The King's Shields

Protective service branch of the King's Citadel · Responsible for the security of the royal family and closest associates

"No one gets close to the king unless we've already decided they can."

The King's Shields protect the royal family and its closest associates — a mandate that sounds straightforward until you consider what it means in a world where shapeshifting assassins, compulsion enchantments, and scrying sensors are routine threats. The Shields are the Citadel branch least likely to be encountered by adventurers in the field, but their work shapes the security environment that every visitor to the royal court, every diplomat at a state function, and every noble attending a crown event passes through without ever seeing it.

Role within the Citadel

The Shields maintain the security perimeter around the king, the royal family, and those individuals the crown designates as requiring protection — senior officials, visiting dignitaries, and high-value witnesses in cases of national significance. Their work is constant and invisible when done well: advance teams sweep locations before the king arrives, identify points of vulnerability, coordinate with local Watch commanders to establish cordons, and maintain close protection through every event. When a threat materializes, the Shields are the ones who place their bodies between the principal and the danger.

They work closely with the King's Wands on arcane security — anti-scrying protocols, detection of enchantment effects on personnel, assessment of whether individuals in the king's environment may be compromised by magical coercion. In Sharn, Shield operations coordinate with the broader Citadel presence at Andith Tower, though most protective details operate from temporary positions rather than fixed headquarters.

King Boranel views loyalty as mutual: as long as an agent's loyalty is irreproachable, Boranel is willing to exercise his considerable power on that agent's behalf. The Shields embody this principle more directly than any other branch. They are the agents closest to the king, and the trust required is absolute.

The Succession Question

The Shields' mandate is tied to the crown, and the question of Boranel's succession looms over their institutional future. Boranel is aging, and his children have yet to prove themselves. Should the monarchy transition smoothly, the Shields continue as they are. Should the succession be contested — or should the growing movement to abolish royal rule gain enough power to matter — the Shields face an institutional crisis. Protecting a contested monarch is a different mission from protecting a popular one, and the personal loyalty that defines the branch may be tested in ways that its training never anticipated.