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Dogs of War

"There are no more Dogs of War. There are only the lineages they founded, the leagues they fathered, and the cards they carried."
— Inscription at the Great Hall

The founding mercenary company of Cadwallon, dissolved at the city's founding in 832 when its surviving members became Peers, leaguers, or burials. It does not exist as an active organization today. But its institutional footprint shapes nearly every body in the Free City, and Cadwës still invoke "the Dogs of War" as both ancestry and identity. (For the historical events of their war and founding, see The Dogs of War (history).)

Composition

  • 200 warriors total at the height of the campaign — outlaws, exiles, and sellswords drawn from every people on Aarklash
  • Organized into 21 free companies, each led by one of Vanius's 21 lieutenants
  • Plus Vanius the captain — 22 in command. The number is not incidental: it equals Desire's 22 wounds, the [[The 22 Arcana|22 arcana]], and the 22 months of the Free Calendar. The Dogs of War's organizational structure was the same shape as the magic that saved them, before they knew the magic existed.

Command

  • Captain: Vanius — the only commander. The Dogs of War had no second-in-command and no council of lieutenants; Vanius led directly through his 21.
  • Lieutenants (21): each held one company. Several are named in surviving record:
  • Khaurik — the ogre lieutenant; died 832 defending the camp. His heirs hold Ogrokh.
  • Johann — originally of Alahan; befriended the Cynwäll and won the dragon-riding privilege in 843. Changed his surname to Drakaër and founded the line.
  • Racllk — ennobled in 833; founded the Kraken fiefdom.
  • The other 18 are mostly lost to record; the Houses of Peers preserve fragments.

Doctrine & Method

  • Excavation under fire. The company's actual work was clearing the bewitched Lanever jungle to dig out the Cynwäll ruins. The companies were as much a labor force as a fighting force — they dug, hauled, and held simultaneously.
  • Fight by section. Each of the 21 companies cleared and defended its own assigned stretch of ruin. The decentralization meant losing one company didn't break the line.
  • The tarot weapon. At the Battle of the Wall of Earth, Vanius's deck was infused with Desire's elixirs — the 22 arcana — and distributed one card per lieutenant (Vanius keeping two). This is the founding moment of Cadwë tarot magic and the lineage every modern tarot-mage traces back to.

The Named Companies

The 21 company names are mostly lost. Fragments survive:

  • The Steel Hearts — the dwarven-heavy company; Yelmor served in it before vanishing into the catacrypts in 857 and re-emerging from the [[Labyrinth]] in 1003 (he aged a few days; the city aged 146 years)
  • A handful of others persist as Cadwë idioms — "when the Steel Hearts march" for late autumn, "to dig like the Twelfth" for thankless work — without anyone now remembering the company.

What Became of Them

The Dogs of War did not retire — they transformed into Cadwallon's foundational institutions:

What it became What it was
Free Leagues The Dogs of War's poorer descendants, kept exploring the ruins; reborn as defenders in The Akkyshan Offensive
Houses of Peers Lineages of the 21 lieutenants who did settle
Free Calendar 22 months on the 21 + 1 structure
The 22 Arcana One card per lieutenant + two for Vanius; mostly now scattered or lost
The ducal title Created because Vanius refused both kingship and barony
The Great Hall Built on the Wall of Earth where the founding battle was won — still the seat of the Free Leagues

Present-Day Footprint

Every Free City institution can trace a thread to a specific company or lieutenant. The most live ones:

  • The lost cards. Each lieutenant received one of the 22 arcana. Most are no longer in their founding family — lost, stolen, scattered, sold. Sophet Drahas already holds two. Duke Den Azhir wants them recovered. The Bards of Destiny and The Tarot-Mages have been quietly tracking the diaspora for generations. (see The 22 Arcana)
  • The graves. Vanius is officially buried in the upper-city catacrypts. He is also widely rumored to be alive in the [[Labyrinth]], reaching out through the cards. Both can be true.
  • The Steel Hearts. If one returned from the maze 146 years late, others may still be down there — Dogs of War, centuries old, still fighting a battle that ended before Cadwallon was born.

Relations

Dog-of-War tag

An older free-league captain has been quietly re-flying a Dogs of War blazon — a specific company's standard, identified by an Open Hand cartomancer. The captain claims hereditary right. The Peer house descended from that lieutenant claims insult. The Duke has not yet weighed in.

The 21st card

The arcana of the 21st lieutenant has never been catalogued in any of the diaspora records — Open Hand, Closed Door, Goldsmith, or Drahas's reckoning. No one knows which card it was. If the 22nd lieutenant (Vanius's second card) is the Hanged Man, then the 21st might be the missing one — the card the rest of the deck has been working around for 171 years.

See Also