Free Companies

From Glen Cook Wiki

A group of military companies, by tradition twelve in number, which entered the world over four hundred years ago. The Black Company is the last surviving Free Company of Khatovar; Company tradition holds that all the other Companies were from Khatovar too, but it appears that they may have originated in several worlds, and that there were more than twelve. However, Khatovar was the first to send out the Companies.

The Companies went forth from several different worlds over several centuries into several others, each serving a different sect of the demon goddess Kina. Most were sent out to explore, rather than pursue military operations; all had priests. Their true mission seems to have been was to determine which world should be awarded the honor of being sacrificed in order to bring on the Year of the Skulls.