Choir Military Structure

## **Historical**

The military of the **Wildchoir** grew out of the disparate guards and militias of each of the constituent races. Tales survive of early shuffling and vying for power among military factions, but eventually they managed to settle into a stable configuration, with each of the strengths of the groups complimenting each other. Even after their incorporation into the Choir, the old **Kihai** practice of mounting an offensive before something could become a threat remained useful; Kihai Gladekeeper regiments became the primary offensive unit of the choir. However, they soon incorporated **Hjen**, whose bulkier stature made them more suited to close-quarters combat than the Kihai gladekeepers, trained to keep their foes at range with pikes and bows. The historical nomadic lifestyle of the **Endless Spears** made their soldiers perfectly suited for the Choir’s scouting and frontier regiments. However, as cultural interchange progressed over time, **Cuthail Warfare** tactics led to many spear regiments adopting defensive guerilla warfare tactics.

The Wardens were a largely cross-cultural military force created for internal conflicts. Most cities and settlements would have an independent branch, which would call a larger Warden Reserve from surrounding settlements in case it was needed. This was occasionally necessary to put down insurrections or fend to off raiders until the Gladekeepers could arrive, but more often than not, Warden duties involved dealing with the latest Cuthail trafficking gang to surface.

The Wardens and Gladekeepers were organizationally separate and technically unconnected to the Speaker, though they would follow a Speaker’s orders more often than not, and the First Speaker was considered the final word in almost all cases. Warden leadership was disconnected from itself, even; many cities would have their own Warden Overseer, though smaller settlements would have a regional Overseer instead. The Gladekeepers had a primary leader, often called the Flag Bearer, who was close to the First Speaker, but most non-ceremonial decisions were left in the hands of regional Gladekeeper officers. In the cases of both the Wardens and Gladekeepers, the holder of leadership positions was often nominated by the regional Speaker or First Speaker, as appropriate, but the decision was ultimately up to the previous holder of the position.

Gladekeepers were traditionally divided into sixty-person units, under the control of a Grove Officer. Fourteen of these units would be combined into a regiment, of which the regional Gladekeeper officer commanded anywhere from one to five. Warden organization was less uniform, but often divided into units of eighty.

## **In Nebelloren**

Since the landing of the Choir in Nebelloren, organization has changed massively. The drastic reduction of population and change from a speaker hierarchy to a single speaker has removed many of the organizational and ceremonial positions in the military hierarchy. Additionally, the structure was mostly unformed until the Choir’s migration to Parravon, and so influence of Entente and Varimanian structures has led to a military under more direct control of the Speaker.

The Speaker nominates a single Gladekeeper, who acts as the organizational head of the Choir’s military forces. Those under this Gladekeeper are referred to as the Wardens, and deal with both internal and external threats to the Choir. Any and all members of the Choir equipped and capable to fight are part of the Warden Reserve, called on to protect the city in times of need.

## **Naval Forces**

Since the landing of the Choir in Nebelloren, a new structure of the Naval forces has gone undefined. This is likely due to the lack of ships, as none of those used for the evacuation survived the trip to Nebelloren. However, the Choir had a strong naval tradition historically.

Prior to the formation of the Choir, there were few naval militia. Most of the forces available were mercenaries, most often working as escorts for trade vessels to prevent piracy. However, around a hundred twenty years post the Verse, there became a threat of raiding fleets from island peoples to the south of the Venswood. Fairly quickly, the somewhat newly-formed ground militaries of the Choir rose to meet this threat. Lithe Hjen scouting vessels were the well suited for this endeavour, and so, ranks of sailors were quickly recruited to meet the threat. Due to the nature of most naval combat as boarding followed by traditional combat, traditional Gladekeeper units were loaded onto boats for early conflicts. Later, Naval Gladekeepers – colloquially referred to as Reefkeepers – gained training separation from the traditional Gladekeeper units.

Organizationally, Reefkeepers retained much of the structure of the Gladekeepers. Each Reefkeeper unit would have sixty soldiers, and one or two ships, depending on their size. They served under a Grove Officer, who in turn served under the regional Gladekeeper officer. The naval Grove Officer would often be called a Captain to separate from the land-based counterpart, but in fact was more comparable to the traditional term Commodore, as they had one or two captains serving under them.

Overall, naval forces were often better trained in archery than their land counterparts and used it to thin the ranks of opposing forces before a boarding could occur. Simple ballista mechanisms were occasionally used, primarily in an attempt to scare off opponents. However, since landing in Nebelloren, the introduction of Varimanian siege technology has made ballista feasible as a legitimate naval weapon, likely capable of sinking ships.