My story will utilize a 3-act structure, in which the latter two acts will involve a war with an enemy nation. But before I can get to that, I would like to take advantage of the first act to develop the characters, the setting, and so forth. Currently, my MC is a 16-year-old cadet at a prestigious military academy. He has just entered a two-year officer training program, which will last from now until his graduation. The program combines in-class learning with in-field training. The goal of this program is to give the cadets all the training and knowledge they need to be low-ranking officers (i.e., corporals and sergeants) so that by the time they graduate, they would only need a brief orientation before entering directly into service. I have a LOT of liberty in this first act to test the limits of my characters and inspire character development and personal growth. Since the setting is entirely fictional, I don't need to hold to any real-life standards; the officer training program can take any form I want. That's a bit overwhelming, though, because now I have to figure out what exactly this program will consist of. What kinds of subjects might they learn in the classroom that they'll need to become officers? What sorts of physical training should I include? (Side note: the commandant who leads this program is notorious for his rough and almost brutal style, and will essentially serve as an antagonist for the first act of the story, so that also gives me quite a bit of room to spice things up!)
I'd suggest you read about real-life academies, then you're better placed to judge what you want in yours. As reading material, 'Duty First' (Ed Ruggero) and 'Absolutely American' (David Lipsky), or 'Sandhurst: A traditon of leadership' (Angela Holdsworth) might get you off to a start.
What time period is this set in? My immediate reactions: Military academies at the high school level don't produce officers of any grade. They are just a more regimented high school. Basically, they are college prep schools with a military slant. ( https://www.operationmilitarykids.org/military-schools-for-boys-and-girls/ ) Corporals and sergeants are not "officers." By "officer" we typically mean commissioned officer, which strarts with Second Lieutenant in the Army, Air Force, and Marines, and with Ensign in the Navy.
This isn't set in real life; the setting is a pre-industrial, agrarian-based monarchy, with underlying elements loosely inspired by the ancient Romans and Greeks, blended with some Renaissance-esque qualities. So there's not really a "time period" as it's not historical fiction, it's light fantasy, but you can consider it most akin to our early modern period. The culture is quite patriotic/nationalistic, with a strong emphasis on civil service. Military academy here actually carries the real implication of preparing one for military service. Legal adult age is 16, hence why that's the age at which cadets can begin officer training. The military uses a 10-rank system, much more simplified than most modern militaries; corporals and sergeants are ranks 3 and 4. Junior and senior lieutenants are ranks 5 and 6. The former two command small units of 5-10 persons, the latter two command units up to 50 or so. Obviously the latter have more seniority, but there is no distinction such as commissioned or non-commissioned; they're all just "officers". (real life military rankings can be complex, so I went with a very simple system)
Since it's fantasy and you effectively want to blend two structures which are separate IRL, I'd suggest just making something up that makes sense. If I were reading your work, some things I'd probably expect to see in a military academy set-up would be: - Classroom classes on battle tactics, strategy, diplomacy, military protocol and survival skills (both for the individual and when leading a squad in a sticky situation). Maybe something related to code or code breaking in an emergency? Maybe something on the history of warfare? - Weapons training, i.e. the correct use, handling and disposal of everything from a penknife to a trebuchet. Again, this would be both from a hands-on perspective and when leading a squad of armed soldiers. - Lots of PE and practical combat training (look up Marine bootcamp and similar for specific stuff you could employ) - Longer tactical manoevres, like maybe one week per term the cadets are taken out to some inhospital environment to play fancy versions of capture the flag.
I confess that I think you have your work cut out for you. Pre-industrial/agrarian feudal society is going to conjure up historical references in the minds of most readers, I suspect, since that's the past of Europe and North America. The reality is that in such societies there WAS a distinction between officers and non-commissioned officers. Officers tended to be from the nobility -- usually lower nobility or second or third sons, who would not have inherited the family lands due to primogenitor. Even in such societies, corporals and sergeants were non-commissioned officers and were commoners who rose up through the ranks. In those days, it was next to impossible for a non-com to cross the line and become a commissioned officer. I believe the same was true even in the days of the Roman legions. Perhaps I am extrapolating too much from my own knowledge of European and military history, but my gut feeling is that most readers will have some sense of this (heck, it was even played out in the 1950s Disney television series Zorro, in which Sergeant Garcia was quite evidently a lowly commoner). Commoners would not have attended a "prestigious" (or any other) military academy -- that would have been reserved for the nobility -- and a prestigious military academy would not have produced sergeants and corporals. Obviously, it's fiction and it's your world, so you can establish any system you like. From an objective perspective, though, I wonder what purpose is served by creating an entirely new system when so many people are familiar (to a greater or lesser degree) with the traditional military rank structure. It doesn't have to be difficult. Yes, I know in today's U.S. Army there are several grades of sergeant, from "Sergeant" (E5) all the way up through "Master Sergeant" (E9). You don't have to use all those -- you can just have corporals and sergeants. In the officer ranks, you don't have to have second lieutenants and first lieutenants, you can just have "lieutenants." From there you can go to captain, major, colonel (skip lieutenant colonel), and general. IMHO, that's a simplified system that readers can more easily relate to and identify with.
In general all armies pretty much forever induct men in two ways.. the officer/educated class go through training academies to learn to be officers... they are usually lieutenants when they join their units... rank and file are recruited from working men and sent to basic training where they are taught to be fit, fight and follow orders... they are privates when join their units and the more competent ones (or those that survive which amounts to the same thing) become corporals then sergeants in time... a few may rise to be officers. If you want to do something different i'd strongly suggest using different ranks because the established ranks carry established connotations
Your protag would have already been completely trained to serve in the military by their family, and the academy would be a place for them to meet with other upcoming officers and maybe physically fill out a little. Roman families hired tutors and slaves to instruct their males in "manly" arts as soon as eight. Soldiers would teach them sword fighting, professors would teach them administration, philosophers would teach them religion, slaves would teach them to read and write, and military officers would visit regularly examining them for positions in their units, if not offering them future positions already to court favor with the family. The Academy would be exposure to larger classes and more robust training. Your young Dominus might have had the best training his family could buy, but has not commanded a unit of his peers in changing environments. In the Academy he would be placed in a class with his peers that roughly mimics the size of a platoon or maybe a company. Their "superior officers" would be other students doing the same thing, with the highest "ranking" student reporting to a real officer who is also an instructor. They would all have to run the class themselves. The protag would take turns with his peers serving in the various leadership positions inside the "class" unit, still comprised of the other students waiting to haver their turn leading. He would learn to keep track of large groups of people, organize training, complete assignments, and report to the superior 'officers' and faculty. And that's just in a classroom environment, where he still has to complete his studies. In the field they would be in charge of doing all the same things, except they are playing at being soldiers. They hike, camp, fight-- all real training evets that they personally have to pass-- while also being in charge of all those events happening. They have to plan the hike routes, lay out supplies for shooting ranges, do gear checks, managing a timeline that syncs with ten other platoons trying to use the same training field. Do they want extra-to-hand combat training? Meet with the instructors, figure out their availabilities, make a schedule, and then organize the wakeup march setup and execution of training. It's their training to fuck up. All the while, instructors are evaluating their performance, psychologically as much as tactically. By the time the cadet has completed this Academy he should have served in many of the leadership positions he could potentially have, without too much opportunity of him getting anyone killed.
It should be noted again that this is a light fantasy story, in which any similarities to our real world are more-or-less coincidental. I think a few of you are delving too far into reality and history that doesn't really apply here because this is an entirely different world that doesn't function exactly like ours. It has its own history and cultures, and a social dynamic that don't quite mirror anything from our actual world. Perhaps the biggest difference is that this society, while it does have classes, doesn't put as much focus on class as historical real-world societies did, or heck, not even as much as many current IRL societies do. So, military academy is available to all, although it's probably not uncommon for academy administration to play favorites. In other words, it's a more egalitarian society than most of our real-world historical societies ever have been. Even women can serve and attain high ranks, my MC's mother was a navy captain for instance. Basically what I'm getting at is that it's difficult to compare this world to ours, because there isn't really a 1:1 comparison to be found in most cases. Being that this is fantasy, I think "that's just how it is" is all the justification really needed; after all, that's what our own world comes down to, ultimately. So now that that's covered... Hm, all good things to consider! A brief scene or two on learning the history of warfare could allow an opportunity to expand some on the worldbuilding, so I like that. Diplomacy and codes are something I hadn't considered. Probably something on communications as well, being that they don't have radios and so there's more involved with getting a message from point A to point B - courier training, basically. "Everything from a penknife to a trebuchet" definitely sounds interesting. The first time the class gets to handle something like a trebuchet would certainly be an impressive moment for them! Those last two I can actually combine if I wanted, since the academy itself is located in a desert near the foothills of a mountain range and about a day's hike from a river. That whole area could be used for such exercises, to give them experience in navigating terrain and environments while also optimizing their physical abilities. Ah, now THAT'S a really interesting dynamic I hadn't considered! Those are all really interesting ideas that will do a lot to spice up this portion of the story, while also providing a lot of observable character development points. I like it, thanks so much! One thing I have to wonder, regarding the idea of taking turns leading the class: how might this be decided? Cycle through each student in some kind of order? Pick them at random? Maybe make it based on performance grades? There's a few options there, I wonder what might work best. Regardless, that does certainly give me a better idea what kind of form this program might take. As an added plus, it allows quite a few opportunities to flesh out the growing conflict that I've established between my MC and his overly-competitive friend. Honestly, I just wanted the number of ranks to be an even 10, haha, that's why there were two lieutenant ranks. Come to think of it, though, I think 9 will work better. Thanks for helping me realize that. I devised this rank system mostly for simplicity reasons, so I don't have to, for example, specify each time who is a "master sergeant" or "staff sergeant" or any of the other ranks which use repeated terms; a sergeant is just a sergeant, a lieutenant is just a lieutenant, etc. Makes it easier to follow IMO, both for myself and the reader. Here's one idea I had considered: at some point, likely in the last few months of the program, perhaps they could be tasked to work with a real-life unit as part of their training. I'm thinking most likely a logistics unit, where they wouldn't be in danger, and would mostly spend their time on a base, moving things, taking inventory (i.e. menial labor), and generally getting an idea of the inner workings of how their country's military operates. How does that sound? (Or should it perhaps be something more "involved" than logistics?)
the problem is (as is very common in fantasy) is that the reader lives in our real world not your fantasy one and therefore words and terms have connotations to them that reflect things that happen in the real world... therefore when you have a rank like say corporal and then refer to them as an officer it creates a disconect for the reader.... you can say "but in this world' as much as you want... but the reader will still have that reaction... which is why my advice is that if you want it to be non real world structure you need to use non real world terms. A related problem is that in order to use concepts that don't apply in our world you are setting yourself a massive task of explaining all that to the reader so that things make sense... and the average reader doesn't want to have to absorb a treatise on world history, culture, politics in order to understand the plot... This is an often overlooked thing by even experienced fantasy authors because you know all that stuff because you created it in loving detail... but the reader not only doesnt know it but doesnt want to
One highly exciting subject, at least where I went (ADFA/Duntroon), was Military Communications. I don't mean field signals (which we did learn in other lessons) but administration. Yes, Administration: letter heads, formatting, how to make equipment requests, how to file personal reports, even what font to use. It all had to be done the military way. Also, I rarely if ever had contact with the Commandant, and when I did it was a cordial visit during training or a formal reception for various things. My direct line of command contact was my divisional Sergeant and Lieutenant. I sometimes saw our year's overall commander, an Airforce Flight Lieutenant (or just Flight), but the Commandant was too busy to deal with us on an individual level, especially when it came to discipline. But that's all 18 years ago now (fuck me where does the time go?)
I really don't think this is as big of an issue as you think it is, for a few reasons. - The first reason is that they literally are officers. You're only thinking of "officer" as "commissioned officer" and are forgetting that the "O" in "NCO" means "officer". So with no distinction between COs and NCOs in this country, they would all just be "officers". It's internally consistent and makes sense. - The second reason is that even real-life militaries are not all equivalent to each other in their ranking systems. The same words can mean slightly different things in different places, and so a fictional world is clearly no exception. - The third reason is rather blunt: the average reader does not know, and especially does not care, about this stuff as much as you do. You're getting hung up on words that might be used once or twice in a whole chapter. The ranking system is not what the story is about, so the focus of readers will not be on that. Only the most easily-distracted and anal-retentive of readers will even think about such minor details; and if I'm going to cower to such people at every turn, I may as well not even bother writing, because those kinds of people will always find issues to complain about. - The fourth reason is that if I make up words then I have to explain what these words mean, and the mere use of made-up words is jarring and distracting to a reader. It's better for everyone's sake to use existing words that have a meaning roughly similar to my intent, and simply take a little creative liberty with them. This fourth point is what makes your second paragraph particularly ironic. I've got some good feedback on the question I asked, enough I think to get me started on fleshing out the substance of this program. Thanks, everyone!
Okay. You asked, we answered. Free advice is worth every farthing you pay for it. I think what some of us are trying to suggest is that you may very well find that your fantasy world is too close to real history to allow readers to fully suspend belief and become immersed in your fictional setting. "while it does have classes, doesn't put as much focus on class as historical real-world societies did" -- but you said it's a monarchy, and you said it's pre-industrial agrarian. That immediately conjures up images of roughly 16th to 17th century Europe. Having called up those images, but wanting your world to be different, you then have to work at making it different. IMHO, you do that by NOT using a rank structure that has ranks the same as or similar to the ranks used in current militaries, or in 16th or 17th century Europe. And I don't understand the insistence on having this "prestigious" military academy be open to commoners, and then having graduates come out as lowly corporals or sergeants. If your protagonists mother was a captain in the navy of the realm, that would immediately suggest to me that the family is at least minor nobility, not commoners. "Basically what I'm getting at is that it's difficult to compare this world to ours, because there isn't really a 1:1 comparison to be found in most cases." The problem is that you are ignoring how the human mind works. We function by constantly trying to pigeon-hole new information by comparing it to information already on tap. The fact that it's difficult to compare your world to our historical world doesn't mean that your readers aren't going to be constantly doing just that. Which means you have to work hard at dismissing the natural, automatic, subconscious (in some cases) comparisons that will inevitably be made. It makes sense to you because you created it. It wouldn't make sense to me if I were reading it, because in my mind I would immediately say, "But that's not how it is -- this author doesn't know jack shit about the military, why is she writing about it?" I am thinking about "officers" as being separate from non-coms because (a) I was in the Army, so I know this is the case. (b) I'm a WW2 baby -- every male in my parents' generation, on both my father's and my mother's side of the family, served in WW2. Some were officers, some were enlisted. We ALL knew the difference, from a very young age. You can argue all you want that corporals and sergeants are non-commissioned "officers" (they are), but the fact is they are enlisted personnel, which is different from the officers corps. Corporals and sergeants can't go to the officers club, for example. Their service numbers are different from officer's service numbers. In the U.S. we have ROTC programs in many colleges and universities (and some high schools), and we have OCS (Officer Candidate School). ROTC and OCS don't turn out corporals and sergeants, they turn out second lieutenants. And I respectfully submit that if not everyone knows that (and apparently not everyone does, since you don't), it's still probably fair to say that "most" people know that. So you are shoveling water against the tide to combat the comparisons. I see that big soft moose has made the same points I'm trying to make. It's not that you can't have your world any way you want it -- but to do so, you have to work extra hard to avoid offering things that will lead to mental comparisons with the real world, thereby short-circuiting your story whenever your world is different. If you want a one-tier officer corps, fine -- but make up new names for the ranks, for example.
Ok, I wrote a reply but deleted. The OP is clear that in their world there is no distinctive line between NCO class soldiers and CO. It's just a clear rank line from the bottom to top. Perhaps a new term, other than officer, would better serve the story and avoid confusion, as 'officer' still carries with it the distinct line between the highest NCO ranks and lowest CO ranks. Although if that's the case what the heck is the Academy for?
Sooo based on my experience: Military coms - Admin related training Leadership training - how to command people Combat training Hand to hand combat training Drill - parades and basic formations Weapons training - shooting and weapons maintenance Orienteering Combat tactics - theory and field Codes Field signals Physical training - running, pushups etc Combat simulations General field skills - abseiling, high speed water insertions, making and striking camp Teamwork exercises - working together to solve problems Politics for now...
What other term exists? I'm not aware of any other term that would work and be understood. It's merely a military-focused education (as opposed to regular education, or none) for those who intend to enter service. Attending an academy does not necessarily make one an officer, that's why there's a separate officer program. Most people who intend to serve, choose to attend such an academy. It gives them more appreciation for the history and culture, teaches subjects like strategy and military history, and those who perform well at academy are given preferential options when the do eventually enter service (i.e., they get more say in what they do or where they serve vs enlistees who do not attend academy). ...I don't expect that answer to be accepted by anyone here. (for such a patriotic and service-oriented culture, this makes sense to me, but as has been established, "what makes sense to me" doesn't really matter) It would seem from this thread that more or less everything about my story, from the details to the setting and all the overall concepts, are too fundamentally flawed to salvage at this point.
I don't think it's too flawed to salvage, I think you just have to invent more things for that system work than you originally thought. This ties in with what you mentioned earlier with the NCOs and COs being the same. That would just be confusing to any readers because non-commissioned officers are part of the the lower ranks and normal militaries. These lower ranks are focused more on the working class rather than leading. Of course, there is tons of leadership happening at all levels, but this is more of the "get the job done" class. Officer ranks tend to deal a lot more with strict leadership and program management. A CO is a commanding officer by the way, which isn't a rank. That's a billet. The division of ranks is important because their tasks are fundamentally different. Neither is more important than the other, yet they must function within each other's scope of rank divisions in order to function properly. This academy is great and all, but there should really be a division between officers and enlisted otherwise it just turns into a cluster. Also, the reader is likely to understand how your military functions and who rates higher if you either go off the current ranking system, or invent one entirely different that sort of follows a likewise path. A service-oriented culture has been done and does work well, as is seen in Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Just be aware it takes a lot of creative work to put that all together. Your academy is certainly possible, but you need to set up the rules for how your military functions properly first.
The rank system (at least for the army; navy has different names but follows the same pattern) is as follows: Warrior --> Specialist --> Corporal --> Sergeant --> Lieutenant --> Major --> Colonel --> General --> Marshal So, how about this: - Rename the "Officer Training Program" to something like "Advanced Leadership Training Program", or something along those lines. That way the name of the program doesn't carry specific implications of rank. - Use the term "enlisted officer" for corporals and sergeants, which would mean basically the same thing as NCO. Then "junior officers" and "seniors officers" à la real life. (so there's still a distinction, I'm just not a fan of using the terms "commissioned/non-commissioned" tbh, for reasons I can't fully explain but that's basically what it comes down to)
It's better (I think) but, as a former enlisted man whose father was an officer, I'm not convinced. NCOs are enlisted men. Yes, the term non-commissioned officer has the word "officer" in it, but fundamentally anyone who has had any exposure to the military recognizes that the U.S. military (and the militaries of most countries of the world) are divided into the officers corps and the enlisted personnel. It's a bit difficult for me to understand why your fantasy world can't simply accept that but, if you want to have an egalitarian military in which there is no line of demarkation between NCOs and officers (or, perhaps I should say, in which NCOs are on the officer side of the line rather than the enlisted side of the line), there's no reason you can't do that. BUT ... I respectfully suggest, as I did in a previous post and which Selbbin also suggested, that to avoid the mental association with known rank structures you should skip using real world names for ranks and just make up a bunch of ranks. That makes it easy for you to organize them any way you want. How about borrowing some obsolete ranks from history? Many readers may have encountered them but won't know just what they are (were), while others won't even have heard of them. I'm thinking about obsolete ranks from, for example, the British military, such as Subaltern, Cornet, and Ensign (the latter less desirable since our Navy still uses it). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaltern_(military) Or perhaps borrow (or adapt) some of the ranks from the ancient Roman empire: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/ancient-history/12-ranks-roman-military-officers.html
Sapere, this isn't the US military. I don't know why you keep insisting that everything should exactly mirror the US military, other than your own personal biases from having served in it. The US doesn't even exist in this world. Nor does any other country we know of. Literally the entire setting is fictional. Fictional cultures in fictional countries on fictional continents on a fictional planet. I added the distinction between the two classes that you and others insisted should be present. Selbbin seems satisfied with the change, at least. I added what you want and now you're complaining that I'm not using the same exact specific term "NCO" when the term I decided to use literally has the exact same meaning (what's another word for non-commissioned? enlisted.). So I don't know what you want at this point. I'm getting back to my work now. I've kindly considered and responded to almost all critiques so far and made changes where they are actually necessary, but now you're just going too far. It's fantasy, dude, I'm not writing about WWII. Lighten up.
Everyone here needs to take a breather before coming back to the thread. If an opinion is posted that you dont necessarily agree with, dont attack the poster an perpetuate the fight. Call it a day and move on. The story is ultimately the OP's to write, though they should maintain a level of respect with their respondants as well. Any further fighting and dragging this out will result in thread bans or a locked thread. But really guys, just keep cool heads and enjoy the development process.
