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The Dragoon Corps, or Baron Dragoons is one of the Eight Corps of Baron and was created by the ancestors of Kain Highwind. The Dragoon Corps is based in Baron and is currently led by Commander Kain Highwind.

Early in history, the Dragoon Corps were a powerful elite force, wielding lances and riding dragons in combat, but with the advent of airships, the Red Wings became the main attack force of the Baron Army, and the Dragoon Corps are now tasked with the defense of the castle of Baron.

With time, the Dragoons also trained their bodies to jump high as the dragons they once rode as a tribute to their ancestral history.

Etymology[]

"Dragoon" is the traditional name for a special soldier type in classical European warfare. Unlike in Final Fantasy, the original dragoons did not fight with lances, that being the job of "lancers"—a different soldier class. Dragoons were infantry that rode on horseback, but fought on foot. Originally they fought with a hand-held blunderbuss called the "dragon", giving them the name. The dragoons' arsenal expanded to include guns, sabres, and axes. During the Napoleonic Wars they became medium cavalry and reached the height of their popularity.

After the Napoleonic Wars, to make better use of the number of men the European military had, the dragoons were trained to use lances and lancers became obsolete. Thanks to the advances of modern warfare, dragoons lost their niche and modern dragoon units exist only for ceremonial purposes.

The job's Japanese name is Dragon Knight (竜騎士, Ryuukishi?). Dragon knights are commonly found in Japanese editions of Western fantasy novels as a translation for terms such as "dragon knight" or "dragon rider," referring to knights and warriors who ride on dragons.

The term was likely originally localized as "Dragoon" due to the game's job name length restrictions, and to avoid confusion with the Dark Knight class, which was localized as "D.Knight," though it may have also been confused with the Japanese term for the Dragoon (竜騎兵, Ryuukihei?, lit. Dragon Cavalry).

Corps is a term used for several different kinds of organization. Within military terminology a corps may be: an operational formation, sometimes known as a field corps, which consists of two or more divisions, such as the Corps d'armée, later known as I Corps ("First Corps") of Napoleon's Grande Armée); or an administrative corps (or mustering) – that is a specialized branch of a military service (such as an artillery corps, a medical corps, or a force of military police).

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