Tallet Legion

**The Tallet Legion** is the main conquering force of the Tallet Empire and its people. They are known for being numerous, ruthless, and extremely adept at overwhelming the forces of small nations.

## Rank Structure

### **Conscripts**

Make up the bulk of the force, and are usually taken from recently conquered villages, given minimal training in one field, and equipped with mass-produced gear.

### **Legionaries**

Are loyalist, veteran troops, often enlisted or promoted, who serve as examples for the Conscripts and keep them in line. There is often one Legionnaire for every five to ten troops.

### **Gearmaester**

The specialist soldiers within the Tallet legion that are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Tallet war machines, field fortifications, other battlefield shaping projects.

### **Centurions**

The base-level front-line officers, who train and command groups of soldiers. They are often used to lead any small group of soldiers on special operations.

### **Supreme Commander**

The top level commanders of campaigns, often in control of entire provinces.

## Tactics

### **Advancing War Line**

The favored tactic is to group up in a tight formation and advance until their opponent has been either pushed back or destroyed. This is often made possible due to the superior numbers of soldiers Tallet can field against their opponent, a simple shield wall with short swords being the most common and the first formation soldiers are taught.

These war lines are often backed up by Tallet war engines, terrifying contraptions of iron, wood, and tension wires that take a variety of shapes from rapid fire ballistae to small mobile fortifications, to spinning blades to push into enemy soldiers. The Tallet soldiers' primary function is to protect the war engines from damage while they do the bulk of the work. War engines are primarily powered by human muscle.

### **Disruption weaponry**

When facing an opponent with similar discipline and formation to themselves, or in the case of overwhelming human wave attacks, they utilized specialty weapons to either break their opponent's charge or break apart their formation. These weapons are often built on site by their gearmaesters using approved schematics from their supreme commander such as the **tangleshot** in which two weights with a spiked chain are fired from two separate ballista at the enemy charge.

Some disruptive weaponry uses zoological warfare similar to other nations. Typically disruptive bio weapons take the form of swarms of armored, specially-bred war dogs.

### **Constructive tactics**

Tallet legions will in some cases play to their strength of resource gathering and large workforce pool in order to defeat entrenched or well-fortified opposition. In the case of enemies that are simply dug in, they will cut them off from all supplies and build fortifications around theirs to create a massive arena with which they control all resources going in or out.

Tallet have been known to drain lakes, redirect rivers, and cut through mountain ranges to nullify strategic geographic value.

### **Overwhelming Tactics**

When all else fails and an opposing force is simply proving too clever to outmaneuver, the supreme commander of the area is likely to be removed from position or go under investigation for incompetence. Before that, however, the Tallet can draw upon their sheer overwhelming manpower to simply wear down the opposition into surrender or destruction. When one legion dies, they send another before they can recover, ad infididum.

### **The Imperial Contract**

The offering of the Imperial contract is the easiest method of expansion, and is usually done with the intimidating presence of a nearby army when the contract is presented. Outlined in this document are the terms and conditions of surrender and absorption into the Tallet Empire. Usually for smaller nations, accepting the contract is preferable to an unwinnable war.

While they terms vary from nation to nation due to innumerable factors from population density, culture, resources, etc. the most common elements are protection by the Tallet Legion, and tribute to the central empire with a planned ascension for the new colony to eventually become a full territory of the Empire.

## War engines

### **Lacerant**

Often called **manglers** by other nations, the Lacerant is a collection of blades on one end of a wagon that is spun by a two- to four-man crew at the back, and spun around or pushed forward to strike at enemy soldiers. It offers the ability to push into dense formations of soldiers without risking your own troops or the fear of death.

### **Testudo**

The Testudo is a simple idea, having a small armored box on wheels where men can fire crossbows from inside. The Testudo is powered by a two- to four-man crew on the inside turning the wheels to push the war engine forward as soldiers open the inside firing slots and shoot or occasionally stick a spear through. The outside of Testudos are often greased and covered in sharp blades and spikes to prevent enemy soldiers from getting on top of them.

### **Scutum**

Also called the **javelin** **box** by other nations, it is less of a war engine and more of a special weapon. A 5' narrow wooden box with several steel crossbars, the Scutum is operated by cranking the tension crossbars to full draw, loading a small spear into the box, and firing it over one's shoulder. The Scutum has been known to fully skewer heavily armored soldiers. It can be loaded by a skilled user in 30-60 seconds This is the most common war engine.

### **Murum**

The Murum takes the idea of fighting from the safety of a wall and moves it to the battlefield. Often used to bolster battle lines against physically superior foes, the Murum is a fortified wall on wheels, typically no more than 5' in height and built of lightweight wood. The wall is pushed forward in conjunction with legionaries or other Murum.

### **Ambagesque**

Also called **tangleshot,** the ambagesque is two ballistae linked together to fire simultaneously. It fires two spears with a bladed wire between them. The purpose of this weapon is to break human wave attacks of other numerically similar nations.

## Non-Standard War Groups

### **Wild Legions**

While the Tallet Empire prides itself on standardization, the process of civilizing and normalizing a new province takes decades at minimum. The new provinces of the Empire will often be required to give tribute in military forces, which usually take the form of wild legions.

Wild legions are irregular armies of conquered Tallet territories that typically have their own non-standard styles, weaponry, tactics, and approach to warfare.

### **Stolen Fire**

The Tallet Emperor and Gor God of Fire have something of a special rivalry regarding large expansionist powers of Soi; this is embodied by the Legion of Stolen Fire. The Goran nation only allows the best of its Urok warriors breed the next generation of Urok, with many of the others regarded as sub par. Some of these sub par soldiers are actively sought out by the Tallet legion as a personal insult to Gor as it proves that even the ever loyal Goran will submit to his will.

Urok defectors who betray the Goran nation for the Tallet are recruited into this fighting force. While well armed and armored, they are usually weaker than the average Urok as the only recruits are defectors of the lower rungs of Goran warrior caste.

### **Emperor's Sons**

The Emperor's sons are an exclusive organization of supreme commanders and high ranking operatives that are often set on special assignments for the direct interest of the Faceless Emperor. In order to be eligible for the organization, one must be able to prove direct genetic lineage to the Faceless Emperor. Bloodline will allow access to the finest academy training hall the Tallet Empire has at its disposal. Graduates of this academy are selected from the best, as only 4,900 may exist at any given time.

These graduates are held to a large array of standards from intellect, physical fitness, loyalty, personal combat skill, and political prowess. They are given the utmost authority, able to requisition anything from local governors and able to conscript anyone in the empire into their service to fulfill their tasks. While they are called the Emperor's sons, emperor's daughters are not uncommon graduates.