>Does anyone know if the College of Magic was deemed senior to the
>Heartland Corps/Cavalry Corps? If I remember WBRM you have the
>Imperial Bodyguard at the top of the military pecking order, but I'd
>often envisaged the CoM to be almost a support arm, so to speak. We
>can imagine the outrage amongst traditional military figures if
>suddenly the CoM was placed in overall charge of such an important
>task? Surely there's something on the Lunar order of battle
>somewhere. Is it in Tarsh War?
There's nothing as simple as an order of preceedence in the Lunar army. WBRM doesn't really indicate relative status of units and Tarsh War is concerned purely with an invasion of Tarsh. It has also been significantly Gregged by ILH1. So we're left with various snippits and discussions some of which appear in the archives of this list.
To summarise each of the military traditions of the empire has their own order of preceedence. The best known is the Dara Happen one where the Stone Phalanxes are at the top, Heavy Cavalry next and various types of skirmishers at the bottom. In the Rinliddi the most senior units are the cavelry who used to be avilry in mythic times, then the modern avilry, other cavelry and finally infantry. Among the Carmenians the Hazars are the elite, then other cavelry and finally infantry.
On top of this the lunars have raised various units most of which don't have an official preceedence (We are all us) and the Imperial Boyguard - an odd assortment of units which have distinguised themselves in one way or another. The Colleges of Magic are some of these units which are technically part of the Imperial University not the army at all.
So how does anyone lead this lot you ask? By fiat - the Emperor appoints a Warlord, gives them an army and a task to do. There's a bit more to it than that. If the army includes soldiers from another tradition than his own the Warlord must initiate into the cult of Yanafal Tarnils and become a Fereshori. If the army includes a Stone Phalanx he must be appointed General by the city that the phalanx comes from. These and no doubt others are formalities for someone the Emperor wishes to appoint Warlord.
To add to the confusion at WW there is also a vexillia from the Sister's Army sent to find out what Tatius is up to. Nominally under Tatius's command the Fereshori in charge actually takes her orders from Big Sister.
Given this seething mass of conflicting ideas and objectives the number of people who understand or even care what Tatius is trying to do is fairly minimal. For most the next promotion, a cushy position or an opportunity to make money on the side are the priority.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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