Part 9 of the Illustrated Guide. Today we will be looking at someone a little higher up the ranks then we have looked at before: a lieutenant commander. These officers have vastly different equipment compared to that worn by the common soldiery we have seen before and so it was a nice break to draw something different with this one. My favourite part was definitely the plume; took a long time to get that looking right I can tell you. Next up, we will look at the musician, a member of the great marching band that plays when the army is on the move and even during battle to lift the spirits of all who hear them. Enjoy!
Any problems viewing these images, you can find them mirrored on my FA:
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/thallium/
The basitin system of government is, by definition, a military junta. However whereas in other states such an amount of power concentrated at the top of a military hierarchy would be seen as a negative, for the basitins it is the only way of life possible. This is because every single one of them over the age of 12 is a soldier under arms. No one quite knows when this total militarisation of the population occurred and under who's authority, only that it was many centuries ago and that it now defines the basitin way of life as they (and all the other races) know it. Not every man and woman is under active service of course, a functioning state could not exist if they were, however all those who take up civilian crafts and labours do so under the knowledge that they are reservists of the great military machine and that, should the time come, they will be called to serve for king and country. Thus as with any organisation of near comparable scope, the military has a hierarchy of ranks with each subsequent being superior to the last. The majority of the population find themselves on the lowest rung, a rank that has no defined name and is instead determined by the role in the army or navy the person is enlisted in, for example: shieldbearer, halberdier, marine and the like. Above them are the optios, the first taste of real command for those found with potential, and above them are the marshals, shining golden beacons that represent the pinnacle of the basic company system of organisation. But of course this is not where the chain ends and beyond the marshals lie several further rungs of the ladder, each with increasing responsibility but decreasing definition of what exactly their role entails. Pictured here is a lieutenant commander, someone who is about halfway up the chain of what are usually called the "senior officers".
The basitin military does not have a separate career path for senior officers compared to the common soldiery. Every man, woman and child starts at the bottom of the great chain and must work their way up one way or another. While nepotism certainly does exist, the principle that the stature of your parents has no inherent baring on your own station in life is almost unique to the basitins and is completely anathema to the rigid social hierarchies found in both human and keidran societies. While noble-born lords from other lands may scoff at this frankly quaint way of doing things, it gives the basitins a distinct advantage in everything from warfare to politics because, as a mostly meritocratic society, it usually means that the best person for the job gets the role whereas the other races most rely on a limited pool of nobles to fill all high-level positions of government.
Lieutenant commanders will typically have anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 soldiers under their command and in battle are usually given responsibility for a specific section of the line, with a limited amount of autonomy to deviate from the plan as agreed by the higher-ups to allow them to react to an ever changing battlefield. They can typically be found about halfway between the soldiers at the front line and the general at the rear and are accompanied at all times by a signaller (one of higher rank then those who serve with the companies and with a larger warhorn to enable orders to reach further afield) as well as a small retinue of bodyguards from either the Du'hadrin or the Akorshakai. Either mounted or on foot, this small command squad is a potent fighting force in and of its self and serves as an essential link between the command elements at the bottom and the command elements at the top.
The armour and equipment of senior officers, while still mostly made according to a set pattern (albeit a more sophisticated one) and issued out by a state armourer, has much more room for embellishment and personal taste then the mass produced pieces made for the common soldiery. For starters, all senior officer's armour is tailor-made according to their measurements, a process which would be impossible to do for all the regular soldiers. This precise fitting is necessary because the increased complexity of the officer's armour means that the tolerances between each moving plate is far lower then the simpler armour worn by the ranks. As such a "few sizes fits all" approach is impossible because it would greatly limit the officer's movement if (and usually when) they are required to physically fight in a battle. In the armour pattern shown here, the designation of the lieutenant commander's rank is the full length, longitudinal plume of red-dyed horse hair atop the helmet. The rest of the armour, while mostly of the standard pattern, has been tastefully embellished with a subtle amount of gold trim, paid for with the lieutenant commander's own money. This practise has been an accepted tradition for as long as anyone can remember and is seen as a small reward for, what is usually by this time, decades of service. As officers of comparable rank are usually in charge of multiple different types of soldiers, their weapon is no longer determined by the units they serve with and is down to their own personnel preference. In fact, while most senior officers opt to use a longsword for it's ease of carrying, some prefer to use different weapons such as warhammers, axes and even sword and buckler, often as a way of acknowledging the units they started their careers in.