Mercenaries

All countries spawn mercenaries, but some are of particular renown. Two groups come to mind as the most professional and widespread of mercenaries in Vosca. The Tigurnzers, and the Dacians. They constitute extremes; the Tigurnzers are highly professional companies composed primarily of heavy infantry, while the Dacians are a brutal and cheap workforce with guns. Everyone else on the continent tends to fall between these two groups somewhere.
==Tigurnzers==
The Tigurnzers are people from Tigurnia, one of the provinces of the Kaselreich, though in practice the province willfully underpays its taxes, refuses all authority, and only offers token acts of submission to the Emperor. These are an independent people contemptuous of foreign rule and courageous in defense of their autonomy, and to protect it.
The Tigurnzers fight primarily with pikes and halberds, and are renowned throughout Vosca for their discipline and effectiveness. They sell their services as mercenaries on behalf of their Cantons, and because they are the best at what they do, they are often hired as royal or ducal guards, and traditionally Legio I, the Pontifatrix's personal Urban Guard, is made up exclusively of Tigurnzers.
==Dacians==
The Dacians stand in stark contrast to the Tigurnzers. They are fiercely loyal to their officers, who buy their commissions from the Dacian government, and mutiny is almost unheard of. They are also famously cheap, working for almost unbelievably low pay and tolerating unbearable conditions. They are not especially skilled soldiers, but they are famously contemptuous of death and fearless. Most of them carry arquebuses, swords, and shovels. They are usually hired for the firepower they can lend to an army, and because they are willing to dig and work even out of combat. Often, they are hired in peacetime just to build things.
==Landsknechts==
The Landsknechts are a very new innovation in the Reich. They lack the civic pride of the Tigurnzers, but they are much more numerous, and quick learners. They prefer to fight with Pikes, arquebuses and halberds as well. Standard guards and elite troops who defend the person of the general often carry zweihanders, but as the Reich requires licensing from a Brotherhood in order to bear the Zweihander professionally, these men are considered too valuable to use frivolously, and are carefully reserved.
==Rodeleros==
The Lagorian Rodeleros are famously skilled mercenary marines, and almost every ship that sails from a Voscan port does so with a contingent of Lagorians on board. Their swashbuckling prowess is peerless, and the roiling decks of a ship at sea are precisely their environment. On the land, they are often fielded as light mounted infantry who act as raiders, outriders and scouts, but dismount to fight supporting pikemen in pitched battle.
Category:Military Units