Drafted Service
Citizenship in Dominus Columbia was not given. It was earned on the Red Embankment, a strip of fortified killing fields along the northern wall of the peninsula, roughly seventy miles of barrier stretching from waterway to waterway. The Drafted Service was the mandatory military obligation required of every person who wished to hold citizenship, and it was stationed on that wall. By the time a citizen completed their service, they knew how to fight, how to survive, and what it cost to keep the undead hordes on the other side of the stone.
Children born within Dominus Columbia lived freely until their thirteenth winter, at which point they reported to the Red Embankment to begin their term. Born citizens served three years: one in training, two in active duty. Outsiders who sought to join the settlement faced a harder road. Two years of training followed by four years of active service, six years total, a term designed to ensure that newcomers intended to build their own future rather than subsist on the efforts of others. The message was clear. If you wanted to call this place home, you would bleed for it first.
Training was overseen by Drill Leader Sigmund Raastad and a team of specialized trainers. Raastad personally joined training days and took special interest in outsider recruits. The curriculum covered basic tactical knowledge, armed and unarmed combat, and survival skills. The purpose was not to produce elite soldiers but to ensure that even the most pampered members of Dominus Columbia society could defend themselves and their home when the wall needed bodies.
And the wall always needed bodies. Patrol groups walked the top of the Red Embankment carrying long tridents for pushing climbing undead back down, fuel-spitting flamethrowers, and long-handled axes. Barrels of pitch and long-burning liquids lined the ramparts for dumping over the side and igniting the massed dead below. Three covered tunnels pierced the wall, allowing caravans through from the north. Each tunnel was defended by over a hundred armed troops, iron gates, clockwork burning programs, and the ability to flood the passage with burning pitch if the worst happened. The highest concentration of Drafted Service troops gathered at these three points, because the tunnels were the wall's greatest vulnerability, and everyone who served there knew it.
Children born within Dominus Columbia lived freely until their thirteenth winter, at which point they reported to the Red Embankment to begin their term. Born citizens served three years: one in training, two in active duty. Outsiders who sought to join the settlement faced a harder road. Two years of training followed by four years of active service, six years total, a term designed to ensure that newcomers intended to build their own future rather than subsist on the efforts of others. The message was clear. If you wanted to call this place home, you would bleed for it first.
Training was overseen by Drill Leader Sigmund Raastad and a team of specialized trainers. Raastad personally joined training days and took special interest in outsider recruits. The curriculum covered basic tactical knowledge, armed and unarmed combat, and survival skills. The purpose was not to produce elite soldiers but to ensure that even the most pampered members of Dominus Columbia society could defend themselves and their home when the wall needed bodies.
And the wall always needed bodies. Patrol groups walked the top of the Red Embankment carrying long tridents for pushing climbing undead back down, fuel-spitting flamethrowers, and long-handled axes. Barrels of pitch and long-burning liquids lined the ramparts for dumping over the side and igniting the massed dead below. Three covered tunnels pierced the wall, allowing caravans through from the north. Each tunnel was defended by over a hundred armed troops, iron gates, clockwork burning programs, and the ability to flood the passage with burning pitch if the worst happened. The highest concentration of Drafted Service troops gathered at these three points, because the tunnels were the wall's greatest vulnerability, and everyone who served there knew it.
Structure
The Drafted Service was overseen by Drill Leader Sigmund Raastad and a team of trainers specialized in different aspects of basic combat and survival instruction. Raastad personally joined training days and took special interest in outsider recruits. The training curriculum covered basic tactical knowledge, armed and unarmed combat, and survival skills. Born citizens served three years beginning at their thirteenth winter: one year in training, two in active duty on the wall. Outsiders faced a harder road: two years of training followed by four years of active service, six years total, designed to ensure that newcomers intended to build their own future rather than live off the efforts of others.
Public Agenda
The purpose of the Drafted Service was stated plainly: ensure that every citizen of Dominus Columbia could defend themselves and their home. The Red Embankment required constant patrols, the three tunnel gates required heavy garrisons, and the undead never stopped pressing against the northern wall. Citizenship carried the obligation to serve, and service meant learning what it cost to keep the dead on their side of the stone.
History
The Drafted Service was first mobilized as a fighting force during the Unification War (22 to 24 DC), led by Lady Seraphina. That deployment marked its inaugural use beyond the Red Embankment's defensive operations. The Drafted Service won the Siege of Fort Harrow during the war, proving that a citizen militia trained on undead could fight the living just as effectively.
In the years that followed, the Drafted Service settled into its primary role: manning the Red Embankment and training every citizen of Dominus Columbia to defend their home. The Laws of Ellistown Landing reference the Drafted Service as providing military enforcement backup for the civilian legal system, extending its reach beyond the wall and into the territory's internal governance.
In the years that followed, the Drafted Service settled into its primary role: manning the Red Embankment and training every citizen of Dominus Columbia to defend their home. The Laws of Ellistown Landing reference the Drafted Service as providing military enforcement backup for the civilian legal system, extending its reach beyond the wall and into the territory's internal governance.
Mandatory wall service: the price of citizenship in Dominus Columbia.
Type
Mandatory military service
Station
Red Embankment
Born Citizen Term
3 years (from age 13)
Outsider Term
6 years
Drill Leader
Sigmund Raastad
First Deployment
Unification War (22-24 DC)
