The Millinery

A secretive military force within Wonderland whose foremost responsibility is to safeguard the Queen. Only the best and brightest trainee within the Millinery becomes the bodyguard of the Queen while other operatives serve in lesser positions meant to preserve not only the safety of the Queen by the safety of all Wonderlanders. During Genevieve’s reign, Hatter Madigan is the best and brightest the Millinery has to offer so it is no surprise that he is assigned to become the Queen’s bodyguard. Years later when Queen Alyss has taken her rightful position on the throne of Wonderland, she chooses Homburg Molly to act as her bodyguard.
The training for the Millinery is one part monastery and one part boot camp as trainees are kept secluded from the rest of the world and put through rigorous training of both mind and body. Though much of the training processes and ethics of the Millinery are known only to members of the Millinery, it is known that members of the Millinery are required to keep their emotions firmly in check at all times. They also have a code which dictates that resorting to lethal violence should only be an option only after every option has failed.
The official training complex for the Millinery is the HATBOX, or the Holographic and Transmutative Base of Xtremecombat training, a vast armory which was about two city blocks square and was a towering four stories high. Training within the HATBOX is used both for students and graduates to hone their skills and reflexes. A student new to the academy holds the position of Cap before graduated to the advanced class of Brim and later once graduated from the training academy, the haberdashery spectrum opens to them allowing further advancement and a variety of assignments and positions based upon the skills of the individual.
Millinery operations are unlike those of any other agency in Wonderland. Clandestine and accountable to no one, they do what has to be done for the Queen’s safety without hesitation, without attracting attention. They share none of their methods or exploits with outsiders, although legends abound.
At the beginning of Redd’s reign, she noted that the Millinery had always been a staunch supporter of white imagination and thus were too much of risk to be allowed to remain a functioning organization. Students and graduates of the Millinery could not to be allowed to survive and so Caps, Brims, Cobblers and Girdlers were ambushed and slaughtered indiscriminately. Not even the support staff that was associated with the Millinery were spared. Weaver, a woman who oversaw administrative necessities and who was the person Hatter Madigan cared for beyond all others, was suspected to have been killed during this period of extermination.
The elite security force was re-established following Redd’s defeat and Alyss taking her rightful place as Queen of Wonderland. It’s still in the early stages of reestablishment when King Arch launches his first unofficial attack on Wonderland in the form of the assault of a legion of Glass Eyes on Wondertropolis. The Millinery, having been in only the earliest stages of reestablishment, are of little help during first King Arch’s and later Redd’s attack on the city.