User:Nightstar The Bright

Hello everyone, I am Nightstar The Bright. I really enjoy reading Brandon Sanderson’s books, sometime after I read them all I began editing the Coppermind.

Notable pages I reworked

• Court of Gods
• Iridescent Tones
• Listener
• Duladel
• Pahn Kahl
• Jah Keved
• Fjorden
• T'Telir
• Hallandren
• Idris
• Final Empire

! The following text is a collection of the information about the Alethi military !

Military

Enlistment and Wages

Enlistment

Any man, lighteyed or darkeyed, can volunteer to join the military. Most of the volunteers are boys, their head full of ideas about glory and Shards. When needed, conscription can also used to gain more men.

It is seen as a citylord’s duty to handpick men to conscript into the army. There are limitations to this system however, a citylord isn’t allowed to conscript someone who provides an essential service to the community, such as a surgeon. Recruits may bring two changes of clothing and three stoneweights of other possessions with them.

Each enlistment lasts four years, after which a soldier can choose to enlist for another four years. Upon completion of his time in the army, he will receive a war bonus, equal to one tenth of his total wages. If a darkeyed soldier manages to distinguish himself and rise to a high rank, he could also rise in nahn.

Wages

Alethi soldiers are well paid, although their wages are based upon military rank and caste. The average darkeyed spearman is paid five clearmarks a day. As higher ranking men, someone in the personal guard of a lighteyes generally thrice as much as the wage of a standard spearman, which translates to about 15 clearmarks each day. Military slaves are paid a fifth of the wage of a darkeyed soldier, around one clearmark a day.

There are a number ways to earn money outside of your wages. A lot of low ranking men in the military are susceptible to bribes. Some men also try to steal from the dead, although this is strictly prohibited by the officers. If a group of regular soldiers has killed a noteworthy target, usually an important brightlord, they can send for their captainlord, who will confirm the kill, to earn a reward. Many armies allow their soldiers to pillage a conquered city or town, which is a large source of wealth to the soldiers. When a soldier dies, his highprince needs to pay his family.

Command structure

Leadership

The Alethi military not a single unified entity, rather, it is a loose coalition of ten different militaries. These ten militaries are sworn directly to their respective highprinces. This means that the king has very little say in how the military is run; he doesn’t command anything other then the two hundred and fifty strong King’s Guard. There is constant in-fighting between the highprinces' armies, even during wartime, and cooperation between the highprinces themselves is seen as a weakness. This is bolstered by the tenets of Vorinism that say the purpose of life is to prepare in order to join the Heralds in the fight to regain the Tranquiline Halls and Alethi belief that everything is a competition in life. Recently, in an effort to truly unify the kingdom, Dalinar Kholin has been appointed as the Highprince of War by the king. This title was used in Alethkar before being fragmented into ten princedoms when each highprince was given the ultimate authority over one aspect of the governing of the kingdom. On paper, this gives Kholin authority over all war-related activities.

Aside from this division between the armies, the Alethi have excellent leadership. This is mostly due to how for the Alethi, being a leader essentially the same is as being a general. Alethi officers, be it low ranking or high ranking officers, learn how to properly and effectively boost the morale of their troops. If a commander, like a captain or companylord, isn’t in place to give commands, the most senior of his officers has command.

Chain of command
Unit	Soldiers	Typical Commander
subsquad	6–8	sergeant
squad	~25	squadleader
platoon	~50	captain/captainlord
company	~100	companylord
battalion	~1000	battalionlord
division	~2000	general
army	—	highprince
In companies made solely of lighteyes, the rank "lieutenant" is used as the equivalent of sergeant.

Ranks

The Alethi military is complex and contains many ranks. The figure to the right shows some of the ranks and gives some information about them. Besides these, there are a few extra ranks or duties. One such rank is highmarshal. It is unknown what the position of highmarshal entails, but it is a high rank, and most highmarshals command a large force of soldiers practically by themselves. Some officers are responsible for a branch of the army, such as the infantry or cavalry, these officers are referred to by their duties, along with the suffix -lord (e.g. cavalrylord, infantrylord). Besides these ranks, some officers gain command of certain parts of the army (e.g. the rearguard). These officers are referred to as ‘commander of the … (part of the army)’ (e.g. commander of the rearguard). It is extremely rare for a darkeyed soldier to rise higher than the rank of squadleader.

Equipment

Uniforms

Although uniforms differ between armies, most Alethi wear something very similar. Uniforms are usually coloured with the colours of their wearer’s highprince.

Uniforms are generally comprised of stiff trousers, a jacket, which often comes down to the waist and buttons closed beneath the belt, a shirt and boots. Uniforms, both the ones owned common soldiers and the ones owned by high ranking lighteyed officers, always have a patch to indicate the duty and unit of the wearer. Uniforms also always have their Highprince’s glyphpair displayed prominently, both on the back and the breast. Some men choose to further personalize their uniforms by adding embrodiery or colourful scarfs. When it rains soldiers may choose to wear a stormcoat over their uniform, and there are often umbrellas ready for officers.

An officer’s uniform is usually comprised of a waistcoat and a double breasted longcoat, sometimes decorated with precious metals, although never with embroidery. These longcoats, called officer’s coats, are approximately waistlength and are supposed to hang unbuttoned. Army surgeons wear white clothing. 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. They, and likely messenger boys as well, also wear something called a runner’s sash.

Officers are distinguished by knots on a cord across the epaulette, with the amount of knots and their colour signifying their military rank, and their rank in the Alethi caste system. White knots indicate a citizen officer, that is a sergeant or squadleader; red knots indicate an officer of seventh dahn; and gold knots indicate second or third dahn; It can also distinguish between low captain, captain, captainlord, lieutenant, sergeant, and battalionlord. Soldiers without authority bear no knots.

Armor

The Alethi are outfitted with a large variety of armours, what a soldier wears depends on their job, wealth, and rank. Regardless of these factors however, soldiers almost always wear the colors of their highprince.

Regular spearmen wear special skirts, which are appropriately named spearmen skirts. It is forbidden for spearmen, even squadleaders, to wear trousers, although this rule isn’t taken very serious; respected soldiers won’t get into trouble for breaking it. They also wear leather caps and they don’t seem to wear any arm or leg guards. Wealthier soldiers, or those in professional armies, may wear proper steel breastplates, steel caps and chainmail. Archers generally wear leather vests, while heavy infantry wears thick steel armour.

Wealthy lighteyes often wear steel plate armour. At least some lighteyes decorate their plate armour to resemble Shardplate. Some lighteyes prefer helms with open visors to helms with closed visors. Some lighteyed soldiers also decorate their helmets with bird plumes. High ranking Brightlords may sometimes have a shieldbearer with them. The Alethi also have access to a number of sets of Shardplate. While the natural color of dead Shardplate is slate-grey, it is extremely common among the Alethi to change the appearance of one's Shardplate by painting it or adorning it with decorative details or even gemstones.

Weaponry

Most of the Alethi soldiers are equipped with spears, both longspears and sometimes shortspears, and shields. The Alethi also use maces, polearms, pikes and halberds. Pikes are often used alongside large rectangular shields. The Alethi also use truncheons when they don’t want to kill. The Alethi are skilled in the use of bows, of which most are shortbows. Despite this, longbows are also used. Most soldiers can’t choose what weapons to wield themselves; their weapons depend on their position in the army (e.g. spears for spearmen and bows for archers). Some higher ranking soldiers however, like squadleaders, are allowed to choose weapons.

Only lighteyes wield swords, although almost never as primary weapons, because according to Vorin traditions the sword is a lighteyed's weapon. These swords include both longswords and shortswords. One handed swords are often wielded with small round shields. Alethi heavy infantry, which always consists of lighteyed men, carries heavy and impact based weapons such as maces, they also often carry square steel shields. Due to Vorin cultural ideas women can’t be armed, even scouts are only allowed to wear knives. The Alethi also have a number of Shardblades, around twenty, these blades are used effectively in combat.

Strategy

Troops

The Alethi Military has a lot of soldiers, approximately a hundred fifty thousand troops. Most of these troops are darkeyed spearmen, with a smaller percentage of lighteyed heavy infantry and archers. At the tail end of the Era of Solitude Alethi warfare started to include more and more cavalry, an army in the year 1145 would have about fifty horsemen, if not less, while an army in 1173 would have several hundred horsemen. The Alethi also employ many army surgeons, their apprentices are almost all men who have some incapacitation, preventing them from fighting. Following the start of the True Desolation, the Alethi armies began employing surgebinders to aid in their war efforts. Foremost among these surgebinders are those of the Order of Windrunners. Besides the Windrunners the Alethi employ a large number of Edgedancers, with a smaller number of Lightweavers.

Each of the Alethi armies 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, at least during the War of Reckoning.

Formations

The Alethi make use of a wide variety of formations. They generally fight in a shield wall. However, they also have many other formations. One such formation is called ‘pincer pattern’. This formation looks, as the name suggests, like a pincer, the formation is meant to distract and then destroy an enemy target. The troops at the side generally distract the target while the troops in the middle go for the kill. Pincer pattern is meant to be used by a large number of men, like a full squad or company. Soldiers are also trained to assemble and function in pike blocks to counter heavy cavalry.

Another formation is called the trident formation, this is a small-squad battlefield formation used by spearmen. The men, or man, in the middle hold(s) the target’s attention while those on the outside attack from the flanks. There are also a number of formations which aren’t used on the battlefield. One such formation is used during an inspection, the men will stand in lines while the officer(s) check(s) their gear.

Battlefield tactics

The Alethi employ a wide range of tactics. One popular tactic that is often used by the Alethi is the hammer and anvil tactic. The Alethi are also practiced at executing a fake rout, often leading to an ambush.

The Alethi infantry is usually employed in large block like formations, these blocks can get very large, with some of them being five thousand men strong. These standard spearmen blocks engage enemies as much as to position them as to do harm. The Alethi infantry blocks are also extremely mobile, far more so then infantry blocks from other militaries. The Alethi infantry uses their shields, forming a canopy of sorts, to protect from arrows and throwing spears. In these spearmen blocks, the front row of soldiers rotates to the back every ten minutes. This means that for every minute you're fighting, you also have a minute to rest. For most of Alethi history, due to lack of horses, light infantry was used to harry enemy armies.

“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.”

—The Sunmaker, who shaped modern Alethi militarism

Cavalry has never played a large role in Alethi warfare, at least, until recent times. Warfare has started to include more and more cavalry. Cavalry has historically been used to fight shardbearers, and has more recently begun being used to break lines. Cavalry was used extensively during the War of Reckoning, mainly to break ‘Parshendi’ lines and establish a beachhead for the rest of the army to exploit.

The Alethi are also excellent, by modern standards, at using their surgebinders. Windrunners are used to launch aerial assaults on the enemy, defend the Alethi armies against other lashing surgebinders and aid in conventional ground attacks. Besides this, the Windrunners scout the surrounding landscape and aid in moving troops, mostly generals or other high ranking officers, around. The Edgedancers are mainly used as medics, with their use of the surge of Progression the Edgedancers can heal anyone in a matter of seconds. In contrast to these surgebinders, the Lightweavers don’t enter combat, instead they serve mostly as spies.

The Alethi generals are constantly trying to get an edge over each other, ensuring that Alethi warfare rapidly evolves. During the Unification of Alethkar, around the year 1145, the Kholin army implemented new tactics. These tactics saw the Kholin army dominate other Alethi armies, such as the one commanded by Kalanor. The army would largely be made up of lighteyed heavy infantry and lightly armoured but fast archers. The middle of the army would contain the heavy infantry, which served to keep the enemy infantry busy, while mobile archer units deployed to the sides, firing down upon the enemy flanks. The enemy infantry would often attempt to engage the archers, but the heavy infantry prevented this, threatening to break through the central block. A number of years later the Alethi began to make use of smaller more mobile squads.

After the assassination of king Gavilar the Alethi armies saw themselves pitted against the listeners, who used different strategies. These strategies, along with the listener advantages such as carapace armour, resulted in a number of embarrassing Alethi defeats. They eventually 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. Likewise, during the True Desolation, warfare began to change. There were far fewer large scale formations, those became far to easy to disrupt. Instead men spent 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.

Sieges are rare in Alethkar, and often last only a short time. This is due to soulcasters, which make it almost impossible to starve a city out. Instead, the Alethi break down the walls quickly, seize the high ground to pound the city for a while or simply attack, attempting to scale and conquer the walls. During a siege, a general has to make a difficult decision, which is widely regarded as a conundrum, does he choose the best position to weather storms, or does he seize the high ground. Most generals choose the former.

Shardbearer tactics

With over thirty Shardbearers, the Alethi have become incredibly skilled at employing and fighting alongside their Shardbearers.

Alethi Shardbearers often lead formations, cutting a hole through enemy ranks with their overwhelming force. This creates a gap that the well-trained Alethi soldiers can exploit, which can even allow for an army to overcome superior numbers. Shardbearers will also sometimes be used in defensive fights to close the gaps in their own lines, moving quickly between weak places to give soldiers a chance to recover and return to their formation. Alethi Shardbearers almost always have an honorguard with them, which follows them into enemy lines. This honor guard does not spend time defending the Shardbearer directly, but rather stays nearby to support the Shardbearer, so if his Plate is severely damaged or he is seriously injured, the Shardbearer can retreat to safety and not risk their life or their Shards.

The Alethi have also become adept at countering Shards. They have learned that the best way is to send another Shardbearer against them. By leveling the playing field in this way, the overwhelming power of a Shardbearer is negated and victory is left to the most skilled of the fighters. Aside from that, they use heavy weapons such as war hammers and axes in an attempt to shatter the plate. The most common tactic employed by the Alethi is to simply drown a Shardbearer in enemies. There are also soldiers trained specifically to deal with Shardbearers. They utilize ropes and hooks to try to unbalance or trip the shardbearer, though this isn't always successful as shardplates are extremely heavy. Some Alethi Fortifications are built to withstand Shardbearers. These fortifications are built with narrow corridors to prevent a bulky Shardbearer from maneuvering.

Bridge Crews

For more information, see Bridge crew.

by Ben McSweeney

Bridge Crews were a very important part of most of the Alethi armies during the War of Reckoning, serving as an expendable workforce that carried bridges to help soldiers cross over the large chasms between plateaus. They also acted as canon fodder for Parshendi bowmen, as to direct attention away from more trained and valued soldiers. Due to this, bridgemen had a very high mortality rate, with around half a crew dying per run.

Each Bridge Crew was made up of 35-40 men, which were lead by a Bridge sergeant, who reports directly to the Brightlord in charge of the crews. Each crew has an internal leader elected amongst themselves known as the bridge leader, who has no official authority outside of that which his crewmembers choose to give him. Members of bridge crews were typically payed five clearmarks a week, given on the third day of every week.

The bridges used by Torol Sadeas's army are eight feet wide and two feet thick, with supports on both sides extending its width to sixteen feet. They are also thirty feet long, and allowed one to set up 8 men per column and 5 men per row.

While not on bridge runs, they are typically used as cheap manpower to perform undesirable duties at war camps, such as chasm or latrine duty.

Not all highprinces made use of bridge crews, with Dalinar Kholin notably refusing to make direct use of them. He instead made use of large bridges on wheels, pulled by chulls. Due to being heavier and pulled by chulls instead of people, movement is significantly slower, but Dalinar makes use of it regardless as it results in a major reduction of casualties during plateau runs.

Communication on the battlefield

On the battlefield, runners are used to give orders. 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. Horns are used to signal certain commands. Aside from this, when it is dark stormlight may also be used to give certain signals, such as the signal to attack. The Alethi, like the other Rosharan militaries, have become incredibly dependent on spanreeds for communication. They use them to gather information about enemy movements and to spread commands.

War banners are used to mark divisions, battalions and companies. This makes a battlefield easily surveyable for someone who understands the system. Most high ranking brightlords have their own personal glyphpair, which, like the name suggests, is usually made up of two glyphs. These glyphpairs are often painted on war banners, which ensures that particular brightlords are easy to find on a battlefield. There is a symbol, which every Alethi recognises, to indicate a truce.

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. Some troops, like a lighteyes’ personal guard, are trained to recognise certain arm gestures, which mean certain commands, such as to retreat.

Planning and army movement

After centuries of warfare the Alethi have become adept at effectively moving their armies around. While highstorms are a problem, good planning prevents an army from needing to be out during one, except in some rare cases, in which case the army will search for a lait to set up camp. If a campaign takes longer then anticipated, the army can split and retreat back to a number of close towns for shelter. Due to highstorms, the Weeping is a common time for military campaigns.

Soulcasters and supplies

Alethkar possesses numerous soulcasters, most of them are capable of creating materials such as grain or stone. In fact, Alethkar has a near monopoly on food making soulcasters. The existence of these Soulcasters enables the Alethi to raise and supply large armies that their logistics would not normally allow for, as it can be difficulty to travel in Alethkar, and the Alethi have poor supply line infrastructure. Soulcasters are also used to supply the armies with wood, metal, and other necessities. Although despite their access to many soulcasters, small armies often have only one, to be used in emergencies only, this means that they still need to run supply trains. The king controls most of the Soulcaster ardents; in fact, manipulating the highprinces with his Soulcasters is one of the ways that the king maintains a control over them.

“Plan every battle as if you will inevitably retreat, but fight every battle like there is no backing down.”

—Highmarshal Halad

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. Alethi warcamps are generally circular, with the camp followers in a ring on the outside, the mercenaries, if there are any, in a ring next to them, the citizen soldiers in the middle and the lighteyes in the very center. Inside these rings the barracks, which are placed in rows, are arranged into circular patterns, with a meeting ground and a mess hall at the center of each battalion. Some warcamps Jane wooden scouting towers, these towers are designed to be portable and mobile. Many warcamps have a market, which is located in the camp followers' part of the camp. Most warcamps also have a number of barracks that allow for families, or married soldiers can rent a place in the market.

Training

The way soldiers are trained depends on the Princedom they’re from. In at least some princedoms it is seen as the squadleader’s or sergeant’s task to train new recruits. The Alethi do make use of a number of drills to practice large scale formations and movements however. The Alethi are excellent soldiers, each individual is far better at single combat then any given Azish or Veden soldier. Besides their skill in combat, soldiers are usually trained in one or two additional skills, e.g. horse grooms. Soldiers are also trained to give a proper salute, which includes moving a hand to your breast.

“There hasn’t been peace since the Tranquiline Halls, Man’s life on Roshar is conflict.”

—a quotation from The Arguments

Drills

The Alethi have a large number of drills to practice certain formations, movements and fighting in general.

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.

Shardbearer training

The Alethi military also relies on trained Shardbearers to aid their regular soldiers. Due to their militaristic society, and the large amount of Shards they have, the Alethi have become excellent at training Shardbearers.

In most cases, lighteyed boys of appropriate rank around the age of ten are chosen by an ardent swordmaster for training. These boys typically already have at least some training with the sword. The swordmaster teaches them the ten Shardblade Stances and familiarity with plate. 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. This tradition is one of the reasons the Alethi have the best trained Shardbearers on Roshar. Whenever a Shardbearer is killed or dies, there is always someone prepared to bond their Blade and use it right away. 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.

Punishments

The Alethi military also has a large number of punishments. Regular punishments, usually given by a squadleader, include menial duties and corporal punishment. A highprince can also choose to execute someone, or even leave them to the stormfather’s judgment, which includes tying them up and leaving them outside during a highstorm. Officers can put people in a stockade.

Fortifications

Alethkar contains many fortifications, spread roughly even throughout the nation due to inter-princedom warfare. These holdings serve to let armies rest and hunker down for highstorms. Soulcasters are used to build and supply fortifications. These fortifications are often equipped with ballistas and catapults, which are run by a crew of women because of Vorin ideas.

Shardbearers

Some fortifications are built to withstand shardbearers. These fortifications have narrow corridors, or traps to make a Shardbearer fall a great distance. Siege equipment is also used to defeat Shardbearers, specifically ballistas, nets to trap the Shardbearer, ropes and catapults. Some fortifications also have men equipped with large poles to push shardbearers off the walls.