Black Guard

Author:  Flosha
Created: 25.03.2024
Updated: 08.09.2024

• Anti-heretic “police” order
• Mostly former soldiers of the army
• Recruited by the order of the Inquisition to which they pledge their absolute loyalty, they are commanded by inquisitors and serve as their bodyguard
• They are especially trained in fighting demons, mutants and protection against magic (they themselves have no magic abilities)
• Wardens of the Asylum
• Groups of black guardsmen are sometimes seen on their own under the command of a commander, when doing regular jobs. But at more complex operations they are always accompanied by one or two Inquisitors and work under their command.
• Based on the Imperial Demonhunters from the Sequel

Background

In the Sequel we find two different kinds of demonhunter armours, three in the game files worn by members of the DHT guild, the other presented in the main menu (which is actually not contained within the Sequel build; whatever is available online is based on a reconstruction by David, one of our team members, only the texture is contained). Both textures are signified as DHT, which led people to believe them to belong to the same faction.

But based on the Sequel story and the design of the armours we have no reason to assume that the main menu armour would have been an upgrade to the three demonhunter armours that we deal with in guilds/Demonhunters. They are stylistically consistent and belonged to a faction of the same name, consisting mostly of former members of the anti-royal New Camp, the “king-haters”. While the other armour, which we are dealing with here, is totally different in style with no similarity to the others; it is in fact based on the paladin (royal guard) armour with which it shares many stylistic details. We assume that this armour was meant to be a special late-game armour for the player if he would play on the royal side, probably exclusively made for him, when he did not belong to the anti-royal demonhunters. The player would be confronted with demons either way; but on the side of the king he would finally become a “royal” or “imperial” demonhunter, which is why we describe it as such.

But due to its intimidating appearance we thought that the armour would be wasted and would work much better and be used more effectively if the player would be confronted with NPCs wearing it (it can seem very intimidating) - other than that players knew it already from the concepts and the Sequels main menu, which didn’t lend itself well to a late-game armour either. I wanted others to have it too and so we had to think about who could wear it and why. Thus we invented the black guard in the context of the Inquisition - it is not an idea from the Sequel. But by doing so we did not really divert from the Sequel concept, we just developed the idea of “imperial demonhunters” further, as the armour is still connected to the royal army, the black guard one of the royal factions and hunting demons still one of their jobs.

Attire & Equipment

• Clothing: Simple black/ashen tunic with brown leather seams stitched on top, dark pants, black or dark brown boots.
• Armour: Some are just wearing hauberks, many are wearing combinations of brigandines from dark leather and a central scale armour (Sequel). Their arms and legs are always covered, often in combination with a sleeveless upper tunic in black with signs of the order. A few heavy soldiers are additionally wearing banded armour on top of the hauberk.
• Helmets: Some are wearing helmets made from a mixture of metal and leather-covered brigandines with a visor inspired by Judge Death (Sequel), others have helmets all made from metal, which are inspired by sallets (example below) and meant to be like a dark version of the Royal Guard helmets (no crest!) mixed with the Sequel helmet visor.
• Anonymity: Not everyone is wearing a helmet and the helmets do not regularly cover the lower part of the face; therefore they are often wearing black scarves underneath (they do so always if not wearing a helmet), in order to keep a high degree of anonymity.
• Additional Protection: They use tower shields with anti-magic protection and reflective abilities, especially so when breaking into houses (like a special police unit walking behind the shield). When fighting primarily against demons they use a spike attachment on their helmets (Sequel); when expecting fights against (armed) humans they may remove this attachment; some of them use the same kind of spikes on their arm guards as protection both against demonic claws/bites as well as to deflect/control sword hits.
• Weapons: Their weapon of choice is the sword (often engraved with protective runes) and they use very effective crossbows, with an advanced reload mechanism, but a limited range. These crossbows of the order are used with both regular and particular anti-magic ammunition aimed to paralyse the alchemical abilities of the mage. The crossbows are also utilised to set-up traps and protective nets (e.g. by spanning a net in a doorway to keep themselves safe from a magic missile that may otherwise be casted from behind before they swiftly approach the next room).

Inspirations

• Sequel: Royal Demonhunters
• “Sweepers” from Equilibrium
• Police special units
• SS vibes