Corps of Watchmen
The Corps of Watchmen was the police force of the city of Chryse in its various iterations between the Kalirion Fracture (1671 AN) and the Battle of Chryse (1690 AN). The expansive remit of the force included responsibility for maintaining public order. Formerly, Chryse had two main military forces: the Verionist Benacian Army, and the Iron Militia. The VBA had a standing army of 215.000; and a reserve unit of over 7 million. Military conscription was compulsory. The VBA was almost entirely commanded by former Iron Militia officers, and it operated according a strict chain of command. The Verionist Benacian Army was under command of the Viceroy in her role as Commander-in-Chief. Daily operations and decision-making were originally delegated to the Lady Commander of the Armed Forces, Lyanna Verion.
The Iron Militia meanwhile remained separate from the state, but maintained a sizable force in the Verionist Republic, which is the heartland of the Iron Company. The main role of the militia remains to safeguard the interests of the Company first. The last semblance of the Iron Militia was withdrawn covertly from the city by the Iron Company in 1689 AN as it prepared to write-off the city in the face of mounting competition from the Benacian Directorate of the Honourable Company and the inadequate responses of the Viceroy Isor Isor to the deteriorating situation.
Whilst this VBA meanwhile had done a credible job of defending the city during the Second Amokolian War, two decades of defections, desertions, disorders, and evacuations, had whittled down this force in much the same way that the territory of Verionist Benacia had eroded down to the point that little more remained than Chryse itself.
Following the creation and dissolution of the United Benacian Republic, those forces which had remained had pledged allegiance to Isor Isor as their Captain-General. The new Viceroy was not however notably concerned with matters martial and the United Benacian Defence Force was allowed to become a moribund entity.
As of 1689 AN, the Corps of the Watchmen, with 31,075 officers distributed across 132 duty stations, remained the mainstay of the public order forces within the city whilst the Retinue of the Captain-General constituted a largely ceremonial force in three understrength regiments - the Palatine Guard, the Noble Guard, and the Regiment of Artillery and Foot - comprising a total strength of 2,360 men-at-arms, six field guns of the old-Shirerithian pattern, and two armoured cars. The Corps of Watchmen also operated four coastguard vessels, four aircraft (one fixed wing and three helicopters), and a radar complex attached to the Imperial Chrysean Airport, which serves as the city state's international airport and aspires to be a regional transportation hub.
As an institution steeped in ideological Verionism, the Corps of the Watchmen had maintained their discipline and, when the end of Chryse's independence came, was the only defending force to give a credible account of itself in the face of a savage but poorly coordinated assault on the city conducted by the Jaysh al-Sathrati.
