Militaries

In this post we’ll discuss worldbuilding militaries, the different forces that are established within societies, and why warriors with clubs never actually went to war.

Hey everyone, my name is Matthew, at least according to my commanding officer, and this post is part of a series where I will be going through a science-adjacent worldbuilding process step-by-step. For today’s discussion, we’ll be looking at militaries, discussing the different types of armed forces, the evolution of weaponry from early warfare, how to develop a military structure, and whether your military should be in full-time employment, or receiving weekend casual rates.

A military refers to the armed forces typically authorized and organized by a sovereign state. A military is defined by its role, which is usually the defense of the state that has authorized it against external threats, though this role can become offensive rather than defensive in times of war and can shift to include policing depending on government policy. The militaries of sovereign states are contrasted with irregular militaries, more commonly referred to simply as ‘irregulars’, which include all armed forces that are not within the official sanction of a sovereign state, such as mercenaries, or revolutionaries, whose roles are often more diverse, and who often operate for more personal intentions rather than for state interests. Occasionally, the lines between military and irregulars can blur, such as with levies, which are peasants or freemen called up by a sovereign state for short-term military duty but are still considered irregulars rather than a military.

Therefore, an ‘armed force’ refers to any organized group of individuals equipped deliberately for conflict and/or strategy and includes both militaries and irregulars. Perhaps most importantly for this definition is that these groups of individuals require strategic organization to be considered an ‘armed force’, and a collective of people that happen to bear arms but are otherwise just regular citizens, with no structure to organize them, do not count as an armed force. This is an important distinction for worldbuilding because in many settings, and indeed for much of our real-world history, many regular citizens are armed with tools and weapons for hunting and to protect themselves. For an excellent modern example, consider that about 40% of Americans live in a household where someone owns a weapon, but that this ownership does not make these individuals an ‘armed force’ unless they become organized.

While there are a wide variety of armed forces in modern times, let’s dial the clock all the way back to the prehistoric era, and look at how armed forces evolve over time. As we determined when we discussed governments and empires, the emergence of states coincides with the settling of cultures into more fixed locations, meaning that prehistoric migratory cultures, by definition, do not have states. The much less organized nature of prehistoric warfare therefore places greater emphasis on armed forces with technological advantages, rather than on strategy and logistics.

While the stereotypical prehistoric warrior is often depicted with a club or spear, prior to advancement to using metals like bronze, these tools were not utilized often in warfare. In fact, during periods where wooden clubs and stone spears were the tools primarily used by humans in prehistory, there is a notable absence of intergroup violence. Instead, the most important prehistoric technology for warfare is archery, and we see a strong correlation between cultural groups that develop archery and records of warfare, with those cultural groups with archers almost always emerging victorious over those without. It is believed that the ability to engage in combat from range, with relatively less risk to the attacker, was the primary cause of this shift for humans, and we can realistically expect the same from any fictional cultures we are worldbuilding.

As worldbuilders, it is also important to consider whether magic can be used offensively at range as well. For Locus, the fictional world we’ve been building across this series, magic can be used in this way, especially magic that manipulates thermal or electric energy, as well as magic that can push or pull, and magic that causes decay. As we determined when we built the magic system of Locus, magic is not only accessible to those that ingest magical flora, but also innately to those exposed to particular types of magical flora for generations. For Locus, based on where our four sapient species have evolved during the prehistoric period, and the types of magical flora present in those areas, this means that humans would have capable fire mages, Silarin capable frost mages, Na’qwuil capable lightning mages, and Urakan both fire and light mages. These magic users would make effective early soldiers alongside archers, which would form the basis of any prehistoric armed forces.

Prehistoric warfare, however, was mostly fought over resources rather than land, and the migratory nature of prehistoric cultures makes tracking successes in any organized fashion extremely difficult. Once cultures move out of prehistory, settle down and establish states, we not only begin to see organized militaries, but more clearly defined borders that are easier to keep track of, as well as the writing to make those records possible in the first place. Once militaries are established, they are often divided into branches with different tasks, such as the army for land forces, navy for naval forces, and the air force for… you guessed it, air forces, and in modern militaries there are a huge range of diverse branches, from space to cyber to logistics. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and look instead at the first branch of military, the army.

An army is an armed force that fights primarily on land, and as we are a primarily land-dwelling species, armies were the first type of human military organizations. If you’re working with a sea-dwelling or air-dwelling species, then they are likely to develop naval and air forces respectively as their first militaries. Early armies will include combat-based soldiers like archers and magic users, logistics-based supporters like officers, scouts, or suppliers, and once bronze is introduced, foot-soldiers equipped with weapons like swords, axes, and shields.

Groups of soldiers are called units, and different units will have different tools and tasks. These units are then typically organized hierarchically, with each level able to manage itself but reporting to a higher authority within the organization. In this way, an army is made up of units of soldiers and officers of varying ranks. For example, in many countries, including North America and Europe, the simplest unit is a squad. A number of squads grouped together are then called a patrol, and the squads within a patrol answer to a sergeant, responsible for the entire patrol. A number of patrols then form a platoon, led by a lieutenant, and so on until we arrive at a field army, led by a general. While this hierarchical structure is just an example of how armies are organized in real-life, any fictional structure is likely to be similar, with a hierarchy reflective of the number of units present within the army.

Finally, it is important to distinguish between a standing army and army reserves. A standing army is a permanent, often professional, military force comprised of full-time soldiers, who either enlist and form a career of soldiering, or who are conscripted, which refers to state-mandated military service. In contrast, army reserves, refers to those who have military training, but generally follow a civilian career, only taking up arms and joining the military when called for, such as during a war. Historically, there are a number of examples of both, and in Ancient Greece, states like Athens utilized drafted militias that stayed in reserve in peacetime, while states like Sparta had year-round professional standing armies.

On Locus, the types of militaries will be influenced by the government style of each state. Kathochusho, Thuchus, and Lindale, as absolute or theocratic monarchies, will each utilize standing armies, permanently active to serve the interests of the state. The Kathochushians, as we discussed when we determined their government, require military service for individuals to be eligible for citizenship. As Silarin have very little physical differences between males and females, this military service is expected of both sexes. Of course, non-military professions like farmers and traders are still required, and with citizens all serving as soldiers, Kathochusho quickly becomes reliant on conquest to bring subjects into non-military roles, with the state adopting slavery to keep itself afloat. Among Kathochushians therefore, there are ‘zithidi’, or ‘slave owners’, with their slaves able to generate the zithidi wealth while they are campaigning. This has led to zithidi having access to the best training and outfitting, and a new elite warrior class emerging.

Lindale, similarly, requires all males to enter compulsory military service at age 10, while non-military roles are filled by females, though females are still permitted and encouraged to enter the military, usually filling positions of authority. Among the military elite of Lindale are the Ashborn, powerful fire mages in positions of military authority. Ashborn are those fire mages who have magical power enough to reduce an opponent to ash, from which the surviving mage will ascend from. While it is expected for these encounters to take place in battles, during peacetime some Lindalian mages have taken to using rank-and-files as test subjects to gauge their powers.

Thuchus implements a heavily religious military, with warrior priests called ‘kathateshi’, given a huge amount of responsibility and power within their culture. A kathateshi is not only a soldier, but a government official, as well as a representative of the divine, making them officials, judges, and fighters all in one. To be a kathateshi is considered a huge honor within Thuchusian society, and a great deal of favor and wealth is paid to those who successfully undergo training. The gudizith, the theocratic monarch of the Thuchisians, rewards kathateshi with land ownership, which over time has led to a divide between the upper-class land-owning soldiers, and the lower-class serfs.

Moving away from our absolute and theocratic monarchies, we have Tarna’qwua, as a constitutional monarchy, Sahakuth as a democracy, and the aristocratic federation of Kalandria, encompassing Senanatgru, Norford, and Balthorpe, which all would utilize army reserves, though what these reserves look like differs. Kalandria utilizes conscription-based army reserves, wherein eligible citizens are expected to complete military training, but then may go about civilian life until such a time as they are called upon by the state to mobilize back into the military, a system which is similar to that of Switzerland and Finland.

Norford and Balthorpe also keep a small standing force of elite guards, entrusted with the protection of the white table, the seat of aristocratic power in Kalandria. These elite guards, appropriately called The White Shield, are well equipped and focus mainly on defensive strategy, with a single company famously holding off a horde of over a thousand. While the humans of Kalandria proudly promote their defensively minded warriors, the elite bear-like Senanatgrian warriors follow a very different path. The akrana are warrior-mages utilizing overwhelming power in combat, whose strategy is simple: be bigger and stronger than their opponent. With magic fueling their already powerful ursine bodies, a single akrana can overpower multiple urakani warriors, and can hold their own against entire squads of other units, both physically and magically. Using too much magical power on Locus however can have serious consequences, and akrana dedicate much of their training to toeing the line between overwhelming power, and punishment for their hubris.

Sahakuth, as a democratic society, has elected to maintain a volunteer military, wherein individuals enlist themselves, and are generally free to determine their own levels of military involvement, such as is present in systems like the United States and the UK. As a result, Sahakuth has a larger involvement of irregulars, especially of mercenaries, soldiers willing to work for money, which Sahakuth as a trade city has no shortage of. In fact, the prevalence of mercenaries funded by the wealth of Sahakuth has become so expansive that different mercenary organizations have begun to compete, providing greater training, better quality armaments, and taking on more and more dangerous work. In this way, the mercenaries of Sahakuth have become some of the most diverse and powerful soldiers on Locus and provide a significant swing in authority for anyone with the coin to afford them.

Finally, the Na’qwuilian kingdom of Tarna’qwua has perhaps the strangest take on a reserve force, at least by human standards. Na’qwuil are parasitic cephalopod-like creatures, with exceptional intelligence and egotistical views on sapient life. While physically weak themselves, Na’qwuil can dominate the minds and bodies of other creatures, including sapient creatures, which they keep as tools to utilize for labor, and now, for warfare. However, these host creatures still require a Na’qwuil to effectively pilot them into battle, and within Tarna’qwua, a system of voluntary military service is established, though their constitution stipulates that those with governmental power, including the monarch called the ka’ngug, are required to serve in the military if war is declared. This has led to a trend of monarchs selecting the most battle-ready creatures for themselves, such as a magnamaw, a colossally sized carnivorous creature with a bite force rivalling saltwater crocodiles and the largest dinosaurs. Units within the Tarna’qwuian military are therefore exceptionally diverse, utilizing battalions of swift predators, bulky several-ton armored beasts, and even creatures capable of using innate magic to breathe fire or keep themselves invisible, all while piloted by one of the most intelligent sapient creatures on the planet.  

So, to recap, militaries refer to the state organized armed forces, while any other armed forces are considered irregulars. Militaries are divided into branches based on their function, with armies managing land-based affairs, navies managed the sea and the air force managing the skies. Land-dwelling species are likely to first establish armies, which follow a hierarchical structure designed to make larger-scale organized operations easier to conduct. Armies that are permanently active are called ‘standing armies’, while those that are trained but go about other professions during peacetime are called reserve armies, only called into action when war is declared.

Join me next time when we’ll discuss domestication, looking at why domestication is important for the development of civilizations, and how to introduce domestication to your worldbuilding projects. And until next time… stay awesome!