http://www.totalwar.com/index.html?p...medieval2/1/2/

The Varangian Guard, most famous of all Byzantine units, was a military levy sent to the Byzantine emperor from the ‘Rus’. Now a permanent unit often used as royal bodyguards, they were initially composed solely of Scandinavians and later on other Europeans. These superbly skilled and fearless warriors wield two-handed axes with vicious abandon, hacking down the Emperor's enemies.