Rank , Command and Ship Size

[Straybow]

I also don't like the massively compressed nobility ranks. Social pecking order in noble ranks is far more finely tuned, and with the breadth of an interstellar culture there is even more need. There must be places to put all kinds of odds-and-ends that would be generated. So here's my idea of what that would look like.

10   A   Gentryº
11   B   Esquireºº (hereditary gentry)
12   C   Knight vestiture¹† (non-hereditary)
12   C   Lord/Lady Patrician‡ (hereditary)
13   D   Baronet/Baronetta² (hereditary or non-)
14   E   Knight/Dame¹ / planetary peer³
15   F   Baron/Baroness / planetary royal³
16   G   Viscount/Viscountessª
17   H   Count/Countessª
18   J   Earl/Countess Earl¤
19   K   Count/Countess Palatine•
19   K   Marquis/Marquise
20   L   Prince/Princess¤
21   M   Duke/Dutchess
22   N   Viceroy/Vicereine••
22   N   Prince/Princess Cadet*
23   P   Grand Duke/Grand Dutchess
23   P   King/Queen (Extraterritorial)
24   Q   Grand Prince/Princess**
25   R   Archduke/Archdutchess**
26   S   Crown Prince/Princess***
n/a n/a  Imperial Warrant•••
27   T   Emperor/Empress

º Not nobility. Append name as "—, Gent." (Gentleman/Gentlelady)
ºº Not nobility. Append name as "—, Esq."
† Not nobility; accorded noble respect if child of non-hereditary noble
‡ Noble without seat or vote; often non-inheriting children below Marquis. "Lord —, Patr."
¹ Honorific Sir/Dame does not distinguish hereditary from vestiture
² Not nobility; hereditary if child of Knight. "Sir/Dame —, Bart."
³ Use genitive of planet/nation with title (Regina Baron, Spanish King, etc.)
ª Non-hereditary promotions; heirs devolve to Barony but are often promoted again
¤ An Earl or Prince has immediate Imperial privilege (below no mediated authority)
• Fiefless, "of the Imperial court," charged with care of Imperial land and Civil duties in lieu
•• Fiefless, Viceroy rules a substantial demesne of personal Imperial holdings in lieu
••• A Warrant grants the holder immediate authority, free of any other, in execution
* Members of Imperial royal family without fief or position
** Members of Imperial royal family only at this rank, perhaps a cadet branch
*** Members of Imperial royal family only at this rank, inheriting branch

Planetary royals are typically Princes, Dukes, Kings, or elected Presiding rulers. "Royals" must rule a dominant land/hegemony (or one of few), else are treated as peer. Some may be called Emperor, only by tradition predating Imperial contact. Baron is the lowest rank granted them. Some hold higher Imperial rank. There are no "Imperial" Kings, but supreme ruler of a smaller polity may be so titled.

Count Palatine and Viceroy are the only titles held specifically as an office. A spouse may be granted equivalent rank, otherwise Lord/Lady if of no rank. A holder may have a title, possibly higher rank, or be Imperial (distant if Count).

Lord/Lady (rank C) is the title of non-inheriting children of ranks up to K (Marquis). Their effective Soc due to influence may be as high as 1 rank below their family rank. Without promotion of some sort, the following generation would be Esquires. They generally don't have higher effective Soc, except when being considered for marriage.

 

[Condottiere]

My take on the Solomani Confederation Army is a fairly flat hierarchy and organization, especially considering interstellar communication lags.

Confederation Army officers are trained to be able to handle duties and responsibilities two command levels above their rank, meaning that they can easily move up the chain of command if the slot above them is suddenly vacant, or more likely, since I see the default Confederation Army divisions more like Roman Legions, though four times bigger, as the foundation around which a task force is built with elements of allied, member world and mercenary forces, which automatically brevets the divisional commander into a corps commander.

Since I would use a flatter hierarchy, there are no formal corps commands between division and army, these are ad hoc formations usually used to command and control insystem troop formations.

 

[Straybow]

Various reading and thunking has pushed me to rewrite my rank structure. That, and the new forum engine allows tables.

​	Navy​	Marines​	Army​	Scouts​	Merchant​
E0​	Recruit​	Recruit​	Recruit​	Probate​	Trainee​
E1​	Spacehand​	Private​	Private​	Deckhand​	Apprentice​
E2​	Able Spacehand​	Lance Corporal​	Private FC​	Able Deckhand​	Shiphand/Shorehand​
E3​	Senior Spacehand​	Corporal​	Corporal​	Senior Deckhand​	Able Ship/Shorehand​
E4​	Petty Officer 3rd​	Master Corp/Specialist​	Sergeant/Specialist​	Petty Officer 3rd​	Foreman​
E5​	Petty Officer 2nd​	Sergeant/Senior Spec​	Staff Sgt/Senior Spec​	Petty Officer 2nd​	Journeyman​
E6​	Petty Officer 1st​	Gunnery Sgt/Master Sp​	Sgt FC/Master Spec​	Petty Officer 1st​	Crew Master​
E7​	Chief Petty Officer​	Master Sergeant​	Technical Sergeant​	Chief Petty Officer​	First Crew Master​
E8​	Senior CPO​	Master Gunnery Sgt​	Master Sergeant​	Senior CPO​	Chief Crew Master​
E9​	Master CPO​	First Sergeant​	Command MSgt​	Master CPO​	Senior Chief CM​
EA​	Command MCPO​	Command FSgt​	First Sergeant​	—​	Command Chief CM​
EB​	Fleet MCPO​	Sergeant Major​	Sergeant Major​	—​	Fleet Command CCM​
E*​	Grand MCPO​	Command Sgt Major​	Command Sgt Major​	Grand MCPO​	Superintendant CCM​
​	​	​	​	​	​
WA​	Jr Warrant Officer​	Jr WO​	Jr WO​	Scout Agent​	Jr WO​
WB​	Sr Warrant Officer​	Sr WO​	Sr WO​	Special Agent​	Sr WO​
WC​	Chief WO​	CWO​	CWO​	Chief Special Agent​	CWO​
WD​	Master CWO​	MCWO​	MCWO​	First Special Agent​	MCWO​
​	​	​	​	​	​
O1​	Ensign​	Kornet​	2nd Lieutenant​	Scout Officer​	4th Officer​
O2​	Sub-Lieutenant​	Unterhauptmann​	1st Lieutenant​	Senior Scout Officer​	3rd Officer​
O3​	Lieutenant​	Hauptmann​	Captain​	First Scout Officer​	2nd Officer​
O4​	Sub-Commander​	Stabshauptmann​	Staff Captain​	Scout Lieutenant​	First Officer​
O5​	Commander​	Major​	Major​	Scout Commander​	Captain​
O6​	Sub-Captain​	Oberstleutnant​	Lt Colonel​	Scout Captain​	Senior Captain​
O7​	Captain​	Oberst​	Colonel​	—​	—​
O8​	Line Captain​	Hochoberst​	High Colonel​	—​	—​
O9​	High Captain​	—​	—​	—​	—​
OA​	Flag Captain​	—​	—​	—​	—​
​	​	​	​	​	​
A1​	Sub-Admiral​	Brigadier Leutnant​	Sub-General​	Sub-Commodore​	Jr Vice President​
A2​	Rear Admiral​	Brigadier​	Lt General​	Vice Commodore​	Sr Vice President​
A3​	Vice Admiral​	Brigadier Major​	General​	Commodore​	President​
A4​	Admiral​	Brigadier Commandant​	Major General​	High Commodore​	Chief Officer​
A5​	Senior Admiral​	Brigadier Marshal​	Field Marshal​	Grand Commodore​	Director​
A6​	High Admiral​	Brigadier of Marines​	High Marshal​	—​	Chair​
A7​	Grand Admiral​	—​	Grand Marshal​	—​	—​
A*​	Admiral Consul​	Brigadier Consul​	Constable of the Empire​	Scout Consul​	Inspector Consul​

In particular, the idea that Scout Agents would be equivalent to warrant officer ranks in other services reflects the ambiguity of their status as neither enlisted nor officers, operating independently in the field with minimal oversight. Scout officers primarily serve on ships and base assignments.

 

[kilemall]

Does neatly give an organizational answer to that lovely LBB6 dichotomy of base bound officers/bureaucrats wrestling with field operators/troubleshooters…

 

[aramis]

That, and the new forum engine allows tables.

The old one, did, too... at least, for most of my tenure as lead admin. I added the code myself.

 

[whartung]

The old one, did, too

Yea, but the new one's support of tables is MUCH better.

 

[Straybow]

I just copied from the spreadsheet and, voila!

 

[Straybow]

Looking back at my lengthy and pedantic discourse on rank names, I had discovered that while "zugleiter" is indeed etymologically logical, in normal German usage it means "dispatcher." I fell back to a pre-20th century tradition of assigning very junior officers to either be the bugler or be in charge of the bugler, as a way of minimizing the amount of stupidity the kid can do. In German they simply called the role "kornet" (bugle) and it may or may not have been an official rank. Haven't really tried to find historical sources. I only investigated enough to satisfy my curiosity.

It's also curious that the transition to Xeno made changes to the word p-r-o-n-o-u-n-c-e-d and substituted a non-printing character for the "p-r-o-n." I know some use that term as a cutesy way of saying p-o-r-n, but that's a truly sloppy filter, and probably shouldn't be applied retroactively.

 

[Condottiere]

I thought it was Fähnrich.

While I have no idea of German (or Austrian) Marine hierarchy, I kinda suspect it should be Leutnant, and they seem to skip Brigadier as a rank, until they joined NATO.

 

[whulorigan]

Are you certian that "Kornet" was the "bugler" in the German ranks? In 17th Century England the junior-most commissioned rank (who carried the large flag-standard) in the infantry was the "Ensign" (= German "Fähnrich" as Condottiere mentioned) accompanied by the drummer, but the junior-most commissioned rank in the cavalry (who carried the small pennant-standard from horseback) was the "Cornet", accompanied by the "Trumpeter".

"Brigadegeneral" has popped in and out of German usage during the 1st half of the 20th Century and prior.

 

[Condottiere]

I don't think the Prussians, the Imperials, the Wehrmacht nor the Volksarmee used it.

 

[whulorigan]

I don't think the Prussians, the Imperials, the Wehrmacht nor the Volksarmee used it.

I believe the Wehrmacht did use it briefly early on, but it was a rare rank (though I may be misremembering).

 

[aramis]

I don't think the Prussians, the Imperials, the Wehrmacht nor the Volksarmee used it.

It's been documented in several histories, including the official USMC one, that Cornet/Kornet was the cavalry junior subaltern, while ensign was the infantry. Infantry follow the flag; cavalry obey the trumpets...

Keep in mind that unified rank structures only seem to get started in the late 18th C; in the 17th, various regiments had different rank titles in the UK and Russia... the UK still retains this for their juniormost ranks in a few regiments. The US dropped it to two rank systems for officers in the early 19th (but kept changing the naval juniormost ranks until the late 19th), eliminating the separate arm ranks...
The enlisted in the Army and USMC wouldn't get unified ranks for each service until WW II.... The Navy has recently done away with addressing by rating on paper; guys I know still in are still answering phones by rating/rate combo.... "You have reached the phone of EM(N)2 «name»..."

 

[Condottiere]

While ranking in cavalry regiments tend to be somewhat, unorthodox, I don't think the Germans, specifically from the Napoleonic Prussians to the Wehrmacht, had the rank of Brigadier or Brigadier General.

Having read enough of Regency novels, a Cornetcy is the equivalent of an Ensign in a cavalry regiment, and presumably, that elitist difference would or could manifest itself on the Continent.

 

[whulorigan]

See Wikipedia:

Cornet (rank) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[MThompson016]

The enlisted in the Army and USMC wouldn't get unified ranks for each service until WW II.... The Navy has recently done away with addressing by rating on paper; guys I know still in are still answering phones by rating/rate combo.... "You have reached the phone of EM(N)2 «name»..."

That lasted all of three months in 2016. Mostly because it was seen as profoundly stupid by the rank and file, and there was no ready solution. I wrote about it on my personal blog when it happened and when the return to status quo ante occurred.

I've also done extensive posts on assigning rates and officer specialties as well. I would like more info on how other Navies organize their officers and sailors, for a different kind of chrome.

 

[Straybow]

I'm not saying that Kornet was a historical rank, nor necessarily the bugler per se. I was just looking for something other than ensign/fahnrich or lieutenant/leutnant for flavor. Maybe fahnrich would do as well as kornet for being not like the French derived rank names. I just opted for Kornet.

That lasted all of three months in 2016. Mostly because it was seen as profoundly stupid by the rank and file, and there was no ready solution. I wrote about it on my personal blog when it happened and when the return to status quo ante occurred.

I've also done extensive posts on assigning rates and officer specialties as well. I would like more info on how other Navies organize their officers and sailors, for a different kind of chrome.

Hey, let's institute a change that has no real purpose just to help some namby-pamby General in Washington be happy about "changing the world." Oh, gee maybe that wasn't a good idea. Who woulda thunk it?