One of the most frustrating things about reading fantasy that deal with fighting and the military is that there seems to be something like 3 ranks, generals, sergeants, and everyone else. Generals control the battlefield by basically shouting their orders or giving some sort of inspirational speech. Sergeants train soldiers. Everyone else fights.
Reality, of course, is quite different. There are a myriad of ranks that depend on which branch of the military is being discussed. Each country may have an army, a navy (if they have a significant coastline), and perhaps some sort of elite troops (such as knights, spies, or assassins). Ranks are the primary way to show who has command of whom.
Typically, in the heat of battle, a single person can only effectively command about 5 people. In the modern US army, a corporal will command a fireteam of 4 or fewer people. So, when we’re talking about fielding an army of 1000 people, the command structure needs to be far more robust than 1 general giving a command and 999 of them doing it.
If a corporal can only command 4 people (that person being the 5th of the group), then 3-4 corporals will need someone to give them commands, in this case sergeants. Lieutenants command sergeants, and so on until you get to the general. So, before you can figure out exactly how many ranks you need, you’ll need to figure out how large your military is.
In the example of an army of 1000 people, we would have 750 privates, 188 corporals, 47 sergeants, 12 lieutenants, 4 captains, and a major. A colonel would command four of these armies, and a general would have a total of 16 armies, assuming something like this system exists. Reality is even more complicated, as it would obviously be extremely difficult for a general to give an order and have it disseminate down six levels before anything can happen. Other officers of rank would be required to deliver messages over the battlefield.
So, what does this all mean? First off, someone with the rank of Captain in this system would have at his command something on the order of 250 people. That is a lot of power and responsibility. A Captain in your fantasy world should be someone REALLY important, and deserves respect not only from the citizenry around them, but from you as a creator. If this is a roleplaying world, they should be someone who has a character sheet or at least a name people will recognize. If you’re writing a novel, this is an important character who should be fully developed and should be mentioned in your setting whenever there is something going on with the military. A Colonel commands 4000 people or more. That’s about half of the vaunted Spartan military. Don’t piss off the Colonel.
Don’t treat the middle ranks of soldiers as a dime a dozen, either. A sergeant may have 20 men report to him, after all, so even a strong warrior should give them some respect. These are people who command the battlefield.
When creating your military ranks, remember to have enough of them. In the US military, we have several ranks of general, several ranks of lieutenant, and even two ranks of colonel. In the British military, the highest army rank was Field Marshal. If you use the system described above, the general will only be able to command about 16,000 troops. That’s a lot in a fantasy world, but if your country has a total military of 50,000, you need someone to command the generals, and perhaps even people to command them.
If you have separate military branches, they’ll likely have different ranks as well. Perhaps the navy is much larger than the army, so they have more ranks. Does the admiral have the right to command a general? Where do the elite troops fit in? How do they coordinate? Are there rivalries (quick answer, yes). How are internal fights resolved?
As with everything, this can become a major rabbit hole. If your story doesn’t revolve around the military, it is probably enough for you to come up with your ranking system and about how many people each rank commands. Just make sure you aren’t ignoring all the interesting intricacies available to your setting.
Next week we’ll shift our focus to the political realm, starting with different types of government. Thanks for reading. See you next week!
