The Orcish Guard was an elite circle of warriors and administrators close to Lamik, who served as the Boen administrative core.

Guard and Court

The Guard was founded in 28 b. OW out of 100 veteran and loyal warriors^[1]. They were initially just very loyal warriors acting as Lamik's retinue, acting as bodyguards for his shards and relatively quickly taking on the administrative role of representing him as delegates. Guards, usually alone or in small groups, imposed his will towards important leaders (they were more loyal, as individual lone warriors who drew their position exclusively from Lamik rather than vested tribal leaders with territory and vassals under their command). They also acted as political police enforcers, and took on miscellaneous roles like carrying state messages and acting as bodyguard-advisors for important shamans and Destructivists as well.

The Guard's numbers rapidly swelled, and Lamik made generous use of them as imposed officers in various unruly regions. Many disloyal leaders were outright replaced with Guard officers, who were kept loyal by their origin but also by making their positions non-hereditary.

Commissar Administration

Wherever the Boens conquered human territory, they set up a provincial government headed by Guard commissars. These were very powerful officials dedicated to a domain. Most provinces had just three: the commissars of war, industry, and agriculture, with war being the most important. The commissars also oversaw a variety of institutions beneath them, many of which were small and important enough to be staffed by the Guard itself. For example, the Litchy commissars had a Guard mounted messenger and relay network, under the purview of the interior commissar. The point of the commissar system was in first position to support the war effort, orienting the conquered population towards the war economy and suppressing any unrest. The system worked decently at this, but was only capable to produce mass materials and armies of relatively low quality, and it was riddled with other issues, including fierce competition between commissars, self-interest, and an opaque administration as each region and sub-region managed things its own way.

The transition from smaller warband management and leader representation to full imperial administration caused necessary changes in Guard structure. It had a military-style hierarchy at the top, with a few grand officers commanding other senior officers and managing personnel and missions at the imperial level, including the appointment of commissars. The individuals at this level of seniority were still chosen personally by Lamik or top Guards from the orcish elite. At the lower rungs, thousands of Guards were needed to staff enforcement units, commissars' bureaucracies, messenger services, and so on. These units were largely recruited by local officials and disbursed a salary by them, being delegated the "Guard" status only because they were following orders of proper Guards above.

This system also featured the office of viceroy, which could be appointed by Lamik to specific regions for major campaigns. One was appointed to the Venan campaign, one to the anti-Gezneth campaign, and one to the management of the Northern heartland and the established tribal leaders there.

Orders

Reforms were implemented in 21 OW to bring the failing economy and administration back under control. This included the much clearer administrative regulation of the Guard. Structurally, it was split into five Orders, each of which had one fifth of the Boen empire's territory to manage. The Orders each had ministries, or areas of responsibility, and were managed for executive and legislative matters by the council of ministers (these ministers, to a large part, were former commissars).

Militarily, Lamik could still appoint viceroys, chief army commanders who stood above even the Orders and had absolute authority for one campaign. Smaller armies were required to have Order officers commanding them, but they could be raised locally, either through Order levy and tribal obligation systems, tribal units deployed from orcish heartlands through the Order system, or through local auxiliary systems (including ogres or even humans) which were commanded or supervised by Orders. Fleets were likewise managed at the Order level.

The Orders were obligated to fulfill some additional state functions, such as the state messenger service, a wyvern station and a relay post network, and a basic bookkeeping / questor system to give some legibility of economic and demographic affairs to central questors. The Orders also had to pay a basic tithe, in precious metals, to the central Guard authority. Lower rungs of the administration, such as town governance, plantation or countryside estate management, and factory oversight were usually handled by local authorities (elite private orcs, Destructivists, or shamans). The Orders also employed sizeable gendarmeries used for local law enforcement and executing disloyal or rebellious elements. The officers of these corps were proper Guards, but their regular soldiers - trained in Orders' military academies - were not.

New Guards were required to receive a Boen commission to take on their offices (only orcs could receive such). The most common way was training in a Destructivist or shamanistic college and then receiving a pro forma commission from a high official at the end; it was however also still possible to receive a commission as a prestigious reward directly from Lamik or a high official.

When the Orders' power declined in the later years of the War, they often left large expanses of territory to be ruled by local orcish lords or other devices. Lamik also claimed some power for himself through the institution of the high commissioner (used in 49, 54 twice, and 56), a Guard official wielding Lamik's authority in a given region, usually to act separately or as a major and largely autonomous player in Order governance.