#cdr writes

@realitefictive this is for you since you were curious about it :)

Genre: Windpunk (I know it’s not a thing... yet)

Status: Worldbuilding, and plotting (this is a dormant project atm)

Setting:

Water is scarce on the surface of this planet, and with the beginning of a new ice age era, it promises to become even more scarce. Rivers have started to dry out, and trade is already suffering drawbacks. Powerful cities see their influence dwindle, when, in Esleydru, two siblings create the first flying ships and, with partners of their city, create the Post Guild.

The human population on the planet is pretty small as well, with very few big cities around the world. Trade had developed using rivers as its main roads. The disappearance of these rivers could really impact all cities in the most negative way, as some are very dependent on import.

THE STORIES

This is a collection of stories which will be written in various formats: short stories, journal, chronology, legal documents...

The birth of the Post Guild, and the building of the Wanderer, the very first flying ship

The status of the Post Guild and their many amendments retracing the history of the organisation as it grows into a monopolistic company (as an accountant, this is quite fun to do)

The history of Esleydru, or how three independent towns merged into a very powerful city, which became the siege of the Post Guild.

The city of Limnai failure at overpowering the Post Guild and its consequences: men were stripped down of all powerful positions and their wives, daughters, sisters and mothers had to take over, which, after a few generations, leads to a matriarchal society through a slow but unstoppable change

The problematic neutrality of the Guild in war time

The exploration of new roads. You can read this short text in French or in English (I will probably expand it, in the form of a journal)

How an address mistake allowed a packet to travel all around the world

...

SOME CHARACTERS

Thomassète Lhatellier: woman, engineer, one of the two creators of the flying ships technology. When she realises her city’s government will not finance her invention, she visits old friends and business partners, sometimes in secret, and found the Post Guild.

Thonyn Lhatellier: man, engineer, one of the two creators of the flying ships technology. While his sister, Thomassète tries to find financial support, he slowly and secretly build up the first flying ship, the Wanderer.

Lorète: woman, explorator. She sets on a flying ship in the hope to discover a new pass to connect two distant cities. Though the ship is hit by a storm, she insists on pushing through.

Eyley: woman born in Limnai, captain of a flying ship, member of the Guild. Her ship arrive at a three-time religious city right at the time a siege start. The rules of the Guild are harsh and forbid to take in refugees. She has to manage her crew disputes and her own moral struggle.

LINKS

Most frequent tags:

Series: Le Randonneur / The Wanderer

TAG LIST (let me know if you’d like to be added or removed!)

For the needs of Rising Queens, I had to create an army. Since I'm an accountant and have never served in the military nor lived sometime between 1650 and 1820... I knew nothing about how to do that, so I researched, not a lot, but enough I think to give some tips and directions to anyone planning to do the same crazy thing.

Let's get started. Please note this is for fantasy writers, a number of elements do not apply to modern or futuristic armies. (words with a * are translated in French at the end, because I'm a little chauvinist)

1. How big is your army ?

So, if your army is a professional army, in clear if soldiers are soldiers all year long and paid for it, the size of your army is limited. Mostly because resources are not infinite, and your army depends on the rest of the population to be fed. This rule would also apply for mercenaries, as your nation must still be able to pay them.

In consequence, its size should not be more than 1% of the population. This number was true in the past, and is still true today. And 1% is the upper limit, it assumes your nation is able to collect taxes efficiently!! If it's not, your army must be smaller, or your nation will go bankrupt.

If your army is not professional, then the problem is a little different: your soldiers are no longer working all year long. The question is how big can your army be during x time? The longer the war/conflict lasts, the smaller your army will be, as your resources are limited and you need people to tend to the land. Or you can have a big starving army, your choice (or a starving population... or both...). After some research, it happens that number is 7% of the population for a period of 90 days (which was the length of a campaign season).

2. Support

So, yes, your soldiers are soldiering, or at least a part of them is... the rest is working as support, they are the spine of your army, without them everything could crumble. Without them you don't have supplies, or meals, or doctors, or clothes, or payslips or...

Among the various support departments in military, we will first start with one that probably was the biggest: Supplies (aka Furir*). They originally were in charge of housing and food for men and animals, but over time they came to be in charge of all supplies, including their logistics. In the French Navy, they once were in charge of payslips. Without them, you don’t have food, but you also don’t have uniforms, weapons, or munitions...

While we are here, let's note that most armies, while away from home, survived through plunder of the land around them. Which is great if you're not staying in the same place too long, and if your enemy does not decide to burn everything left behind. Mercenaries, who were not paid by their employer, also plundered the land of their employer as a form of revenge.

The Postal Service* is like a web, they have a presence everywhere in the military organisation (including schools, jails, navy...). Not only do they make sure the letters are sent to the right person, but they also take care of censoring the letters of the soldiers. This is a job that require discretion as you might end up in the confidence of secrets that do not concern you nor the public.

The War Commissaries* are in charge of the administration of the army, which includes: finances, human resources, audit and control, law assistance, accounting. In some cases, Furir and Postal Services are also incorporated under their supervision.

One of the support functions we probably don’t think much about are the surgeons. Doctors, especially, surgeons were a priority on a battlefield. Mostly they acted after the battle, but they also took care of the soldiers all year long in a professional army. Military hospitals were created, some of them were used as medical schools too, and not all of them were situated in a military base. I haven’t been able to find if any ancient military hospital was opened to the public, but I personally don’t see why not. Generally each company (about 100 men) had one surgeon.

I will not discuss soldier being soldier, if you want more information on this, I will leave some links at the end of this article, please refer to it.

3. Army or Not ?

Some people, depending of your organisation, of your country, may be considered part of your army, even though their role is unrelated to the protection of the country against foreign forces, such as: police, spies, customs...

It really depends on how you see your organisation as a whole, and also who pay who, or what Minister these people depend from. For example, the police might be paid directly by the city thanks to local taxes, while customs are under the supervision of the Finance Minister, and spies answer directly to the Crown. Or you can incorporate them in your army.

4. Equipment

The main question in regards to equipment is who provides what. There have been times, when each soldier was expected to procure themselves their own equipment: armor and weapons, horse, sometimes even food. You could tell a soldier's social background with just a look. 

In some cases, the obligation to procure one's own equipment was attached to citizenship. Only citizens were required by law to serve in the army, and to be citizen you were required to have a given level of revenues.

At all times, heavier weapons (for siege, and later canons) were provided by the State or the lords.

5. Hierarchy

There are two main type of hierarchies: hierarchical (or traditional) and flat. My partner could tell you all about the advantages and disadvantages of both in details (and how mixed/new models exist), but for our purposes let's keep it simple.

Here is a drawing of both systems:

The bigger your army is, the less likely your hierarchy will be flat, for the very simple reason that your general in chief (or king, or whatever their actual title is) cannot be everywhere at once and has to delegate their power to keep the whole system working. In fact, at some point, the higher men in the hierarchy become strategists and/or administrators. Furthermore, if the official leader of your army is indeed the king, they might still need to delegate as 1) they are running a kingdom, and might need the time for something else, 2) they are very bad at leading an army (not everybody can be Frederic II or Napoleon...).

Next thing to determine is the numbers of levels in your hierarchy. I would advise to keep it as simple as possible. As an example, in Rising Queens, my army has 7 levels of hierarchy (including the soldiers without rank). Each rank correspond to an unity (i.e. company, regiment...). I merely added some nuances to distinguish some Navy ranks: a General and an Admiral have the same rank, but the later serves in the Navy.

If you want to get an idea of what ranking system you can implement, I would suggest you hit Wikipedia, as they have the organisations of a few armies listed. Just never forget reality is always more complex than fiction.

6. Magic

If you have magic in your universe, consider how it changes war strategy and organisation.

And since someone wrote extensively on the subject, allow me to redirect you to @warsofasoiaf post, right here.

Don't hesitate to drop me a message for questions, clarifications or comments :)

Some Useful Links

On Demography

Medieval Demography made easy (French version)

Notes on Medieval Population Geography

Medieval WorldBuilding Mega-Tutorial (includes info about army, and many other details)

On Armies and fighting

@transcriptroopers is a great resource about the life of modern soldiers.

@writenavy for anything related to Navy, both ancient and modern.

@howtofightwrite advices for anything regarding fighting, in nearly any context.

Medieval Warfare

Writing a War

Vocabulary - French translations

Furir - Fourrière (du mot fourrage)

Postal service - Vaguemestre

I’ve been writing often lately. I try to do it regularly in the morning before leaving for work (doesn’t always perfectly work out). I’ve also noticed it’s easier to pick up a notebook and actually write at other moments of the day.

This new habit means The Dragon of Jamaedo’s first draft is getting written steadily, which is a nice change. It also means, I’m not writing original content for Tumblr... which I don’t really mind :)

That said, I may have new content soon, I just want to finish graphics to go with the posts first. It includes:

mobile WIP intro for The Dragons of Jamaedo, it already has a page I need to slightly edit

mobile WIP intro for Le Randonneur (The Wanderer in English). I’m not writing this at all, but I still feel attached enough to give it its own special spotlight.

family tree of the Royal family of Aqualos, probably in 2-3 posts, because the image is really big (mostly long).  And you will get a little blurb about each of the monarchs, over 15 different characters!!

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Astralone was not always the country it is now. For a long time, it was just one city, known as Astraloné, standing beside the Gods’ Lake, and the main pilgrimage place for sorcerers. Population was scarce, and so was food.

Situated in the far south of Rhéio’s Southern Hemisphere, and submitted to a harsh cold climate most of the year, Astralone’s agriculture benefits, today, from the presence of sorcerers who lend their power to ensure the population can subsist all year long in a relative comfort.

It was Ketal’s rise which pushed sorcerers to escape his armies and himself, which consequently gave weight to Astralone’s considerable growth. Even after his demise, many sorcerers kept coming in the land who would soon be known as the Land of Sorcerers.

To protect their all new country, sorcerers built seals of magic along their frontier, allowing them to maintain only a very small defensive army, as the seals could block foreign armies, which both Darah, but especially South-Darah, would quickly learn. Today the seals, or moreover their maintenance, has lead to a radicalisation of South-Darah’s government against all sorcerers. Indeed, the Dahrans have accused Astralone of using the renewal of seal to push them further into their own territory, costing them lands year after year.

This is not the only conflict which Astralone has to face. The other concerns its own government structure. As said above, Astralone was colonised by sorcerers, but this does not mean there were no people leaving in the area. These natives did not have any structures which could allow them to keep the sole control of their lands, but they and their descendants still live in this land. For centuries, sorcerers excluded them of all political instances, but, with the help of a mediator designed by the gods, some sort of balance has been restored, and non-sorcerers are not only allowed to be elected, but also more likely to become a representative, sometimes even with the support of sorcerers who have come to understand their value, which rests in their intimate knowledge of the Gods Plain and its resources.

Astraloné is still the biggest pilgrimage for sorcerers. All year round, yurts are dressed for them on the lake’s bank. Those, among them, who seek to form a coven travel in the week before the Winter Solstice, and register with the office in charge of helping the process. It is also the moment to share knowledge across the international community.

Something that shouldn’t exasperate me as much as it does: “I decided North and South would be reversed, and thus the sun rises in the West”. NO!!

East is the direction where the sun rises! Always! That’s the meaning of the word!! If you go check its etymology, you will discover it comes from Proto-Indo-European and the original word meant dawn. All the other cardinal points are defined in comparison to this one. West is where the sun sets (comes from a word meaning evening), North is on the left when looking East (it comes from a word meaning left), South is the sunny direction (it comes from a word meaning sun).

Now, that being said... if what you mean is maps in your world are oriented differently, then please say that instead! It’s that simple and some people (me) will feel grateful :)

For reference, maps weren’t always oriented with the north at the top:

China: South was often at the top, this way you had “the course of the sun” in front of your eyes (by the way, North, in Chinese, comes from a word meaning back)

in some Christian countries: East (and Jerusalem) was at the top -> this explains the word orientation, from Orient

Some cultures put important geographical mass (either mountain or ocean) at the top, others oriented their maps in regard to uphill and downhill directions

Australia and New-Zeland: they’ve used reversed maps, with Oceania in the center (America is still on the left of the map, but upside down)

Last speech of Gleb Polzin given to the Assembly of representative of the Dahran Cities in Tara. Colons from Jamaedo (aka the Sisters-Islands) had arrived about a century ago on the shores of Darah, a land composed mostly of independent City-States. The colons quickly established their dominance, through alliances and conquests. At the time of that speech, most of the cities South of Tara have fallen under their control. The Assembly has been established nearly forty years ago without accomplishing much. Soon after this speech is given, Tara will fall, and the representatives will decide, without their respective governments approval, to pronounce the Confederation of the Free Dahran Cities.

They came from the sea, they swept our shores, and they settled. For a long while, we thought that was it, that they would grow their town along the cliff, that we would trade with them, that everyone would live in peace.

We were wrong.

When first they allied themselves with the neighboring cities, we thought nothing of it. It was part of their economic expansion. Their presence on the markets grew, they started to mix with the locals, sometimes just trade partners, sometimes becoming life partners.

When one of their leader, a woman who controlled the biggest part of their financial strength, married the king of Arkesh, we thought nothing of it. It was just one more alliance. But it wasn’t. It was the beginning of a drastic change which would break our balance, break our ties, and lead to the collapse of so many.

That woman did not just bring fortune to her king and husband. She brought him a knowledge of warfare, unlike ours. Weapons able to dampen magic and destroys protective seals. Weapons throwing fires far above our walls and into our homes. Cities after cities fell on their conquest. And what did we do?

We fought among ourselves. Convinced, the only way to stay strong was to conquer our closest neighbor. We could have put a united front then, but we refused. We chose greed and our personal good, hostile to the idea of embracing brotherhood, and we still are.

They’re at our doors. Sweeping not only our shores, but our lands. Taking our food and our homes. There are refugees among us, with no city to go back to. Any of us could be next. Are we still to do nothing?

Today, we stand proud representative of our cities. Tomorrow... but is there even a tomorrow?

Dear colleagues, I ask you to consider the motion one last time. Affirm the confederation of our free cities, to keep our independence, to keep our liberties. Let’s unite!

What is legend, what is history?

This question is not innocent when talking about the desert of Niensheria. While the facts of its legendary birth are very well-known, its history is based on theories, assumptions and hypothesis hardly proven by facts.

If we follow the legend, Niensheria was turned from a rich green land into a desert in just one night. Rivers dried out. Trees and plants died, many animals followed. Finally, Marka assembled the people, led them to a safe haven, and gave them the knowledge to overcome the disaster. She became their goddess.

What historians have recovered is little. From the time of Marka, only some steles and sculptures have been found, but the text and their state hasn’t been able to lift up the shadows surrounding the myth.

The only certainties are a) it happened in more than one night, and b) magic was involved in the demise of Niensheria. This is known mostly because the event was recorded in the Hall of Catastrophes of Morte-Chapelle, an old sorcerer’s necropolis. Sorcerers’ practices also seems to have changed around that time, especially in regard to consequence of using magic on grand scales, even with good-intention. But what exactly happened is unsure. Some talk about a conflict between sorcerers which led to a magic war ; Niensheria’s laws seem to reflect it. Others talk about sorcerers wanting to influence the weather patterns, but leading to their deregulation. Who is right and who is wrong is impossible to determine. 

Another thing much discussed among historians is the true identity of Marka. Was she a goddess who chose to walk among men for a while in order to save them? Or was she a sorcerer who the gods granted the gift of eternal youth and who later became a goddess herself? Obviously, Aqualian and Niensherian historians cannot agree, faith always come in between.

But what Marka taught her people is known. She showed them how to build deep wells, and how to find underground water sources. These teaching would give birth to the Niensherian guilds of sorcerers. As for the location of the safe haven, it is still discussed, though most historians agree it must refer to Alhamra. A few have suggested Acmida or Khalfi, but the technology in place at Alhamra to benefit of the groundwater make it the most likely location.