A Great Look at the 3 Key Fantasy Military Branches

A three-way split screen showing the three main fantasy military branches. The left one shows a river meandering through a grassy plain with mountains in the background. Above them is a light green sky with clouds. The middle one depicts a blue sky with clouds. The right one shows an ocean with a light pink sky with the sun and several clouds. Black birds appear in all three sides.
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Sunfire

CONTENTS

The Premise

In a fictional world, depending on which era of history it is in, everyday citizens cross paths with the military in a multitude of ways. For instance, they see soldiers who stand guard at the gate, watch sailors debark from a ship that’s been on the sea for months at a time, or marvel in awe watching the brave men effortlessly ride dragons high up in the sky. What they don’t realize is that they are all different fantasy military branches.

Though the military might be solely made up of people, it is a large organization that has locations in practically all major areas of the realm. It is so large that it doesn’t just feature just one branch, it holds at least three, if not more. These different branches are key to creating a military that dominates not just the region but perhaps the continent and even further.

The army is the first of three fantasy military branches. This is the one the mass populace interact with the most, considering its operations are all done on land. The soldiers at the gate from the first paragraph are part of the army though with hard work and a determination to succeed, they can move on up to higher positions.

Branch number two is the navy. Though their work might be done all on the sea, there is no shortage of adventures sailors and other seafaring men can have. For example, they have to contend not just with pirates but the ferocious monsters of the briny deep who wander a bit too close to shore.

For the last of the three fantasy military branches, one simply has to look up into the sky. There’s nothing like the sight of seeing a fleet of airships or dragons flying high above the surface as if marching towards its objective. This branch is the one that gets people talking!

This is article number two in the military series. For more, take a gander at our blog page!

The 1st Type of the Fantasy Military Branches: The Army

Of the 3 core branches, the army is the one with the largest number of people and the one that does the heavy lifting. After all, most of the action takes place on land. It’s also the one people see and deal with the most, for good and bad.

As the largest of the three fantasy military branches, the army operates on a strict positional hierarchy. At the top sits the senior leadership who is led by either a political appointee or someone who was personally selected by the king. Either way, the person at the helm reports directly to the leader of the country.

A white field with a frozen lake on the left and a frosty forest to the right. A gray road runs to the spire-topped palace in the lower center. Behind the palace is a white mountain range. Above the mountains is the blue sky with oval clouds. The coldness of this place represents the hard work that goes into self-publishing a book.

Below the senior leadership, you have positions like commanders and generals. While they have some power over their subordinates, they are expected to follow their superiors’ orders no matter what. Then you have the bottom rung like lieutenants and grunts who have little to no influence, meaning they have no choice but to do their bosses’ bidding if they wish to climb up the ladder.

The army’s paramount priority is to protect the citizens of the realm. It does so by standing sentry at the gates, patrolling the streets, pursuing enemies of the country, and many other tasks. The soldiers and other military personnel do their work in shifts, meaning that the military is ever alert at all hours of the day, from the early dawn all the way to the black of night.

It has a number of buildings it uses within the realm. For instance, many cities feature a base that safeguards it from the local threats which is further broken down into a bunch of smaller buildings like the quarters, mess hall, warehouse, commander’s home, and so on. The capital city is home to the command center, the place where the highest echelon work in. The command center is the nexus of the entire military apparatus, overseeing all operations across the three fantasy military branches.

The Navy, Another Key Part of the Fantasy Military Branches

True to its name, this branch’s chief focus lies not on the land but on the seas and lakes of the world. Not surprisingly, there’s quite a lot to do for the Navy when it comes to patrolling them. Though it primarily focuses on the aquatic side, it does several activities on land.

Out of the three fantasy military branches, the navy sees more than its fair share of action. For instance, its mighty vessels might hotly pursue a roving band of pirates attempting to abscond with a great pile of gold, even chasing them halfway across the world or they might engage in a lengthy battle with a massive tentacled monster terrorizing the port. The adventures the Navy have are the stuff of legend and their stories are told long after they’ve happened.

The average fantasy sailor lives on ships like this brown one with a white sail sailing past a gray shipyard with brown docks. Behind the ship is the green sky with white clouds.

Sailors are the position most people associate with the Navy. This particular position does the grunt work, from cleaning the ships to preparing the food for the full crew, in exchange for being able to travel the world on one of the ships of the fleet. Many have a jolly demeanor since they get to see all of the wondrous sights of the world.

The Navy relies on several kinds of ships to help it patrol the waters. You have the classic galleons, frigates, galleys, battleships, destroyers, submarines, and so on. Naturally the ships available depend on the period of time the world is in. You wouldn’t expect to see a submarine in ancient times, would you?

Among its duties of the second of the three main fantasy military branches, the Navy inspects all incoming and outgoing cargo vessels. Its goal is to ensure that no stolen or counterfeit goods are leaving or entering the nation. Its agents conduct routine inspections at the harbors of the main port cities though they have the power to board ships while at sea.

Number 3 of the Fantasy Military Branches: the Aerial

Though the Navy gets plenty of adventure and action, it pales to that that occur in the skies above the surface. As the youngest of the three branches, the aerial has a ways to go before it can match the other two in terms of pedigree. This is because it was only made possible due to the advent of aviation which can only occur at a certain point in the world’s technological advancement whereas the other two have existed for far longer in it.

The youngest of the three fantasy military branches primarily use small and large aircraft. You have fighters, bombers, jets, transport copters, airships, and helicopters. If you want to really lean into the fantastical side of it, you can have people fly large birds like eagles or beasts like dragons. If you choose to go down that route, be sure to focus on the relationship between the rider and animal. How they feel about each other will affect how well they work together (or not!).

Created by a fantasy inventor, this airship fleet is soaring through an orange sky with white clouds. These 8 ships each have white sails, a brown hull, five port windows, gray wings, a spear, and two propellers in the rear.

The aerial has several things it specializes in. It is great for quick hit-and-run missions where the objective is to destroy something instantly without relying on a large force to do so which might prove costly. It’s also great for weakening up tough targets before the main force arrives so that they can move in and mop up the stragglers. Another way it’s great is to clear out the skies for enemy units that might otherwise wreak havoc on the surface.

Regardless if the pilot is riding a steed or a craft, he has to undergo a rigorous training program to ensure that he can safely control it. Of all the fantasy military branches, the aerial is the most dangerous one since the odds of plummeting to your death is markedly higher when compared to the others. There are institutions that teach prospective candidates all the necessary skills to adapt to life in the skies and winnow out those who just can’t handle it.

Tying it all Together

The core branches, when they work together in perfect tandem, make a country’s military not to be trifled with. Though they do their own thing, the one thing they have in common is to protect the country from those that mean her harm whether it’s an outside foe or one within.

The army is the most populous of the three main fantasy military branches. It is also the one that most people are familiar with, considering they see and interact with this one far more than the two others. The Army operates on a strict hierarchy with power flowing down from the top all the way down to the lowest ranks.

Adventure abounds for the sailors and many other seafaring who work for the Navy. They get to sail the high seas of the world, see exotic lands and animals, all the while dealing with marauding pirates and the vicious monsters who call the seas home. They don’t get to travel in luxury though, they have to sail in the ships of the fleet such as galleons or battleships where there’s always plenty of work to do!

Last and not the least, the aerial is the most exciting of all three fantasy military branches. People get to ride cool aircraft and powerful beasts that can cause massive damage in just a number of seconds. However, they have to learn the ropes so that they can safely handle all that power, lest they lose control and fall out of the skies.

When working on the military, fleshing out its main branches will go a long way in making it feel real to your audience. Just maybe, they’ll find themselves wanting to learn more about it and your world…

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Thanks for reading this and until the next time,

Sunfire

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