Dhuiduniu City Guard
Dhuiduniu's guards came from all walks of life, though most of them were at least born in the city. Equipped with a simple bronze spear and a wooden shield adorned with the city's colours of red and white, they set out to keep peace and order on the streets of Shining Cove's Jewel.
During the Silent Age, when Dhuiduniu was at the heart of the Cult of Bhasulud, need arose for a group of people who could ensure the seekers of beauty and pleasure did not cause too much chaos during their days and nights of uncontained revelry. Thus the City Guard was formed from individuals deemed trustworthy, and headquarters assigned by a cliff overlooking the docks and the city itself.
The headquarters became a place for training as much as overseeing. The newly recruited would go to the old fort for a month - some for two - and come back with basic training of the rules, laws and combat. Afterward each newly gradauted guard would begin to patrol the streets.
The amount of guards within a district depended much on the people who lived and worked there. In wealthier district with noble estates and shops offering gold and silver and rich, vividly colored dyes there was rarely a road without a guard patrolling it. On the other hand, areas deemed less important might see a couple guards walking through the area once a day, if that.
With little pay and long hours, corruption quickly became an issue within the guard. Those with enough coin in their pockets could make near any guard blind as a bat, even as black-market goods and violence was carried out in front of them. It was widely known that this didn't happen only in the docklands and slums where such things were the most common.
Smuggling herbs and certain alcoholic drinks, among other things, into the homes of nobility became common place during the Second Age when the local Cult of Bhasulud was pushed aside in favor of Juiwia, the Celestial Faith. The latter took a grim view on the Cult's search for pleasure, beauty and enjoyment. To them, many of the substances the followers would use during their revelries were immoral, if not downright evil. This attitude didn't lessen the practices, but only added to the thrill. Fortunately for them, some like-minded guards were more than happy to help in return for a pouch clinking with coin.
Guard-Captain
Every district's guards had their own leader, all of whom answered to one above all: the Guard-Captain was a veteran of the force, hand-picked and appointed by the ruling Merchant Prince of Dhuiduniu himself. Guard-Captain was more a politician than a military man, and it wasn't rare for a common child to join the Guard just for a chance to some day gain the title and rub shoulders with the rich and influential nobility.
Gaining and keeping good relations with the nobles was a requirement for any Guard-Captain wishing to keep that title - and their lives. Officially the Guard took no sides in political games, but Dhuiduniu was a city where the rich and the mighty got what they wanted, and even being the only armed and armored force in the city did nothing to change that.
Were a Guard-Captain play the nobles' games and gain the right friends, however, he might be rewarded with an estate, connections, a family with ties to some of the most powerful people in the region, and a hefty bonus at the time of their retirement to the countryside.