Post by psychopathickids on Oct 1, 2014 0:16:51 GMT
The military history of the Crowned Republic of Lucente on the Southern Shores is perhaps best understood when separated into distinct phases, namely the city state period, and the rise, height, and fall of the Crowned Republic respectively. Before the rise of the Republic the seven city states which would each become one part of her coastal hegemony operated largely independently of one another, and it showed in the drastic differences in culture, language, and military armament and tactics between them; the fabled philosopher-soldiers of Myrrine outfitted in gleaming bronze muscled breastplates and greaves, wearing distinctive plumed helmets, brandishing bronze bladed spears more than eight feet in length, and massive circular bronze shields nearly a meter in diameter weighing in excess of twenty pounds; the artisan-architects of Juturna famous for their wide variety of strange mechanized contraptions, miniature handheld siege weapons powered by composite bow and fired from the stomach propped atop wooden bipods for support, spanned not by hand nor winch but by pushing downward upon an elaborate slider mechanism with the full weight of the body, massive crew operated machines which spewed forth stones and metal bolts of massive proportions, and even once --, if the legend can be believed --, using a series of burning glasses to concentrate the power of the sun’s rays into a beam capable of casting warships alight within seconds! Even the once proud tribal warriors of Rainier, armored in boiled leather and armed with heavy, leaf shaped bronze war daggers which would influence the blades of the Republic for centuries after their introduction.
The greatest advantage held by Lucente and its citizens, however, was their uncanny knack to see the true potential of the weapons and equipment borne by the people of their fellow city states and the emerging empires of the greater Northern continent, adapting the advancements of each in turn and perfecting them until they possessed the greatest military force on the Southern Shores. The alien machinations of the city-state of Juturna to the farthest Western reaches of the coastline became the far more easily deployed and more rapidly firing crossbows of the early Republican era, quite similar to those still in use in the modern day, ballistae with which to fire massive iron bolts into ships, walls, or formations of men at the whim of their operators, and boulder spewing onager with which one might besiege walled fortifications and cities alike. The leaf shaped bronze war daggers of the Rainier became the iron gladius of notably similar, if not practically identical, shape and utility, evolving over the centuries into the longer spatha, and eventually the modern Lucenten arming sword, and Lucenten hand and a half sword, each distinct though recognizably of similar make and fashion to the swords of the Republic’s earlier conquests. First adapting the boiled leather of the warriors of Rainier, and subsequently adding coats of ringmail, by the time the last of the seven city states of the Southern Shores had been brought to heel beneath the Armies of the Crowned Republic, the semi-noble aristocratic Houses of Lucente had begun to experiment with heavier armors of scale and overlapping plates to form the distinctive armor of shieldwall infantry of the Republic which would become the prolific unit of their armies during the height of their reign.
As the Armies of the Republic became an increasingly international force its tactics and military culture became further codified, systemized, and remained relatively unchanged over the centuries until their comparatively recent defeat by and subsequent fall to the Surv-Akur. Individual generals were expected to raise, train, and equip their own army at their own cost, to be reimbursed by the Doge and the Crowned Bank operated by the senior branch of House Makris only once fully operational. Keeping a standing army proved to be quite costly, and at the height of the Republic’s military strength each of the seven city states boasted at least one or two, and so the generals were awarded a significant degree of autonomy regarding how they saw fit to employ their forces, leading to the development of the condottieri culture which pervaded the Armies of the Republic until their eventual collapse; individual generals would contract their services to the highest bidder, leading their forces to see combat on one side or another in most every major Northern conflict over the past four hundred years, though under a complex set of cultural, religious and political guidelines. Most importantly, a general could not act on a contract without the express permission of the Doge, and his soldiers were sworn to the Doge, the Gran Consiglio, and the Republic at large before any other, to include their own general, individual cohorts or legions could not be contracted without including the rest of the army, each numbering around eight thousand strong, to ensure they did not become involved in any struggle but those of truly international scope and import, and though always demanding payment in one form or another could only take the side seen by their culture and religion as the, “honorable,” one.
At the time of the Survaek incursion, as it was known before the fall of Lucente, each of the Armies of the Republic were conscribed of three thousand man legions of pavise crossbowmen, two thousand man legions of light infantry, one thousand man legion of shieldwall infantry, one thousand man legion of siege engineers, and one thousand man legion of sappers, in addition to the general and his personal bodyguard, theoretically making the total count of men per army eight thousand, one hundred and one. According to the survivors of the Esharan Empire’s naval battle with the Surv-Vyaez had the forces of the Crowned Republic stood with them from the beginning the tides of fate would have produced a different result, those survivors of the Republic’s gruesome fall say that had the Esharan Emperor not been fool enough to challenge the Survaek alone on the high seas the Southern aggression never would have begun, all that can be said for certain is by the time the ground forces of the Republic clashed with those of the Empire the adaptability which had made them powerful in the first place had long since abated, codices and stratagem four hundred years outdated pervaded the minds of the generals of Lucente, and the mixed formations of pike, shot, and horse employed by the Surv-Akur decimated the Armies of the Republic, oft’ to a man, whose combined leadership found itself unprepared and overwhelmed within weeks, perhaps the bloodiest of the entire ground conflict in the North, less because of outdated technology and more because of foolish decisions made on the field of battle, taking skirmishes which never should have been taken, charging forces which never should have been charged, and failing to take those fights which should have been taken due to lack of understanding of the tactics and weaponry the modern world had long since replaced their, ‘state of the art,’ war machine with.
The greatest advantage held by Lucente and its citizens, however, was their uncanny knack to see the true potential of the weapons and equipment borne by the people of their fellow city states and the emerging empires of the greater Northern continent, adapting the advancements of each in turn and perfecting them until they possessed the greatest military force on the Southern Shores. The alien machinations of the city-state of Juturna to the farthest Western reaches of the coastline became the far more easily deployed and more rapidly firing crossbows of the early Republican era, quite similar to those still in use in the modern day, ballistae with which to fire massive iron bolts into ships, walls, or formations of men at the whim of their operators, and boulder spewing onager with which one might besiege walled fortifications and cities alike. The leaf shaped bronze war daggers of the Rainier became the iron gladius of notably similar, if not practically identical, shape and utility, evolving over the centuries into the longer spatha, and eventually the modern Lucenten arming sword, and Lucenten hand and a half sword, each distinct though recognizably of similar make and fashion to the swords of the Republic’s earlier conquests. First adapting the boiled leather of the warriors of Rainier, and subsequently adding coats of ringmail, by the time the last of the seven city states of the Southern Shores had been brought to heel beneath the Armies of the Crowned Republic, the semi-noble aristocratic Houses of Lucente had begun to experiment with heavier armors of scale and overlapping plates to form the distinctive armor of shieldwall infantry of the Republic which would become the prolific unit of their armies during the height of their reign.
As the Armies of the Republic became an increasingly international force its tactics and military culture became further codified, systemized, and remained relatively unchanged over the centuries until their comparatively recent defeat by and subsequent fall to the Surv-Akur. Individual generals were expected to raise, train, and equip their own army at their own cost, to be reimbursed by the Doge and the Crowned Bank operated by the senior branch of House Makris only once fully operational. Keeping a standing army proved to be quite costly, and at the height of the Republic’s military strength each of the seven city states boasted at least one or two, and so the generals were awarded a significant degree of autonomy regarding how they saw fit to employ their forces, leading to the development of the condottieri culture which pervaded the Armies of the Republic until their eventual collapse; individual generals would contract their services to the highest bidder, leading their forces to see combat on one side or another in most every major Northern conflict over the past four hundred years, though under a complex set of cultural, religious and political guidelines. Most importantly, a general could not act on a contract without the express permission of the Doge, and his soldiers were sworn to the Doge, the Gran Consiglio, and the Republic at large before any other, to include their own general, individual cohorts or legions could not be contracted without including the rest of the army, each numbering around eight thousand strong, to ensure they did not become involved in any struggle but those of truly international scope and import, and though always demanding payment in one form or another could only take the side seen by their culture and religion as the, “honorable,” one.
At the time of the Survaek incursion, as it was known before the fall of Lucente, each of the Armies of the Republic were conscribed of three thousand man legions of pavise crossbowmen, two thousand man legions of light infantry, one thousand man legion of shieldwall infantry, one thousand man legion of siege engineers, and one thousand man legion of sappers, in addition to the general and his personal bodyguard, theoretically making the total count of men per army eight thousand, one hundred and one. According to the survivors of the Esharan Empire’s naval battle with the Surv-Vyaez had the forces of the Crowned Republic stood with them from the beginning the tides of fate would have produced a different result, those survivors of the Republic’s gruesome fall say that had the Esharan Emperor not been fool enough to challenge the Survaek alone on the high seas the Southern aggression never would have begun, all that can be said for certain is by the time the ground forces of the Republic clashed with those of the Empire the adaptability which had made them powerful in the first place had long since abated, codices and stratagem four hundred years outdated pervaded the minds of the generals of Lucente, and the mixed formations of pike, shot, and horse employed by the Surv-Akur decimated the Armies of the Republic, oft’ to a man, whose combined leadership found itself unprepared and overwhelmed within weeks, perhaps the bloodiest of the entire ground conflict in the North, less because of outdated technology and more because of foolish decisions made on the field of battle, taking skirmishes which never should have been taken, charging forces which never should have been charged, and failing to take those fights which should have been taken due to lack of understanding of the tactics and weaponry the modern world had long since replaced their, ‘state of the art,’ war machine with.
