Military and Defense

Falmathion does not maintain one army so much as twelve military traditions forced into temporary cooperation. Each Dragon Lord controls personal troops, fortified estates, allied houses, and draconic retainers. When the Council declares war, these forces are arranged into a complex legionary system inspired by the disciplined armies of Falmathion's ancient city-states.

Military Structure

Council Legions

The Council Legions are the nearest thing Falmathion has to a national army. Each legion contains infantry cohorts, missile troops, engineers, healers, magical support, and aerial reconnaissance. Their armor and banners identify both council faction and individual patron.

Domain Armies

Every Dragon Lord retains independent troops. Domain armies enforce local rule, guard mines and hoards, settle territorial disputes, and occasionally fight one another. They can be folded into a Council campaign, although their commanders remain loyal to their patron first.

Subject Levies

Rural communities owe soldiers, laborers, provisions, or transport animals according to local law. Chromatic domains favor forced levies. Metallic rulers prefer trained civic reserves. Gem territories often calculate service through contractual quotas.

The Three Traditions

Chromatic Warfare

Chromatic armies are renowned for speed, terror, and brutality. They use overwhelming attacks, public destruction, monster auxiliaries, and draconic flyovers to break resistance before a campaign becomes prolonged. Their commanders regard mercy as useful only when it produces surrender.

Metallic Warfare

Metallic armies are cold, calculated, and extremely aggressive once war is formally justified. They favor disciplined formations, carefully prepared supply lines, combined arms, and precise violence against strategic targets. Their belief in righteous order can make them as relentless as any Chromatic host.

Gem Warfare

Gem forces specialize in communication, psionics, counter-magic, terrain control, and prediction. They rarely seek glory but often decide where and when the other armies fight.

The Thousandth Flame

Falmathion maintains a feared order of spellcasting warriors known as the Thousandth Flame. A single Flame is assigned to a formation of approximately one thousand soldiers and is expected to change the course of battle through destructive sorcery, protective wards, battlefield communication, and magical coordination.

Members are drawn from the College of Sorcerers, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes through compulsory service. Each bears a council brand authorizing magic that would be illegal for an ordinary citizen to wield.

Aerial Forces

Dragons, wyverns, drakes, and other great reptiles serve as mounts, independent warriors, scouts, and living siege engines. True dragons generally refuse to be described as mounts; they enter formal battle partnerships with riders, commanders, or units whose service they respect.

Control of the sky allows Falmathian armies to bypass walls, strike supply lines, and move messages with extraordinary speed. It also explains why other nations invest heavily in ballistae, warded towers, concealment, and anti-flight magic.

Dragonfire Engineering

Falmathian military engineers can construct a fortified camp capable of holding one thousand troops in roughly four hours. Dragons melt selected stone and ore into interlocking walls, which runesmiths cool, shape, and ward. The resulting firecast keeps resemble dark ceramic fortresses with few seams and exceptional resistance to ordinary siege weapons.

Permanent defenses expand upon the same method. Mountain passes are guarded by fused-stone gates, while coastal towers contain open platforms large enough for draconic defenders.

The War of the Forgotten Bones

Falmathion is presently at war with Balthimore. Its forces control the excavation site believed to contain Grandal's remains and have seized additional territory to the northwest.

Chromatic commanders increasingly treat the campaign as a proving ground and source of new domains. Metallic commanders publicly frame their actions as protection of sacred ground and restoration of rightful order. Gem forces maintain communications and logistics while debating whether continued involvement preserves or destroys the Union.

Frostfällt supplies Balthimore with soldiers and resources, while Halfor supports Balthimore by proxy. Grobion aids Falmathion for the opportunities provided by war and chaos.

Civilian Attitudes

Falmathian civilians often regard the arrival of an army as a bad omen. Soldiers bring requisitions, political attention, displaced monsters, and the possibility that a rival dragon will attack. Even friendly forces can consume a district's supplies or compel its people to work.

In the cities, military spectacle is celebrated with banners and aerial displays. In the countryside, families hide food when legion standards appear on the horizon.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Falmathion's military can move quickly, build defenses almost instantly, field exceptional magic, and dominate the air. Its weaknesses are rivalry, inconsistent command, and the possibility that a Dragon Lord will abandon a shared objective to pursue a personal feud.

The Union is most dangerous during the brief periods when all twelve rulers want the same thing.