#the novak isles dont count bc they're technically not a country

[solipseismic]

hi ok so long post but i. this is something i need to do and,, one more step towards becoming a writeblr(tm) maybe? anyways, have a ramble about the military of the world of my current wip! post that i got the questions / development / inspiration from here! 

so, we have The World(tm) that i still don't have a name for, and maybe three or four main continents and a shit ton of islands. the continent saint takes place on is called EMIRN. there are four main countries. YNCI-ALTA is to the northeast; it's got lots of mountains and magic-users. OMNA is southwest; it's got a massive fucking military and delights in conquering. IARHFLAITHH is northwest; it hates magic-users with a fucking passion and has a really outdated knight-vassal system. RELIDOR is north and it's pretty much the neutral party between the previous three as well as the continent's main hub for trade and commerce.

SO. omna had a big fuck-you military and gobbled up almost a third of the continent, at which point iarhflaithh, relidor, and the eol desert all went "bro, not cool" and retaliated, forcing omna back a bit and imposing trade restrictions to keep them from getting too big again. sometimes omna goes haha... what if we conquered the eol desert again... haha just kidding... unless...? and relidor and iarhflaithh have to go "bad omna, no more sugar or textiles for you" until it recedes from the eol again. once in a while the novak isles will go "ha HA!!! you're all heathens, especially ynci-alta, and we're going to raid your coasts with our superior navy until you give in and see the light of our Extremely Male God!" and ynci-alta, which believes in a Female God, goes "up yours" and absolutely wrecks them.

YNCI-ALTA has a revolving military and a decent navy; everyone at the age of 21 has to serve three years in the military to Get Rights (healthcare, proper citizenship, papers, that kind of thing; you don't Need Rights until you're a legal adult, which happens at 21) but usually military service - unless they're at war - just consists of weapons / combat training and signing a little paper that goes "bro if war DOES happen... you gonna be ready?" and you have go "yeah bro i'll be ready." it used to be that only females could serve in the military because they were thought to have a better aptitude for strategy and magic, but that has since been overturned. everyone is tested for compatibility before being assigned a certain role in a six-person unit, or "war band." ynci-alta has the most powerful military, since it has the most well-trained and well-utilized magic-users, but it is hardly ever showcased because no one has the balls to attack ynci-alta, and they don't do shit except sit in their floating mountain cities and, like, drink wine, idk. they have a huge emphasis on personal martial prowess and fighting skills; the better a fighter someone is, the more job opportunities (etc) they have.

OMNA typically has a draft every decade or so where they go "okay lads, we want to go eat another piece of the eol desert and harass ynci-alta's coastline, so i'm gonna need everyone between the ages of 18 and 38 to Enlist so we can Make the Motherland Proud!" they have great roads and a great messaging system and their generals and command structure are top tier, but desertion rates are high. in previous years the majority of the foot soldiers were enslaved people from other countries, typically ynci-alta, the eol, and iarhflaithh. the entire country has a very martial emphasis and is very proud of its military. however, there was a military coup about 300 years before the events of saint. anrothan xvi, an ex-slave from ynci-alta and then-commander of the omnan army, decided he didn't like the way the government was being run and overthrew the king and put a Council in place instead; since then, omna has been more of a democracy than anything else. anrothan xvi abolished the slave trade and a good majority of his predecessors since then have made concerted efforts to stamp out any attempts to reinstate it

IARHFLAITHH. pronounced EER-LA. but who looks at a name like that and goes "yeah, man, that's definitely only two syllables." emphasis on cavalry and a small number of highly-skilled, highly-trained individuals (knights) who command a larger force of less-trained, less-skilled soldiers. a very small standing army, doesn't usually draft because nationalism is high and they typically get hella volunteers

RELIDOR has a standing army that has a strict minimum threshold; every time the number dips below that threshold, they send out recruiters to go "hey man you want some money??? bro u want some food????? free food and money?????? join the army, bitch!!!" which works very well, as most of relidor is very money- and gain-oriented (yeah, they’re capitalists). they probably have the weakest military because they don't invest a terribly large amount of time or money into it, but no one wants to attack the country that's holding EVERYONE'S money and has trade agreements with practically every country

the greatest source of conflict was omna's initial push to take the continent; it got as far as middle relidor before ynci-alta, the eol, relidor, and even morana wothin decided to put their big boy pants on and shove omna back to its little corner by the sea. for reference, the continent looks roughly like this -

iarhflaithh                                       relidor         ***                eol omna                                    ynci-alta

                                                morana wothin

i was too lazy to make a proper map.