Ordanus Paxhold

Overview

The Ordanus Paxhold is the main training facility for the Brass Spears of Novus and is the central office for any public relations they must do in the course of their duty. The Ordanus Paxhold is tasked primarily with turning green recruits in to able-bodied soldiers for the Brass Spears, which includes training them for duty on the Bulwark Ring and for service in various constabularies throughout the city. While not a full-fledged military fortress, it is a well fortified building with its own grounds and campus to house a variety of different training functions.

Purpose / Function

The Ordanus Paxhold is expected to churn out recruits for service in the Brass Spears. In times when casualty rates are high due to a period of ongoing attack, this training is expedited, quickly funnelling both conscripts and volunteer recruits to service on the Bulwark Ring. Most other times, the training is quite rigorous and selective, with recruits frequently washing out for failing to meet various standards.

The Paxhold grounds contain an artillery range to teach soldiers how to use the various arcane cannons on the Bulwark Ring, an evocation academy to hone magically inclined members of the Spears towards combat magic, and life sized recreations of Bulwark Ring segments meant to act as a combat simulator for troops. Here they learn marksmanship, wall repelling tactics, and combat engineering.

The most elite of these soldiers are tought field tactics for the occasions where defending the city on the field are necessary.

The Paxhold is also connected to the structure of the Holy Armory, allowing for clerics to assist in training efforts, administer blessings, or instruct curious minds on proper observance of Demisoth. While the Observer is by no means considered an official patron of the Brass Spears, it is clear that he is the preferred god for many within the order. As the Observer teaches spiritual enlightenment through superior tactics, strategy and tactics are a key part of training at the Paxhold, with there often being rigorous academic classroom learning baked into the process of training new recruits.

The training the soldiers recieve here is meant to break down physical, mental, and some would argue spiritual barriers, eroding the will and weakness of each soldier to build them into the strong defensive force that Novus requires. Some of these methods have been called into question as the Paxhold also trains Brass Spears who will go on to serve as police or constabulary forces. Soldiers trained for war tend to treat civilians as the enemy in these instances. Paxhold training methods are frequently discussed when criticisms about the Brass Spears involvement in policing is brought up, underpinning a movement for a dissolution of the martial law decrees which continue to allow the Brass Spears to function as a policing body.

Architecture

The Ordanus Paxhold is more of a campus than a singular building, though this would be hard to know from the outside. Well fortified walls enclose these structures, a fortification reminiscent of the Bulwark Ring itself. Withing are several stuctures, including dormitories, barracks, armories, classrooms, and the training grouds themselves. There are gates along this wall that allow easy access for the spears to ship out recruits and supplies when needed. Commonly, these gates are opened to allow recruits to take their constitutional outside the walls or to conduct drills in public spaces if needed.

Defenses

The Paxhold is well fortified and always under vigilant watch. There are watchtowers and guard posts at various points around the campus. Wards and arcane defenses are put into place by Brass Spear mages. The majority of the defenses for the Paxhold are centered on more sensitve structures, like the armories, warehouses, and command fascilities that actively support Bulwark Ring efforts with vital resupplies as needed.

History

The Brass Spears of Novus are an order as old as Novus itself, but in the aftermath of the fall, the order's primary motivations shifted. What was once a defensive for or a standing army became a powerful faction leaned upon for support in the most desperate hour the city had ever faced. Martial law decrees gave them the power to act as they need to keep peace and protect the survivors. These decrees lasted for decades until a tense brokerage reinstated the Brass Ring into its proper place as rightful rulers of Novus. The Paxhold Ordanus is a symbol of that tenuous exchange in nearly every way. The central military training fortress in the city is deep within the city, far from political structures on the Silver Ring and Copper Ring. While a command center exists topside, it is clear what the significance of this is. The spears are a policing body, situated amongst the populace, actively recruiting to their ranks, away from the watch of those who would contain them. It is the vaguest threat or notion of a schism between the Brass Ring and the Brass Spears, one that has never been enacted. Much of this can be attributed to the existence of the Ring of Bulwarks, whch has always been held by an esteemed military official, more often than not still actively serving. This has ensured the bonds between the organizations remain strong. Still, an estute observer of the Paxhold will see this struggling playing out within the structure itself.

Type

Military base / complex

Parent Location

Sunhollow District