One Vanguard member is elected as City Commander, who leads the Guardians and the City militia in times of war. This can be any Vanguard member, but is more commonly a Titan or Warlock.

The Titan Vanguard oversees the city militia and ensures the city is prepared for any attack. They will, and have, defended the city wall with their very lives.

The Warlock Vanguard oversees the vast libraries of knowledge within the Citadel, they also oversee a vast network of Hidden spies, made up of both Lightbearer and Lightless.

The Hunters are the aloof scouts. Their Vanguard ensures that the maps of their island are accurate, and employs many Scouts to regularly patrol outside the City walls and report back. It's common for these Scouts to have an avian companion to carry messages from the field to the City, and visa versa. In addition to scouting, Hunters will often brings back whatever valuables they find in the wilds for the City, while keeping a bit of glimmer and gear for themselves if they have need for it.

A Vanguard, in the case of the Warlock and Titans, is chosen by election. The Hunter Vanguard, however, is chosen by way of The Dare.

Since Hunters tend to not follow the typical rules of Vanguard leadership, they have their own way of deciding the next Vanguard for their class.

The problem is this: no Hunter WANTS to be Vanguard. In fact, it's quite common for a Hunter Vanguard to simply vanish without a trace after the wanderlust calls too strongly. The terms of the Dare are only known to the other Vanguard members, and thus, when a Hunter fulfills those terms they become Vanguard weather they want it or not. For this reason there have been many more Hunter Vanguards than either of the other classes.