Sic transit gloria mundi
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
Intent: Flesh out Firemane's hierarchy a bit.
Image Credit: Here, Here.
Role: The Firemane General Staff is the leadership organ of Firemane's forces.
Canon: N/A.
Permissions: N/A.
Links: Aftermath, Dahomey, Qadiri, Eldorai, Order of Fire, Leonina Varkathras.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Organization Name: Firemane General Staff
Classification: Military High Command.
Affiliation: Siobhan, Firemane, House Kerrigan-Alcori, General Devotion, The Inner Circle.
Organization Symbol: None really, just their military ranks.
Description: The Firemane General Staff is the leadership organ of Firemane's ground, space and aerospace forces. It is responsible for the continuous study of all aspects of warfare, and for drawing up and reviewing plans for mobilisation and military campaigns. When Firemane forces are deployed to a war zone, the general staff acts as the nerve centre, especially in protracted engagements. It provides, oversees the dissemination of orders and their execution.
Moreover, it is responsible for analysis and the continuous study of warfare. It is characterised by the formal selection of its officers on the basis of intelligence and proven merit rather than patronage or wealth and by the vigorous training they must undergo. General Staff officers are trained at the Firemane War College and the Firemane Naval Academy.
GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Headquarters: Arx Aeternae
Domain: The Firemane General Staff does not lay claim to any planetary domains. It is part of Firemane and is funded by the megacorporation.
Notable Assets: Strictly speaking, the entire Firemane military would count as a notable asset, as the General Staff is responsible for supplying, coordinating, organising and directing it. However, on its own the General Staff does not control any large industrial facilities or similar. It is responsible for running Firemane's military academies though.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
Hierarchy: Like any military organisation or bureaucracy, the Firemane General Staff is governed by a strict hierarchy. The overall head of the organisation is the Chief of the Great General Staff (CGGS). This individual is always a general officer or a flag officer. He or she is assisted by a deputy chief and a joint staff. Beneath those two, there are two areas; army and navy. The first is headed by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), the second by the Chief of Naval Staff (CNS).
The Chief of Naval Staff is assisted by the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff and Chief of Naval Personnel, the Chief of Naval Procurement, Chief of Naval Operations and Strategic Planning, the Chief of Naval Supplies, the Chief of Naval Aviation and Head of Starfighter Command. The Admiralty also has other officers like the Surgeon General, the Astrographer, the Director of Hypermatter Propulsion and the Director of Naval Intelligence. Starfighter Command is one of the branches of the Admiralty. There are various branches beneath the Board, covering fleet administration, production, support services, strategy and tactics.
These are divided into departments that handle areas like deck, logistics, attack craft, organisation, flight, engineering, technical services, ordnance, gunnery, communications, biology, convoy and patrols, space attack craft areas and astrogation. Starfighter Command has sometimes lobbied to be made an independent service run by a military chief on par with the army and naval chiefs, but this has failed so far. For obvious reasons, the navy is not sympathetic.
The Chief of Army Staff has responsibility for all army matters. Like their naval counterpart, they are assisted by deputy chiefs for personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics, war plans, communications, and civil affairs. The army staff has bureaus for Order of Fire integration, medical, military engineering, signals, planetary aerospace forces, munitions, garrisons, legal affairs, security, special forces, training and doctrine and so on. The Adjutant-General is the senior administrative officer of the army and reports to the Chief of Personnel. The Surgeon-General is the senior medical officer and the Quartermaster-General to the Forces oversees transport and supply of equipment, provisions and munitions.
Much of the interservice operational planning is conducted by the Joint Planning Staff. The Order of Fire kind of straddles the line. Most of its members serve army roles and are typically utilised as special operations forces or as support to regular army units. However, it also has a presence in the navy in form of ace pilots and support personnel, such as healers, mentalists and so on. Military rank precedes Force rank, so they are integrated into the chain of command of whichever branch they serve in.
Significantly, the Chief of the Great General Staff reports directly to Lady Siobhan Kerrigan. General Staff officers alternate between staff and line duties. Thus an officer might be assigned to the staff of a brigade or division or be given their own field command, before returning back to the centre. This is supposed to keep them sharp and ensure that they do not lose touch with the formations in the field. The chief of staff of a Firemane formation in the field has the right to disagree, in writing, with the plans or orders of the commander of said formation and appeal to the commander of the next highest formation.
This might ultimately be the Lady Kerrigan, who would be guided by the Head of the Great General Staff. This is supposed to serve as a check on incompetence and also allows the objecting officer to officially disassociate himself from a flawed plan. Firemane officers and NCOs are also encouraged, even forced, to give critical after action reports, stating how they and others could have done things better. Both Tegaea and Siobhan were career soldiers and realised how detrimental a culture of not rocking the boat can be to the military. Of course, things can get awkward when an officer criticises a plan devised by the boss, but she cannot exactly complain since he's just doing his duty.
Firemane officers are trained to follow the principle of leading by mission, also known as mission-type tactics. This means that the military commander gives subordinate leaders a clearly defined goal - a mission -, the forces needed to accomplish that goal and the time frame within which the goal must be reached. The subordinate leaders then implement the order independently. The subordinate leader is given, to a large extent, the planning initiative and a freedom in execution which allows a high degree of flexibility at the operational and tactical levels of command. Mission-type orders free the higher leadership from tactical details. For the success of the mission-type tactics it is especially important that the subordinate leaders understand the intent of the orders and are given proper guidance and that they are trained so they can act independently.
Membership: The Firemane General Staff corps consists of those officers qualified to perform staff duties, and forms a military fraternity. There are no gender or species restrictions. Leadership experience and graduation of the corresponding Firemane military academy is mandatory. The academy is highly selective. Officers who want to become General Staff officers prepare themselves for the entrance examination, which consist of tests on a variety of subjects. Their exhaustive training is designed not only to weed out the less motivated or less qualified candidates, but also to produce a body of professional military experts with common methods and outlook. General Staff-qualified officers alternate between line and staff duties, but remain lifelong members of this special organisation. Officers permanently assigned to the General Staff are described in official returns as 'of the General Staff' (e.g. 'Colonel Gneisenau of the General Staff').
Unsurprisingly, Non-Force-users outnumber Force-users. While Firemane has its own Force-using branch, the Order of Fire, it expects Force-users who seek command positions to prove themseves in the same way as their 'normal' comrades-in-arms. After all, the ability to swing a lightsabre or shoot lightning at people is not a sufficient qualification for leadership. Most Force-using officers serve tactical command roles and the Order of Fire is clearly subordinate to the army leadership. Brigadier Leonina Varkathras, being the most senior Mistress of the Order after the Lady Kerrigan herself, sometimes attends meeting as an adviser.
Climate: Professional. The General Staff is a military, bureaucratic order, and so daily life in it is defined by rules, regulation and military drill. There is a lot of formality and saluting. Naturally there is also a dress code, as an officer must wear proper attire on duty. Thus there is a strong climate of military professionalism. However, the environment is also very competitive. This does not manifest in form of assassinations or convenient 'accidents'. Indeed, teamwork is very important for the success of any endeavour.
However, its members obviously want to impress. Rising in rank requires professional aptitude, but a good knowledge of office politics is also important. Like in any large organisation, there are cliques that seek to advance their members. One example is the Dahomian Clique, a rather tight-knit network of Dahomian officers. Detractors believe that its members have been able to advance themselves and their fellows because they are a clique. Dahomians have a strong presence in army commands, while Qadiri and Eldorai are more strongly represented in the navy.
Regimental traditions and interests also play a role. This means that the ideal of promotion by merit can be at variance with the vested interests of established networks. The General Staff regards itself as an elite body whose members are the natural leaders of Firemane's military. In their view, they are a special military fraternity that is uniquely qualified to see the larger picture and guide strategy. Higher-ranking officers of all services are expected to study wider economic, political and diplomatic issues related to broad strategy and tactics. The General Staff constantly runs wargames and devises scenarios for various contingencies.
Promotion can be quite swift for members of the corps. Individuals who display superior performance over an extended period of time are steadily advanced. There are several policy initiatives meant to both reward over-achievers and incentivise them to pass along their methods of success. However, the opposite is also true. Of course, in the end it also depends on the personality of the individual commander. Some officers are traditionalists or martinets; others are more open to free-thinkers. Some are outsiders who had to rise on merit and may have even been promoted from the rank and file; others are connected to a fraction in the officer corps and benefited from the patronage of the old girls' network.
The Firemane military has a practice called secondment. Under it, an officer can be released from their normal duties and be given an assignment elsewhere in Firemane or even in an allied or vassalised government. For instance, Vigilance, a General Staff officer from Dahomey, was assigned to the Diplomatic Bureau and made the Firemane resident on the Void Seeker, an independent Qadiri worldship. Novra Kalcha used to serve as First Quartermaster before being put in charge of the Bureau of Production.
Officers are expected to adhere to security protocols, especially regarding confidential matters, such as those labelled top secret. Failure to comply with the rules and regulations that goven the General Staff can be punished with various forms of penalties, depending on the severity of the offence. They can range from a simple written or verbal notice, demotion, reassignment, court martial or, in the most extreme cases such as treason, capital punishment. Court martials are convened to try members for violations of the Firemane military's criminal code.
Reputation: Individuals outside of Firemane probaby view the Firemane General Staff in the same way as they see the corporation, since it is an appendage of it. Overall, the General Staff is a professional military organisation. Within Firemane, the General Staff is largely repected. However, some regard General Staff Officers as arrogant.
Firemane troopers have come up with some rather colourful slang for them, especially if they feel the officer in question has not undergone the risk and stresses of combat as the grunts have. Command Sergeant Major Freya Solveig has had very unflattering things to say that cannot be repeated in polite company. There is a bit of a divide between officers who passed through the General Staff's cursus honorum and those who lack General Staff training and have risen purely on account of their conduct as frontline officers. That said, many officers who have promoted in the field later receive the appropriate education. This especially applies to enlisted and noncommissioned officers who have received a battlefield promotion.
Curios: Staff officers receive the right to wear a carmine band to cap and broad carmine trouser stripe. They also receive a vibrorapier with ceremonial engravings. Other curios are code cylinders, embroidered patches, epaulettes and ribbon bars. Officers are also issued a variety of uniforms, depending on branch and occasion.
Rules: The Firemane General Staff is dedicated to the virtues of military discipline, professionalism and expertise. Members are expected to comport themselves professionally, be loyal to Firemane and obey the orders of their superiors. Its members are bound by a strong esprit de corps, regarding themselves as an elite that has earned a leadership role. Firemane's roots are that of a paramilitary company and while the corporation has diversified its portfolio since then, a military ethos still permeates it.
Loyalty to the Company and opposition to its enemies are obviously paramount. Compared to the Board of Control, the ruling group of Firemane, the general staff is less politicised. This does not mean that the staff officers are apolitical technicians. They are fully expected to adhere to Firemane's values. Rather it means that the atmosphere within the general staff is more frank. This also characterises their discourse with their overall boss. While an autocratic leader, Siobhan is a lot more reluctant to remove competent officers who disagree with her than awkward bureaucrats, which perhaps reflects her own military background.
Goals:
- Provide Firemane's forces with professional, well-trained leadership by coordinating and directing the efforts of army, navy and aerospace forces.
- Devise strategies and plans that ensure Firemane forces are successful in the field.
- Execute the directives of their political superiors.
- Individual members of the General Staff presumably intend to rise within the military hierarchy.
MEMBERS
Admiral Taelon Far: Taelon Far is the Chief of Naval Staff and thus the professional head of Firemane's naval service. This makes her the naval counterpart of General Devotion, the army chief. She holds the rank of Admiral and chairs the Admiralty. Taelon is an Eldorai noble who aligned with Firemane rather than the Star Queen from early on. This has given both Eldorai conservatives and revolutionaries a reason to dislike her. It is always nice when two diametrically opposed forces that feel naught but deadly hatred for each other are able to agree on something. For her part, Taelon regards both groups as dangerously short-sighted and naive. Having found the old ways wanting, she has hitched her waggons to Siobhan's star.
Formerly a Royalist, Taelon switched to Firemane after seeing that the Eldorai were incapable of defending themselves without help...so why not cut out the middleman? She was a minor noblewoman, who saw no easy path for advancement except through a move like this. She had been in charge of organising the Eldorai water fleet, such as it was, but felt like there was no way out of that position. When she made the switch, she brought all her assets and retainers with her, creating a bit of a network for Eldorai joining Firemane to work through.
This gave her ample opportunities for patronage, but Eldorai nationalists labelled her an unpatriotic sellout for joining the 'foreign devils'. She was targeted for assassination by the Red Eagles, an Eldorai rebel group opposed to the ancien régime and foreign influence on Kaeshana. Taelon survived the hit, but was injured. Today, the leader of the Red Eagles is one of the commanders of the Shadow Knights. Needless to say, this has not improved relations. Taelon is ambitious and driven, capable and a good commander and organiser. She is proud and less self-effacing than her colleague Devotion. The admiral is married and has three children - two daughters and a son. As is typical for Eldorai nobility, these are not her biological children. Instead she hired a surrogate for her husband to impregnate and then raised the children as her own.
Her way of thinking is still influenced by her noble upbringing and time at court, so her children having advantageous marriages is important to her. Taelon is officially still a member of the Church of Ashira, but not particularly devout. Her children have received most of their education in modern, secular schools. Stern maternalism is a good way to sum up her character. Taelon is Force-Sensitive, but only in a very minor way that does not merit training. This was a source of frustration in her youth, as Eldorai society has pronounced theocratic tendencies. To feel the Force, yet be unable to do anything even remotely meaningful with it seemed humiliating. Her sister was a 'true' Force-User and had served in the Angelii. It made her the favourite. Taelon was envious of her powers. Then her sister was abducted by slavers, who possessed tech far ahead of that of the Eldorai.
Colonel Destiny: Whenever Siobhan says she is having a meeting with Destiny, it always sounds so terribly dramatic. Then again, Siobhan has a penchant for that. Regardless, Destiny is Firemane's chief logistics officer. The woman is extremely disciplined, ordered, and logical and her salute is always the most crisp in her department. These traits come in handy. Her name is courtesy of her Dahomian origins and ambitious nature. She holds the rank of Colonel in Firemane's army and is a General Staff Officer. The latter entitles her to wearing a carmine band to cap and broad carmine trouser stripe. Rather than being a field officer, she works at headquarters.
One of her responsibilities is helping the leadership determine what kind of resources can be allocated to operations. Her division oversees the planning and carrying out of the movement, supply, and maintenance of Firemane's military forces. She makes judgement using a mixture of intuition and scientifically weighing alternatives as the situation allows. Her judgement is based on professional expertise in the field of logistics, an understanding of military considerations and quantitative, statistical analysis. Her world is one of styluses, datapads and statistics. She likes things tiday and properly filed.
However, she often visits Firemane bases and production centres in order to get a more accurate understanding of matters. Her inspections are known to be rigorous. Destiny is very formal and focused on her work, which can make her come across as aloof or arrogant. Correct adherence to military protocol is important to her. However, her job is an important one, as logistics can be crucial to deciding the outcome of a campaign. A breakdown in the supply chain can be crippling. The way she sees it, she has a destiny and that destiny is in the stars.
She is from Dahomey and grew up during a time of endemic warlordism, and foreign exploitation. She was a teenage soldier fighting the slavers and companies who had taken over Dahomey. After they were ejected she joined the Protectorate and then Firemane. There, she showed her talent for organisation. This allowed her to rise through the ranks in the quartermaster's branch. She still visits her homeworld though, particularly for ceremonies to commemorate the struggle for freedom. Destiny hails from the Emeka tribe, the same ethnic group General Devotion belongs to. She has been groomed by the older woman and looks up to her a fair bit.
General Devotion: Devotion is Firemane's Chief of Army Staff. She is a career soldier with decades of experience in command and administration. Born on Dahomey as the daughter of the chieftain of the Emeka tribe, she had to fight for her inheritance. First she battled rival warlords, then slavers and exploitative foreign companies. The Dahomian tribal coalition she helped lead aided Tegaea and Siobhan when they led an Omega Pyre task force to topple the rogue Republic General Amherst. After that, Devotion worked with the new government to rebuild the planet and restore peace.
For a while she served as commander of the planetary defence force, before switching to the Omega Protectorate and then Firemane. Devotion has been with Firemane since the early days, serving in a variety of posts such as head of the military academy, organiser of the Qadiri Sepoys' formations, chief of staff of a battlegroup and finally chief of Firemane's ground forces. This makes her Firemane's most senior army officer. She oversees strategic and operational management and advises Siobhan on military matters. Devotion is good at planning, logistics and has a good head for office politics.
If Siobhan is a performer, then Devotion is a technician. She does not have Force powers and though she is no slouch in combat, she is not the warrior her boss is and probably less of an orator. Her role is to be the senior officer who handles organisational matters and diplomacy so that the frontline go-getters can achieve the operational goals set by high command. In the words of a fellow Firemane officer: "No one could have better suited Lady Kerrigan, who wanted a woman capable of relieving her of all detailed work, to understand her instantly and to foresee what she would need."
There are more charismatic, daring and hard-driving army commanders in Firemane, but she is the best chief manager of the corporation's ground forces. Flamboyance is anathema to Devotion, who is not fond of what she calls 'prima donna generals' and 'holonet star generals'. When Siobhan's fanciful ideas collide with sound military strategy, it is up to the Dahomian to convince her. Devotion has sometimes been frustrated by Siobhan's meddling, as well as her insistence that she should be on the front. At the same time she respects her for her leadership, even if she may be the most difficult person she has ever worked with. Devotion has very poor relations with Kuwahara, whom she detests. The General is married and has two children. Her husband is a fellow Dahomian and works for Firemane as a scientist. Her son is following in his mother's footsteps and serves as her ADC. By contrast, her daughter is a bit of a rebel and has become a pop star. Her music is quite popular with many Firemane members, including Elpsis and Tegaea. Devotion is a bit embarrassed by it.
Admiral Kyrana Gould: Chief of the Great General Staff. Kyrana grew up on Corellia in the years before the rise of the first post-Gulag Virus Galactic Republic. Her parents were merchants who had been reconnecting old trade routes lost before the Darkness. Thus she learned to fly from an early age and seemed destined for a career in business. However, the rise of the Sith pushed her onto a different road. She became an officer in the Republic Navy and worked her way up the laddery. She served in battles such as Roche and Korriban, before entering a staff role after the Empire's fall.
The return of the One Sith put her back in the field. After seeing action in several battles and commanding the Star Destroyer, she resigned from Republic services. Distraught by Corellia's cataclysmic loss, she entered a period of depression. She was able to overcome this by meeting her future husband, a fellow refugee from Corellia. After accepting a teaching role in Levantine space, she joined the Silver Sanctum Coalition and became a fleet admiral. There she worked with her mentor Friedrich Stahlmann. Aside from service in space combat, she also oversaw the construction of the Barsen'thor. When the Coalition folded, she accepted a job offer from Firemane.
Gould has a no-nonsense attitude towards problems. She is something of a strict disciplinarian, though not to the extent that she’s become a martinet. Personally she can be quite affable, though she is often rather humourless. Gould has commanded Star Destroyers and fleets in the past, but now her job is at headquarters.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
Siobhan Kerrigan regards herself as Firemane's paramount leader. In the best traditions of autocracy, she maintains a tight lock on all major decisions. However, no leader, no matter how capable they are or consider themselves to be, can rule alone. So the Lady Kerrigan governs through two important bodies: the Board of Control for the business side and the bureaucracy, and the General Staff for the military side. Firemane is a company not a nation, but as a megacorporation it has a very large, but dispersed force. Thus their structure structure is a bit simplified compared to that of a galactic empire or republic. There is no point in having army groups, armies or corps if most of the time units do not fight above brigade, or more rarely, division strength. However, its structure is flexible enough to be adjusted to the situation at hand.
Initially the Firemane General Staff was a very small body. It was set up during Tegaea Alcori's tenure as Firemane's CEO. That was back in the early days after the foundation of the company. Firemane started as a private military corporation and mining concern. So its troops needed a professional body to provide direction. The core of the general staff was made up of old Omega Pyre and Omega Defence Force veterans who'd elected to join the fledgling corporation. This was only natural because Tegaea and Siobhan had been senior Omega Pyre leaders, founding members and for a while rulers of the Omega Protectorate.
While Siobhan took command over Firemane field operations, often leading the troops into battle in person, the embryonic general staff oversaw planning, along with ensuring that the soldiers possessed the means to succeed in their missions. Over time, the small staff grew and became more formalised. It evolved into a professional military fraternity with formalised training procedures, strict admission criteria and clear procedures. It also grew in influence, evolving into a full-time body that stood close to the peak of the military machinery. To formalise training, the general staff set up a military academy to train the next generation of staff officers. Initially, army and naval staffs operated completely independently of one another.
This hampered coordination and led to jurisdictional friction, as each service demanded primacy during joint operations. They also squabbled over resources. To resolve this issue, a Chief of the Great General Staff was introduced to coordinate their efforts and serve as the senior officer. In addition, the Chief of the GGS acted as the principal military adviser of Firemane's head and is asssisted by the First Quartermaster General and a joint staff composed of officers from the various services.
By the time Siobhan took her place as Firemane's Executive CEO, the Firemane General Staff had acquired its present shape. It has played a vital role in the various campaigns Firemane forces have been involved in, learning from both victories and defeats. While not free of jurisdictional friction and struggles for influence, it is a highly professional body and an important asset for Firemane in running military operations. Siobhan is briefed daily by Firemane's military chiefs, who advise her on all martial-related matters.
Needless to say their input is also valued regarding the development and introduction of new military technologies. The General Staff is kept separate from the Board of Control, as Siobhan jealously guards her prerogatives as supreme warlord. Thus the military chief is able to report directly to the CEO rather than going through the board. Siobhan views this as essential to preserve unity of command. Of course, some civilian board members have their own ideas about this, but they are smart enough not to voice them in her presence. The head Chief of the Great General Staff is Admiral Kyrana Gould, a flag officer who previously served the Galactic Republic and the Silver Sanctum Coalition before accepting a Firemane contract. Like in most galactic militaries, it is traditional for a naval officer to get the biggest role, though army general officers have occupied the seat in the past. Siobhan Kerrigan herself is a groundpounder.
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