Captain Sealm came running over to Marcus and said: "Well now, let that be a lesson to you, Private. Never poke your finger where it doesn't belong. Take some rest and then see how they're doing topside. I don't want to be in this hole any longer than we have to be."
<GM's note: Remember when Captain Sealem offered Marcus a job as a enlisted member of the Foreign Auxilery of the Army of Suldeneselar? Well, he considers that Marcus is a Corporal in that particular Corps.
Suldeneselarian Army enlisted ranks vary slightly from regiment to regiment and from Corps to Corps, but the standard ranks in Captain Sealem's unit (the Emperors' Own Bodyguards) are:
Enlisted Ranks
Non-officer Soldiers
Recruit* (Rct.), Millitaman** (Mm.), Private(Pvt.), Trained Private(Tvt.), Corporal (Cpl.), Lance Corporal (Lpl.), Master Corporal (MCL.)
Non-Commissioned Officers (NCOs):
Sergeant (SGT.), Staff Sergeant (SST.), Colors Sergeant*** (CST.) Master Sergeant (MST.), Sergeant Major (SGM.), Chief Sergeant Major (CSM.) Regimental Sergeant Major (RSM.) Chief Regimental Sergeant Major (CRSM.)
Warrant Officers
Warrant Officer, Second Class (WO2.), Warrant Officer, First Class (WO1.), Master Warrant Officer (MWO.), Chief Master Warrant Officer (CMWO.) General Chief Master Warrant Officer of the Army (GCMWO-A).***
Officer Corps
Field Officers
Officer Cadet (OCT.), Sub-Lieutenant (SLT.), Lieutenant (LT.), Captain-at-arms (CPT.), Captain-General*** (CPT-G.)
General Staff
Brigadier General(BGR.), General-at-arms (GEN.), General-of-horse (GEN-H), Field Marshal (MAR.)
The General Officers are usually drawn from the ranks of the nobility. The lesser nobility, certain in-favor Knights, and sometimes the rare & exceptional member of the lower classes are able to advance to such high and exulted ranks. By law, only the Emperor (and the Emperor alone) may promote officers to the rank of Field Marshal. Otherwise, whoever the Unit Commander (The Commanding Officer) is may, at his or her own discretion and on his or her own authority, promote anyone who is a member of (or attached to) the unit under his or her own command to such a rank or ranks as those that are below the rank of The Commanding Officer's own. However, only members of the General Staff may actually grant someone a commission into the Officer Corps. In theory, anyone can become a member of the General Staff, eventualy. In reality, it's limited to members of the nobility.
*The rank of Recruit (Rct.) exists only during the initial training phase of an Enlisted Man's life. Recruits do not wear standard uniforms and do not wear insignia.
**As a proper Army rank, a Millitiaman is an enlisted person who serves in one of the various local Militias (under whatever Militia rank he holds in that Militia), and who has become attached to a Regular Army Command for whatever reason. IN such a case, he or she is reffered to by his or her Millitia rank, but is paid according to the Regular Army Rank of 'Millitiaman" Hence, even a a Sergeant-Of-Militia can be (technically) outranked by a Regular Army Private, but this distinction, in practice, really only applies for purposes of pay grades and precedent-of-command. Officers of the Militias always hold a Rank equivalently to their Regular-Army Officer Corps peers for all purposes, even if their Militia unit has come under the Command of a higher-ranking Regular Army officer.
***The ranks of Colors Sergeant (CST.), General Master Warrant Officer of the Army (GMWOA), and Captain-General (CPT-G.) are unusual ranks that not everyone may be able to ascend to because of their peculiarities.
A 'Colors Sergeant' (CST.) is the NCO who has been given the duty and honor of keeping the Colors (flags) of his or her Company in a safe and properly maintained state at all times. It is considered to be an honorary position, and does not carry a pay increase over that conferred by the lower rqank of Staff Sergeant.
The General Chief Master Warrant Officer of the Army (GCMWO-A) (there can only ever be one) is the highest Enlisted Rank in the entire Suldeneselarian Land Army. He or she reports directly to the Emperor, and is responsible for the overall welfare of all enlisted members. As such, the General Chief Master Warrant Officer of the Army (GCMWO-A) has the authority to investigate and adjudicate any and all complaints by the enlisted ranks against abuses of authority, mistreatment, pay disputes, and allegations of wrongfully dismissal, demotion, expulsion or execution conducted by or alleged against any member of the Suldeneselarian Millitary (Officer, Enlisted, Army, Navy or otherwise) except for members of the Royal Household (which is solely the private domain of His Majesty and his immediate family).
The General Chief Master Warrant Officer of the Army holds an office that is NOT normaly subject to the regular chain off command as he or she reports directly to (and only to) the Emperor. As well, he or she has the power to make recommendations directly to the Emperor, who may then choose to act (or not to act) upon those recommendation as His Majesty sees fit.
The rank of Captain-General (CPT-G.) is a conditional and temporary rank that a regular-force Captain may assume if:
1) A decision at the General-Staff level is required immediately on the battle field or under siege conditions, but no member of the General Staff is available to render such a decision.
2) More than one friendly company-at-arms (or platoons or detachments thereof) are readily and immediately available to be under the Captain's command, but the Captain is precluded from taking such command merely by the limits of the nominal authority granted by his commissioned Rank and his position.
3) The Captain is the most senior friendly-force officer present, regardless of branch of service, alliance, or class.
If all three of these conditions are met, the Captain is be considered to be a Captain-General for the duration of the engagement or until formally relived by an actual member of the General Staff. A Captain General holds the same nominal authority as a General-at-arms does.
"Join the army, they said. See the world, they said. Fight some orcs, they said. Nobody said anything about freezing to death.." - Master Sergeant Euliar Crutlek, Cheif of Logistics, "B" Company, 1st Division, 'Red Thorn' Regiment of the Royal Army Supply Corps, Winter 264 NR. During the disastrous siege of the Menron Mountain orcish strongholds.
The Army of Suldeneselar is much more advanced, organizationally, than the any of the other known armies are. You can expect the Drowish armies to be similarly organized.
Because most of the Gnomish Cities are essentially immune to invasion due to their advanced level of technology (primarily their ability to fly), most of them don't maintain much of a standing army at all. In fact, all but one of the Gnomish Cities relies entirely on contacts with companies of foreign mercenaries to provide a military presence inside their cities whenever such a thing is deemed necessary by the Gnomish kings, which isn't very often. Even so, the Gnomes maintain friendly relations with all the major powers because they know that if any of the major powers decided to make a concerted effort to invade the Gnomish cities, the Gnomes would be incapable of holding out forever.
In Human armies, the only enlisted ranks that exist are Private, Corporal, and Sergent. A Private is an ordinary soldier, a Corporal is simply the leading Private in a particular platoon, and a Sargent is a veteran or highly-trained enlisted man (a "Picked man"). The only Officer ranks are Captain, General, and Lieutenant; Captain being the officer and charge of a Company, General being a Nobleman who has commissioned a Regiment of men, and a Lieutenant being the right-hand man of a Captain. Very often, Knightly ranks supersede Military ranks in Human armies.
Lizzardmen organize their military based loosely on their "Circle"system, with military rank closely linked to one's standing within one's Circle. Except for their Queen's small company of castle guards and bodyguards, there is no permanent, nationwide, military force in the Lizzardmen domains. Instead each "Circle" raises companies of fighters or sailors as needed, with only a small corps of Town Guardsmen and the militia existing as permanent forces. That said, the Lizzardmen do have quite a large number of Mercenary Companies ready and willing to be hired by whoever has the right amount of coin, and if the Lizzardmen domains were ever to be threatened by a military threat of some kind, you can be sure that the various Lizzardmen Mercenary Companies would rally to defend the homeland... for a small fee of course.
Orcs are even less elegant when it comes to organizational arrangements. The Orcs, apparently, do not even understand the concept of 'Rank'. To them, one takes orders from whoever is the considered to be the more fearsome warrior, and one is led by the leader of one's clan or tribe.>
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(sorry for being the English Police)>
Um, yeah. That's what it was. Completely intentional. 
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