Mercenary

Mercenaries are combatants in military conflicts who are not associated with a government body, but fighting for personal financial gain. Typically mercenaries are disinterested in the finer points of a conflict (moral concerns, ideology, and so forth) and only fight for those who hire them. Mercenaries normally work in groups to have stronger barganing posistions and for support.

The advantage of Mercenaries is that, when they are available they can be put to use as soon as they have been hired. The big disadvantage is that of loyalty and the fact that they are usually under looser control than regular soliders.

Real World Mercenaries

• Barbarian Mercenaries employed by the Roman Empire in its latter years.
• Varangian Guard
• Condottieri in Italy from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment
• German Landsknecht
• Academi and other PDFs in modern times

Mercenaries in Fiction

• Eclipse
• Blood Pack
• Blue Suns