Regiments, Battalia, and Corps: Dissecting the Lunar Army

The Lunar Army had, for the majority of its existence, precisely two advantages over its opposition. Firstly, it had the Lunar Way and the ability to combine magicians of assorted types into consolidated magical units, which enabled the Lunar Army to consistently pull magical surprises out of its back pocket, even when (as was often the case) the raw power of its opposition was somewhat greater. Examples of this are well-known in the specialist literature. The ability of the magicians during the Second Invasion of Prax to use their Lodril priests to suppress the summoned Oakfed Lowfire stands in for the type. 

Secondly, however, the Lunar Army spread this consolidation somewhat into the conventional units, allowing them to create heterogeneous tactical and operational forces, where existing armies fought with homogeneous subunits that operated separately from one another. This consolidation proceeded only fitfully and in very limited quantities. It was as often a hindrance as a benefit, producing "pickup teams" that proved brittle or fragile. But it provided a critical edge in battle after battle, campaign after campaign. 

Thus, the Lunar Army operated with four operational units, two of them administrative and two of them combatant. 

Strategic Armies

Firstly, there was the high or strategic army. The Lunar Empire of the late Seventh and early Eighth Wane had, on parchment, five of these. Firstly, there was the Imperial Army proper, along with the Sister's Army, the Lunar Provincial Army, the Western Army, and the Redlands Settler Self-Defense Force. Each army had a different ultimate overseer: the Imperial Army reported to the Red Emperor, the Sister's Army reported to Great Sister, the Lunar Provincial Army reported to the Provincial Overseer, the Western Army reported to the Governor of the West Reaches, and due to a paperwork mix-up, the Redlands Settler Self-Defense Force reported to nobody. The Steel Proxy or any Imperial Warlord that existed had full authority to command any of these forces except the Sister's Army.

A note here on the Western Army and RSSDF: the former had been an important factor before the Syndics Ban descended, and was the core of Magnificus's forces at Kitor. After the Ban, however, the majority of the professional forces were incorporated into the Imperial Army and the end-result was that by the end of the Seventh Wane the Western Army existed mostly on paper- the Governor would be dependent on the acquiescence of the Great Houses to have any force worth of the name. The latter effectively did not exist at all- a small contingent of guards at Palbar to be used as bodyguards for traveling officials, another small contingent at Red Hair Place. However, it existed solely to assert Imperial authority to call up Redlands community militias if need be, so its effective nonexistence bothered Lunar bureaucrats little. 

Corps

Below the high or administrative army was the corps. The corps existed to group together related units for the purposes of accounting and filing, essentially. The Imperial Army maintained the existence of the following corps:

- The Lunar College of Magic
- The Full Moon Corps
- The Heartland Corps
- The Cavalry Corps

The Lunar Provincial Army maintained the existence of the following corps: 

- The Native Furthest Corps
- The Mirin Cross-and-Crescent Corps
- The Daughter's Daughters Corps (formerly Jillaro Corps)
- The White Shirt Corps

Briefly, it also proposed the existence of the following corps headquarters, to eventually become full corps in their own right:

- The Prax Corps
- The Coastal Corps

The Sister's Army maintained no subordinate corps officially- in practice, "corps" became a slang term for internal factions among Great Sister's favorites.

The Western Army maintained the existence of the following corps: 

- The Jhor Corps
- The Spol Corps
- The Worian Corps
- The Bindle Corps
- The Zaronger Frontier Corps

An overexcited scribe in the Imperial Headquarters produced this list of RSSDF corps:

- The Zarkosing Corps
- The White Moon Corps
- The Walkout (or Walktapus[?]) Corps
- The Sentinel Corps

Some notes follow: 

Only the Imperial Army and Sister's Army maintained anything close to a synergy between paper strength and ration strength. The Lunar Provincial Army's four corps were intended primarily as organizations for mustering militia, with marginal professional forces. The Native Furthest Corps, under the guidance of Fazzur Wideread during the southern campaigns against Sartar, Prax, and Kethaela, managed to achieve near-equity with professional forces due to wise use of mustering and rotations. The Mirin Cross-and-Crescent (mustering Aggar and Holay militia) and Daughter's Daughters, (mustering Vanch and Imther militia) however, did not. The White Shirt Corps was another paper unit, intended to muster the barbarian tribes that had a tenuous allegiance to the Lunar Empire. It is extraordinarily dubious whether it could have been used or not, but it had a permanent standing force of about a thousand fighters, two hundred of them professionals, the remainder mercenaries or devotees of the Lunar Way. The Daughter's Daughters had once been built around Jillaro- the accession of Sylila as a full Satrapy pushed them out into wilder country, though the headquarters generally remained in Jillaro. 

The Native Furthest Corps officially incorporated Sartar city militia for Alda-Chur, Alone, and Jonstown. In practice, it oversaw the raising of Sartar militia (rare) and the recruitment of Sartarites into the Provincial Army. 

The Coastal Corps was intended initially to incorporate Volsaxi and southern Sartari (Wilmskirk, Swenstown, Boldhome, non-city tribes) militia, then was extended to all of Heortland once Rikard Tiger-hearted rejected the chance to become a formal ally. At the time of the Dragonrise, this responsibility had been extended into Esrolia as well. The Prax Corps was intended initially to consolidate the Grantlands, Sun County, and Pavis County along with hypothetical settlements around Corflu, and allow an easier means of incorporating the Sable Tribe into the Lunar armies. At the time of the Dragonrise, a substantial debate had emerged over whether reconquering Prax was worthwhile. 

The ancient privileges of the cities of lower Peloria prevented the Red Emperor or Lunar Empire from formally bringing their militias under imperial control. These privileges were necessarily extended to Sylila and Oraya as well. Nevertheless, informal control of these militias was common.

The Sister's Army numbered about 10,000 total people, between 250 and 1000 of which (usually about 500) were concentrated into a specialist magical unit that rarely took the field to devastate opposition with its graceful, artistic power. Most of its members were dispersed around the Empire keeping an eye on schools of Illumination, possibly-wayward Examiners, and participated in efforts to suppress the Church of Immortality and Seleric influences. 

The Western Army's corps had been intended to mix professional and militia forces. By the late Seventh Wane, the professionals had mostly been stripped out and they were similar to provincial corps in composition, though less so in effectiveness. The Zaronger Frontier Corps was established formally as a means to patrol the border with Erigia, but in practice it was the Governor of the Western Reaches' attempt to establish professional forces in Carmania again. It was small and untested except for border guard duty. 

The RSSDF, to the extent that it existed at all, maintained its permanent guards and a few other small units as part of the Sentinel Corps, which was intended to be professional, mobile forces that would rush to the aid of the other three corps, static militia units. This dream remained untested and thus unbroken even after the Third Battle of Chaos. The name of the Walkout/Walktapus Corps is known only from a handful of preserved documents. It has been suggested that this corps was used to hide the budget for experimental Chaotic units, or that there were actually two such corps with similar names. 

Lunar Allies were formally classified as part of the Imperial Army and assigned to the appropriate corps. Thus, the Blue Moon School was part of the College of Magic, the Char-un were part of the Cavalry Corps, the Thunder Delta Slingers were part of the Heartland Corps, etc. Note that officially, Praxian Sables that fought as part of the Lunar Army were considered part of the Cavalry Corps, but not officially Antelope Lancers (this due to an inspection early in the occupation noting that many Sable tribespeople didn't fight with lances) and so Lunar pay was irregular as paperwork shuffled back and forth on foot or via infrequent Moon Boats docking at Pavis. 

Regiments and Battalia 

Below the corps, the primary unit of administrative organization was the regiment. A regiment was of no fixed size. It was of no fixed composition. What defined a regiment was, as follows: 

"A regiment must be a unit of demonstrable antiquity or connection to the Goddess."

This was as helpful to the scribe as it is to the historical researcher. As such, regiments often required a circuitous route of proof of meeting either of those conditions. The following means of proof were used: 

- Genuine antiquity: Stonewall Phalanxes, Kastoki cavalry, Carmanian elite units.
- Connection to the Goddess directly: Imperial Bodyguard, Full Moon Corps, Major and Minor Classes
- Connection to the Goddess via her incarnations: Units founded by Hon-eel, Jar-eel.
- Connection to the Goddess via Moonson: Thunder Delta Slingers, Blessed Daughters.
- Connection to the Goddess via the Blue Moon: Blue Moon School.
- Connection to the Goddess via Lunarized City Gods: Most militia.
- Connection to the Goddess via Nysalor: Sun Dome Templars (furiously disputed).
- "Genuine" antiquity: Jintori, Unriver. 

A practical, descriptivist definition: A regiment was the largest unit that had its own wyter or standard. (Proposals to institute the creation of esprits d'corps in a more literal sense never got off the ground.) Thus, joining a regiment involved initiation into the cult of the regimental standard, and soldierly duties involved worship and care for this little god. In return, the little god made use of its power to protect the members of the regiment. This in turn placed effective size limits on regiments, as there was only so much a single wyter could do, even ones for units of true antiquity. 

The battalion, however, was the primary unit of maneuver in operational and tactical senses. As such, most regiments, especially in the Heartland and Cavalry Corps, would maintain two battalia- the forward one, carrying the standard to deployments and wars, and the reserve one, continuing to train new inductees and oversee veteran's associations and the like. This allowed the forward battalion to benefit most directly from the wyter's protection. 

It was more common for Provincial Army forces to establish multiple battalia, relying on other traditional means of magical protection to supplement a substantially weaker/more divided wyter. As such, the Furthest Regiment maintained six battalia: the Veteran's Cavalry, 2nd and 3rd Furthest Cavalry, 1st and 2nd Furthest Foot, Furthest Reserve. Each carried their own specific standards, modeled on the basic Furthest standard, and all shared a common wyter. This wyter was stronger than many others in terms of total worship received, but also was forced to divide magic between multiple units, and so the overall magic is weaker, the Native Furthest Corps more reliant on the traditional wargods of Tarsh and community ties like clan or tribe or guild membership. 

In general, a battalion's paper strength comprised about 1000 effectives for infantry, and about 500 effectives for cavalry or magical units. Thus, a battalion of Sun Dome Templars would deploy two or three 16x16 phalanx formations, with the balance made up by light skirmishers, on foot or horse. These subordinate units were largely neglected by the higher-level thinkers of the Lunar Army, which prompted many arch comments from the likes of Fazzur Wideread. A more traditional phalanx, like the Stonewall Phalanx, would deploy itself ten deep, with an ideal frontage of 10x10 = 100 shields, offering classical Dara Happan perfection. 

Only fresh units would be able to deploy at anything like this. Sickness, injuries, and attrition kept even those units at paper strength from fighting at that strength for long. Many other units were never at their paper strength (especially militia units) except in times of dire emergencies. As such, though it is possible to contemplate truly enormous numbers of troops fighting for the Goddess, in practice nothing like those numbers could ever have been raised, let alone deployed. 

If a regimental standard was lost or destroyed, it was possible to resummon the wyter to the Middle World. The process was lengthy, difficult, and ideally required veterans of service in the regiment, the cadre, to form the core of the reformed regiment. It was sometimes easier to create a new unit and a new wyter with the same name, particularly for city militias of no particular glory or story. This unit would be less effective, but sometimes the need to get forces into the field made that expedient a necessity. 

Field Armies

A number of battalia would be brought together into a field army, which would be the unit that marched together when moving between bases of operations and would offer or give battle. Field armies had no formal structure beyond that.

Non-Regimental Forces

Some forces fighting with the Lunar Army were not organized into regiments. These included temporary mercenaries and local sympathizers, along with forces not formally recognized as Lunar Allies. These units were generally handled on an ad-hoc basis or assigned to the "She-Who-Waits", "Yuthubars", or "Mernita" regiment, common soldierly jokes naming these temporary organizations. 

Officers and Ladies

The Red Emperor, when he took the field, carried his personal standard. He had the right to make use of the Seven Star Standard, but rarely did so except for parades.
 
The Imperial Headquarters maintained its own standard, a six-star one descended from an old Dara Happan model. 

Satraps, the Provincial Overseer, Great Sister, and the Governor of the Western Reaches were entitled to make use of a standard displaying simply the Red Moon in her Full Half phase. 

The Imperial Warlord or Steel Proxy was the only officer who had the authority to bear the five stars of a Full (Moon) General, but there were others of that rank ceremonially. 

There were two Half (Moon) Generals, bearing four-star standards, each with the authority to command up to half of the Lunar armies if need be. (This rank was equivalent to the old ranks of Lord General or Lord Demon of Death out of the histories.)

The first normal rank, with a three-star standard, was the Crescent-Come General, or "Waxing General", equivalent to the old Captain-General. Crescent-Come Generals typically oversaw entire corps, but sometimes took the field, leading multiple field armies on a campaign. (Fazzur held this rank for much of his career.)

Below that, with a two-star standard, was the Crescent-Go General, or "Waning General", equivalent to the old rank of Field Commander. The majority of field armies would be commanded by Crescent-Go Generals. 

Below that, the one-star standard was reserved for the "Dark Moon General", equivalent to the old rank of General, and actually two ranks- Dying (Moon) General and Black (Moon) General. The two were effectively interchangeable. Officers of this rank could command a smaller field army, but more often served under a Crescent-Go General and commanded subunits, or else commanded major garrisons. Others would be staff officers. 

Below the general officers, there were few coherent ranks. Legates were appointed to oversee minor garrisons or subunits not large enough to demand a Dark General, but this was not a formal rank, rather a temporary office. The most coherent rank below that was the taxiarch (sometimes chiliarch, "commander of a thousand"), who was the field commander of a battalion. Below the taxiarch would typically be a rank commonly referred to as the "captain" (or literally, "commander of three hundred and forty-three" in the New Pelorian) but with much local variation, commanding the larger subunits of the battalion, and then the "lieutenant" ("commander of forty-nine"), commanding the smaller subunits, down to the "sergeant" or "septanus" ("commander of seven"), overseeing the file's living arrangements. 

Many of these ranks commanded nothing like their official numbers. 

The vast majority of Lunar officers at the taxiarch rank or above (down to the captain or lieutenantcy even in many Provincial Army battalia) would be inducted in the cult of Yanafal Tarnils. A handful were only inducted in other cults- Polaris, Shargash, Humakt, Urvairinius, etc., but the majority worshipped the Ram and Warrior as their patron Immortal and guide. 

A Note on the Lunar Navy

The Lunar Navy consisted of four forces- first was the Red Navy, which had been established to handle oceanic travel. In practice, apart from a single squadron at Corflu, its sole responsibilities were to patrol the Sweet Sea and the lower reaches of the White against piracy and smuggling and to provide the material support for the Kalikos Icebreaker expeditions. 

Secondly, there was the Blue Navy, officially a division of the Blue Army intelligence and police service, which operated a riverine navy on the Pelorian rivers. 

Thirdly, there was the Black Navy, which was an even more secret part of the already-secret Unspoken Word or Black Army secret police. The Black Navy maintained a small force of ships on the River Styx, on the boundaries of Hell. 

Fourthly, the Moon Boat flying vessels under direct imperial control constituted a fourth "naval" force, one that was almost entirely unarmed. It was thus sometimes referred to as the "White Navy" for that reason. 

The impetus for this post is fairly straightforward- the existing literature on the Lunar army suggests it consists of five corps: the four corps I have labeled as part of the Imperial Army, plus the Lunar Provincial Army. The Provincial Army itself consists of mostly Tarshites and some speculative Sairdite units. The Lunar Army also contains Carmanian units, but Carmania is not really part of the Heartlands. The goal, then, was to produce a reinterpretation and invention that stayed within the bounds of what the Lunars are capable of while filling in these holes, adding jokes and speculative possibilities, and then going further to hint at some of the changes the Lunars made to old Dara Happan, Pelandan, and Carmanian ways of war. There may well be a sequel looking at operational factors and tactical factors. 

Rank names are speculative, based on mixing pure translations and ancient Greek and Roman models- I would prefer to add more Achaemenid terms in there, but alas, that's all buried in specialist literature, it seems, and would have to be translated anyways. Note also that in this model the old Reaching Moon Megacorp name of "Red Army" refers to the military as a whole. 

I'm probably proudest of the joke that the Full Moon/five-star general was invented to one-up the ancient Theyalan title of Lord Demon of Death.