Zol Dak

An Ancient Profession

"Might makes right."

"No, but it does make victors."

— Guldari to an Acolyte

It is the nature of sentient beings to engage in physical conflict to contend for resources or power to obtain desired ends. It is the nature of life itself which creates such conflicts, and intellgence does not modify basic survival realities. There are those who do not have, and those who do. There are those who will take what others have, and those who will deny those who would take what others want to deprive them of. This is true regardless if the subject of wanting is as insignificant as a child's toy, or as valuable as a diamond mine, a fertile cropland, or a library of arcane knowledge. Often such conflict can be resolved peacably, but when conflict is not resolved peacably, or when the value of the stakes is too high for resolution at local levels through non-violent means, conflict becomes a matter of state - a matter for organized groups to resolve through war.
And war is the warrior's profession.

War is won or lost through the skills of the troop, the tactics of the leaders, the logistics of the quartermaster, the knowledge of the spymaster, and the strategy of the commander. These are the elements in the warriors control; these he can prepare, and these will ultimately win or lose the war.

— Guldari

Arms for Hire

Mercenary troops are the best and worst of soldiers. Unburdened by ideals, these men provide the services of war for money and self interest. They may hire out as individuals or may be part of a military mercenary company. In Arrhynsia these professional soldiers of fortune are referred to as the Zol Dak.
Mercenary companies of good reputation train their troops for extreme competence and their leaders will only take comissions where they believe that the opportunity for victory is good and they are fully engaged in the strategy and tactical decisions that effect the outcomes of the wars they fight. They act with honor and good judgement, and their men refrain from rape and needless destruction. Individuals hire themselves out understanding that they will be integrated seamlessly with local troops under the local commander. They will agree to abide by the local customs and rules with regard to service, spoils of war and terms of their contracts. These companies and troops have banded together to form the Warhawks Guild to easily identify themselves to prospective customers.
The worst of mercenaries will take any commission with payment up front, and will abandon their contracts when they encounter difficulties that places them at true risk. They may be well trained, or may be no more skilled than a local back street thug. Their treatment of their defeated foes is subject to their baser impulses and they are typically ruthless and without any moral code beyond loyalty to those who hire them, and somtimes not that.
The Zol Dak as a profession became broadly recognized after the settlement of the Southern Kingdom by the humans following the Cataclysm. Disputes amongst the human clans for the few areas of fertile soil in the Southern Wastes were frequent, and some quickly recognized that soldiering was a highly profitable profession. The name Zol Dak originated amongst the nomadic tribes and originally simply meant "young man", but due to the widespread practice of hiring themselves out to acquire fame and wealth to impress females looking for mates, the term grew to encompass any trained soldier who was available for hire.

Composition

Equipment

Zol Dak are hired as a self contained unit and are responsible for their own supply vehicles and in camp necessities including common mess, uniforms, tents and bedding, weaponry, medical care for their wounded, and needs for the command units. Standards will vary from hired unit to hired unit

Weaponry

Zol Dak are not tied to a specific set of weapons, though there are typical military outfits for these units. Single handed bladed weapons - either a straight shortsword used with a small shield is very typical for foot troops. Armor is typically leather with a metal helmet or, if the troop is a veteran, he may have chain mail which is expensive but affordable for those who have engaged in several seasons of fighting.
Zol Dak do not use longswords or double bladed weapons because of the dangers inherent in close formation fighting with reach weapons, but in the area of polearms, a halberd with a blade / spike combination is not unheard of for some units that specialize in polearms. More typically, polearms in mixed discipline units will be glaives or pikes.
Zol Dak use longbows, rarely resorting to crossbow use due to the difficulty and slow reload times. Archers are specially trained, and rarely fight in melee range though they are trained to defend themselves if the squares break and they find themselves pressed. Zol Dak archers have massive shoulders and overdeveloped arms. They typically will fletch their own arrows as they rarely trust the fletching of commercial arrow manufacturers. This is usually not an issue with manufacturing, but is more typically an problem with transport; most fletching suffers damage during long transport to the field of battle. Most Zol Dak quartermasters procure the majority of their longbow bolts sans fletching, and procure feathers and gut to ensure archers have sufficient resources to fletch arrows in down time prior to any conflicts.

Guldari, the Zol Dak Patron

Like many human warriors, the Zol Dak typically follow Guldari, the Human God of War and Honor. Guldari is an Ascended God meaning he was once mortal and became immortal and possessed of immense power through a process that is not well understood. Unlike some other members of the human pantheon, Guldari's origin story is largely unverified, though the famous human mage Linus Dalton, DWz, HMTr proposed an origin story that while unlikely, captured the imagination of the common man and a great number of Guldari's followers.

Unit Structure

The Zol Dak are characterized not as much by their equipment, as by their command structure and their fundamental base formations. The Zol Dak use a base 4 system - one senior troop- a sergeant and three junior troops, privates, who answer to him. The Zol Dak have found through experimenting that three troops is a manageable number for a first level leader in the chaos of battle - the four together can protect each other forming a square, each man covering his partner, and all of them capable of hearing the sergeant even in the roar of battle. Thus the master is responsible for the performance and welfare of his troops and they are responsible for his safety and for executing his commands to meet mission objectives. This basic unit is termed the square. The next structure is the foursquare and is comprised of four squares as the name implies and consistes of 17 men - 16 troops in squares and a ensign or senior master sergeant who commands the sergeants.
Combat ready units are considered complete when they are a "squared square" consisting of 69 troop - four foursquares and a commander. The squared square is the smallest hireable unit size, though most Zol Dak companies have several squared squares, and may have mixed discipline troops for example archers, polarms, or infantry in a predominantly melee foot troop army. Mixed discipline troops will often come in an odd "two square" (eight troops), or "doubled foursquare" (34 troops) size as they are complimentary disciplines intended to apply to solve special tactical problems.