Croaker spoke to assembled Company:

“In olden times the outfit consisted entirely of black soldiers. Thus the name. Its slow drift northward has seen not only its diminution but a shift in its makeup. One-Eye is the black man with us today.”

“We are the last of the Twelve True Companies. We have out-endured the others by more than a century, but I fear we’re into our twilight days. I fear this may be the Company’s final commission. A page of history is about to turn. Once it does, the great warrior brotherhoods will be gone and forgotten.”

But Croaker was wrong...

The first volume of THE BLACK COMPANY series