Arcane Legions

In most armies the nobility enter the officer class, often serving with the cavalry because the elite horsemen are usually accorded the greatest honor, whether they’ve earned it or not. The Han Grand Army of the Crusade is no different. Most of the young noblemen who travel with the Grand Army serve in its cavalry regiments, but whereas a Roman cavalry officer might be undertrained, the Han horsemen are elite and deadly soldiers who have trained with spear and lance since adolescence.

Rejecting helmets in favor of greater visibility, most Han mounted spearmen are fearsome warriors on horseback. They ride some of the largest mounts in the Grand Army (save the supernatural beasts the Yamato elite sometimes ride) and a charge of Han cavalry is a great and thunderous thing. Few enemies can stand against the accurately thrust spears and lances, and only the elite cavalry of the Xiongnu noble clans have ever defeated them.

In the Grand Army, discontent is growing among the cavalry corps as the nobles watch more and more of their ancestral power being usurped by Himiko and her Yamato, as well as the menagerie of undead and arcane creatures that travel with her. In the past, the cavalry were the unquestioned elite of the army, and cavalry service a route to advancement and riches and a path to noble station for the highborn but not-yet-ennobled; under Himiko it is just one more tool for her to use in the Crusade to find and punish the source of the Night of Mists.