Charr Centurions & Legions

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

Hi everyone!

I'm curious about the charr military coordination among the three Legions, more specifically, the higher-ranking officers that command others. For example, can a Blood Legion Centurion be responsible for coordinating Iron and Ash warbands as well (together with Blood)?

Thank you!

[Dawdler.8521]

I'm sure a Blood legion centurion could try to lead some Iron and Ash warbands. You'd just never see him again as you ask his Iron and Ash legion replacements what happened.

A centurion is a fairly low ranking Charr. Keep in mind a warband is only like a dozen Charr. Tribunes command the centurions, imperators command the tribunes. An imperator would be the only one that can ask another imperator to send his warbands somewhere. And if they agree maybe a tribune could lead different legion warbands, but I'm fairly certain each centurion would be from respective legion.

Only the Charr Jesus Khan-Ur would have the authority to command all the Charr.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

It likely that in small scale joint operations, a centurion would take temporary command over another legion's legionnaire (and by extension, a warband or two). But it would just be for a single operation. In large scales joint operations, like we see in Fireheart Rise and Drizzlewood, it instead seems to be a case of equal ranked officers from each legion working together.

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:It likely that in small scale joint operations, a centurion would take temporary command over another legion's legionnaire (and by extension, a warband or two).Unless that legionnaire is a lone survivor, I think the warband would seek out one of their own legion centurions for orders rather than listening to another legion, unless already ordered by a superior officer to follow the commands of that legion.

The only way I see a Charr "taking command" over other legion warbands in battle would be if they have alot of respect for that Charr as a warrior... so we are probably looking at tribunes or above to begin with. A random centurion from another legion wont be well known.

But then again anything can happen on the battlefield.

Hell even Rytlock became the commanders bitch.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

That makes sense :) Thank you both!

[draxynnic.3719]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:It likely that in small scale joint operations, a centurion would take temporary command over another legion's legionnaire (and by extension, a warband or two).Unless that legionnaire is a lone survivor, I think the warband would seek out one of their own legion centurions for orders rather than listening to another legion, unless already ordered by a superior officer to follow the commands of that legion.

The only way I see a Charr "taking command" over other legion warbands in battle would be if they have alot of respect for that Charr as a warrior... so we are probably looking at tribunes or above to begin with. A random centurion from another legion wont be well known.

But then again anything can happen on the battlefield.

Hell even Rytlock became the commanders kitten.

I think Konig's point is that if there's a combined-arms operation and it's small enough to warrant only one Centurion, warbands of other legions might be temporarily seconded to a Centurion of another legion. For instance, an operation that involves a Blood Legion warband operating as an escort for Iron Legion war machines and artillery while an Ash Legion warband operates as scouts and spotters, the overall command might be given to an Iron Legion centurion in overall command of the operation. In this case, however, the right to command cross-legion forces doesn't come from the Centurion simply being of higher rank - it comes because someone higher up in the Ash and Blood command structure has ordered the warbands to obey the Iron Centurion until the operation is concluded (or until they otherwise decide that the arrangement has run its course). The "when in legion X's territory, obey legion X's command structure unless ordered otherwise" general agreement that the legions have with each other is an example of this as a long-term arrangement.

Given that the three legions have been allied for decades, they're probably also practical enough that if a superior officer of another legion makes a request, they'd probably be inclined to acquiesce as long as the request is reasonable and does not conflict with their own orders. Think of Anglo-American cooperation since WW2 - if an American senior officer makes a request of a British unit or vice versa, it's probably not going to be dismissed out of hand just because it's not coming from their own chain of command. On a similar level of practicality, in situations where the chain of command has broken down, it's likely that warbands will gather around the most respected commander on their side of the conflict until they can re-establish contact with their own legion's command structure. We see this sort of thing happening on a smaller scale with individual charr joining warbands that aren't of their own legion.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Konig Des Todes.2086" said:It likely that in small scale joint operations, a centurion would take temporary command over another legion's legionnaire (and by extension, a warband or two).Unless that legionnaire is a lone survivor, I think the warband would seek out one of their own legion centurions for orders rather than listening to another legion, unless already ordered by a superior officer to follow the commands of that legion.

The only way I see a Charr "taking command" over other legion warbands in battle would be if they have alot of respect for that Charr as a warrior... so we are probably looking at tribunes or above to begin with. A random centurion from another legion wont be well known.

But then again anything can happen on the battlefield.

Hell even Rytlock became the commanders kitten.

I'm talking about a scenario where, for example:

Blood Tribune orders Blood Legionnaire an assignment that is a joint operation. Iron Legion is leading the operation, led by Iron Centurion, so Blood Tribune orders Blood Legionnaire to follow Iron Centurion's orders.

Ash Tribune does the same with Ash Legionnaire, ordered to follow Iron Centurion's orders.

This is the exact kind of situation we actually see happening in the charr tutorial - Ash, Iron, and Blood all sent troops to fight off the ghost invasion, and we see multiple Legionnaires from all three legions following Rytlock's command. Similarly, this is happening in Fireheart Rise, but with Ash Tribunes in command. And then again, it happens in Drizzlewood where Smodur is given command of Flame and Blood troops, and later when Smodur's dead, Efram is given command of Iron troops as a stand-in.

[Wolfb.7025]

Charr society is all about hierarchy and discipline, lower ranked charr must obey everything their superiors ask them to do, however it all comes to assignments. For example a centurion isn't allowed to freely command warbands, or issue new tasks unless their Tribune grants them permission to. lower rank soldiers should answer to them nonetheless. (Although, there are few cases ingame where a centurion abuses his rank for his own benefit, but that has been clear that might happen (like seen in the personal story), that is however, considered unsubordination and can lead to a death sentence if discovered, every charr knows this and thus no one attempts to abuse it.)

Their line in command is also restricted between legions, a Centurion/Tribune/whatever can't directly lead charr from other legions no matter their rank unless there was an agreement between legions. If a tribune from blood agrees with the tribune of iron to work on a mission and they send their troup, they can agree on one or more centuriors to comand a group of warbands, and these warbands, no matter which legion they are, must obey these centurions no matter what.