Order of the Sentinels
Founded by Kaiser Aiomide in 1602 AN by Imperial Decree Nº 612, the Order of the Sentinels was created to provide personal protection and secure transportation for the Kaiser. The Order was divided equally into the White Company and the Blue Company, a section from each attends upon the Kaiser at all times. Details of the Order are scant but total force is not likely to exceed two hundred men or women and can be expected to specialise in VIP protection and close-quarter combat. In addition, Kaiser Aiomide used various Sentinels in the role of an aide-de-camp when planning the campaign that would lead to his conquest of Shirekeep.
In 1642 AN, the Order of the Sentinels was expanded into a regimental strength formation and charged with ensuring the security of the Kaiser, the Ministers, the Landsraad, embassies, consulates and other diplomatic buildings as well as foreign dignitaries stationed in or visiting Shireroth. The force subsequently expanded at a steady rate throughout the 1640s, providing bodyguards for the military and civilian leadership of Imperial Republic.
Until the 1642 AN Order of the Sentinels had reported directly to the Kaiser and was thus entirely outside of the regular military chain of command. Between 1642 AN and the Oustfest Massacre of 1644 AN, the Order of Sentinels was directed by the Commissioner of the Crypteia, to provide for the security of the Kaiser, the Ministers, the Landsraad, embassies, consulates and other diplomatic buildings as well as foreign dignitaries stationed in or visiting Shireroth. In consequence of Imperial Decree 832, at least 1,392 sentinels were deployed performing close-protection and liaison duties on behalf of the magisters and legates of the Imperial Forces.
The established strength of the Order of Sentinels shall be, by this order, increased to the size of a full regiment. The defeat of the Sentinels in the Oustfest Massacre, which was in part due to a lack of coordination with the Palatini Corps, saw this policy reversed and by 1652 AN the Order was fully integrated into the Palatini Corps as a Scholae legion of the Imperial Army. It retained however its distinct privileges and, as a Scholae unit, reported to the Imperial Household for all matters pertaining to the security of the Kaiser and Raynor's Keep.
In 1658 AN the policy was reversed again and the Order of the Sentinels reverted to the Imperial Household, retaining only an affiliation with the Scholae Excubitores, allowing the order to focus on close protection whilst the latter focused on recovering its elite guards infantry status. Relations between the Sentinels and the Exubitores remained close however, with the members of the Palatini Corps frequently serving as the opposing force in ambush-survival, VIP protection, and CQB drills.
The Sentinels were still attested to be extant as of 1661 AN, as witnessed by the effort of Kaiser Ayreon IV to overawe an irregular session of the Senate of the Elwynnese Republic he had attempted to convoke in Raynor's Keep during the First Elwynnese Civil War, which would have seen each senator under the guard of ten sentinels. A tribune "A. Hoek", a member of the Shirerithian diplomatic mission in Oktavyan, was cited by the Directorate of the Tumultuous Wastes as belonging to the Order of the Sentinels when the Shirerithian delegation was invited to depart Kalgachia in 1662 AN. In spite of their attested continued vigilance, the Sentinels seemingly failed a concealed explosive device, positioned in the Steward's Tower, which claimed the life of Mira II Octavius-Aryani in early 1663 AN. When the explosive had been installed was unclear, though some of the investigators quietly suspected that it had taken place at some point in II.1654, when outgoing steward, Liv Dravot, ordered a hasty renovation shortly before her term ended. Insurance against the so-called nobles' democracy of allowing the Landsraad to elect the Imperial Republic's stewards and choose someone who opposed the Imperial Mother.
Efforts to involve the Sentinels in the policing of Imperial electoral law were rejected by the Landsraad in 1665 AN, and the Sentinels were still observed patrolling the Inner Barracks of Raynor's Keep in that same year. During the course of the reign of Ayreon IV, grandees of the ream, including notably the Prince of Modan, had begun to employ their own lictors in the garb of Sentinels, diminishing the respect accorded to the institution.
The fate of the Order after the Kalirion Fracture of 1672 AN is curiously unrecorded. The Order does not appear within the formal structure of the established Imperial Household as of 1717 AN. As such, their legacy is best considered to be continued by the Saznan Ahtaneï ("Sentinel Guards"), a legion strength formation of the Palatini Corps.
