Forthright
The Forthright Battalion is a composite ground combat unit of the Palleseen army, deployed to the Lor front and transported by a Gallete flying island. Distinguished within the Palleseen military by its integration of Blessed priests, necromancers, Divinati healers, and consecrated specialists into a single uniformed formation, the battalion also houses an experimental hospital department that operates under the principle that the advance belongs to the army, not to the hospital - ch 11. Its commanding officer, Sage-Monitor Runkel, governs by personal decree under "Uncle's rules" and enforces a dry-camp prohibition, a style the text explicitly frames as reflecting Palleseen institutional preference for orthodoxy over tactical genius - ch 43.
The battalion's arc across its single appearance follows a trajectory from disciplined arrival to institutional humiliation to dissolution. Forthright disembarks into a conjoined camp alongside the Landwards Battalion, is stripped of the assault role through a "hamfight over seniority" between Higher Orders, and watches its field hospital denied adequate support - ch 21. Runkel is mortally wounded in the battle he was excluded from planning, and his death triggers a blunt generational transition to Professor-Invigilator Scaffesty, described as "an innovator" where Runkel was "old school" - ch 45. By the novel's close the unit is broken, its fragments scattered, though the former Cohort-Broker Banders returns to it declaring "the army's all I've got" - ch 51.
The Forthright Battalion matters to the series as a case study in how the Palleseen military machine absorbs, misuses, and ultimately discards the very specialists it prides itself on integrating. Its hospital tent - called "Hell" by a Maric patient - becomes the site where Alv, a Divinati healer of major's rank, "looks the Maric full in the eye and melts her own face off" in the act of transferring his burns onto her own body - ch 4. The battalion's administrative and medical operations, touched by necromancy and Blessed consecration operating in the open, sit at the edge of what the Palleseen establishment permits; references to "mutiny" and records being "excised" mark its work as politically hazardous - ch 17.
The Group
Composition
The Forthright Battalion is explicitly a composite formation: regular Palleseen soldiers, military specialists, magicians, and Blessed priests of various faiths who disembark together when the Gallete touches down, including Divinati healers, necromancers, and consecrated clergy walking openly in uniform - ch 20. No single religious tradition dominates; the battalion draws its chaplains and healers from multiple faiths, a structural novelty that distinguishes it from standard Palleseen regiments. The named personnel include Sage-Monitor Runkel as commanding officer, Alv as the most senior woman on the medical team holding the rank of major, Chief Accessory Tallifer running the experimental hospital department, Fellow-Inquirer Prassel posted as a necromancer to that department, Pal regular trooper Lidlet serving within the rank structure, and the Bracite orderly Masty, who grew up in the army from age seven or eight and calls the hospital department "home" - ch 4, ch 21, ch 23, ch 27, ch 40. The Butcher, a Maric patient, holds enough practical authority within the hospital that regular uniforms scramble to obey despite his notional rank being lower - ch 21. Runkel governs by personal decree under "Uncle's rules" and enforces a dry-camp rule; his strategic decisions are not communicated down to the field hospital - ch 17, ch 21.
Purpose & Method
The battalion exists as a ground combat unit on the Lor front, deployed via Gallete transport and structured to integrate experimental medical practice within a fighting formation - ch 17, ch 21. Its field hospital operates under the standing assumption that "the advance belongs to the army, not to the hospital," meaning medical priorities are subordinate to the battalion's combat role - ch 11. The experimental hospital department, overseen by Tallifer, represents a deliberate institutional experiment in incorporating unconventional medical and arcane practitioners - ch 21. The necromancer Prassel is attached to this department but resents being "nursemaid[ed]" to it, indicating the unit's medical apparatus draws on specialist personnel for purposes beyond conventional treatment - ch 27. Landwards's Field Necromancy department solicits resources from Forthright's hospital for a ghost-warfare project, confirming the experimental department's function extends into arcane research - ch 27.
Standing
Forthright is a unit of the Palleseen army answering to Palleseen Higher Orders, which determine deployment and combat assignments; Runkel's appointment itself is framed as a product of institutional orthodoxy rather than merit selection - ch 43. The battalion is placed in a conjoined camp with the Landwards Battalion, an arrangement justified as preventing "unhealthy rivalries," though in practice the two units remain administratively and operationally distinct - ch 23. Landwards controls the assault ground and the advance; Forthright is left idle because Higher Orders granted the Professor Scaffesty the right to lead and overruled Runkel - ch 21. The conjoined-camp arrangement means Landwards officers attempt to enforce their own rules on Forthright personnel, a jurisdictional confusion that the duty Cohort-Inquirer Megget resolves by identifying offenders as a Forthright Battalion man in a conjoined camp - ch 23. The battalion's hospital operations carry political danger: references to "mutiny" and records being "excised" suggest the work sits outside sanctioned Palleseen military practice - ch 17. After Runkel's death and Scaffesty's succession, the unit marches alongside Landwards as the Loruthi withdraw to their side of Magnelei, with Tallifer foreseeing a siege if either side gets a bloody nose - ch 45. By the novel's end the battalion is described as broken - ch 51.
Known members
- Foley - regular soldier - Lidlet - pal regular trooper - Masty - orderly - Prassel - fellow-inquirer - Runkel - commanding officer - Scaffesty - commanding officer - Tallifer - chief accessory
History
House of Open Wounds
The Forthright Battalion is a ground unit of the Palleseen army operating on the Lor front, transported by a Gallete flying island and housing an experimental hospital department within its structure - ch 17, ch 21. It is a composite formation: regular soldiers, specialists, magicians, and Blessed priests of various faiths disembark together when the Gallete touches down, and the battalion's personnel include Divinati healers, necromancers, and consecrated clergy walking openly in uniform - ch 20. Its commanding officer at the start of the narrative is Sage-Monitor Runkel, whom the text describes as "old school" and whose appointment is explicitly framed as reflecting a Palleseen institutional preference for orthodoxy over genius - ch 43, ch 45. Runkel governs the camp by personal decree - "Uncle's rules" - and enforces a dry-camp rule that keeps the battalion sober; he is described as "chewing his lips off" at being sent away from the Lor front, and his strategic decisions are not communicated down to the field hospital - ch 17, ch 21.
The battalion's field hospital tent is called "Hell" by a Maric patient, and the medical team there operates under the assumption that the advance belongs to the army, not to the hospital - ch 4, ch 11. Alv, a Divinati healer holding the rank of major, is the most senior woman on the medical team; she heals by transferring a patient's burns onto her own body, and in doing so badly burns herself - "Alv, the most beautiful woman in Forthright Battalion, looks the Maric full in the eye and melts her own face off" - ch 4. The experimental hospital department is run by Chief Accessory Tallifer, a former Jarokiri priest of Mazdek now working as a surgeon patching Palleseen wounds; she is cold, competent, and irritated at being sidelined - ch 21. The Fellow-Inquirer and necromancer Prassel is also posted to the experimental hospital, a command post she resents being "nursemaid[ed]" to - ch 27. The Pal regular trooper Lidlet serves within the battalion's rank structure, which the text notes is being violently enforced against new Whitebellies - ch 40. The Bracite orderly Masty, who grew up in the army from age seven or eight, is attached to the battalion and calls the hospital department "home" - ch 23.
The Forthright Battalion is transported to its new position aboard a Gallete flying island. As the island touches down, gangplanks are forced and twisted into place, and the unloading becomes a scene of inter-unit friction: Forthright uniforms and Landwards regulars both work the docks, and officers of the two battalions get into "a fine old pissing competition" during the disembarkation - ch 20. The Landwards side has been sitting in the hills "for bloody ages" prior to Forthright's arrival, weeks after the Palleseen-Lor war declaration and the forced reunification of Bracinta - ch 20. Pirisytes, a Whitebelly Accessory on the ground crew attached to Landwards, watches Forthright's manpower march out across the gangplanks and uses a hidden rite to identify "the flavours of their power like auras in the air," spotting Blessed priests and consecrated specialists among the newcomers; he resolves to let them settle in before hunting them as sacrifices - "He'd let Forthright get settled in and then it would be time for some good old-fashioned religion" - ch 20.
Once on the ground, the Forthright and Landwards battalions are placed in a conjoined camp with no marked boundary, an arrangement justified as preventing unhealthy rivalries - ch 23. In practice the two units remain distinct: Landwards invents documents such as the excursion permit that do not exist in Forthright's administrative system, and a Landwards officer, Tunly, attempts to apply Landwards rules to Masty, a Forthright man, during a night walkabout; the duty Cohort-Inquirer Megget dismisses the charge, noting flatly that Masty is a Forthright Battalion man in a conjoined camp - ch 23. The rivalry intensifies in combat planning: the battle's advance belongs to Landwards, and Forthright is left idle because a "hamfight over seniority" between Higher Orders gave the Professor Scaffesty the right to lead and overruled Runkel. As a result no tent is prepared at the assault site for the Forthright field hospital, and Ollery stomps off to get one shouted into existence - ch 21. Landwards's Field Necromancy department also solicits resources from Forthright's hospital for a ghost-warfare project, a overture Prassel receives with strained composure - ch 27.
Runkel is critically wounded in battle and kept alive by a bellows engine over several hours. Before the fighting he had pre-emptively sworn to follow the Ninety-Seven Loopholes of God, and he begs Jack to heal him; he dies in the Forthright command, the chapter opening by noting that his command of the battalion reflected institutional orthodoxy rather than tactical brilliance - ch 43. After his death, Professor-Invigilator Scaffesty assumes command of the Forthright Battalion. The text marks the transition bluntly: "Uncle had been old school. Old Eyeball was an innovator." Scaffesty is associated with the necromancy department, his hands covered in blood, and is implied to be "the old man in the fancy bathrobe" riding beside Prassel in an officer's carriage - ch 45. An empty seat in a grander carriage behind the officers' transport still holds place for the dead Runkel - ch 45. With Landwards and Forthright marching together and the Loruthi withdrawing to their side of Magnelei, Tallifer foresees a siege if either side gets "a bloody nose" - ch 45.
The notes record that the Forthright Battalion's hospital operations may have constituted a war crime or, at minimum, an unauthorised act, with references to "mutiny" and records being "excised" implying the matter is dangerous to raise - ch 17. The question of where the battalion was ultimately heading and whom it would support - "off to support who knows who" - is raised in the Gallete transit and left without a stated answer within the text - ch 17. By the novel's end the unit is described as broken, with the former Cohort-Broker Banders returning to it and saying "the army's all I've got" - ch 51.
Relationships
- Runkel - Commanding officer for the duration of the battalion's coherent existence; governs by personal decree under "Uncle's rules," enforces sobriety, and is described as "chewing his lips off" at being sidelined from the Lor front. His death in the Forthright command, kept alive by a bellows engine over several hours, ends the old order of the battalion - ch 17, ch 43. - Alv - Divinati healer and major, the most senior woman on the medical team; her act of transferring a Maric patient's burns onto her own body is the battalion's defining image of sacrificial medicine - ch 4. - Tallifer - Chief Accessory running the experimental hospital department; a former Jarokiri priest of Mazdek now working as a surgeon, cold and competent, irritated at being sidelined by the landward command structure - ch 21. Foresees a siege at the war's close - ch 45. - Prassel - Fellow-Inquirer and necromancer posted to the experimental hospital; resents the assignment as "nursemaid[ing]" and would need Runkel's sign-off for reassignment, anchoring her to the battalion's institutional inertia - ch 27, ch 35. - Lidlet - Pal regular trooper within the battalion's rank structure, which is being violently enforced against new Whitebellies - ch 40. - Masty - Bracite orderly who grew up in the army from childhood; calls the hospital department "home" and is identified by Megget as a Forthright Battalion man in a conjoined camp - ch 23. - Ollery - Senior medical figure who stomps off to get a field-hospital tent "shouted into existence" after Higher Orders leave Forthright without one at the assault site - ch 21. - Scaffesty - Professor-Invigilator who assumes command after Runkel's death; associated with the necromancy department, hands covered in blood, described as "an innovator" in blunt contrast to the dead "old school" commander - ch 45. - Banders - Former Cohort-Broker who returns to the broken battalion at the novel's end, declaring "the army's all I've got" - ch 51. - Landwards Battalion - Rival ground unit sharing the conjoined camp; their officers engage in "a fine old pissing competition" during disembarkation, and Landwards monopolises the assault role while soliciting Forthright's hospital resources for arcane projects - ch 20, ch 21, ch 27.
Notable Quotes
- "Alv, the most beautiful woman in Forthright Battalion, looks the Maric full in the eye and melts her own face off" - ch 4
- the advance belongs to the army, not to the hospital - ch 11
- "Uncle had been old school. Old Eyeball was an innovator." - ch 45
- "He'd let Forthright get settled in and then it would be time for some good old-fashioned religion" - Pirisytes, ch 20
- "the army's all I've got" - Banders, ch 51
Tags
- battalion · #military-unit