The Ember Guard

The Ember Guard are elite oath-soldiers charged with protecting the Cinder Throne, carrying high decrees, and executing officers who mistake personal ambition for state will. Their dark lacquered armour bears furnace-red crests and smells of oil, ash, leather, and hot metal after drill. They are trusted because they are feared by the powerful first. The order is old enough that its earliest oaths are recited like burial vows. Its beauty is restraint under command; its dread is sudden violence delivered with ritual calm.