Captain Sindiga Ferras, Late Summer 1746
The Doctor has requested an account of the day in the life of an Oathsman, and with my Temple-Captain's approval, I am setting it down. I will tell you something about my life in the Oath of Myre to begin, and hope that that will help determine whether I am a typical member or not. I find it difficult to judge, being too close to my own life.
To begin, let me say that I have some traces of elven blood. These show only a little in my appearance, but do extend my lifespan; I am over 80 years of age, and look to be in my mid-thirties. I develop - and, to some degree, learn - more slowly than a pure human would. So, I have been in the Oath nearly all my life. My mother was a Captain in the 6th Heavy Infantry Regiment, and when I was born, I was promised to the Oath. I was brought up on the base at Thousand Spires, among other children of the same situation, and entered formal training as a squire at the age of 18, when I was deemed to be old enough in physical terms. There is very little division in the Oath on the basis of gender, but even for a girl of elven blood, I was very slight.
The training is fairly intensive, in comparison with the military organisations of most kingdoms. We are taught formal theology, and practical spellasting, as a primary subject. Sometimes, someone will show such a strength in this area that they are better off serving Myre in the priesthood, and two of those I entered training with were such. Then there are lessons in history and geography, languages, numeracy, drawing, the sciences, and so forth. A great deal of attention is paid to this by the teachers, who are part of the Logistics branch of the Oath. And then, of course, there is the physical training - horsemanship, fighting in various forms, running, forestry and ranging, and many other disciplines. These are mostly taught by older officers of the Oath, but there is some involvement of younger, serving officers as well.
At 26, I graduated to the rank of corporal in the Field Division, and was assigned to the 3rd Light Infantry Regiment. Formally, Light Infantry in the Oath is equivalent to Heavy Infantry in most armies, and forms the bulk of the Field Division. In actual operations, one's regiment is not very important; some regiments serve in one place, others are split up over several, and so forth. The line of command is a much more important concept.
I was promoted to sergeant at the age of 40, and transferred to the Security Division, in the 6th Guard Regiment, to lieutenant at 50, and then to captain at 62. I currently serve on the base in Ibraer, along with about half of my regiment, the rest being in Thousand Spires under my co-captain, Wenders Seagar. Here, I report directly to High Master General Ensifraed, the Temple-Captain. I also have frequent interactions with Captain-General Tyne, who is a notable figure within the Security division, such that he is said to be able to catch crossbow bolts with his bare hands. I am in charge of the guarding of the base, and have input into the patrols, which are handled by Captain Terenesias, of the 4th Guard.
So much for the short account of my situation... I will try to be less long-winded in the rest of this, and I'll certainly be less formal. Something about describing the structure of the Oath makes me avoid informality.
I wake up early, most days - there's a complex schedule which leaves me off-duty about two days in seven, but they're not evenly distributed, so unless I've been out the previous night, I tend to wake early anyway. The base in Ibraer gives us our own rooms, and this leads to even more bed-hopping than is normal in the Oath, so some mornings I have to find my way back to my own room. Sometimes I have to kick someone out of my own room. Most often, these days, it's Lieutenant Gale, 4th Guard, who gets to stay.
If I'm on duty, the first thing to do is open my desk and see if there are any messages I need to attend to, and this happens before breakfast. Quite often, there will be a message from the Temple Captain or from Captain-General Tyne about something that needs to be attended to, and I'll make a note of this. Sometimes I'll swear to myself a bit; both of them are very capable people, and assume the same capability in others. There's a kitchen nearby, shared with Terenisias, and all our various lieutenants, Gale included, and there'll be a very informal discussion of the day's duties there. Mostly, this sorts out what I need to do for the day, although sometimes I'll need to speak with Master Captain Paldor, the Chief of Operations for the base. I'm still not sure what to make of Paldor; he's very assured and certain of himself, but doesn't seem to have spent much time on bases in his career.
The regiment has a common room, which we use for morning briefings as well as general gatherings. I'll drop in there immediately after breakfast, and inform people of any changes to duties. Sometimes I'll make a few changes on gut feeling, or even at random - it doesn't do to have guards settle into their positions too comfortably. There's also the question of who gets the coveted internal guard positions, and we do try to rotate these fairly. They're coveted mostly because they're in high-traffic points in the base, and an opportunity to stay in those places all day gives you much more access to the gossip and rattletrap than anything else. Certainly more than the back gate post!
And sometimes, of course, I put myself on guard duty somewhere. If I know we've important visitors coming in, I'll put myself at the front gate. Otherwise, I put myself in the less popular spots - I don't mind taking them, and I reckon it's good to have the captain seen to do some of the grubbier footwork. If I'm on guard duty, then that's what I do for the day - short beats around given areas, or manning the guard posts at the gates. Field people find this hellishly boring, but we're all in Security because we're not bored easily. Well, among other things.
If I'm not on guard, then it's off to my office, and the never-ending mountains of paperwork, meetings, and other administration material. Afternoons on these days have a training session, and I get to take out the morning's frustrations on someone, unless it's Tyne or his vicious sergeant, Tal Tambris Wyle. Wyle is a good-looking man, and very pleasant out of the practice yard, but he has never fought fair in his life. If I'm dealing with either of them, then I end up with bruises.
The food on the Ibraen base is very good, but I do delay lunch until after the practice yard; I tend to be slow otherwise. There are a number of canteens and kitchens, and there's also an Officer's Club, restricted to those of captain's rank or higher. I do try to resist eating there every day, but it's much quieter than the rest of the base, and there's a sort of informal non-interference pact that says if you're eating alone with a book or paper, nobody will bother you. I've taken to reading some of what the Temple-Captain calls "mystical stuff" lately; some of the stuff around architecture of language and society coming out of the Barridon Temples in North Saro appeals to me.
Back to the office in the later afternoon, and then finishing up duties in the early evening. On most bases, I'd need to do evening and even night shifts as well, but two of my lieutenants - Parrick and Sobras - take those shifts on a permanent basis. Sobras is an albino, and prefers night-time, and Parrick just doesn't do mornings. Never let it be said that the Oath doesn't accommodate people's preferences...
Evenings are my own. Sometimes I'll go to one of the base pubs, and spend an evening with friends. Sometimes we'll go to the city of Ibraer, and find a pub or restaurant, or the like. Of late, I've spent evenings with Gale a fair bit, too. If I'm off the next day, I'll sometimes stay out late. And there's the start of a sort of art-group-salon on the base as well, so I'll drop in there if there's anything going on. One of the people in Tyne's unit - a civilian, peculiarly enough, but it's an odd unit - is Airbhe Caivyre, who's a fairly notable sculptor, and his co-Captain-General, Tal Breja Almazar, started a museum in Bael Areen, so that's provoking a bit more interest in such things. I'm not a great writer in prose, but I turn out a decent verse, and I contributed to a satirical arts-and-politics sheet in Thousand Spires for a while. And sometimes I'll drop by the Temple and spend a while talking to the Highest Command, as it were.
So that's a typical day. And to be honest, I reckon that most of my days do fall into these routines - the guards tend not to get the sheer randomness that other parts of the organisation get. Long may it last!