>>5691795>>5692035>>5692038>>5692052>>5692063>>5692302Before you go, you there is one last duty to which you must attend. You have given a single general speech to your populace, you have consulted with your council, and you have maintained the careful balance of power required to prevent your harem of co-equal queens from killing and eating each other… But what of your military?
In actuality, the ‘military’ of Bloodrise is not so much a specific standing army as Hawksong or other advanced nations might field, comprised of trained citizens’ militias and elite professional soldiery. Rather, it is every able-bodied male—and a good number of non-pregnant, non-nursing females—among your adult subjects. A few factors have led to this, the first being necessity—your population is small, your kingdom’s existence precarious, and you have been forced to field everyone you can. Add to this the dark elves’ proclivity for woman (and queerly-gendered) warriors such as the Duelist and Lancer, and your earlier proclamation that only those dwarves who fought for Bloodrise could become freedmen (or freedWOMEN), and the kobolds’ own proclivity for making raiders of any available adult, and the only people in the whole of Bloodrise who HAVEN’T fought in battle are those who had very young children to look after, or who were assigned to guard clutches of eggs.
(Oh, and the bugbear females, but you still haven’t even SEEN one of those… Maybe now that you’ve given them a keep to call their own you’ll learn what they’re like?)
Still, you want to get a feel for their efficacy—how they have grown in skill, and in numbers, and how their tactics have evolved. You command and demonstration-drill, in the form of a mock-battle between the forces of your two regents: Karz versus the Bastard. You assign each of them a small contingent of Bogbarri, too—those the Bugbear Boss feels can follow basic instructions from someone other than him, and trusts not to ‘accidentally’ kill a rival in this friendly skirmish—and some Drow.
“What do you MEAN I can’t participate?” whines Azonia the Duelist.
She stomps her foot, and you glance away from the effect this has on her oversized bosom.
“You’re too good,” you explain.
She smirks slyly, and asks: “Are you trying to flatter me, ‘Dragon King’?”
“I’m ssstating a fact,” you say, and truthfully, for she’s one of the few beings you know of who can still present a challenge even in your <Dragonshape> and with your magic weapons brought to bear. “You have no opposite number, exxxcept maybe the Bugbear Bossss, and he’ss otherwisse occupied.”
