Life in the Temple Knights Chasseur

Location
The Chasseur HQ is located in the Coerthas Eastern Lowlands, on one of the major roads linking Ishgard to Gridania, in a region (and town) named Riveaux. They are a few bells ride away from the border, a bridge crossing.

Riveaux
Riveaux was once a Barony owned by House Riveaux-major and their branch-houses, and is a small region in the Lowlands that lies within the County of Fortemps. The capital of the Barony was once a castle to the north, but it was donated to the Temple Knights a century ago. The capital is now the town of Riveaux, where the Chasseurs are now stationed.

The Chasseurs are currently in control of the old manor/estate of House Riveaux-minor, which is located at the top of a hill in the outskirts of the town. The town itself is only a few-minutes ride eastwards, down a forest road.

The town was once a major trading nexus for surrounding Coerthan lowland settlements, as it was connected directly to the road back to Ishgard. This has since only become more prominent ever since the borders were opened; and many traders from both Gridania and Mor Dhona have made their way to and through Riveaux to trade.

This did, however, mean that for a while, before the Chasseurs arrived, there was quite a high presence of bandits and highwaymen — a trend that has since drastically lowered with the presence of the Knights.

Recently, Riveaux has been the target of a lot of resettlement initiatives, as the Houses of Lords and Commons see it as one of the few remaining Coerthan lands suitable for agriculture.

Given this importance placed by Parliament, one of the Chasseurs’ current duties is to protect Riveaux and its surrounding areas.

The Knights & Squires
While technically an experiment to test the viability of a Grand Company-like force in Ishgard, the Chasseurs still fall under the oversight and general culture of the Temple Knights. As such, they have inherited the Temple Knights terminology, rankings, and some administrative ideas.

There are two distinct ‘branches’ within the Chasseurs:


 * 1) The Knights & Chasseurs
 * 2) The Squires

Knights & Chasseurs
The Knights and Chasseurs are the ‘elite’ forces of the Chasseurs, and are the main force/spearhead that is usually mustered for rapid response operations. Most of the FC’s characters are in this ‘branch’. Given the Chasseurs’ doctrine on individual initiative, most if not all the Knights have some form of minor or major leadership role, relative to the squires.

Responsibilities include:


 * Training their assigned squires
 * Assigned squires shift depending on what the squires need to learn at the time, and their chosen areas of expertise/specialisation
 * Methods include: seminars, training sessions, or apprenticing
 * Leading patrols around the town and the surrounding region
 * Clerical duties
 * ie. logistics/supply management, administration, medical duties
 * Headquarters cleaning + hygiene

Squires
The Chasseur Squires are not your typical ‘golf-caddy’-like assistants. They are, in fact, the ‘bulk’ of the Chasseurs manpower, and are trainee-knights. Those who pass through the Squiring become full-fledged Knight Chasseurs, and passing that theoretically requires a trial — something that hasn’t been done yet. The trial is supposed to test the Squires in their chosen areas of specialisation, as well as their general Chasseur-specific training, and promote them if their performance is satisfactory.

As such, much of a Squire’s life in the Chasseurs is dedicated to training exercises and low to medium-risk combat missions in the Coerthan Lowlands. They are usually the ones who protect Riveaux while the Knights are attending to their duties. However, some squires, depending on their skillset, may be taken along with the Knights, should manpower be needed.

Not all of the Squires are incredibly ‘green’ at war or combat, after all. While plenty are young hopefuls from the Brume or outskirts of Coerthas; some are grizzled combat veterans who are looking for a new place to make a name for themselves.

The Silvergrace Academy currently has a special relationship with the Knights Chasseur — Ishgardian-citizenship-holding students from this leadership academy are allowed to squire temporarily with the Chasseurs in order to receive additional training and on-the-field experience regarding leadership and administration.

Typical responsibilities of a squire include:


 * Attending training sessions/seminars assigned to them
 * For example:
 * Mage-Squires may attend seminars headed by Fiona
 * All Squires attend chocobo-care seminars by X’ahni
 * Riding and jousting lessons from Domeric
 * Aspiring Medics may shadow Yrys
 * Etc.
 * Taking part in patrols around Riveaux and the countryside, clearing them of bandits
 * Local law enforcement within the Riveaux township
 * Including customs for foreign merchants
 * Maintenance duties (on a rota/assignment)
 * For example:
 * Cooking (squires take turn to cook as a team for dinner only, every week)
 * Equipment maintenance
 * Headquarters cleaning + hygiene
 * Stables etc.

Foreign Levies
As an experimental Grand Company, the Chasseurs are authorised to recruit foreigners into their ranks — provided they are vetted thoroughly, and put through a fairly cumbersome bureaucratic process. These foreign levies are incentivised with the reward of Ishgardian citizenship at the end of their service.

Foreign Levies occupy a unique position that is flexibly between the Knight and Squire branches. They technically exist ‘outside’ of that dichotomy, and are simply Chasseurs, as they are, save for fringe cases (such as foreign knighthood), not knighted. Should a foreign levy possess the necessary skills to qualify being a Knight, they are simply deployed on combat missions and given the same responsibilities as a Knight — but they lack the title of a Knight.

Acquiring the title of a Knight will require two things from the foreign Chasseur:


 * Passing their Naturalisation examination
 * Passing the Knighthood trial

OR


 * Applying for a transfer of foreign knighthood
 * Applicable specifically for those with an equivalent title in their culture, such as Samurai
 * This process is not incredibly reliable, and is very bureaucracy heavy, and involves a written essay on why the foreign knighthood is equivalent to that of an Ishgardian knighthood
 * Passing their Naturalisation examination

Due to this, and the ‘end result’ of Ishgardian Citizenship, foreign Chasseurs are mandated to attend a weekly course in Ishgard on Ishgardian culture, history, the democratic process (including the workings of Parliament and how to vote) and optionally, religious studies in Halonic Orthodoxy.

After these courses, the foreign Chasseurs may choose to take a written examination to get their citizenship early; or simply wait for the end of their military service to take the exam.