Zekresh Military

The standard armament for Zekresh troops is a sword, spear and shield made of iron. Troops generally wear iron helmets and chain mail.

The Zekresh Imperial Army is organized into Kantoro (singular: Kantora) which is usually translated as "phalanxes" or "regiments". Phalanxes are usually organized by province and have no other permanent larger formation. Each kantora has an authorized strength of 1,000 soldiers, but few, if any, kantoro actually have that many.

There are 305 kantoro in the Imperial Army including the "Golden Phalanx" which is the Emperor's body guards. Of these 1 is designated as an archer unit. 3 are cavalry. The rest are infantry. The "Lions Phalanx" (1st Zekran Phalanx) is an elite unit under the personal command of Field Marshal Krulmuk.



The Zekresh Imperial Army is huge, but unwieldy, incompetent and is largely an immobile garrison force that rarely moves out of its forts and encampments.

Ranks are very informal in the Zekresh Imperial Army and are not permanent as in a modern army. The rank goes with the job. Being transferred to a new command often involves an automatic change in rank. The basic idea is that "gurikan" means "leader" just as "captain" does in English. "Ekanor" means "assistant" which is one of the meanings of "lieutenant" in English. In late medieval and renaissance militaries on Earth, any leader of troops was a "captain" and his assistants were "lieutenants." In larger formations with many captains, one would be designated "captain general" or the captain of the whole group. Later there were "lieutenants general" to assist a "captain general." These are the ranks of the Zekresh Imperial Army and English translations:

kantor = spearman (translated as soldier)
ekanor = assistant (translated as lieutenant)
gurikan = leader (translated as captain)
ekanor falan = high assistant (translated as lieutenant general)
gurikan falan = high leader (translated as captain general)
gurikan falanorata = leader above all (translated as field marshal)










The commander of the Imperial Army is Gurikan Falanorata (Field Marshal) Krulmuk who is a member of the Imperial Council.














The commander of the Imperial Navy is Gurikan Falanorata (Grand Admiral) Valast who is a member of the Imperial Council.









There are 197 ships in the Imperial navy.

44 are sail freighters with no oars
62 are small galleys (galleys have sails and oars)
48 are large single deck galleys
30 are biremes (galleys with two decks of oars)
13 are triremes (galleys with three decks of oars)


The typical Zekresh warship is a galley ship that is propelled by both sails and oars. It is a technology similar to warships of the Roman Empire. There are no cannon or ships' weapons of any kind. Ships attack by either ramming or by approaching close enough for archers to shoot arrows at another ship or by coming alongside so that boarding parties of soldiers can storm aboard the other ship.

These are the main Imperial Navy Bases:

Zekran
Verronia
Clam Island
Trayavix
Far Coast
Osim
Kast Vyloresh


Ranks in the Imperial Navy are almost the same in the Zekresh language, but are translated into English as naval ranks.

tamlish = seaman (translated as sailor)
ekanor = assistant (translated as lieutenant)
gurikan = leader (translated as captain)
ekanor falan = high assistant (translated as vice admiral)
gurikan falan = high leader (translated as admiral)
gurikan falanorata = leader above all (translated as grand admiral)