Help me make a Dragonborn army's command chain

[cmbarona]

I'm trying to invent an organization of mercenaries for one of my games. It was founded by Dragonborn, and they consist most of its members. It is called the "Honorblood Legion." I've already divided the organization into branches, which are names after different parts of a dragon's anatomy:

• The Talons: the main physical fighting force. Whenever they have a contract, the Talons are almost always involved.
• The Breath: the magical fighting force, consisting of both arcane and divine classes.
• The Fangs: a series of special task forces consisting of only the fiercest warriors. This is the highest rank available to anyone who sees action on a regular basis.
• The Tail: spies who keep the Legion's intel up to date and work as counter-agents for assassins.
• The Scales: members trained in the specialized skill set of being personal bodyguards. Each member of the Horns (see below) keeps at least two Scales in their employ.
• The Wings: the tactical masterminds. They decide how best to allocate the troops once a contract has been accepted.
• The Keepers: overseers of the intel of the Legion; more of an office position. Also serve a number of administrative functions.
• The Horns: the governing body.

So, from here I'm looking to make dragon-themed ranks within the Legion. I'd like at least 10 ranks, and they may or may not correspond to a particular branch. Just about any naming convention goes. I've considered drakes, but there aren't enough varieties in the MM to account for all of the ranks. I also don't want any of the ranks to sound derogatory, even at the lowest ranks, which is why I've shyed away from "wyrmling" and "pseudodragon."

Ideas?

 

[fba827]

I like your set up.

maybe each rank named after a type of dragon, and call them scales in place of the word rank.. so a solider would say "I'm a red scale soldier" "I'm a copper scale" and so on. or after types of breath weapons (which basically means you'll have a rank named after each damage type - fire lightning and so on)

 

[cmbarona]

Ooh, excellent idea! I think I'm going to name them after 5 chromatics, then 5 metallics (unless there are actually more metallics than are mentioned in the MM). Each color is followed by one's branch. So my character, as a Talon, begins as White Talon Balasar. Since he just received a promotion, he would be Black Talon Balasar. And so forth. So far, the rank is:

White
Black
Green
Blue
Red
Copper
Iron
Silver
Gold
Adamantine

The order for the chromatics is based on the first level at which a "young" version is a solo monster. The order of the Metallics is just based on my own aproximation of metallic value. In other words, not much. Anyone have more info on metallic dragons?

 

[scigeek]

Ooh, excellent idea! I think I'm going to name them after 5 chromatics, then 5 metallics (unless there are actually more metallics than are mentioned in the MM). Each color is followed by one's branch. So my character, as a Talon, begins as White Talon Balasar. Since he just received a promotion, he would be Black Talon Balasar. And so forth. So far, the rank is:

White
Black
Green
Blue
Red
Copper
Iron
Silver
Gold
Adamantine

The order for the chromatics is based on the first level at which a "young" version is a solo monster. The order of the Metallics is just based on my own aproximation of metallic value. In other words, not much. Anyone have more info on metallic dragons?

Not until Draconomicon II comes out, but IIRC, the old order was Copper, Brass, Bronze, Silver and Gold. Though I might have remembered the first three in the wrong order... Heh.

Also, I'd check some info on how the Romans organized their army. They were the paragon army of ancient times and I figure dragonborn would favor that sort of stratification.

 

[Sigurd]

The problem with the various scale titles for ranks is that the 'order' of dragon types is likely unpopular or unknown to the actual dragons. For most dragons I think, their own type is the best and other dragon references in their army is just a challenge to their authority.

Its not as neat and tidy but I can imagine that soldiers might be known to the dragons by campaign(s). A dragon would want to know that this was a soldier that had been at the battle of 'stamford bridge' and\or had proven themselves.


Sigurd

 

[cmbarona]

A quick clarification: dragons are not actually involved in the Legion, so I'm honestly not concerned with what they think. I'm looking for a heirarchy, and a mercenary group may rank some dragons as more important/dangerous than others, whether or not the dragons themselves agree.

I may end up reforming the ranks after Draconomicon 2 comes out. I can already invent a sort of heirarchy in my head, but I'm not sure where some would fall.

For example, I can easily imagine the heirarchy of bronze-solver-gold-platinum-adamantine. And I can imagine that brass, iron, steel, copper, and maybe mercurial (or tin?) are among the metallic dragon spectrum as well. The question is where those other ones would fit, and in what order.