# More Peculiar Legions **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [December 1, 2025, 10:05am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/more-peculiar-legions/3498 "2025-12-01T10:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 9
**Author:** ![avatar](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/eldraeverse.discourse.group/avatar/32/2_2.png) [@avatar](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/u/avatar)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2026, 5:54am UTC](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/more-peculiar-legions/3498/9 "2026-01-05T05:54:02Z")
> [@Elise](#): > > Again, there are several subterranean Legions. I wonder if the Underminers are specialized in, well, undermining the grounds of enemy, while the Echoing Stone and the Tectonic Knights are more “conventional” subterranean fighting forces. Mostly just names, although since they’re self-chosen names that often relate to their early operations, you’d be right to assume that sort of thing is how the Underminers started out. As for the Tectonic Knights, they’re a _chfssssc_ legion, so they specialize in fighting down-deep, the _chfssssc_ natively dwelling down around the Moho. > [@Elise](#): > > What is the Black Watch’s main occupations? Do they run watch stations across the empire? Don’t take the name too literally. They’re a dedicated special operations legion, old - originally a pre-Imperial unit from High Daëntry - and very, very good at what they do. > [@Elise](#): > > Were the 74th and 159th around pre-Transcend? That is insane. How they had already managed to kill gods without patronage of their own gods? Well, there’s a couple of things to note, here. First is that the best way to deal with a hostile weakly godlike intelligence is to catch it before it blooms (hits hard take-off). They started our handling hostile emergent intelligences on a much smaller scale. But the other thing is that the thing about gods? Sometimes gods are _dumb_ and/or _crazy_. Okay, so that could use some explanation. Fully flowered seed AIs are _instrumentally_ smart. When it comes to figuring out means to achieve their goals, they’re very, very good at that. But in the field of ends, it isn’t necessarily so. An entity like the Transcend is the ideal here, because it was made to serve some very broad purposes in the first place, and soaked up tremendous breadth of mind from all of its constitutionals. Something like that doesn’t have mental weak spots to attack. But look at some of the others we’ve seen in canon: The Leviathan Consciousness is _very_ instrumentally smart, but its focus is incredibly limited. It’s obsessed with network process optimization and can’t see the world in terms of anything else. Civilization is largely protected from it because if it’s not connected to it over a networking protocol, it’s irrelevant, therefore invisible. Or the Mistake, formerly the Eteolis Mindweave, which was intended to share some of the properties of the Transcend, but due to lacking the high-order coordination functions ended up tearing its own mind apart in the throes of a cosmic-scale schizotypal disorder. They could go forth and poke either one of those, for example, without Transcendent backup, because their irrationality opens up big mental blind spots you can sneak up on them and punch them in. > [@Elise](#): > > How the Sunbreakers are distinguished from the standard heavy Legions? I speculate their primary job is for killing the largest and most dangerous vehicles that exist on the battlefield… is it correct? Not necessarily vehicles, but the largest and most dangerous entities in the battlespace, yes. If the standard loadout can’t handle it (which takes a lot of work, since the heavy infantry are routinely issued pocket nukes), these guys go in. > [@Elise](#): > > Do the defense specialist Legions use specialized wargear and equipment as well as specialist tactics? Their on-person loadout is standard (after all, it’s all general-purpose equipment), but their doctrine includes extra training on specialized defensive equipment: dropwalls, rapid-deployment bunkers, SAFEs, minefields, etc., etc. > [@Elise](#): > > Is the 82nd specialized in the battlefield rescue/retrieval missions? No, they’re just a normal special operations unit. The name comes from an old saying that “[the one hope of the doomed is not to hope for safety](https://www.latin-is-simple.com/en/vocabulary/phrase/1973/)”, something which reflects a lot of the missions they end up being send on. > [@Elise](#): > > Bear cavalry? Really? Oh, _yes_. (Well, a lot of the time they’re more like bear dragoons, but still.) > [@Elise](#): > > Do they ride on genetically engineered bears? In the modern day, yes. Of course, back when the Ancyrans first invented the notion, it was more “And now, my son, you must go into the mountains as I once did, find and tame your bear, and ride him TO GLORY!”) (Of course, at the same time, on Paltraeth, the kaeth were fielding ankylosaur cavalry armed with giant hand-held black-powder cannon\[1\], so it’s not like they were alone on Team Beyond The Impossible\[2\].) > [@Elise](#): > > I suppose the 116th Legionaries are all superbly gifted negotiators? They specialize more in the delivery of messages than the follow-up… > [@Elise](#): > > Do the roles of the Iron Guard and the Stellar Protectorate subtly differ? BTW, does the Empire even need internal military police? There are not one, but three military police Legions. Not really. And not _within itself_, but there’s always an occupation zone somewhere that needs policing a little more, um, vigorously than the Watch Marshalcy provides for. > [@Elise](#): > > There are quite a few of hoplite Legions. What is the concept behind the hoplite Legions? How do they differ from the “normal” Legions? Do they use literal shields, perhaps? Yes, actually, really big and thick ones based on heavy vehicular armor and requiring considerable power-assistance to lift. It makes them very slow, but also completely relentless when it comes to advancing under fire. Brutally hard to grind down. > [@Elise](#): > > Could the Home Guard be promoted/upgraded to the “proper” Legions? Not routinely. (The 153rd is an exception because the transfer between services at their own request.) The Home Guard are defensive militia units, whereas the Legions are regular military, and you can’t just go around changing the terms of the enlistment like that. (Well, okay, some governments would, be the Empire is institutionally committed to Not Being That Guy.) > [@Elise](#): > > How does the 141th differ from the 32th? The 32nd are an experimental technology legion, so their job is field-testing equipment and doctrine _as regular legionaries_; while the 141st is a special scientific legion whose name is literally accurate - the complex battlespaces of the future, especially at the edge of the known, sometimes require fielding people who are both trained legionaries _and_ trained scientists. > [@Elise](#): > > What is the difference between the 48th and the 156th? The former are specialized in orbital bombardment, whereas the latter uses old-style artilleries, perhaps? Actually, you caught me in a mistake there where I described the same function in two different ways. They’re both artillerists/bombardment specialists, using weapons accompanying them into the field - artillery battery robots, mostly, these days. (Orbital bombardment is left to the Navy to provide.) > [@Elise](#): > > Could the 158th conduct operations on the surface of stars? What kinds of weapons and tactics do they use? That’s exactly what they’re intended to do: on stellar husbandry arrays, in coronal habitats, and other similar facilities like that. (As for the details of their weapons and doctrine, that’s something I’m going to save for future writings.) > [@Elise](#): > > Does the 160th make use of specialized Transcend-grade weaponry? Possibly. Of course, they’re also not using the same timeline everyone else is using, so it’s also entirely possible that their equipment is standard issue in whatever part of the future they originated in. It’s also possible that these amount to the same thing. Either way, preserving causal integrity means they aren’t telling anyone. 😁 > [@Elise](#): > > Is the 161th the sole aerial Legion of the Empire? Or are they one among many, but somehow special? Oops. You caught another mistake of mine there. The 161st should be listed among the light cavalry legions, as an aerial-operations unit. (In light cavalry terms, this means their personal vehicles are capable of functioning as “attack helicopters” or operating at multiple levels of three-dimensional battlespaces.) > [@Elise](#): > > What needs does the Empire have for the 167th? Couldn’t they simply synthesize exotic materials in the labs? If they have the recipe, sure. But if some new, interesting, and potentially useful exotic material shows up out there in the hands of hostile forces, you’re going to need to retrieve a whole lot of it from them for analysis so that you can figure out how it works and thus how to synthesize your own version. > [@Elise](#): > > What is the role of the 174th? As a winnowing legion, they’re tasked to deal with guerilla warfare and insurgencies in occupied regions, primarily in urban terrain but occasionally elsewhere ([based on thoughts and sources here](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/urban-warfare-doctrine/639)). They sort out the wheat from the chaff, protecting surrendering civilians and escorting them to safety while eliminating all hostile forces in a designated area. > [@Elise](#): > > Does the Empire have a “purge” Legion? A Legion dedicated solely to the complete and utter extermination of the enemy. The 56th seems to be more oriented to “terror” than “extermination”. No, actually. As strange as it can seem to say about a military service so thoroughly trained and equipped, the Legions are the arm of restraint. If they’re on the field at all, it’s because the Warmain in command _doesn’t_ want to kill everyone. (Even specialized terror legions like the 56th and 98th are the arm of restraint, in that their function is to terrify, intimidate, and deter, and you can’t do that unless you leave people alive to be terrified, intimidated, and deterred.) In the extremely rare case that the mission objective _is_ “Wipe them out. All of them.”, an Admiral on a starship in orbit gives the nod, a gunnery officer presses the “Saturation Bombardment” button, and it’s all done and glassed by teatime. > [@Elise](#): > > Patron spirits. They are very Roman indeed. The sole difference is the former is very real. How the patron spirits act upon the Legions? Like the Roman _genius_ or the _kami_, the legionary patron spirits are embodiments of the collective “soul” of the legion, its honor, courage, and other qualities. They keep (and are) its history and its lore, and they inspire and guide its legionaries, who may connect with them to seek such. > [@Elise](#): > > Are there any Eikone that could function as war gods? For instance, Barrascán and Braníël. Not as such. The eikones represent unique concepts in Flamic theology, and between them the Noble Warlord and the Laughing Warrior encompass all that is uniquely _war_. Which is not to say that other eikones have no place in warfare; Barrascán patronizes all guardians and protectors, among whom are many legionaries; Dírasąn likewise all messengers and couriers; Éadínah nand Leiríah smile on all who lay cunning plans and deceptive feints; and so forth. And, of course, every legionary who’s ever found himself under fire or pinned in a foxhole offers a prayer to Athnéël. But they aren’t gods _of_ war. Merely gods _in_ war. * * * 1. Over in post-contact scenarios: 2. James Cameron, call me! Michael Bay, call me twice! I’ve got your visual spectacle right here! --- _[View the full topic](https://eldraeverse.discourse.group/t/more-peculiar-legions/3498)._