| abstract | - Sword-Dancers were the legendary corps of all female bodyguards who served the kings of Itko Kan before the rise of the Malazan Empire. Each was fanatically sworn to give her life up for her king. Girls were involuntarily recruited into the corps from the rural provinces of Itko Kan starting at as young as four years of age. To be chosen by the corps' recruiters was considered a great honour. Training in the capital was intense, brutal, and inhuman, and lasted nearly a decade. Those chosen were expected to remain virgins through their service but this was not often true in practise. Sword-Dancers wore fine mail coats and carried their signature weapon, the whipsword, in oiled wooden sheaths upon their backs. Whipswords were extraordinarily slim blades of razor steel that were as long as a man, nearly invisible, and as pliable as whips made of more conventional materials. Their means of manufacture was a state secret known only to a few mage-enchanters of Kan. Sword-Dancers fought in swirling displays of grace and athleticism, sending their blades in long arcing attacks and fierce, unexpected strikes. Their skills were sometimes showcased in choreographed displays meant to impress foreign dignitaries.
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