Umarian Guard

The Umarian Guard was first formed during the reign of Empress Lenda Tawmerik, as a private security and intelligence force attached directly to the Imperial office. In part this was a response to the Empress’s opinion that the Bafiktuy Intelligence Directive had gained too much of a monopoly on intelligence, and that the Imperial Congress had gained too much influence over the Imperium’s armed forces.

The Umarian Guard was, for many years, chosen from among the elite members of various intelligence and armed forces services throughout the Imperium. BID agents were explicitely forbidden from entry, to prevent the organization from subsuming the Guard into its own intelligence network.

The Guard was headed by the High Lord Captain, who was directly responsible to the reigning Emperor, and served as an important advisor. The High Lord Captain chose his General Staff upon the advice of the Emperor, and these were given responsibility for various branches of the Guard.

After the Tawmerik Dynasty failed, the Umarian Guard became a hereditary body, and outsiders were rarely accepted, and even then usually only as honorary members. It’s effectiveness as an intelligence-gathering service rapidly declined, and with the formation of the Dinzwar Gefera, failed completely. From then on the Guard, like most other groups in the Imperium, became reliant upon BID and the various security firms.

Never the less, the Umarian Guard remained during the High and Late Imperium era to be the chief guard of the Emperors. As the effectiveness and abilities of the Emperors dwindled, the Umarian Guard began to play a far more disturbing role, culminating in the High Lord Captain Xervius Lundrel, who was the chief architect of many of Antius Trevus I’s policies and was considered by some to be the power behind the throne.

The Grand Reforms addresses this in part by making the Guard subservient to the Imperial Congress, and thus removing one of the last independent sources of power left to the Emperors. In practice, however, the long years as the Emperors’ private guard had made them far too arrogant to ever meaningfully put themselves within this new chain of command, and later High Lord Captains, while not so bold as Xervius Lundrel, often worked at intentional cross-purposes to other military bodies. It is also pretty clear that some High Lord Captains worked very hard to poison the later Emperors to the Congress and feed their paranoia and cruelty, and must bear much of the responsibility for the ultimate failure of the Imperial throne and its replacement by the weak and corrupt Premiers.

When Durin Bonish seized power after the failure of the Emperors, the Umarian Guard tried to put their own candidate forward as Emperor. Durin Bonish made short work of the Guard and had the Imperial Congress declare them traitors, and most ended up in prison or fled into exile. Some found their way back into power during the Hundred Bloody Days as a briefly reconstituted Umarian Guard, but those were swiftly dealt with when that time of horror and tragedy ended.

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