"The Sharn Watch, the Blackened Book, and the King's Citadel are all agents of the Brelish crown, and they cannot pursue fugitives into Aundair or Thrane. The Sentinel Marshals of House Deneith can."
Security in Khorvaire is distributed across overlapping jurisdictions, private charters, national armies, house guilds, religious orders, and licensed mercenary companies. There is no universal military or policing standard; what qualifies as lawful force in one region may be criminal enterprise in another.
The defining feature of Khorvaire's security landscape is fragmentation. Law enforcement and military service vary by crown, contract, and context. Stability depends less on uniform codes and more on institutional inertia, local legitimacy, and who holds the writ—or the coin—at the moment of conflict.
The Treaty of Thronehold imposed specific constraints on post-war military power: it prohibited the creation of new warforged, ratified territorial boundaries that no nation was fully satisfied with, and created the conditions under which Karrnath interred its standing undead armies in the crypts beneath Atur, where they await new orders in silence. Former war machines were dismantled or downsized. Peace left thousands of trained soldiers, war-mages, and bone knights without nations left to fight for.
What the Treaty did not prohibit is equally significant: mercenary deployment across borders, adventurer party registration, house-run security operations, and religious militias operating under ecclesiastical rather than national authority. Most nations now maintain what analysts in the Korranberg Chronicle have called legal denial readiness—the ability to field combat power quickly without violating treaty language. Deniable auxiliaries, licensed companies, and recallable veterans form the bulk of this shadow army. When a mercenary company commits an atrocity, the state didn't do it. When they succeed, the state gains without formal war.
With standing forces limited, mercenary companies have become institutionalized. House Deneith's Blademarks Guild—headquartered at Sentinel Tower in Karrlakton, Karrnath—has governed the mercenary trade for centuries, brokering not only the services of its own soldiers but of Valenar warbands, Ghaal'dar hobgoblins of Darguun, and Cyran soldiers who no longer have a nation to fight for. This near-monopoly has recently come under pressure: in the latter years of the Last War, House Tharashk entered the mercenary market, bringing monsters from Droaam to bolster Five Nations armies. House Deneith still resents the intrusion, and the animosity between the houses only deepens.
Rapid urbanization—especially in cities like Sharn, Passage, and Korth—has outpaced the growth of civic enforcement. Local watches are underfunded, corrupt, or tied to noble fiefdoms. Private security forces guard neighborhoods, markets, or towers, sometimes more loyal to guilds or criminal networks than any crown. Dragonmarked houses maintain their own enforcement arms with extraterritorial authority in some regions.
The result is layered enforcement: a city watch that won't enter House Kundarak property, House Deneith mercenaries guarding a merchant quarter, and a warforged veteran patrolling the street between—each with different oaths, paymasters, and tolerances for blood.
Faith-based enforcement remains powerful in Thrane, Valenar, and certain parts of Karrnath. The Church of the Silver Flame fields templars with inquisitorial authority through the Order of Templars, whose seven commanders govern operations across the Five Nations, foreign lands, and the seas. These are not honorary positions: Thrane produces more clerics and paladins than any other nation in Khorvaire, and its templar battalions and peasant militias have faced undead, lycanthropes, and planar threats for generations. The church also lends its soldiers to national armies when the cause can be supported—a meaningful diplomatic tool.
The Valenar Valaes Tairn maintain martial readiness through ancestral obligation, not treaty language. Their cavalry has no equal in Khorvaire, and their warbands—operating in small, fast-moving units—continue to raid the Talenta Plains and Q'barra in defiance of the Treaty of Thronehold. Where secular law wavers, belief often provides justification for violence.
The Sharn Watch is responsible for enforcing the laws of the city, and to all outward appearances its sentinels are vigilant. In truth, the Watch is riddled with corruption from commanding officers down to the lowest patrollers. Dedicated guards exist—some are genuinely committed to protecting the innocent—but bribery runs rampant, and the Watch has a reliable habit of failing to appear wherever Daask or the Boromar Clan happens to be conducting business.
Watch commanders focus their forces on protecting the wealthy and powerful. The upper and middle wards receive prompt response. Lower Dura and the Cogs receive almost none.
The members of the King's Citadel are the direct agents of the Brelish Crown. They stand above the Sharn Watch and hold authority to take control of any investigation and command the service of any guard or sentinel. Typically the Citadel leaves daily law enforcement—including the running conflicts between Sharn's criminal organizations—in the hands of the Watch. The Citadel concerns itself with forces that threaten the entire city or the kingdom: foreign spies, rogue necromancers, ancient fiends.
The Citadel does not ask for help. It demands it. Any Brelish citizen who refuses to assist a Citadel agent is committing an act of treason. Compensation is not guaranteed, but adventurers who earn the Citadel's respect find the relationship rewarding.
When a situation calls for extreme military force, both the Sharn Watch and the King's Citadel turn to the Redcloak Battalion. This elite unit fought in the forefront of the Last War; the bards of Menthis still sing of the exploits of Khandan the Hammer and Meira the Huntress. At the war's end, the battalion was split up, and one unit was assigned to Sharn. Its headquarters is in the Daggerwatch district of Upper Dura. Many of its members resent being relegated to law enforcement and carry deep grudges against citizens of former enemy nations.
House Deneith was born in Karrnath, and war flows in its veins. The Blademarks Guild is the continent's largest and most legally recognized mercenary operation. House members serve as officers, trainers, and strategists; the rank and file are largely human but include significant numbers of hobgoblins from Darguun, elves from Valenar, and Cyrans who no longer have a nation.
Soldiers of the Blademark are employed on two-year terms. Recruits must provide proper identification and background documentation and undergo a grueling training period. The house provides room, board, training, and basic equipment; in exchange, it takes a significant cut. A gray blade new to the guild receives 40% commission; a veteran who advances through the ranks may eventually see 70%. The three tiers—gray blades, white blades, and gold blades—form the guild's operational structure, with white and gold blades generally serving as coordinators, administrators, and instructors.
House Deneith also brokers the mercenary services of independent organizations—Ghaal'dar hobgoblins, Valenar elves—in exchange for a generous commission ranging from 10 to 30%, depending on the logistical effort required.
Where the Blademarks provide general security, the Defender's Guild specializes in personal protection. The Guild is comprised entirely of members of the Deneith bloodline. A Deneith heir must undergo a series of tests and typically one tour of duty with the Blademarks before qualifying. Once cleared, she is issued a writ of the Watchful Eye, sealed with an arcane mark and effectively impossible to forge. This document grants her access to any Deneith enclave on the continent and the right to request work.
In Sharn, the Blademark numbers 500 soldiers—49 heirs of Deneith alongside Brelish conscripts and veterans of the Last War. They have a particularly strong presence in Upper Tavick's Landing, where they hold equal authority with the Sharn Watch.
During the reign of King Galifar III, House Deneith was granted the right to enforce the laws of the kingdom, pursuing fugitives and enforcing punishments in exchange for gold. What was once largely an honorary arrangement has become, in the fractured post-war world, indispensable: the Sharn Watch, the Blackened Book, and the King's Citadel cannot pursue fugitives across national borders. The Sentinel Marshals can. They are authorized to enforce the law across all nations recognized by the Treaty of Thronehold—though they are not authorized to break it in pursuit of justice.
A Sentinel Marshal holds the honor of House Deneith in his hands. Only the most trusted members of the house receive this authority. Nine Sentinel Marshals are currently stationed in Sharn, five of whom carry the Lesser Mark of Sentinel, three the Least Mark, and one is an heir who has not yet manifested the dragonmark.
Every nation in Khorvaire maintains military forces, each shaped by national doctrine, geography, and the specific conditions under which it survived the Last War.
Royal Brelish Army — Built for modular reconstitution. Scaled back post-Treaty but retaining the capacity for rapid expansion. Breland relies on mercenary auxiliaries, adventurer parties, and the Citadel's intelligence networks to fill the gap.
Karrnathi Legions — Strict hierarchy, ancient tradition, and a legacy the treaty forced underground. Under Kaius III, Karrnath agreed to inter its standing undead armies in the crypts beneath Atur. Those armies remain there, waiting. The Ministry of the Dead and Atur Academy continue to exist. Karrnath has not forgotten what it knows.
Aundairian Knights Arcane — Aundair, home of the Arcane Congress, assembled the first regiment of arcane dragoons during the Last War and developed the war staff and battle rod. Today, its wandslinger tradition—combining sword with wand—represents one of Khorvaire's most distinctive military cultures. Aundair was also the only nation to field actual squads of broom riders in battle; they deployed hippogriff-mounted archers and pioneered the use of bags of holding to drop ordnance from altitude.
Thrane Templars — Religious-military fusion under the Council of Cardinals. Seven commanders govern the Order of Templars across the Five Nations and beyond, with their Grand Master overseeing operations from Flamekeep. Thrane produces more clerics and paladins per capita than any other nation; its templars are prepared to face undead, lycanthropes, and planar threats on behalf of any ally whose cause the church can support—a significant diplomatic tool that costs Thrane nothing it was not already spending.
Valenar Warbands — The Valaes Tairn operate in small, fast-moving warbands rather than conventional formations. Their cavalry has no equal on the continent; their horses are feytouched animals that bond to individual riders and cannot be bred in captivity by outside parties. Valenar participated in the Treaty of Thronehold negotiations to gauge their enemies and secure legal recognition, not out of any desire for peace. Their warbands continue to raid the Talenta Plains and Q'barra; this is not a policy failure. It is the point.
What arose as an order of militant knights within Karrnath—devoted Seekers of the Blood of Vol, founded in 896 YK alongside Kaius I's embrace of the faith—fell into disgrace and fragmented into something more dangerous. When King Kaius III came to power and turned against the Blood of Vol, the Emerald Claw was ordered to disband. Other orders complied. The Emerald Claw refused.
Today the Order operates as a collection of cells: fanatical warriors, necromancers, and spies who present themselves as Karrnathi patriots and Blood of Vol adherents. Neither claim holds.
The Order experienced a surge in recruitment following Thronehold, as many Karrns believed that Kaius III had betrayed their nation by embracing peace. The Emerald Claw offers them something: a cause, a grievance, and a promise. Some members believe Illmarrow will raise Karrnath above all other nations. Others simply trust she will grant them personal power—immortality, or the eternal life of undeath. They are, in general, wrong about her intentions and useful to her regardless.
Cells operate with significant independence. Unit commanders typically know only their immediate superior in the Covenant, often under a false name or face. This compartmentalization is intentional: security protects both the Order and Illmarrow herself.
The Treaty of Thronehold restricts: creation of new warforged; maintenance of standing armies above established limits; territorial expansion through military conquest.
It does not restrict: mercenary deployment across borders; adventurer party registration; house-run security operations; religious militias and divinely-summoned forces; the storage of already-existing undead armies in sealed crypts, awaiting orders that the treaty technically cannot forbid.
The distinction between what the treaty prohibits and what it merely discourages has become a minor art form practiced by diplomats, house lawyers, and military planners across every capital in Khorvaire.
Khorvaire's security architecture is adaptive rather than orderly. There is no single enforcement standard—only overlapping claims to authority, legitimacy, and force. Private actors, national militaries, and arcane guilds operate side by side, often in competition. The Sharn Watch and the King's Citadel operate within the same city but answer to different masters. House Deneith sells soldiers to nations that are still cold enemies. The Emerald Claw persists in the shadows of a country that legally disbanded it. And in the crypts beneath Atur, an army waits.
In the age of treaties without trust, swords are still drawn—but they now come with paperwork.