The successor to the Imperial Order of Cuirassiers, and the premier upholders of the tradition of knighthood in northern Esparc, the Dragoon Corps is only four years old and already garnering its own legend. In these days of fear and strife, an order of heroes is in high demand. Unfortunately, the dragoons have a number of hurdles to overcome—not least of which is that their predecessors were the exact sort of tyranny that Esparchian knights are supposed to fight against.
The Dragoon Corps is a young organisation, birthed in the aftermath of the Veskite rebellion. Once the emperor had been toppled, the fate of the cuirassiers was one of the first topics of discussion at the nascent Council of Lords. Many called for their dissolution, as they had committed atrocities against the people of the empire, but an argument was made to replace them with a new knightly order, to clear away the criminals and soldiers and attempt to rebuild the respect of knights in the confederation. This argument came with the patronage of the Luminary Church through its reclusive research wing, the Schola Dissidia.
The Council found this argument persuasive, and instituted an order to create the Dragoon Corps. While the corps is intended to eventually cover the whole of the confederation, Rimewater Vale has been designated as a testing ground for the Schola's proposal, placing the headquarters of the corps in the great city of Kirkwall.
The corps is in the midst of recovering its membership, with the majority of the old cuirassiers having been purged and many of their dragon eggs having been confiscated by the Council to set free. Public perception of the corps is poor, with their continued involvement with the enigmatic Schola perceived as a sinister conspiracy by many, and the memory of the cuirassiers' crimes fresh on the minds of the populace.
Still, the corps has, at least publicly, stuck to its principles of chivalric duty, and has begun training its recruits to take on the growing threat of the Scourge and the chaos that has come with it. They have yet to recruit many dragons, though, making their claim to knighthood questionable in the minds of those who consider the draconic partnership to be core to the concept, a fact that has hurt their image, but they are persevering for now, their message being that the fulfilment of their mission is more important than their image.