Daily life in Melza: Frontiersmen Corps

The Frontiersmen Corps of Melza (colloquially, "the Frontiersmen") is a law enforcement agency that functions as a border patrol force, as customs police and as countryside gendarmes within the small state and monarchy of Melza.

 

Melza's law enforcement falls under several different agencies, each with its own leader. However, the undispusted chief of all these institutions is the Lord Mayor, and in an advisory role, his security ministers.

Melza's law enforcement has decent inventories of equipment, but lacks heavy weaponry or aircraft and only owns a few small auxilliary boats in addition to ground vehicles. Much of the police's equipment includes special tools and less-lethal incapacitating weaponry.

Both the City Watch and the Frontiersmen Corps have their central headquarters in the Watch Wing of The Houses of Rule.

The Frontiersmen Corps of Melza coat of arms, from my Orbis Furum (Thick as Thieves) fantasy setting.

Based in part on the coat of arms of Melza. It retains the river motif from the shield, but keeps the whole shield green (akin to the older version of the city's coat of arms, before it was shifted to two colours), and adds argent (silver) mountains above the river, symbolising the lands in the small Melzan monarchy, between the local mountains and rivers.

The nine eight-pointed stars symbolize the other nine settlements of the statelet (aside from Melza itself, as the metropolis), with the eight-pointed stars representing the cardinal directions (north, south, west, east, northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast). The two larger or (golden) stars symbolise the two towns in the monarchy and the seven argent (silver) stars symbolise the seven villages in the monarchy, in the rural areas of the statelet, outside The City.

Behind the shield are two crossed argent (silver) one-handed sabres with or (golden) hilts. Like the coat of arms of Melza, the Frontiersmen Corps CoA also carries the baronial crown of the Melzan monarchy as its crest.

Frontiersmen Corps

The Frontiersmen function as a gendarmerie, border patrol and customs police equivalent.

Infantry service (first row, left to right): Woodsman, Spotter, Ranger, Vanguard, Captain
Mounted service (second row, left to right): Horseman, Scout, Outrider, Trooper, Marshal
Customs service (third row, left to right): Stamper, Goodsman, Verifier, Tarrifist, Coordinator

Boss: Frontiersman-in-Chief

The service the Frontiersman (gendarme) serves under is depicted in the upper third of the badge. A horn signifies infantry gendarmes, a horseshoe signifies mounted gendarmes and a chest (coffer) signifies customs gendarmes (mostly office workers).

The rank level is indicated by a spyglass, the lowest rank being a single spyglass and the highest rank being five spyglasses. For easier readability, the spyglass charges come in two alternating designs.

 

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In-universe terminology

Some of the ranks are fairly otherworldly in their naming convention, not just the actual imagery of the badges. I did this deliberately. I didn't want to evoke ranks that sound too much like those from our real world, when the setting is a fictional universe, with its own history. It's a parallel world, historically grounded in feel and similar to older periods of our history, but specific institutional and government traditions are unsurprisingly different. Some of the Watch ranks are a bit more familiar, but there's plenty of unusual stuff in there as well. As a country, Melza doesn't even use the terms "policemen" and "gendarmes" that much, especially not the latter.

 

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Other related Thick as Thieves concept art
- Law enforcement sword hilts
- Trick arrows and other projectiles
- Trick bombs and trick mines
- Lockpicking tools and equipment

 

 

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