Griffon Kingdom Armed Forces

The **Griffon Kingdom Armed Forces** serves the Griffon Kingdom and represents its military might. It has a separate hierarchy from the Mage Association and is under command of the Royal less proficient in magic, King Meron Griffon.

Most soldiers are non-mages and armed with enchanted uniforms, a dimensional ring, and several kinds of magic wands and potions. Military-grade equipment have the Royal Seal etched into them and are embedded with a tracking spell.

**Nightfall** is an army secret on par with Royal Forgemastering exclusive to the anti-Balkor corps and is one of the Kingdom's most powerful tools against the undead. However, no matter how good the Kingdom's anti-undead security measures are, they can't distinguish the regular living from those in the process of being turned into undead.

## Divisions

### Royal Constables

**Royal Constables** are the Kingdom's high level law officers akin to investigators, prosecutors, and interrogators. They are responsible for investigating threats to the Crown and have significant authority to deal punishment. They usually lack physical prowess, however, and tend to rely on members of the Knight's Guard for protection (Jirni Ernas is one of the few exceptions). Constables are trained to give subtle actions to alert their colleagues when affected by devices such as slave collars.

Unlike Rangers, Constables don't operate in a specific zone; they go wherever their services are required. However, the Kingdom can't deploy Constables without a Warp Gate.

#### Field Assistants

**Royal Constable Field Assistants** are essentially Constables-in-training. Their duties largely involve shadowing the Constables in their work or assisting Constables otherwise, such as checking all the statements and alibis collected during investigations.

### Royal Archons

**Royal Archons** are one of the highest ranking officials in the Kingdom, the supreme magistrates in charge of supervising the work of Royal Constables. It is a role usually reserved for members of the Royal family because the authority it grants is second only to the Crown itself.

### Knight's Guard

The **Knight's Guard** are the elite of the elite for Mage Knights and have a defensive role in the Kingdom, tasked with protecting and assisting the Royal Constables. It is a corps comprised only by Forgemasters and Mage Knights - only a few are both, making them the cream of the crop. The Knight's Guard is also an opportunity to learn specializations, though the process can take more than 2 years depending on the talent and the number of missions a Guard has to take. Most members start with one specialization and learn the others over the years. Its current commander is Orion Ernas.

## Special Corps

Special Corps are able to move freely inside the Kingdom and act solo. The Kingdom rules that artifacts crafted by Royal Forgemasters for special ops units require the Royal seal even to be used.

### Ranger Corps

The **Rangers** are an elite force, entrusted with great powers and responsibilities. Their duty is to patrol the Kingdom, to protect isolated communities from all kinds of threats, and to keep the population of monsters in check. They are assigned to a vast area that they must learn to know like the back of their hand. If nobles abuse their authority in rural areas where there are no mages or army members, the Ranger's duty is to uphold the law. If monsters infest a region, Rangers will get rid of them before they can swarm a populated area. Additionally, since there are a lot of no-man's lands where people settle without paying taxes to the Kingdom or respecting its laws, Rangers are required to offer such villages a choice to submit or die. Rangers rotate regions every 2-3 months to minimize corruption in their ranks. If their work is done quickly enough, Rangers are free to go home and use Warp Gates. However, Rangers act alone since they have access to communication amulets, magic, and Warp Gates, unless they deem reinforcements are required.

Rangers are given the passcodes to lost cities, tasked with checking that the magical formations are functional and not letting the ruins become a threat to the Kingdom. They are required to report their position at least three times a day, especially if entering a lost ruin or an unmapped city. Additionally, part of their tasks is to note all unmapped landmarks they meet on their way. A common trick Rangers use is to mark stones with their mana, allowing them to retrace their footsteps.

Rangers wear deep green uniforms. They are given a communication amulet engraved with several green mana crystals that strengthen its signal and are paid in silver. On the other hand, Rangers typically have a bad reputation for their poor social skills, usually coupled with a contempt for teamwork as they are used to working alone.

For a Ranger the number of slain creatures is but a secondary achievement; the real source of merits is the survival rate of those they are tasked to protect. Monsters need only days to become fully grown, while a single artisan needs decades to be trained. A Ranger is considered at their peak condition at 25 years, when they had gained enough experience and their body is still in its prime.

Rangers are assigned **handlers** whose duty is to bond with their operative enough to provide them psychological support and catch wind of anything wrong with them.

## Regulations

The **second-in-command protocol** is applied only if the commanding officer goes mad during a mission, forcing his subordinates to replace him. The protocol implies that whatever goes wrong with the mission is the former commander's fault, whereas every success is to the replacement's merit. It leaves no space for politics or power plays.

When traveling long distances in a mage regiment, officers take flight in a widely spaced wedge formation, with soldiers arranging themselves in 100-man groups that stand behind their respective commanding officers. To avoid an ambush from the ground, mages fly high enough in the air to be mistaken for a flock of birds. To lessen the air resistance, each officer constantly generates a wind blade in front of them, making it overlap with that of their neighbor. The blade not only protects the magically weaker soldiers from high-speed impacts with dust and insects, but it also generates a slipstream effect that allows them to fly faster. The wind blades sustain each other, saving a lot of mana to both soldiers and officials. Whenever there is the need to change the formation's speed or direction, the commanding officer releases pulses of colored light that are relayed by their fellow officials first and then by the soldiers in the front lines.

## Boot Camp

**Boot Camp** is a mandatory 6 month training course that all new recruits must enroll in and pass. Recruits have their heads shaven and their magical items confiscated. Any magic outside of chore magic is strictly prohibited during the training course, and the cadets only use their first name and the service number assigned to them for their own protection. The male to female ratio is 7:3, opposite that of the academies. Nobles usually suffer hazing if discovered and are despised by both officers and recruits alike, as most recruits are poor people trying to build a better future for themselves.

Cadets wear a deep green shirt and pants made of a thin and robust fabric, with their service number, the only thing bearing an enchantment, embroidered over the heart. They take a Warp Gate to a random boot camp, where they are assigned a bed and locker. New recruits undergo exercises to measure their physical abilities.

The training regimen has them waking up before sunrise every day, half an hour to clean the barracks, prepare uniforms for the day, and personal hygiene. Before breakfast they perform individual physical training by their instructor, and spend 2 hours learning about drills, military strategy, or the army's values/traditions/ethics. Following that are close combat training, swordsmanship, and marksmanship with magic wands. The following months involve getting accustomed to magic tools (equivalents of sniper rifles, grenades, and climbing suits) and to use chore magic for tactical purposes.

A **field test** is used to test and evaluate cadet performances, and can involve getting rid of organized crime or suppressing rioting citizens, but mainly involve exterminating monsters.

The instructors usually only emphasize strength, stamina, and speed. Only those who excel get a shot at becoming part of an elite force. Average cadets become regular soldiers, while those lacking in skills are relegated to desk jobs and the rest deemed unfit for service and discharged. One of the most common ways for Drill Sergeants to rack up merits is to find diamonds in the rough and help promising recruits overcome their limitations - the success or failure of their Cadets can change a Sergeant's career.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chapter 344: Overwhelming (Part 2)
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 348: Extinction (Part 2)
3. ↑ Chapter 1644: Citizen McCoy (Part 2)
4. ↑ Chapter 892: Power Source (Part 2)
5. ↑ Chapter 1305: The Price of Truth (Part 1)
6. ↑ Chapter 452: Double Trouble (Part 2)
7. ↑ Chapter 305: Escape (Part 1)
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 753: Meeting (Part 1)
9. ↑ Chapter 1633: Royal Demands (Part 1)
10. ↑ Chapter 525: Leaving (Part 1)
11. ↑ Chapter 632: Friend or Foe (Part 2)
12. ↑ Chapter 319: Final Rankings (Part 1)
13. ↑ Chapter 163: Domestic Affairs
14. ↑ Chapter 1484: Home Invasion (Part 2)
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 362: Career Change (Part 2)
16. ↑ Chapter 372: Twin Melodies (Part 2)
17. ↑ Chapter 871: Old Enemies (Part 1)
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Chapter 363: Brotherly Loathing (Part 1)
19. ↑ Chapter 374: The North (Part 2)
20. ↑ Chapter 1641: Truth and Lies (Part 1)
21. ↑ Chapter 379: Memories (Part 1)
22. ↑ Chapter 1659: Rise Unto the Call (Part 1)
23. ↑ Chapter 529: Unexpected Turn (Part 1)
24. ↑ Chapter 869: Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd (Part 1)
25. ↑ Chapter 900: The Red Sun (Part 2)
26. ↑ Chapter 1011: Change of Leadership (Part 1)
27. ↑ Chapter 1638: Chain of Command (Part 2)
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Chapter 333: Boot Camp (Part 1)
29. ↑ Chapter 342: Enlist (Part 2)
30. ↑ Chapter 346: Abyss (Part 2)
31. ↑ Chapter 143: The House of the Dead (2)
32. ↑ Chapter 963: The Fallen (Part 1)
33. ↑ Chapter 58: The Importance Of Status
34. ↑ Chapter 900: The Red Sun (Part 2)
35. ↑ Chapter 961: Predator Versus Predator (Part 1)
36. ↑ Chapter 363: Brotherly Loathing (Part 1)
37. ↑ Chapter 452: Double Trouble (Part 2)