Springhome
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Springhome
Springhome occupies an odd niche in Creation, both in geographical location and societal makeup. Tucked between the North and the East, the crater that houses the country is subject to notably strange weather patterns and social pressures, exacerbated by attempts at influence from the outside and within. Standing free of the Realm’s system of satrapy and client State for the majority of the Second Age, the crater kingdom had to vie with barbarians, economic warfare, and attempted invasions by Realm-backed northern states. Springhome did not submit, and its leadership kept it free from external powers and internal strife, even as it fought off mutant raids, mercenary invasions, and concentrated attempts to drive its people to poverty.
Now, the Realm’s internal turmoil and general withdrawal from the threshold has allowed Springhome to finally employ its resources for something other than self sufficiency and survival. Its new-found economic power and wealth have coupled with its desperate acquisition of new methods of warfare and development to make something frightening. But can a nation that has always focused on expelling the external threat and cultivating its heartland successfully grow in an increasingly hazardous Creation, or will its attempts to project itself beyond its boarders fall short?
Arsenal
Springhome’s forces can be divided into two different organizations: the Palace centered Royal Army, and the crater-wide system of noble levies. Both organizations ultimately descend from the ruling dynasty’s original cadre of tribal heroes and warriors; many nobles are descendents of those who received land for their service from Winterblood the Conqueror, while the Royal Army’s roots can be traced back to his private guard. Beyond that distant common origin, however, the two forces have little in common.
While the forces of the nobles used to be a homogenous group of tribal warriors, and then later a carefully organized and pruned army under Valfors Winterblood, their current incarnation is a piecemeal assembly of personal troops. While the Palace rewards military preparedness and spending, the past century of repelling outside attacks of varying composition and ferocity has turned most latter-day attempts to turn the noble levies into a single, unified force into a relatively fruitless endeavor. It’s proven simply more effective and affordable to allow and encourage each to develop their own defenses with which to protect themselves and Springhome.
As a result, one can go from one end of the crater to the other and see as many different types of units as noble houses. For the most part, this just means that amongst seven different nobles there will be seven different kinds of heavy personal guards, seven different kinds of Fair-to-Poor quality light infantry armed with different weapons, and seven different ‘special units,’ equally divided between useful, useless, and bizarre. Most will be prepared for unfriendly weather, though often at the expense of armor in the case of the common levy soldiers (nobles and their personal guard will almost have at least reinforced buff jackets of varying levels of quality; leaving ones protectors improperly equipped is equally parts social gaffe and potentially fatal error.)
Swords and spears are the most popular melee weapons, with thrown weapons and light self bows dominating ranged combat. Proper cavalry is rare. Springhome has never had a martial tradition of mounted warriors, and the horse stock tends towards pampered personal mounts for nobility…most of whom would never considering riding their pets into battle. While the faster breeds are used as couriers and scouts often enough, animals with the temperament for battle are too few and dear to organize into an effective unit, and certainly not worth the cost to intelligence and infrastructure. It’s notable that the kingdom’s ample thaumaturgical reserves could be pressed into breeding a battle-ready population…but the sorcerers aren’t particularly interested, and the military leadership has never been convinced to implement such a program.
Effective ‘special units’ tend to be divided between traditional artillery, missile troops and mobile elite units; while thaumaturgical equipment and knowledge is far from uncommon, most formal use of it is in the Northern tradition of protection against the forces of darkness and the Wyld. Ineffective special units are often based on foreign fighting methodology that has entranced the unit’s patron (most attempts at using firewand wielding fusiliers in prolonged engagements have resulted in expensive or explosive failures), or ‘new’ tactics and equipment devised by the patron themselves. Bizzare special units are, by their very natured, a mixed bag. From enchanted bears to tiny wyld mutant infiltrators, their effectiveness is most often a product of the circumstances they fight under. It is imprudent to field bears amongst peasant levies, and tiny infiltrators fair poorly against Cherak’s Bashi-Bazouk.
The Royal Army stands in stark contrast to the nobles’ power. Where the nobles operate as separate forces brought together in times of large conflict, the Royal Army operates as a single entity performing many separate tasks even in times of piece. The military might of any individual noble property waxes and wanes, often becoming obsolete in long times of peace; the Royal Army has always been spurred on to expand and grow. And so, while the original Winterblood’s fief could defeat perhaps two or three of the other prominent tribal leaders on their own…the modern Royal Army could likely defeat an uprising of the entire crater, at least in a straight military contest. A near monomaniacal determination to keep Springhome free spurred this growth in early years, and the powerful bureaucracy that would rise across the years would keep that determination burning at the heart of the royal war machine.
Officially, the Royal Army includes a massive militia force in the form of the Springhome City levy; decently trained and equipped with light armor, shields, and spears, a narrow majority of adults officially belong to the militia. However, these are largely theoretical numbers; a large part of the city’s population may be moving between itself and other locations within the crater at any given point in time, and the official numbers include noble retinues in residence, many who would move to support whatever noble estate they were attached to in case of serious attack. As a result, the Springhome City levy functions are little more than a last ditch defense force for the city itself, if a well trained and supplied one.
When most residents speak of the Royal Army, they refer to the professional soldiers and warriors retained by the Palace, along with the voluminous support staff required to feed, equip, and train them. The most visible element of this force is the Royal Guards and Auxiliaries. Typically armed with polearms and clad in chain mail, the Royal Guards function as impressive heavy infantry; more so with the impressive logistical backing they receive. Given more than a day of warning, their formations will include specialized ranged units, war machines suitable to the field of battle, and an array of thaumaturgical equipment and rituals that serve to keep causalities down, mobility up, and weapons sharp.
Typically, units are arranged in groups of thirty; a battle ready unit may be assigned half again as many auxiliaries, depending on likely opposition. Normally, each unit is rotated through active and inactive duty while guarding various important areas through Springhome. The most prestigious of these posts is, of course, the Palace Guard proper. Though their actual direct protection of the Winterblood family has been reduced since the ascendancy of the current Elite Guard (see below), the symbolic value of their post and superlative equipment and supplies ensure that they keep themselves to the standards of any other elite unit. Likewise, the Flint Pass and Harvest Gate Guards protect the most vital points of access to the crater kingdom, resulting in a state of heightened readiness (though the high stress positions result in the frequent rotation out of those posts, unlike the Palace Guard.)
The Royal Auxiliaries include all the Guards not currently assigned to a particular defensive position, as well as any currently inactive guardsmen. Though theoretically held to the same standards as the rest of the guard, the lack of any concrete objective to protect and the quiet consensus that the Auxiliaries should be light duty mean that few, if any of the Auxiliary forces have the same readiness as active Guard units (and none qualify for elite status.) The Auxiliaries also include amongst their number the dedicated light infantry and bow units. While dedicated and well trained, they realize that they’re considered a distinctly secondary part of the Springhome military, and their quality suffers accordingly. Light Auxiliaries wield javelins, short swords, and shields, while bow units wield self or hunting bows.
As impressive as the Royal Army is, only the secretive and powerful Elite Guard truly impresses most cosmopolitan travelers. Dedicated only to the duty of protecting and serving the Winterblood families, the Elite Guard is formed of singularly massive and powerful warriors, trained to a nearly unnatural edge. Uniformly strong, tough, and dedicated, they are most often equipped with two handed axes or swords and well made heavy armor. When it comes to open combat, they are often assigned to lead units of Royal Guards, but often five-man formations are deployed to key areas of the battlefield, often to guard a particularly important piece of artillery or key personnel…or to destroy the same. Larger deployments are rare, but have happened on occasion; barring contrary orders from their leaders, they organize into groups of fifty, often recruiting (occasionally forcibly) government sorcerer-bureaucrats into their number to serve as magical support. These formations are comparatively deadly, but either Springhome has a limited number of such warriors…or desires not to reveal their true number.
A similarly occluded wing of the Royal Army is the numbered Task Forces. Unlike the Royal Guards, Royal Auxiliaries, or Elite Guards, the Task Forces as a whole have no regular defined duties. Rather, as the name suggests, each performs a particular and often irregular duty for the crown; Task Force 2 guards underground passages leading to the hidden manse, Task Force 5 conducts long range reconnaissance, etc. As a result, their numbers, armaments, quality, and even whether or not they qualify as a proper military unit widely differ.
As a final note, Springhome City is the center for centuries of experimentation in alchemy and mortal magic; the first age ruins it sits atop of have been picked apart and scoured for every useful bit of material and knowledge, and only sprawling underground tunnels and a powerful, dangerous manse remain. Should the City be invaded, entire formations of enraged sorcerer-bureaucrats may form and march out of their offices. The history of such units is clouded by uncertainty and strangely colored smoke; their effectiveness, quality, and leadership (if any) are unknown.
