THE
SANTERRAN
MILITARY |
Ancient Army of the Seakings.
During the “Rage of the Seakings” the armies before the creation of the
Highkingdom mainly consisted of
citizen soldiers drafted from the cities or settlements by the aristocrats. The
only standing armies were the bodyguards of the ruling houses of the
Santerran cities who also served as police forces
within the city. Together with the noblemen they manned the only cavalry the
early Santerrans used which was most of the time
low in numbers and served only as a last resort and as protection for the
generals. The majority of the soldiers were drafted from the wealthier factions
of the citizens who had to appear with certain equipment when the noble council
called to war.
Over these centuries the Santerrans developed a
very ceremonial way of warfare on their islands, which avoided needless
bloodshed and was more a measure of testing the strength of both sides rather
than a battle of annihilation. While land battles and city assaults were far
and in between naval battles, they were however an entirely different matter
and as the Santerran islands could be only
controlled via the sea the early army was primarily the means to man the
various Seakings’ fleets. During this age the oldest form of soldiery was born:
the Enayctar.
Early Enayctar.
The Enayctar were in the ancient time of
Aca-Santerra citizens owning land
or a workshop. They were primarily sea soldiers to man the
Santerran navies, which were dominated by various
types of galleys, driven mainly by rowers. As many men were needed to power
such a ship and those men needed to be trained to maneuver the ship swiftly and
effectively in battle the Santerrans introduced a
first kind of half-professional soldiers. With every citizen obligated to serve
every fourth year the Santerrans built and manned
big fleets to wage wars against each other.
The army structure was just a mirror of their fleet. The Enayctar were grouped
according to the ships they manned and in which line of rows they sat. As the
Santerran fleet consisted of galleys ranging from
two to six rower decks. Each rower deck had between 24-30 rowers depending on
ship type. These groups formed the smallest units, called the “Gelgari”. A ship
consisted of four to twelve such Gelgari – or rower teams - forming “Calta”
which could be anything from 180 to 360 men. A nobleman and his bodyguards or
companions commanded each Calta, on the sea or on land.
In a naval battle the Enayctar would either try to use the ram of their galley
to sink the enemy or prepare a boarding. For the later they were trained to
fight with pike, bow, sword and shield.
Here the order of the Gelgari was important. The uppermost rower deck – the two
first Gelgari - would consist of the most experienced and oldest soldiers.
Lacking endurance and brutal strength they'd pull in their rows first and use
bows and long pikes to throw the enemy off
the deck of the enemy ship and fix it to their own ship with ropes and hooks.
In the meantime the lower rowers would prepare for battle and board the enemy
vessel with shield and sword in
descending order.
On land the various Caltas of an army formed a continuous line six to twelve
ranks deep. The first six lines would point their pikes towards the enemy while
those behind served as replacements. When the two armies engaged each other
they would get locked in a challenge of strength with each side trying
to push and break the enemy formation. For this each soldiers pushed the man in
front of him forward with his shield while holding the pike. When a man fell
the one behind him would replace him. Sometimes the rear ranks did not even
have pikes but solely pressed the men in front of them forward. This happened –
as described earlier – because in naval combat most soldiers would engage with
the sword and thus sometimes would not
bring their pike along with them to save space in the crowded galleys.
The Enayctar was generally equipped with a pike, a short
sword, a round shield and sometimes an
additional dagger. The pike was up to eighteen
fores long, sometimes
equipped with a hook to be used to pull an enemy ship towards one's own or to
pull an enemy over the railing into the
water. The short sword and round
shield were sufficient to dodge enemy blows, the short
sword being the most effective in the
confined space of a ship. The Santerrans used
various types of short swords, some with
a straight blade, some with an angled one for slashing. Being primarily sea
soldiers the Enayctar wore only little armor, usually only a helmet,
breastplate, bracelets and greaves with which they trained to swim up to five
strals. “He lost his helmet” is still a well-known proverb for disgrace as the
last thing a soldier would do before abandoning a ship was throwing away his
iron helmet, as it was the only piece of item one could not accidentally lose
in a sea battle.
Early Army of the Highkingdom.
By 1649 b.S. the
Santerrans
began settling on the mainland and they began to
face enemies more versatile in land battles than they were. In fact their enemies
often had nearly exclusively fought on the continent for millennia and had become
experts in this art of war. Especially with the rise of the second Empire of
Korweyn the
Santerrans
faced an enemy who was not only more numerous but far
more organized than anyone else they had encountered before. While well trained
the Enayctar of old were ill equipped and simply too lightly armoured
to stand a chance against the Korweynite
legions clad in their “feather mails” (a
Korweynite synonym for
their kind of scale mail which was the standard armor of
Korweynite
infantry). They also had no
cavalry to speak of and thus had nothing to face the
Kassite horse riders in the
Korweynite armies with.
To adapt to such a flexible enemy and his superior forces the
Santerrans
had to employ new strategies and also needed more men than ever before and thus
also hired non-Santerrans
to fight in their formerly solely
Santerran
forces. After the defeat of the Murmillions in
the Year of Darkness they often hired mercenaries from these lands to fight for
them. Not only were the Murmillions notoriously
fierce mountain warriors, taught in superior swordsmanship, their ancestors had
also fought for centuries against the Korweynites
and thus their descendants were often keen to pick up their arms against this
archenemy.
The Murmillions.
Over the centuries the Murmillions became in
integral part of any
Santerran
army on the continent. Not only that, but the
Santerrans
started to train citizens who formerly served as Enayctar in Calas to fight in
the same manner. What first was just the name of an occupied tribe and welcomed
source of brave mercenaries became the name of a whole new troop type.
The
Santerrans
did not entirely replace their former army. They still needed to man their
fleets and thus the Murmillions supplemented the
Phalanx formations of the Enayctar. They usually fought in the first line of
battle covered and supported by the pikes of the Enayctar, which they could
fall back to. The Murmillions were melee fighters
using any kind of hand weapon from
sword,
axe, and mace to their traditional
weapon, the bladeaxe. They're agile
enough to fight between the pikes of a phalanx or slip between it should the
enemy use it. Also copying Korweynite
warfare the Murmillions were often equipped with
javelins to exchange with the Korweynites
warriors, after which they'd engage the enemy.
Fighting in the first line had also another reason, though. While many Murmillions
were eager to fight the Korweynites,
they were also oftentimes not happy with the
Santerran
supremacy either, if not outright rebellious. So often,
Santerran
lords who did not trust their Murmillion
mercenaries would put them in the very first line of battle. Should the Murmillions
turn and rout or decline to fight, the Enayctar of the second line would cut
them down for this extreme prejudice.
The Murmillion equipment consisted of several
javelins, a round shield and some melee
weapon, usually either bladeaxe or sword
but sometimes an axe or mace. They usually wore a brigandine of
studded leather or chain mail and a Murmillion
helmet, with nose guard, oftentimes like a mask protecting the whole eye area.
The bladeaxe is a famed weapon of the
Murmillions. It is a blade formed like a falchion or sickle with a sharp
cutting edge on the outside of the weapon,
Where the sickle however narrows to a tip the bladeaxe broadens into something
resembling the edge of an axe blade.
Sometimes this tip of the weapon also
ends in a triangular thorn. The qualities of this
weapon are its armor piercing
capabilities with the axe side while the
curved blade of the other side is devastating enough to maim an unprotected
body with ease.
The Frathra. The Frathra were the even
more revolutionary change from their former way of fighting as for the first
time the
Santerrans
saw a need for a effective cavalry force not only
used as a protection of the noblemen on the battlefields. With the need to
develop a kind of warrior that was not only capable to hold its own against the
Kassites but also needed to be able to beat them the
Santerrans
devised an entirely new social class to finance such
a costly endeavor. The aristocracy, especially on the continent, began to grant
land to their mounted bodyguards so they could afford heavier equipment and
also allow them to have more of it. These lands were often along the Jerrah and
the landowners had the additional obligation to not only go to war with their
noble overlord but also defend the land they held against any incursions. From
a secluded band of bodyguards these men became an independent social class: the
Frathra.
The
Santerrans
as the ultimate form of shock cavalry devised the
Frathra. The role of the Frathra in battle was to fight the enemy cavalry and
as they were formed from the most loyal members of the bodyguards they were
also supposed to be the last soldiers retreating. With their armored forces
they'd usually form a wedge of iron and steel with which they swept aside
anything in their way. Their way of war was anything but subtle.
The equipment of the Frathra was and is extremely expensive which is why they
earn land for their service. Not only is the rider clad in a full suit of
banded armour, with greaves, armoured
gloves and helmet, but also so is his horse.
Over the centuries the
Santerrans
breed a very own type of warhorse, far stronger and
a more enduring than anything they used in their
mountainous terrain before. Some rumors even point to a daring expedition of
Santerrans sailors to
acquire kevlor
horses from the far away living Kuglimz tribes.
While these stories can be disputed they say much about the
Santerran
horse breed.
The “Kyloss” horse is
a strong and brave horse
capable of carrying its own armour
as well as its rider swiftly over comparable far distances. The Kyloss breed is
also an extremely aggressive horse breed trained to attack other kinds of
horses on
battlefields. It is no overstatement to say that the primary
weapon of a Frathra is his
horse. For
this the horse
armour is specially designed. Heavy plates protect
the front, neck and head of the horse,
which is however not only for protection. On the sides these armour
plating bends outwards and ends in razor-sharp edges meant to cut anything
coming too close to the horse.
Historical accounts of rampaging Kyloss horses in
their armour tell of the terrifying effect these had
on the smaller and usually unprotected Kassite
horses which were either reluctant or denied completely to come anywhere close
of a Kyloss warhorse. The razor sharp edges, while not capable to inflict any
serious wounds on the horses
still caused unnerving cuts on the beasts which soon after a few disastrous
encounters made the Kassites
hull their own horses in full or partial chain, scale or leather armour
to at least get their horses
close enough to the enemy unharmed to fight him.
A second layer of padded or leather armour that
covers the whole horse
usually completes the horse
armour. It is not unheard of that
the rivaling Kyloss stallions might otherwise hurt each other before
battle.
The Frathra themselves are usually clad in a full suit of banded armour.
Sometimes the saddle itself is formed as a protection for the legs to spare any
leg armour but otherwise the equipment is rather
uniform. Their main weapons are a lance
and a slashing sword, the flacta. The
flacta is sometimes also referred to as an “elongated bladeaxe” because it is
similar in shape and can be used in a similar way. The blade does not have the
dual characteristics of a bladeaxe though and instead looks more like a blade
with an angle in it. As means of protection the Frathra also wear the
“Thornshield” which is like an additional layer of armour
attached to their left arm. It protects the rider's left side but can be also
used to actively dodge or strike an enemy. The triangular form and the point
tip is what gave it its name. Commonly the thornshield is used to slash an
enemy's guard out of the way to hit him with the flacta but the pointy tip of
the sword can be also used to thrust the
shield at someone.
The “Modern”
Santerran Army.
The units and tactics mentioned above were used for nearly two thousand
years in varying degrees, multiple varieties and
differing setup. However, by 1000 a.S. the expansion
of the Highkingdom in Nybelmar had come
pretty much to its halt and its resources were diverted elsewhere.
Aca-Santerra had become a naval
superpower whose ships were roaming the western oceans. The ships used to beat
the vicious waves and currents of the High Seas demanded a great amount of
experienced sailors but they also changed the way the kingdom fought its naval
battles. The galleys became outdated and only used for troop transport and to
patrol the coasts. The new ships were increasingly making use of artillery like
catapults and ballistae as well as archers. This ultimately made the original
role of the Enayctar obsolete and the navy drained the men available for an
army. These ships also were sometimes underway for long periods, too long for
citizens who had a home to care for. Thus the army had to revise the very
structure their military was based upon.
Summarized the Modern Santerran
Army can be described as follows:
The
Modern Enayctar
The modern ships, like the Besan caravel, only needed a small detachment of sea
soldiers, mainly archers, while also simple sailors could man the catapults or
other artillery machines on the ship. The phase before a boarding became far
more important and thus the equipment of the Enayctar changed dramatically. The
main weapon of the Enayctar became now
the bow with which they fired from
platforms high up in the masts of the ship. Another role for them was that, as
a low rank officer, to command the sailors in any role as experienced seamen.
Also the recruitment of these soldiers changed. Formerly being drafted from all
citizens in a city, the modern Enayctar is usually one of a set number of
families of a settlement or district who serves fulltime in the kingdom's
fleet. The citizen soldier became a professional one.
With the advancement in rank on a ship also the status of the Enayctar socially
has increased, putting them loosely on the same privileged position as Frathras
(also Frathras would argue that the Enayctar have not such a long-lasting
heritage of obedience and loyalty like them and are
comparable poor in land and money).
The
Modern Murmillions
If the Murmillion was formerly just a specific
type of soldier for the Highkingdom specialized in land warfare, with the
Enayctar disappearing, it became the standard name for any
Santerran infantry, though despite that, actually
sometimes Murmillions are also mounted,
especially on light horses. Today the
Murmillion bear far more varied equipment than
before, the preference still being the sword
and shield but now they also sometimes bear halberd and pike. Nowadays the
Murmillions are part of the permanent standing
forces of the various noblemen from which they oftentimes also draft their
bodyguard. What was once just a mere band of mercenary soldiers is in nowadays
called the most loyal and professional part of the army.
The
Alians
The Alians were introduced with the decline of
Santerran
army sizes due to the heavy demands of their navy.
The Alians are local militia forces drafted by a local lord in case of an
attack. In difference to the former citizen forces however it is now the lord
or city that provides the armour and
weaponry for the soldier. As these men
are only trained once a year and only called upon when the
Santerran
lands themselves are in immediate danger their quality can be only
called decent. They're more there to put muscles on the bone while the
Murmillions
are the true backbone of the
Santerran
army now.
The
Frathra
Nowadays the term Frathra is more a social rank than
a military one. While they still provide the heavy cavalry and are still
trained for war all their lives, the Frathras spent the majority of their lives
to care for their lands. As a social class they also began to become a mediator
between nobility and citizens allowing for various privileges of the nobility
being revoked in favour of more rights for the common
people. Militarily they still ride their Kyloss horses but their equipment
changed pretty much to a lighter and more individual armour
for horse and rider. Now the
horses only have breastplate and head
protection and only sometimes a padding armour to
protect other parts of the horse. The
primary weapon of the Frathra now
is the lance. To a plate cuirass they wear some chain
mail and a normal shield. In these regards the equipment of
Kassites and Frathra has become pretty much equal.
One of the main reasons for cheaper equipment was that the new social role made
the Frathra spend more of their income in furthering their lands and not solely
for keeping up their military equipment. Despite this seeming decline they're
however still a force to be reckoned with, equal to any
Kassite horsemen and probably as devastating as any
Santharian knight.
Information
provided by
Koldar Mondrakken
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