The Grand Empire, also known as the Imperial Phoenix, Empire of the Free, and the Korpeonic Empire, was a vast state on Oshmondu. During its short decade of existence, it represented the single largest human state to ever have existed.

Structure

The Grand Empire was ruled by the Emperor of the Free, who held ultimate authority over all branches of government and served as the supreme commander of the armed forces. This hereditary position was held by Korpeon of Tillent, who doubled as Grand Cardinal, the highest authority in the One Faith.

A proper government system for the Grand Empire emerged around 336 OW. Very few existing local institutions were touched; the Grand Empire was ruled as a federation of semi-autonomous states, called prefectures. Each prefecture had a military prefect at its head, and the system to coordinate the efforts of the different prefects was centralized in the form of a military headquarters, but the government on a smaller scale was left completely open. Many prefectures continued to use the same systems they had before the empire, while others adopted completely new forms of government. There were notably some experiments with democratic elections for public offices in cities.

The prefects were ordered to implement some imperial policies in their domains, however. Prime among them was Korpeonic Law, which included some progressive rules like fundamental humanoid rights, worker protections, and child protections. The empire also heavily supported education by subventioning public schools, and constructing imperial colleges, military academies, and universities. Finally, Korpeon implemented meritocratic systems wherever possible. Imperial adjudicators judged individual candidates' merits for government positions, local democracies were encouraged, and Korpeon chose "the best" military commanders as his legates.

Armed Forces

Korpeon had forged his empire militarily, and he held it together militarily. The army and the ongoing war with the Dwarves were essential parts of the Grand Empire; without them, it would fall apart. The Emperor of the Free was more often on campaign than he held court, and all centralized institutions were geared towards the war effort.

Standardizing the many different units of the Grand Empire and the 4th Coalition to Phoenix doctrine was an insurmountable task. Instead, Korpeon tried to profit from the great diversity of specializations and equipment he had access to. A core part of this were the legates: they were experienced Phoenix officers who were put in command of each division-sized unit, and given the task of preparing their unique units to work in harmony with all other units in the Grand Empire. The legates implemented a standardized modular doctrine to make all their varied units use an interoperable command structure, communications system, and logistics. Thanks to the efforts of the legates, the empire was able to raise highly effective, mobile, and specialized forces which were far more effective than their opponents.

The legates were effective training and logistics officers, but most did not fight on the front lines. While the legates built up the units, operational command was handled by the seven marshals. Each marshal raised their own Grand Army, composing them out of legates' divisions. Some legates then helped in the logistics of the Grand Army, others moved on to raise yet more units. Each Grand Army, which could be anywhere between 300'000 - 4 million strong, was a fully autonomous army with its own supply lines, bases, and units. This decentralization of the Grand Empire's armed forces greatly improved the command efficiency and logistics of the military.

Unit Structure

In order to properly organize the many different units in the Grand Armies, an intricate system called Joint Tactical Code (JTC) was developed. It notably codified ranks (though sub-regimental ranks could vary in different unit types), communications procedures, unit structure, and unit type, among others. The Grand Empire was a strongly land-focused military, with various expert units including mountain infantry and shock marines. The navy and air force had separate unit structures, but also followed a modular system where individual groups and bases were incorporated into the Grand Armies. The largest naval unit was the flotilla (consisting of squadrons; fleets existed for logistical purposes, more like legates), and the largest airborne one the wing (also consisting of squadrons; here, logistics were handled by the Joint Air Force Control).

The fundamental unit types, which applied to most units up to brigade size, were infantry (wearing white accents, armored specialization black), rangers (green, with mountain specialization grey), artillery (red), logistical and support (orange), and fiscal. communications and headquarters (yellow). Additionally, land-based units relying on another branch for deployment, such as paratroopers or marines, wore dark blue for the navy, or light blue for the air force.

Ranks

The JTC encompassed a standardized command structure for both the rear lines aspect and for the active Grand Army. When part of the Grand Army had a strong focus on the navy, for example a warship and marines force, command over that unit could be given to an active naval commander. There was no rank beyond Wing Commander in the air force.

JTC Ranks

Typical non-commissioned ranks included line-man / chief corporal, corporal, freed-man, and citizen. The sergeant, brigadier, first mate, or air sergeant were rear-line recruitment officers and instructors.

Heraldry

The Grand Empire military distinguished itself mostly with its light blue, bordering on grey uniforms; all military staff in all functions wore the same base color. All personnel additionally wore the "aquila", white pins in the shape of thee feathers, as national insignia; they were often worn on the right chest, and on officers' caps. Uniform cut, decorations, and badges were all outlined in the JTC, and generally very standardized. Various unique units were allowed to wear their own uniforms, badges, and rank insignia - however, the basic color and aquila were always a requirement.

The imperial war banner was a stylized triangular version of the imperial banner, featuring three white lines in a starburst pattern. This color scheme and pattern was adopted in a large variety of ways, including on airplane fins and bullet magazines. Some armies also carried the banner in the old style, though usually not when going to battle.

Regiments were units with a fixed home base, and one of the most standardized and stable units of the empire. Their banners were usually square, with two red corners symbolizing the empire's anarchist roots, and two blue ones in the imperial color. In the white central square, the banners additionally displayed the regimental number and name, as well as the aquila. The design of regimental banners was inspired by the JDC unit notation for regiments.

The war banner.

1st Farrengard regimental banner

History

Korpeon of Tillent successfully waged war against the 2nd Coalition and won, disbanding the alliance and enlarging the Anarchist Phoenix's borders in the process. As an extremely popular war hero, with the support of everyone in the Phoenix, Korpeon crowned himself Emperor of the Free and established the Grand Empire in 330 OW. Initially, Korpeon leaned heavily on anarchist ideology - after all, he was a fervent anarchist and had attained his position as an anarchist military commander - and the Phoenix's intellectual elite for support. He spoke of securing the revolution, guaranteeing the safety and freedom of the people and the workers, and so on. While introducing a stratocratic form of government with his legates (military officers with extensive political authority, whose primary mission was to raise and organize troops but who also doubled as government officials), Korpeon made sure to also put an accent on valuing merit, an anarchist idea, and making sure that only the most capable commanders and officials were given positions of power.

The Phoenix's military ability encouraged the nearby giant Storm Kingdom, which felt threatened by aggressive Dwarven expansionism, to form the Imperial League - a military and economic alliance - with Korpeon. Two years later, the giants joined the Grand Empire as a new prefecture.

The Grand Empire was very successful at building a potent military force. During the Second Korpeonic War (331 - 336 OW), Korpeon successfully invaded the far larger 3rd Coalition, encompassing both the Cuprien Empire and the Kingdom of Two Isles. His Grand Armies' exceptional mobility, battlefield ability, and strike power simply overwhelmed the larger Coalition forces. After this successful campaign, Korpeon found himself ruling the largest unified state humanity had ever seen, with access to vast military resources.

But the Grand Empire was reliant on war to remain united. Accordingly, Korpeon declared war on his former ally the Dwarven Empire by invading the island of Turlu and beginning the 60 Years War. Though the Grand Armies displayed their superiority over the Dwarves during several campaigns all across Oshmondu, the tensions of war against the vast Dwarven Empire just built up over time, until Korpeon was finally defeated in his campaign to invade the huge continent of Balebu. Soon after, the Grand Empire shattered, and many of the founding states - whose cultures and systems had not been eradicated by the very lax federal system - reformed.