These are the NPCs you hire and are basically your bodyguards and key aides. They are also your best, and highest paid men at arms. But, in this period, your fellowship was also just that, a fellowship. These were the friends you hung out with (eating, drinking, hunting, wenching) when you weren't managing your affairs. These were also the warriors you went into combat with. They was usually a strong mutual bond of friendship between a noble and his fellowship. Indeed, if a noble expected to escape assassination or death in combat, it behooved him to take good care of his fellows.