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Difference between revisions of "Alethkar"
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== Military ==
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!colspan='3' style="text-align:center; background:#cce" |'''Chain of command'''
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| highprince
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The modern Alethi army is one of the strongest military forces on Roshar with well over 100,000 troops and over thirty [[Shardbearer]]s. The army employs most of its troops as spearmen and archers, as well as a very small amount of cavalry due to the rarity of horses on Roshar; only the officers wield swords because, according to Vorin traditions, the sword is regarded as a lighteyed's weapon. Under most circumstances, military service is voluntary, though the leaders of the army has the right of conscription for darkeyes that do not provide an essential function to a community (e.g. a town's only surgeon) when they feel there is need for additional troops. It is extremely rare for a darkeyed soldier to rise higher than the rank of squadleader. Lighteyed officers that have the command of a branch of the army is usually referred by their duties (e.g. cavalrylord, infantrylord).
Despite Alethkar being a monarchy, the king has very little actual say in how the military is run and does not directly command any force other than the 250-strong King's Guard. The troops are sworn to and led by their individual highprinces. In that sense, Alethkar army is not truly a unified army, but a loose coalition between ten smaller armies. Indeed, even in wartime, there is constant in-fighting between the highprinces' armies, 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.
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