The Boreal Legion

"Those Argonites seriously haven"t learnt a lesson yet? Well i guess its time to teach them another one. We will keep doing it till the last man on this world falls to the ground, fighting for the glory of mankind.'
A speech made by Lieutenant Commander Ragnar Valnarsson, right before an engagement with Argonite forces"

For the North by Artem Khorchev

The Boreal Legion is the principal armed forces of the Kingdom of Sanguinia. Recruiting mostly from ethnic Sanguinians and other tribes who live in the Northern lands, the boreal legion is one of the most devastating and indomitable armies in the world of Elladia. Each soldier is a beast in his own right, but there is an unbreakable discipline which makes their morale stronger than that of steel.
Armed with the strongest weapons and donning the most durable armor made from the metals of the cold and unforgiving North, the soldiers of the Boreal legion march to war, a gigantic wave of Warriors, Wolf and horse mounted cavalry, Ice elementals and even domesticated ice giants butchering the wave of Argonites that they have sworn an oath to destroy.The Boreal Legions are headquartered in the Imperial Capital of Rylanus, above the Boreal circle of Elladia and administer most of their operations from there.
If one travels enough through the vast snowy wastes of the far north, one can occasionally come across an enormous complex of large buildings, walls, fortifications and camps, which alltogether make up one of the enormous fortress complexes of the legions that are dotted across the continent. These fortresses are thought to be impregnable, guarded by tens of thousands of soldiers, many thousands of cavalry, impenetrable walls, siege engines and even ice giants or jotuns guarding the complexes. Oftentimes, large civilian settlements also tend to develop around these fortress complexes owing to the secure environment and civilians can be seen assisting soldiers and vice versa in their day to day lives in some of these fortresses.
As with other parts of Elladia, the corruption has not spared the Northern lands and the Boreal legion has had to bear the brunt of it. With the corruption spreading over the land and increasingly daring attacks by the "Church of Arkanos" and other groups swearing loyalty to the twisted god Arkanos, the soldiers of the legion are up against a wall for the first time in their existence. Wherever one goes, one can find symptomps of the corruption and soldiers having nightmares regularly. It seems as if all hope is lost, as the dark god Arkanos heralds his return.
The Boreal Legions have to stand side by side with their fellow brethren and fight the forces of Arkanos till their last dying breath. Many will inevitably fall in this battle but the fate of Elladia depends upon the shoulders of these men and all its inhabitants.
For if they fail, a true dark age will begin on Elladia and continue on for eternity.

Structure

Robert Crescenzio by The Imperial Parliament

The Boreal Legion have various different departments which serve to the various needs of the legions such as logistics, supplying, training etc. They are all under the authority of the Lord commander of the legion, who is elected to a life term unless impeached from amongst the high ranking officers of the legion. These heads of different divions alongside the lord commander and some representatives of the regular army meet once every 3 months to discuss important issues and call votes on decisions.
But sometimes, many disagreements can arise and it is hard for most officers to sympathise with the problems of a regular soldier. To ensure that there is a good amount of trust and efficient cooperation between the officers and regular soldiers, an entire branch of the Public relations department work as liaison officers so as to ensure effective cooperation and communication between the soldiers and their officers.

Assets

"Hear me brothers and sisters! There is no power on this world that can undo the holy Imperium. We have suffered for untold millenia from petty squabbling before we finally united. To protect the unity of mankind and to fight against our enemies is our first and foremost duty. So i ask of everyone to rise up and take the fight to those damned Black Lizards! They will not survive the fury of mankinds strongest and most zealous warriors"
Ragnar Valnarsson, giving a speech just before the battle of the Sanguine Valley, widely known as the most devastating defeat for the Argonites in The Great War

Legions of the North by Atomhawk

The Boreal Legion has an enormous amount of assets allocated to it for its war efforts. Armed with the strongest of weapons and the most durable of armor, which is sometimes infused with arcane magic to further their efficiency, the legion also goes to war with numerous variants of cavalry and beasts , including ice wolf riders, boreal horses, frost baisilisks and even the dreaded ice giants or Jotuns as they are called in the Sanguinian language ( though they have not been able to use them as mounts till now). Their assets can roughly be divided into a number of parts>

Equipment

"Pfft. Lets see those Argonites try to crack this. I"m sure not even a kraken can break this shield without praying to the gods first"
A Boreal legionnaire, describing the durability of his greatshield

The Personal equipment of Boreal Legionnaires vary with their class, rank and regiment. But there can be some generalizations as to what weapons they may use

Infantry Equipment

Boreal Infantry Captain by Gi taek Seo

The Standard boreal Legionnaire who is not in any particular class or role is equipped with a steel broadsword and a kite shield, with two daggers used as reserve weapons. In some regiments however, this can change with the common legionnaire having a steel longsword and a greatshield instead of the normal equipment they have. Pikemen are always equipped with a large greatshield in addition to their pikes and carry around a shortsword as a backup weapon. Berserkers often dual wield large axes whilst knights use greatswords and sometimes greatshields as well.

Boreal Infantry Captains and Officers

Boreal Legion Infantry Captain by Karl Thiart

Boreal Infantry Captains and officers of the legion are responsible for keeping law and order safe as well as leading their men into battle. Boreal Infantry Officers almost always wear plate armor that is enchanted by ice magic and wield high quality weapons forged by the finest of blacksmiths and enchanted by adept enchanters. A Boreal Infantry Officer has many expectations put on him by his subordinates and his soldiers, as they look upto him for inspiration and keeping their morale high when the dreaded Argonites come with a thirst for human blood.
To become a Boreal infantry officer however, one has to go through a few years of regular service first or display sufficient leadership skills at the officer academy before they are promoted to their rank.

Boreal Champions

"Come on You twatwaffles. Lets see what you"ve got against me and my boys. One of us is gonna be a cadaver by the time all this is over and i am damned ready to make sure its you!"
Quoted by Boreal Champion Greta Astridsson during a battle between Argonite and Imperial forces

Boreal Champion by Yigit Koroglu

Though not an official rank, the Boreal Champions are still one of the most revered warriors in all throughout the Imperium. What makes a champion is a deep debate to this day for many but it is generally accepted that someone who does extremely gallant or brave deeds in war is eligible to be called a champion. They are almost always high ranking officers or serve in similar other high positions.
A key difference though is that Champions often have the literal best weapons that not even the emperor sometimes has seen and their weapons and armor are enchanted with arcane ice magic, which is potent enough to freeze even the air around them solid had it not been contained in their arms and armor. Oftentimes, one can find them riding to war on equally devastating mounts, either being flesheating warhorses covered in thick plate armor which is also enchanted or riding giant ice wolves who wield the pure power of elemental ice.
Wherever a champion goes, they are greeted with warm welcomes by the people around them and the commonfolk often look up to these towering warriors clad in cold steel plate, unleashing their pure wrath on the enemies of mankind. To be a champion is however, a daunting and often stressful job and many have complained that they sometimes feel too stressed out to meet the expectations of the commonfolk and soldiers, seeing as they are humans after all .

Cavalry

The Boreal legions have a wide variety of Cavalr units but they can roughly be divided into two parts based on the animals they use

The Flesheaters

"Woah Woah Woah. Take it steady hun. Don"t eat me for dinner"
Haha. Captain, she"s a good girl. Won"t ever even harm any human. Unless of course you side with the Argonites because she dosen"t differentiate a traitors flesh from that of an Argonite"
"Well, i really shouldn"t turn my backs even if they are better in all ways. I dread to see the sight of Tess coming to eat me "
A conversation between Private Magnus Karlsson and Captain Loranus Markusson whilst they were trying to handle Tessdralan, a flesheating warhorse

Boreal Cavalry by John Stone

Boreal Cavalry have one of the most devastating weapons to have ever graced the battlefield. Their use of Flesheating warhorses, who are just as dangerous if not even more so than their owners strikes fear into the hearts of Argonites. These horses are however trained to not attack humans and are generally very friendly towards humans unless provoked. They often fight on even if their rider is dismounted, fighting just as zealously for the cause of their masters as they do.

Boreal Ice Cavalry

"Well if Tess dosen"t get those Black Lizards, then i am damned sure that the wolves will. Once an ice wolf has set its sight upon you, you can only run. Its fools play to fight it head on"
Magnus Karlsson, talking about the effectiveness of ice wolves

Yet another deadly weapon of the Northmen are the dreaded ice cavalry. These are warriors mounted upon ice wolves, who have control over the elemental powers of ice and can use them to deadly effect. They need a lot of care however, and are particularly susceptible to dehydration and cannot use their ice powers if they are not supplied with a constant dose of ice cold water.

The Jotuns of the North

"Mel, you sure feeling fine?"
"I am indeed brother. But where are the Argonites? I have an urge to stomp them and crush their skulls"
Ehh you will get that oppurtunity soon. I promise that as a Northman"
A conversation between Meloras the ice giant and a boreal legion footman

Boreal Ice Giant by Llyncis

Probably the deadliest weapon of the Boreal legion so far are the mighty ice giants or Jotuns as they are called in the Sanguinian language. Jotuns are quite often used as siege weapons or brought to fight in large swarms of Argonites. They have a reputation for sweeping hundreds of horsemen aside with a single swipe of their weapons and the ones that have control over ice magic can be even deadlier. Despite not being used as cavalry due to them being short tempered and also being rather difficult and dangerous to mount, they are still counted as part of both the cavalry and siege warfare divisions.
Ice giants are considered an indispensable part to large battles where only a few of them might turn the tide of the battle with their use of gigantic clubs, swords, axes and their mastery over the primordial variants of ice magic.

Fortresses of the Legions

"You see that there my friend?"
"Yeah. Whats that though?"
"That my friend, is a fortress of the Boreal legion. A place not even the bravest of Argonite dare to infiltrate without planning for years and doing it with a few hundred other equally big balled idiots like him"
A conversation between two travelers upon seeing a watch fortress whilst on the way to their destination

The Boreal Legions maintain several Fortresses ( also known as watch fortresses) across the continent of Inaria , which serve as rest houses for their soldiers and offer protection to the Inhabitants of nearby settlements. Whilst not the only defensive installations of the legion, they are certainly the largest and most impregnable, containing tens of thousands of soldiers in some cases and being defended by nigh impenetrable walls, numerous catapults and trebutchets, archer towers and even jotun guards.
Sometimes, there can be numerous settlements located in the vicinity of these fortresses. This is because of the added layer of security and in such settlements, it can be seen that soldiers are helping civilians with their day to day life and vice versa. Many of the civilian inhabitants of the towns do serve in the legions directly at one point in their life, as part of their compulsory military service.

History

A race divided

"Long before the Imperium came to be, we were just a bunch of headless chickens strutting about. Now we are one nation at long last and at least don"t have to worry about others dividing and ruling us"
A casual conversation between two villagers at a tea stall

The Old Tribes by Stefan Kopinski

Before the Imperium was formed, Sanguinia was populated by numerous human tribes. There is evidence to support the theory that Sanguinians were indeed the first humans and Inaria was the first place where mankind arose. These tribes often warred and quarreled with each other on petty things. Before the Sanguinor came.

The Great Unification Wars

"No more shall we be divided my brothers and sisters. The time has come for us to unite! And unite we shall! I stand for nothing other than the priniciple of human unity. So rise up and fight back against those who seek to divide us! We will fight till our last dying breath for the glory and survival of mankind

Around ten thousand years ago, a young man named Mathias Christiansen became the chief of a tribe and set out to unify all of mankind under a single banner. The Northern tribes were his first challenge but with exceptional diplomatic skills, he managed to unite most of the northern tribes together but had to use force on some of them. These tribes also eventaully gave in and formed what would become the Boreal Legion and the rest as they say, is history

Battle of the Sanguine Valley

The Unification Wars by Klaus Pillon

The Battle of the Sanguine Valley is to this day, the biggest disaster and defeat for the Aegean Empire in The Great War with the forces of The Sanguine Imperium. During this battle, a small force of Boreal Chevaliers and the Boreal legion successfully routed an army of over a quarter million Argonite soldiers, and effectively wiped out one fifth of their operational strength in the theater they were fighting in.
The battle has been immortalized in many novels, plays and artworks and is a source of pride for humanity as a whole for it was their greatest victory against their mortal enemy.

A shadow shrouds the world

"Dear Gods. I don"t know whats happening but all i know is that we are in deep shit. The morale of the soldiers is incredibly low and they seem depressed. They keep having nightmares and talk about hearing the voices of "Arkanos". I just dearly hope that this is something temporary. If it is not, then perhaps the whole of mankind has to suffer"
A page from the diary of Ragnar Valnarsson, describing the effects of the corruption upon the Imperial soldiers

The Final battle begins by Aurelien Rantet

Like the rest of Elladia, the corruption has not spared Inaria and nor has it spared the soldiers of the north. Across the continent, there are signs of the corruption spreading and even with the "Church of Arkanos" being banned, they still continue their twisted activities and wage a low level insurgency against the Imperium. Many soldiers of the legion are having hallucinations like the rest of the population and keep hearing the voice of a certain "Arkanos" that practically everyone else in the Imperium is hearing. Many of them are depressed and low in morale, and feel gloomy about the future.
This is only the beginning however. Much more nightmares are ready to descend down upon the legions of the first men. They will have to uphold the principles of unity that the Sanguinor had taught them and unite with the rest of Elladia in fighting the nightmarish threat that is about to descend on the world.
For it is of a far higher level of existence than even the gods themselves.

Virtus sola victores hostes animis hominum

Type

Military, Army

Training Level

Professional

Veterancy Level

Veteran

Life in The legion for a common soldier

Life in the legion for a soldier depends upon the conditions of their employment area. If they are posted to a battle ravaged region, their lives may be cut short and they can hardly catch a break from the brutal warfare of the humans and Argonites. For a soldier in the reserve regiments or on garrison duty however, life is much more pleasant. They often wake up early in the morning and have a roll call before taking their breakfast. Their usual day consists of training, patrolling, gathering information about surrounding areas if it has not been mapped well and also aiding in civilian development projects and initiatives. In the evening, many of them gather for a large party by a bonfire before retiring to their beds for the night

Life of an Officer in the Boreal Legions

It can be argued that the life of an officer is even more dangerous and stress filled in the boreal legions. They are often prone to assassination attempts and have to manage their soldiers well, which is all made worse by the chaotic nature of the battlefield. They spend most of their day instructing soldiers as well as supervising projects and also personally trying their best to improve the morale of the soldiers and sometimes, even they take part in the fun activities that their soldiers take part in. After all, beneath their steel helmets and faceplates, there is a human being.

Life in a Watch Fortress

A watch fortress is considered to be the safest place a boreal legionnaire can be posted in. With tens of thousands of comrades to back you up, one never feels afraid and there is a certain air of security amongst these large fortress complexes. The day of a soldier living in such a fortress usually goes the same as one on garrison or reserve duty, with the exception that living in a fortress is much like living in a city and they interact with many civilians over the course of their day.