The House Legions

Houses Cathak, Sesus, and Tepet are military Houses, which are permitted by Imperial edict to raise their own legions. These legions are called House legions to distinguish them from the Empress’ own Imperial legions.

House Cathak and House Tepet maintain eight legions apiece. House Sesus maintains six.

Purpose of House Legions

House Legions are a huge investment on the part of the military Houses. They are also a professional military force raised within the Realm beyond the Empress’ direct control. Why does this system continue?

House Motivations

The Houses benefit from the House legions in myriad ways, but mostly in prestige, concrete power, and respect. All three Houses have a strong military history, so a lot of the legions are based on pride and history, but there are a few major benefits to maintaining them.

The military Houses all have the authority to use violence under the law. That’s an important and valuable thing. Having House legions is expensive, but it is also a huge and powerful advantage. Nobody is going to cause too much trouble with a military House, because they rely on the military just like everyone else.

Military legions are also impressive. They are big, tangible displays of the House’s power and ability to organize and train. It is impossible to see a legion and not recognize the power behind the House that can raise it. That is a valuable position to be in for three large Houses that want respect.

Imperial Motivations

The Empress benefits from the House legions in two major ways.

First, the House legions help her to defray the cost of maintaining her military. The military Houses take on the burden of paying the salaries and transport costs of their legions, which otherwise the Empress would pay. She has enough huge legions and complicated bureaucracies to pay for. Any deferal of those costs is helpful.

Second, the House legions help keep unauthorized militaries down. It is actually not very hard to levy a legion of peasants – keeping them is hard, training them is hard, but getting bodies in line is not particularly difficult. If all Houses were forbidden from doing so, the Empress would be the only source of authority that could deal with these uprisings and militaries.

By allowing some Houses to raise legions, she establishes a precedent of permission. Cathak, Sesus, and Tepet are very invested in maintaining their exclusive permissions. They are eager to help the Empress deal with any unlawful militaries, because it makes their legions more valuable.

Function of House Legions

The House legions pledge their loyalty to their House. They serve many of the same functions as the Imperial legions: conquering new territory, defending existing holdings, and dealing with uprisings and wars. The Empress occasionally requests their assistance where the legions are spread thing.

The major difference for the House legions is that the House legions, held in private by the military Houses, can be hired by the other Houses for specific duties, either as a complete legion or being broken up into hired dragons. Many of the House legions spend their time on loan to other Houses. Cynis and Ragara sometimes hire the House legions to protect important assets. V’neef and Peleps occasionally hire the House legions for joint land/sea actions.

Structure of House Legions

The structure of the House legions is the same as the Imperial legions: 5,120 soldiers arranged into eight dragons, etc.

House legions have slightly more Chosen per legion; young officers unready for dragon command are appointed to command special forces talons or sometimes the first talon of the first dragon, to allow them field experience before being promoted to higher command. The chief physicians of the House legions also tend to be Dragon-Blooded, to better protect the House’s investment.

Janissaries

The Imperial legions make occasional use of janissary forces, but the House legions are the ones who get the most mileage out of janissaries. The military Houses make a special effort to gain authority over satrapies with useful local military traditions. Although obviously such traditions are rarely valuable for integration into the legions proper, they are useful in specialized circumstances.

Cathak Legions

House Cathak commands eight legions, and has a military heritage tracing back to the 3rd Century. Based in Myion and influenced by the local military culture, the Cathak legions have been influenced by the Daoshin climate, Merchant Federation mercenaries, and House Cathak’s own pursuit of glory.

Cathak Legion Culture

House Cathak is deeply competitive, and that drive for competition permeates the legions. A Cathak is measured by her victories. A Cathak soldier likewise gains glory and standing from success in battle. The focus of Cathak’s military culture is glory – arete and excellence are valued above all else.

For footsoldiers, glory is defined not by one’s individual skill with arms, but instead by one’s quality and mettle as a soldier. The brass hand out the most prestigious awards for performance in battle based on holding formation and standing firm, not from killing the most. A famous story tells about a young mortal Cathak footsoldier who crawled through broken glass and raksha winds so that she would die in her rank and file with her talon. This is the essence of Cathak glory: excelling in formation.

Cathak discipline is based on the old ways of Myion. The peoples of the Daoshin Peninsula are famous for their deep and bitter rage. Cathak military training is focused on harnessing this rage for competition and battlefield fury, putting it to productive use. Cathak legions fight with a terrifying passion, focused fully on the glory and thrill of battle.

Cathak Legion Traditions

Whenever a Cathak legion is camped, you can expect to find huge swathes of land set aside for sports. Boxing rings and wrestling spaces are set aside for physical venting, although boxing is often called off when it becomes too rowdy.

Cathak legions have a universal practice known as calling. In the time leading up to an expected battle, the Cathak soldiers will make boasts of feats they plan to accomplish in battle, such as striking the first blow for their unit, and so forth. Any individual who accomplishes their boast is lauded with praise and glory.

When time comes to dispose of the dead, it is traditional for every member of the deceased’s scale to throw a coin onto the body as it passes.

On the first night after the first full day at camp, new legionaries are hazed by boxing with any and all challengers. The total number of challengers defeated before the individual is knocked unconscious is called their stand, and higher stands are sources of pride even late into the career. Emerging from one’s hazing without a broken nose is a sign of cowardice.

Cathak Legion Gear

Cathak legion gear is influenced by the native military traditions of the swampy, hot Daoshin peninsula. Many of the Cathak infantry forego armor and instead rely on their shield; these choose to wear simple red or yellow tunics. Some legionaries wear red, blue, or yellow conical hats, with a distinctive bend at the top.

In addition to spears, Cathaks occasionally wield native weapons of the Daoshin. Some supplementary forces wield axes, used for cutting down horses; throwing hatchets are also a tradition of the Daoshin and occasionally used. Some of the Cathak heavy legions wield zweihanders, the massive two-handed swords originating from the city of Baolak on the peninsula.

Cathak Legion Janissaries

Cathak employs a variety of janissaries from their primarily Southern holdings. The most famous of these are the Harborhead skirmishers, who are probably the most famous unit of janissaries, period. The Zebremani battle-alchemists provide a truly unique advantage with their skill at their strange art. And the spindly Fragrant Lily Archers, though mutated and exotic, provide unrivaled ranged coverage for Cathak’s primarily formation and melee-focused forces.

Harborhead Skirmishers

The Harborhead skirmishers are immediately distinguishable by their beaded hair, plumed helmets, and red, white, yellow, and blue chest-bearing uniforms. Located to the south and east of the Isle, the satrapy of Harborhead is one of the most famous satrapies in the Realm. The people of Harborhead have always been devoted to Ahlat, the Southern God of War and Cattle, which lead to a vibrant and admirable warrior culture that demands respect; even the Realm recognizes the skill and valor of Harborhead’s skirmishers. Harborhead skirmishers are armed with spears and leather shields bearing images of bulls and eagles. They wear heavy jackets, but always, men and women, bear their breasts, a challenge to those who would do them harm.

The satrapy of Harborhead is proud of their janissaries, and train them not only in the art of spear-fighting, but also in the art of masonry and mudworking. Harborhead’s great stoneworks are among the finest in the world, and this same skill is cultivated in the janissaries. They are regarded by the Cathak Eighth Dragons as among the finest camp engineers one can serve alongside, and are more than qualified to supplement either the infantry or the Eighth Dragon as needs demand.

Cathak legions are sometimes accompanied by as much as a whole dragon of Harborhead skirmishers.

Zebremani Battle-Alchemists

Cathak legions stink, even more than the sweat and iron of a legion camp are expected to stink. The smell arises from the Zebremani camp, where roiling pots of vibrantly-colored liquid boil next to flayed carcasses of hunted beasts and drying racks hang heavy with herbs. The Zebremani battle-alchemists wrap themselves in layers and layers of gray cloaks, covered in gold and silver embroidery of magical circles. They abandon gender and sex in pursuit of their work, removing their genitals and decorating their bodies with mystical tattoos. They capture their brews in gourds to smash easily on the battlefield, releasing terrifying tricks like clouds of gas, roaring bonfires, or shining explosions of flash-freezing air.

In addition to their battlefield tricks, the battle-alchemists are also famed healers and chirurgeons. They keep the legions in good health. Because of the service of the battle-alchemists and widespread adoption of their techniques, Cathak legions have the lowest mortality rates of any of the Realm’s military units. A rare few Zebremani battle-alchemists have what they call the wuunum: by imbibing strange potions, their bodies boil with sudden growth and they become terrifying monsters turning the tides of battle, before they eventually succumb to fever and organ failure.

The chief physician of the First Cathak Legion is Burn, a Zebremani alchemist. In battle, they cast off their cloak, fighting naked. Their mystical tattoos flash with Essence and crackling magic circles appear when they channel their power.

Zebremani battle-alchemists serve in specialist talons. Of the 80ish janissaries, about 10 or so are master alchemists certified by their order; the rest are apprentices, or more realistically, teenagers and young adults pressed by the Zebremani government into service as janissaries. Zebreman also has a unique arrangement with House Cathak, considering units of reagents and chemicals as “soldiers” for purposes of their tribute.

Fragrant Lily Archers

House Cathak prefers land holdings, but refuses to surrender the Fragrant Lily Isles to Peleps and V’neef advances. The Fragrant Lily Isles are a strange place in the west, verdant and growing thick with greenery. A handful of floating islands with purple trees reveal the touches of the Wyld on the Isles – but that much is apparent from the natives. They are very tall – usually nearly ten feet – and pale and thin, a little stretched and twiggy. Their thin arms hide a powerful, corded strength that allows them to wield their huge bows.

Fragrant Lily Archers once served as the bodyguards of their monarch, but now serve House Cathak as eagle-eyed marksmen. Their greatbows release gigantic arrows, more like artillery than archery, but with pinpoint precision. Although their strange appearance makes many new legionaries unsettled, they quickly forget their qualms as soon as a well-placed Fragrant Lily bolt takes out a whole row of enemy soldiers at just the right moment.

Two talons of Fragrant Lily Archers serve alongside the first and second Legions. They are small in number and their deaths are mourned in the tradition of Sextes Jylis, planting their bodies as fertilizer for a purple Fragrant Lily tree.

Sesus Legions

House Sesus is currently the smallest military House, commanding six legions. They have a reputation as thugs and dishonorable cheats, a reputation not entirely without foundation. House Sesus does not prize glory, like House Cathak, or tradition, like House Tepet; they prize success. Their legions are perfectly willing to engage in shady practices – spycraft, psychological warfare, lateral thinking – to gain the upper hand and secure victory. To the conservative Realm, this willingness to break with established norms makes House Sesus’ legions disreputable, but undeniably effective.

Despite their reputation, Sesus’ legions are still effective machines of war. Although admitting it pains Cathak and Tepet loyalists, House Sesus’ focus on loyalty and victory have made an effective fighting force.

Sesus Legion Culture

The legions say, “House Sesus takes all comers,” a phrase which takes on a vastly different context. In some cases, especially when spoken by Sesus, it is a statement of pride. Unlike House Cathak and House Tepet, House Sesus is happy to make use of any person, no matter their background, who wishes to serve in their legions. Without the monofocused glory culture of Cathak or the rigid codes of Tepet, House Sesus’ legions are home to everything from peasants to criminals to their own scions. In other cases, it is said dismissively – how can a legion which takes all comers be respectable? And in yet other cases, as a rowdy legionary is dragged away from her victim after a brawl, it is said with a bit of both – House Sesus takes all comers: they always put up a fight.

Like House Sesus itself, the Sesus legions are regarded as thuggish and dishonorable, a reputation which is not helped by their cosmopolitan attitude to recruitment. House Sesus cultivates a deep, deep loyalty among its legionaries. They value loyalty and victory above all else – in a Sesus legion, it does not matter where you came from, only that you win. “Once a legionary, always a legionary,” the saying goes. House Sesus’ legions are famous for their rowdiness and terrifying skill in battle; a Sesus legion coming to a city is a terrifying occasion, ending either in conquest or drunken revelry. The goal is cultivating a sense of unity. The sometimes suicidal bravery of House Sesus’ legions is only possible because of the deep devotion the soldiers feel to one another.

In matters of camp, House Sesus offers a simple proposition: win and you are allowed great freedom; lose often and you suffer the consequences. The officers and leadership are completely happy to look the other way as their soldiers engage in plenty of questionable behavior – gambling, blasphemy, brawling – so long as the unit continues to win and their loyalty is without question. Firm discipline is dealt out to those who fail, or those whose antics put the other soldiers at risk. This lax attitude to punishment is also a major contributor to the Sesus legions’ less-than-stellar reputation.

Sesus Legion Traditions

The Sesus legions have a long tradition of gambling in their off-time. Dice and card games are extremely popular. Although the chaplains do not approve of this indulgence, it is impossible to get Sesus soldiers to keep their coins in their purse and off the table. Sesus legions also have a strong culture of drinking songs and late night smoking.

Related to the gambling culture, the Sesus legions have developed a complicated system of divination based on rolling 3 bone dice and interpreting the outcomes. Pretty much every scale has a die-caster; die-casters with long streaks of accurate predictions are acclaimed. Stealing another scale’s dice is a grave insult which demands retribution.

Sesus troops often engage in recreational flyting, the ritualized poetic exchange of insults. A good flyter is believed to be lucky for her unit. Sometimes before battle, the best flyters put together a straw mannequin of the enemy and compete for the best insult to cheers from the crowd.

House Sesus’ laxer policy toward policing the camp makes affairs between legionaries more common – although finding privacy is as difficult as ever. As would be expected among House Sesus, a strong gossip culture exists among the legions of who is hooking up with who and where. Whenever soldiers find a pair engaged in fraternization, they do their best to steal the pairs clothes and thus force them to streak or sneak back to camp.

Male Sesus officers are required to sport a large mustache and shave their beards.

Sesus Legion Gear

House Sesus favors very light armor for mobility. Most of House Sesus’ legions are active in the north, so their armor reflects this, with fur hats and thick warm trousers. The legions also prefer dark clothing where possible. Sesus helmets are distinctive – they resemble metal caps more than helmets, have coverings that protect the area around the eyes, and a “beard” of protective material that falls down over the mouth and neck. Here is a Sesus helmet for a Dragon-Blooded officer:

The martial tradition of House Sesus includes an emphasis on archery that is lacking in the other military Houses. Rather than Wàn crossbows, the Sesus legions train with more traditional bows and arrows. They also prefer curved swords over the shorter swords favored by Cathak and Tepet.

Sesus Legion Janissaries

Most of House Sesus’ holdings are in the north, so most of their janissaries are northern. The armored swordsmen of Cotá supplement Sesus’ lighter and more nimble infantry. The poison-swallowers of D’Dena have been transformed and serve Sesus as assassins and spies. Lastly, the hammer-wielding pelt-covered forces from Herald are a force of intimidation and overwhelming force when Sesus’ more subtle methods prove ineffective.

The Swordsmen of Cotá

The northwestern satrapy of Cotá produces huge amounts of iron and steel thanks to the riches of its mountains. The Queen of Cotá bedecks her janissaries in her nation’s wealth. Cotanese steel is lighter and stronger than comparable steel and has a distinctive wavy pattern. The Cotanese janissaries carry heavy iron javelins called soliferrum, but their true skill lies in buckler-and-falcata, from which they are famously called the Swordsmen of Cotá.

The swordsmen of Cotá are to House Sesus what the Harborhead skirmishers are to House Cathak. Cotá is a large and successful Sesus satrapy with a strong local warrior tradition, which makes their janissaries especially effective. Sesus uses the Swordsmen of Cotá for two purposes: ambush and direct conflict.

The swordsmen of Cotá are useful forces on the battlefield, unafraid of enemies and confident thanks to their powerful armor. They favor opening with a javelin volley, then closing in with their curved falcata swords. However, the Cotanese perform best when they are able to establish an ambush. Owing to their native mountains, the Cotanese are experts at guerilla warfare and getting the drop on their opponents – tactics that suit House Sesus just fine.

A dragon of swordsmen is not uncommon. Among these, the first talon are likely to be armored with their native steel; the rest make do with lesser armor. About two talons are unarmored and used as scout and ambush forces.

D’Dena Poison-Swallowers

The satrapy of D’Dena is lush despite its cold climes, sustained by a powerful wood demesne and a strange machine buried deep beneath its soil. D’Dena grows heavy with trees, and from these trees leap poisonous sap, which the people of D’Dena gather up and refine into syrup. The bravest among them drink the syrup, and are imbued with visions and strength, if they survive. Before House Sesus came, these poison-swallowers formed the elite of D’Dena’s native forces, and now they serve House Sesus as assassins and spies.

D’Dena poison-swallowers have a sixth sense about them which alerts them to danger, and, when they imbibe their poison, receive visions that they believe are prophetic. Over time, they develop a resistance to their poisons, which allows them to use the poisons more regularly. They are very skilled at infiltration and gathering information; their senses are heightened by their poisons to much higher than normal humans.

Formally, the D’Dena poison-swallowers are scouts, talons of their forces attached to various legions to act as intelligence. Poison-swallowers rarely take part in direct combat; when they do, they participate with javelins and podao, spear-swords with hafts equal in length to the blade. Their armor is often made from D’Dena diamond-wood, which can be tempered to be nearly as hard as steel.

Herald Hammermen

The satrapy of Herald is one of Sesus’ most distant holdings, and home to a brutal and rugged people used to the cold. They swear themselves not to spear or sword like most of creation, but instead to the heavy head of a reliable hammer. The Herald hammermen wield two-handed hammers as effectively as the Cotá swordsmen wield their blades or the Harborhead skirmishes wield their axes. With heavy armor and smashing weapons, the hammermen are a fearsome battlefield presence.

They usually wear lamellar armor with Sesus-style helmets, and heavy with furs and pelts. The Heralds view bears in particular with extreme reverence; their mightiest commanders forego metal helmets to wear bear heads prepared as caps. The Herald hammermen train with two-handed hammers and throwing hammers; their fighting style relies on overwhelming force.

A dragon of Herald hammermen serves alongside the first Sesus legion, and a talon or so can be found accompanying each of the other legions. In preparation for battle, the Heralds smear their faces with black tar and white paste, giving themselves visages like skulls. Their beating drums fill the heart with fear, doubly so for any wise enough to know that ringing strikes surely follow.

Tepet Legions

House Tepet was the very first House, the first military House, and traces its lineage back to the Shogunate and even earlier. Cathak and Sesus are children compared to Tepet. The Tepet legions keep the legacy of the House’s ancient heritage with strict codes and honored traditions. The Old General himself laid down the foundations for the House’s Melaist bent and strong sense of duty.

Tepet Legion Culture

Honor and adherence to tradition are the defining traits of House Tepet’s military culture. The House defines honor in the Tepet Code: the values of courage, duty, discipline, compassion, honesty, tradition, and humility. Every recruit, no matter how lowly, swears an oath upon joining, to uphold the virtues of the Tepet Code without question and serve dutifully at every turn. To House Tepet, an honorable defeat is preferable to a dishonorable victory – victory can always be seized in the future, but honor, once lost, can never be reclaimed.

When Tepet goes to war, their first thoughts are not stakes and goals, but whether or not the war is right. Tepet does not accept unjust wars – there is no honor in fighting without being in the right. Generals who march to war to gain territory or seize a valuable asset are greedy and foolish – a righteous general marches to defend the Realm, to protect traditions from corrupting influence, and to end cruel regimes. Tepet always fights for a purpose.

At the infantry level, Tepet soldiers are the most disciplined, the most educated, and the most scrutinized. Footsoldiers are trained to recite passages from the Thousand Correct Actions alongside their combat drills. Officers of the Tepet legions are often able to quote the entire book from memory, and are provided with a woodblock-printed copy bound in red leather by the House when they reach their second term. Infantry and officers alike are expected to maintain all the formal traditions and regulations of the legion, no matter how minor. Officers reguarly inspect the tents of their soldiers for deviations and failures to live up to code.

Finally, House Tepet demands perfection. For Cathak and Sesus, the expectation is that an officer will have a reasonable but flexible plan, and adjust their approach as the situation demands – adaptability is valuable. By contrast, Tepet culture expects your first and only plan to be the perfect one. An officer is expected to make a plan based off of the wisdom of the Thousand Correct Actions and her confident awareness of the situation based on her scouts and observations. Then, she executes her plan flawlessly. No Tepet officer would ever admit to improvising – such would imply that her plan was less than perfect. Naturally, all sudden shifts in approach were certainly considered beforehand…

Tepet Legion Traditions

The Tepet manuals define protocols for many different situations in camp, and Tepet’s legionaries are expected to follow these protocols, even the obscure ones. Legionary officers sometimes prank new recruits by citing non-existent protocols; but they do so carefully, without catching the disapproving glare of their own superiors.

Tepet legionaries have developed a superstition about bird feathers, supposedly representing a connection to Mela, the Immaculate Dragon of Air. Many legionaries wear lucky feathers on their belts. Feathers which have proven themselves lucky by surviving several combats are valuable commodities for trade among the legionaries.

Tepet legions are widely devoted to Mela. Their chaplains do the best to root out Mela cults, but Mela – especially in her aspect as Mela Perilous – is a common object of worship among House Tepet’s legions. Many of the legionaries have carved icons of a fan or a dragon as protective symbols against evil.

Tepet legion cooks do not prepare red meat, only poultry, in accordance with the dietary restrictions of the Earth and Heaven Harmonious Orthodox lineage which most Tepet adhere to.

Tepet Legion Gear

House Sesus favors lamellar over the usual buff jackets of many of the Realm’s other legions. Likewise, Tepet legions use a straight yari without adornment, unlike many of the other legions, which use sarissas or crescent spears. They also carry short swords in the Cathak style. Otherwise, Tepet’s gear is mostly as you would expect – they don’t even have silly hats or weird helmets like the other military Houses.

Tepet Legion Janissaries

House Tepet are devout Melaists, and believe in the importance of uplifting the communities which answer to them. For this reason, they employ more janissaries than any of the other legions – the goal being to cultivate warrior practice among both the satrapies and the House.

Tepet’s most famous janissaries are the terrifying Medoan heavy cavalry, a force whose lightning hooves send whole cities quaking. Tepet also makes use of the unusual weaponry and martial arts of the people of Pha. The slingers from Shə are said to be able to bring down a war elephant with a single shot.

Medoan Heavy Cavalry

The Medoan heavy cavalry are trained from youth in the art of horsemanship. They are taught to ride as soon as they are able, and grow up wearing armor and carrying lances. The Medoans have never been an easy satrapy, and their local warrior tradition of mounted combat even stymied Tepet himself during his first attempt to conquer them in the First Invasion of the Scavenger Lands. In the interim, the Medoans have come to hate House Tepet slightly less than the rest of the Realm, and Medoan heavy cavalry have become an integral feature of House Tepet’s legions.

The Medoans are easily identified by their heavy armor, the intense barding of their horses, and of course the huge lances that they carry. The Medoans wear gigantic, almost comical, feathers on their helmets. They are surly and grumpy people, with a reputation for causing trouble at camp.

Pha Levies

The people of Pha are mostly fisherfolk and farmers, so when their first levies arrived for House Tepet, the House did not know what to make of them. It seemed Pha had little martial tradition to draw from. The House prepared to deal with another Luqai unit, more Thornsish – that kind of sloppy janissary that offers little for their legion. To House Tepet’s surprise, the peasants of Pha were no slouches. They had a local military tradition, but one that looked unlike any that Tepet had seen before.

The soldiers of Pha don’t train in spears, swords, armor, or shields. Instead, they make do with peasant’s tools repurposed for war. The people of Pha fight with axes, grain-threshing nunchucks, sickles, and even oars, sharpened on the side to deliver blows. Although Tepet still doesn’t really know what to do with the Pha, they hold their own well enough in combat, so Tepet is happy to have them. House Tepet has even studied the Pha’s unique combat styles, hoping to learn more about how warfare devels in society.

Shə Slingers

The Shə Islands are located south and west of the Blessed Isle, somewhat in the direction of An-Teng but not so far. Temperate and fair, the Shə people are mostly shepherds, tending herds of goats and giant lizards. The Shə use slings to fend off predators from their flocks – and truly there are no better slingers in the world. Every Shə child learns to sling from a very young age – some Tepet observers even claim that once a child is old enough, the parents will hide baskets with their food in it in high branches and the children are not allowed to eat until they sever the rope with a bullet. It is traditional for a young adult to receive three slings of different lengths on her coming of age.

Slings are a weapon often looked down upon in the Realm, where “real” weapons like spears and swords are the norm. House Tepet shares no such delusion – especially not after the first commander sent to capture the Shə Islands had her head explode like a melon thanks to a well-placed shot from the barricade. The slingers are few in number (Shə is not especially populous), but valuable and assigned as widely as possible among the Tepet legions.