The Military of Singhapura
All government is based on the legal monopoly of violence. So wrote Pramudya Tata Praja in The Civil Service and the State. Eventually, when laws and arguments and coins fail, the steel is unsheathed. These, then, are the Military Orders of the Sinha Adiraj.
The origin of the present structure lies, as so much in Singhapura does, in Samarskand. The ancient texts describe the Panchayudhaya — the Five Weapons: the Mace, the Sword, the Bow, the Discus, and the Conch (the last of these being the messenger and signal corps).
In the early days of Singhapura it devoutly followed these divisions, but practical adequacy demanded changes. Warfare is not something that can be conducted solely on the scribblings of ancient sages. What replaced the Panchayudhaya is the Chapter system, which has been refined since approximately year 500 of the Singhapura reckoning. It has the virtue of being able to contain both general units and specialist ones; of being able to adjust rapidly depending on the composition of armies decided by commanders; and of giving every competing interest enough participation to prevent any single interest from dominating it altogether.
Each such division is commanded by officers known as Chaptermasters, which is the second-highest military rank in Singhapura; the highest are the four generals, who are appointed as needed by the Emperor. In the past, this had led to appointments both ingenious and disastrous; over the last century there has evolved an unspoken tradition of appointing only those who can defeat existing Chaptermasters in a series of military games and exercises.
Nevertheless, the success of Singhapura’s armies in the field is well-known. This may be attributed not so much to strategic genius but to what Raskeshwara’s writings call the Flowing Chain: the empire’s logistical capacity to move men and equipment to and fro, to sustain them once positioned, and to maintain their effectiveness in the field longer than any comparable force. In this the numerous accountants, bureaucrats, logistical officers and such may be said to be as much a weapon as the soldiers themselves.
The Main Chapters: One Through Eight
Chapter One, the Standing Line, is the largest of Singhapura’s forces and its backbone: archers, line infantry, and reservists equipped with spears, bows, and shields. They also serve as an ad-hoc supply division for other Chapters if necessary. Each soldier serves a minimum of five years and acquires citizenship if they are not originally of the Empire. Longer service brings land grants and pensions. This arrangement deserves Your Grace’s attention: military service is, for a great many people, the primary mechanism of social advancement and formal induction into Singhapura. The Standing Line is thus an extremely effective instrument of provincial integration.
Chapter Two, Hammerfall, are heavy infantry, deployed to take the brunt of an assault from cavalry. Hammerfall recruits exclusively from the Standing Line. They are substantially better-equipped and trained, and tend to what some call ‘career military’.
Chapter Three, the Black Lightning, are shock troopers drawn from noble families for whom service in the Lightning is considered the minimum condition of social respectability, short of distinction in scholarship or some other field. Three is an auspicious number in Singhapura. They conduct reconnaissance and mounted combat in mobile units called Lances, each of twenty-five riders, many of whom supply their own horses and equipment. For the Empire, this is a convenient location in which to place hot-blooded young nobles, give them sufficient opportunity for distinction to satisfy their ambitions, and train them into the habit of following orders before they acquire enough political experience to damage the Empire. Your Grace will no doubt appreciate the similarity to the knights of the North.
Chapter Four, the Boiling Rock, combines artillery, siege warfare, fortification, and large-scale engineering. Many members are Taprobane mages. When not in the field, they supervise major public works, ensuring that imperial infrastructure meets imperial standards. The Boiling Rock and the Stonemasons maintain a productive rotation of personnel in both directions, which means that the empire’s capacity to build and its capacity to destroy are largely the same force, differently directed for war and peace.
Chapter Four, the Crows, handle espionage, counterintelligence, assassination, and special operations beyond imperial borders. They are officially unlisted in many sources. They recruit heavily from orphans and dispossessed nobility, many of whom pass through the University and acquire magic specializing in concealment and information gathering. Your Grace will at some point be dealing with agents of the Crows without knowing it.
Chapter Five, the Left Hand of the Law, is the military Watch: responsible for discipline within the army and the investigation of potential disloyalty. Their authority crosses all Chapter boundaries and permits the questioning and detention of officers of any rank. They are, as a consequence, both feared and resented by the rest of the military; they share a complicated mutual contempt with the Hand of Silk and Steel.
Chapter Six, the Iron Chain, manages supply, logistics, and transportation across the full extent of the empire’s military operations. Most of its members come from the guilds or are apprenticing in the military to build expertise before returning to commercial life. Raskeshwara’s argument about the Flowing Chain rests entirely on this chapter and on the roads the Boiling Rock builds: as he puts it, without the Iron Chain, the rest of the military is just a collection of expensive equipment at fixed locations.
Chapter Seven, the Water Bearers, are the navy of Singhapura. They arise from a merchant navy that militarized gradually, and are the second single largest chapter in the order of battle. Ealdorfold, it must be said, has a more widely distributed naval force, and Lusia has the clear advantage in deep-water shipping; the Water Bearers are, on any honest accounting, still developing. Their sub-operation, the River Ghosts, are specialists in water and mist magic and amphibious operations, and are considerably more effective than the chapter’s overall reputation would suggest.
Chapter Eight, the Sin-Eaters, are perhaps the most ominous force among these. They are charged exclusively with the destruction of magical threats to the Empire, and are famously selected from among the bravest, the most violent, and the most suicidal of all. They famously have no written code of honor, nor anthem, nor do they wear any sigils of rank; in this they are alone among the Chapters. Their banner is black and completely unadorned. They employ heavily trained combat mages from Taprobane and large numbers of Judges and Arbiters of the Taprobane Church; it is said that also in their company are Temple of Eighteen monks who have cast aside their robes and devoted themselves to battle.
The Specialist Chapters: Nine Through Thirteen
The specialist chapters are smaller, more expensive, and deployed with considerably more caution than the main force.
Chapter Nine, the Cobras, conduct reconnaissance and sabotage beyond imperial borders. They are recruited primarily from frontier populations. This allows them to maintain the native appearance and customs necessary to operate effectively in territories Singhapura does not yet formally control. Your Grace’s city sits on a frontier. It is safe to assume that the Cobras are already familiar with it.
Chapter Ten, the Stone Lions, serve as the final defensive line for critical imperial locations: elite heavy infantry in the heaviest armor, trained specifically to hold position without regard to casualties or conditions. They now incorporate substantial magical training, and have a reputation for being impossible to break. This may be exaggeration, but there are records of Stone Lions holding hundreds at bay to give time for their imperial charges to escape to safety.
Chapter Eleven, the Paladins, were originally an independent mercenary order incorporated into the imperial structure after demonstrating exceptional effectiveness. They have since fallen progressively out of favor as the Haugris Church consolidated power, and are being phased out through attrition and the gradual reassignment of their responsibilities. Your Grace knows the recent events better than this treatise needs to record. The decline of the Paladins prompted the empire to experiment with magically empowered specialist units as replacements, first by adding magical training to the Stone Lions, then by taking notice of what the River Ghosts had accomplished within the Navy, and finally by creating two new chapters that represent the present state of that experiment.
Chapter Twelve, the Thunderclouds, are mages recruited from Taprobane after graduation, specializing primarily in lightning and fire magic. Their armor stores the high-speed magical charges their work requires, and glows accordingly during combat, producing a striking visual effect that has, on several documented occasions, ended engagements before they properly began. They are intended as the Paladins’ functional replacement.
Chapter Thirteen, the Special Affairs Division, are called the Heathens by everyone who works adjacent to them. They handle situations in which military approaches are insufficient and deniability is required: special talents, practitioners of non-orthodox magical traditions, persons with unusual or proscribed abilities. Talents that would not be accepted into the Sin-Eaters are said to go here — especially powers that the Church considers outright heresy. There is almost no public information about them.
Other Forces
I will append three other forces, Your Grace, that are also of note.
The Charter Knights are a motley force. When a soldier’s term is done, or they have been judged to have spent too much time on the front, or been deemed too old or otherwise unfit, they are sent into the Charter Knights. The Empire puts them through University training on law and ethics, then sends them home as wardens of city defense and policing. They answer to local Governors and Justices of Peace and enforce laws. In this Singhapura has learned from the North; each major city has its own Charter Knight division with local insignia appended to the standard uniform, and some autonomy to adapt to local circumstances. As a consequence it is difficult to make general statements of their capacity; Singhapura’s Charter Knights, for example, have enough combat mages to hold off even the most determined adversary, but the Charter Knights of Giridhora, the last I saw them, were of no worthy character.
Then there are the private guards of the guilds. Of these the largest are those of the Merchants Guild, which can be said to be more of an expeditionary force than simple protection. Within the Empire, these forces are subject to the Empire’s law and jurisdiction; but without it, they are considered free agents, similar to Lusian or Rosantic mercenaries.
There is, finally, the Emperor’s Bitterness. The Bitterness is a relatively new role. He carries legal authority beyond that of every Chapter and military limit; he is simultaneously investigator, prosecutor, judge and executioner. He requires no warrant, no council, and is considered the Emperor’s own action made flesh. To obstruct him is to obstruct the Emperor, and to raise a hand against him is to raise a hand against all of Singhapura.
The post is now held by Mohandas Siege, formerly of the Order of the Sound of One Hand Clapping. I have, with my own eyes, seen the finest wards of the University parted as if they were cobwebs by Mohandas Siege. The less spoken of him in a document of uncertain circulation, the better. What Your Grace needs to know is this: he is only answerable to one authority, constrained only by the Emperor himself. He is sent not just to solve problems, but to make it so that the will of the Empire is never questioned again. Your Grace would be wise to never involve him in your affairs.