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Incudean Army Units, Titles and Uniforms

The highest authority in the Incudean Army is the 33-member Army Supreme Command (ASC), consisting of 10 fleet commanders (5 from the first and 5 from the second trinity), 15 army commanders (3 each from the third through the seventh trinity), 2 generalissimas (1 from the Home Fleet and 1 from the Home Army), 4 front commanders (1 from the first through the third trinity plus 1 from the Front Army Counsel), and 2 Rear Army opisthions. There is also a Joint Security Committee (JSC), consisting of the leaders of the Army, Front Army and Rear Army, along with 3 Councilors from the Conciliar Division of Security. The JSC meets regularly to ensure a good flow of communication between Army and Council.

A knowledgeable student of Incudean affairs will have noted that the scheme above recognizes the existence of forces at the sixth trinity, despite the fact that due to the persistent Upa rebellion no such units can possibly exist. The fact is that the sixth trinity leadership positions are mostly titular (ceremonial), the units and structures are nominal, and in all cases held by seventh graders. In practice, the Sixth Trinity Army organization, skeletal as it is, has become a useful destination for qualified appointees who have lost out for whatever reason in the battle for advancement in the Seventh Army.

Units and Titles

The Incudean Army proper (often nicknamed the Middle Army) boasts two Trinity Fleets (first and second trinity) and five Trinity Armies (third through seventh trinity, though the sixth is only nominal), as well as a Home Fleet and a Home Army tasked with protecting the integrated flayer field around the Silver Planet. The fundamental difference between army (chiana) and fleet (vadis) is that the former is individual-centered, whereas the latter is machine-centered. Below are the units and titles in the First Trinity Fleet (the Second Trinity Fleet follows practically the same plan, other trinity forces vary). In general, each IA title occupies one rank in the hierarchy, but the topic of ranks as such will be covered in more detail at the end of the page.

UNIT	NAMING CONVENTION	COMPOSED OF	LEADERSHIP
First Trinity Fleet	Named after the trinity of operation	Variable number of junior fleets	Fleet Commanders (five)
Junior Fleet	Named after headquarters	9 Grand Divisions	Commander
Grand Division	x+verbers e.g. Starmongers, Worldeaters	27 Divisions	General
Division	Each Division named after one of 27 flowers	~216 millesimas	Warchief
Millesima	Named after colors (not fixed)	between 600 and 1800 soldiers	Colonel
Group	Named by function	9-20 squads, 72-144 soldiers (special combat troops, such as cavalry and bombers)	Captain
Band	Named by function	minimum of 6 squads and up to 66 soldiers (support troops, such as communications and provisions)	Junior Colonel
Team		2-5 squads (ad hoc unit)	Double Leader, Triple Leader, etc.
Squad		4~8 soldiers	Leader

High-ranking leaders have staff officers assigned to them with the role of proffering advice and supporting unit management. Thus:

COMMANDING OFFICER	SUPPORTED BY
Fleet Commander	Junior Commander
Commander	Lieutenant Commander
General	Lieutenant Generals (three)
Warchief	Grand Counsels (three)
Colonel	Travelers (five)

It can be seen from the table above that the size of millesimas and squads, the core units in the IA, fluctuates considerably. The Army determines ideal numbers based on place (Nears vs. Exotics vs. Storms; First Trinity vs. Second Trinity) as well as time (peacetime vs wartime). Naturally, officers themselves are not expected to stick slavishly to these numbers but to adapt to their circumstances. One famous exception in Sinduin's time is Baroness Sengam Erdion, longtime colonel of a millesima in the First Trinity Sampo Junior Fleet (generally termed the Sampo Fleet). She is originally from Witchhome, but her superiors figured her punctiliousness would not serve Incudea well out in the Exotics so they assigned her to the Nears. (So the rumor goes, anyway.) She has won many awards for the way she runs her millesima and in particular for how he manages to consistently hit all the -organizational, not military!- targets. Baroness Sengam's unit is the Blue-Gray (majik) Millesima, Riper Division, Field Defenders (huibangorguleth) Grand Division, Sampo Fleet, First Trinity. It's a perfectly typical vanilla millesima, with the bulk of the forces consisting of Spinner squads, that is, crews of the small but highly versatile IA Spinners that form the backbone of the Incudean fleets. The millesima operates out of a Krilpamir Orranoia mothership named the Pranzetumir. Below is a breakdown of her unit:

• The Colonel = Baroness Sengam of the Ducal House of Erdion from Salbakion and her colonies (including Withchhome).
• 6 counsel squads = 30 soldiers, 6 soldiers per squad (each squad has a traveler and 5 "adjutants," i.e. regular soldiers assigned to aid the traveler).
• 81 Spinner squads = 648 soldiers, 8 soldiers per squad.
• 5 support bands = 320 soldiers, 64 soldiers per band (each band theoretically breaks down into 8 squads of 8 soldiers each):
  •   Engineering
  •   Communications
  •   Navigation
  •   Weapons Systems
  •   Provisions
• 2 support squads = 16 soldiers, 8 soldiers per squad
  •   Diplomacy
  •   Intelligence
• 1 bomber group = 145 soldiers, 24 squads of 6 soldiers each, plus captain
• 1 cavalry group = 137 soldiers, 17 squads of 8 soldiers each, plus captain (8 squads of light cavalry hussars, 9 squads of heavy cavalry knights)

NOTE: Sengam's millesima will always be accompanied by other elements, which may include Medical Group, Front Army, CSD-A, etc.

Roundels

The Incudean Army uniform has two main elements: the attire as such, and a roundel on the left hip of the uniform. The roundel's style and colors indicate the units the soldier belongs to as well as her role. Here is Baroness Sengam's roundel:

The first thing to note is that the roundel does not identify the fleet or the junior fleet that the soldier belongs to, only the grand division, division and millesima. The reason for this is that it's extremely rare for troops belonging to different junior fleets to operate in the same theater of operations. Another important thing to note is that officers above the rank of colonel do not wear these roundels. With that in mind, the Baroness' roundel reads as follows:

• The flower style indicates she belongs to the first grand division in her junior fleet. G.D. names are not fixed, but anyone familiar with the Sampo Fleet will know that the first grand division there is the Field Defenders.
• The gray outline indicates she belongs to the ninth division in her G.D. The ninth division is always called Riper.
• The color of the flower matches the color identifying her millesima: blue-gray.
• The purple pistil indicates she is the colonel of the millesima.
• (The red and black are generic Incudean colors shared by all roundels.)

An analysis of each of these roundel elements follows.

Grand Divisions

Divisions

Division	Color	Division	Color	Division	Color
1-haitrul		2-hobath		3-klomego
4-gosenkar		5-gramu		6-jelau
7-jitron		8-josmor		9-riper
10-safulo		11-shadany		12-chohe
13-taifoil		14-tevony		15-davros
16-duprimon		17-feizio		18-fulke
19-pishuha		20-poltath		21-purres
22-prepish		23-pribash		24-bepis
25-morbra		26-nyuzosh		27-aguga

Millesimas and Roles

A millesima may have any color assigned to it, the only restrictions being that no two millesimas in a division may have the same color, and that the color not be black or white. (In particular, white is reserved for the special millesima in charge of logistics for the entire division.)

The center pistil color in the roundel is determined based on the soldier's role and rank as follows:

colonel	traveler	leader / captain / junior colonel	regular combat soldier	special combat soldier	support / staff soldier

On the subject of roles, it should be understood that military operations in bodies of water and wetlands are outside of the Incudean Army's jurisdiction, falling rather on various units at the monarchical level (more and more, however, even far-flung planetary systems employ the services of the all-mighty Gorgon Navy to serve them, as does the IA on many occasions).

Uniforms

All Incudean government personnel (civilian and military, atrianir) wear the so-called vazebuki uniform. A formal military vazebuki is identical to any government uniform, though as may be expected there is a combat version that is quite different, as well as other outfits more approppriate for battle. What distinguishes the job and rank of a vazebuki wearer is the outfit's colors. There are usually four colors, dubbed first, second, third, and fourth color. This color sequence is unique for each vazebuki. Private persons (datrianir) are allowed to wear vazebuki provided they have certain colors and they eschew the gauntlets.

First Color	Second Color	Third Color	Fourth Color
dress gauntlet ribbons boot ribbons	gauntlets boots	tabard	tabard ribbons dress ribbons

Here are the color sequences for Incudean Army personnel:

	First Color	Second Color	Third Color	Fourth Color	Additional Accoutrements and Notes
GENERAL TROOPS
Recruit
Soldier					(includes soldiers in support bands and adjutants) gauntlet ribbons turn Prussian blue after 216 years of service
Leader					(includes leaders in support bands)
Colonel					red creedal symbol on tabard
Warchief					same as colonel, plus purple halo
General					same as warchief, plus purple cape
Commander					same as warchief, plus black cape
Fleet/Army Commander			varies		Every fleet has 5 commanders; every army has 3 commanders. Each commander has a differently colored tabard along with a matching cape.
Marksmarshal			X		white cape, no tabard (this is a rarely awarded ceremonial title)
BOMBERS
Soldier
Leader
Captain
CAVALRY
Hussar Soldier
Hussar Leader
Knight Soldier
Knight Leader
Captain
SUPPORT
Junior Colonel	mixed				dress and boot ribbons are black, but gauntlet ribbons are white
STAFF
Traveler
Grand Counsel					red creedal symbol on tabard
Lieutenant General					same as grand counsel, plus black halo
Lieutenant Commander					same as grand counsel, plus dark blue halo
Junior Commander					same as grand counsel, plus purple halo

NOTE: The creedal symbols are three: R for the Tarteists, ? for the Pyrodules, and + for the Positivists (agnostics and atheists).

The Home Fleet

The Home Fleet and Home Army have the singularly important task of protecting flayer field and the capital Silver Planet. As such, they differ somewhat in organization, titles, and even uniforms, from the other fleets and armies. Below are the units and leadership titles for the Home Fleet.

UNIT	NAMING CONVENTION	COMPOSED OF	LEADERSHIP
Home Fleet	named after the Home System	13 Grand Divisions	Generalissima
Grand Division	I: For Ransain (first graders) II: Skeletons (first graders) III: A Billion Horns (first graders) IV: Ruspalis (first graders, elite) V: Flood Knights (second graders) VI: Painurians (second graders) VII: Mir Ne Tar (first and second graders) VIII: Slayers (first and second graders) IX: Crescent Moon (third graders) X: Scream (first to third graders) XI: The Merciful (first to third graders) XII: Eternal Flame (third to seventh graders) XIII: Red Council (first to seventh graders)	27 Divisions	General
Division	Each Division named after one of 27 flowers	36 millesimas for non-mixed G.D.s and 6 for mixed G.D.s plus the elite IV	Warchief
Millesima	Named after colors (not fixed)	between 600 and 1800 soldiers	Colonel
Group	Named by function	9-20 squads, 72-144 soldiers (special combat troops, such as cavalry and bombers)	Captain
Band	Named by function	minimum of 6 squads and up to 66 soldiers (support troops, such as communications and provisions)	Junior Colonel
Team		2-5 squads (ad hoc unit)	Double Leader, Triple Leader, etc.
Squad		4~8 soldiers	Leader

NOTE: Home Fleet has a good number of special squads, including the so-called "flayer killers", charged with sabotaging the flayers if things get really (really!) bad.

Home Fleet roundel designs for single-grade grand divisions are exactly the same as their regular IA counterparts. The roundels for grand divisions with mixed grades have an eight-planet motif around the basic design. Roundel colors follow the same rules as the rest of Middle Army.

Home Fleet uniforms are the same as regular IA uniforms in the lower ranks. The diverging color sequences are shown below.

	First Color	Second Color	Third Color	Fourth Color	Additional Accoutrements and Notes
Colonel					silver creedal symbol on tabard
Warchief					same as colonel, plus carmine halo
General					same as warchief, plus carmine cape
Generalissima					silver cape
STAFF
Traveler
Grand Counsel					silver creedal symbol on tabard
Lieutenant General					same as grand counsel, plus black halo
Lieutenant Commander					same as grand counsel, plus dark blue halo
Junior Commander					same as grand counsel, plus carmine halo

Front Army

The Front Army consists of specialized elite troops (sabotage, shock) which come out of the IA in two distinct ways: 1) through a levy on enarchical military recruits (more specifically, an enarchy must surrender one-thirty-sixth of their top scoring one-thirty-sixth of recruits as ranked in special entrance examinations; as you can imagine, they will often give up the lowest scorers in that group!; 2) through voluntary application by soldiers who have served a minimum of 36 years. Freshly recruited FA units are taken far away from home for training and rarely operate near their places of origin.

Enarchies with qualifying local elite forces may exempt themselves from the Front Army levy by contributing portions of these forces. Such is the case, for example, with the Eternals in Hiuron, as well as some ducal forces in the Highborn-heavy planets. The authorities of Ikrilath and Dani fulfill the levy both with regular recruits as well as their own elite forces, the Mechanized Josmors and Danite Air Power respectively. It goes without saying that exarchies are exempt from the FA levy as their security requirements are far more exacting than the enarchies'.

The Front Army deploys three trinity armies beyond flayer field. FA activity within flayer field and in the upper four trinities is reduced to non-combat operators collectively known as Front Army Counsel. The FAC deals with the overall supervision of the FA, as well as with reassigning and looking after FA veterans who have ascended to the fourth grade. Since there is no separate staff/counsel personnel line in the FA, part of the FAC's work is handling these functions.

Each FA trinity army is split into prefectures, one for each IA junior fleet. Each prefecture is split into 9 districts, which are similarly linked to the IA's 9 grand divisions. The situation becomes more complex at the level of the districts, however, as the FA fields both "regular" divisions, which are attached to the IA divisions on a 1:1 basis, and "detached" divisions, which work independently of the IA divisional structure. The regular divisions are split into groups, which work within IA millesimas, but as there as 6 times as many millesimas in an IA division as groups in an FA division, only one-sixth of millesimas will be cooperating with FA troops at any given time (these assignments are often quite temporary, and given enough time a FA group might see action with most of the millesimas in the IA division in question.) Below is the organizational structure of the FA in the First Trinity, with focus on the regular integrated divisions.

UNIT	CONNECTION WITH IA AND NAMING CONVENTION	COMPOSED OF	LEADERSHIP
Front Army in the First Trinity	Named after the trinity of operation	All prefectures in the trinity	Front Commander
Prefecture	1 per IA junior fleet, numbered	9 Districts	Front Mistress
District	1 per IA grand division, named after the Nine Calamities: I: Famine II: Plague III: War IV: Confusion V: Sorrow VI: Terror VII: Humiliation VIII: Exile IX: Annihilation	27 divisions (plus detached devisions, see below)	Lieutenant Mistress
Division	1 per IA division, whose designation it shares	36 groups	Front Colonel
Group	1 attached to 1 out of every 6 millesimas in an IA division, whose designation it shares	4 teams	Junior Colonel
Team		3 squads	Triple Leader
Squad		6~7 soldiers	Leader

Each FA district contains up to 12 or so detached divisions (essentially, independent divisions). Instead of flowers, they are usually named after metals. The internal structure of these divisions mirrors the regular one (36 groups to a division, 4 teams to a group, etc.), although it must be said that detached divisions will often employ combined groups, or super groups, working together to make up for the lack of a supporting millesima. (As for the FAC, it possesses 6 non-geographically determined prefectures each split into 9 districts composed of 12 divisions.)

Front Army Roundels and Uniforms

Front Army soldiers up to the rank of junior colonel wear roundels. All FA roundels depict a shamshir in red outline over the roundel proper. Troops in regular divisions sport the same roundel of the IA millesima they are attached to except for two things: 1) there is a white shamshir over the roundel, and 2) the center pistil color follows different rules (see below). In distinction to the regular FA troops, detached soldiers sport a black shamshir over the roundel. The flower pattern follows the IA one, but the inner ring/flower outline will be the color of the metal after which the division is named, which color should not be one of the 27 classic divisional colors. There is no official guideline for what metals or colors may be employed, only that care be taken that no two detached divisions in the same district employ too similar metals/colors. The flower color represents the group, and basically any hue is acceptable. (FAC roundels resemble detached division roundels in all respects except that the shamshir is green in color.)

The center pistil color for FA troops, both regular and detached, follows the following rules:

junior colonel	triple leader	leader	soldier

Below are the color sequences for Front Army vazebuki. FA units are known for their ribbonless uniforms.

	First Color	Second Color	Third Color	Fourth Color	Additional Accoutrements and Notes
Recruit
Soldier				X	uniform lacks ribbons
Leader				X	uniform lacks ribbons
Triple Leader				X	uniform lacks ribbons
Junior Colonel				X	uniform lacks ribbons
Front Colonel				X	uniform lacks ribbons purple creedal symbol on tabard and green halo
Lieutenant Mistress				X	uniform lacks ribbons same as front colonel, plus black cape
Front Mistress				X	uniform lacks ribbons same as front colonel, plus green cape
Front Commander				X	uniform lacks ribbons same as front colonel, plus white cape

Rear Army

Rear Army's role is twofold: military R & D and management of the Permanent Weaponized Experiments in the Shitabans System. Both of these roles require that the RA deal extensively and intensively with sorcery and sorcerers. Recruitment into the RA is through wholly different channels from the rest of the IA, and the institution does very little active campaigning to obtain new members. However, anyone with sorcerous tendencies is liable to made a not so negotionable offer. Rear Army is extremely secretive and officially all of its members belong to only two ranks: either 1) “rearguards” (helnionis), researchers and developers, as well as battlefield observers (data gatherers, sifters), or 2) “opisthions" or rear brains, (helemparins), who are the leaders.

The Rear Army's opaqueness extends to its organizational structure. The force is divided into 1,260 circles, but how each circle is constituted and to what specific end is not mentioned in any publically available source... And our journalists are not very eager to find out. It is said that if you run afoul of the Middle Army, they will seize you and give you up the Council; if you run afoul of the Front Army, they will do away with you and deny to the Council they ever saw you; and if you run afoul of the Rear Army, they will keep you around in one of their dungeons, and there you might meet a few Councilors that ran afoul of it before you...

Rear Army Roundels and Uniforms

Rear Army personnel do not wear any roundels unless they are embedded in IA units. The roundels are brown and black for rearguards and red and black for opisthions. The center pistil is brown for rearguards and red for opisthions except for the chief of the RA contingent in question, whose pistil will be purple in color. That is as much as Rear Army is willing to inform its colleagues in the Middle Army!

There is a single color sequence for Rear Army vazebuki, as follows:

First Color	Second Color	Third Color	Fourth Color

When working with the regular Incudean Army, rearguards and opisthions may be distinguished solely by their roundels. In Rear Army circles, opisthions are allowed to wear clothes other than the uniform, except for the uniform boots, which are not optional.

Ranks versus Titles

Experts generally agree that there are ten ranks or gradations in precedence within the Incudean Army. Three points of interest: 1) Inculae know no distinction between commissioned officers and enlisted personnel; all would-be warriors must join as soldiers regardless of background or previous training; 2) leadership positions are awarded on the basis of need, not seniority; promotions are not set in stone, and demotions are not necessarily failures; 3) The Front Army uses a unique point system, whereby each soldier is awarded points for learning certain skills in fields ranging from diplomacy to explosives to medicine; a soldier's points are all added and whenever two Inculae in the FA share the same rank, the point difference will determine precedence; the rationale for the practice is to encourage self-sufficiency within each group, ideally within each squad and for each soldier as well.

Below is a list of ranks and titles associated with them in the Middle and Front Armies.

RANK NO.	GENERAL/SUPPORT TITLES	STAFF TITLES	FRONT ARMY TITLES
special	Marksmarshal
1	Fleet Commander, Army Commander
2	Generalissima		Front Commander
3	Commander	Junior Commander
4	General	Lieutenant Commander	Front Mistress
5	Warchief	Lieutenant General	Lieutenant Mistress
6	Colonel	Grand Counsel	Front Colonel
7	Junior Colonel, Captain	Traveler	Junior Colonel
8	Double Leader, etc.		Triple Leader
9	Leader		Leader
10	Soldier		Soldier