Lord SolarsparQ

Grand Master

Soldiers are the rank-and-file military soldiers within the fighting formations of the Green Company. These infantry people, drawn primarily from commoner stock and with less romanticized sensibilities than the knightly elite, serve as critical combat assets, executing mission objectives at weapon points beyond the reach of noble ideals alone. The primary distinction between a heavily armored man-at-arms and a knight is one of birth, culture, and personality.

Because they have undergone months of training to react with immediate obedience to orders, soldiers provide the muscle that ensures plans execute successfully on the battlefield. They march over lengthy distances, encumbered, yet unbothered, they continue to press on, a march song upon their lips. Soldiers maintain watch over long hours so that their comrades can rest securely for the deadly job ahead. When the charge finally arrives, soldiers brace themselves through the terrifying moments when steel first collides with steel, steadily grinding their opponents to defeat.

They deliver victory from unexpected odds through the stoic embracing of duty. Soldiers earn their place in the hierarchy and the songs of minstrels via sweat, blood, and obedience. Every flank defended, beachhead captured, and beleaguered city street liberated from oppression stands as a memorial to troops who fought not for personal glory but for the greater good.


Soldier Professional Leadership Roleplay Elements

Recruitment – During annual musters, senior soldiers and above visit area militias searching for standout professional troops and brave peasant conscripts with the potential for advanced infantry training. Before contract offers are made, promising fighters must undergo demanding physical examinations that assess their endurance, responsiveness to orders, and mental fortitude.

Once evaluation has sufficiently estimated their worth, they are brought into the fold for additional training and integration into the order’s culture. The organization harnesses Britannia’s sturdy martial stock through this general activity to replenish losses in the many battles fought to fulfill its mission.

  1. Senior soldiers run intense training drills, preparing recruits and other troops in lance-scale skirmish tactics and the articulated line formations required in large-scale battles. The training is conducted with members of the order’s other professional groups, ensuring proper integration when conflict erupts.
  2. They perform security shifts guarding chapterhouse perimeters, maintaining discipline on sentry duty through harsh weather that might dissuade less hardened volunteers.
  3. Soldiers assist local settlers and provincials through construction projects, building fortifications, digging irrigation trenches, and raising barns for vulnerable homesteaders near dangerous territories—members of the artisan corps generally organize, direct, and request the workforce for these endeavors.
  4. They embark on expeditionary patrols out of New Magincia, both with their knightly lances and full soldier patrols, to clear roads of fallen debris, monster lairs, and brigand ambush points to keep regional trade routes safer for merchants and pilgrims. Just as often, when not on campaign, they form impromptu groups with other order members or associates to adventure, collect bounties, explore ruins, treasure hunt, and involve themselves in a whole host of other scenarios utilizing their skillset.
  5. Soldiers participate in wrestling matches and strength contests, gamble during harvest festivals and celebrations, or relax in taverns during liberty.
  6. Weapons maintenance and armor cleaning is usually a grand time to socialize, reflect on current events, news, and rumors, or even enjoy a bit of banter.
  7. When not deployed, they train rigorously in one-on-one combat with weapons to maintain and improve attack angle, positioning, timing, footwork, parrying, blocking, and ripostes.
  8. Around dimming campfires, their ballads and folk songs remember somber tales of past fierce combat, noble sacrifice, lucky glory, and lessons learned through years of blood and fire.


Soldier Mentorship Categories

  1. Seasoned troops teach recruits to properly care for field equipment properly, preventing damaged armor and rusty weapons with appropriate cleaning supplies and maintenance.
  2. Veterans emphasize the need for efficient rationing throughout long deployments, including when to gorge before action, foraging possibilities while on patrol, and avoiding polluted water sources that only experience can reveal.
  3. through vivid recollections, soldiers caution novices against focusing on vendetta glory, which exposes one to reckless ambush, as all warriors owe first responsibility to the lance and company columns.
  4. They teach tried strategies that boost survivability, frequently improvised in previous battles, such as angling shields to deflect arrows, playing dead then striking, or the value of scavenged weapons.
  5. Soldiers demonstrate how to carry light for forced marches, distribute weight across the body, bandage blisters while resting, and stretch out excruciating cramps that would otherwise hinder them.
  6. Mentors encourage operational secrecy, such as keeping forthcoming deployments under wraps in taverns or around loose-lipped camp followers to prevent jeopardizing strategic surprises.
  7. Songs passed down through generations may appear silly initially. However, they frequently reveal truths about the communities that support soldiers, promoting camaraderie, creative incentives for preventing infections, and ways to maintain love when duty separates you.
  8. When boredom sets in, mentors quietly reveal permitted strategies for managing clothing, equipment, and tactical shortcuts that alleviate daily pressures without breaching overarching standards. They may, for example, guide the deft insertion of spare leather strips to chafe-prone pressure spots within armor behind joint gaps that are not visible to inspecting eyes.


Soldier Ranks

Sergeant Major

Veteran non-commissioned officers promoted to the prestigious rank of sergeant major are responsible for all operations, supplies, training, and preparedness across numerous companies of frontline infantry detached from lances - approximately three hundred troops. These leaders, forged through years of commanding platoons through innumerable fights, now help maintain the ranks of soldiers under the command of noble knight commanders when scale necessitates the mobilization of articulated unit formations.

Sergeant majors coordinate forces across enormous distances to secure contested resources or strong points designated by the high council and the grand master as objectives. They sometimes communicate with junior knight officers, offering direct advice and leadership. Such assistance guides newly minted commanders through tumultuous experiences as smoothly as such a transition can be.

Routine communication is also established with support quartermasters and artisan stewards to ensure that crucial equipment, rations, and medical supplies flow smoothly through required distribution pipelines despite the challenging terrain that separates distant units from established supply depots.

Sergeant Major Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on an a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 32

Mentorship: 32

Commendations: 128

Master Sergeant

Battle-hardened master sergeants are veteran non-commissioned officers in charge of all operations, logistics, and discipline for 30-man infantry platoons during articulated combat or detached on tasks without direct knightly oversight. After years of supervising platoons, these respected warriors now adopt strategy instructions, distribute troops, requisition supplies, and report unit preparedness up the chain of command.

Master sergeants frequently advise knights who are years younger in age but nominally higher in aristocratic power, delivering insightful counsel and leadership gained from the fray’s heart, where newly minted knightly knowledge may not have yet prepared for visceral reality.

The master sergeant represents unwavering continuity in the face of attrition. When they finally fall, humble memorials will commemorate valiant actions, frequently gone unnoticed in the heat of the moment but treasured by the order lives they helped preserve with their very presence.

Master Sergeant Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on an a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 16

Mentorship: 16

Commendations: 64

Sergeant

The non-commissioned officer rank of sergeant designates soldiers who have demonstrated mastery in directing, supplying, and managing ten-man squads of troops through various combat actions while removed from the direct knightly oversight of the lance structure. Forged as junior commanders directing smaller soldier elements in previous conflicts, these warriors travel where the combat is thickest; banners raised aloft to motivate comrades as brethren rather than subordinates alone.

Sergeants walk first as enlisted charges, carrying out higher commands and straddling two realms- leader and mentor. Authority and responsibility now loom over their heads as they are expected to be expert at organizing fighters, checking their gear, maintaining the line, and driving discipline crucial to survivability during the tumult of battle. Those who survive such trials may eventually directly counsel noble strategists as the order pursues its goals at home and abroad.

While detached from the lance structure, the sergeant assures connected purpose within the soldiers and order personnel. Working with scouts, they guide patrols to secure the countryside from brigands and raiders and assist local villages, whether needing martial defense or basic construction repairs directed by order artisans. Sergeants are well known for their ability to mobilize conventional forces in service to the local community of New Magincia, or Britannia at large while on campaign.

Sergeant Promotion Requirements

Special: A written treatise on an a mentorship category listing

Professional Leadership: 8

Mentorship: 8

Commendations: 32

Lance Corporal

The rank of lance corporal designates soldiers chosen to acquire junior leadership skills by aiding non-commissioned officers in leading small teams of approximately five troops through authority, logistics, and crises. They receive tactical and squad coordination training from sergeant mentors to develop soldiers who may be promoted to lead infantry teams while detached from lances.

Lance corporals use their experience as conditioned soldiers from previous conflicts to guide less seasoned members who have not yet been exposed to the same mental rigors of mortal exertion. They set an example by being the first to enter the conflict, pressing comrades forward, and the last to leave when things deteriorate, commanding ranks toward discipline rather than panicky flight. Lance Corporals are often responsible for personally coordinating duty roster rotations, enforcing correct sentry protocols on nighttime guards, and verifying readiness inspections that are reported up the chain.

Those possessing the rank must balance the roles of comrade and sergeant-in-waiting—frequently lonely positions learned by trial and error and mentorship, tempered with direct and cutting insight. Beyond mere chevrons, there is accountability for lives. When knight officers seek credible proxies to manage broken battle lines, and the sergeant lies dead, it is often the lance corporal who must take up the mantle of leadership and maintain the shield wall.

Lance Corporal Promotion Requirements

Professional Leadership: 0

Mentorship: 0

Commendations: 16

Soldier

The designation of soldier formally recognizes recruits who have successfully finished rigorous training, making them capable fighters ready for the harsh realities of the campaign life of the Green Company. Soldiers establish dependable cores in formations that achieve military goals by applied determination rather than blind courage alone.

These troops, neither clueless conscripts nor glory seekers, embrace risks and fight for causes that appear less noble after weeks of exhaustion, demanding tasks, and the creeping fear of the unknown endured well beyond the comforts of home. Soldiers continue to stand guard nightly in wind, sleet, or snow and march miles heavy with war kits. They sometimes stage for hours before the fight begins, enveloped in uncertainty that would break most civilians’ will; nevertheless, they persevere. When the bleeding and shouting begin, the training flows intuitively and sets them in motion.

Those who survive the hostilities return transformed and burdened behind masks that hide deep scars. Some will volunteer again, but many cannot. However, stalwarts nod in acknowledgment and wish their former brethren well. Those who remain serve resolutely, each tour of duty girding their loins against the horrors encountered. The hard regulars remaining form the order’s soldier corps, and continue to answer the call of duty, battling not for high-born greed or mercenary coin but for the greater good.

Soldier Promotion Requirements

Professional Leadership: 0

Mentorship: 0

Commendations: 8

Recruit

Bearing the rank of recruit denotes recent volunteers who have not yet proven themselves worthy of soldier status through arduous commitment and competence requirements imposed by training. All enlistees arrive filled with naive anticipation, swiftly dispelled by reality through grueling days of conditioning and drill, designed to break bodies, minds, and false presumptions drawn by opportunity, desperation, or idealistic vision.

Pre-dawn reveille follows exhausting road marches for hours, leaving recruits staggering. Martial training instantly distracts thoughts from blisters gained on the march to bruised and battered flesh earned on the drill field. And still, the hardship continues - watch schedules, camp duties, maintenance, and more. The initial trials test mental and physical endurance; not all will pass.

Those who survive achieve previously unattainable insights into their lives. The relentless activity slowly becomes part of the norm, as familiar as breathing. Agonizing pain gives way to mild discomfort, accepting the sensation as a rite of passage. The fraternity formed here becomes one of the few pleasures enjoyed but a complex one of acceptance, camaraderie, and achievement. Most recruits abandon their quest to join the order shortly after exposure to the training. The few that emerge are destined to climb the ranks of the backbone of the Green Company lances and earn the rank of soldier.