Collegium (LoE20)

The emperor — so they say — has sent a message directly from his death bed to you alone, his pathetic subject, a tiny shadow which has taken refuge at the furthest distance from the imperial sun. He ordered the herald to kneel beside him and in front of the entire crowd of those witnessing his death—all the great ones of his empire are standing in a circle on the broad and high soaring flights of stairs—in front of all of them he dispatched his herald. The messenger, powerful and tireless, started off at once. But the crowd is so huge, its dwelling places are infinite. If there were an open field, how he would fly along, and soon you would hear the marvelous pounding of his fist on your door. Instead, he is still forcing his way through the private rooms of the innermost palace, and if he did manage that he would have to fight his way down the steps, stride through the courtyards, and after the courtyards through the second palace encircling the first, and so on for thousands of years. And if he finally burst through the outermost door — but that can never, never happen — the royal capital city, the centre of the world, is still there in front of him, piled high and full of sediment. No one pushes his way through here, certainly not someone with a message from a dead man.

Yet you sit at your window and dream of that message when evening comes.
- Franz Kafka, “The Imperial Message”

The Sublime Yuhwan College of Nations including the Pious Common Kingship of the Hoopoewood and the Sanctified Tsintsar Crown of Yuhwasattva Vãduva
Rzeczpospolita
Collegium
Gyerim-Covasna (Colloquial)
Yuhwan Starburst Regular and Republican Ensign Seal of the Eoraha
Motto: ýezî drujem vêñnghaitî" ("The Righteous will smite the Liar.")
Anthem
Yatha Ahu Vairyo
Royal Anthems
Saka March
System Map
Regular and Republican Capitals	Main: Tyritake Vyšehrad Orakzai Soreaobol (Auxiliary)
Royal Capitals	Soreaobol (Gyerim) Arad (Covasna) Artashat (Tao)
Official languages	Liturgical Arshan Koine Yavanan Sanskrit High Gushan
	Other spoken languages: Gyerimean Sakan, Low Gushan, Vaspurakan
Religion	Western Sangha Yuhwaism (State Ideology)
	Other religions: Amalism
Demonym	Yuhwan, Dahae (derogatory)
Government	Federal Theocracy
- Eoraha
- Marshal of the Sejm	Yushin Sobeiski
- Grand Domestic
Legislatures	Three Common Legislatures with Floating Chambers
- Floating Chambers	Looya Jiirga Irregular Committees
- College of Magi	Anjoman of Athravan Envoys of the Temples Circles of the Parishes Circle of Astrologers
- College of Princes	Venerable Worthies Worthies of Kwarrah Divinely Adored Worthies House of the Rightly Guided Defenders of the Faith Extinct Races
- Celestial Sejm	Behdin Elders Chamber of Deputies
History
- First Looya Jiirga
- First Anjoman
- College of Princes Founded
- White Turban Rebellion
- Treaty of Altai Krai
- Treaty of
Population
- 1000 NE	70 Million/70 Housing
Territorial Regions:	16
Theme:	Undeveloped
Currency	Drachma Touman
Patron Saint	Saint Eunha
Patron Yazata	Yazd Tavus
Preceded by
← Faryunid-Mashanid Dynasty ← Western Gushan

Genre: What if instead of secular enlightenment, there was a theopolitical Zoroastrian-Christian-Buddhist-Taoist revolution?

• Subgenre: Joseon Dynasty Austria-Hungary
• Fashion Subgenre: War & Peace x Otoyomegatari
• Military Subgenre: Guns & Stamps

The sleepy world of Camad, named after its greatest continent, is home to innumerable nations in the valleys of its long mountain ranges or the verdure seas of its wide steppes. It is a garden world plentiful in resources, ether, exotic fauna, and magical entities. Of the great civilizations of Man it was likely first discovered by the Scythians who made it a destination along the peregrinations of their Royal Road. Missions of exploration by the others surveyed the abundance of exploitable Ether wells and made it the target of several extraction operations and even light colonization, but it lay too far off the beaten track to become strategically valuable and the local conditions too difficult for profitable low-cost ether extraction industry – many site managers quit over constant work stoppages resulting from an irate river God or stampedes of spirit steeds. By the high noon of Humanity, the world was populated primarily by the philosophical malcontents of high Technomagical civilization, servants of minor Gods, and the offshoots of Scythian migrations. A footnote to events in the wider galaxy, the people of Camad busily applied themselves in multiplying across this overlooked corner of the galaxy with largely primitive technomagics.

The people of Camad therefore suffered relatively little direct consequences in the Godswar, for all that they remembered it as an era of calamity same as the rest of the known galaxy. However, such a backwater sank into almost complete isolation as traders and adventurers neglected to brave the opening in the Etherstorms to Camad. As such, though the total population of Camad now teems in many millions, most of its residents live in inconsequential societies of low technomagical advancement. Only four polities – known as the Four Eyes of the World – are respected as great powers in the wider galaxy: the culturally sophisticated Guarded Domains, the vast Amalgastene empire of Vaspurakan, the adventurous and industrious Mare, and the much ridiculed Rzeczpospolita.

The Rzeczpospolita, commonly referred to as the Collegium or Gyerim-Covasna, is the theocratic commonwealth of sovereign kingdoms, republics, free cities, and tribes governed by common Yuhwan religious institutions and the elective universal theocrat: the Eoraha. While some institutions and member states trace continuity back to the onset of the Etherstorms, the Collegium as a union of sovereign states is only four centuries old. Its founding belongs to the era of theopolitical ferment and anger in the Simurghshahr region that would birth the White Turban Rebellion in the 16th Century NE, a mass revolutionary movement of radicalized reformists and levellers seeking to subordinate “Law of Princes” to alignment with the judgements of Yuhwan religious jurisprudence in the name of the Eoraha. An alliance of the breakaway satrap-Maripganate of Gyerim and the republican Kingdom of Covasna would eventually prevail in founding a new order by co-opting the more orthodox wings of the fracturing White Turbans and outmanuevering the coalitions of Yuhwan quietism led by the receding Western Gushan. In a series of military victories and treaties all of Simurghshahr from the Heavenly Mountains to the Jasper Gates was brought into a “Celestial Sejm”, a legislature-cum-judiciary of deputies from Yuhwan parishes, a modified version of the original White Turban project. More a religious union than a Napoleonic nation-state - difficult to distinguish from wider Yuhwaism - the Collegium is a sluggish strategic actor which can be moved only by torturous political contrivances and protocol which are interminably evolving in ever more complicated compromises. Even so, its neighbors on Camad and the near abroad are forced to grudgingly respect the breadth of power it can, with some effort, bring to bear in the pursuit of universal Yuhwan ministry. The Collegium was one of the first powers in the galactic southeast to begin serious extrasolar adventures after the Etherstorms receded, and its missions of proselytization and trade traced far distant starways (though not without high profile setbacks and embarrassments) in the recent century of rediscovery.

As of 1001 NE, the Collegium struggles through another bout of periodic political paralysis since the passage of the last Eoraha in 997 NE. For four years the next Eoraha remains unnamed as the four years the squabbling between Ekklesian, Mahayanian, and Parajasper factions of Yuhwaism has prevented the Circle of Magi from beginning the long process to convene a Looya Jiirga to elect the next Eoraha. The common ministries of the Rzeczpospolita have been left to fend for themselves and determine their own agendas in the meantime. However, if it were to muddle through somehow as it has time and time again, the Collegium remains poised to intervene in affairs across the galaxy.

1000 NE OOB

Full Order of Battle

Type: Empire
Population: 70 Million Housed (70 SP)

• + 35 Bonus PP/month
• Population Growth (3%): 2,100,000 per annum

Terrain: 16 Regions
Infrastructure (190 SP)

• Industry [45 PP/month] 10 PP/month (10 SP) + 35 Bonus PP/month
  • Build Time [2x]
• Wealth [70 WU/month] (70 SP)
• Research [40 RP/annum] (40 SP)
  • Artificing Build Time [(Base Batch Cost+Capabilities)x5 Months]
• Ether Collection [70 EU/month] (70 SP)
• Magical Creatures & Friends (Magic Haven)
  • [25 RP/Month]

Advancement
Technological (125 SP)

• Engineering [TL3.75]
• Chemistry [TL3.75]
• Mathematics [TL3.75]
• Biology [TL3]
• Psychology [TL3.25]

Magical (150 SP)

• Destruction [ML3]
• Creation [ML3]
• Movement [ML5]
• Mental [ML5]
• Matter [ML4]

Traits
Advantages (75 SP)

• Fanatical Population (-25 SP)
• Mystic Haven (-50 SP)

Disadvantages (-145 SP)

• Factious World (+5 SP)
• Weak Government (+25 SP)
• Incompetent Armed Forces (+50 SP)
• Nuke Free Zone (+30 SP)
• Disaster Zone (+10 SP)
• Home is Where the Heart is (+25 SP)

Starting Military
Starting Military (135 SP): 1,350 PP
Initial Production

• Half Builds: 225 PP
• Magical Wildlife: 25 PP

College of Magi
1x Living Yuhwasattva [50 RP/1 Oracle]
1x Hoopoe [30 RP/1 Archmage]
1x Chief Astrologer [30 RP/1 Archmage]
1x Sword Saints [25 RP/5 Master Mage]
15 Dastur (4 x [4 RP/5 Master Mage]): 16 RP
150 Magi (15 x [3 RP/10 Adepts]): 45 RP
500 Mobedyar (2x [1 RP/500 Postulant]): 2 RP
Subtotal: 198 RP

College of Princes
Maripgan of Gyerim [30 RP/1 Archmage]
The Five Pashas [30 RP/5 Master Mage]
15 General Staff & Admiralty (3 x [10 RP/5 Master Mage]): 30 RP
100 Martial Princes: (10 x [6 RP/10 Adepts]): 60 RP
160 Pilots (8 x [6 RP/20 Specialists]): 48 RP
Subtotal: 198 RP

Infantry & Cavalry
150,000 Republican Guard (15 x [3 PP TL3.49 Skilled Infantry/10,000 Bayonets]): 45 PP
100,000 Cavalry (10 x [6 RP ML3 Skilled Infantry/10,000 Sabres]): 60 PP
5,000 Horse Artillery QF Guns (25 x [3 PP TL3 SPG/200 Vehicles]): 75 PP
2,000 Flying Carpets (2 x [20 RP ML4 Utility Vehicles/1,000 Vehicles]): 40 PP
1,000 Vanships (1 x [20 RP TM5 Prop Scouts/500 Aircraft]): 40 RP
300 Air Cavalry Fighter-Bombers (12 x [12 PP TL3.8 Fighters/25 Aircraft]): 144 PP
Subtotal: 404 PP

Logistics Corps
6,000 Trucks (6x [TL3.75 Logistics Vehicle/1,000 Vehicles]): 18 PP
Subtotal: 18 PP

Fleet
1 Charlotte la Paradissienne Class Carrier (1x [28 RP ML4 Fleet Carrier/1 Ship]): 28 PP
2 Far Reach Class Protected Cruiser (1x [24 RP Cruiser/2 Ships]): 24 PP
20 Pavisiers (4x [12 PP ML4 Small Ship/5 Ships]): 48 PP
4 Armored Cruisers (2x [12 RP ML4 Cruiser/2 Ships]): 24 PP
2 Armored Carriers (1x [20 RP ML4 CVE/2 Ships]): 20 PP
16 Predreadnought Battleships (16x [12 RP ML4 Battleship/1 Ship]): 192 PP
40 Frigates (4x [20 RP ML4 Freighter/10 Ships]): 80 PP
Subtotal: 416 PP
Fleet Air Arm
500 Vanship (1x [20 RP ML4 Prop Scout/1,000 Aircraft]): 20 PP
100 Super Drapels (4x [9 PP TL3.75 Interdictor/25 Aircraft]): 36 PP
25 Caracals (5x [12 PP TL3.75 Superfighter/5 Aircraft]): 60 PP
Subtotal: 116 PP

Initial Production
Half Builds: 225 PP
4x Baeksaseum Class Battlecruiser [24 RP/1 ML4 Battleship]
4x Saoshyant Class Dreadnought Battleship [24 RP/1 ML4 Battleship]
1x Golden Witch of the Pleaides

Magical Wildlife: 25 PP
1,000 Cataphracts [9 RP/1,000 ML3 Elite Infantry]
5 Nursing Windwhales [16 RP/5 ML4 Large Airship]

Population

“In this region stands a bronze vessel, as much as six times greater than the cauldron dedicated by Pausanias son of Cleombrotus at the entrance of the Pontus.10 To any who has not yet seen this latter I will thus make my meaning plain: the Scythian bronze vessel easily contains five thousand and four hundred gallons, and it is of six fingers' thickness. […] For their king, whose name was Ariantas, desiring to know the numbers of the Scythians, commanded every Scythian to bring him the point from an arrow, threatening all who should not so do with death. So a vast number of arrow-heads was brought, and he resolved to make and leave a memorial out of them; and he made of these this bronze vessel, and set it up in this country. Thus much I heard concerning the number of the Scythians.”
– Herodotus, the Histories, IV.81

70 Million (70 SP)

Housing: [70/70], +35 Bonus PP/Month

Growth (3%): 2,100,000 per annum

Terrain

Theme: Undeveloped

Terrain Regions: 16 Regions (1 + 7 from Housed Population, x2 from Undeveloped)

Terrain Points: 35 TMP

Infrastructure

10 PP/Month + 35 Bonus PP/Month

70 Wealth/Month

• Treasury: 350 WU

40 Research/Year

75 Ether Collection/Month

• Strategic Reserve: 140 EU

Advancement

Technology

“Or, one should see with one's own eyes the Reception Hall of Khosraw, that powerful achievement of Persian architecture. Ar-Rashid intended to tear it down and destroy it but failed for all his trouble. He began the work, but then was not able to continue. […] It is worth noting that one dynasty was able to construct a building that another dynasty was not able to tear down, even though destruction is much easier than construction.”
- Ibn Khaldūn, the Muqaddimah

Engineering [TL3.75] 100 Base +275 RP

Chemistry [TL3.75] 100 Base + 275 RP

Mathematics [TL3.75] 100 Base + 275 RP

Biology [TL3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Psychology [TL3.25] 100 Base + 225 RP

Magic

In this offering, with this Baresman, I desire to approach the sublime immortals with my praise,
And I desire to approach the Saints with my praise,
And I desire to approach the spirits of the waters with my praise, and the spirits of the mountains with my praise,
And I desire to approach with my praise those chiefs who strike the wing, those which wander the steppe with my praise,
Witnesses of the ritual, each in their turn.
-Avesta Visperad 2.1

Destruction [ML3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Creation [ML3] 100 Base + 200 RP

Movement [ML4] 100 Base + 300 RP

Mental [ML5] 100 Base + 400 RP

Matter [ML4] 100 Base + 300 RP

Traits

Advantages

Fanatical Population (-25 SP)

"O King of kings, I am ready to do thy commandments, for my mother brought me into the world that I might weary myself for thee, and unto thee pertaineth rest and joy, and unto me combat everlasting."

- Firdausi, “Shahnamah”

Your People are incredibly devoted and can be urged on to great lengths for the state. Civil Order payments are twice as effective, the people will resist occupation harder and longer, and the Population Bonus also can be mobilized like Industrial Production in times of crisis.

Mystic Haven (-50 SP)

We circled once, at screaming speed, well outside the null. I was astounded at what Darling had put together. About fifty windwhales, including some monsters over a thousand feet long. Mantas by the hundred. A vast wedge of walking trees. Battalions of human soldiers. Menhirs by the hundred, flickering around the walking triees, shielding them. Thousands of things that leaped and hopped and glided and flopped and flew. So gruesome and wondrous a sight.

- Glen Cook, “The White Rose”

You can add your own Added Capabilities to them using your Advancement Levels, in which case the creatures are treated as uncapped ‘base’ units (with a cost of Base Batch Cost x Advancement Level) that are already built, reducing build times. Otherwise, you can treat them as ML3 or ML4 units designed using the Artificing rules and they enter service immediately. Note that this is limited to units that have a Base Batch size of 1:1 or smaller.

Disadvantages

Factious World (+5 SP)

It is this fact of a great continent which is so essential for our country. God's Kingdom is part of a continuum, the greatest shard of the ancient spire. Should it have been isolated it would not have formed at all. Every country on Camad shares things with the others, and the innumerable little nations of this place have been shaped by our connection. It also means, to our detriment, we must sometimes share this place with those we'd rather send very far away.

- Pontiff-Prelate Samangan, Marginalia on the pages of Study of the Spire’s Fragments

Weak Government (+25 SP)

What are the nobles doing who join him instead of the commanders? Trampling on law. What is the army doing? Violating discipline. And is he, a citizen, is he, a soldier, to stand at the head of lawlessness? Is he to cover it with his own dignity? Is he to give an example of insubordination, arbitrariness, disregard of law, all merely to receive power two months earlier? Is he to give such a fearful example to succeeding ages? To-day Prince Yeremi acts in this way; tomorrow, Konyetspolski, Pototski Firlei, Zamoyski, or Lyubomirski. And if each one, without reference to law and discipline, acts according to his own ambition; if the children follow the example of their fathers and grandfathers, what future is before that unhappy country? The worms of arbitrariness, disorder, self-seeking have so gnawed the trunk of that Commonwealth, that under the axe of civil war the rotten wood is scattered, the dry limbs fall from the tree. What will happen when those whose duty it is to guard and save it as the apple of the eye put fire under it? What will happen then? Oh, Jesus, Jesus!

- Henryk Sienkiewicz, "With Fire and Sword"

Your government is not fully in control of your nation. Making decisions is difficult and carrying them out more so. While this doesn’t affect day-to-day life as the routine bureaucracy ticks along nicely, it does affect the ability of your nation to respond to emergencies; in particular, mobilize the nation out of its daily grind and to wage war. Any Civil Order penalties incurred by war are doubled, and Industry cannot be mobilized save in times of grave crisis, and then is twice as damaging to population morale.

Incompetent Armed Forces (+50 SP)

“I have to confer with you!” Pause. “I’ve been abused,” he resumed, peering straight into the lawyer’s sparkling glasses, and noticed after a while that words were failing him. He should have brought the primer along. With that odious object in hand, he would have had a far easier time explaining things.

“What kind of abuse?” asked the lawyer.

“I never served with the cavalry.” That was how Captain Trotta felt he might best begin, although he himself realized he was not making himself clear. “And here these shameless writers write in the children’s books that I galloped up on a sorrel, they write, on a sweat-covered sorrel, to rescue the monarch, they write.”

The lawyer understood. He knew the piece himself from his sons’ books. “You’re taking it too seriously, captain,” he said. “Don’t forget, it’s for children.”

- Joseph Roth, The Radetzky March

Your armed forces just don’t have their shit together. They’re poorly trained, poorly motivated and poorly led. All military units start with Incompetent, and all new units produced are Incompetent. This is a very difficult disadvantage to remove as incompetence is institutionalized at all levels, but getting your military hardened in battle (if it survives long enough!) is an effective, if risky, solution.

Nuke Free Zone (+30 SP)

“[…] if anyone kills a human being, unless it is in punishment for murder or for spreading corruption on earth, it will be as though he killed of all human beings. And, if anyone saves a life, it will be as though he had saved the lives of all human beings. Our Messengers came to them with evidence of the truth. Yet, many of them continued to corrupt earth by their over indulgence.”

- The Qur’an 5:32 (Trans. Safi Kaskas & David Hungerford)

Your Nation will not countenance the usage of Weapons of Mass Destruction, or Doomsday Magic. They will not research or possess them, and while they understand that other nations do not share their ideals, they will react strongly to nations that go beyond possession and begin using such terrible weapons. If a nation makes routine use of WMD or Doomsday Magic, particularly on planets, and especially if they kill a large number of civilians with them, your Nation may end up treating them as Undiplomatic. In such a case you may also use the presence of WMD or Doomsday magic as cassus belli, allowing you to start a war without any Civil Order penalties.

Disaster Zone (+10 SP)

Between the trees, there is a bear ghost.

Bottom of the pond, there is a water ghost.

Beyond the sky, there is a phoenix.

Behind the traveler, there is a goblin.

What a shining bright full moon, EOLSSU!

Behold, Now the greatest tiger is coming down to this whispering mountain.

Let’s dance on this night until you lose your mind

Let’s dance right under the teeth of the Mountain God.

- Ahn Yeeun, “Changgwi”

Your Nation is subject to natural disasters, which occur regularly and can inflict considerable damage. The nature of these natural disasters should be specified, such as earthquakes or typhoons, or more esoteric disasters like plasma storms or outbreaks of mass insanity.

Home is Where the Heart is (+25 SP)

The ocean can be yours; why should you stop

Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?

The secrets of the sun are yours, but you

Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.

- Attar Nishapuri, "Conference of the Birds"

Your nation eschews colonialism and foreign holdings, preferring to remain in their home system. The Base Infrastructure Construction Rate may not be used in another system, and all Infrastructure of any kind built in another system costs twice as much.

Military

Mages

College of Magi

I drive away the Lie from this house, from this borough, from this town, from this land; from the very body of the man defiled by the dead, from the very body of the woman defiled by the dead; from the master of the house, from the lord of the borough, from the lord of the town, from the lord of the land; from the whole of the world of Righteousness.

- Fargard 10.5

Living Yuhwasattva

[50 RP/1 Oracle]
(Des 3, Creation 3, Movement 5, Mental 5, Trans 4)
+1 Seer
+1 Inner Power
+2 Stormborn
+1 The Great Hand
+1 Dreamwalker
+2 Mage in the Shell
+1 Fear and Wonder
+1 Multicaster

The Hoopoe, Prince of the Birds

Dear hoopoe, welcome! You will be our guide;
It was on you King Solomon relied
To carry secret messages between
His court and distant Sheba’s lovely Queen.
He knew your language and you knew his heart-
As his close confident you learned the art
Of holding demons captive underground,
And for those valiant exploits you were crowned.
- Attar Nishapuri, “Conference of the Birds”
[30 RP/ 1 Archmage]
(Mental 5, Movement 5, Creation 3, Trans 2)
+1 Dreamwalker
+2 Mage in the Shell
+1 Inner Power
+1 Ghosts and Shadows

Supervising Astrologer

[30 RP/1 Archmage]
(Destruction 1, Mental 5, Movement 5, Trans 4)
+2 Stormborn
+1 Mage Sight
+1 All Seeing Eye
+1 The Great Hand
Astrology is one of the favored sciences of Yuhwaism. It is no surprise then that over time, Astrology would not only become a special discipline but a formal ecclesiastical career in the College of Magi. At its summit is the Supervising Astrologer who commands the Celestial Orrery and whose responsibility it is to update the Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido (Chart of the Constellations and the Regions they Govern) down to the most minute detail.

Sword Saints

[25 RP/5 Master Mages+ML4 Hunters]
(Destruction 3, Move 3, Creation 3, Mental 2)
+1 Battlemage
+1 Warrior Skills
+1 Engine of Destruction
+1 Fast Caster
In Simurghshahr, Stone Sword Sages were religious troupes of traveling shamanic performers who worked their miracles with the Stone Sword Dance, both ritual and martial art. Those who perfect the art are informally proclaimed Sword Saints. Sword Saint Barahan – then a minor Sage – was one of the first Apostles the Yuhwa would recruit after her flight from Arshan into Simurghshahr. Overwhelmed by visions of the Needle of Light, he sought her out and was baptized. Though denounced as a heretic by his fellow Sword Sages, his unflagging profession of the Yuhwa even after her martyrdom and occultation would ensure that the Stone Sword Dance would become enshrined as one of the great Yuhwan disciplines. Over time the old Stone Sword Sages troupes embraced the Yuhwa and new ones were founded, such that in the modern day the Sword Dancers are synonymous with the Yuhwa.

Dastur

[4 RP/5 Master Mages]

Magi

[3 RP/10 Adepts]
(Creation 3, Move 3)
While there are certain gradations of ecclesiastical rank among ordinated Yuhwan clergy, most call them Magi (more properly, mobed).

Mobedyar

[1 RP/250 Postulants]
(Creation 1)

College of Princes

For thee hath Heaven saddled Fortune’s steed,

O, King, and chosen thee from all who lead,

Now o’er the Earth it spreads a silver sheet

To guard from mud thy gold-shod charger’s feet

- Mahsati Ganjavi

Maripgan of Gyerim

[30 RP/1 Archmage]
(Mental 5, Movement 5, Creation 3, Trans 2)
+1 Seer
+1 Multicaster
+2 Stormborn
+1 The Great Hand

General Staff and Admiralty

[10 RP/5 Master Mages]
(Move 4, Mental 4)
+1 Seer
While a field officer might wield powerful spells against the foes of the Yuhwa or display an acumen for Grand Tactics, it is the consistent reception of prophetic dreams and a talent for divination that truly marks one for ascension to high staff assignments and supreme command in the nations of the Collegium. Only the favorites of the Gods can be expected to lead people to victory. While a propensity for visions is neither a subject of officer exams nor an explicit category of promotion boards, the Magi are consulted for their records of dream interpretations and an empty slate is the blackest mark a would-be Marshal or Admiral could have on their record.

The Five Pashas

[24 RP/5 Master Mages]
(Destruction 1, Creation 3, Move 4)
+1 Battlemage
+1 Shapeshifter
+1 Fear and Wonder
+1 Invincible!
Sons and daughters of Aesna, the She-Wolf, and the leaders of the Saka Paradraya under their Bunchuk standards. In battle they are often known to change shape into frightful wolves themselves and lay waste with tooth and claw.

Princes

[6 RP/10 Adepts]
(Mental 3, Move 3)
+1 Battlemage

Pilots

Specialists [6 RP/20 Specialists]
(Move 3)
+1 Battlemage

Regular and Republican Guard

Infantry & Cavalry

We knew that we should lose him. For one thing, we knew that he would be promoted. It was our great hope that some day he would command the company. Also we knew that he would be killed. He was so amazingly unself-conscious. For that reason we knew that he would be absolutely fearless. So it proved…
Bombs and air torpedoes were dropping round us all day. Of course the captain was there. It seemed as if he could not keep away. A torpedo fell into the trench, and buried some of our chaps. The fellows next to them ran to dig them out. Of course he was one of the first. Then came another torpedo in the same place. That was the end.
But he lives. Somehow he lives. And we who knew him do not forget. We feel his eyes on us. We still work for that wonderful smile of his. There are not many of the old lot left now; but I think that those who went West have seen him. When they got to the other side I think they were met. Someone said: "Well done, good and faithful servant." And as they knelt before that gracious pierced Figure, I reckon they saw nearby the captain's smile. Anyway, in that faith let me die, if death should come my way; and so, I think, shall I die content.
- Donald Hankey, “The Beloved Captain”

Corpul de Cavalerie

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre: c'est de la folie.
-Marshal Pierre Francois Joseph Bosquet at the Battle of Balaclava
[6 PP/10,000 ML3 Skilled Infantry] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 2 EU]
+1 Fo/Fi Booster: Spirit Steeds

Armored Cavalry

The cuirass has always given, and today more than ever it will give, confidence to the cavalryman. Courage, dash, and speed have a value beyond that of mere mass. I leave aside mathematical discussions which seem to me to have nothing in common with battle conditions.
-Ardant du Picq, Battle Studies III.4 “Cavalry Armor and Armament”
[9 RP/1,000 ML3 Elite Infantry] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 2 EU]
+1 Fo/Fi Booster: Spirit Steeds
+1 Armor

Divizia de infanterie

[3 PP/10,000 TL3.75 Skilled Infantry] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 IUU, 1 EU]

Flying Carpets

We were near one of the new carpets. I ambled over. In shape it was like a boat, about fifty feet long. It had real seats. Two faced forward, one aft. In front there was a small ballista. Aft there was a much heavier engine. Clamped to the carpet’s sides and underbelly were eight spears thirty feet long. Each had a bulge the size of a nail keg five feet behind its head. Everything was painted blacker than the Dominator’s heart. This boat-carpet had fins like a fish. Some humorist had painted eyes and teeth up front. Others followed similar designs, though different artisans had followed different muses in crafting the flying boats. One, instead of fish fins, had what looked like round, translucent, whisper thin dried seed pods fifteen feet across.
-Glen Cook, The White Rose
[20 RP/1,000 ML4 Utility Vehicles] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 IUU, 3 EU] [Build Time: 25 Months]
Cargo Capacity: 7 CC
+2 Fo/Fi Booster
+1 Shields
+1 Weapons

Vanship

Apparently, when a US naval aviator first saw the strange-looking biplane, he asked a British officer where the aircraft had come from. ‘Fairey’s’ was the reply. ‘That figures’ responded the American.
- Charles Lamb: War in a Stringbag
[20 RP/500 ML4 Prop Scout] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 2 EU] [Build Time: 25 Months]
+1 Fo/Fi Booster
+1 Stealth
+1 Speed
+1 Sensors
The vanship is the ubiquitous reconnaissance and observation aircraft of Camad, outwardly resembling a rude open cockpit prop-engine biplane or kite-wing monoplane in almost every respect. As humble as it appears, those attempting to target these aircraft have often been startled by their bewildering agility and non-existent stall speed, as most vanships can tailsit or stand on their nose at zero velocity as though suspended by a thread. The rude appearance of their airframes is further belied by the advanced etheric-optical sensors in the nose and the Active Etherized Spell Array sidelobes along the inside of its compact airframe.

A standard tactic for Vanship crews is to cut their engines and glide in almost total silence on their wings, with the AESA system set to pulse notice-me-not charms. In this mode such a small aircraft is almost impossible to detect, particularly at night. Some crews delight in using such an approach to set up strafing runs with the rear machine-gun that take unfortunates by complete surprise.

Air Cavalry Regiment

And so Roland rides out, into that new-washed world of clear sun and glittering colour which we call the Middle Age […]: he is the Young Age as that age saw itself. Compared with him, the space-adventurers and glamour-boys of our times, no less than the hardened toughs of Renaissance epic, seem to have been born middle-aged.
-Dorothy L Sayers, ‘Introduction’, The Song of Roland (Penguin 1957), 17]

[12 PP/25 TL3.75 Fighters] [Upkeep: 1 WU, IUU, 1 EU] [Build Time: 8 Months]
+1 Arms
+1 Agility
+1 Speed

Artillery

Artillery in battle has its men grouped around the pieces, stationary assembly points, broadly distributed, each one having its commander and its cannoneers, who are always the same. Thus there is in effect a roll call each time artillery is put into battery. Artillery carries its men with it; they cannot be lost nor can they hide. If the officer is brave, his men rarely desert him. Certainly, in all armies, it is in the artillery that the soldier can best perform his duty.
-Ardant du Picq, Battle Studies IV. “Artillery”

Horse Artillery Brigade

The basic tactic is to get up close and shoot fast.
– Maximilien Sebastian Foy
[3 PP/200 TL3.75 SPGs] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1PP, 1 EU]

Logistics Corps

“It’s a matter of accountability!”
- Hasemi Rasenjin, Guns & Stamps

Trucks

Think about this truck. Make believe this is not the darkest, wettest, most miserable Army truck you have ever ridden in. This truck, you've got to tell yourself, is full of roses and blondes and vitamins. This here is a real pretty truck. This is a swell truck. You were lucky to get this job tonight. When you get back from the dance...Choose yo' pahtnuhs, folks!... you can write an immortal poem about this truck. This truck is a potential poem. You can call it, "Trucks I Have Rode In", or "War and Peace", or "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise." Keep it simple.
- J.D. Salinger, “This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise”
[3 PP/1,000 TL3.75 Logistics Vehicles] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 EU]
Cargo Capacity: 50 CC

Regular and Republican All Flags Fleet

“A navy is essentially and necessarily aristocratic. True as may be the political principles for which we are now contending they can never be practically applied or even admitted on board ship, out of port, or off soundings. This may seem a hardship, but it is nevertheless the simplest of truths. Whilst the ships sent forth by the Congress may and must fight for the principles of human rights and republican freedom, the ships themselves must be ruled and commanded at sea under a system of absolute despotism.”
-John Paul Jones, Letter to the Naval Committee of Congress (14 September 1775)

Fleet

“Meanwhile we wait and prepare, and prepare to make ourselves fit to fulfill our destiny. Let us hope that destiny is the destruction in a fair fight of the High Seas Fleet.”
- Sea Saga, Lt. Stephen King-Hall

All Flags Fleet at Review

Yuhwsattva Colette la Paradisienne Class Carrier

[28 RP/1 ML4 Fleet Carrier] [Upkeep: 3 WU, 2 IUU, 4 Geodes/Annum] [Build Time: 25 Months]
Deck Park: 100 DP
Cargo Capacity: 75,000 CC
+1 Drive
+1 Geode Reactor
+1 Catapults
+1 Communications
+1 Fleet Command
The Yuhwasattva Colette la Paradisienne is the centerpiece of the ambitious “Fleet Law” a major bill signed in 995 NE after a string of embarrassments for the All Flags Fleet, essentially a modernization project forced on the Admiralty.

The immense cost of this single ship required a departure from tradition, where each ship was in principle ordered on behalf of the fleet by one of the nations of the Collegium and remained their property. Here the burden would certainly have to be divided among the Princes. The Yuhwasattva Colette la Paradisienne was originally named Barahan in honor of Barahan Dastur the Sword Saint, a theopolitically neutral figure. However the ascendence of Ekklesians in the Celestial Sejm saw major amendments to the Fleet Law, one of which was to rename the ship after one of the most venerated Yuhwasattvas of the South: Colette la Paradissiene, a refugee from former Paradisium. In some traditions, Colette is held to be another name for the Fairika the Golden Witch of the Pleiades and Kore the Yavana Queen of the Afterlife.

Far Reach Class Protected Cruiser

[24 RP/2 ML4 Cruiser] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 PP, 1 Geode/Annum]
+1 Drive
+1 Geode Reactor
+1 Weapons
+1 Extended Range
+1 Anti-Aircraft Weapons
-0 Cube (some would argue this is a plus!)
With the Yuhwasattva Charlotte la Paradissiene under construction, it was also necessary to consider the matter of her escorts. With its high cruise speed the CLP was likely to avoid any gun engagement, but absolutely needed consorts who could defend it from aerial strikes. The first designs proposed what was essentially an enlarged Pavisier but this was quickly deemed inadequate as the Pavisier type was demonstrably incapable of active defense against aircraft or long range missiles, the most likely threats to the ClP. It was instead suggested to convert two Armored Cruiser hulls – canceled after the Battle of Dekkan Reef – into an altogether new air defense ship. While minimally armored by the standards of the Collegium with only thin plating over the machinery spaces, the free tonnage was assigned to a mid-deck missile battery, three advanced high-angle 203mm gun mount turrets, and a redesigned etherically phased spell array focused on detection rather than projection of force.

Some officers and magi have stirred controversy by declaring the ships inauspicious after witnessing the distinctly cuboid superstructure

• Far Reach
• Vainspan

White Yaksha Class Armored Carrier

One thing that emerged from the exercises, was that when the Americans were flying on or off, the whole fleet turned into the wind, but with our superior speed, we could turn out of line with two or three destroyers, put the foot down, complete flying, then back to join the fleet, who, in the meantime, had continued on their original course, thus saving time and fuel oil.
-Jim I. Gallie, RN, “HMS Victorious from Mar. 29, 1941 to Sept. 12, 1945” [20 PP/2 ML4 Escort Carriers] [1 WU, 1 IUU, 2 EU]
Deck Capacity: 38 DP
Cargo Capacity: 37,500 CC
+1 Drive
+1 Fast
+1 Armor
+1 Deck Park

Pavisier

[12 RP/5 ML4 Small Ships] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 EU] [Build Time: 15 Months]
+1 Drive
+2 Point Defense
+1 Weapons
-1 High Visibility
-1 Range
+0 Beautiful artwork
The Camadian ‘consort’ to the battleline is the Pavisier, a quite literally iconic style of fighting ship in the 2-3,000 ton displacement range wrapped around the arcane machinery of a Rubaiyat Khayyam field generator and what appears to be a massive slab of armor off one flank: the eponymous ‘Pavise’. Rather than armor plate this distinctive feature is actually an active etherically phased spell projector made of many joined panels which not only extends a faintly glimmering field of force across several hundred meters of space but can precisely concentrate it differentially in actively moving patterns. Holding station two to even five cable lengths off from the line of battle, the Pavisiers can deflect almost all forms of incoming fire that might have otherwise struck their partner ship with the ephemeral flash of geometric symbols or even magically hold projectiles in place to be detonated by quick-fire gun batteries and machine guns. At close ranges – not uncommon for Camadian gunline engagements – the AESA projector can even be used offensively to warp and twist enemy hulls directly. The ‘Pavise’ itself is decorated with elaborate mural artwork, usually of Yuhwan religious significance.

After the Battle of Dekkan Reef, the failure of the Pavisiers to protect the Armored Cruisers from anti-ship missiles with canned field-avoidance attack profiles was noted and various experiments with jamming modes on the AESA projector and specialized external carcinotron barrage jamming mounts are underway, though none have been mounted permanently.

Beloved as they are, Pavisiers are considered a hardship posting due to unpleasant proximity of cramped crew quarters to noisily coruscating fields of energy.

Yavuz Pasha Class Armored Cruiser

Seven weeks later there occurred a terrible sacrifice when three armoured-cruisers, Aboukir, Hogue, and Cressy, were lost on picket-duty off the Dutch coast. They were quite unsuitable vessels for such an exposed patrol-line – big, slow, unnecessary targets – and their deployment, on what was almost close-blockade work, was the product of an unclear chain of command and shoddy staff-work.
-Andrew Gordon, "Rules of the Game"
[12 RP/2 ML4 Cruisers] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 IUU, 2 EU] [Build Time: 15 Months]
+1 ML4 Force Field Drive
+1 Armor
+1 Firepower
-1 High Visibility
+0 Nice Wardroom
In theory the Armored Cruiser is the fast wing of a proper Camad line of battle that combines speed, armor protection, and firepower. Such ships had the armor to take up station alongside the line of battle in an artillery duel, while also having the relative speed to either retreat from overwhelming odds or pursue a fleeing foe. Reality was more unforgiving as none of the recent battles in which these ships fought adhered to fleet tactical problems based on the chivalric mode of Camadian warfare, and this was a particularly thorny problem when the economy of their deployment made them attractive as the means to show the Yuhwan flag abroad. The twenty-minute Cape Matapan encounter, a particularly humiliating fiasco where the North Occident Squadron was wrecked in a botched first contact with the Aghrax Fellmind Exterminator on a peaceful mission of exploration (“Your excellency, it literally looks evil!”), raised serious questions about the type’s actual ability to escape a pursuing capital ship. At the Battle of Dekkan Reef the North Occident Squadron was maimed yet again by a series of Emirate anti-ship missile strikes, blissfully unaware they were even under attack until flames from detonating magazines erupted out of the gun barrels of the flagship and popped the turret roofs like champagne corks, exposing the serious deficiencies in sensors, etheric warfare, and point defense systems – or rather, the total lack thereof.

The Yavuz Pasha class Armored Cruisers are some of the more elderly examples of their type produced by the Collegium’s shipwrights according to traditional technique. All four are also, appropriately enough, the only survivors of this unfortunate type still in service under the All Flags by 1000 NE. The Pashas as they are affectionately known have managed to retain their dignity and, against the warnings of some, they continue to maintain pride of place as the core of the North Occident Squadron.

• Yavuz Pasha
• Altair Pasha
• Zarganos Pasha
• Janibek Pasha

Predreadnought Battleship

Scheer had included the Deutschlands of the Second Squadron largely for sentimental reasons: it was his old squadron, and its commander, Rear Admiral Mauve, made an ‘eloquent intercession’ not to be left behind. One senses it was probably against Scheer’s better judgement […]
- Paul G. Halpern, “A Naval History of World War 1”
The fleet’s Achilles heel was the squadron of six slow pre-dreadnoughts which took up the rear and which were unkindly known as the ‘Funf Minuten Schiffe’, because that is how long they were expected to last when the Grand Fleet found them. Scheer should have left them behind in the Jade (or, more usefully, in the Baltic), but had yielded to pressure from their officers to take them along for the jaunt. After Dogger Bank, his less popular but clearer-thinking predecessor, Hugo von Pohl, had ruled that “the loss of the Blucher has brought the proof that the older ships cannot be taken into a battle”.
- Andrew Gordon, “Rules of the Game”
[12 RP/1 ML4 Battleship] [Upkeep: 2 WU, 2 IUU, 4 EU] [Build Speed: 15 Months]
+1 Drive
+1 Armor
+1 Firepower
-1 High Visibility: Gouts of steam and smoke from the funnels.
-1 Slow
+0 Tumblehome (some would argue this is a minus)
The sixteen Battleships of the All Flags Fleet are the pride – admittedly somewhat battered – of the All Flags Fleet. Each ship is lovingly and laboriously built up from the keel by an army of traditional Camadian shipwrights apprenticed over decades in time-perfected techniques. Massive slabs of unbelievably hard armor are composited from individual plates of fatig, the legendary metal taught to mortals by Kurdalagon the Yazda of the forge, in a grueling effort. Massive gun barrels are cast and inscribed with enchantments of seeking and speed while the steel is still white hot. The result is a ship of the line perfected for the Camadian style of gunline engagement, slugging matches between gunships at visual range according to the customs of Chivalry.

The design principles of these ships were established before encounters with the “Dreadnoughts” of the United Dominions down the southern starways in the first century since the Etherstorms subsided, leading to their current definition as ‘predreadnought’ both at home and abroad. Unfortunately even so late as 1000 NE, the better part of a century and a half later, the Collegium’s plans to build dreadnoughts of their own have not only been largely squandered but several more classes of predreadnought style battleships are planned for commissioning.

• Arahant

  

• Dastur
• Apostle
• Wali
• Miracle
• Grace
• Redemption
• Salvation
• Yuhwasattva Sarbadgar
• Yuhwasattva Yoonha
• Sword Saint Binah
• Euna Seonghyeon (Saint Euna)
• Siyavash
• Razgriz
• Lazarus
• Baridegi

Frigate

“I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm’s way.”
-John Paul Jones, Letter to le Ray de Chaumont (17 November 1778)
[20 RP/10 ML4 Freighters] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 2 EU] [Build Speed: 25 Months]
Cargo Capacity: 15,000 CC
+1 Drive
+1 Weapons
+1 Armor
+1 Fast
[Free Trader Return/Ship: 1.375 WU (+1 Cruising Speed, +4 Blockade Runner)]

Fleet Air Arm

Caracal

“Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full.”
[12 PP/5 TL3.75 Superfighter] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 PP, 1 EU] [Build Time: 24 Months]
+1 Extended Range
+1 Sensors
+1 Arms
+0 Variable Sweep Wings
In response to the traumatic “Final Incident” the Fleet Air Arm drew up requirements for a high speed air superiority fighter for the role of future fleet defender and escort for the Torpedo Reconnaissance Fighter-Bombers, with a particular emphasis on advanced ethero-electronics after the Final’s intensive suite of sensors on the unsophisticated systems of then current Drapel series fighter-bombers. Industria Aeronautica Grovaz - often shortened to I.A.G. or simply Grovaz - submitted their design for a large, powerful two-engine airframe with variable sweep wings capable of supporting a considerable number of external hardpoints for weapons and podded equipment. Despite being twice and again the size of Drapel IV series fighters, the Caracal prototypes demonstrated superior agility, acceleration, and overall top speed even in thin atmospheric conditions common to the Deep Sky. A massive suite of sensors was installed in the nose, demanding the full attention of a Spell Integration Operator in the tandem backseat behind the pilot, capable of accurately tracking targets at extreme range and guiding long-range missiles onto their targets. In aggregate the qualities provided the Caracal almost unprecedented combat capabilities and quickly found it despite being more expensive to procure and operate than several Drapel IVs put together.

Super Drapel

[9 PP/25 TL3.75 Interdictor] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 1 PP, 1 EU] [Build Time: 18 Months]
+1 Extended Range
+1 Antiship
The Super Drapel (Standard or Banner) is the single largest production run of an airframe in the Collegium, ordered by the Celestial Sejm as one of the key investments of the Supplementary Fleet Law, completely replacing the Drapel I through IV series of fighter-bombers that preceded it. Emboldened by the humiliation of the North Occident Squadron at the Battle of Dekkan Reef and the “Final Incident”, reformists envisioned torpedo reconnaissance fighter-bombers squadrons taking pride of place as a new striking arm of the fleet rather than as scouts and support for the Battleships. To this end a new antiship missile would be required as well as an aircraft with powerful enough avionics to find it a target and guide the weapon on its way. However, scrounging for cost-savings, the Admiralty chose to modify the existing Drapel IV airframe rather than start with a clean sheet design. The necessary concessions meant that though the Super Drapel had more powerful engines than previous Drapel series fighters it was a substantially worse dogfighter and accordingly armed only with defensive AAMs. Some wonder whether this was a deliberate measure to yoke the prideful pilots and commanders of fleet aviation to the strike mission the aircraft were built for.

Deepsky Aviation Vanship

My Stringbag flies over the ocean,
My Stringbag flies over the sea.
If it weren’t for King George’s Swordfish,
Where the hell would the Royal Navy be?
[24 RP/500 ML4 Prop Scout] [Upkeep: 1 WU, 2 EU] [Build Time: 30 Months]
+1 Fo/Fi Booster
+1 Stealth
+1 Speed
+1 Sensors
+1 All Weather Training
Vanships are the eyes and ears of the All Flags Fleet, just the same as for the Republican Guard. However, Deepsky Aviation Vanship pilots distinguish themselves by enduring grueling training to perform their task regardless of weather conditions.