Imperial Military Doctrine
The armies and navies of the Maan People Maan The most numerous people of Elshore and the baseline cultural reference of the age. Empire are ranked not by timber but by the blood that commands them, in a hierarchy of nested units inherited from the ancient Inarin war codes. Discipline, honour unto death, and command symbols etched into banners, shields, and armour bind every soldier into the backbone of order. New officers swear not to men or council but to the Order itself.
Key traits
- The naval hierarchy climbs from the Imperial Ship Unit (two ships, under a Naval Ensign) through Squadrons, Fleets, and Armadas to the Grand Admiral, who commands all naval forces.
- The land hierarchy climbs from the Imperial Squad (five soldiers, under a Sergeant) through Companies, Banners, Divisions, and Hosts to the General over all land forces.
- Above both stands the Supreme Commander, held by the Emperor or his designated High General, commanding every force by land and sea.
- A preserved quirk of the Inarin codes has the Imperial Brigade of five thousand commanded by a "Lieutenant," a rank-name out of step with its size.
- The doctrine applies in full to the Maan Empire under the Braided Standard and only partially to the Maaniskaar Kingdom, whose Riverward Oathguard rests on house levies and riverguards.
- The Sovereign Maan Republic Faction Sovereign Maan Republic Born of exile and imperial fracture during the 250-year Throne War, the Sovereign Maan Republic, also known as Khaldaara, occupies the frozen south and governs as a stratified e... abandoned the doctrine entirely in favour of its civilian-controlled Gendarmerie Corps.
- Veterans hold that in the Empire no death is wasted, since each fallen soldier becomes another stone in the rampart of survival.
Imperial doctrine treats the army as a single shield made of many threads. Every unit is nested inside a larger one, and every commander answers upward in an unbroken chain that the Inarin first codified and the Maan inherited whole. Ships are spoken of as ranked by the blood that commands them rather than by their build, so that a captain's authority is read from the standard he flies as much as from the hull beneath him.
The fleet orders run from the two-ship Imperial Ship Unit under a Naval Ensign, up through the Section, the Squadron, the small and grand Fleets, the Fleet Corps and Fleet Army, to the Grand Maritime Command and finally the Grand Admiral who holds all naval forces. The land orders run in parallel, from the five-soldier Imperial Squad under a Sergeant through the Section, Company, Banner, Regiment, Brigade, Division, Corps, and Army Group to the Grand Army, the Great Host, and the General over all. The Supreme Commander, marked by his own sigil, binds both branches and is held by the Emperor himself or by a High General of his naming.
The system is not uniform across the Northland. It governs the Maan Empire in full, beneath the Braided Standard, but reaches the Maaniskaar Kingdom only in part, where the Riverward Oathguard leans on riverguards and the private levies of its houses. The Sovereign Maan Republic broke with it outright, replacing sworn officers and nested orders with a civilian Gendarmerie Corps. Yet wherever the old doctrine holds, its officers swear their oath not to any man or council but to the Order itself, and its veterans console themselves that no death within it is ever wasted.