The legendary elite force of crack troops known as the Illian Companions traditionally ride with the commanding general during any conflict. During the Whitecloak War the valor of the Companions held the field against a Whitecloak trap set to catch King Stepaneos and destroy Illian resistance to the Whitcloak invasion of Altra, Murandy and Illian.

The Companions are a rapid deployment force that is highly specialized in light Cavalry tactics. Although most of the finest mounted soldiers are found in the Borderlands, Illian’s Companions are the rare southern Kingdom that has a force that not only rivals the skill of the borderland Cavalry but in some cases exceeds it. The Companions are so successful due to the allegiance they have to the nation of illian. In most nations a military force is bought and financed through a lord or some other type of wealthy titleholder. In most cases the talent of soldiers is less than superior and is undisciplined at best. The Companions are sponsored and financed by the Nation of Illian, and the chain of command is quite a bit more sophisticated. The Commpanions are made up of pikeman and crossbowman near the front but their real strength is the light Calvary.

The light Cavalry of the Companions makes up the bulk of the force, the men who ride are superior in mounted and unmounted combat. The precision riding and dangerous military tactics that they bring to any conflict are enough to sway even the most no-win situations. The Cavalry is made up of two squadrons that work in unison with each other. The favored tactic is the L shaped ambush.

Upon first contact with an opposing military force the companions will set the line of pikeman and crossbowman, because the companions are normally outnumbered in any conflict the enemy rarely send out flankers. Most of the time a direct attack is favored by the opposing force, believing that they will roll right over the substantially smaller force. The first squadron of Calvarymen will come on line at the leading edge of the ground force to form the L. The bottom line of the L being the ground force, and the upper line of the L being the Cavalry squadron. Upon initial engagement the opposing force will attempt to roll over the ground force. This always proves to be a more difficult task than thought. The ground force although small in size always deploys a very strong set of traps and snares, by the time the opposing force has makes it to the front line of the ground force they are normally wounded and battered. The first squadron of light Cavalry will strike the side of the opposing force, creating a two-sided attack to the other force. The normal chain of events is that the opposing leaders will give the withdraw orders too late, because the second squadron of cavalry will rain down on their sides and back closing the box of death onto the enemy force.

Although this is a favorite tactic, and it proved to be a very successful tactic against the Tearians it is not the only tactic that this elite force uses. The greatest weapon is discipline, precision and a ferocious devotion to their Kingdom. In recent events the Companions were deployed by Lord “Brend” (Sammael) to the fort like defense grid that had been created to keep the forces of the Lord Dragon out. The Companions fought and held many Aiel attacks, the Aiel known to be the perennial fighting force in the world, seemed to avoid the area the Companions patrolled in. After few too many defeats to the Companions the Aiel changed their strategy and started to attack more of the forces that were sent out to scout and gather information. The Aiel found these forces easier targets than the Companions.

The last was a creative writing display, the books never touched on the Companions during the battles for Illian. But being a prideful Illianer I have to believe that this was the case.