The Red Brigade

Lieutenants are the leaders of small squads or platoons of New Antioch’s soldiers, playing a fundamental role on the frontlines. They are steadfast in their duty, preserving the unity and morale of their troops amid relentless conflict. A lieutenant may be a noble family’s favoured son or daughter, or have risen through the ranks by impressing their superiors with their exceptional strategic acumen and audacious bravery.

In addition to their command role, Lieutenants are responsible for acquiring weapons, arms, equipment and provisions for their troops. With resupply sporadic at best, they are frequently forced to loot the battlefields of No Man’s Land or even raid settlements to sustain their forces.

Having rightfully earned their position, Lieutenants enjoy the privilege of selecting their preferred arms and armour, often claiming the rarest battlefield finds. Many wield distinctive weapons, be it a revered family heirloom, an idiosyncratic affectation, or an ostentatious piece providing some much-needed swagger.

Wracked with an aching sense of loss and despair, the Crimson Communicants find solace to their pain in the company of the grim Red Brigade. Numb to lesser physical sensations, they actively seek grevious wounds on the battlefield to forget their mental anguish. As a parting gift when leaving the Mendelist monastery, they are each gifted an Atonement Bell.

These devotees of the Church ritually blind themselves as a devotion to God, relying solely on their faith to strike His enemies. Stories have been told that during the Siege of the Monastery of Saint Lux, a Sniper Priest killed a target three miles away.

A holy warrior entrusted with the very souls of the soldiers in the company. The Cleric chants inspiring battle prayers and can invoke divine miracles, from healing the wounded to smiting the enemy. The Cleric often carries a portable shrine on their back, honouring the company’s Patron, be it a revered saint of their homeland, a mighty archangel, or the Lord himself.

Combat Engineers specialise in destroying bunkers, discovering minefields, and building battlefield emplacements. Clad in steel body armour and armed for close combat, they brave the most perilous frontlines. Casualties within their ranks are exceedingly high, yet they consider it an honour to fight and die for New Antioch and the Church.

New Antioch Combat Medics are highly-trained specialist troops. Many are devout followers of Saint Michael, the Archangel, revered as both a warrior-saint and the protector of medics, whom they believe steadies their hands and guides their blades. Combat Medics serve a brutal dual duty. They must deliver emergency battlefield treatment aimed at returning soldiers to the fight as swiftly as possible, while also standing shoulder to shoulder with them on the front lines. Their misericordia knives are equally useful for on-the-spot surgery and the rapid dispatch of fallen enemies.

Well-armoured, imposing soldiers, the Mechanized Heavy Infantry wield the heavy weaponry of the company. Selected from amongst the best, they undergo heavy chemical enhancements to maximise their strength and endurance.

Highly trained in combined arms and fireteam tactics, these assault troops specialise in breaching enemy defences, and are masters of rapid assault and melee combat.

The basic troopers of New Antioch are brave men and women who have undergone standard training and sworn an oath to the Duke of New Antioch. Though they may lack the combat skills of more elite troops, they make up for it with sheer numbers and access to a wide array of weaponry.

Faith is not a passive instrument in the theatre of the Great War, rather it is one that is strengthened, sharpened by knowledge and experience. For the Faithful, Combat Biologists are one of the many whetstones upon which this sharpening occurs, travelling to the miseries of No Man’s Land to capture the enemies of the Almighty, or yield as much data as possible from their corpses. This research helps to manufacture new weapons to turn against the foes of the Church and the Sultanate, with no sinner or hellbeast being beyond the reach of the Combat Biologist’s toxinlaced vivisector.

Combat Biologists are members of the Pontifical Office of Biological warfare, or in the case of the Sultanate, the Al-Bisţāmī School of Ninety-Nine Names, which trains some failed Alchemist apprentices in a similar fashion. These scholars specialise in battlefield vivisections and collecting samples of the most powerful servants of Hell so they can be studied, in the hopes of finding ways to develop weapons capable of driving the servants of the Pit back to the darkness.

Due to their training, hypnotic conditioning and constant exposure to captured specimens, the Combat Biologist enters a battle trance when faced with creatures that normally induce fear in ordinary troopers. They wield vivisectors, polearm blade weapons that combine sophisticated biological warfare agents and the functional brutality of trench warfare.

Communicants are forged through the experimental rite of chemical communion, in which Mendelist monks bond blood and flesh harvested from a Meta-Christ to the recipient’s genome. Only the most devout and pious of the Church are granted the honour of communion. Those who endure the ritual transcend their mortal biology and are granted immense size and resilience, making them formidable assets on the battlefield. Their divinely-enhanced strength allows them to wield massive anti-materiel guns as if they were no heavier than a standard-issue firearm. The process is far from perfected, however, with a high possibility of unpredictable side effects. Some unlucky subjects lose the ability to speak, others lose their higher brain functions, as they are distracted by the Heavenly choir only they can hear, and cannot function without exact commands from their handlers.

The Church, ever needing funds to sustain its military operations, frequently allocates Communicants to the highest bidders. Their services are in constant demand as they possess the ability to incapacitate enemy fighting vehicles, heavily armoured troops, and strongpoints with a single shot.

The Order of Mendelist Monks is entrusted with the design of divinely enhanced items and the creation of the Communicants, devotees who have undergone chemical communion.

The Brotherhood of Blessed Munitions is a subsect of the Order whose duty is to supply the Faithful with ammunition infused with the chemically altered blood of a Meta-Christ. These concoctions are highly unstable, dangerous to handle, and the secrets behind their formulas are fiercely guarded.

On the battlefield, the monks brave enemy fire and infernal terrors, unwavering in their holy duty to deliver ammunition and unleash the wrath of the Lord upon the Heretics. Their patron, Saint Barbara, is believed to raise those who fall in battle to everlasting glory.

This order of warrior monks lives in absolute solitude, honing their minds and bodies to become living weapons of the Hand of God. Once a soldier joins the order, they rarely leave the Temple of the Word, the sole exception being when they are summoned to the battlefield, where their unique abilities can decisively shift the balance in favour of the Faithful. The slightest disturbance in their prayers or training could sever their connection to the Lord of all Creation. Thus, the days and nights of the Observers are spent in secluded, cloistered cells, when not practicing their rigorous martial and mental disciplines.

The Witchburners are the field officers of the Inquisition. They are tasked with hunting down and punishing witches, warlocks and heretics that cannot be brought to face justice by conventional means.

On the battlefield they have the power to channel divine retribution on those deemed to have transgressed against God, causing sinners to burst into flames with mere words of condemnation. Since none are sinless, none are safe from their words of condemnation.