Great companies

A great company, also called companies of adventure, was an army of mercenaries between the 3rd and 15th centuries recruited by private employers (generally cities or families) during wars. They acted independently of any government, and were thus “great” (opposed to “lesser” companies that answered directly to employers). They regularly made their livings by plunder when not employed, and operated outside sometimes highly complicated laws regulating who could carry arms. The term “great company” is most applied to those that formed during Abayad’s Golden Age (741-1222), but it also applies to those formed before and after up until the end of the Abayadi Revolution, despite their generally being structured differently. Many cities paid off great companies rather than risk them looting their countrysides. The great companies have been cited as factors as strong as plague or famine in the fortunes of the region’s cities, with ones like the Falcon Company led by Sahin Aswad or the Red Company being the most famous. Following the 13th century, the companies declined in effectiveness until their being outlawed in Abayad’s 1456 Constitution following their defeat during its revolution.

Early history
Mercenary groups had existed in Abayad since ancient times, although companies as they would later be recognized first appeared during the later years of the Era of Stained Blades and Sorrows. Mercenaries were increasingly used at this time to replace losses from the armies of that time, which had previously been made up primarily by mass peasant levies. As the number of mercenaries employed in the region increased, the structure of these militaries was changed to facilitate their new compositions. It was from these reforms that the first lesser companies, also called house companies, were formed, as it was found that the mercenaries could get greater from concessions from employers as a large group than they could individually. These new companies represented forces that were organized and mobile, a valuable advantage during battles and campaigns alike. Even after the Confederation of Abayad was proclaimed in 191 AC, the region remained far from being truly united. Interregional quarrels between powerful families necessitated their use, and ruling governments and the families behind them commonly employed them as security forces in their own areas of control. Often, great companies were more attractive than direct employment in lesser companies because conflict within Abayad was normally punctuated by periods of truce, after which mercenaries of lesser companies would be laid off en masse. In the absence of civilian skills and opportunities, many formed armed bands and made a living by pillaging the countryside. In time, these bands grew in size to the point that many evolved an internal structure and even and even giving themselves romantic names. Many found it easier to employ (or buy off) these groups rather than fight them off, giving birth to the first of the great companies.

Golden Age of Abayad
By the ninth and tenth centuries, mercantile city-states such as Qabl, Tafari, Akhar, Aljira, and Sadaqa were very rich from their trade routes reaching north, south, east, and west, yet possessed fairly small military forces. In the event that foreign powers or envious neighbors attacked, the ruling Merchant Families began an arms race of sorts, hiring various great companies to fight for them. Military service terms and conditions were stipulated in charters between the ruling families (describing as being on the behalf of the city they governed) and the soldiers (officers and enlisted men). The contracted leader, the mercenary commanding the company, was therefore called the Charterer, or Alshahana. Throughout the centuries leading up to this period, many mercenaries had been engaged in local conflicts or ones with pirates and brigands, as well as operating abroad. Notably, Achysian royalty made a point of hiring Abayadi mercenaries as personal guards due to their loyalty and not being connected with other political entities in their nation. These officers experience large-scale warfare combat experience abroad, returning to Abayad during their time of service either to retire, or even begin their own companies. The first well-organized company in Abayad were the Thawara Company, differing from contemporary companies because its code of conduct imposed discipline as well as an equal division of the contract’s income. The Thawara Company increased in number until reaching upwards of over 1,500 sergeants, each over an eight-man squad (by this time, rules regarding equal pay had largely been abandoned).

The early great companies developed the “art of war” into military science more than any of their historical military predecessors - fighting indirectly, not directly - thus, only reluctantly endangering their enlisted men, avoiding battle when possible, also avoiding hard work and winter campaigns, as these all reduced the total number of fighting men available, and were detrimental to their political and economic interests. Foreign observers sometimes noted grandiose but often pointless and nearly-bloodless battles between the men of two opposing companies. As warfare evolved, so did the companies. With the introduction of gunpowder, they ditched their heavy armor and adopted the pike and the musket, helping postpone their eventual decline. In 1027 AC, the Council of Families over Qabl (now Toli Abayad) had Ramdan Mouhiddin, head of the Falcon Company, executed under charges of treason, and Sahin Aswad took over command as his second. Aswad took the bulk of the company with him to Azora, adopting a prominent part in the confused wars happening in that part of the world. By that time, many of the larger companies consisted heavily of foreing recruits, notably from Adwa, Dhamila, and Azoran states such as Achysia, Kathia, and Ichoria. This trend quickly diminished, however, and most companies returned to being almost entirely of Abayadi stock by the 13th century.

From the 13th century on, most mercenary captains were landless members of the middle and upper class who had chosen the profession of arms as livelihood. Sahin Aswad is historically the most famous of these; despite wartime inflation during the company’s operation, his soldiers’ pay was fairly high for the time. An enlisted soldier’s monthly pay was 3,300 lira a month, half that of an officer’s. Company commanders selected the soldiers to enlist; the charter was a consolidated contract, and when the service period elapsed, the company entered into a waiting period wherein the contracting authority considered its renewal. If the charter expired indefinitely, it was considered industry practice to not accept jobs against the former employer for two years, although this was not followed universally. Nevertheless, this business custom was respected because professional reputation was everything to the companies; a deceived employer was a reputation ruined; likewise for maritime mercenaries, whose charters of assent stipulated naval military service terms and conditions; sea captains and sailors so-contracted were called bisalam, or corsairs. Their principal employers were merchants large and small. Either to defend an individual ship or collection of them while on trading missions, or an entire city.

Decline
Despite reforms made to adapt to technological innovations, the financial and political interests of the companies would prove serious drawbacks to decisive, bloody warfare: captains were often treacherous, tending to avoid combat and preferring to “resolve” fights with bribes. Toward the end of the 14th century, when Abayad’s larger centers of trade had largely swallowed up the smaller ones, and Abayad found itself drawn into the general current of world politics, the mercenaries proved quite unequal to the forces of other modern nations. Indeed, it took advisors from Ichoria, then Edury during periods where Abayad found itself within their respective spheres of influence, for the largest companies to even come near keeping up with developments in doctrine, strategy, and armaments. The soldiers of the companies generally had little or nothing in common with the people among whom they fought, and their disorderly conduct and rapacity seem to have often exceeded that of contemporary armies elsewhere. They were always ready to change sides at the prospect of higher pay - the enemy of today could always be comrade in arms of tomorrow, and vice versa. Furthermore, prisoners were generally more valuable than dead enemies, meaning that battles were often bloodless or close to it, as well as being almost theatrical in nature.

The use of modern firearms and weaponry utilizing gunpowder further contributed to their decline. Although they were among the first to adapt to the emerging technologies on the battlefield, ultimately, the advent of modern firearms rendered their somewhat ceremonial fighting styles obsolete. As battlefields shifted to an everyman’s war, in which any and all acts were justifiable, they were ill-prepared to adjust. Faced with zealous republican and Hamalist forces conducting guerilla attacks before melting back into their villages and the mountains, the companies were handed defeat after defeat until the Battle of Sakil Valley in central Abayad. This crushing defeat faced by the region’s companies would be their last major battle; following it the Treaty of Toli Abayad was signed.

Legacy
Part of its conditions was the unequivocal dismantling of Abayad’s mercenary companies, greater and lesser. Immunity from prosecution was granted to many larger companies’ leaders for deeds committed by their men during the war in an attempt to crack down on the rebels, but not the men themselves. This prompted countless former mercenaries, as well as captains of the smaller companies, to flee abroad to other parts of the world to avoid prosecution. Notable spots included Katamur and Florencia, where they went on to take part in conflicts in both localities. These mercenaries were dubbed altarikh by Abayadis at home, meaning "scoundrels."

The visage of the Abayadi mercenary was immortalized in numerous locations; their flamboyant uniforms were copied by the Eduran advisors who came to instruct them and incorporated into their own. Both Florencian and Katamuran militaries have elements of the style in parts of their own uniforms as well, with the somewhat romanticized image of the brash Abayadi mercenary surviving in artwork both static and spoken. Most notably, the National Militia unit in Florencia known as the 57th Altarikh Division "Sayed's Own" in the constituent republic of Berashoka began as one of these wayward groups. The Mercenary was a common trope-based character in Abayadi shahara, semi-improvisational form of theater performed in the street. Although the character has been retired for non-historical performances, it was and has remained a culturally rich element of the practice itself.