Royal Guard

Author: Flosha
Created: 21.03.2024
Last change: 27.05.2024

Analysis

Guards displayed in the Comic are mostly shown wearing “brown beige” or “brown golden” tunics and open face English styled sallet helmets with a tip. Some of them, apparently higher in rank, wear the same tunic, but use a muscle harness in a Hoplite style, red coats and a different kind of helmet that appears like a mixture of a German (partially open faced) sallet similar to the other one (only covering the eyes), a red crest that again reminds of Hoplites or Romans (I have to think of the Praetorian Guard as a potential inspiration) and a Vendel Helmet, since the part that is covering the eyes is not formed like any typical sallet and reminds more of the “eye” guard known from spectacle helmets. Both helmets appear in the same colour as the tunic; so we have to assume that they are made of - or at least covered by - brass.

If you search for “gothic helmet” a sallet will be the first thing you find; it makes sense for Fetz, the artist of the Comic, to have taken inspiration of such typical gothic elements when drawing the comic, while he also most likely had some information about the Royal Guard as some sort of an imperial unit similar to the Praetorian Guard (they were also responsible for the prison in Rome etc.) - resulting in the mixture of these elements. It is also reasonable to assume that he may not have imagined the same bright colourful armours for them in a - supposed to be - dark and grim gothic setting (the colourisation was done independently by someone else).

The first guards are always shown with swords and spears, the latter with spears and shields; swords are just not seen due to perspective.

Some guards - we assume the ones with the fully open sallet that are throwing Milten into the prison and the four friends into the barrier - are mentioned in the Comic as the “City Watch”.

The reason that we associate - not necessarily equal - them with the Royal Guard is that they are shown at the cliff alongside the Royal Judge, just as during the conviction in the game. Thereby we can assume that they are shown in the Comic - although they are not specifically mentioned under the name “Royal Guard” here.

During the conviction in the game they are presented in a similar yellow colour wearing an armour called GrdI, which actually stands for “Gardist Intro”, but could as well be interpreted as “Gardist Imperial”. The ingame description is specifically refering to it as the armour of the “Royal Guard”. Their armour (similar to the related imperial demonhunter from the Sequel - see “Black Guard”) seems to be made of layers of leather with plates riveted inbetween these layers, making them a brigandine.

I didn’t know that there was an historic equivalent, which was later pointed out to me by Ben when we came to the conclusion that the armours have to be “Brigandines”.

The Sequel followed the royal guard design of the original game as well as the Comic roughly, by designing the helmets of the newly introduced higher ranked royal guards (now described as “Paladins”) in a similar style, also with a sort of a central crest, but not as a sallet.

Apart from the praetorian guard, Avallach pointed out potential similarities between the Royal Guard of Myrtana and the historical Varangian Guard, which can deepen our understanding (or rather our lore) of the guards history and customs.

They both come from the north at least initially. Rhobar I. came from the north as we assume, his fierceful comrades in battle are later becoming bodyguards of him and the kings thereafter. The leader of the New Camp in the Gothic novel by Wittmann had red hair; Lee was a former bodyguard of the King according to early dialogues; thereby it seems reasonable to associate them with the Huegoth clan from the novel.
Most likely an irrelevant detail, as there may not be any deeper meaning behind the colouring (and the same illustrator displayed Arabs and other armed forces in a very similar or almost the same manner), but I still consider it worth noting, that on the oldest known historical illustration of the Varangian Guard, they are shown in very similar golden tunics and armours.

Phoenix

For Phoenix we combine and harmonise the two approaches (games and Comic) and our own inspiration by the Praetorian and Varangian Guard in the following manner:

At first a few words about the colour: We differentiate between the regular army and the “Royal Guard”. The “golden” or “brown beige” tunic (compared to the red, white, brown or green tunic of the army) is the basis of the royal attire. This colour is seen as the colour of Myrtana in general and is thus also used in other imperial contexts: Such as at the robe of Royal Judge or the tunic of the so called City Watch.

City Watch

The city watch are the auxiliaries of the royal guard, they were established in every big city under Myrtanian rule and have some visual aspects in common with the Royal Guard, to which they appear like a subdivision with lighter armour; but they didn’t went through the same rigorous training, do not have the same difficult entry terms, are usually no Norsemen and they’re responsible for less intricate jobs in the cities.
They have the same tunic and leather straps, sometimes mail shirts and the open face sallet known from the Comic. They are always wearing pants and high boots and appear a bit like SA men in faded orange.
For weapons they use swords and spears and they do not have shields.

Having been established in every big Myrtanian city does not mean that all the guards in Khorinis belong to the Myrtanian City Watch, as - especially so in course of the recent events - there are various groups with their own mercenaries as guardsmen.

Royal Guard

Colours: As said above, the overarching characteristics of the royal forces is the “brown beige” (faded orange, “golden”) colour, which in case of the guard is shown either in form of their tunics or other fabric (as scarves, chaperons etc.), a blood red shield with runes and/or a specific depiction that stands for the guard (such as a bird, a shadowbeast or whatever) and their specific form of a helmet. They are often shown with a cape (crimson or brown), almost always worn with the right shoulder uncovered.
Tunic: The guard wears golden tunics most of the time, rarely naturally white tunics, and every shade inbetween due to varying degrees of colour fading. Those with white tunics are then shown with “golden” scarves or chaperons.
Skin & Hair: Initially being the loyal brothers of Rhobar I. from the north, Norsemen prevail in the guard with a few exceptions. Some of them have blond or red hair, but also brown, they have beards often, but not always, and in allusion to historic Norsemen they almost always have specific tattoos with Nordic Runes (it would be nice to show the Norsemen tattooing technique in an ambient event routine); just due to their armour not much of these tattoos are seen and just a few of them have tattoos in their face. [There may be a former royal guardsman chained somewhere in the asylum at which we can see the tattoos in full display.]
Shields: Many of the guards, especially some older Norsemen or those who came just recently from the north have round shields. Others, whose round shield is broken and got replaced, will now use teardrop shields as they are common in the area (again inspired by the Varangian Guard). The shields are almost always dark red (they are also displayed as such on the oldest historical illustration) with runes in white and/or black. The red shield is thereby another stilistic characteristic other than the golden tunic, by which the player can identify these men, while their armour may vary.
Armour: The Royal Guards shown in the intro with their shoulder cover from leather and their specific brigandine are somewhat similar, but also different to what we conceive the Royal Guard to be based on our research, our inspirations and the other sources like the Comic. We also have to assume that the intro armour was done relatively fast - it is just a retexture of the medium guards armour and without any related concept art, as far as we know. Thus we could argue that the armour can be improved by more elaborated conceptualisation.
A tunic cannot be seen at all, so we cannot say what colour it would be. Everything there is covered by leather. We could make the tunic visible at least at the arms and a bit at the legs, although that may raise stylistic questions, see below.
The brigandine parts do appear like leather too, material-wise, but they are yellow. This is not implausible, as leather was possible to be dyed in a yellow tone in medieval times. But a yellow brigandine plus more of an orange/brown beige toned tunic may or may not look a bit off or like a colour overkill. In any way, brigandines should be a newer, advanced form of armour, therefore it is only used by parts of the royal guard (and by the black guard). Not every member will have one and not everyone who has one will have it in yellow. It may more often be covered by neutral brown leather (or even blue fabric in case of the palace guard).
The yellow tone of the armour of the intro guard goes alongside the yellow tone of the robe of the judge; it is more yellow than orange in always the very same way. While in the Comic it was the City Watch that had a tunic with the very same brown beige / orange tone as the robe of the judge there. Thus it would be a possible solution to just (1) change the colour of the intro armour and the intro judge into the more brown tone from the Comic. Another solution would be to just (2) assume that the royal guard as well as the judges do obviously not have all consistently coloured fabrics, but they are just sharing different golden tones; some tunics and robes may appear more like light, yellowish gold and others more as brown-beige.
Based on this idea, as a third solution (3) the few guardsmen from the Intro could be explained as the personal guards of the specific Royal Judge that convicted the player (it doesn’t have to be the same who convicted the four friends) and these guards may have this particular equipment. This could be a nice solution in so far, as it makes them more unique and identifiable - especially so when the player meets them in Act 2; he will then know very well that it were these guys who have thrown him into the Barrier.
Other Royal Guards may either do not have brigandines or they have them only covering their torso; and not dyed yellow but more often from regular brown leather.
Most are either shown with mail plus tunic, brigandines or scale armour or with a combination of those. In some rare cases they may also have a chest plate in greek style (see the Comic).
The smallest and most special unit are the Imperial Throne Guards, they have lighter armour and are mostly specialised in protecting the King. They are wearing ancle-long royal blue coats adorned with golden crescent moons instead of little fleurs-de-lys. Their face is always fully covered for anonymity and they do not have crests (or smaller and different ones).
Weapons: Based on the Varangian Guard and in order to give them a more unique identity and fighting style, their weapon of choice is a two handed axe or a romphaia, which was also used - and it makes sense as these larger, two-handed weapons seem to have been typical for such body- and palace guards. They have swords as backup weapons. When attacking in groups, one or two guards use the two-handed weapon to break through and others use sword and shield [-> The two-handed axe fighting requires new animations; those were planned for the Alpha anyway - here we can use them].
Helmets: As analysed above, we will follow the Comic and give them helmets that appear as eyes-covering sallets with the nordic “spectacle guards” and greek/roman styled crests. Some guards wear the helmet just like this, while many others wear it in combination with an aventail (mail) or chaperon to cover the rest of their faces -> in this way the Royal Guard can be seen as a combination of a Hoplite style, Varangian style and a German “gothic” style.

Guards Dialogue Bits

Guard: Wir kommen aus Gothia.

ToDo:

What to do with the Sequel helmet? Reuse for some special commanders in some form or some ceremonial purpose.

Quotes

Praetorian Guard:

“Primarily they provided security for the imperial household and palaces but also stationed a cohort to keep order at the games and theaters. The Praetorians operated the city prison, carrying out death sentences imposed by the Emperor and Senate. Additionally they partook in routine civic administration of the city with tasks ranging from map-making to engineering work. In later years however some of their elements increasingly functioned as political operatives who meddled in the affairs of Rome and the Empire.” (Invicta: Units of History - The Praetorian Guard)

Varangian Guard:

[…] full kudos to their iconic “pelekys” two handed axe. Indeed, they were often known as the “barbarians with axes on their shoulders”. Two-handed weaponry bome on the shoulder seems to be a Palace Guard tradition - they had previously been described as carrying heavy swords called “romphaia” in this fashion. The axes were incredibly long. This ivory carving shows the shaft as long as its wielder. And considering the legendary tallness of the Norsemen, it could’ve been up to 6 feet. The heads varied immensely. In this peace of Byzantine art we find a vast variety, some with spearheads like halberds.

A good starting point when discussing their equipment, are the actual bodies of the varangians. As mentioned previously, they were recognised as tall and burly. We’d probably imagine them as blond and bearded, but the ivory engraving shows a shaved Varangian, as is this guardsman from a mosaic. Others were depicted with dark hair and beards. Most of them were described as having blue eyes. Of special note are the customary tattoos. In the 10th century, Ahmad Ibn-Fadlan famously described Rus warriors tattooing themselves from the nails to the neck with figures and trees in dark green. This custom was adapted from the turkic peoples of the steppes.

Their native clothes were simple linen tunics dyed with natural colours, whereas the Greeks wore a vast variety of colourful cotton, silks, brocades and damask. These were often lined with extravagant decorations. The basic uniform consisted of a tunic falling little to above the knee, trousers, boots, and a cloak. While on duty in the palace, they’d often wear red tunics and purple cloaks, to indicate their service in the Imperial Guard. For headgear, they either wore a coif called “koukoulion”, or white shawls. These were often padded so as to be worn under a helmet.

Prior to the 14th century and the advent of full plate, the best armour could be found in Byzantium. The guardsmen were heavily armoured. Some of them, officers especially, wore Byzantine suits of scale or lamellar. Some wore their native hauberks - mail shirts - and others fought lightly equipped like regular Byzantine infantry. Light armour included the Bra, a leather harness, or the padded zoupa, a cotton and linen gambeson.

Aside from the axe, the Varangians likewise used spears, javelins, swords and the aforementioned rhomphaia. This was a two-handed, forward-curving blade, descended from the Dacian falx. It’s a shame that it’s rarely, if ever depicted in their hands, because the blade has a rich history […].

They used both circular shields popular in Scandinavia, small bucklers called cheriskoutaria, and from the 11th century onwards, kite shields. When fighting with their long axe, the shield was either laid aside or slung on the back. The shields were blazoned and decorated. Legend states that when Oleg attacked Constantinople in 907, he took his shield, “upon which a riding warrior was represented”, and nailed it to the gates of Galata. The symbol of the riding warrior was another Turkic, nomadic ideal adapted by the Rus and Varangians, much like the tattoos or title of Khagan. […] A Varangian described in the Icelandic Sagas, Bolli Bollason, was described as wielding “a red shield, with a gilded inlay of a mounted warrior”. Ravens appear especially prominent on Varangian shields, leading some to speculate that they were a distinctive symbol of the Guard. In Norse mythology the raven was sacred, but the Guardsmen used it well into Christian times.

As important as the blazonings were the banners carried into battle. They inherited the standard of the old imperial Guard, called the Excoubitores. Their standard bearers were called “Droknarioi”, as in, they still carried the dragon standard of the late Roman Empire. […] Companies within the guard flew triangular streamers dyed red or purple, called “banda”.