The Flower's Guard

Guards of a flower long since gone.

"The Flower's Guard, or the Knights of the Flower, are not just young recruits on the least interesting assignment or old bones waiting for retirement, they are among the finest in Bral, some even used to be Skyknights. It is said that if the Flower Guard falls, so will Bral."

An Order Once Given is Never Rescinded

At the same time that all the royalty of Bral was attending the ceremony for the completion of the Imperial Palace, the Emperor's young daughter found a single white flower growing in the courtyard. The ground had been trampled by the construction and no other plant dared grow.
At his daughter's behest the Emperor gave the order to post a guard at that spot. He claimed it was because the flower was a good omen, that it bloomed as the palace was completed could only be a sign that the Bral Empire would flourish.
The Emperor's daughter died in the winter that followed and the then ruler and all that followed dared not call off the guard and for over a hundred years guards have stood at that spot protecting a flower that has been gone longer than most people are remembered in time but that has not been forgotten.

The Unofficial Tradition

As an order given once and never changed, the guards assigned to that one spot were never given any special title, unit assignment, and certainly never had anything expected of them. The job could have been relegated to a joke among the palace but at first it wasn't even something anyone noticed, afterall, there were guards in the palace so one guard here or there didn't even draw the attention of the nobles.
The guards themselves did joke about the job among themselves at first, sometimes even switching out with guards on other assignments just to see if anyone would notice. When the daughter died, that all changed. Standing in one place in the heat and the rain, in the cold and the snow, admist the wind and the bugs, it suddenly seemed like an exercise in honour and in discipline.
The first guard had special pins - ten of them - made for their uniforms, each depicting the flower that bloomed on the spot. It wasn't part of the uniform but no one dared say anything about the people fufilling the wish of the girl now passed for fear of the wrath of her father. As the seasons and years and decades passed the Flower's Guard became an accepted part of the castle - though never officially - and people began to say that if they were to fall, the palace would fall and then the Empire would fall.

Stub Article

This article is just a stub for now and will be expanded upon later.

Old Article

This article was written in the past and does not meet my current standards for any number of article quality, layout, or content.

In-Progress Article

This article is being worked on, perhaps not at this very moment, but it is being worked on.

Silent discipline,
delibrate action.

Skilled Warriors

While the first guards assigned to the task were young and inexperienced, they would all see combat at some point in their lives before returning to the Flower's Guard - not all would return and the flower pins would be passed on. Since only one of the guards is on duty at any given time, the other nine are always busy honing their abilities. Since most soldiers have many duties aside from combat training, this simple directive gave them more time to train than others and not just in combat but in many fields - the Palace did support a large library afterall.
Whenever skilled fighters came to visit the Imperial Palace, the Guard would ask them to take a little time to teach what they knew. They would also go - two at a time - to join actual military campaigns to gain combat, tactical, and leadership experience.
Over the decades the unit of merely ten members gained a lot of respect among the rank-and-file members of the Bral military. The higher-ups were often annoyed at their presence - and by the breadth and depth of their knowledge which often surpassed that of the higher-ups - but they were happy for the morale boost provided by their presence.

Related Articles

Bral Military

Emperor of Bral

Imperial Palace