"We aren't judges. Kinslayers, blood mages, traitors, rebels, carta thugs, common bandits — anyone with the skill and the mettle to take up the sword against the darkspawn is welcome among us."
— Riordan, Dragon Age: Origins
Taggart: What do you want me to do, sir?
Hedley Lamarr: I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger in the west. Take this down.
[Taggart looks for a pen and paper while Hedley talks]
Hedley Lamarr: I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!
Taggart: [finding pen and paper] Could you repeat that, sir?
Hedley Lamarr: I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger in the west. Take this down.
[Taggart looks for a pen and paper while Hedley talks]
Hedley Lamarr: I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswagglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers, and Methodists!
Taggart: [finding pen and paper] Could you repeat that, sir?
"Didn't count on my loyal army of prostitutes, did you?"
— Mitch, Dirty Work
Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA
Filled up with criminal prison inmates
Political prisoners, traitors and faggots
To defend the newborn Republic of Lokot
Dissidents, criminals, thieves and violators
A murderous phenomenon behind enemy lines
Anti-Soviet, pro-German death squads
Ambushed in the woods of Bryansk
Filled up with criminal prison inmates
Political prisoners, traitors and faggots
To defend the newborn Republic of Lokot
Dissidents, criminals, thieves and violators
A murderous phenomenon behind enemy lines
Anti-Soviet, pro-German death squads
Ambushed in the woods of Bryansk
— The Monolith Deathcult, "Master of the Bryansk Forest"
Alongside ruined roués with questionable means of support and of dubious origin, degenerate and adventurous scions of the bourgeoisie, there were vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged convicts, runaway galley slaves, swindlers, charlatans, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, procurers, brothel keepers, porters, literati, organ grinders, rag-pickers, knife-grinders, tinkers, beggars; in short, the entirely undefined, disintegrating mass, thrown hither and yon, which the French call la bohème.
—Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon
Our soldiers, who once hurled
Spain's mighty thunderbolts, and vanquished half the world,
Are all unpaid. Six thousand meagre, half-starved men,
Jews, mountaineers and vagabonds, from every den
Of infamy, strut in their ranks, and wear a sword
And knife ; which, when night's friendly shelter doth afford
The welcome chance, transforms each soldier to a thief.
Spain's mighty thunderbolts, and vanquished half the world,
Are all unpaid. Six thousand meagre, half-starved men,
Jews, mountaineers and vagabonds, from every den
Of infamy, strut in their ranks, and wear a sword
And knife ; which, when night's friendly shelter doth afford
The welcome chance, transforms each soldier to a thief.
Don't use good iron to make nails. Don't use a good man to make a soldier.
—Song dynasty aphorism
Come all you beggars of Paris town
You lousy rabble of low degree
We'll spare King Louis to keep his crown
And save our city from Burgundy
You lousy rabble of low degree
We'll spare King Louis to keep his crown
And save our city from Burgundy
— Villon, The Vagabond King, "Song of the Vagabonds"
They were thieves and murderers and fools and rapists and drunkards. Not one had joined for love of country, and certainly not for love of their King. They had joined because they had been drunk when the recruiting sergeant came to their village, or because a magistrate had offered them a choice between the gallows and the ranks, or because a girl was pregnant and wanted to marry them, or because a girl did not want to marry them, or because they were witless fools who believed the recruiter's outrageous lies or simply because the army gave them a pint of rum and three meals a day, and most had been hungry ever since. They were flogged on the orders of officers who were mostly gentlemen who would never be flogged. They were cursed as drunken halfwits, and they were hanged without trial if they stole so much as a chicken. At home, in Britain, if they left the barracks respectable people crossed the street to avoid them. Some taverns refused them service. They were paid pitifully, fined for every item they lost, and the few pennies they managed to keep they usually gambled away. They were feckless rogues, as violent as hounds and as coarse as swine, but they had two things.
They had pride.
And they had the precious ability to fire platoon volleys. They could fire those half-company volleys faster than any other army in the world. Stand in front of these redcoats and the balls came thick as hail. It was death to be in their way and seven French battalions were now in death's forecourt and the South Essex was tearing them to ribbons... the Frenchmen who had gained the ridge were being assailed on two sides by enemies who knew how to fire their muskets. Who had practiced musketry until they could do it blindfolded, drunk or mad. They were the red-coated killers and they were good.
They had pride.
And they had the precious ability to fire platoon volleys. They could fire those half-company volleys faster than any other army in the world. Stand in front of these redcoats and the balls came thick as hail. It was death to be in their way and seven French battalions were now in death's forecourt and the South Essex was tearing them to ribbons... the Frenchmen who had gained the ridge were being assailed on two sides by enemies who knew how to fire their muskets. Who had practiced musketry until they could do it blindfolded, drunk or mad. They were the red-coated killers and they were good.
The Prussian Service was considerably worse than the English. The life that a private soldier led was a frightful one. Punishment was incessant, and every officer had the right to inflict it. The gauntlet was the most common penalty for minor offences. More serious ones were punishable by mutilation or death.
At the close of the Seven Years’ War the army, so renowned for its disciplined valour, was officered by native Prussians, but it was composed for the most part of men from the lowest levels of humanity, hired or stolen from almost every nation in Europe.
Thus, Barry fell into the worst of courses and company… and was soon very far advanced in the science of every kind of misconduct.
At the close of the Seven Years’ War the army, so renowned for its disciplined valour, was officered by native Prussians, but it was composed for the most part of men from the lowest levels of humanity, hired or stolen from almost every nation in Europe.
Thus, Barry fell into the worst of courses and company… and was soon very far advanced in the science of every kind of misconduct.
Disgusting really, Bergen had dealt with rapists before.
He just never dealt with an army of them.
He just never dealt with an army of them.
"Because the Wolvesnote kill cleanly, and wenote do not. They also kill quickly, and we have never done that, either. They fight, they win, and they stalk back to their ships with their tails held high. If they were ever ordered to destroy another Legion, they would do it by hurling warrior against warrior, seeking to grind their enemies down with the admirable delusions of the 'noble savage'. If we were ever ordered to assault another Legion, we would virus bomb their recruitment worlds; slaughter their serfs and slaves; poison their gene-seed repositories and spend the next dozen decades watching them die slow, humiliating deaths. Night after night, raid after raid, we'd overwhelm stragglers from their fleets and bleach their skulls to hang from our armour, until none remained. But that isn't the quick execution the Emperor needs, is it? The Wolves go for the throat. We go for the eyes. Then the tongue. Then the hands. Then the feet. Then we skin the crippled remains, and offer it up as an example to any still bearing witness. The Wolves were warriors before they became soldiers. We were murderers first, last, and always!"
— Jago Sevatarion, Warhammer 40,000
Mei: Can they really get away with treating a noble that way? What did he mean when he said they represented the shogunate?
Ranmaru: The ones in white coats are part of the City Watch.
Mei: Never heard of it. Was it a new organization?
Ranmaru: The shogun himself established it recently, in order to keep the peace. We've been killing their big shots one after another, remember? The shogun got scared and hastily created a new group to protect himself from rebel schemes.
Mei: I thought he had bigger balls than that.
Ranmaru: Anyone would panic if all their allies were being killed. After all, everyone who got assassinated was being protected by heavy security and died anyways.
Mei: (He had a point. Only someone insane to begin with could remain stable in a situation like that.) I guess that's why men like them are members.
Ranmaru: Yes, I assume they recruited anyone who could fight, regardless of their backgrounds. [...] From my investigations, the City Watch is an officially sanctioned street gang. We shouldn't have to worry about them too much.
Ranmaru: The ones in white coats are part of the City Watch.
Mei: Never heard of it. Was it a new organization?
Ranmaru: The shogun himself established it recently, in order to keep the peace. We've been killing their big shots one after another, remember? The shogun got scared and hastily created a new group to protect himself from rebel schemes.
Mei: I thought he had bigger balls than that.
Ranmaru: Anyone would panic if all their allies were being killed. After all, everyone who got assassinated was being protected by heavy security and died anyways.
Mei: (He had a point. Only someone insane to begin with could remain stable in a situation like that.) I guess that's why men like them are members.
Ranmaru: Yes, I assume they recruited anyone who could fight, regardless of their backgrounds. [...] From my investigations, the City Watch is an officially sanctioned street gang. We shouldn't have to worry about them too much.
