Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Commissar

Note: For the Voshkod version, see here.

"Fear ensures loyalty!"

-...

The Commissar is the support command infantry of the Lineage Steel Legion. Planned to be voiced by Keith Ferguson.

Tactical analysis

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Overview
The main problem with mass conscription is that the soldiers may not be as dedicated to the cause as ideal, and so the Legion has built an extensive command structure to maintain order on the battlefield. The frontline face of that is the Commissar, a devout and zealous servant of the Legion who will endeavor to bring victory no matter the cost. Screaming rousing speeches and threats of execution at the forces they command while charging toward the enemy to set an example of bravery, they urge troops to follow them against all odds, fighting alongside them in camaraderie, and ensure that if they fear the guns in front of them, they'll succumb to the one at the back of their head, unlike the Commissars of the Voshkods who had gone soft with reforms. Not one step back!

Appearance
The commissar's standard uniform consists of the great coat, with identifying gold and red epaulets, and red lining on the collar and cuffs, a peaked officer's cap, usually black with red lining, a black undercoat, with either red or gold finery, black combat pants/skirt, and combat boots. Female Commissars also wear black stockings and garters.

History
"If you will not serve in combat, then you will serve on the firing line!"

-...

The Legion Army was raised from the fighting men and women of Aden in the late (insert) V.C. And were used almost exclusively for garrison and pacification roles on both their home and foreign lands throughout the early stages of the war, but by the latter half, they were fighting offensive battles and supplementing the Coalition Expeditionary forces as the Astartes began to be stretched too thinly against the Elsword Empire.

The Legion Army at this time was organized with no particular standardization, and regimental makeups ranged from barbarians wielding Power Axes to advanced mechanized infantry armed with energy weapons whose designs have now been lost. During this time, the regiments were left almost exclusively to their own recognizance as long as they served faithfully, and conformed to the few restrictions placed on them.

During the Aden-Elsword War, some Imperial Army regiments utilized specialists known as "discipline masters." These stern taskmasters were responsible for maintaining discipline within the regiment to which they were assigned. They were also one of the few examples of outside Imperial officials that operated within the Imperialis Militia.

The task of the discipline master was primarily to ensure that the principles of the Legion discipline was upheld.

Chosen from war veterans from the regular Imperialis Auxilia regiments drawn from the more civilized and technologically advanced parts of Aden, in the main, their job was to enforce order on the battlefield according to the writ of law, inspire courage and impose military laws on often backward and insular native soldiers to whom the Legion was a relatively new master.

They embodied the rule of Aden and so far as the average militia warrior was concerned had the ear of the Emperor himself. To falter in resolve within the sight of a discipline master in the heat of battle was to fail the Emperor of Aden in person, a crime for which pain and ultimately death were judged to be fit rewards.

They were known to utilize familiars, in the form of hunting eagles, to help them track down those who attempted to shirk their soldierly responsibilities.

Their fanatical dedication to the service of the Emperor overrode any feelings of compassion, mercy, or humanity when carrying out the summary executions of those found wanting, for which they employed a ceremonial Electro-scythe.

The discipline masters served as the precursor and model for the later Legion Commissariat and its merciless Commissars.

During the Horus Heresy, an estimated 40-50% of the Legion Army turned on the Coalition and joined the Traitor forces of the Warmaster Horus to make war on the Coalition. Most of these Traitor Army regiments eventually broke down into feudal and fragmented Chaos Cults, worshipping the various Chaos Gods, and causing great havoc amongst the civilian populations of thousands of nations.

With the added range of their regimental cruisers, the Traitor Army units spread quickly and left a bloody swathe of depopulated and dead citites in their wake, many of which had once been their own responsibilities to defend or even their homeworlds.

It is suspected that a number of Traitor Army regiments were used in the Siege of Karaz-A-Karak, though the exact extent of the Traitor forces has never been properly calculated, and most Chaos-tainted Imperial Army regiments became indistinguishable from one another as their corruption deepened.

With Horus' defeat in the early 1925 V.C., and the retreat of the forces of Chaos to the Eye of Terror, the remaining Loyalist regiments of the Legion Army underwent massive changes and became much more heavily standardized under the logistical aegis of the Adeptus Administratum's Departmento Munitorum.

The Imperial Navy was separated from the Imperial Army and transformed into a separate service, whilst the Imperial Army's ground forces were renamed the Lineage Legion. During this time, the Commissariat was formed to be the Legion bulwark among the members of the Lineage Legion against the influence of Chaos.

A commissar was given the power to ensure his or her regiment's continuing loyalty, and was charged to do anything necessary to prevent the corruption or spread of Chaos among the Guardsmen of that unit. Commissars were attached to every regiment and were used extensively in the immediate wake of the Traitor forces' retreat to ensure that the population of citites that had been ravaged by Chaos were not subverted by Chaos splinter cells or sleeper Chaos Cults.

Over the last (insert) years, the Commissariat has remained an important facet of the Lineage Legion command structure, and it is rare not to see at least one Commissar attached to the command staff of a Regimental Officer or Lord Commander's staff.

Several commissars have even attained Imperial commands of their own, including Commissar Yarrick, who took command of the Steel Legionnaires of Hades Hive during the Second War for Armageddon and became overall commander of Imperial forces during the Third War for Armageddon.