The Iron Soldiers

While the CITY-WATCH are responsible for protecting the interior of the city, the IRON SOLDIERS protect the city from the outside; the walls, the gates, roads, farms, and mines all fall under their jurisdiction.

They are trained warriors, soldiers dressed in lamellar cuirass over chain shirts, with conical helms with half-masks that cover their faces. Like the footmen of the Watch they carry round shields and wear tabards with the city'd coat-of-arms, although their tabards are a rust-red. They all carry swords, daggers, with additional weapons depending on their duty.

Gate-Guards have spears, used to prod wagons, checking their cargo for contraband. Those patrolling the walls have arbalests, but are not skilled as the archers of the Watch. They patrol in shifts, and many sleep in the barracks in the IRON TOWERS; which is why these soldiers are known as the IRON SOLDIERS, although others say that their name comes from the fact that they are inflexible, tough and cold-hearted.

Those that guard the gates, often assisted by members of the Watch, keep an eye out for trouble, and search anyone they judge suspicious; except for the gates into the NOBLE QUARTER, where everyone is searched, except the nobles that live there. At the main gates, the guards only allow entrance to the city once visitors have declared their business. Merchants who have come to trade, buying or selling in bulk, are charged a Trading Tax, half of which goes to the TRADE GUILD. Mercenaries and adventurers have to pay a Sword Tax, which goes into the coffers of the Watch, and grants the payee the right to bear arms within the city. A painted wooden token– green for merchants, red for mercenaries– is given in exchange for payment, as proof. They are handed back upon leaving the city.

Clergy, pilgrims, and simple tourists can pass freely. Anyone who declares themselves a mage or similar, is told to report to the ACADEMY to obtain a temporary license, or to register with the magi, depending on whether the mage intends to practice or use magic within city limits.

As it currently stands, the city has a standing army of roughly 2,000 soldiers, and can muster several thousand militia by drafting in able-bodied workers, laymen, and the Watch. In the past century, the army has seen little action, other than a few skirmishes against bandits and raiders from the desperate South. Of late, even the orcs have gone quiet.