Apollonian Guard

Apollonian Guard
Active:	4228 ASC to present
In use by:	The Imperial Forces (Shireroth)
Allegiance:	Shireroth
Type:	Imperial Guard Battalion
Size:	1,002 personnel
Nickname:	None yet
Current Commander:	The Prefect of Shirekeep

The Apollonian Guard was a force of bodyguards used by the Kaiser of Shireroth. In that role it has been replaced by the Order of Sentinels and it now serves as an Armoured Infantry Battalion tasked with defending Raynor's Keep and Shirekeep. For this reason, the Prefect of Shirekeep remains Lord Commander of the Apollonian Guard.

Table of Organisation

Personnel

Personnel	Quantity	Points
OF-4 Lieutenant-Colonel	1	1.00
OF-3 Major	1	1.00
OF-2 Captain	10	10.00
OF-1 Lieutenant	24	24.00
Warrant Officer	2	2.00
OR-6 Staff Sergeant	42	42.00
OR-5 Sergeant	81	81.00
OR-4 Corporal	122	122.00
OR-1 Private	450	450.00
Total Personnel	733	733.00

Defence Contractors	Quantity	Points
Overseers	19	19.00
Porters	50	0.00
Labourers	50	0.00
Support Drivers / Technicians & Mechanical Engineers	150	0.00
Total Personnel	269	19.00

Inventory

Armoured Fighting Vehicles	Quantity	Points
Horjin Armoured Fighting Vehicle Electronic Warfare Vehicle	1	70.00
Horjin AFV Reconnaissance Tank	24	720.00
Horjin AFV Infantry Fighting Vehicle	25	1,000.00
Horjin AFV Armoured Personnel Carrier	50	750.00
Total No. of AFV's	100	2,540.00

Support Vehicles	Quantity	Points

History of the Guard

A soldier from the Apollonian Guard.

4228 ASC Founded as Personal Bodyguard to Gaelen IV;
4961 ASC Expanded to a full division under the Martial Code;
5094 ASC Replaced by Order of Sentinels under Imperial Decree Nº 612;
5257 ASC Reduced to a Battalion within the Apollonian Brigade of the Kaiser's Life-Guard Division;
6109 ASC Reorganised as an Armoured Infantry Battalion.

The Apollonian Guard came into existence in 4228 ASC during the reign of Gaelen IV. In the past, the soldiers who were protecting the Kaisers and Raynor's Keep had often showed a total lack of loyalty towards their Kaiser and also showed a lack of discipline. There are examples which date back to the reign of Kaiser Raynor X, where strangers could simply walk into his palace or disturb meetings and field training [1].

More recently in history was the murder of Leto III by Malarbor I. The soldiers had allowed Malarbor into the castle and, according to some historical sources, even brought him to the Throne room and placed him on the throne, where he could just wait until Leto walked in.

With this in mind, Gaelen decided to create a new bodyguard which was placed under direct jurisdiction of the Kaiser himself. A rather small group of guards, 1,000 in total, would be responsible for protecting the Kaiser and guarding important buildings in the capital. He chose to name it the Apollonian Guard as he himself was born in Apollo City and raised with an Apollonian and Kildarian upbringing. His soldiers worn the traditional Apollonian clothes (spear, tunica, armor, helmet, shield and a hidden gun) and were trained as Kildarian soldiers.

When the Kaiser received complaints of the Kildarian influences at the court, he quickly changed his policy towards the Guard: it was opened for all other people from the Empire, not just for only Audentes. At the height of the unit's reputation and prowess, strict conditions on membership were observed - applicants had to have already served in the Imperial Forces, with distinction, on at least four previous campaigns and had to be in peak physical condition and of unimpeachable loyalty to the Crown.

Notionally the Guard was placed outside of the military chain of command, reporting to the Prefect of Shirekeep and the Kaiser directly, by-passing the Minister of Military Affairs. This was something of an anomaly and only the relative weakness of the Ministry of Military Affairs prevented this situation from being revisited. Something that would change once a more active and able minister was finally appointed to the role.

The Minister of Military Affairs, Balârak Âlaion, in 4961 ASC prevailed upon the Landsraad to accept his defence reforms known as the martial code which sought to replace the Aurangzeb-Alexander system of Defence Directorates and Operational Commands with a three conventional armed forces. The Apollonian Guard was expanded to a full division under this Martial Code to become the land component of the new tri-service configuration.

In 5094 ASC, as the loyalty of Balârak Âlaion became suspect and the Capital itself collapsed into anarchy the Guard found itself replaced, in its original capacity of bodyguard to the Kaiser, by the Order of Sentinels under Imperial Decree Nº 612 which was promulgated by Kaiser(ess) Aiomide during his period of exile on the Skyla Isles. The Apollonian Guard, or at least those portions of it which did not surrender, render oaths of fealty or desert, were militarily crushed by a coalition of Elwynn, Goldshire and Imperial Volunteers led by the Kaiser who retook Shirekeep in 5201 ASC and purged it of the last traces of contagion, to which many surviving guardsmen had already regrettably succumbed.

In 5257 ASC the formerly elite unit was reduced to a Regular Infantry Battalion within the Apollonian Brigade of the Kaiser's Life-Guard Division under the reforms of Lord Marshal Laqi Hyrrion which saw the Directorates restored. The Battalion was not entirely inactive during the period of its disgrace - it is credited with foiling a suicide attempt by the notoriously melancholic Kaiser Sehml.

At some point in 5548 ASC during the secession crisis of Kildare, deserters from the Apollonian Guard were led by the Mordechai Kraut in defecting to the Eastern Empire. This schism led to the formation of a second Apollonian Guard in the Empire of Jingdao.

Its headquarters were located in Fort Tempus, in the Foreign Quarter that has now formed the core of the Municipality of Lichbrook.

The disloyalty and operational failures of the Apollonian Guard during the Brassican Wars subsequently resulted in the unit being supplanted in its role as Bodyguard to the Kaiser and finally being reduced down to a battalion of regular infantry within the Kaiser's Life-Guard Division, although the constraints of the martial code for the moment require that the name continues to be associated with the wider division of the Imperial Forces.

It is currently garrisoned in the abandoned stables of Raynor's Keep and had responsibility for the security and upkeep of nearby communal latrines until the decline in relations with the Empire of Jingdao prompted the reformation of the Imperial Forces.