Vigiles Arcani

Rrakanychan Watch
Active:	3623 ASC - Present
Motto:	Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Rrakanychan B'algurd wgah'nagl fhtagn
In use by:	Ministry of Military Affairs
Allegiance:	Shireroth
Type	Special Forces
Role:	Counter-espionage Counter-Revolutionary Warfare Political propaganda Occult research Counter-terrorism Reconnaissance Hostage rescue Wartime operations
Size:	24,750
Nickname:	None yet
Current Commander:	Chairwoman Meng Po

History

The Piscatores Alexandrii had abandoned their library in Bonedale (formerly Brookshire, now Lichbrook) after the events that had lead to the rise of the Lichgravine.[1] As a consequence of the actions of one rogue magus, the dead now roamed the continent of Benacia in such numbers that people came to see the sight of a shambling revenant as being completely unremarkable.

The Piscatores however remarked and remembered. What began, slowly at first, in 4565 ASC, with the zombots[2] soon proliferated throughout the lands of the machine god. Transhumanism had given way to the postmortal. From the vantage point of their new hiding place, the Piscatores watched as the dominion of the undead grew, first the old ancestral land of Brookshire, then in the forsaken, frankly forgotten realms of Cibolan, and then, latterly, by the doleful caravans of the dead processing westwards, in ever greater numbers to Minarboria, refuge of Malarbor's own schismatic shrub. For an increasing number of those who had watched these events unfold, it was clear that the time had come to take a stand once more against the coming of the night. For those who held this view, the persuasion had taken hold, ever more firmly, indeed to the point of conviction, that in the rising horde of necrorobotic workers, societally displacing humanity - or breathers as they were contemptuously known in the lands of the dead, were to be found the Dæmons and Descendi, the twisted soulless wretches that would serve in the armies of Balgurd as the end times approached. For a society dedicated to hunting down and rooting out the Demon Fish of Balgurd it would be a dereliction of duty to ignore such a peril.

Yet there were those who disagreed, a majority in fact, and those who would not embrace the Liches as fellow sentients, and thus as worthy of protection as any mortal human, were cast out from the Holy Order, with much in the way of mutual recrimination and anathema.

It was ironic then, that those who were expelled from the Piscatores for seeking to destroy the Liches found their first introduction to the Imperial Government courtesy of a revenant known as Laqi Hyrrion, who served as MoMA during the reign of Kaiser Aiomide. But he was only ever a counterfeit Lich.