Legion Discipline

Upon joining the Imperial Legions, every soldier from the lowest Legionnaire to the highest Strategoi swears the Legion Oath, an oath of loyalty to the Realm and the Scarlet Empress, and dedicates himself to his term of service, accepting that death is the punishment for failing to uphold this oath.

By this Oath, the Scarlet Empress has explicit right to summarily execute any member of her army, a power she passes down the ranks so each officer has right to summarily execute the men under his command, and the officers under his command should they be convicted in court martial. While political considerations usually stay the hand of most officers when it comes to Dynastic members of the Legions, overall discipline within the Legions is harsh.

For officers, immediate execution is not an acceptable punishment, as they must be convicted in a Court Martial, a special judicial hearing to determine the extent of their crimes. This Court Martial is conducted by the Imperial Magistrate attached to each Legion, who summons witnesses and reviews evidence before returning a verdict of innocence or guilt to the commanding officer of the accused. The commanding officer then determines punishment. Since the disappearance of the Scarlet Empress, nearly all Legion Magistrates have died or abandoned their duties and taken flight into the Threshold.

Selected Punishments

Thousand-Blow Death: The highest crimes within the Legions are those of treason and cowardice. Where one soldier betrays the Legion or flees the battle, the standard punishment is for him to be presented before the other members of his unit, who beat him to death with cudgels.

Decimation: Should an entire unit be guilty of cowardice and quitting the field, then they are to be Decimated: by random lot, one soldier of every ten is to be beaten to death by his comrades. Decimation is also a punishment sometimes used in occupied territories where the Legions face guerrilla attack: if the local people allow such assaults to continue, they are rounded up and one in ten put to death.

Flogging: A typical corporal punishment, for failure to accomplish assigned duties or fulfill given orders, theft, or for acts of insubordination. The Legionnaire is subjected to beatings from his superior officer.

Lashing: More severe than flogging, though punishing the same sorts of offences. Lashing breaks skin, causing bleeding and scarring, much more medically dangerous for a mortal. The officer with the whip is also a source of social shame, for rather than the baton of a superior officer the lashes are delivered by the whip of the Legion logistics officer charged with management of slaves.

Reduction: For most minor offenses, reductions are the favoured punishments: the most severe reduction, for failing to fulfill duty or for corruption, is a reduction in rank. Mortals are often stripped of all rank and reduced to Legionnaire, Dragonblooded demoted one rank. The Legions do not like the concept of a discharge, of demoting a soldier out of the ranks and back to civilian life, but this is possible by the letter of military law. Discharges are only seen as punishments for Dynastic Dragonblooded.

Lesser Reductions see a soldier’s pay docked, or their food ration reduced.

Weight of Duty: The most minor of offenses, such as failing to meet target in training exercises, stumbling on march, failing to awaken when the bannerman sounds the morning horn, and the like, are punished by Weight of Duty, where the offending soldier is assigned more duties or the least pleasant of duties, such as care for the latrines or burning of the dead. In the absence of soldiers convicted of offenses, these duties normally fall to slinger troops.