All Things Vargr

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Packs

Rather surprisingly, I recently discovered that the Vargr are a lot more interesting than I ever imagined them to be, if you start reading between the lines, even assuming that what I extrapolated from them was never the author's original intent. The artwork tends to be a letdown as well, though you could apply that equally to the Aslan.

While it's fun hanging the usual canine stereotypes on the Vargr, the most important one that bears examination could be the pack.

As I recall, it's supposedly between twenty five and forty individuals, which seems suspiciously platoon sized. Humans have what we term the monkeysphere, which is around one hundred to one hundred fifty people we feel reasonably well acquainted with, but don't necessarily constantly associate with. Coincidentally, this happens to be the size of a military organizational unit, the company.

While I don't suppose that the Vargr would have a strict T&OE chart, theirs be much more looser than a human might feel comfortable with, and probably subjected to a great deal of unauthorized and resented requisitioning from associated units, and non-associated units, up and down and across various chains of command.

Hard to believe that they could train an officer corps, since you'd expect them to operate under the Peter Principle, and maintain an NCO cadre.

The NCO cadre may be the experienced Vargr who acquired the skills to competently lead military units, but seem unable to inspire the troops through a charismatic personality. This would be separate from specialists who are just very good at their jobs and don't have to worry about directing large group.

Officers who can't inspire their units, may as a face saving measure, be assigned rear area supervisory positions or as staff, assuming they haven't managed to get killed themselves, or injured badly enough to warrant early retirement.

There would be three types of officers, those that rise through the ranks, those that receive some form of formal or semi-formal training, and those that just get appointed.

This may be less nepotismic than it looks, since enthusiasm seems to rub off the troops, and a Darwinistic baptism of fire should prove if someone has enough skill or luck that the post requires.

While mileage would probably vary, Vargr manoeuvre units would be the pack, that they would probably try to maintain at a basic twenty five members, with support and reinforced at just over forty, which should lie within the span of control of a Vargr junior officer, supplemented by his pack's second in command.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Packs

Military packs and their ambitious leaders would try to become self-sufficient and independent as far as possible, and to the limits, and possibly beyond, what could viably be controlled by their commanders. This is helps in carrying out any mission that they are assigned by higher command, and to better survive such missions.

That includes encouraging their pack members on self-improvement programmes, whether increasing their physical characteristics, becoming better acquainted with their equipment and/or learning more useful military skills.

Vargr leaders are also inclined towards head hunting and poaching; they know their success depends on building up the capabilities of their pack, and being very fond of short cuts, that could achieved faster by persuading skilled and capable members of other packs to join theirs.

This is a tricky procedure, since in a very disciplined (for Vargr) military organizations, assigning personnel to various units is considered the prerogative of the Vargr band headquarters, or the personal whim of the band commander.

Other pack leaders don't view with equanimity such threats to both their authority and their pack's capabilities and resources, and while ambitious pack leader's own pack members might resent the possible threat to their own positions in the pack hierarchy, unless convinced that their own survival chances or living conditions are significantly enhanced.

True loyalty, despite the Vargr reputation of being fair weather friends, counts for a great deal in Vargr relationships, and is never very lightly given. It has to be very carefully cultivated, and ensures that when the bovine excrement collides with the air ventilator, pack members neither disappear into the woodwork, nor try to pull a coup d'etat or permit one.

So a military pack will try to be the best at what they do, and recruit other Vargr that will enhance their capabilities. It's quite possible to have a military pack that is aware it's not the best at what they're supposed to do, and that they aren't being led by the best and the brightest, but will collectively decide to allow this condition to continue, since they might recognize that they could be worse off.

Frontline military packs accumulate a lot of equipment, some of which might have some immediate military value. This includes heavy infantry weapons, and transportation. Artillery and armoured vehicles are very borderline cases, since higher command wants control of those types of assets, though military packs that tend to have independent assignments seem to be able to retain at least any armoured vehicles they can find and maintain.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Packs & Posses

Associations of Vargr are usually termed with the generic term pack.

In fact, being in or joining a pack is a bout as formalized association that a Vargr can commit to. But for more informal associations, especially during their more formative years, Vargrs tend to join posses.

A posse could be described as a bunch of Vargr that want to hang out with each other, and that membership status can change without duly affecting the group dynamics, and without much recrimination.

Pups can form posses as a stage in their socialization, testing out the boundaries of acceptable behaviour and their capability to influence others.

Some teenagers find that they can't quite distinguish between posse and pack, and desperately want to belong to the more popular ones. Many are adjusted well enough to form posses centred around their interests, or more worryingly, social status and ethnicity.

As Vargr prepare themselves to reach their majority, they may find themselves a part of many posses, including online forums, gaming clans, literature clubs or even fan clubs of entertainment celebrities. Packs would be more like being part of a sporting team, or an anonymous tightly knit hacking group.

As Vargr go to college or participate in the economy, their leisure time might be spent at bars, where they are joined by like minded folk just interested in enjoying themselves. And getting plastered or high. The more ambitious might be networking their way through several posses, in order to get useful contacts.

As the Vargr feels ready to settle down, posses provide a way to meet candidates that could be assessed for spousal suitability, or failing that, associated activities; that is, if his mother doesn't invite him home for Friday dinner with his cousin twice removed.

Having achieved wedded bliss, the Vargr couple might wish to expand their perspective beyond the daily work grind, housework and the close examination of diapers, and meet similarly situated couples to both paradoxically, distract them and share experiences and advice. Bored Vargr housewives could join a gym and/or the neighbourhood jogging group.

Packs have an intrinsic duty to each other, which posses do not. Posses allow the Vargr an expression of gregarity without true obligations between the parties.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Packs and Light Infantry

Vargr are renowned as light infantry, and have demonstrated their affinity for this role in a variety of expressions, from ad hoc militia, to pillaging corsairs, and to frontline combat troops.

The Vargr are also aware, that consciously or unconsciously, unless their unit really have been trained and tagged as special forces, their high command tends to equate light infantry as synonymous with cannon fodder.

Most long lasting and organized packs don't remain light infantry for long, as their members become motivated to acquire personal armour, and are reluctant to discard them for most missions.

Recently raised packs, packs that just had a lucky escape, and packs that just tend to be out of luck, would be equipment poor.

Light infantry, or at least the doctrine, remains intrinsic to the Vargr art of war, as they try to pin their opponents with heavy forces while light ones try to outflank them.

 

[Jame]

I would suggest a variation where there are Vargr who are very devoted to their mates and their packs, and are more interested in their status within their packs than in breaking off and getting into new ones.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Packs

I think the foundation of Vargr society is the family, much like it's with wolves.

While anyone can appreciate the need of Vargr to socialize and find acceptance as widely as possible, it's a two way street, and formally joining a pack is also dependent of the pack members' conviction that the applicant will be an asset to the pack, and probably the pack leader believing that he can handle any threat to his leadership from that direction.

The number and prestige of any pack(s) that a Vargr can join would probably dependent on his current charisma.

Pack membership would have to have minimal conflicts of interest, and might just be one of any particular category, local militia, local freemason lodge, local amateur sports team, local business, political party, and so on.

The other aspect that tends to conflict is the tendency of Vargr to pull up sticks and leave, if they don't like their current environment. How does that gel with the commitments they have to their packs? Or even just dumping their current pack for one with more prestige?

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Packs

For Vargr in military packs, every command decision could literally become a matter of life and death. While in most packs the Peter Principle is in play, the more organized Vargr military formations, trial and error might neither be an attractive option, nor one they have time to indulge.

It's also important for band commanders to be able to assess and trust pack leaders, so they might pick out the more promising officer candidates, who might be too junior to challenge their current pack leader, or whose pack leader gives no cause for such a challenge, but the Vargr in question shows leadership potential, and more importantly, military competence.

These would be personally mentored by the band commander, or sent on to a special dojo that acts as a military academy. These dojos would also be attended by the scions of upper caste Vargr, in order to give them an advantage over their less favoured compatriots, in the military arts, close combat and social situations, besides being able to network with Vargr that may at some point prove useful to their careers. Once they graduate, they'll return to their band, or they may get poached by another band commander who might recognize their potential and is very persuasive.

The band commander may also appoint a pack leader to command a military pack under his control who didn't go through a recognized, or even an unrecognized, training process. While a military graduate would be tolerated in the absence of a pack member who has more or comparable charisma, a political appointee would be resented until he proves himself. While a leadership challenge or even fragging is possible, such appointments are usually not without cause, so pack members need to consider possible repercussions, without a demonstrated incapability of the appointee to lead them.

Appointments may also be temporary, more to establish a clear chain of command for a specific mission.

 

[rancke]

Vargr may prefer to organize in packs, but in things like military units and commercial enterprises, what works best is also important. Humans like to organize into volunteer militias under elected leaders and to go home to the spouse every evening. But they still get drafted into organized militaries and put under officers with all the charm and social skill of a sore-toothed gorilla. Having the backing of a code of military rules is a decent substitute for social skill.

So I don't really think jockying for rank or leaving when you feel like it is going to be a feature of most Vargr militaries. Officers would be appointed by selection and promotion boards and any high-charisma underling low in military skills is going to stay an underling (or become a deserter).

Not that Vargr nature won't play a part. The high-charisma lieutenant is going to get promoted faster than his low-charisma counterpart. But until he is promoted, he's going to continue taking orders from his captain, even if the captain has a lower charisma.

And just as there are human militia units where popularity and social position determine ranks, there are going to be less official Vargr units organized more according to pack rules. They're just not going to enjoy fighting a regular Vargr unit.


Hans

 

[Condottiere]

One problem is the inherent instability of Vargr governments.

Any civilian administration is going to worry about a military coup, and the more competent their military is, the more they'll worry about it, which incentivizes them to maintain a minimized military, and possibles co-opt military commanders into their hierarchy.

While Vargr might take to the military life more easily than some other species, one major downside is the lack of a military institutional memory, and very few military units manage to retain that long enough to maintain but the barest continuity to both what they might believe is their genesis, or all the hard fought accumulated institutional knowledge, since all that can easily be lost by just by an unexpected change in leadership.

Since a professional military is sustained by a well run economy, which requires political stability, it's almost a given when the economy collapses, the existing military, as it is structured, will disintegrate.

 

[Jame]

Vargr: Packs

I think the foundation of Vargr society is the family, much like it's with wolves.

While anyone can appreciate the need of Vargr to socialize and find acceptance as widely as possible, it's a two way street, and formally joining a pack is also dependent of the pack members' conviction that the applicant will be an asset to the pack, and probably the pack leader believing that he can handle any threat to his leadership from that direction.

The number and prestige of any pack(s) that a Vargr can join would probably dependent on his current charisma.

Pack membership would have to have minimal conflicts of interest, and might just be one of any particular category, local militia, local freemason lodge, local amateur sports team, local business, political party, and so on.

The other aspect that tends to conflict is the tendency of Vargr to pull up sticks and leave, if they don't like their current environment. How does that gel with the commitments they have to their packs? Or even just dumping their current pack for one with more prestige?

For the most part I agree. I think this would make Vargr society more stable, at least at the family and sub-pack level.

A subpack would be a set of families that have bonded, so they'd be pulling by that instead of individually, except for loners and outcasts.

 

[Condottiere]

I think the core of Vargr society and culture is the nuclear family, and both part of and separate from the extended family pack.

I think that leaving or getting kicked out of a pack is a very traumatic experience.

Going by Middle Eastern customs and honour killings, how responsible is a Vargr for the actions of a pack member, how will they reflect on the rest of the pack, and how obligated is a Vargr to rectify the situation?

I also think that when Vargr decide to move, it may be more as part of a pack split, or the pack itself making that decision, outside of an individual deciding to see more of the universe, or feeling that he has to leave.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Packs and Combat Groups

Military pack leaders, having achieved that position, consider themselves equals with any other pack leader. While this isn't quite true, since there's a pecking order there as well, it's accepted as a social courtesy.

It can also be an operational necessity, as packs may need to cooperate with others in order to carry out missions, whether side by side, or with assistance from support units. These arrangements are termed combat groups, organized directly by the band commander or his headquarters, or through negotiations and alliances among the pack leaders themselves.

Despite considering themselves as equals, there does emerge in each combat group one who is first among equals since military necessity requires a unified command structure, within Vargr sensibilities.

Band commanders prefer to arrange the organization of combat groups themselves, if only to reinforce their authority, and ensure the efficient use of available resources. They also try to make them as temporary as possible, to break up any long term associations that could become a threat to his leadership.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Paramilitary Packs

Paramilitary packs covers the stage where a posse starts to want to exert dominance over it's environment, and obtains the necessary hardware to do so.

For the Vargr, paramilitaries aren't heavily armed law enforcement units, but rudimentarily organized groups of Vargr with military grade weapons, short of an actual militia unit, but more than a lynch mob.

One example could be ad hoc guerilla cells that form in response to resist invading forces, like the Wolverines, a group of untrained Vargr youth in some generic backwater Vargr world, when the Imperium occupied a neighbouring Vargr interstellar polity, in attempt to impose Imperial Law and Order, as they hated the Vargr's way of life, political liberty and independence. And piracy of Imperial intellectual property.

 

[Orr]

I like your ideas concerning the Vargr, Condottiere.

Thank you very much for sharing them and I hope to read more of them in the future.

 

[Condottiere]

I have to admit, it came to me when I was browsing the major races thread, and suddenly realized there's a lot more to the woof woofs, but that it seemed to me that the designers may have overlooked some aspects.

 

[GypsyComet]

The Vargr are the only Major aside from Humaniti in general (and the Terrans specifically) that is broadly multi-cultural, so any level of deep detail is going to come with that caveat.

 

[Condottiere]

That may be due to an active cultural and social control on the part of the Zhodani, and going by their reputed jihads, the K'kree as well, and Aslan seem to be a blend of the Japanese and the American Indians, who probably are related anyway.

Outside of handshaking and the supposed puppeteering, wouldn't know enough of the Hivers to comment, and like the above mentioned races, and until recently the Vargr, didn't really interest me enough to try and figure out how their society works.

I wondered if the Vargr had democracy, beyond the stereotypical view that they have, are and will try all forms of governance. Basically, secret balloting to elect politicians, rather than just agree to support whoever their pack leader says they should, or what happens being a member of different packs, where each pack leader backs a different pony?

What's more mysterious would be sustainable tech level, industrial base and fleet compositions. Because once I've gone through the ground forces, I'd like to know what kind of warships Vargr manufacture, what their numbers are and how they sustain the fleet, beyond the Viking archetype.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Military Bands

Once you get past the basic pack unit configuration, Vargr military organizations become a little vague.

Military packs are organized into a military band, led by a band commander. Combat groups are usually an intermediate ad hoc arrangement of complimentary, and may be less complimentary, military packs to carry out missions no single military pack could carry out by itself.

Military band commanders are experienced inspirational Vargrs that have managed to safely navigate through the shoals of the battlefield and bureaucratic obstacles, to have both the support of the packs assigned to him, and the confidence of his civilian and military superiors. This is critical, because a distrusted band commander will find his logistics curtailed, which would slowly strangle the military effectiveness of his military band, unless the band resorts to looting and pillaging, which isn't possible within borders of the political entity he and his band have sworn their allegiance to.

Military band commanders have direct control of, and are the pack leaders of:

1. The military band pack leader pack, which only pack leaders can join, and act as the officer corps of the military band, and allows the military band commander to directly connect with the pack leaders, as they can, in turn, with him.

2. The military band staff pack, that actually runs, coordinates and plans all activities concerning the military bands and it's associated packs, as well as other military and civilian entities.

3. The band commander's personal military pack, or at this level, more of an entourage, who protect and assist him in carrying out his duties.

Military band commanders aren't concerned with the minutiae of military life, leaving the details upto the military band staff, nor do they micromanage other military packs, since they assume that their own pack leaders are competent enough to do that on their own.

They are concerned with the achievement of various operational aims and mission goals, and assign them to the packs and combat groups under their control, with the advisement and assistance of the military band staff.

Military band commanders also keep an eye on capable and ambitious pack leaders, to detect, thwart or divert any leadership challenge.

If there are no available suitable military posts elsewhere, favourite tactic is to recommend to their superiors the creation of a new, though very understrength, military band, and transfer the perceived challenger, and possibly other undesirables, there.

 

[Condottiere]

Vargr: Span of Control and Alexander the Great Dane

Exactly how far can an individual Vargr exert dominance? Generally, about how far he can reach.

Alexander likely over reached, but if he had lived longer he could have established his son(s) as both competent administrators and generals, and secured their power bases, so that a global Hellenistic Empire would have come into existence, instead of only degenerating into a sphere of influence following his demise.

Any Vargr empire that is created through a single individual's prowess in bringing vast areas under his control, especially through the sheer force of his personality and string of victories, will unlikely be ever challenged during his lifetime, at least not directly. Add this with the policy of incorporating local elites and customs into his hierarchy and rulership style, would minimize resentment and leave vocal advocates in his wake, ensuring a loyal and secure rear area.

It could well be that momentum would drive the Vargr conquests forwards without really sparking off rear area rebellions, or that would be small enough that could be dealt with by the loyal viceroys left behind.

At some point, even the most dedicated followers may be too fatigued to follow their driven leader, which might mark the end of expansion in one direction.

Consolidation may follow, plus planning for expanding in another direction.

But even the acknowledged successor of the Alexandrian Vargr would have to start all over, if he wants to hold on to the vast empire carved out by his predecessor, probably with the advantage that he's carefully crafted out a power base first and recruited loyal and capable followers, as once the Great Leader is dead, every Vargr would have the instinctive urge to try and grab as much power during this period of disorder and opportunity.

Any Vargr empire based on a charismatic dictator won't outlast his lifetime, and will only expand as far as he or his most loyal and capable commanders can bring military force to bear.

 

[rancke]

As I pointed out in an earlier post, basing macro-scale Vargr institutions on Vargr micro-scale behavior patterns simply doesn't work. It was in connection with Vargr militaries, but it applies just as much to Vargr governments. In Gvurrdon sector alone we have several Vargr polities that have lasted for centuries. One of them was established around 400!

Vargr politics are no doubt more volatile than human politics, at least on the average, but this view of everybody engaging in playing musical chairs when a succession comes up is concentrating on one aspect of a complex situation to the exclusion of every other aspect.


Hans