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Militia

"The Constable remains, officially, the Duke's subordinate, and reports to him alone. This is one of the perversities of Cadwë politics."

The Duke's salaried enforcement and city-defense corps. Not a guild and not a league — the militia is the direct instrument of ducal power, the closest thing Cadwallon has to a police force and standing army at once. It keeps the peace (badly, in the lower city), defends the walls, garrisons every fief, and is half-corrupt throughout.

Structure

The Duke hands down his power to a Constable, who commands the militia and reports to the Duke alone. The Constable's appointment is normally a compromise negotiated with the guilds, the aristocracy, and sometimes the leagues — which makes it one of the great political bargaining chips of a Duke's reign.

The Den Azhir break

When Duke Den Azhir took office, one of his first acts was to name a new Constable without consulting the Peers — an outrage at the time. His pick was a former orc free leaguer, Kal Rajghur. Rajghur proved a formidable administrator and a remarkable scholar; crime fell sharply under his guidance. He commands the Duke's complete confidence and is not above using his orc physique to settle grievances personally. Only the Duke's direst enemies still complain about the appointment.

What They Do

  • Peacekeeping — patrols, arrests, breaking up riots, enforcing ducal law and the offense/sentence/fine system
  • City defense — manning the walls and gates; first response to raids (notably the Akkyshan winter raids)
  • Garrisons — a garrison in every fief, plus the outlying forts
  • Processions & ceremony — supervising the ducal jubilee processions, Freedom Week crowds, and the movement of lower-city citizens into the upper city
  • Body recovery — collecting unclaimed corpses (and managing the grim aftermath of the tide of the dead) in coordination with the Guild of Sewer Workers

The Garrisons & Forts

  • Fort Gentle (the Militia's Club) on Wyvern Road in Ghieronburg — the central HQ
  • Fort Griffin — the Akkylannian island fort guarding Shipwreck Bay; ~300 men, many sent there as punishment; home to the legion of repentance (disgraced militiamen working off their offenses). Commander Velion has lately restored its discipline.
  • Per-fief garrisons — every fief hosts a militia presence, sized and tempered to local politics
  • Camp Valiant on Wyvern Road — Adalban Gherion's training ground and prison, semi-independent

The Corruption Problem

The militia is endemically bought. Half of it is on someone's payroll — the Guild of Thieves, a Peer, a guild, a smuggling ring. Enforcement forces "have most likely been paid to look the other way"; the militia "often has to negotiate" rather than simply enforce. A clean militiaman is either new, idealistic, or about to be transferred to the legion of repentance. This is not a flaw the Duke can fix without funds and leverage he doesn't have — it's a structural feature of a city that runs on "my kingdom for a ducat."

Relations

  • Duke Den Azhir — direct master via the Constable
  • Kal Rajghur — Constable; orc; former free leaguer; the Duke's hand
  • Free Leagues — overlapping jurisdiction and mutual suspicion; leaguers can do what militia legally can't, and resent each other for it
  • Guild of Thieves — formal enemy, frequent informal paymaster
  • Guild of Sewer Workers — coordination on body recovery and underground incidents
  • The Demijohn ragmen — the militia consults them on physical evidence
  • The Peers — each fief's garrison sits inside that Peer's politics; loyalty is never purely ducal

The bought patrol

A militia patrol in Morgue Street has stopped responding to calls in one specific block. The Constable Kal Rajghur suspects they've been bought but can't prove it without tipping off whoever's paying. He hires a free league — deniable, off the books — to find out who owns that patrol and what they're protecting.

The legion of repentance

A militiaman in the legion of repentance at Fort Griffin claims he was framed — that he was sent there for refusing to look the other way. He has names. He'll trade them for help clearing his record. Going up the chain means crossing whoever framed him, who is still serving, still promoted, and still on the take.