Created circa 1330 CE, the conscripted troops of the Ottoman army, called janissaries, operated under the system of devshirme (dev-shuhr-MEH). In this system, children of subjects (most often Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians) were taken from their families, raised as warriors, and indoctrinated into the culture and religion of those they served. Subject to strict rules and limited freedoms, the fierce and loyal janissaries held the highest moral standards and often practiced celibacy to enhance martial focus. Musically inclined, their heavy, intimidating tunes accompanied them into combat.
The emperor Murad I created the janissaries to replace the empire’s fragmented tribal army with a loyal force. However, the group’s power to influence events and defend their own interests led to a virtual state within a state and the eventual involvement of the janissary corps in coups against the empire.
The janissary is an alternative fighter class, and must be approved by your DM.
Janissaries are usually lawful and most often neutral, but their order accepts all alignments.
Janissaries worship the deities of those they serve and often recognize their mortal lords as divine inhabitants of the Material Plane. The indoctrination of devshirme overcomes any racial differences between a janissary and its master. A human janissary could serve a half-orc without question and vice versa.
Learned and skilled in arts beyond those martial, janissaries know more of the world than most other fighters and speak of such things as architecture and historical events — often doing so in strange tongues.
Feats appropriate to janissaries include Blind-Fight, Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Improved Sunder (janissaries often sunder weapons and shields or attempt to disarm their foes with their first attacks), and some of the new feats from Heroes of Battle (such as Veteran Knowledge). Pious good-aligned janissaries sometimes take exalted feats, especially Vow of Chastity and Vow of Obedience. In addition, janissaries have developed certain methods for which they have become famous, as modelled by the feat Combat Engineer.
Fiercely loyal, janissaries possess a single-mindedness in combat rightly feared by their opponents. They tend to forgo heavy armour for greater stealth and speed, while preferring heavy blades like the greatsword.
The janissary is a variant fighter. Unless otherwise noted, a janissary advances in the same manner as a fighter (same Hit Die, base attack bonus, saving throw bonuses, skill points, and so on). When a character elects to take a level of fighter or janissary, he may not later take levels in the other class. This prevents the character from gaining the benefits of a 1st-level fighter twice.
A janissary gains Speak Language and two Knowledge skills (of his choice) as class skills, but Handle Animal, Intimidate and Swim become cross-class skills for him.
Source: Dragon Magazine #334 (Page 88)