What would be in a Celestial Host?

[Shemeska]

Elysium Contingent (NG)
This is the smallest, as guardinals are less likely to fight than archons or eladrin.

You'd be surprised. Guardinals outside of Elysium are orders of magnitude more likely to slaughter a fiend without pause. Among the major celestial races they are the most likely to be found willing to descend into the lower planes to risk their lives against the fiends, and these raiding parties (often to the Gray Waste) are really the closest you'll get to any organized action by any of the celestial races versus the fiends.

Guardinals in Elysium are a bit naive about Evil, and yes not prone to violence, but those of their race who have been outside of Elysium have lost, tarnished their innocence once they experience evil, and they will sacrifice almost anything to fight against it once that happens with a fury to put an Archon or Eladrin to shame.

 

[blargney the second]

Wow, I'm learning some neat stuff in this thread.
-blarg

 

[Kobold Avenger]

General: Solar, with bodyguard of Planetars. Astral Devas serve as liaison with rest of army.

There's also Monadic and Movanic Devas, and if you pull out 2e sources that were never converted also Agathions (shapeshifting foot soldiers) and Lights among the Angel ranks.

Celestia Contingent (LG)
Commander: Throne Archon, with bodyguard of Sword Archons. Squad of Owl Archons serve him as messengers.
Subcommanders: Trumpet Archons, with bodyguard of Warden Archons.
Rank-and-file are Lantern Archons, in squads of 14 commanded by Hound Archons. They stay back and shoot.
Hound Archons, in squads led by Hound Archon Heroes, are the line troops.
Warden Archons are elite shock troops.
Owl Archons are scouts.

There's Word Archons (Tome of Magic, True name magic) and Sybillic Guardians (Complete Psionic) which I guess would pretty well be support or speciallized troops. While not exactly Archons I'd consider the Octopus-Centaur-like Zoveri from Mt. Celestia (2e) to be like aquatic Archons.

Elysium Contingent (NG)
This is the smallest, as guardinals are less likely to fight than archons or eladrin.
Commander: Advanced Leonal, with bodyguard of leonals. Avorals serve as messengers.
Subcommanders: Ursinals with bodyguard of Equinals
Rank-and-file troops are Cervidals, commanded by Equinals.
Lupinals are the elite troops.
Mustevals infiltrate behind enemy lines.
Avorals are the aerial scouts.

Arborea Contingent (CG)
Commander: Tulani, with bodyguard of Ghaele
Subcommanders: Shiradi with bodyguard of Firre
Rank-and-file are Bralani, with Firre "sergeants" mixed in here and there.
All-Firre units, commanded by Ghaele, are the elite.
Clouds of Coure surround the eladrin army, and are used as messengers and scouts (though Shiradi will take to the air themselves to view events or keep vrocks off the army).

From 2e that never was converted I remember their being the aquatic Noviere (who are weaker than Bralani but stronger than Coures) and Shiere the Cavalry of the Eladrin who ride flying horses and are stronger than typical Bralani but weaker than Firres.

This is the Celestial part of the army, and its core. It also contains units of other good outsiders (such as Lillend and Couatl) and Celestial humanoids.

I would see there being significant number of Asuras, they're all sort of the flaming wrath types of celestials and are quite numerous. I would see their being Lillend and Couatl too, as well as Quesars, Einherjar and Good Titans. Some magical beasts (or beast-like outsiders) like Hollyphants, Moon Dogs, Leskylor, Phoenixes, Kirin, Lamassu, and Shedu I've seen associated celestials, and some of them I guess could serve as mounts for cavalry. Also I think it would be neat if the host was preceded by Bronze Locust Swarms...

 

[Voadam]

Lots of celestial badgers.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Oh, and just to add a bit to that previous post (of mine) - now that I have time - another common view is that LG = about 75% G to 25% L, and that CG works similarly (i.e., that G/N/E trumps L/N/C every time). But there are, of course, many others.

And with that whole 50/50 vs. 100\100 thing, that comes down to fundamental assumptions about the workings of the alignment system. So, those on one 'side' would say that NG is the only '100% good' alignment (there being only a certain amount of alignment to go around, so to speak, divided between the two axes). And so on from there.

 

[Ripzerai]

It matters whether you're talking about mortals or celestials. Your NG gnome PC isn't necessarily "more good" than your CG elf (though she could be). A guardinal is more good than an archon, not because of a "conservation of alignments" rule but because of the circular shape of the Outer Planes (at least metaphorically).

I apologize for the slightly off-center diagram, but:

If you consider each square to be a "point," LG has two points of Law and two points of Good, while NG has three points of Good and LN has three points of Law. There are "in-between" areas, so you can still have celestials with, say, three points of Good and two points of Law (the Twin Paradises of Bytopia), or three points of Law and one point of Good (Arcadia).

 

[Ripzerai]

It's also very possible that the ring shape only applies to the first layer of each plane (where the portals to neighboring planes are). In that case, deeper heavens might be simultaneously more good and more lawful. In any case, they become more lawful and more good simultaneously, radiating diagonally along the chart from its center, so Lunia might be two points lawful and two points good, while Chronias is three points lawful and three points good.

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

It would be a fractured force, like that of the fiends but...

Looking over most of the issues regarding unity and alignment in the upper planes I can see them going to war together but seperately. To apply an analogy(not perfect but mostly adequate) more like the Allies of WW1 than WW2. No single overall command or cross-connect in their chains of command but co-operation and a level of joint planning. Each of the many forces would have a unique composition, no two would be quite the same even among the lawful groups.

Leaving aside the forces of the gods who would each be distinctly different I'll cover each alignment seperately.

Lawful Good: Think massed battalions or old Napoleonic to WW1 type organization. Not tactics, units, or formations. Those will be vastly different because of the innate abilities of the archons. But the command structure and style will probably be similar. Extremely regimented with "a place for everything and everything in its place" highly effective when implementing well planned actions or disorganized foes. But vulnerable to inertia and frequently not responsive enough to a changing field situation as reports work their way back up the chain to the appropriate command level then the adjustments in disposition filter back down. Even with magic there will be lag and insufficiently flexible thinking at times. Especially when dealing with a similarly well-organized force such as the baatezu expect things to grind down to a largely static field.

Neutral Good: I come up short looking for an analogous structure for the guardinals. They're NOT either inheerently lawful or chaotic and won't be predispositioned to either, but effective warfighting requires some level of organization. Expect something akin to a modular battalion or such. Individual units based on particular races of guardinal and ability. Then a framework allowing these individual units to be shifted around into larger force structures that can cast off and add units to adjust to the field situation.

Chaotic Good: Being as much chaotic as good the Eladrin will have the most minimal organization. They certainly won't have any more than absolutely necessary. I definitely see them adopting a highly irregular method of war-fighting. Small units arranged with broad talents groups to operate independantly from larger organizations much of the time. In a way they seem almost between true irregulars and special forces. Very capable, dedicated to their cause, and very difficult to predict. These guys are the ones who will scare the p*** out of the average line grunt of evil but ultimately probably not affect the overall course as much as the others because of lack of co-ordination.

Anyway that's just my two cents regarding how they'd fight. I don't count the Aasimon because they're rolled into the forces of the Gods they serve and likely to be different for each one.

Guardinals are probably the most truly frightening when it comes to destroying evil. On the alignment scale they are purely good, without taint on either side to law or chaos. The ultiimate expression of benevolence, tolerance, and general inherent hope in the cosmos given flesh. There is nothing more dangerous than someone completely committed to a single cause. When encountering something that mocks their very reason for existence, that is the antithesis of all that they embody, it wouldn't be pretty.