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 Bauhaus Careers |
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There are a number of special careers associated with Bauhaus, most of them of course having to do with their military.
Magistrates Magistrates are law enforcement officials that wield a great deal of authority in Bauhaus-controlled lands. Most Magistrates are concerned with local lawbreakers. Higher ranking Magistrates are known as Prosecutors and may be assigned anywhere in the Bauhaus domains to carry out their duties. The highest rank of Magistrate is that of Executioner -- Executioners are assigned only to cases of the highest level, involving treason, heresy and high-level corruption.
Magistrates sometimes work solo, or else with one or more retainers. They have considerable personal authority in administering justice, though this most certainly does not mean that they are not answerable to higher authorities if they overstep their bounds. Magistrates have the authority to call witnesses, cross-examine people, and sentence them on the spot. If the sentence is death, the Magistrate must carry out the sentence himself. This is not a job for the squeamish. Minimum Requirements: Expert Law of Bauhaus (Trivial); 4 pts Status: Magistrate (or 6 pts Status: Prosecutor or 10 pts Status: Executioner); Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand (skill with handguns recommended); Average Criminology; investigative skills recommended; Novice Strength recommended (for properly handling a Punisher handgun)
Order of the Silver Skull The Silver Skulls are military police especially assigned to protect governmental buildings of Bauhaus. The are so-named because of the silvery skull masks they wear in addition to their armored uniforms.
House Orders House Orders are special orders that are in the service of the Noble Houses, comprised of soldiers drawn from the core and extended families of the appropriate House. Typically, the Order is named after the "crest" of that House, and they wear light armor, with decorative "cresthelms" crafted to resemble the creature of the House's crest. The "parade" cresthelms are more ornate, more closely resembling the creature or object that the cresthelm is supposed to represent. For the sake of increased visibility, however, these helmets are sometimes exchanged for "field cresthelms" with larger visors and more stylized feature. These alternative helms are still distinctive, but far more abstract in the representation of the crest, with more of a concern for practicality. Here are some sample House Orders:
Order of the Unicorn (Fieldhausen): Fielded in armored divisions. Unicorn troopers are known for being excellent drivers and field mechanics. Parade dress is grey armor with white "unicorn" cresthelm.
In combat, the appropriate camouflage may be used, or else drivers may wear the standard Bauhaus blue uniform, with decorative white pauldrons and cresthelm -- though for the sake of increased visibility (especially if the driver is inside an enclosed vehicle), the cresthelm may be put aside while driving). Furthermore, the horn tends to present an awkward problem in enclosed spaces. Fieldhausen combat cresthelms may be found in several styles, but they tend to have smaller muzzles than the parade variety, giving the head a "cartoony" appearance, or only a stylistic resemblance to a unicorn's head, for the purpose of increased visibility.
Order of the Wolf (Romanov): Elite armored troops. In parade dress, they typically wear black armor and silver "wolf" cresthelms, though individual units may deviate from this scheme. Officers tend to have more intricately decorated ceremonial cresthelms, either more carefully fashioned to look like the features of a wolf, or heading the opposite direction toward stylization, with filigree work and sometimes even imbedded gemstones.
In combat, they wear the appropriate camouflage, with helms either black or painted in a camouflage scheme as well. There are several variations on the "wolf" cresthelm, ranging from the highly detailed parade helmets to the heavily armored variations employed by Dragoons, to the far more stylized "field cresthelms" that are far closer in form to the "standard" Bauhaus helmet, though with a large "muzzle" and stylized "ears". The Order of the Wolf is considered to be the best trained of all the House Guard units on the battlefield, as individual members are held to exacting standards.
Order of the Staff and Hand This elect order is formed for the specific purpose of aiding pilgrims in their travels to each of the Cathedrals of the solar system. They wear the light armor of the Hussars, save that they wear specially crafted cresthelms with a face mask molded to resemble the stylized features of the wearer. They traditionally are armed with ebon staves that they wield with considerable skill ... and with handguns when non-lethal means of combat won't suffice. The Order of the Staff and Hand is primarily formed because of a Bauhaus tradition that every Bauhaus noble (and even any non-noble who can afford it) is expected to, at one point in his life, take a pilgrimage to visit the Cathedrals on each of the planets, and all of the holy sites. Traditionally, a Bauhauser is given leave for four years to accomplish this. The Order of the Staff and Hand exists to provide assistance to groups of such pilgrims to some of the more remote and dangerous locations.
These comprise the Bauhaus equivalent of the "National Guard", and are typically only ceremonially armored (spiked helmet, gas mask, shoulder pauldrons), protected mostly by rugged uniforms and by keeping out of the line of fire. Ducal Militia are generally on the low rung of the Bauhaus military, and suffer a high turnover rate when they see actual combat. Those who survive tend to move on to the Hussars or (if they do exceptionally well) the Special Forces.
Minimum Requirements: Novice Fighting: Guns; Novice Fighting: Hand-to-Hand or Brawling
Hussars These comprise the backbone of the Bauhaus army, equipped with light ballistic armor, wearing spiked helmets with flip-down face plates (and incorporated gas masks), painted in the appropriate camouflage schemes. Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand or Brawling
Dragoons The Dragoons are soldiers assigned to armored cavalry divisions, typically manning tanks and transports. Their official uniform is light ballistic armor with black "wolf head" cresthelms. Tank crews typically just wear the standard blue Bauhaus uniform with armored pauldrons, with the ornamental cresthelm set aside for improved visibility while inside the tank. Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Novice Fighting: Hand-to-Hand or Brawling; Novice Combat Driving
Possibly the most famous (or at least the most celebrated) special forces unit of Bauhaus would be the jungle-fighting Venusian Rangers. They are, accordingly, usually seen in the jungles of Venus, but they are trained for other hazardous conditions as well. They wear what is considered the "standard" heavy duty armor of Bauhaus special forces, with the distinctive "skull mask". While many Venusian Rangers wear armor painted in appropriate camouflage, a number of them wear their armor in factory-painted "bone white", as a matter of tradition and Bauhaus pride. (Or else because they happen to be stationed close to the poles, where the terrain is more snowy tundra than lush jungle.) Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand or Brawling; Average Survival; Average Guts
Bauhaus Blitzers
Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand or Brawling; Average Skydiving
Etoiles Mortant
Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand; Average Stealth; Average Guts
Venusian Hussar Cavalry (aka "Dino Riders")
Minimum Requirements: Average Fighting: Guns; Average Fighting: Hand-to-Hand; Good Riding |
The uniform of office of an Executioner is light body armor with a black cape (sometimes with robes), with the face obscured by a black cowl and a black-painted Special Forces skull mask helmet. Executioners carry ceremonial power-axes, more than capable of administering justice to condemned criminals, though practicality dictates the use of a handgun (usually a Punisher handgun or the MP-103 or MP-105) for less-than-ceremonial purposes.
Ducal Militia
Venusian Rangers
The Blitzers generally have a reputation as being madmen: paratrooper demolitions specialists. They wear light armor and grilled faceplates, parachuting into battle, and then running up to enemy tanks and slapping explosive discs onto them. (This earns them their reputation as a bunch of fearless lunatics.) They also serve as highly mobile demolitions teams, dealing with bomb threats in urban settings. Their unit insignia is a lit cannonball.
The Etoiles Mortant (the "Dying Stars") comprise a special forces unit originally formed to perform suicide missions against the Dark Legion. (They have various means of making sure that, if captured or killed, they won't be coming back as Legionnaires.) The Etoiles Mortant do not have any "uniform", per se, often being deployed in covert operations. There are quite a few females in this unit, the most notable being the famous Valerie Duval, who has since moved on to serve as one of Bauhaus' finest Doomtroopers. Etoiles Mortant tend to either specialize in close combat weaponry (such as the Punisher combo of Punisher short sword and handgun) or at long range sniping. Stealth is always a major concern. Some Etoiles Mortant even receive some limited training in the Art by the Brotherhood, in the interest of giving them a greater edge against the Dark Legion.
While there are many Venusian officers who prefer to ride good old-fashioned horses into battle, Bauhaus has made use of a number of different species of neo-dinosaurs from the jungle - some in the role of cavalry. Venusian Cavaliers ride on the backs of quasi-bipedal dinosaurs that look like oversized velociraptors, armed with machine pistols and lances with explosive charges at the tips. They are typically fielded to deal with particularly large nasties that pop up in the Venusian jungles from time to time, though they also serve as scouts.