Consolidated Army

Themiclesian Army
震旦軍
Army flag
Founded	time immemorial
Current form	1823
Headquarters	Admiralty Building №323 Drjang-'an Rd., Kien-k'ang, TJ-N 101992
Leadership
Secretary of State for Defence	王懷垂
Under-Secretary of State for the Army	張謙之
Chief of Army Staff	雷長煥
Personnel
Military age	20-59 18 with parental assent
Conscription	not in effect
Reaching military age annually	(2017 est.)
Active personnel	151,000
Reserve personnel	102,300
Deployed personnel	5,200
Expenditure
Budget	OSD$19.5 billion
Percent of GDP	1.17%
Related articles
History	History of the Themiclesian Army

The Themiclesian Army (震旦兵, tjinh-tanh-prjang) or officially the Army (兵, prjang) is a group of military services and departments responsible for land defence of Themiclesia. It comprises of more than 100 branches, of which seven are combat-oriented, and the others are in support of them and other military services. The Army currently employs over 250,000 career officers and men, of whom just over 150,000 are in active service; the remainder belong to the Army Reserves. Statutory conscription is not currently in force, though it may be activated by government order. The Army's civilian staff have been transfered to the Ministry of Defence since reforms in 1970.

The Army is subordinate to the Under-Secretary of State for the Army, who in turn is responsible to the Secretary of State for Defence. The ranking professional officer is the Chief of Army Staff. The Army is currently most focused on its commitments towards the Grand Alliance, which as of 2017 mainly involves peacekeeping in Yugoslovenski and, in conjunction with other states, various minor conflicts; hence, forces are organized in brigades (circa 4,300 combat personnel), though they also retain divisional identity in case conscription is imposed.

The Themiclesian Army has explicitly permitted female service, and there are no roles (other than certain medical ones) that categorically exclude females, though women have yet to appear in a handful of positions. Themiclesian soldiers are amongst the more well-paid in Septentrion, leading to a mildly competitive recriutment scene. Currently, military age is 20 years; it is a criminal offence in Themiclesia to lure or compel a person under that age to join any military service.

Name and structure

The name "Themiclesian Army" is an exonym applied by foreign states to the land forces of Themiclesia, which is simply called the "Army" domestically. Historically, foreign authors much more typically used the term (and its Sylvanate equivalent Exercitus Thimiensis) to refer to the Meridian and Columbian Colonial Armies and the Themiclesian Marines. The domestic, militia-based force was left unnamed for centuries. Though some authors consider the militia system deprecated during this era, A. A. Ascott asserts that the state machinery to assemble militiamen into a functional force was "absolutely functional" and calls it the "unprefixed army", i.e. the principal army of the nation. As Themiclesia's military activities were conducted by the Navy and Colonial Army, which were controlled by the Ministry of Commerce (Maritime Ministry from 1701), the Ministry of War, which controlled only the domestic army, was nicknamed the "Ministry of Orderly Peace" (尚書治部). This suggests that Themiclesians were aware that the Ministry of Commerce was, effectually, a war ministry, while the nominal Ministry of War was best for maintaining the militia mainly as a census tool and disincentive for unauthorized migration.

By statute, there is no single organization called "the Army". Instead, it refers to military organizations or militarized portions of civil administrations that answer to the Secretary of State for War. Since military bodies cannot exist independently of civil administration, all bodies that comprise of the Army are legally subordinates or portions of some civil administration, though its identity is immaterial to modern Army operations. For example, the Department of Granaries, which manages the Army's food supplies, is a directorate of the Great Granary, which is a subordinate of the Inner Administrator (who is otherwise the magistrate of the Inner Region and has no military functions); despite this, its operations are solely controlled by the Secretary of State for War, and thus it is deemed part of the Army. This divorce of statutory organization and lines of authority is the result of operational adjustments over centuries for convenience and economy. Of the three conventional branches of the armed forces, this situation is the most apparent in the Army. According to A. A. Ascott, writing in 1901, an "monumental edifice of patches and bandages prevents the Army from disintegrating, into its hundreds of components", and according to M. N. Horniths "the components have multiplied since Ascott's authoritative reference on the Themiclesian military."

The Shinasthana glyph prjang (兵, "military") depicts two hands holding an axe. What is notable is that this was not a battle-axe, rather a wood-cutting axe. Philologists address this counterintuitive fact that the glyph was created when levies dominated military activity. Levies would have been armed with their work tools, such as wood-cutting axes, in lieu of weapons. Indeed, glyphs representing true weapons, such as the battle-axe (王, 戉), have been used to write concepts such as kingship, which some scholars have considered elucidating of the nature of kingship in archaic Menghean society. Even the Tribunes were called ngwjat-ngrjah-dzrje′ (戉御事) in the most archaic Themiclesian inscriptions, for which some scholars suggest that the law-interpreting administration may once have been a military body, or even elite warriors. In Themiclesian discourse, it is far more typical to refer to an army raised for a specific objective (like East Expedition Army in the Prairie War) rather than the army as a whole, as for most of history nothing except the portfolio of the War Secretary defined the Army as an institution.

History

Formation of the modern Army

Main article: Pre-modern army of Themiclesia

While the Army traces its roots to the very founding of Themiclesia in the 200s, its modern structure only evolved in the 1700s and 1800s. In the latter half of the 18th century, Themiclesia suffered multiple defeats at the hands of less organized adversaries, yet her land forces at the same time consumed as much as five-sixths of the government budget. The reforms that led to the modern Army sought to eliminate waste and adopt Casaterran paradigms. The officer corps and especially the officer academy were, after 1823, at the forefront of the reforms, having been trained in an extremely liberal (for military institutions) academic environment where officer candidates were encouraged to discuss various Casaterran thoeries and create appropriate ones for Themiclesia. Many early officers believed their primary duty was to prevent the Army from being as wasteful and disorderly as before.

19th century

The idealist paradigm would persist through the rest of the 19th century, which was peaceful for Themiclesia. Under the guiding principle of "avoid war and spend as little as possible" and with fewer than 10,000 soldiers in combat positions, the Army had ample time to experiment with new concepts and perfect older ones.

Some of the reforms undertaken in the 19th century were uncertain, only to be quickly retracted. In an attempt to establish a rank system that would be acceptable to the civil establishment and contain the efficiencies of the Casaterran system, the Army was divided in 1879 into seven administrative corps, the Infantry-Artillery Corps, the Cavalry Corps, the Chariotry Corps, the Medical Corps, the Corps of Imperial Guards, the Corps of Civil Officers, and the Quartermaster Corps. Each possessed an individual rank structure, remuneration scheme, and imposed separate pre-requisites for promotions. In 1840, the Ministry of the Civil Service, responsible for the appointment and remuneration of all military officers as well, objected to the new scheme, calling it "duplicative and confusing"; the MCS pointed out, if a person was in the Infantry-Artillery Corps and commanded a battalion in the regular infantry, he would receive a different compensation from another who commanded a battalion in the Guards, even if the duties of both are the same. Furthermore, there was considerable confusion about whether the new rank system constituted "office" or were merely "titles"; the MCS held the opinion that only offices should be remunerated, while titles cannot. Additionally, since senior military officers ex officio held civil offices, the addition of more "offices" would render impossible the proper appraisal of civil servants, which happened regularly in late winter.

In response to the problems noted, the Ministry of War cleverly combined several new ranks into a single rank in the civil service, which circumvented the objection that a single person could not simultaneously receive compensation from two offices. Then, more senior ranks in the Army were accorded a special allowance that stacked upon their income as civil servant; however, since the rules also required allowances to depend only on office rather than titles, this meant different ranks in the various corps of a similar description could not be compensated differently. To get around that problem, the Ministry of War began to petition the Court to establish more offices at different ranks; military officers would be appointed to a third office to adjust for the relative difficulty or risks in their offices. Since only one office could be salaried at a single time, the "third office" only applied as far as allowances went. In 1847, a "fourth office" system was created to reward those who have remained in the Army for a lengthy time; again, this office carried no salaries, but only allowances. Hence, between 1847 and 1927, all commissioned officers were appointed to four offices simultaneously, one as their commissions required, one (nomially) as civil servant, one for specialization allowances, and one for length-of-service awards. According to L. Topp of the Organized States, the "objections of the Ministry of the Civil Service created a gross maze that ironically guaranteed the Army some independence."

Prairie War

Main article: Themiclesian invasion of Dzhungestan

The Prairie War is the first major conflict that involved the Army after the 1791–96 war in Maverica. In 1926, Dzhungestani cavalry crossed into Themiclesia to raid copper mines that lay just across the border; after a few months of copper extraction, the Army was ordered to repel the Dzhungestani cavalry. The invasion was repulsed in 1926 but recurred in 1927. Under foreign abettance, the governemnt planned to take the Dzhungestani capital city, in hope of forcing negotiations to prevent future incursions. The Army leadership informally regarded this as an opportunity to test the efficacy of the new tanks procured from the Organized States only a few years before, though this was not presented as such to the government, since the War Secretary recently said in parliament that the Army will "not fight a war to use a weapon". To lead this expedition, the Eastern Expedition HQ was established in Feb. 1927, later taking command of the 12th, 15th, and 21st Infantry Brigades, the 3rd and 7th Cavalry Wings, and the newly-formed 101st Motor Chariot Wing (later renamed to Armoured Brigade in 1930).

Dzhungestan's defence forces failed to repel the Themiclesian invasion, despite much effort and some appeals to other states. Dzhungestan's capital city, Dörözamyn, fell only two months after the border was crossed. However, the Army broke into the capital city to find the administration fled, with only the Khan's under-aged nephew. Presenting the nephew with the draft treaty, the nephew declined to ratify. The Themiclesian government was entirely flustered, and management of the desired treaty was returned to the Foreign Office in May, 1928. Slightly later, the Prime Minister retired, provoking a cabinet reshuffle that pushed the foreign secretary into the premiership. The new PM then ordered the Army to pay, out of its own pocket, for some infrastructure improvements in Dörözamyn, hoping, on the one hand, to persuade the absent Khan that Themiclesia had no ambitions in the wealth or land of his state; on the other hand, if the Khan were to persist in exile, the improvements would lend political credit to the nephew, who could be expected to be amicable towards Themiclesia. The Army was unhappy to pay for these projects, but the War Secretary was sounded out as the next Foreign Secretary, garnering his enthusiasm to follow the PM's scheme.

Structure

Branches

Definitions

The Themiclesian Army is not a statutory organzation and does not have a monolithic structure; rather, its operations are governed by statute and precedent, across a range of military and civilian bodies that are part of the Themiclesian state. While this has been the case in the Themiclesian Navy as well, its modernization efforts have led to a higher degree of integration, and the Admiralty forms its undisputed leadership. The Army is less integrated and continues to consist of a large number of civilian and military bodies as its constituents, each with independent constitutional legislation and channels of authority.

In broad terms, the Army can be divided into central and regional spheres. The central bodies are those directly answerable to the Ministry of War (to 1970) or the Army Department of the Ministry of Defence (since 1970), while the regional bodies are those which are not. Under the Themiclesian constitution, each prefecture (the first level of local government) has a governor exercising civil powers and a marshal exercising military powers. The prefecture's marshal, nominally, is responsible for the maintenance of the Prefectural Militia. Such a militia exists, legally, in every prefecture. Within the Prefectural Militia, there are infantry, cavalry, chariotry, and crossbowmen militia units. The prefectural marshal enjoys certain command powers over his prefecture's units, but these are fairly limited without further authorization from the central government, except in true emergencies. His primary duties are overseeing the enlistment of militiamen, their training, manufacture and maintenance of their equipment, and their timely assembly when required.

The central government, on the other hand, maintained no combat forces other than the Royal Guards, who were not expected to take part in expeditions, and the militia of the Inner Region; however, it did maintain lists of physicians, veterinarians, accountants, justiciars, (earlier, including scribes, diviners, and spell-casters) etc. that could supplement local militias without specialized support officers. This tradition is extended in the 18th and 19th c., when support-oriented branches such as the Royal Signals Corps saw great development and became significant as part of the central government's forces. In 1821, the Capital Defence Force was founded under the Ministry of War, as a professional army of four regiments, but the costs of expanding it were prohibitive, and it never began to displace the militia system; by 1845, the defeat of the Conservatives has practically eliminated any chance of further professionalization of infantry, though some development was seen in cavalry, as below. By the early 20th century, it was customary to place all support organizations under the Ministry of War and to limit the growth of standing military organizations in the prefectures, as they tended to be inefficient and drained local coffers.

As Themiclesia had an abundance of herding land, the central government possessed several large horse ranches that supplied horses to regional militias where they could not be raised locally. A small number of cavalry units were raised and kept directly off the ranches. These were not answerable to the prefectures in which they were located, but the weapons used were still commandeered from local armouries, since munitions were also under prefectural jurisdiction. These had been more numerous before the 14th century, but starting from the 16th they became rare, since the Great Khanate disintegrated and were no longer a cavalry threat on Themiclesia's western borders; nevertheless, they continued to exist into the Praire War in the 1920s. Another type of military unit under central governance were the ethnic rangers and nomadic cavalry that resided in the country's extremes, provided by local chiefs to the central government as tribute. These were nominally under central control, but in reality they saw very little use by the 18th century.

An additional complication lies in the treatment of the Royal Guards. Being the oldest part of the Army, they were a special mobilizations of regional militias commanded by civilian officials, the Marshal of the Guards, for the defence of each palace. These marshals, as they have other duties, lie outside of the military hierarchy, and are akin to prefectural marshals in their relationship to the military establishment. In time, the military functions of the Marshals of the Guards were overseen by the Cabinet Office, as the Royal Guards defended the palaces in which the government sat.

List of branches

Combat Branches	Native name		Insignia	Colour	Function	Founded
Palace Guards	衛	gwrjaih	Wall and gate	Reddish-grey	Palace guards (infantry)	inherited
Capital Defence	中	trjung	Wall and gate	Reddish-grey	Capital Defence Force	inherited
Infantry	外	ngwadh	Sword and spear	Reddish-grey	Infantry and certain types of special forces	inherited
Cavalry	騎	gjar	Horse	Silver	Mostly confined to aides-de-camp and batmen	inherited
Field Artillery	砲	p'ruh	Cannon	Light maroon		inherited
Aerial Artillery	弋	legh	Rockets	Pearl		1935
Field Engineers	工	kong	Mallets, cogs	Muddy green		1889
Armoured	輕車	tsjêng-k'lja	Chariot	Grey	Tanks	inherited
Aviation	空	k'ong	Jets	Sky blue	Air support	1926
Digital	數	srok	Vacuum tubes	Black, neon blue	Hackers, virus design	1969
Support Branches	Shinasthana		Insignia	Colour	Function	Founded
Quartermaster	營	gwrjêng'	Books	Black	Keeping supplies	inherited
Medical	醫	'je	Almonds	White	Treating the sick and wounded	inherited
Veterinary	獸醫	sljuh-'je	Fruits	White, green	Treating animals	inherited
Engineers	匠	tsjangh	Cogs	Gold	Military infrastructure and development	inherited
Pharmaceutical	藥	ngljawk	Herbs	White, grey	Procurement of medicine	1872
Convalescence	護	ghoh	Beds	White, blue	Care for recovering individuals	1890
Civil Affairs	書	st'ja	Pen	Knife and pen	Public and external relations	inherited
Field Transport	重車	trjungh-k'lja	Wheels	Red	Road transport	1920
Railways	鐵路	lhik-ragh	Railway tracks	Maroon	Rail transport and railway infrasturcture	1928
Military Police	直史	drjêk-srje’	Dove	Green, grey	Maintenance of order and investigations	1899
Judicature	推	hljui	Balance	Green, blue	Adjudication	1901
Training	教	krawh	Swords	Blue, silver	Training and civil defence	1972
Ordnance	彈	danh	Hexagon	Violet	Ordnance	1857
Logistics	後	ghoh'	Tree	Dark grey, blue	Logistics	1910
Intelligence	間	krên	Eye	Black	Intelligence-gathering	1930
Royal Signals	中都	trjung-ta	Elephant	Rainbow	Music, communications	inherited

Other facilities

• Army Academy, where Army officers are trained.
• Army Officer Training School, where non-commissioned officers are trained.
• Army Preparatory Centre, where volunteers are introduced to the Army and receive rudimentary training.
• General Army Hospital, the Army's hospital; has a number of branches.
• Army Museum Management Board, manages the Army's numerous museums and has custody over valuable Army artifacts.
• Army Veteran Guidance and Support Board, assists veterans to re-integrate into normal society and help prevent and cure, on a less intense level, PTSD.
• Ombudsman's Office, manages public complaints.

Formations

The Themiclesian Army, at its inception in modern form, designated regiments as the basic administrative and operational unit. Brigades comprised two regiments, while a regiment contained four battalions, each of four companies. This structure remained largely static until the outbreak of the Pan-Septentrion War. Increased staffing prompted the Army leadership to introduce divisions composed of two brigades and additional artillery and aerial units in 1935. These divisions were temporary in nature, though their use would persist for more than two decades. Larger units, such as the corps and field army, existed for shorter intervals in pursuance of ad hoc objects but disappeared no later than 1948. As conventional war abated, the regimental system resurfaced, and brigades again assumed the place of the largest peacetime formation, and brigades retain this place in at least a titular aspect today.

Over 90% of the Army was demobilized between 1947 and 1949, leaving 16 brigades consisting of mostly volunteers; these were compressed into 14 in 1952. Prior to the war, each infantry brigade had 32 companies of riflemen; due to casualties, the average brigade by 1940 had shrunken to around 24 companies; rather than consolidating the formations, the Army elected to follow the international trend of the triangular division by skipping one brigade and place 48 companies in three regiments under one division, which, after their dissolution, left the newly-restored brigades with fewer than two pre-PSW regiments under it. At this stage, the regiment evolved towards an administrative unit, while the brigade became more operation-oriented. Into the 1960s, most brigades had three battalions rather than two regiments. Though the communist takeover in Maverica and Menghe alarmed Army leadership, which was then pursuing further economies in personnel, the government took the view that only the Air Force could defend the country against the hypothetical threats; hence, in the 60s, the Army did not increase in size by any significant amount.

The détente between the first and second worlds, consummating in the 70s, allowed the Army to streamline itself further. In 1970, the Army possessed sixteen brigades; in 1979, there were but eleven remaining, and they survive into the present day.

• 101st Mechanized Infantry Brigade (T'ing-tju, available to GA), Adventurers
• 109th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (Kraw-tju), Wraiths
• 401st Armoured Brigade (Tuan-ning, on duty with GA), Fulminators
• 402nd Armoured Brigade, Wind Riders
• 405th Armoured Brigade, Raiders
• 542nd Mixed Brigade (Krong-ning, with both Infantry and Palace Guards units), Guardians of Peace
• 651st Airborne Infantry Brigade (Kwang-'an, on duty with GA), News from Above
• 652nd Airborne Infantry Brigade, High-fliers
• 701st Mountain Infantry Brigade, Unflinching Conquerors
• 704th Mixed Infantry Brigade, Marines
• 710th Mixed Infantry Brigade, Light of Justice

Though the number of brigades have decreased, the total number of troops have not decreased by the same margin. Realizing that in manpower it could not compete with potentially inimical states in its periphery, the Army invested heavily in more specialized units, such as independent rocket missiles, mountain infantry, special, aviation, potamic, digital, and rapid-response forces. These are "non-divisional" troops in the sense that they do not belong to any single brigade and probably cannot achieve larger objectives alone, though co-operation between them and their "divisional" comrades is expected and anticipated by internal policies. The pursuit of a "well-rounded force" is the explicit dogma in the Army currently, one which takes into account environments and resources that foreign policy has made available and makes the most effective use out of them and domestic resources.

Organization

Ranks

Main article: Rank and insignia of the armed forces of Themiclesia

Uniforms

The Themiclesian Army currently issues the following sets of uniforms centrally:

• № 12 Service Dress, worn at office and when out of garrison.
• № 9 Field Dress, worn during training.
• № 8 Pyjamas, worn in bed.

A variety of other uniforms are also available, though use varies from regiment to regiment:

• № 1 Full Dress, worn when attending foreign heads of state, equivalent in formality to the civilian Court Dress in Casaterra.
• № 2 Day Dress, worn at formal occasions during daytime, equivalent to the civilian frock coat.
• № 3 Mess Dress, worn at formal occasions at night, equivalent to the civilian white tie.
• № 4 Duty Uniform, used interchangeably with № 12.
• № 6 Sports Uniform, cloth cap, cardigan, shirt, and trousers, meant for certain sports like golf.
• № 11 Temperate Day Dress, worn in lieu of № 2 in summer.
• № 15 Barracks Uniform, worn when off duty.
• Various court dresses, only required for very senior officers.

Policies

Time and date

The official language of the armed forces, as a whole, is Shinasthana, but there are common exceptions to this rule. In the Army, after several costly and fatal misunderstandings ensued between Themiclesian and Columbian units during the PSW over telling time, it was made mandatory in 1942 to specify time in the 24-hour clock. This guideline governs all punctual time (in the sense of specific times of day) but not durative time; under it, what would have been specified as "Hour C, 4 Ticks" became "0400". In spoken form, this was read as "four-o'clock, zero minutes" during the 40s through the 50s. Furthermore, there was some confusion in the early stages over how general this principle was, and in some cases, the public opposed this change as it made delivery times less transparent. In 1951, it was further decided that the rule to use "numeral time" extends only to internal documents and verbal communication.

Date was somewhat less of an issue, since both the Themiclesian and the Gregorian Calendars have been used in parallel for some years prior to the PSW. This is particularly true in the Army, which interacted with the Columbian Marine Corps frequently between 1920 and 1929; letters between them specified dates in the Gregorian Calendar, though their drafts still bore the same dates in the Themiclesian one. Into the PSW, Army leadership decided that dates should be specified in both calendars for maximal clarity, and equally that conflicts with existing events (especially ones recurring based on the Themiclesian Calendar) would be more apparent. Hence, Jan. 1st, 1943 would have been recorded as that and as "17th Year, 11th Month, 56" (永康十七年十一月己未). Other differences between Themiclesia and the OS (and other Allies) in specifying dates abated to the credit of Under Secretary of State for the Army, who vehemently objected to any dissention from the ranks to halt the use of the Gregorian Calendar.

Language

As Themiclesia began intensive contact with the Organized States in the late 1800s, it quickly became necessary for officers of a comparatively junior grade to communicate with counterparties speaking Tyrannian, the official language of the Organized States. This was not a serious problem, as the Officer Corps were taught by a selection of lecturers who spoke different languages; most officers there graduating knew at least one or two Casaterran language, if only because otherwise he would not have been able to understand the lecture material. But many officers commissioned in 1936 (under conscription) were unable to communicate in any foreign language, severely hampering their ability to engage alongside Casaterran and Columbian allies. In redress, the Army created a new (now defunct) branch dedicated to translation; members of this branch enjoyed privileges from menial tasks, in return for translating Tyrannian and Rajian information for the unit commander. In principle, any unit larger than a company had one such functionary, and divisions and corps typically had multiple.

By the middle of the century, and in combination with mandatory Tyrannian courses in primary and secondary education, a considerable portion of the Army was conversant in Tyrannian. Given its international currency and ubiquity in literature pertinent to equipment and theory, Tyrannian terminology littered the Army's documents to such an extent that translating them was found uneconomical. In 1952, it was decided that Tyrannian proper names and technical terms would thence appear in the original language, since some officers complained that translated terms made less sense or were more ambiguous than the original, which is most likely found on the physical item anyway. In 1957, the Army further proposed that all communication should be in Tyrannian.

Salute

As inherited from the unreformed Army before the 19th century, Themiclesian soldiers did not render any salute to officers or enlisted men. The justification whereof was that salutes constituted a superarogatory requirement on those who have committed with their lives to defend the country.

夫求人之死不索尊，竭人之力不責禮，故古者甲冑之士不拜。

Pja gju njing tje shjij' pje srak tsun, gwjat njing tje rjek pje tsrêk rhi', kas ka' tja krap drjuh tje djeh pje prêdh.

One does not demand obeiscance from another whom one has required to die, or impose ceremonies on another whose strength one is to exploit; therefore, in ancient times men in armour do not prostrate.

This remained the situation even after the Casaterran-staffed officer academy formed. In 1842, the 2nd Regiment of Foot, then commanded by Colonel Rik Miaw, became the first formation to adopt a Casaterran-style salute, modelled after the Tyrannian Army. Miaw himself studied in the Kingdom of Tyran and later mediated the tenures of several Tyrannian lecturers at the officer academy. The 14th Regiment of Foot, which was heavily under Sieuxerrian influence, also adopted the salute in 1851. However, the use of salutes largely fell to the individual commander, and many regarded it as unnecessary or foreign. Throughout the 19th century, salutes were offered inconsistently; however, it should be noted that records indicate that a shallow bow from the neck was still usual, if only social etiquette demanded it towards a superior.

At the end of the Macmillan Mission in 1930, the OS advised the Themiclesian Army, which was consolidated into a single command structure only several years before, to adopt the salute. For various reasons, its implementation was delayed several times, and ultimately the outbreak of the Pan-Septentrion War prevented many units from becoming accustomed to it. The dispersal of the pre-war officer corps to lead new formations further diluted any desire to see its immmediate implementation. Rajian and Tyrannian units fighting in Themiclesia observed the inconsistency in saluting and nicknamed Themiclesias' the "non-saluting army". During the war itself, conscripts were trained with such haste that the Ministry of War ordered any "non-combat instruction" to be delayed in favour of combat training. After the war, the Army endured two extensive war crime trials between 1947–49 and again in 50–51, resulting in yet further delays to necessary changes. Finally, in Dec. 1951, the Ministry of War ordered non-saluting regiments to adopt the Casaterran salute. At this point, 22 regiments emulated the Tyrannian Army salute, 10 regiments the Sieuxerrian Army salute, and 18 regiments the OS Army salute; newer regiments adopted the OS Army salute. Hence, in the modern day, different units practice slightly differing salutes.

Gender equality

Historians have noted that, as far as surviving laws and regulations indicate, nothing explicitly prohibits females from serving in the Army; however, custom has generally been of the same effect in limiting female participation. Most importantly, females from military households were required to take care of agricultural work and tend after children when their husbands were called away, in the unreformed Army (to 1801); some argue that, since these roles were crucial for the maintenance of a functional force, these women can be regarded as being part of the Army, and indeed their were regularly in contact with the military authorities. Others argue that, since the military households were under the portfolio of a minister other than the one responsible for combat branches, they should not be regarded this way. Still others believe this dispute is pointless because the Army was not a monolithic statutory organization until 1931.

After the Army reforms began, females have been employed in producing supplies and medicine, but they were not accorded military rank or part of combat formation. In 1918, females were accorded rank in the Convalescence Service, the Medical Corps, the Corps of Communications, and the Paymaster-General's Corps. Female commissioned officers were first appointed in 1934. During the PSW, one unit was formed out of women serving in clerical positions and saw combat in the defence of Drjang-'an in 1939–40, but the name of their unit, "Brigade of Righteous Women", suggests that their enlistment was extraordinary and impermanent. In 1950, the Supreme Court, with 16 justices in banco, issued a per curiam opinion, stating that there was no legal objection to women serving in the Army. The Army's chief attorney argued that such a decision may cause "untimely disturbances" within the ranks and asked for leave to appeal the decision; the Supreme Court refused leave, making the ruling absolute. The Army further appealed to the Chancery to arrest the Supreme Court's decision, on the grounds of "equity towards the security of the nation for the temporary delay in inclusion of females in the Army for the development and provision of more adequate preparatory measures". This case was found without merit in 1952.

Currently, the 1950 decision is upheld by the legal system and requires the Army to permit qualified women to "have the opportunity and choice, as much as the one of the other sex", to serve in any position. This decision does not require the Army to establish units of mixed gender, and, while mixed-gendered units do exist, the Army has regarded them as somewhat experimental and not ideal for implementation across the entire service, citing fiscal burdens of providing adequate, gender-specific facilities, such as separate lavatories and baths. For highly elite units, for which candidates of any one sex are not numerous enough to form a functional group, exceptions exist; this is the case in the 16th Special Operations Unit, Digital Corps, where nine women and eight men work together.

Sexual orientation equality

Historically, the unreformed Army did not have prejudices against any sexual orientation, since this reduced the number of soldiers fit for service. This paradigm is in common with broader Themiclesian culture, which does not discriminate against homosexuality, though open displays of any form of sexuality was deemed indecent.

Equipment

Rifles and Machine Guns

Name	Origin	Type	Cartridge	Photo	Notes
C24-25	Template:Country data Eisenmaat	Rifle	tba
C24-30	Template:Country data Eisenmaat	Rifle	tba
C25-30	Template:Country data Organized States	Rifle	tba	File:Scar H Standard.jpg

Sidearms

Name	Origin	Type	Cartridge	Photo	Notes
Sig Sauer P227	Template:Country data Organized States	Semi-automatic pistol	.45 ACP

Rockets, Grenades, Mines, and Missiles

Name	Origin	Type	Number	Photo	Notes
M-79 OSA	Template:Country data Soviet Yugoslovenski Template:Country data Yugoslovenski	Shoulder mounted anti-tank weapon	1,154

Armored Vehicles

Name	Origin	Type	Variant	Number	Photo	Notes
M-84	Template:Country data Soviet Yugoslovenski Template:Country data Yugoslovenski	Main Battle Tank	M-84BN M-84AS M-84D M-84M	5 40 15 2

Unarmored Vehicles

Name	Origin	Type	Variant	Number	Photo	Notes
Range Rover Defender	New Tyran	Offroad SUV

Artillery

Name	Origin	Type	Variant	Number	Photo	Notes
NORA B-52	Template:Country data Yugoslovenski	Self Propelled Gun

Aircraft

Name	Origin	Type	Variant	Number	Photo	Notes
Pegaz 011	Template:Country data Yugoslovenski	Unmanned Aerial Vehicle		2

Culture

The Themiclesian Army enjoys worldwide renown for its meticulousness in not only operation but as "a form of orthodoxy", which the service is keen to maintain. Precursors to the current condition may have originated as far back as the reforms in the early 19th century. Prior thereto, soldiers had a social status lower than "decent" commoners, conditioned by historical factors and social stigma. Soldiers were conscripted form a pool of hereditary "military households" prohibited to seek other profession or migrate. When that was lifted in 1801, a small group of soldiers remained in service and were protective of their newfound status as "decent" individuals. A culture of "sensitivity and due care" towards the expectations of wider society, avoiding previous errors, developed around this nucleus, lasting to this day and becoming the norm.

A second source of influence on the Army is the new officer corps, which graduated from the newly-established Army Academy. These officers typically had learned backgrounds and possess the qualifications as high-ranking civil servants, a far more prestigious career choice at the time. At the time, the atmosphere of the Army Academy did not differ by much from contemporary universities; cadets, like university students, listened to lectures, published articles, and were assessed by each other. Though ostensibly part of the government's plan to lend prestige to the military by including men of reputation, the Army between 1830–1900 possessed the same cultural such as that of the civil service. In combination with the care and attention with which the enlisted men upheld themselves, the Army developed a very prim, conscientious image. The quirks of the Army has often led to inter-service rivalries or comparisons that have fed many a entertainment.

See also

• Themiclesia
• Dayashina
• Yugoslovenski