The armed forces were a complex system of professional, militia-supported military organisations serving the State of Humanity. They were understood to be essential for survival - enabling the State's independent existence against powerful Dwarven neighbors - and fundamentally professional institutions serving the common good and subordinate to the civilian spirit (in the tradition of Cuprien and the Phoenix.

Evolution

The State's armed forces evolved considerably over time, taking on very different structures and roles.

The State of Nations made provisions for only one army: the Hope. It combined the state forces of the federacy's members, using the structures of the largest institution, the Union army, as a base. Doctrine, ranks, command hierarchies and unit structures, and even uniforms were largely adopted from the Union. The most senior officer, a general, was the Commander of the Hope High Command, and subject to the Ministry of Defense (under the Small Council's authority, of course). Individual units up to the regimental level (the structure being corps - division - regiment - battalion) were allowed to swear fealty to one or another, or both, kings, to allow a continuation of sovereigns as military chiefs (particularly for the Andans), but this practice was ended in 424. In general, the Hope was relatively centralized and well structured. Its headquarters were in Steadfast.

The naval assets struggled a bit more to be properly incorporated into the Hope. The Andan navy was not very significant, and Cuprien's fleet found itself in a large part bound in port because of member states trying to lay claim to the ships. This was particularly due to the Northern Fleet's rising importance on Netache trying to step in the way of the government's efforts to centralize the ships. In an attempt to better centralize the navy, and heeding the desire for self-determination from the Union's naval officer corps, the Hope Navy was established as a wholly separate branch from the Hope in 421, but still as part of the Defense Ministry, and also headquartered in Steadfast. This institution did not have a very senior hierarchy at the beginning, partly because it included quite powerful Northern Fleet admirals who were wresting a lot of bases, ships, and manpower and refusing to establish a coherent system. After five years, the navy would end up considerably smaller, but appointing a Chief of Staff as clear head.

It was clear from the beginning that the State would need a powerful population able to defend itself, and thus that the Hope would feature a rotational obligatory military service like the Andans had (and unlike the late Union, which had fallen back to mass conscription but did not have a military service model). This was first (partially) rolled out in the year 423, and would take quite a bit more time to get running properly. In essence, all citizens from age 18 onward were liable for half a year of military service. They could choose when to do it (within six years) and could express a wish for which function to be assigned to, and there were many ways to be exempted (including the pursuit of higher education or having a state-relevant job, though one could still be called up if the criteria were no longer met before turning 30). The base service involved basic firearms training and training specific to the assigned function, as part of a militia unit; citizens then had to return to military for two tendays each year to "refresh". It was also possible to be selected for militia non-commissioned officer duty, in which case one had to serve an extra period as a cadre for the unit's new recruits. Full officers were professionals. The militia was first rolled out exclusively for the Hope, but was extended to the Hope Navy in 428.

The Northern Fleet became a formal part of the State armed forces in 424 through a direct treaty with the Small Council. It only received some of the obligations of the regular navy, keeping considerably more autonomy and self-determination; it was, at the same time as a public military, an autonomous state as well. The Fleet was bound by the membership rules and structures that tied it mostly to the Ministry of the Interior, but it was also obligated to "form a rapport and coordinate" with the Hope Navy. In practice, the Fleet was about equally large as the Navy, if not even sometimes larger, in pure warship tonnage; it additionally had the benefits of controlling a lot of land and industrial production, notably around half the armaments contracts of both the Hope and Hope Navy. The Northern Fleet also maintained sizable infantry contingents, maintaining their equipment and capabilities in step with the Hope. The Fleet was essentially a parallel army, though it did cooperate closely with the public institutions (also given that it was an important player in State governance). It was based in Fleetport, also on Netache, and commanded by an Admiralty. The Admiral of Operations was the main official who interacted with the other branches. The Fleet joined the militia system (but offered about half as many recruit positions as the other branches in relation) in 433.

The State chose to send an armed detachment to Bolmeranda in 428, in a move to support a gnome-elemental state to resist the advance of Dwarven proxies. Called the 93rd Infantry Division "Mobile" of the Hope, it consisted of three infantry battalions, two ranger battalions, and one mixed artillery-support battalion, and was commanded by Colonel Unerkye. The mission was logistically very complex, requiring flights over Balantic through non-Dwarven airspace, and a very forward operating base. The detachment achieved some early successes and seemed so promising, particularly for the State's hope to establish an international anti-Dwarf coalition, that the Mobile Infantry was founded in 429 as a separate armed branch, initially under the command of a single general with a single division. It answered to the Commission of the Panel for Interplanar Freedom, and thus the Foreign Ministry, and was also based at Lue Interplanar Airport in northern Netache. This was initially an elite, logistically very capable, high-tech professional force relying on veterans from all other branches and operating with its own airborne and land vehicles. As the scope of its operations widened and it found itself operating on several front simultaneously, it grew into a huge army, recruiting foreigners and also allowing citizens to serve a full year active-duty tour (at a higher financial compensation) as their obligatory service. These larger operations relied of course more on the dint of numbers than on unique training and equipment advantages, and the Mobile Infantry had notoriously high costs in equipment and lives. Its habit of doing all the branches' jobs also led to it consolidating quite some control over the acquisitions process, bases in the State, and even some factories and other formerly civilian assets. The Mobile Infantry became a kind of sub-state exceeding the Northern Fleet's power and autonomy, though it was governed ultimately by its professional officers and civilian officials in the Commission and not hereditary self-interested rulers.

Nothing forced the - at this point - four different armies to coordinate and interoperate, to the point that each ran its own acquisitions process, had its own unique rank structure, and managed its own logistics. The Hope and Hope Navy at least adhered to national salary tables, and the different branches cooperated and coordinated quite a lot, but they (and other institutions, like the National Police, the Park Rangers, the Maritime Customs Fleet, the Air Transport and Scientific Service, and the Transport Police) were running far too many redundant and inefficient processes. There was a concerted effort from 436 - 441 to streamline the government in general and bring the federal members closer together, which also translated to an attempt at more centrally regulating and coordinating the armed forces. This included a unified doctrine, emitted by the Hope High Command and the Navy Steadfast Headquarters, and the establishment in 440 of the Armed Forces Commission, a civilian board which was vested with operational command of all armed forces (as well as the Park Service, Customs Fleet, and Air Service), and which took over most of the coordination with the respective branches' formal parent institutions (the Defense, Interior, and Foreign ministries). It was based in New Star, a new government complex outside of Steadfast, and had relatively direct influence over the Hope and Hope Navy, less on the Northern Fleet (which adhered minimally to the regulations and else pursued its own interests), and very little on the Mobile Infantry. The AFC did manage to establish a single council (composed of chiefs of staff and civilian officials including the Minister of Defense) that directed military affairs, and to introduce an obligatory coherent salary table by rank based on the Hope table, which was imposed on all branches by 443. The Mobile Infantry circumvented this somewhat by having a separate bonus-malus financial system which could result in quite divergent salaries.

The Hope had built up a quite impressive air wing, acquiring a fleet of 35 highly expensive seventh-generation fighter jets (mostly noted for their invisibility to radar and high network interoperability with other smart weapons systems) from 334 - 442. The Hope Navy also operated fighters, radar planes, and submarine hunters for historic reasons, called "Air Wings". And the Mobile Infantry had almost as many fighters as the Hope, and a larger overall airplane fleet than all other public services together. For the sake of efficiency, the new branch called Federal Air Force was established in 443, which immediately took over the fleets of the Hope and Hope Navy, and bought off most of the Northern Fleet's aircraft, and also took possession of all military airfields (except the Mobile Infantry's). This was from the beginning as a relatively separate, elitist branch: it was the pet project of one Small Council politician, and was thus given more autonomy than it should have, a lot of funding, and was given roles quite separate from the other branches (they maintained small purpose aircraft for their own missions, such as helicopters for the Hope or submarine hunters for the navies). It never saw any combat action and evolved into a relatively isolated branch. In 448, it formally established armored battalions as part of its airfield defense forces; it essentially became a separate mini-Mobile Infantry.

Trying to establish more commonalities, the AFC made serious efforts in the direction of interoperability in 446 by establishing the Armed Forces Acquisitions Office, which had to greenlight any acquisitions contract made by any of the institutions under AFC purview, and would eventually manage the acquisitions process for all the branches as well. This was met by heavy resistance, of course: but the Northern Fleet could be overridden (in large part by making sure the acquisitions process definitively favored their Netachian armament corporations) and the Mobile Infantry, though larger than ever, was running out of steam, prestige, and thus importance. The catastrophic, astronomically expensive acquisitions of modern fighter jets, for instance, wherein the air force purchased Netachian and the Mobile Infantry bought Silurite, would not be repeated. The Acquisitions Office made sure to promote compatibility and, where possible, identical equipment of all branches, making production and maintenance much cheaper and also facilitating the considerable administrative expenses. This went from the caliber of personal firearms to the vehicles, patrol frigates, and cargo planes to buy. A major success for the office was the deployment of the NYAA (new-generation information network), which worked very well to coordinate battlefield information between all smart endpoints for the army and navy (the other branches had equivalent systems, which for all but the Mobile Infantry also had software interfaces allowing limited linkage), on all new hardware acquired.

The Mobile Infantry massively reduced its international deployments in 447-448, a process which had been coming for years, and the Federal Air Force was quick to bite off large pieces, taking over entire air bases and airborne units in an effort to replace it and gain power for itself. Its command had come to terms with its reduced importance and made major changes towards retargeting their branch from interplanar operations to flexible, complex operations at home, and coordinating exercises with the Hope. The Mobile Infantry saw its new role as a forward operating force, for example holding a bridgehead on a foreign continent (with the complete logistical and offensive air support required to do so) in concert with the navy and regular army. It suffered another massive blow in 449 when the Silurite Circe was lost and the State officially announced it renounced all interplanar military support for the Panel. It had to terminate the employment of two hundred thousand soldiers (around half of which switched to other branches), but it survived, in no small part thanks to its great performance in common exercises with the army and navy, and its capabilities in polar logistics.

The end of the decade marked a considerable slowing down in military development, as budget and agenda priority decreased. The State pivoted from military to cultural competition with the Dwarven Community, and though military technology continued to progress, there was considerably less investment, and also far fewer funds to support massive armed forces. The air force was hardest hit by the cuts, having to reduce its effectives by over half in five years. The Mobile Infantry continued its (now slowed) reduction, ending up in 453 at a relatively lean but very competent 220'000-strong force. The Hope Navy found itself increasingly under the shadow of the Hope as budget items were cut down and merged. Only the Northern Fleet did not get considerably weaker: it did reduce its standing manpower by 100'000, but its civilian-military industrial base grew even stronger, and it also gnawed at the weakening Hope Navy to gain assets and bases. In this context, "local" armed forces - the state of the Churchlands, for instance, had maintained a quite extensively equipped gendarmerie force - were allowed to "buy" decommissioned military gear and even adopt entire units, stocking up mini-armies of their own. A lack of regulation and central authority gave them the freedom to act as they pleased.

Important military leaders - over half of the AFC's council - under the leadership of the Mobile Infantry's General Patten took over governance of the State in 454. Policy changed to a very strong anti-Dwarven stance, and for the military, this meant a tripling of the budget, but even more importantly new responsibilities: considerable areas were given to the military to "administer", in order to push through hardline measures which civilian institutions had failed to produce and also to satisfy the new leaders' desire for personal power. All branches participated in the bonanza, acquiring territory and public responsibilities, carving up a large part of the bureaucracy between themselves. The armed forces became a tool of popular repression, losing their ability to function as defensive institutions at the same time as their power accrued. They formed stratocratic, competing states, which used violence and restrictions to keep their populations in line and keep the "Dwarven influence" out.

Things came to the brink of total civil war. When Chancellor Patten dissolved the State of Humanity and actual Dwarves finally entered its territory in 460, the majority of the armed forces did not put up a resistance. The AFC was of course disbanded, and the Hope, Hope Navy, and Mobile Infantry commanders gave orders to their troops to stand down. The Northern Fleet attempted to resist, keeping their various bases and all of Netache, but it swiftly was forced to surrender. Parts of the Federal Air Force likewise resisted, but were smashed. The most effective military resistance to the final Dwarven takeover was given by the Churchlands and other regional armies, which went so far as to detonate nukes and require total annihilation by Dwarven armed forces to be defeated.