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There’s a lot of things a navy for an imaginary world has to keep track of. Apprehending criminals, ensuring civilian safety, and keeping the seas safe are just a few examples of what it does. It’s a large organization filled with many divisions. All the different fantasy navy branches work together to keep it running smoothly.
The navy is considered a separate branch of a country’s military since its primary focus is on the water though in some worlds, it is headed by the same person who oversees the army or at least someone who reports to said person. Sometimes there’s some overlap or coordination between the two distinct parts on matters that affect them both.
One of the most important fantasy navy branches is that of law enforcement. There are agencies whose sole purpose is to enforce the laws of the land — or water in this case — and they will actively pursue those who violate them. In addition to having the power to apprehend criminals, they’re empowered to prosecute them.
Another branch of the navy revolves around exploring and reconnaissance. It continually seeks to learn more about the world which is why it dispatches vessels on expeditions to gather knowledge. In wartime, it sends them to hostile areas to see what sort of forces are lurking about and what they’re building so that it can develop a mission to destroy them.
The navy is a powerhouse in times of war. It has fleets wholly devoted to attacking enemy forces for a number of reasons. It could be to clear them out so that the army can debark safely, destroy hostile ships, and so on. Additionally, it transports the army over so that it can send men into enemy-controlled lands.
This is article number six in the series looking at the fantasy military. For more, you can find them on our blog page!
People don’t just commit crimes on land; they do the same on the seas. When they’re not breaking the law, they’re fleeing to evade arrest. One of the top priorities of the navy is to enforce the laws of the realm and it actively pursues those that knowingly violate them. They do so in order to protect the public from the criminals and to ensure that they can’t commit crimes and get away with it.
Out of all the fantasy navy branches, this one has ample resources allocated to it. There are agencies who work everyday to deal with lawbreakers and they’re scattered throughout the country. Each one of them focuses on a particular part of law enforcement. For instance, some inspect cargo coming in and out on ships and ensure that the ships are properly maintained whereas others have cases they investigate.
Many of these agencies have the power to apprehend lawbreakers but not all can prosecute them. In that event, they refer them to the naval criminal system which is similar to that of the one on land. This system is where officers of the navy who are accused of a crime are tried. If they are found guilty, they are either stripped of their rank and sentenced to prison or kicked out of the navy with no chance of getting back in.
One way the law enforcement branch differs from the other fantasy naval branches is that it conducts raids on a regular basis. Agents will randomly board vessels that are docked at the port or out in the wide ocean to ensure that everything is aboveboard. If they stumble upon any contraband or stolen goods, they seize them and take pretty much the whole crew into custody where they are questioned in order to separate the innocent from the guilty.
Another component of the navy’s law enforcement is that it has some agencies who investigate all navy-related crimes. Murder and espionage are just two types of cases their agents look into. They go where the facts lead them and they arrest the suspects who are then prosecuted.
The navy isn’t just all about enforcing the laws of the realm. There’s another branch that does its own thing and is the one that generates a lot of interest. The idea of exploring the world is tantalizing to a great number of people is why they eagerly sign up to join the navy. What they don’t realize is that there’s a lot more to exploration than they know.
What sets this apart from the other fantasy navy branches is that people are literally stepping into the unknown. That is, they are leaving the comfort of the world they know for one they know nothing about. They are entering a part of the world where they have no idea what dangers are lurking about, from pirates to goblins to vicious creatures.
The ships designated for exploring sail the coastline, mapping it out and filling in all landmarks they encounter on the way. This makes it easier for the navy to formulate missions in the new areas as well as open the way for settlements or bases to be established. The ships it uses for exploring is also accompanied by a protective detail in the event they are attacked since many of these vessels have little to no defenses or firepower.
The reconnaissance is another part of the different fantasy navy branches. While this one sees the most use in times of war, it’s also used quite a bit in peacetime. It focuses on exploring a certain area in order to learn as much about it as it can. That means the names and locations of key roads, buildings, landmarks, terrain like rivers or mountains.
The navy uses the info it amasses from its recon in order to develop a strategy to take and control the area it’s looking at or at the least, destroy or drive out hostile forces. This is especially useful if the area is heavily occupied by the enemy or is densely populated by hostile monsters like trolls. Knowing what dangers are lying in wait makes it easier to create ways in which to destroy them or render them unable to inflict damage on its people.
While its law enforcement branch is at work all the time, there is another one that is only used when the need arises. This particular one is considered to be a ‘last resort’ option to use if all the others have already failed. That’s right, it’s the one that’s used in times of wartime and it’s used to devastating effect.
Why is this one more powerful than the other fantasy navy branches? Because it contains weapons that are seldom used, weapons considerably more destructive than what the typical ship in the navy carry. The vast majority of the navy’s ships use standard weapons depending on the era like cannons for medieval times or munitions for the modern era.
There are ships that wield far more power than all these ships and the weapons they have are either prototypes or in the process of development and they’re brought out onto battle to assess how they fare in realtime and in different weather conditions. These ships unleash weapons that can instantly wipe out an enemy ship in a number of seconds or utterly reduce an island to pieces in short order.
One major advantage this branch has over the others is that it boasts people who are battle-weathered. That means they’ve been in the thick of battle before and they learned how to make split-second decisions to find a way to overcome whatever issues that arise as well as defeat their foes. These veterans quickly learn the best methods to keep the ship in fighting form and pinpoint the weak spots in that of their enemies.
In battle, ships are led by either an admiral or captain, depending on its scale, whose responsibility is to prevail while minimizing losses or casualties. Everyone onboard must work in tandem to win and the same applies to all of the ships of the fleet. Perfect or near-perfect teamwork raises the odds of a successful triumph.
The different fantasy navy branches all do their own thing but when you put them together, they form one of the most effective departments of a nation’s government. There’s always something for everyone who works in the navy to do everyday and most of the time it’s on the water.
Law enforcement is a major part of the navy. The agencies it has expends time and resources in pursuing criminals and solving cases that affect the organization. Many, if not all, have the power to apprehend criminals but those that can’t prosecute them refer them to the naval criminal system where they’re tried for the charges they’re accused of.
Besides enforcing the laws, some other fantasy navy branches focus on exploring and reconnaissance. The former helps the organization learn more about the world, especially when entering unknown lands and the latter helps it by gathering information about a specified area so that it can use it to formulate a strategy on how to secure control of it or drive hostile forces out.
In wartime, the navy puts its most experienced ships on the front line. Having been in battles before, they know what needs to be done to bring victory and how to do it. Furthermore, the navy also brings out its experimental weapons to see how effective they are and most of the time, they pack a devastating punch.
Fleshing out all the different fantasy navy branches helps your audience make sense of who does what and how the entire organization is run which is why you ought to do it for the world you’re building!
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