Difference between revisions of "Alethkar"
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==== 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.{{book ref|sa1|47}} 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).{{book ref|sa1|26}} 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).{{book ref|sa1|68}} It is not known whether this is a rank or a duty. It is extremely rare for a darkeyed soldier to rise higher than the rank of squadleader.{{book ref|sa1|47}}
=== Equipment ===
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.{{book ref|sa1|47}}
Regular spearmen wear special knee-length skirts, which are appropriately named spearmen skirts.{{book ref|sa1|1}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|47}} Regular spearmen wear steel breastplates, which have emblems on them, and leather jerkins, they also don’t seem to wear any arm or leg guards.{{book ref|sa1|1}} Besides these armor pieces they also wear steel, or sometimes leather, caps.{{book ref|sa1|1}}{{book ref|sa4|108}} Wealthier soldiers, or those in professional armies, may also wear
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.{{book ref|sa3|3}} Some lighteyed soldiers also decorate their helmets with bird plumes.{{book ref|sa3|11}} Many lighteyes wear breakaway, so that if an enemy grips the garment it breaks away from the armour, cloaks or capes, which are often emblazoned with their house’s glyphpair.{{book ref|sa2|56}}{{book ref|sa3|3}} High ranking Brightlords may sometimes have a shieldbearer with them.{{book ref|sa1|24}} The Alethi also have access to a number of sets of [[Shardplate]]. While the natural color of dead Shardplate is slate-grey,{{book ref|sa1|12}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|12}}
==== Weaponry ====
Most of the Alethi soldiers are equipped with spears, both longspears and
Only lighteyes wield swords, although almost never as primary weapons, because according to Vorin traditions the sword is a lighteyed's weapon.{{book ref|sa1|prologue}} These swords include both longswords and shortswords.{{book ref|sa4|35}} One handed swords are often wielded with small round shields.{{book ref|sa3|73}} Alethi heavy infantry, which always consists of lighteyed men, carries heavy
=== Strategy ===
==== Troops ====
The Alethi Military has a lot of soldiers, approximately a hundred fifty thousand troops.{{book ref|sa1|22}} Most of these troops are darkeyed spearmen, with a smaller percentage of lighteyed heavy infantry and archers.{{book ref|sa1|6}}{{book ref|sa3|26}} At the tail end of the Era of Solitude Alethi warfare started to include more and more cavalry,{{book ref|sa3|73}} an army in the year 1145 would have about fifty horsemen,{{book ref|sa3|26}} if not less, while an army in 1173 would have several hundred horsemen.{{book ref|sa3|6}} The Alethi armies aren’t entirely made up of Alethi, they also contain people from different nations, such as Herdaz,{{book ref|sa2|22}} and Jah Keved.{{book ref|sa1|1}} The Alethi also employ many army surgeons, their apprentices are almost all men who have some incapacitation, preventing them from fighting.{{book ref|sa1|47}} Following the start of the True Desolation, the Alethi armies began employing [[Surge|surgebinders]] to aid in their war efforts.{{book ref|sa4|64}} Foremost among these surgebinders are those of the [[Order of Windrunners]]. Besides the Windrunners the Alethi employ a large number of [[Order of Edgedancers|Edgedancers]], with a smaller number of [[Order of Lightweavers|Lightweavers]].{{book ref|sa4|3}}{{book ref|sa4|20}}
Each of the Alethi armies has it’s own strength, with the [[Kholin princedom|Kholin]] army having the best heavy infantry, the [[Roion princedom|Roion]] army the best archers and the [[Sadeas princedom|Sadeas]] army the fastest bridges, at least during the [[War of Reckoning]].{{book ref|sa1|24}}
The Alethi make use of a wide variety of formations. They generally fight in a shield wall.{{book ref|sa1|65}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|47}} Soldiers are also trained to assemble and function in pike blocks to counter heavy cavalry.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
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.{{book ref|sa2|32}} Squads are also trained to fight in a V formation.{{book ref|sa1|1}} 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.{{book ref|sa3|78}}
==== Battlefield tactics ====
Cavalry has never played a large role in Alethi warfare, at least, until recent times. Warfare has started to include more and more cavalry.{{book ref|sa3|73}} Cavalry has historically been used to fight shardbearers,{{book ref|sa3|26}} and has more recently begun being used to break lines.{{book ref|sa1|67}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|17}}
While the soldiers are trained to fight in formations, some battles, the ones fought between largely unprofessional armies, immediately start with a charge, the lines and formations disintegrating. These battles are extremely chaotic, the armies often mingle indistinguishably and squads split up to fight other small groups.
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 [[Surgebinding#gravitation|lashing]] surgebinders and aid in conventional ground attacks.{{book ref|sa4|64}} Besides this, the Windrunners scout the surrounding landscape and aid in moving troops, mostly generals or other high ranking officers, around.{{book ref|sa4|111}} 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 are
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.{{book ref|sa3|26}} It is likely that this strategy evolved into another, which has become commonplace by the year 1172. This evolved strategy had infantry carrying shortspears in the first ranks, men carrying longspears or javelins behind, while the strategy kept the original idea of having archers at the sides.{{book ref|sa1|1}} At some point during the year 1163, the Alethi began to make use of small and mobile squads.{{book ref|sa3|66}}
After the assassination of king Gavilar the Alethi armies saw themselves pitted against the [[listener]]s, who used different and previously unknown 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.{{book ref|sa4|43}}
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.{{book ref|sa3|19}}{{book ref|sa3|11}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|22}}
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}} Horns are used to signal certain commands.{{book ref|sa4|64}} Aside from this, when it is dark stormlight may also be used to give certain signals, such as the signal to attack.{{book ref|sa2|81}} 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.{{book ref|sa4|41}}
War banners are used to mark divisions, battalions and companies. This makes a battlefield easily surveyable for someone who understands the system.{{book ref|sa4|27}} Most high ranking brightlords have their own personal glyphpair, which, like the name suggests, is usually made up of two glyphs.{{book ref|sa1|28}} These glyphpairs are often painted on war banners, which ensures that particular brightlords are easy to find on a battlefield.{{book ref|sa1|67}} A red banner, which is usually attached to a spear or pole, serves as a call to the runners to carry the wounded off the field.{{book ref|sa1|1}} There is a symbol, which every Alethi recognises, to indicate a truce.{{book ref|sa3|76}}
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}} Some troops, like a lighteyes’ personal guard, are trained to recognise certain arm gestures, which mean certain commands, such as to retreat.{{book ref|sa1|13}}{{book ref|sa1|28}}
==== 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}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|4}} 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.{{book ref|sa1|26}} Some warcamps Jane wooden scouting towers, these towers are designed to be portable and mobile.{{book ref|sa3|26}} 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.{{book ref|sa2|46}}
Some warcamps have a building called a ‘warcenter’. This building, often made of wood, serves as the home of the general or high officer while on campaign. Warcenters are luxurious, decorated with trophies, rugs and more. Most warcenters are constructed of dozens of sturdy sections, which can be attached and deattached whenever the officer likes. These wooden parts are transported individually by [[chull]]s.{{book ref|sa1|51}}
=== 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.
Soldiers are trained in a specific order. Firstly, spearmen are taught a proper stance, only after that do they get trained in fighting. The first stance they learn is called the ‘elementary forward spear stance’. It takes about a week to learn the proper stances, although this is worth it as men who have learned the stances become better at fighting far quicker then those who don’t know the stances. After the second or third day of practice the men begin with resetting exercises, these exercises are meant to teach someone to revert to the proper stance without thinking.{book ref|sa1|49}} Sometime after this the recruits are taught how to move to avoid arrows, light on their feet and erratic, and a number of grappling moves.{{book ref|sa1|53}}
{{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|size =300px}}
The Alethi have a large number of drills to practice certain formations, movements and fighting in general.{{book ref|sa1|28}}
The ‘close order’ drill is
==== Shardbearer training ====
<!----
Not sure where to put these:
* Alethi farmers sell their grain to merchants for unfairly cheap, who then bring it to cities at an immense markup. (SA1-27) [Probably in the economy section]
▲----->
== Economy ==
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