I'm going to do a series of these as part of the background for my
exalted quest. Basically each one is about the military, political and economic background of one of creation's great nations that interest me.
This one's about Nexus. The next one is probably going to be about the minions of Ma Ha Suchi.
Scavengers Soldiers Part 1: Nexus
Up until the disappearence of the Scarlet Empress, the great powers of the Scavenger Lands conducted perhaps the largest number of major military operations of anywhere in creation. While over its vast holdings in the threshold, the Realm is engaged in more military ventures, and constant raids marked the South and West, few of these were what could be regarded as wars, or involved whole armies. Most involve small groups, cattle rustling, attacks on check points or small fortifications, or the destruction of pirate bases by Realm naval assets are the norm.
Meantime, in the Scavenger Lands, where no power holds true Hegemony, the deployment of whole armies is far more common. Conflicts between Scavenger Land city states or pocket kingdoms over commerce, slave and peasant revolts, incursions by Wyld Barbarians or by Lunar commanded Beastmen, or by large scale Fae hordes traveling out of the East may all lead to confrontations between multiple dragons of opposing forces. The Guild is also quite happy to employ armies against those who oppose its commercial interests, especially if it can influence local city states to pay for the resulting conflict.
Even with the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress and the emergence of new military powers such as the Bull of the North, the rest of creation is merely catching up to the Scavenger Lands in terms of its frequency of mass warfare between city states.
In this post, we'll examine the methods, economic and political basis of the three most powerful military factions in the Scavenger Lands, Lookshy, Nexus and the Children of Ma Has Suchi.
Nexus: War and Commerce of the Metropolis.
When people not of the Scavenger Lands think of Nexus, they do not generally think of the city's skill in mass warfare. However, Nexus is in many ways and imperialist power, if one of a different character to that of the Blessed Isle. This imperialism is based on a simple principle, which defines most of the city's foreign policy: In order to prosper, Nexus requires goods to flow into it from outside. Most of the city's industry, be it the great shogunate era alchemical factories, or the newer textile mills require external factors to keep them going. More than that, the city's massive population requires food, and it is not in the council's interests to allow it to be generated too close to the city.
Much is made of how the Council of Entities taxes all goods that flow into the city. What is not commonly understood is that they will also tax residents attempting to leave. More even than the left over first age infrastructure, or its strategic position at the confluence of three rivers, Nexus's prosperity, at least for the elite, is based on an eternal surplus of labour, a vast army of desperate urban poor and slaves* who are bound by law and economics not to simply flee to the countryside.
For this reason, Nexus's authorities prefer to ship food down the river from fertile fields in the hundred kingdoms and nearer the elemental pole of wood, or across the inner sea from the blessed isle, rather than allow cultivation close the city which might provide a refuge for urban workers who they could more profitably employ within the great industries of city itself. Both this maintenance of local order, and insuring that food from up river flows always down to Nexus itself require military resources.
Every Day Killings: Labour Enforcement, Slave Catching and Civil Contingency
Close to home, the council's forces main job is to keep order in the city, to prevent uprisings, and to catch those citizens who attempt to leave Nexus without paying exit duties. Much of the work of civic enforcement is done by the fear engendered by the Emissary itself, who's strange power prevents all but the most desperate groups from attempting to act against the council. However, even the entity can only be in so many places at once, and even augmented by the Council's secret police and covert network of informers and assassins, the deployment of overt force is sometimes needed, especially in the city's hinterlands and near abroad.
The first stage of this enforcement is by terror, in the forms of relatively small, but well trained death squads and supernatural hunters. The average council enforcement squad consists of up to ten elite troops, themselves often essence users or employing powerful talisman and alchemical mixtures, and one or more supernatural entities, usually bound demons summoned by council sorcerers, or fae mercenaries hired from the guild. These squads hunt through the city's hinterlands for oath breakers, runaway slaves and bandits, and administer brutal punishment to any outlaw they find.
These death squads are also employed against members of the richer classes who attempt to overcome the Council's influence, especially when more subtle means have failed. It is unknown why certain individuals are targeted for death in this way, and others by the entity more directly, though some suspect that those subject to death by military force may not have themselves directly broken the Dogma or Civilities.
The council also employs larger units. Even with the power of the entity leaderless and spontaneous riots for better conditions, following industrial accidents, perceived in justice, or in the event of food shortages are relatively common in the desperate conditions of Nexus's poorest districts. For this reason the Council employs large numbers of heavy infantry and Lancers who are employed to discipline and disperse such mobs. These forces are also used in the event of a serious outbreak of violence, to break strikes, and to contain major emergencies such as floods, monsters or supernatural experiments gone wrong.
Legions Foreign and Domestic: Professional Mercenaries
The other major plank of Nexus's military policy is to ensure that grain and rice flows into the city from up and down stream. The Council has always endeavored to maintain both avenues, so that they are not made reliant on one or the other. For instance, this prevents the Scarlet Empress from crushing the city through lack of food.
In practice, given the power of the Realm and Lookshy, this means operations up river towards the elemental pole of wood. Operations to the West of Nexus are limited mostly to anti-piracy measures, and operations as auxiliaries to Lookshy, for instance against undead raiding out from Thorns or the forces of Ma Ha Suchi. To the East however, Nexus maintains several of its own garrisons, and works as equal partner to the guild. Heavily armoured river boats, clad in armour of heavy timber, or even iron, and flying the flag of Nexus regularly ply up all three rivers to enforce the Council's writ, crewed by professional mercenary groups.
These mercenary forces are usually generated on the fly by prominent citizens and mercenary officers, who obtain a writ from the council to create an army for a specific campaign or objective, or as a standing force to garrison a particular region or fortress. The recruiter often uses their own funds to actually raise the troops, in exchange for promises of repayment later, which may or may not be forthcoming. The monetary gains for the warlord are usually secondary however, compared to the political benefits they reap from the favour of the council. Several of Nexus's most prominent citizens have gained great advantage by creating military power for the council, and serving as a successful warlord to ensure the city's interests is a solid way to gain high rank in government, or even a seat on the council itself.
Public perception of these mercenaries is that they are an extremely diverse group, drawing on people from all corners of creation. While this is accurate to a point, it is also overstated. Most of Nexus's forces are recruited directly from the city itself, and from the legions of destitute and near destitute urban poor, both by promise of wages and a way out of the city, and by impressment and dirty tricks. Nexus does not employ a truly diverse mercenary force in the way that say, Gem does, though the city itself is so diverse as to make its forces an often strange sight compared to those of other states.
Current concerns within the Council Tower revolve around the Bull of the North, who it is feared will shortly move down against the Hundred Kingdoms and many of Nexus's most productive sources of agricultural products. This could face Nexus with a worst case scenario, where civil war in the realm, or the machinations of a new Empress cut them off from food from the Isle, while the Bull's forces interdicted them from food coming from the East. This has lead to new agreements being forged with Lookshy, and for the council to commission the construction of a string of new fortresses along the river of tears.
Arms of War: Drugs and Talisman
Most Nexus units are equipped according to a fashion, if not uniformity. Each warrior is equipped with melee polearm, usually a spear or bill, and one or more spears or javelins designed to be thrown. Almost all Nexus mercenaries are equipped with at least a breastplate, and many companies use shields or maile to augment this armour. Units intended for riot control tend to be more heavily armoured, and often employ double handed weapons. Depending on the company, and the recruiter, these weapons will be paid for by the recruiter, or by soldiers themselves. Archers, both crossbow and otherwise act as support troops, as do units equipped with fire dust alchemical or essence weapons. Cavalry is also common, and most companies not mounted on a river boat, and even some that are will have horses for transportation, if not direct battle.
Most companies who serve beyond the walls of Nexus are trained to fight directly from river warships, and so do not employ leg protection as it can make it difficult to wade ashore. The better of these forces train to fight in cooperation with shipboard artillery such as steam cannons.
Essence users are fairly common, and often act as company commander, or in the case of dragon blooded and the correct gods blooded, act as drill sergeants to turn large numbers of raw recruits into competent soldiers.
In terms of equipment, a Nexus mercenary unit would not look too out of place as the forces of most city states across the South East, East or North, with only their lack of fire dust and use of larger units setting them apart from soldiers of the South.
However, Nexus units do employ several battle techniques that set them apart from other powers. First, using techniques drawn from the far East, and the great alchemy production facilities left over from the shogunate, most Nexusian forces feed their troops powerful combat drugs before battle to increase their ability. Second, again drawing on its vast productivity, almost all regular troops from Nexus employ several Talismans, which shield them from injury, or make their blows magically accurate. These lesser wonders cannot compare to the essence weapons employed by lookshy, but they do go a long way to make Nexusian forces more formidable than the units deployed by lesser city states or barbarians.
The final power of Nexus is numbers. As one of the richest places in creation, Nexus can afford to create large armies, and to lose them. Because of how such armies are generated, their defeat often costs the council of entities next to nothing, and there are always more of the urban poor who can be thrown against the problem. Or at least, so the council hope. With the Bull of the North's Tiger Warriors and their Haltan allies coming from one direction, and the increasingly restless forces of Ma Ha Suchi and the Mask of Winters on the other, it remains to be seen if Nexus's mercenaries can maintain its empire. So far, they have done so, but if river trade were to ever cease, well, then the gods of starvation would feast upon the Council's hubris.
*It's never made a great deal of sense to me that Nexus wouldn't allow slave labour. It's a normal part of commerce in creation and they're not freeing slaves so why not allow it in the city?
