A Spark in the Wind

Appendix D: Arms and the Men

Observing the docile and reasonable nature of the high-elves, or the international disinterest shown by wood-elves, one might come to think that these people are not warlike. The truth though, cannot be farther from that idea.

The history of elven peoples is a history of war, a history of conquest, and a history of sacrifice. And through war, these brave elves keep their culture alive.

The concept of warfare, for high-elves and wood-elves is a very different concept. For the wood-elven tribes, it's a way of life: a necessary duty to protect one's borders from enemies sapient or feral, for the greater clans it's a struggle for absolute power, and for the monarch it is a chance to establish unquestioned loyalty across all the rebellious fiefs.

For the high-elves of Alinor on the other hand, war is most often waged to spread their ideology. Even as a lesser House of the grand Red Elven Union, they make up for it with their military nature.

For both peoples, though only a small fraction of the population is truly battle-ready, nearly everyone, man and woman, has some basic training. For both, reasons are different.

The wood-elves are a feral people, used to hardships and fending off attacks regularly, thus they have to promote martial culture. Of the several million inhabitants, roughly a million can be called to arms, although the true 'military strength' of the Forest Kingdom is one hundred thousand.

The high-elves on the other hand dwell under the constant threat of an invasion by enemies known or unknown, and even in general have to make up their muscles to live the hard lives they do. Though they can field armies as great as two million, their immediate numbers never exceed a hundred thousand (directly under the king of Alinor).

(i)

OF RECRUITMENT, HOME DEFENCE, AND THE PROCESSES

Unless you're one of those of those eusocial insectoid monsters from distant worlds we dare not colonise yet, nobody is born a soldier, you are bred into one. And like all things in life, you need to prove yourself fit to serve before you get handed the cloak and shipped to the borders.

And lastly, even if you prove yourself able, there is little chance of you being assigned to hazardous locations; they say you must keep your friends close but your enemies closer, but they forget to defend against those enemies you need to spend a good chunk of your military.

Amongst the high-elves, there are two main types of armies: static and dynamic. Static armies are mostly made up of conscripts, ill-equipped and untrained, meant not to wander too far from the province. Dynamic armies are made of hardy legionnaires, whose job is to go out and fight in the name of their motherland.

Should you show interest in joining the military but lack training and combat experience, you can be expected to sign up with the static army stationed at your provincial capital.

Whilst there, you'll get a basic pay in exchange for acting as a town-guard, as well as defending the province's villages from bandit raids and sieges (if any arise), whilst being subject to the whims of your province's defence minister. Is trading safety, stability, and closeness to family in exchange for better pay, better equipment, a share of the spoils of war, and great honour a good trade? You decide.

If you aspire for more, you can enlist in the local military school, where you'll be battle-hardened. Once you have graduated from military school, you can expect to sign up with a dynamic army to serve under the king and be considered a true soldier.

In times of inaction, you'll still be a part of the static army, albeit with greater pay. But when campaign season comes up, you can apply to join one of the ten legions under the ruling king, and perhaps be selected, in which case you have to show up in one of the recruitment camps, after which you and thousands of others like yourself can finally get some action.