The most prolific private security firm in the Tatharian Empire, with branches in every province and in many of its major colonies.
Reputation
Nightwatch guards are reliably tough and reliably brave, qualities the firm advertises heavily and delivers on consistently enough to matter. What it does not deliver, by the near-universal judgment of those who have hired competitors, is skill: across the Empire, Nightwatch is criticized as the most cost-effective and least protective option on the market, a firm that will stand its ground and take a beating rather than actually prevent one. The criticism does little to dent its business. Nightwatch is affordable, present everywhere a client might need it, and good enough for the overwhelming majority of merchants, adventurers, and caravan masters who hire it, which is most of who ever does.
Services
Standard contracts place Nightwatch guards, in Nightwatch’s own colors, at a client’s site or alongside a client’s caravan for the duration of the agreement. A premium tier goes further: for a higher fee, a client may outfit Nightwatch’s guards in the client’s own livery and exercise greater control over their assignment and use, letting the guards pass, at a glance, as the client’s personal retainers. Old money rarely needs this: established families tend to keep genuine hereditary retainers, descended from those loyal to their ancestors. New money uses the premium tier instead, and in doing so, plays at having the same thing.
Reach and Its Limits
Nightwatch contracts are written against a defined operating area, and the firm’s parent company reads that clause strictly. A client whose holding moves, or whose circumstances carry it beyond the territory the contract names, is liable to find the arrangement suspended rather than renegotiated. The firm’s willingness to follow a client past the edge of its own map is not part of what the fee buys, and guards placed in that position have historically been left to decide for themselves whether to stay.
History
Nightwatch has held contracts on vaults, caravans, and private holdings across the Empire for long enough that its failures are recounted as widely as its successes. The most frequently cited is the robbery of Vidorant’s Vault, which took place while Nightwatch held the contract and which did nothing to contradict the firm’s reputation.