Revision as of 01:18, 6 April 2010

Legions of the Scarlet Empire

The size of the Imperial Army has vastly fluctuated over time. During the grandest crises, the number of active legions has risen into the 50s and 60s at times. At the time of the vanishing of Neo-Empress Scarlet, 33 legions existed. Two of them were destroyed during an expedition against the Boo of the North a year ago.

Thirty one Legions survive, each named after one of the Empresses' favorite flavors (or in some cases, punished by being given a nasty flavor). These range from Legion 1 (the Vanilla Legion) to Legion 12 (The Chocolate Legion) to legion 28 (The Vomit Legion).

Training

It remains unclear to scholars as to exactly why skilled musicians, actors, and dancers make the best trainers of troops. Over the centuries, however, this has had a definite impact upon the Imperial Military. The end result is that the elite Imperial forces not only fight for the Empire, they also serve as travelling entertainment companies, spending their spare time putting on elaborate shows all over the Empire and the Threshold. Each legion has certain entertainment specialities; these overlap between legions in order to promote competition to increase their skills.

Synchronized Dance

All Legionaires have at least a one pip specialty in Synchronized Dance. This is used in battle to intimidate foes, who find themselves facing thousands of legionaires dancing (and usually singing) in unison, an unstoppable musical number; many foes will simply flee the battlefield entirely, unable to match such a huge display of skill.

It's the ones who go crazy and start killing in the face of such skilled dancing who are the hard cases.

The most elite troops of the empire study dance-based Marital arts, such as 'The Dance of the Seven Deadly Veils' or 'The Waltz of Mowing Down Foes Like Gracefully Dying Wheat'.

Unit Structure

1. The smallest unit is the Hand. This is a unit of five soldiers, commanded by a Palm. Each Hand is trained in a specific Performance specialty--singing, dancing, a musical instrument, or whatever, in addition to its combat skills.
2. Five Hands make a Gaffer of 25 soldiers, which is commanded by the Lead Gaffer.
3. Five Gaffers make a Stage Crew of 125 soldiers, which is commanded by a Stage Manager. Many, but not all Stage Managers are Magical Girls.
4. Five Stage Crews makes a Grip of 625 soldiers, which is commanded by the Key Grip. Virtually every Key Grip is a Magical Girl, although a tiny handful of Goddess-Blooded, Half-Castes, Half-Ogres, etc, manage to rise to this rank.
5. Five Grips make a Troupe of 3125 soldiers, which is commanded by a Director. All Directors are Magical Girls, except for Helping Goddess infiltrators, who are SUPPOSEDLY Magical Girls.
6. A typical Legion contains 3 Troupes. One is Heavy Infantry, One is Medium Infantry, and one is Light Infantry and Archers. The third Troupe is usually made up of forces recruited from the Threshold and is considered the most expendible unit. They are often referred to as 'Extras', 'Groupies', or 'Flunkies' and typically fill the role in theatrical productions of filling out giant crowd scenes, doing grunt work, and being killed to increase the realism of a production. This makes the total strength of a legion 9,375 men and women. In theory, anyway. Legions are commanded by a Producer, who is always a Magical Girl or something very good at faking such status.
7. The Empire has tended to neglect Cavalry, but sometimes mount the Third Troupe on horses to some degree or use cavalry from Tributary kingdoms.
8. The First Troupe (Heavy Infantry) usually includes anywhere from 1 to 5 Warstriders, depending on how well-funded the Legion is; the First Stage Crew of the First Grip of the First Troupe acts as the support forces for said Warstriders, keeping them repaired, providing elite escort in battle, etc. (If there is only a single Warstrider, it is usually used by the Legion's Producer).

Distribution

The Legions are distributed as follows:

The Cat-Hackers (Fire)

4 Legions, all mostly out in the far reaches of the Threshold.

Houri (Wood)

3 Legions, split between the East and the South

Lemarchand (Air)

3 Legions, also many agents in Military Intelligence

Memnonic (Metal)

4 Legions, positioned in the North and East.

Nebbish (Wood)

3 Legions, in the East and South

Otome (Air)

No legions to call its own.

Paddle-Wheel (Water)

2 Legions, mainly positioned in the North and West.

Ragnarok (Metal)

5 Legions, mainly in the West and East

Solipism (Fire)

5 Legions, mainly in the East and South

Tepes (Metal)

Only the infamous Vomit Legion (Legion 28) survives, commanded by The Pitchblack, Tepes Eclavdra (noted for posing as a 'Dark Elf', whatever THAT is). It is currently in the Southwest, beating up pirates and probably plotting a rebellion.

Wherz'th'beef (Water)

2 Legions, mainly in the South and West.