Tenshen Imperial Tiger Guard

While everyone knows about the famed colonial city of Beistad, the exploits of the Tenshen Empire in the new continent were not without their setbacks. The greatest of these was the uprising of the Dedrunan Oppidoms, as a call to arms went out to unite the clans against the foreign invaders.

The crushing of the revolt was long and bloody, but there was good to come out of it. Chief of these was, of course, the establishment of the Dedrunan Special Administrative Province; incorporating the Dedrunan people as full citizens of the Tenshen Empire. Furthermore, the Tenshen military was so impressed by their former enemies' ferocity, that they saw fit to incorporate Dedrunan warriors into their own armies. There they served as fierce shock troops, leading the Empire onward to victory.

Over the years, these Dedrunan warriors earned a reputation as equally loyal and merciless. During the tumultous civil war that forever fractured the Tenshen Empire into three nations, it came as no surprise that the Dedrunan soldiers stayed loyal to the one true Tiger Empress. Small wonder, then, that she saw fit to reward them by forming her new bodyguard unit exclusively out of Dedrunan.

This Tiger Guard, as it was to be known, stood at 5000 women strong and served the Empress as bodyguards and emissaries both. Though originally founded on the principle of integrated longbow and bardiche combat, they have evolved with the times and become one of the world's foremost in security services.

With Helmet: sta.sh/0n0rqhqwscv
With Flavor Text: sta.sh/01w31qs01hjw

What I really wanted to achieve with the design of these women, was a proper mixture of Celtic with Chinese.  The real world parallel that inspired me, was how even today, Gurkha's are considered the elite of the British Armed forces.  So I wanted to find a way to demonstrate that similarity. 

Also, I just really really like the idea of strong powerful intimidating redheaded women...so what does that say about me?

Kudos to my creative mates:
for writing the backstory and the flavor text (anyone who gets the joke wins a cookie! An internet cookie but still a cookie!)
and
for his rational support when I got too crazy
and
for just being his awesome history loving self