Blades

a unit or squad who guards an important person In every major city, a Blade compound can be found where the clash of steel and grunts of effort can be heard from predawn to dusk. Orphan children are taken in and cared for while also giving them a strong service attitude, training them in martial arts, and teaching a fixed discipline. Many individuals raised by the Blades remain with the Blades throughout their entire lives. The Alliance carefully monitors the Blade compounds for their treatment of the orphans and the legitimacy of their operations. Various Blade compounds or specific units, generally named after various animals of all types, have gotten into trouble for excessive use of force, people's rights violations, and mistreatment of youths. The primary Blade commanders publicly frown on any misbehavior of the compounds and issue server punishments for violations. Many people believe the Blade compounds operate independently. However, the truth is that all Blade compounds are directly controlled and owned by Blade HQ in Toakao, the capital of Laeusia. The Blade organization has over 200 Blade Compounds around the world, 600,000 people employed, 50,000 orphans in their care, and 100,000 militia people in the field. The rich and powerful are well aware of the size and span of the Blade organization and keep a close eye on it. Blade members are an interesting mix of ejected soldiers, martial arts trainers, service staff, and fitness people. Blades are contracted for security, special reinforcement troops, emergency rescue support, and many other tasks a well-equiped militia may be tapped for by both private individuals, major families, and governments.

Origin

In the past, unlike the Daggers, most bodyguard groups did not have extensive training or military background and were made up of one or two ex-soldiers with a handful of people who wanted to be soldiers but did not join the city guard or national armies for various reasons. Individuals that joined the military tended to make long careers due to the excellent compensation and support the Alliance Nations provided. This made most mercenary groups a mixed results lot where it was very much a buyer-beware market. This meant most people hired the Daggers, who could be trusted entirely. Hence, Blades got the cheap, dirty, and least trustworthy jobs lending even more bad results to their reputations. Over time the groups ended up competing with each other, at times the rivalry became deadly. Like the Daggers, Blades were generally referred to as sell-swords or Blades and were regarded as all the same. Recognizing that a few larger Blade groups were getting out of control and causing many serious problems for local governments the Alliance began debating passing laws to make Blades illegal and then hiring the Daggers to clean up the mess. In spite of there being many various named bodyguard and mercenary groups competing for business a few of the better equipped and placed Blade groups overheard these plans, they were the bodyguards to some of the elite after all. Realizing they were about to be put out of a job they decided to act rapidly. Before the Alliance could finish debating the problem one Blade group got the idea of buying out other groups. A meeting between six of the largest Blade groups operating in Laeusia and Duianna was held. The result was more a merger than a buy-out. The leaders surprisingly came together and set aside their differences to create one Blade group from their six. That first major Blade group then had the resources to quickly absorb all the other Blade groups by creating the Blade compounds complete with trainers and support staff. Within three months almost all the Blade groups around the world had merged into one large organization. The leaders of the new Blade organization approached the Alliance Council and negotiated a charter to operate under Alliance laws throughout the Alliance. The initial charter was granted for only five years as a test. A major disaster surprisingly shifted public opinion of the Blades. In a rare and terrible series of storms a large number of people and communities in middle Laeusia were killed, left homeless, and in trouble. The local Blade compounds found that many staff members had families in trouble. Instead of the usual mercenary attitude of tough, it out the local commanders acted together to provide relief and then discovered there were some two thousand children left orphaned from the disaster. The kids were split between three compounds for temporary housing. But, after six months those compounds had taken in even more orphans. When Blade HQ learned of what was happening the Commander toured the area and was impressed with the reaction, support, and public gratitude for taking care of the disaster victims and especially the children. It was not long after all Blade compounds built orphan housing and began taking in local orphans.