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And once again, pasting what I wrote on The Tumblies by way of MY TAKE ON THIS:
30 active dragoons, at one time.
Which is to say:
There are more than 30 living and generally fighting-fit people who are trained as dragoons; lots more. All but 30 of them are all either retired, semi-retired, assigned to a desk job, on sick leave, doing non-Dragoon-specific field work, training potential dragoon recruits, or otherwise not currently acting as A Battle-Ready Dragoon Of The Holy See. As in: they are not currently under any Dragoon-specific orders, so they are not counted as “one of the 30″ who can be relied upon to show up at less than a day’s notice to big battles with the Horde.
When one of the 30 is injured or sick, and no new recruit is available (remember the recruitment process is also incredibly harsh - there are probably a lot of times when there are no suitable recruits ready to step up), one of these periphery dragoons will be asked to come in and step into the ranks and fill whatever dangerous Dragoon-specific role that previous person was doing before they were incapacitated. There’s probably a hierarchy of who gets asked - based on why they’re “â€on leaveâ€â€, how long it’s been since their last mission (sooner is better - the longer someone’s been out of action the less chance they’ll be called back to it), how suited their personal strengths are to the task, and whether it’s easy for them to leave their current business or not. Refusing is, of course, likely treason and/or grounds for accusations of heresy, but they probably try to be kind.
The reason there’s only “10 current dragoons†after the War is ended isn’t necessarily because there’s only 10 people remaining alive who’ve ever been taught the art of the dragoon, although losing 20 out of 30 people from the actively serving dragoon force during the battle seems about right.
It’s because after the war there are only 10 dragoons currently acting, as dragoons, in service to the Holy See.
After the end of the war with the dragons, they probably didn’t see fit to replenish the ranks of the… dragon-killing squad… with other knights-in-training when they could be assigned to relief or crowd control or literally anything else than torturously indoctrinating themselves into the dragon-killing squad.
They also likely struggled to find a periphery dragoon that wasn’t preoccupied with issues relating to the end of the war and the reform of the government, including injuries sustained during the final battle. (They probably aren’t authorised to wear their drachen mail unless they’re one of the current 30 - maybe plenty of the footknights we see on the bridge are, in fact, trained dragoons that Lucia asked to come out?)
Those remaining 10 dragoons are probably doing a mixture of coordinating the taking of the Aery, routing the remainder of the Horde, and the reconnaissance and diplomacy we see them performing in the Sea of Clouds during sidequests.
There are lots more trained dragoons, not counted among the official 10, doing what the dragoons we see in the DRG quest-line are doing… travelling to find themselves (Estinien), taking care of their family (Montorgains), trying to finish a personal quest (Heustienne), or doing their best to make up for past mistakes (Alberic).
[ETA: see below posts from Teadrinker & me for more context]
30 active dragoons, at one time.
Which is to say:
There are more than 30 living and generally fighting-fit people who are trained as dragoons; lots more. All but 30 of them are all either retired, semi-retired, assigned to a desk job, on sick leave, doing non-Dragoon-specific field work, training potential dragoon recruits, or otherwise not currently acting as A Battle-Ready Dragoon Of The Holy See. As in: they are not currently under any Dragoon-specific orders, so they are not counted as “one of the 30″ who can be relied upon to show up at less than a day’s notice to big battles with the Horde.
When one of the 30 is injured or sick, and no new recruit is available (remember the recruitment process is also incredibly harsh - there are probably a lot of times when there are no suitable recruits ready to step up), one of these periphery dragoons will be asked to come in and step into the ranks and fill whatever dangerous Dragoon-specific role that previous person was doing before they were incapacitated. There’s probably a hierarchy of who gets asked - based on why they’re “â€on leaveâ€â€, how long it’s been since their last mission (sooner is better - the longer someone’s been out of action the less chance they’ll be called back to it), how suited their personal strengths are to the task, and whether it’s easy for them to leave their current business or not. Refusing is, of course, likely treason and/or grounds for accusations of heresy, but they probably try to be kind.
The reason there’s only “10 current dragoons†after the War is ended isn’t necessarily because there’s only 10 people remaining alive who’ve ever been taught the art of the dragoon, although losing 20 out of 30 people from the actively serving dragoon force during the battle seems about right.
It’s because after the war there are only 10 dragoons currently acting, as dragoons, in service to the Holy See.
After the end of the war with the dragons, they probably didn’t see fit to replenish the ranks of the… dragon-killing squad… with other knights-in-training when they could be assigned to relief or crowd control or literally anything else than torturously indoctrinating themselves into the dragon-killing squad.
They also likely struggled to find a periphery dragoon that wasn’t preoccupied with issues relating to the end of the war and the reform of the government, including injuries sustained during the final battle. (They probably aren’t authorised to wear their drachen mail unless they’re one of the current 30 - maybe plenty of the footknights we see on the bridge are, in fact, trained dragoons that Lucia asked to come out?)
Those remaining 10 dragoons are probably doing a mixture of coordinating the taking of the Aery, routing the remainder of the Horde, and the reconnaissance and diplomacy we see them performing in the Sea of Clouds during sidequests.
There are lots more trained dragoons, not counted among the official 10, doing what the dragoons we see in the DRG quest-line are doing… travelling to find themselves (Estinien), taking care of their family (Montorgains), trying to finish a personal quest (Heustienne), or doing their best to make up for past mistakes (Alberic).
[ETA: see below posts from Teadrinker & me for more context]
![[Image: tUzrT.png]](https://puu.sh/tUzrT.png)