The Agoge
From Storing Don
The Agoge is where all of Lequall's army is trained to become the war machine that it is.
[edit] The Complex
The training grounds of Lequall, The Agoge is a massive complex in the capital city of Illovendial. It is home to barracks, stables, forges, libraries - effectively everything any warrior needs to become a master warrior of Lequall. It is also the main fortification of the capital city, and the Grand Marshal's Palace is inside the Agoge, along with lavish manors for visiting Marshals and other officers.
It is set up like this - the outer walls are crenelated and studded with towers at uniform distances, with all surfaces being circular to cause less impact on any given point. Each tower is four stories high, and has a magoballistra on top. There are twelve towers, forming a regular hexagon between them with one tower in the middle of each wall. The walls are three stories high, and all are manned by Immortals and War Mages constantly.
Inside, the very center is the Court of the Grand Marshal, where the officers and nobility of Lequall, the Marshals, debate strategy and other affairs of state. The Court is surrounded by a plaza on all sides, with the Palace of the Grand Marshal taking up the southern face, and all other palaces, including embassies of foreign diplomats, sharing the other three sides.
In a ring outside the palaces are the training grounds and research labs. These are for everyone, and there are training areas that can simulate virtually any environment (due to magical enchantment), and the research labs are also for teaching of military science and other courses. Finally, outside of the training zones and libraries, are the barracks and armories. All barracks hold an armory with enough arms and armor to equip everyone twice over in the barracks. That way, it is easy to get ready in the off chance that the Agoge is attacked, or in case the Grand Marshal calls for a drill.
The Agoge is the military and political capitol of Lequall. Anything can be done here, if you know where to go and who to talk to.
All grounds of the Agoge are open to all, save the Marshals' manors and the Grand Marshal's Palace. The Palace of the Grand Marshal itself is large, featuring a very Pantheon-like front complete with very angular edges and large pillars and roofing very similar to a Japanese ryokan roof, containing a shallow pitch without curves or garish ornamentation. Clay roof tiles complete the perfectly meshing architecture, the exterior of which is heavily decorated with various furnishings of gold so bright and sparkling new that they seem to constantly shine even in the slightly off-color and murky Lequallian sunlight. The interior of the Palace is spacious, containing the Court of the Grand Marshal as its entire northeast corner, the Grand Marshal's office in the southwest, and very simple yet opulent depictions in all of its area of former Grand Marshals and the history of Lequall. The floors are polished dark blue marble. Only the Grand Marshal, the other eight Marshals and foreign dignitaries of the highest esteem—kings—may ever set foot in the Palace. The Marshals' Manors are large complexes scattered around the Palace about 3/4 of the size. Each is decorated according to the colors and traditions of its House. Anyone who the Marshal currently owning a certain manor permits may enter and stay in the manor.
[edit] The Agoge Training
Twelve years are spent in the Agoge, no other country in the continent of Maris has training that is extended for this amount of time. This is why their battle are so precise, so exotic, so perfect.
At age seven, every able-bodied Lequallian boy and girl( that wants to go to the Agoge) is sent from their home—with the exception of some from House Eloretram and those living in the far east of the Shieldland—to the Agoge in Illovendial. Their first experience is being assigned to six-man teams, often under the command of a Centurion who has excelled in his group. This experience is often an important part of a young Lequallian's life, for those he is put in a group with often turn out to be his best friends. From that point the teams split, each learning individually from their leader within the last two months of the year; the first six weeks of their being at the Agoge training in discipline in fighting and protecting one another. The first six weeks are also used for telling history of great battles of Lequall have encountered.
The last weeks in the first year of training they start to learn to basic of fighting, first they start out with basic stances and skills. This is when they first learn how what weapon or weapons that they excel in. The weapons that are assigned are the sword, lance, axe, and the long range bow. Magic is learned from studying in the Agoge also, but it is from another area.
The next three years of their Agoge lives are to start with their conditioning, every Lequall member has to be in top physical condition to fight for Lequall. Large people are not shunned away; they are trained enough so that they are able to move without getting tired easily. They start with running to the basic hand-to-hand fighting. However this is conditioning is imbued into the Lequallians head so that even after these three years they still have to train their bodies.
The next year is where the Hoplon Guard looks at the Tirone and see who could become a member of the Hoplon Guard, although this is not certain that the Hoplon Guard will be their of even looking at this year. The reasons are because they have not seen anyone who could be skilled enough, or the Hoplon Guard have not lost any of their 100 men.
The next two years are the hardest years of the Agoge training; they have past half of training. The men and the few women are no evolving from their immature class to their mature class (1st Tier to 2nd Tier). This is when the training is intensified and some people cannot handle it. This is when they quit and become regular men and women of Lequall. Like blacksmiths, potters, and sometimes even political leaders. Also this is when people make the transition to magic or to weapons. The more talented men become skilled in magic and weapons and are able to use both (War Mages).
Now the next year is spent on teaching the students how to strategize different possibilities in battle. So often two groups usually skirmish against each other, this is when the smartest men and women evolve into leaders and are promoted to the Milite put are still training. Although they do not use real weapons against, mostly they use wooden swords, lances, and axes. Also the bows are blunt so that they cannot kill. The skirmishes can be fierce sometimes last for hours.
Then the next three years are used to tone their body again and for the Hoplon Guard to see their candidate’s improvements and see if they are still needed in the Hoplon Guard. Although these three years tie everything together for the past ten years of training that the men and women have done so far. So practicing basic combat and conditioning are again being done in these years.
Now the final two years are used for tournaments to see who are the most skilled and who the best fighter of their class is. The tournaments are broken down into four groups: swords, lances, axes, range fighting. The battles are long and intense in the tournaments and the winners of the battles are given a prize; a weapon of their choice that is created by the greatest blacksmiths in Lequall.
Finally when the tournaments are over they are ready to join their brothers and sister in the field of battle. When they come out of their Agoge training they are very mature and are extremely different than a few years back.
