergrace, and often receive higher placement for their own bodies than their tier would otherwise merit. Some of this influence is shared by family members that the knights designate, with an informal understanding that blood relation to a high or mid-ranking knight is "evidence" of a child's potential and therefore an argument for moving them up a tier when they are considered for baptism. This makes the knights a kind of institution of social mobility, with some enlisting and hoping to win glory in order to ensure that younger siblings or their own children have access to a better future.
A special sub-section of the knights, the dusk knights, are responsible for retrieving individuals in "special circumstances" which can vary from rumors that the body spent time animated in undeath to mysterious circumstances surrounding a citizen's death. Since the manner of death can influence pool placement, or whether a body is admitted at all, dusk knights in particular perform duties similar to that of a detective. Investigating the cause of death and getting a sense of the life accomplishments of someone who died abroad and couldn't easily be monitored is part of their duties, and their written report on the disposition of a body is a powerful influence in determining its fate. Some of the more famous or reputable knights have gone whole careers without one of their recommendations being turned down, though whether that stems from their skill and wisdom in making their case or their political savvy in telling the council what it wants to hear depends on the knight.
Entry into the corpus therefore requires not only martial skill, but several other talents less common to soldiers. The people skills necessary to retrieve bodies from recalcitrant locals and pry information out of witnesses for reports mean that charisma is highly valued in knights, nor does it hurt to be able to write persuasively and with elegance. Some knights are even taught or selected for a certain level of skill in the arts, so that they can analyze and report on work of the deceased that can't be retrieved for evaluation.
Controlled Territories
Comments