Eternal Guard

From Glen Cook Wiki

A garrison of soldiers stationed outside the Barrowland, established by the White Rose centuries ago as a permanent bulwark against anyone trying to free the Dominator, Lady, or Ten Who Were Taken from their imprisonment. The exact size of the garrison is never specified but appears to be perhaps a couple of hundred. These soldiers use special amulets to safely enter the Barrowland proper.

At the time the wizard Bomanz secretly began investigating the Barrowland, the Eternal Guard had been in place for three hundred years and was showing signs of neglect. Few believed anymore that the Dominator and his people were still alive and the Guard was no longer respected. In the final days before the resurrection, the final captain of the Guard, Besand, was replaced by a political exile completely unsuited to the job; he brought two wagons of clothes for his mistress to the spartan barracks.

After the Lady's resurrection, she reaffirmed the importance of the Eternal Guard, particularly since her husband was still interred in the Great Barrow. Imperial soldiers took up the duty. However, as the decades crept on and her attention was elsewhere, the Guard once again began a decline, although it remained a highly alert and professional force. It was largely destroyed in the battle of the Barrowland when the Dominator was killed; the remnants of the Guard left a few weeks later,