Most Temple Guard were identified as destined to be Temple Guards upon emerging from their spawning pool. Because they are united by duty, different spawnings of Temple Guard Sauri do not think much of mixing and matching with other spawning of Temple Guard. They will guard the Slann, temples, and holy objects equally well standing with spawning brothers or working with strangers they just met.
Sometimes Saurus warriors opt to join the Temple Guard who are not born to it. This is usually out of a sense of duty after a city or Kahoun’s Temple Guard have taken extremely heavy losses. Skink priests will periodically offer a city’s Sauri the chance to join the Temple Guard. This is volunteer only, there is no shame in saying no. Most Sauri say no. Temple Guard often transform completely in personality. While Lizardmen are not particularly individualistic, this loss of identity is intimidating to many Sauri, but some do hear the call and take up the mantle.
Besides training in formations protecting a Slann mannequin (Slannequin) and practicing fighting with halberds, there are a lot of tests of endurance of all sorts, fasting, holding heavy loads for long periods of time, maintaining long vigisl under adverse conditions and more. There is at least year of these tests, sometimes several years of tests. Generally about half of the applicants pass these tests. It is rare but not unheard of for some Sauri to die during their tests. Those who fail and live through it are not punished or shamed. They return to their old lives and spawnings, but they can never apply for the Rite of Sacred Guardianship again.
After passing all their grueling tests, a Skink priest initiates them in the presence of a sleeping Slann, or better yet a Slann actually presides over their initiation ceremony. This is more common than one would think because most Slann have a vested interest in making sure they have competent bodyguards. At this point, their ties with their original spawning brothers are severed (that’s part of their oath), and they are considered full Temple Guard by all members of Lizardmen society.
Scar Veterans and Oldbloods can participate in a separate but very similar ceremony to become Eternity Wardens. This is actually more common. Some Eternity Wardens are regular Temple Guard who survive enough battles over the centuries to attain Scar Veteran or even Old Blood levels of power, but about half of Eternity Wardens were not born into the role of Temple Guard. This contrasts with the rank and file where adopted Temple Guard only make up a relatively small portion of the Temple Guard demographic. Scar Veterans and Saurus Oldbloods are a lot less likely than rank and file to fail their initiation tests, but the death rate for failure is proportionally higher too because their tests are that much harder.
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