Blades

The Blades, also called the Dragonguard, is an elite order of bodyguards and operatives serving the Dragonborn rulers of the Empire.

When Reman I defeated the Akaviri Dragonguard – at this time dragon hunters – at the Battle of Pale Pass in 1E 2703, its survivors proclaimed him Dragonborn and pledged perpetual fidelity to Reman and his heirs. Their support was crucial in the success of Reman's conquest of Tamriel and foundation of the Second Empire. The Blades served as the elite bodyguard of the Dragonborn emperors of the Reman Empire, although they continued to hunt dragons throughout Tamriel to near extinction. Their failure to prevent the assassination of Reman III in 1E 2920, however, resulted in their official disbandment.

The order was revived during the reign of Tiber Septim – a Dragonborn – and birth of the Third Empire. Whereas the Reman Dynasty had only utilised the Blades as the emperor's elite bodyguard, in service to the Septim Dynasty the Blades diversified into epsionage and diplomacy.

The bodyguard and diplomats of the Blades serve openly (easily identified by their distinctive Akaviri armour and weaponry), but most of its members operate covertly throughout the continent. Based in regional temples or hiding in plain sight, the Blades are thought to have a presence in every major city in Tamriel. Its agents protect the interests of the Dragonborn throughout the Empire, foiling treason and sedition wherever it buds.

Organisation
Distributed throughout Tamriel, the activities of one Blades' temple or cell is entirely unknown to another. Only two people, at any given time, know the affairs of the whole order: the Grandmaster and the Chronicler.

The identity of the Grandmaster, despite leading the Blades, is itself a secret known to few. To protect themselves – and more critically, the secrets of the order – the Grandmaster traditionally lives inconspicuously in plain sight. The Chronicler's duty, like that of the Grandmaster, is to ensure that the Blades' secrets are "never known, but never lost".