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Nightstar The Bright
Joined 5 November 2023
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For the Alethi, being a leader is essentially the same as being a general. Officers wear something called an officer’s coat, which is long and meant to be unbuttoned. War banners mark divisions, battalions and companies, they are used to organise an army.{{book ref|sa4|27}} During the True Desolation, warfare began to change. There are far fewer large scale formations, those are far to easy to disrupt. Instead men spend their time in protected warcamps, occasionally making a sudden surge to claim ground and shove away the enemy. During this time battles changed from decisive engagements to several month long fights.{{book ref|sa4|43}} The Alethi quickly adapted to warfare against the [[Fused]] and [[Regal]]s. When there is an abundance of Shanay-Im the humans lock their shields together into a canopy, protecting from lances and spears, aside from that the humans have learned to use water to render the stormforms power unusable.{{book ref|sa4|42}} certain arm gesture signals to soldiers to retreat.{{book ref|sa1|13}} Kings guard: blue and gold. Also from the Kholin army. The old campaign conundrums: did one choose the best position to weather storms, or did one seize the high ground. Most men choose the former. Alethi uniforms are traditionally made up of a long, approximately waistlength,{{book ref|sa1|22}} coat with buttons up the side.{{book ref|sa1|18}} The Alethi military is over a hundred fifty thousand troops strong.{{book ref|sa1|22}} High ranking Brightlords may also have a shieldbearer. Each highprince has his own martial philosophy, and their army has it’s own strength, with the Kholin army having the best heavy infantry, the Roion army the best archers and the Sadeas army the fastest bridges.{{book ref|sa1|24}}
{{sidequote|All wars are games. The greatest kind, with the pieces lost real lives, the prizes captured making for real wealth! This is the life for which men exist. To fight, to kill, to win.|
{{sidequote|There hasn’t been peace since the Tranquiline Halls, Man’s life on Roshar is conflict.|a quotation from [[The Arguments]]{{book ref|sa1|24}}|side=right
Proper Alethi warcamps are often arranged neatly, with the barracks placed in rows which are in turn arranged into radials, with a meeting ground and a mess hall at the center of each battalion.{{book ref|sa1|26}} The ‘close order’ drill is a an essential exercise to an army’s performance, although few outside the military appreciate its importance. There is also a drill called the ‘extended order’ drill, sometimes called the ‘extended combat’ drill, this drill focuses on practicing formations and movements used on the battlefield. The Alethi army adapted to the [[listener]] strategies by increasing the flexibility of their armies, making them able to respond quickly to the uncanny way the listeners fought. Each brightlord has his own personal glyphpair, which is usually made up of two glyphs.{{book ref|sa1|28}} Low ranking men in the armies are often susceptible to bribes. Soldiers can pay their brightlord’s scribes to send a message via spanreed, although this is considered extremely expensive, with even a terse note costing roughly a week’s wages for a common spearman, which translates to about forty clearmarks. Army surgeons wear white, and the apprentices are almost all men who have some incapacitation, preventing them from fighting. Most common spearmen in the Alethi military wear specifically designed skirts, and don’t wear trousers. They also wear the colors of their highprince. Stealing from the dead is strictly prohibited, although this doesn’t stop some soldiers from doing it. If regular soldiers killed a noteworthy target, usually an important brightlord, they can send for their captainlord, who will confirm the kill, to earn a reward.{{book ref|sa1|47}} Soldierx wear breastplates, steel caps and chainmail.{{book ref|sa2|2}} A shardbearer will almost never give up his shards, the only time he might is when he is to weak to use them.{{book ref|sa1|52}} The soldiers in more professional and organised armies wear steel armour, such as breastplates and helmets.{{book ref|sa1|55}}{{book ref|sa1|57}} In these armies archers generally wear leather vests, while foot soldiers wear steel breastplates.{{book ref|sa1|57}} Officers in the Kholin army wear uniforms that are coloured a darker shade of blue.{{book ref|sa1|68}} Generally, a man in the personal guard of a lighteyes earns thrice as much as the wage of a standard spearman, so about 15 clearmarks each day.{{book ref|sa1|73}} Kholin officer uniforms are comprised of a blue waistcoat and a double breasted blue longcoat, with a white lining and silver buttons. These are supposed to hang open. Uniforms generally have a patch to indicate the duty and unit of the wearer.{{book ref|sa2|2}}
A Shardbearer is typically trained in a specific way among the Alethi. Lighteyed boys of appropriate rank around the age of ten are chosen by an ardent swordmaster for training.{{book ref|sa2|16}} These boys typically already have at least some training with the sword. The swordmasters train in training grounds run by the ardentia. The swordmaster's job is to teach them the ten [[Stances|Shardblade Stances]], which are used in both dueling and regular combat.{{book ref|sa2|44}} They train with Blades in two ways. If the trainee has no Blade of his own, they can make use of wooden practice swords that approximate the balance and weight of a real Blade. They may also borrow one of the King's Blades.{{book ref|sa2|16}} Either way, when training with real Blades a guard is used to blunt the cutting edge.{{book ref|sa2|18}} A swordmaster also coaches their student on how to control the Blade with their mind, commanding it to remain in place so it can be loaned to others.{{book ref|sa2|35}} A proper salute is moving a hand to your breast.{{Book ref|sa2|75}}
=== Equipment ===
==== Armor ====
==== Uniforms ====
{{sidequote|Stiff blue trousers and black boots polished to a shine. A buttoned white shirt, only the edges of the collar and cuffs extending beyond the jacket, which came down to the waist and buttoned closed beneath the belt.|The uniforms of the Cobalt guard in the year 1173{{book ref|sa2|2}}|side=right|size =300px}}
Messenger women often wear travelling dresses of a particular fashion. These dresses have the front and back slit open, all the way to the waist, to allow for greater mobility.{{book ref|sa2|76}}▼
▲Messenger women often wear travelling dresses of a particular fashion. These dresses have the front and back slit open, all the way to the waist, to allow for greater mobility.{{book ref|sa2|76}} They also wear something called a runner’s sash.{{book ref|sa2|81}}
==== Weaponry ====
Shortspeads and longspears.{{book ref|sa2|81}}
=== Tactics ===
The Weeping is a common time for military campaigns.{{book ref|sa2|79}}
==== Communication on the battlefield ====
On the battlefield, runners are used to give orders.{{book ref|sa1|65}} Many leaders give speeches to their troops, these speeches are then recorded by a number of scribes, who are always women, and repeated to the rest of the army.{{book ref|sa2|81}} When it is dark stormlight may also be used to give certain signals, such as the signal to attack.{{book ref|sa2|81}}
When the sound of battle is loud enough, a squadleader may decide to give his commands by banging his spear against his shield in a certain rhythm, with particular rhythms meaning particular commands.{{book ref|sa1|47}}▼
▲When the sound of battle is loud enough, a squadleader may decide to give his commands by banging his spear against his shield in a certain rhythm, with particular rhythms meaning particular commands.{{book ref|sa1|47}}
==== Warcamps ====
How a warcamp is organised and run depends greatly on the highprince. Some camps are organised and patrolled while others are chaotic and almost lawless.{{book ref|sa2|5}}
=== Training ===
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