Allergonian feudal levy and armsman

A loose polity, much of the power of the Allergonian Empire remains in the hand of it's eight kingdoms and the landed nobility. One of their most ancient rights (in some cases) and sources of said power is that to raise their own forces. Some simply make do with their vassal knights, but most raise troops from the ranks of unbound commoners known as Levies and Armsmen. In the case of prominant lords they can have private armies thousands of men strong.

Levies are the most common and while they can be pressed into service in times of war most of them serve for economic reasons. As a general rule peasants are required to pay a tax rate of 25% (10% to the peasant's imediate Knight or Lord, 5% for his Liege Lord, 5% for the king and 5% to the Emperor) and have to spend two weeks a year as corvee laborers (though this can more often than not be substituted with payment in cash or in kind). If a young man becomes a levy, that means for the next five years a tenth of his family's direct tax burden is removed as is the corvee requirements for the next five years. As such lords usually have a fair number. In peacetime service usually entails a couple weeks training, a year's worth of service (which includes a bit of drilling, practicing and guarding, but more often than not involves doing grunt work around the estate) and then two weeks of drills for the next five years as reservists. In times of war, reasonably young levy veterans are the most likely to be pressed into service. Levies typically receive a pfennig every week in peace times, a pfennig every day in times of war as well as rations and a bunk to sleep on. For the most part levies are required to provide their own weapons and some of their gear out of their own pocket, though over the last century and especially from about 10 IA onwards an increasing number of Lords have been providing at least part of the equipment (at least in peacetime). Nowadays levies usually have a second hand helmet, a vest or poncho indicating their house and either a flintlock or caplock rifled musket with a small number having Pattern-1405 Yorigsov rifles or other breechloaders. It is now the norm for guns to be sold to levies at a 50% subsidy and to be given a free helmet and an allowance of gunpowder by their liege lord.

Armsmen are in contrast full time soldiers of common birth retained by Allergonian Lords. Some of them are hardened veterans, some are mercenaries which have decided that steady employment for a respectable master is better than the chaotic life in a roaming company, some are the sons and grandsons of armsmen, some are the creme of the crop of recruits and some are simply regular soldiers given additional training and held to a higher standard. Regardless, armsmen are better fighters due to the fact that to them soldiering is their job. Since it's seen as a better investment they usually have better gear, though one would be hard pressed to find an armsman wearing runic armor. They also receive a better wage of 5-10 pfennigs a day. They serve as instructors and NCOs for levies, medium and heavy infantry on the battlefield and as body guards. The general rule is that their is usually 10-15 levies for every armsman, though some lords elect to raise only smaller forces composed exclusively of Armsmen. About 80% of the commoners who have been elevated to become knights or nobles over the Empire's history have been Armsmen.

The general quality of these Armsmen and Levies varies considerably, ranging from underpaid laborers who do some token drills and patrols that get dragged off to war to respectable if not exceptional soldiers who are proud to serve. If pressed, the nobility of the Allegonian Empire could muster at least hundreds of thousand of levies and armsmen. Some estimates put this figure over a million. In any case it does represent the bulk of the Empire's military manpower. Despite this, many nobles do feel that their old feudal rights are under threat with the rise of the new Imperial Army which they fear will eventually be used to supplant their feudal forces with a Standing Army, as had happened in the Principality of Oestia. The introduction of improved firearms and other new technologies based on Infrastructural designs has accelerated the process of centralization in the Empire, and with it encouraged an increasing level of discord.