Echo Lore

[hider=Kalesian Nobility]
The nobility of the Kalesian Empire is hardly the standard when it comes to the upper echelons of power. Where in many lands the nobility are envied or even hated by those below them for often arrogant or cruel behaviour, the class generally known as ‘nobility’ in the Empire is far different. The Empire does not value bloodlines so much as it values competence and the willingness to contribute to the good of all Kalesian society, thus, those that bear a title in the Empire have very likely earned it.

In order to be declared a noble, a Kalesian citizen must have the approval of the existing nobles as well as the Grand Imperial University and the governor of the closest city. The stringent and demanding standards these groups will hold people to ensure that only individuals that can truly live up to Kalesian ideals will join the highest echelon of society. The only exceptions to this are either the favour of a Quaesitor or the Empress herself. Furthermore, once a Noble, one must continue to prove one's worth in academic, economic or civil areas. A noble proving particularly lax for any length of time will have their title stripped and will not be able to regain it, encouraging dedicated service to the good of the Empire. The Empress possesses Veto power on both the instatement and demotion of nobles, but rarely is this power used.

Bloodlines do exist among the nobility, and the Empire is not without long standing noble families. Children of noble parentage (where only one parent need be a noble) are considered to be noble until the age of eighteen (unless confirmed as nobility earlier), though lacking titles throughout this time. At the age of twelve, their actions and temperament begin to come under a review known as the Titling trial. If they consistently meet the standards against which they are measured for two years, they will be granted full titles. Should a noble child have failed to live up to the standard for at least one year by the time they reach eighteen, they are demoted back into the common citizenry. This means that the oldest a noble child may be granted full titles is nineteen, though it is rare that the successful ones have not proven themselves before this. Those that do not make it at this time will conditionally be either banned from attempting to regain their position as if they’d been stripped of title or allowed to regain it in the future. Such a rule is to ensure that those with late blooming potential are not penalised, while those that clearly are unworthy of a privileged position are never allowed another chance.

The tradition of naming within noble bloodlines is one that ensures the nobles names continue. A child of one noble and one commoner bears only the nobles name, regardless of genders involved. The child of two nobles will carry both the nobles family names, with the order determined by their gender. A female child will have her mothers name first and fathers second, while a male child will have his fathers first and mothers second. In the case of a parent that bears two names, they will pass on only the first of their family names, a rule instituted not long after the modern practice of nobility was established to ensure that names did not become exceedingly long, as well as to dissuade dynastic tendencies somewhat.

Quaesitor:
Individuals who bear this title wander are generally well into adulthood by the time they gain it. They might be men or women, gender is of no relevance. While the title tends to move in families, its not exactly hereditary. The traits most common to Quaesitors are often hereditary, but also a bit cultural. If your father (or mother) is extremely fond of wandering the land, chances are you might end up sharing that interest.

Their role, is to wander the empire and find individuals suited especially for different services to the empire, be it military, research, government, or virtually any other. The attention of a Quaesitor is sufficient for individuals of otherwise no chances in life to reach the highest ranks in Kalesian society. If your family are the poorest of farmers, its not normally likely you’d have much chance of being anything else yourself. Changing that is the very goal of the Quaesitors, given that you show the potential for it. According to imperial policy, low (or high) birth should not be a barrier.

Quaesitors can also assign new noble names if they deem it necessary. Or they can ‘recommend’ that a certain noble family adopts someone particularly suited to their favored field. While a noble family can say no here, most generally do not. Quaesitors do not bear family names, as they might come from any origins within the empire. [/hider]

[hider=Kalesian Siege Engineer Corps]
The Siege Engineer Corps in the Imperial military is a small and oft-overlooked section, whose importance to the Kalesian war-machine is smaller than most similar groups in respective militaries across the world. From the very beginning the engineer corps has had to deal with the overshadowing influence of the battle-evokers that are employed on the front lines of the Empire, as well as the brutal effectiveness of the Kal beast. These factors combined with the militaries policy of preserving enemy infrastructure as much as possible have forced the siege engineers into a very much supportive role.

The siege engineer corps is responsible for several things in the war effort, first and foremost being tunneling. The excavation techniques used by the engineer corps are far beyond any other country, and on the rare occasion that the Kalesians need to bring down an enemy wall they will turn not to the catapult and trebuchets that usually typify such a task, but rather the quick but careful digging of a tunnel under the wall, followed by its rapid collapse, bringing whole sections of wall down without any obvious attack being made. Perhaps the most ambitious application of this skill, however, has been the recent bypassing of a mountain range, allowing a surprise of attack of unprecedented effectiveness on the Othean capital Amaryth. The task combined the skills of the Engineers and several Evokers, the Evokers doing the majority of the actual digging while the Engineers directed them and reinforced the tunnel behind them. It is considered the crowning achievement of the engineer corps to this day, and even now a sizeable portion of the corps is engaged in efforts to turn the tunnel into a permanent passage between the Empire and Othea.

When the engineering corps is called to participate in direct battle, they employ expertly crafted ballistae that incorporate elevation control and the capacity to launch both long impaling spears and moderately sized rocks, all on a quickly set up platform. These weapons are not particularly effective against walls, but the engineers make use of range finding equipment to ensure they are at least fairly accurate.

As well as this, they have a variety of payloads to maximise the effect they can have on an enemy army. As well as the plentiful rocks and spears, they employ shot containing volatile oils to create firebombs, as well as thick flasks containing flesh searing acid extracted from a particularly deadly giant snake found only in the southern reaches of the Empire. Tests with more exotic compounds have always resulted in disaster however, and while the corps is always on the lookout for another edge to match evokers, they avoid anything even remotely unstable or dangerous to their skilled personnel. Better to use safe and reliable methods than have to spend years training more men. Any research into the field of explosives has been abandoned due to being too dangerous.

The members of the Siege Engineer Corps tend to be highly motivated over-achievers - a direct result of fulfilling such a marginalised position in the military. They force themselves to succeed as spectacularly as possible in an effort to match or exceed the results the battle evokers tend to attain with what they perceive to be ‘incredibly lazy methods.’[/hider]