​Battlefield Role: Elite Heavy Cavalry
Steed: Demetrian Stallions.
Weapons: A cavalry lance, a heavy steel shield and a longsword.
Outfit: A great helmet and a reinforced full plate armour over mail.
Skill level: Experts in equitation and proficient at fighting on foot.
Affiliation: Apfel Island.
Doctrine: Bellona's Way of the Warmaiden
Strengths: These "bodyguards" are actually a full regiment of heavy cavalry composed of battle-hardened Dames. Lady Aurora Apfelgarten II leads them all in person, and she is great at it.
Weaknesses: They only fight under Countess Aurora Apfelgarten's personal command.
Apfelgarten Bodyguards
Due to Apfel Island's unusual political situation, the local countess, Lady Aurora Apfelgarten II, does not have any direct control over the official Apfelian Army. A protectorate treaty signed ages ago gives the Kaiserin Royal Crown full control over any standing military unit recruited in the region, effectively turning Apfel Island into a complete puppet state for many past generations.
But the current young countess is way different from her predecessors, using sheer cleverness to blatantly bypass the stupid bureaucracy that prevents her from commanding the troops who should rightfully be loyal to her very own name.
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The only types of troops which are not bound by the treaty to serve the Royal Crown are the local law enforcement units and Lady Aurora's own personal bodyguards, so using this small breach in the legal documentation, the clever Countess completely outwitted the royal crown by simply recruiting and outfitting an entire heavy cavalry regiment as no more and no less than her very own personal guard. All of them carrying Aurora's own coat of arms and swearing fealty to her name only.
As there is no limit to how many bodyguards a woman might have, Aurora II hired hundreds of loyal women-at-arms officially dedicated to "watch her back", while in essence every single one of those knighted Dames are actually fully operational soldiers under her direct command.
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The only downside of this scheme is that Countess Aurora Apfelgarten II must always personaly lead her bodyguards (otherwise it wouldn't be able to be considered a personal guard at all), but as she is also a very skilled cavalry commander, she has no problem in being her own general.
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Leading such a massive contingent of heavily armoured "bodyguards" to any battlefield she wants makes her way more powerful than any other Apfel Island's countess to ever precede her, and as if weren't already enough, she also completely repurposed and greatly expanded the local law enforcement units, turning them into military-grade light infantry regiments that also proudly wear her own coat of arms. In total, she has thousands of "irregular" women-at-arms answering directly to her orders, making the crown think twice before ever calling Apfel Island a Puppet State ever again.