Unnaturals

Unnaturals is the Palleseen military classification for any combat formation composed of or relying heavily on non-human magical troops-reanimated corpses, contract-bound demons, and Sonori constructs-fielded as a disciplined arm of the Pal army rather than as ad hoc instruments of terror. The term functions as a catch-all operational label rather than a formal organisational unit, grouping diverse productions under a single tactical doctrine: they form the advancing wall before which regular living soldiers move, absorbing the first and most lethal contact of an engagement. Their significance to the series lies in what they reveal about the Palleseen war machine's architecture and its moral limits. They are the point at which the army's engineering of violence meets the question of whether the tools of that violence retain any capacity for refusal.

Across the three books in which they appear, the Unnaturals trace an arc from routine to crisis. In the Loruthi campaign they are an established vanguard arm, prepared by named officers in storage huts and sent forward on the word of a monocled staff officer. In the Archipelago fighting they are a specialist squad under a Cohort-Monitor, deployed as advance guard and flank, and even offered as a ceremonial bodyguard to a foreign dignitary. In the post-war reckoning, however, the same formations are grouped with other suspect units as politically contaminated, and the Commission's attempt to use them for mass slaughter of prisoners exposes a fissure that neither the regular infantry nor the dead troops were designed to reveal: the Unnaturals hesitate. That hesitation, however partial, is what forces the Commission to turn to the Dead Companies for the killings the magical formations will not complete, making the Unnaturals the ambiguous middle tier in a hierarchy of willingness to kill.

The Group

Composition

The Unnaturals are not a single corps but a classification applied to any formation meeting the threshold of composed of or relying heavily on magical troops - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 11. Within the Palleseen army at the time of the Loruthi campaign, three distinct production streams feed the vanguard roster: reanimated corpses prepared through necromancy, demons bound by contract to simple combat tasks, and Sonori constructs - House of Open Wounds, ch 11. In practice the corpses and the bound demons share a parallel in that both bear tableth, a resemblance the necromancer and the conjurer would resent were it drawn to their attention - House of Open Wounds, ch 11.

A later description of demon-troop practice is more graphic: demons are stuffed into bodies, buried with spite and ceremony, and reanimated for service - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26. Regardless of origin, the term also encompasses any force whose capabilities exceed those of regular infantry and whose deployment therefore requires specific tactical accommodation within a conventional battle-line - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 11.

Command of Unnaturals in the field rests with Cohort-Monitors. On the Loruthi front, Cohort-Monitor Cosserby oversees the Sonori stream; on the Archipelago, Cohort-Monitor Croskin leads a squad of demon-troop Unnaturals directly - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26. Production officers-Fellow-Invigilators working in necromancy or conjuration-prepare the troops but do not lead them in the engagement; a senior line officer issues the order to advance - House of Open Wounds, ch 13.

Purpose & Method

The tactical doctrine is explicit: Unnaturals form "that wall of demons, corpses and machines behind which the regular living Pals would make their advance" - House of Open Wounds, ch 13. They take the hill first. In the Archipelago fighting they serve as advance guard and left flank, the spearhead of a broader battle line - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26. Their placement is not improvised; a gap must be reserved front-and-centre in the line before it closes, and the duty Cohort-Monitor confirms this slotting before the formation seals - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 11.

Preparation is industrial. On the Loruthi front, a single necromancer fitted thirty-nine tableth-equipped corpses for one engagement - House of Open Wounds, ch 11. The work is routine, a roster task, a line item in a storage hut rather than a feat of arcane drama. Once the order comes down-whistles sound-the Unnaturals advance into baton-fire and casualties pour back into the hospital tent - House of Open Wounds, ch 13.

A secondary role emerges in the aftermath of the Archipelago night action: Flint offers Dekamran a personal guard drawn from Croskin's squad, specifically suggesting they be posted at the Mirror Throne - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 28. This is Flint's proposal, not the Unnaturals' own initiative, and it recasts them in a protective, ceremonial function distinct from shock deployment.

Standing

Within the military hierarchy the Unnaturals answer to the chain of Pal command. On the Loruthi front a monocled staff officer with no further identification orders Prassel to send her troops forward, and she complies because he outranks her or holds seniority in the engagement - House of Open Wounds, ch 13. In the Archipelago they serve under Flint's overall command as part of his broader battle line - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26.

The war's end transforms their political standing. In the post-war reckoning concerning the army on the Archipelago, the Unnaturals are grouped alongside the Dead Companies and the Left-Eye Brigade as former military units that fell under suspicion, labelled "imperfect" because the Fisher King cult and the old religion had taken root among their ranks and because their history of the Sway had become politically dangerous to the new order - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 28. Correct Speech is described as having been overwhelmed by this religious contamination, and the Commission's widening of its remit-from cultist camps to broader repression-renders the Unnaturals' status within the Palleseen military ambiguous, though no formal disbandment or reassignment is recorded - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 28.

In the post-war moral accounting, the Commission attempts to use the Unnaturals to carry out the extermination of Palleseen cult prisoners in internment camps after regular troops refuse the order outright. The Unnaturals prove conflicted and hesitate rather than executing the killings en masse - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 40. Because both the conventional soldiers and the magical formations balk, the Commission turns instead to the Dead Companies to complete the slaughter. The Unnaturals' hesitation is the proximate cause of the Dead Companies' dispatch: had the magical troops carried through, the Commission would not have needed to send the dead - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 40. The Camp Exterminations thus establish a hierarchical willingness-to-kill in which regulars, Unnaturals, and Dead Companies occupy three successive tiers of compulsion, the Unnaturals marking the boundary at which moral resistance becomes ambiguous rather than absolute - Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 40.

Known members

- Croskin - cohort-monitor - Flint Postry - fellow-monitor

History

House of Open Wounds

Unnaturals is the Palleseen military classification for non-human combatants, as exacting a category as "cavalry," encompassing reanimated corpses, bound demons, and Sonori constructs deployed in the vanguard of an engagement - ch 11. Once the terror weapons of conquered peoples, they had by the time of the Loruthi campaign become a routine arm of the Pal army, fielded in disciplined formations rather than as one-off instruments of psychological shock - ch 11. The tactical doctrine is explicit: Unnaturals form "that wall of demons, corpses and machines behind which the regular living Pals would make their advance" - ch 13.

Two named officers bear responsibility for producing Unnaturals for the army's vanguard roster, and their work sits side by side in that roster despite its differing methods. Fellow-Invigilator Prassel works in necromancy, preparing prepared corpses for combat duty; Fellow-Invigilator Maserley is a conjurer whose contracts bind demons to simple tasks, and his conjurations count as Unnaturals under the same classification - ch 11. Cohort-Monitor Cosserby's Sonori constructs are a third stream: they echo Prassel's corpses in that both bear tableth, a parallel neither officer would appreciate were it drawn to their attention - ch 11.

In her storage hut, Prassel prepares thirty-nine corpses fitted with tableth for vanguard duty against the Loruthi, and in the course of that labour she ruminates on the state of her discipline - the decline of necromancy, Maserley's inadequate contracts, and the prestige of ghost work she is never asked to perform - ch 11.

At the new hospital tent, a lean monocled Pal officer briefs Prassel on the upcoming advance and orders her to send her Unnaturals forward to take a hill held by a mercenary detachment, declaring that "Uncle wants it all under the Sway by evening" - ch 13. Prassel takes the order, as the officer outranks her or holds seniority in this engagement - ch 13. Whistles sound; the Unnaturals advance; baton-fire crackles across the field, and casualties pour back into the tent - ch 13.

Days of Shattered Faith

The Unnaturals are a Palleseen military specialization composed of demon troops, distinguished from conventional soldiers by the manner of their creation: demons are stuffed into bodies and buried with spite and ceremony before being reanimated for service - ch 26. They function as a unit type under Palleseen command, with Cohort-Monitor Croskin leading a squad of them in the field. During the engagement at Flint's command, the Unnaturals under Croskin are deployed as advance guard and on the left flank, serving as the spearhead of Flint's broader battle line - ch 26.

In the aftermath of the night action, Flint offers Dekamran a personal guard drawn from Croskin's squad of Unnaturals, with the specific suggestion that they be posted at the Mirror Throne - ch 28. The offer frames the Unnaturals in a protective, ceremonial role distinct from their earlier function as shock troops, though the source of the suggestion remains Flint rather than the Unnaturals themselves.

In a later political reckoning concerning the army on the Archipelago, the Unnaturals are grouped alongside the Dead Companies and the Left-Eye Brigade as former military units that fell under suspicion after the war, labelled "imperfect" because the Fisher King cult and the old religion had taken root among their ranks and because their history of the Sway had become politically dangerous to the new order. Correct Speech is described as having been overwhelmed by this religious contamination, and the Commission's subsequent widening of its remit - from cultist camps to broader repression - makes the Unnaturals' status within the Palleseen military ambiguous, though the notes do not record their formal disbandment or reassignment - ch 28.

Pretenders to the Throne Of God

Unnaturals is an informal Pal term for any military force composed of or relying heavily on magical troops - a catch-all designation that groups together diverse formations under a single operational label rather than a formal organisational one - ch 11. In practice the term carries the sense of a combat element whose capabilities exceed those of regular infantry, and whose deployment therefore requires specific tactical accommodation within a conventional battle-line. In Chapter 11 the duty Cohort-Monitor speaks briefly with Dantell about leaving a gap front-and-centre for the new Unnaturals, indicating that these forces are slotted into pre-arranged positions within larger formations and that their placement must be reserved before the line is closed - ch 11.

The term's moral weight, however, becomes inseparable from the military one in the post-war period recounted by Fellow-Inquirer Prassel in Chapter 40. After the cessation of hostilities the Commission ordered the extermination of Palleseen cult prisoners held in internment camps. Regular troops refused the order outright. The Unnaturals, tasked with carrying it out in the regulars' stead, proved conflicted and hesitated rather than executing the killings en masse - ch 40. Because both the conventional soldiers and the magical formations balked, the Commission turned instead to Prassel and her peers' Dead Companies to complete the slaughter. Prassel's account of the episode makes explicit that the Unnaturals' hesitation was the proximate cause of the Dead Companies' dispatch: had the magical troops carried through, the Commission would not have needed to send the dead. The Commission's decision to bypass both refusals by conscripting the Dead Companies into the role the Unnaturals had declined is what Prassel denounces when she tells her accusers: "You made us your butchers and set us on our own, unarmed, defenceless" - ch 40. The Camp Exterminations thus establish a hierarchical willingness-to-kill in which regulars, Unnaturals, and Dead Companies occupy three successive tiers of compulsion, the Unnaturals marking the boundary at which moral resistance becomes ambiguous rather than absolute - ch 40.

Relationships

- Fellow-Invigilator Prassel - the necromancer who prepares tableth-fitted corpses for the Unnaturals roster, ruminating on the decline of her discipline and the prestige she is denied; in the post-war period she recounts the Commission's failed attempt to use the Unnaturals for mass killing and the subsequent conscription of the Dead Companies into the role the Unnaturals declined - House of Open Wounds, ch 11; Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 40. - Fellow-Invigilator Maserley - the conjurer whose demon contracts feed the Unnaturals classification alongside Prassel's corpses; Prassel's storage-hut monologue treats his work as an inadequate parallel to proper necromancy - House of Open Wounds, ch 11. - Cohort-Monitor Cosserby - the officer responsible for the Sonori construct stream of Unnaturals; his constructs echo Prassel's corpses in bearing tableth, a resemblance neither man nor woman would welcome if pointed out - House of Open Wounds, ch 11. - Cohort-Monitor Croskin - the field commander of a demon-troop Unnaturals squad in the Archipelago engagement, deploying them as advance guard and left flank; his squad is the source of the personal guard Flint offers Dekamran - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26, ch 28. - Flint - the commander under whose broader battle line the Unnaturals serve as spearhead; it is Flint who proposes their redeployment from shock troops to ceremonial bodyguard at the Mirror Throne - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 26, ch 28. - Dekamran - the foreign recipient of Flint's offer of an Unnaturals guard for the Mirror Throne, placing the formations in a protective rather than offensive context - Days of Shattered Faith, ch 28.

Notable Quotes

"that wall of demons, corpses and machines behind which the regular living Pals would make their advance" - tactical doctrine described in the Loruthi engagement, House of Open Wounds, ch 13

"Uncle wants it all under the Sway by evening" - the monocled staff officer ordering Prassel to send her Unnaturals forward, House of Open Wounds, ch 13

"You made us your butchers and set us on our own, unarmed, defenceless" - Fellow-Invigilator Prassel addressing her accusers, describing the Commission's decision to turn to the Dead Companies after the Unnaturals hesitated, Pretenders to the Throne Of God, ch 40

Tags

1. military-classification · #supernatural · #non-human-combatants