Ranks and Branches

[Virgil von Visconti]

If I may be so bold as to suggest Santaruz military ranks:

Here is the chart as I can come up with it:


1. Soldiers

2. Kindred Mercenaries

3. Vanguard/Specialists

4. Sergeant (provides tactical insight and assists the Talerant)

5. High Sergeant (provides tactical insight and assists the High Talerant)

6. Grand Sergeant (provides tactical insight and assists the Captain)

7. Mercenary Sergeant (Provides on the spot tactical coordination between mercenaries and the units of Santaruz.)

8. Master Sergeant (Makes sure the troops are doing the job right and getting things done alongside the Lord Corpsman (or Lord Mercenary if requested.))

9. Grandmaster Sergeant (Makes sure the troops are doing the job right and getting things done alongside the Marshall.)

10. Legend (Grandmaster Commander Adviser to the Marquees in Santaruz himself. He will also get a statue made of him when he dies. These statues may be viewed from the gallery known as "The League of Legends.")
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Every NCO position will get an increased pay if they posses magical qualities; with more qualities giving more pay.

ranks below:
1. Magi (Hex for shaman, Hel for Anima, Boon for rods and Eli for healers)
2. (One type of magic) (Another type of magic) for example Hexboon, or Heleli.
3. Magister Nul(category of magic missing from usefulness)
4. Archmagi

achieving specialist talents with these abilities grants the epitaph of "Grand" such as "Grand Archmage"

If I might be so bold to suggest that there has apparently been two archmages in Sataruz history, neither of which were very good, but they were very well paid.
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Political Officers
10. Talerrant (Responsible for communicating messages via falcons, writing, and otherwise keeping the information and expenditure correct for any given group led by a sergeant or Hero. Makes sure to inform superiors or actions and attempts to account for units actions on the field. This is also the rank for most spies.
Often a Leader of Squads, assisted by Sergeant.)

11. High Talerrant (Responsible for communicating messages via falcons, writing, and otherwise keeping the information and expenditure correct for any given group led by a Commander. Makes sure to inform superiors or actions and attempts to account for units actions on the field. This is also the rank for more able spies.
Often Leader of Platoons, assisted by a high-Sergeant.)

12. Captain (Responsible for commanding the detailed, small units. Often these units are considered the smallest size for operations.
Often assisted by Grand Sergeants.)

13. Spymaster (Responsible for putting together the correct information for those who need it at the correct time)

14. Commander (responsible for commanding solitary brigades, also knows as multi-purpose regiments.)

15. High Spymaster (Responsible for the coordination of All Spymasters within a given area. As well as the designation of responsibility based on the information given to them. There exists one per city.)

16. Lord Mercenary (Responsible for the direction of Mercenaries of the kingdom. Adviser to the Marquees.)

17. Lord Corpsman (Responsible for leading a corps of soldiers into battle.)

18. Grand High Spymaster (Spymaster of the capitol, direct source of information to the marquees and his chain of advisers.)

19. Field Marshall (Responsible for the command, direction and logistics of the army moving as a whole. The one who allows the army to move as one. When not involved with serious conflict serves as adviser to the Marquees.)

20. Marquees (Director of the army. Seeing that everything that occurs does so for the benefit of his subjects and his land.)

I would assume since Lycia is a series of Marquees that are working together instead of waging war on one another constantly (citation needed) they would form a politically minded system that this system would employ heavy uses of mercenaries. Oddly it uses the same number of ranks as say the army system in the United States, but this is unintentional; as this system is more disorganized and does not account for the invention of the Division system; however A brigade is present instead of a regiment, due to the political combination of multiple Lycian units.

Mercenaries are readily employed in this system, and they are even willing to employ a ranking system that allows mercenaries to begin with more pay.

Their high population is probably due in part to them extending to the see, allowing food for a larger population. So a strong Navy is a given. I will avoid that for now (Or if you want to take that Yaen I do not mind.)

For some reason I want to say their military numbers would be something like 400,000; but this seems wrong.

Don't get me started on medals.

EDIT:
Skipped #14, editing to only have 19 ranks. Decided I needed Captains, so added to 20 again. Added descriptions and made the NCO ranks a little weirder; and less entrenched in real life, but more relatable to the world which we play in... I think. Made the High Talerant Better. Added descriptions to who the NCO's assist.
Changed Brigadiers name to Commander; because it probably is a more accurate descriptor to the Brigadier. Realized that I had one extra NCO rank; created Mercenary Sergeant.

[Gabriel]

Seems like a lot of thought went into that. Impressive, Virgil. And while it is more streamlined, I still feel it is overly complicated. Still, well done.

As for the political state of Lycia, they are territories that are politically neutral to one another, enjoying commercial benefits(lower taxes and the like), and that tend to stand together in crisis. But yes, they are seldom on war. They each have their own military, though obviously smaller than anything Ilia, Bern or Etruria can put out. If the entire Lycia joins forces, though, their army could potentially be bigger than what any other country could come up with.

[Marle Daviau]

Sounds kinda like the European Union.

[Rayl Torien]

I be liking this big ole list, Good work Virgil. Guess this makes Rayl a Field Marshall...Though personally I still like to refer to him as Knight-Commander. (I'd say he was a Lord Corpsman but considering Rayl is also Marquees Pherae's advisor...yup.)

As for the Navy, in large part the Navy of a Unified Lycia would have come mostly from Ostia (which we mentioned as having a navy and privateers), which is currently a burning wreck which leaves Laus, Ryerde (See: Map.), and Pherae as being the biggest naval contributors of Lycia...and given that Laus refuses to band together in the current situation, that leaves whatever small fleet Pherae and Ryerde can provide, neither of which being too grand in terms of size (heck, we barely hear anything about Ryerde alone.). They'd probably be forced to hire large amounts of Privateers/Corsairs (such as Lyar was for Ostia.) or whatever the term is, most likely from the area around badon, to fill their ranks (See: Fargus...that pirate's name was Fargus, right?)...

...of course that has nothing to do with ranks, but I had to say it.

[Richter Abend]

Why only Santaruz?

[Virgil von Visconti]

Well I sort of made assumptions towards the political state of things based on geographical location. So I looked into Italian cities during the later medieval historical periods and texts as such; as I also had a feeling that the Lycians would invest heavily in mercenaries and I knew they were prominent around the 14th century.

As you said Gabriel this is overly complicated. I am assuming that military divisions were not thought up, as those didn't come into play until around 1750, and weren't widely used until 1800. As such the army is not as efficient as the modern day. Lycia would need to be more complicated due to its unique political league. and I factored that in as well.

WHY I ONLY DID SANTARUZ:

A lot of this was basically explained by Gabriel. But nonetheless.


I assumed Mages were somewhat rare because Lycians are the smaller nations working together, as opposed to one large collection of people. they might very well be inducted into regiments in, say, Etruria.

Because Santaruz is surrounded by the lycian league and the states are allies, but not one country a threat to each of them form teh other is still a strong poissiblility. Because of this the Structure above is based around the assumption that Mercenaries and Spies are a regular, influential part of the army.

Mercenaries quite regularly have their own leaders and have their own rates. This list assumes regular employment of mercenaries as though they are an expected part of the army. As well as CO ranks for mercenaries, meaning other Lycians are employed and used so heavily that they have adapted a way of including them as part of their structure.

Despite this, because of the regular employment of mercenaries, it becomes necessary to employ the heavy use of spies into the countries they are hiring mercenaries from, to know when and where they will attack. Hence the spies sand spymaster. I assume these political conditions will not be true with things like Ilia. Where most warriors are expected to engage in mercenary activity and get their nation a bit of money. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if it was just another rite of passage to manhood in that culture. I imagine most of Lycia and Ilia are allies due to the mercenary conditions except under the worst conditions.

Also I was making up the names of a lot of the ranks since this is a fictional universe. The Talerant for example is actually a lieutenant, named after the combination of "Talon-rant" or a message attached to the end of a messenger bird. And I completely removed the word general; mainly to not confuse it with the class of the same name

As I said Santaruz needs to rely upon the Navy because of their port town, and it's obvious fishing resources. Yaen, being a sailor, I feel might have more fun with this task.

If you want me to do the other countries I will more then happily do them. As I find the act quite enjoyable.

[Virgil von Visconti]

Field Marshall is pretty standard in all armies though as "The dude in charge." Napoleon for example was Field Marshall/Emperor (citation needed)

An additional one in, say, Sacae, or perhaps Ilia. Would be High Constable. The highest Tactical unit in charge of Riders... Perhaps with a different name for Pegasus knights.

Inform me of any other units mentioned in WotW before I make a list for any given nation.

Also Rayl, if what you say is true and you are a field marshall... In character I think I have to become another fanboy... I hate you.

The Nacy mentioning is nice. But Santaruz needs its own navy to protect it's own assetts... ESPECIALLY if Ostia has a huge collection of privateers.

However in all of the Lycian league I see a more Joint Operations Directors occurring... I hesitate to say Joint Operations Admiral. Because that just sounds stupid.


It should be noted that "Lord Corpsman" Is basically a Lt. General/General. And a "Commander" would probably be a Brigadier/Major General.


edit: THANK YOU EVERYONE!

[Rayl Torien]

The thing that puzzled me was that Santaruz has no DIRECT access to the sea from it's territorial Location, though given Santaruz and Pherae are, to be blunt, BFFs that would hardly be a problem now would it?

Also, with how I wrote it, Ostia used its Privateers in large for raids off the coast of Etruria for unknown reasoning...kinda funna considering Ostia later got A-sploded by Etruria...coincidence? I dunno.

And Rayl would be the equivalent to a Field Marshall in the Pheraen Army, so just go over to that pen with the rest of the fans and take a number: it may be awhile before I can talk all Holy-and-on-a-mission to you...before I go and be awkward around the ladies.

[Virgil von Visconti]

oh? I thought the little dot below Santaruz was a city owned by them. Since they were the "second largest of the Lycian league" I figured that they had expanded to the sea.
However I will assume I am incorrect in this assumption... I dont think the list has to change much they are probably more mercenary dependent with Pherae. And they probably work joint operations all the bloody time.

God I kinda wanna do propoganda for all of the nations.