The Cavaliers

In the original long-form version of Rome's Revolution, OMCOM related to Rei the origin of the Cavaliers:

     “...Slowly, society devolved into nomads and farmers. There was no technology they could draw from deemed acceptable. Much of the knowledge required was lost or inaccessible. Around 400PR, most people lived in loosely coupled settlements formed into a semi-feudal arrangement. There were certain landlords who controlled vast areas of real estate and the rest of the people worked for them. A caste arose to keep order among the citizens. They were called Cavaliers. They were a combination of police, judge, jury and executioner. They had free reign and a wide charter to enforce the law.”
     “So what was the law?”
     “Just to leave each other alone and live in peace.”
     “That seems pretty reasonable,” said Rei. “Then what?”
     “Inevitably, over the years, the Cavaliers began to abuse their power. They became a force of oppression. But since their charter was to keep the rest of the populace disarmed, no one could do anything about it.”

So you can see that originally, the Cavaliers were meant to be the best of the best. They always wore white shirts and hats and no one feared them. The figurative mantle of being a Cavalier was passed down from father to son. We can see that in The Ark Lords and the story of Hanry Ta Jihn, Jack Henry. He makes reference to his white shirt and that he expected to be a Cavalier one day.

However, as OMCOM mentioned, absolute power corrupts absolutely. It took a long time but eventually the Cavaliers took to wearing black shirts and expected compensation for their services. Basically this was "protection" money like criminals of today. They came to be feared, not admired. Tomorrow I'll tell you a little more about James (Jim) Henry who became known as The Last Cavalier.