The Legion of the Veiled Sun

Typically numbering between 5,000–6,000 core combatants, the Legion’s full strength — including its extensive logistical train, embedded magical corps, support engineers, and civilian attachments — can exceed 8,000 personnel.

Each legion is divided into ten cohorts, with each cohort containing six centuries of roughly 80 soldiers. In addition to standard infantry, a rotating detachment of 200 Riftcallers and 150 Veilbearers are maintained for magical assault and warding. Command HQ maintains a full arcane liaison team from the Basilica Arcanii, along with attached signalers, healers, siege mages, scribes, and war chroniclers. A dedicated reserve of over 1,000 Riftborn levies cycles through the fortress at Riftwatch for reinforcement and reconstitution purposes.

Each soldier carries adaptive armor embedded with faint Riftlight veining, capable of resisting minor magical disruptions, along with the classic Roman scutum (shield) and pilum (spear). Veilbearers carry enchanted veils to counter Rift surges, and Riftcallers carry sigil-inscribed staves.

Standard legionary swords, spears, and shields are augmented by Riftforged blades and enchanted pilum designed to disrupt magical constructs. Riftcallers wield volatile Rift-shard maces and offensive magic.

Supply wagons reinforced with Riftstone, ceremonial chariots for commanding officers, and siege carts adapted to carry magical and mundane weaponry.

The Legion of the Veiled Sun operates under a hybrid military-arcane command framework designed to ensure flexibility and cohesion in unpredictable Rift-afflicted theaters.

At its head is the Legatus Veilborn, a Rift-attuned general chosen not only for strategic prowess but also for demonstrable arcane resilience. The Legatus is advised by a Council of Magi and Marshals, composed of senior field officers and Arcanii representatives.

Each of the Legion’s ten Cohorts is commanded by a Tribunus Arcanii, a senior officer paired with a Primus Magus — the arcane counterpart responsible for battlefield enchantments, wards, and magical reconnaissance. This dual-command model ensures constant synchronization between martial and magical initiatives.

Beneath the cohorts, Centurions lead individual Centuries — tactical units of 80 soldiers. Each Century contains at least one Veilbearer, responsible for maintaining magical wards, and one Riftcaller, specialized in offensive spellwork and Rift manipulation. Tactical decisions within centuries are made cooperatively, with magical advisors holding veto rights in the presence of arcane threats.

The Arcane Command Cell, a mobile headquarters attached to Legion HQ, is staffed by Basilica augurs, diviners, tactical scribes, and battlefield historians. It coordinates real-time magical forecasts, Rift fluctuation mapping, and long-range communication through enchanted relays.

Non-combat operations fall under the purview of the Logistical Magistrate, who oversees the Legion’s supply chain, maintenance of Riftforged equipment, civilian liaisons, and the deployment of medicae and siege engineers. Intelligence gathering is conducted by the Eyes of the Veil, a clandestine unit operating independently within the Legion’s structure.

This sophisticated command structure allows the Legion to strike with discipline, improvise under pressure, and recover from magical disruptions with precision — a necessity when holding the line against the ever-changing Rift.

The Legion of the Veiled Sun excels in tactical flexibility — a necessity for warzones shaped by unstable magic and shifting terrain. Traditional Roman formations are still drilled and used: the testudo for missile defense, spear walls for chokepoints, and the wedge for breaking enemy lines. However, the Legion enhances these maneuvers with Rift-born adaptations. One such tactic is the Veil Shift, where entire formations vanish under synchronized magical cloaking before repositioning for ambush. Another is the Riftquake Ring, wherein Riftcallers detonate arcane sigils beneath enemy lines to create confusion and collapse footing.

In siege or containment scenarios, cohorts deploy layered defenses of conjured barriers, anchored wards, and physical battlements — all while launching counterattacks through magically-reinforced breaches. The Legion's motto, "our hand is unbroken," manifests in their ability to bend without breaking: whether shattered by magical calamity or surrounded by foes, they adapt their formation structure, squad roles, and spell usage to exploit even the slimmest of advantages.

Training within the Legion of the Veiled Sun is considered among the most grueling in the Empire. All recruits must first endure the Veiling, a month-long isolation beneath the Basilica Arcanii to test mental resilience under arcane duress. Following this, traditional legionary training — weapons, formations, endurance marches — is fused with specialized drills in unstable environments, such as collapsing terrain or magically warped zones.

Veilbearers undergo deep meditative conditioning to maintain magical wards under duress, while Riftcallers are trained in rapid spellcasting, arcane improvisation, and battlefield sigilcraft. Cross-training is common: centurions learn basic ward manipulation, while mages learn to wield gladii and survive frontline combat. All soldiers are drilled in "failure cascade" scenarios — simulations where leaders fall, magic fails, and terrain collapses — to foster reactive thinking and independent cohesion. Only those who adapt survive long enough to call themselves Legion.

The Legion’s logistical network is a marvel of arcane-engineering synergy. A fleet of Rift-hardened wagons—their wooden frames layered with thin Riftstone plating—forms the backbone of the supply caravan. These are pulled by mana-bonded oxen, beasts selectively bred and augmented to survive in high-anomaly zones. Essential supplies — enchanted rations, Rift-calibrated medical tinctures, and spare sigils — are secured in floating crates tethered with reinforced chain-glyphs.

Every cohort maintains a quartermaster detachment, led by a Praefectus Victualae, who coordinates with Arcane Logistics Acolytes from the Basilica. Magical relay stones, updated daily with encoded instructions, keep the supply line responsive even during dimensional flux. For deep-field operations, the Legion employs phased caches — buried and magically hidden storage nodes marked by hidden runes, accessible only by Riftcallers attuned to their arcane keycodes.

The Legion draws upon a robust web of auxiliary support units during major deployments. Most notably:

• Basilica Arcanii Battle-Orders: Strike mages capable of aerial spell bombardment or planar tether disruption.
• Dwarven Ashfang Engineers: Experts in underground fortification, battlefield excavation, and emergency stabilization of collapsing terrain.
• Silent Cartographers: Riftwatch-native scouts trained to predict the movement of terrain under Rift influence — often former Labyrinth guides or outlawed geomancers.
• The Ember Cloaks: A fire-wielding unit once belonging to the Crimson Shoal enclave, now semi-attached as vanguard flame-wardens in forested Rift zones.

These auxiliaries are deployed selectively and often rotate through Legion campaigns, offering fresh insight and unique tactical advantages.

Maintaining the Legion of the Veiled Sun is a monumental and controversial expense. Each soldier’s gear — Riftforged mail, veined arcane plates, warded cloaks — must be crafted by sanctioned smith-magi. Their weapons, many requiring tuned sigilcraft, degrade rapidly under Rift duress and demand near-constant repair.

The arcane cost is even higher. Riftcallers burn through mana crystals and ritual inks at rates surpassing any other unit, and Veilbearer veils require monthly re-weaving in consecrated arcane sanctums. Every campaign requires a Sanctioned Rift-Tithe from the Imperial Treasury, typically levied as a portion of magical taxation or enforced tribute from vassal states with Rift-borders.

Proponents argue the cost is justified by the Legion’s efficacy. Critics call it “a bottomless sink of coin and madness.” The truth, as ever, is forged in flame and necessity.

The Legion accepts only Riftborn or those who’ve undergone sanctioned arcane attunement — usually under the Basilica Arcanii’s watch. Recruits must first endure the Veiling Trial: a month spent in the Deep Chambers beneath Riftwatch, isolated from time, bombarded with illusion, whispering stone, and dream-distortions designed to break or awaken their minds.

Those who emerge sane — or reforged — enter a three-year training regimen at Castrum Obscura, the Legion’s high mountain fortress. Here, martial training is fused with arcane drills, siege testing, planar navigation, and battlefield meditation.

Recruitment draws from across the Empire’s Rift-border territories, and each cohort maintains its own ancestral stone into which the names of fallen and risen warriors are etched. There is no conscription — joining is a sacred covenant, not a burden. Once entered, there is no discharge save death, transfiguration, or elevation to command.

The Legion of the Veiled Sun was founded in the aftermath of the Rift’s emergence, when conventional Imperial forces repeatedly faltered against the unpredictable threats that spilled into the world. General Severian Voss, a Riftborn tactician and decorated veteran of the early Riftwatch conflicts, was granted authority by the Senate and the Basilica Arcanii to form a new experimental unit.

"The Defense of Riftwatch" by Mike Clement and OpenAI

The Legion’s early years were forged in blood. Their baptism came during the Crimson Fault Skirmishes, where Rift-twisted beasts and terrain shifts shattered ordinary lines. It was here that the Legion first demonstrated their uncanny tactical fluidity — rotating shield walls that adapted to terrain, Veilbearers neutralizing storms of raw mana, and Riftcallers coordinating with Arcanii augurs to redirect magical pressure.

Their reputation was solidified during the Shrouded Dawn Campaign, where under an eclipsed sun, the Legion held the crumbling flank of Riftwatch against both Riftborn aberrations and insurgent cultists. They not only endured but counterattacked, seizing key heights and defending the Basilica Arcanii itself. It was after this battle that they were granted their silver laurels and the motto “Sol Obscura, Invicta Manus.”

Since then, the Legion has become the standing vanguard against any Rift-based anomaly or arcane incursion across the Empire’s frontier. They’ve participated in the Siege of Crimson Shoal, the Ashfang Campaign, and remain ceremonial guardians during every eclipse. Though their methods have drawn suspicion from traditionalist legions, their results are undeniable — they are both shield and scalpel, forged where light fails.

The Legion of the Veiled Sun has maintained steadfast allegiance to the Imperial Senate, acting under its official sanction since the Legion's founding. However, their more profound bond lies with the Basilica Arcanii, whose oversight shaped much of the Legion's training, doctrine, and magical integration. The Basilica’s augurs serve not only as advisors but as guardians of the Legion’s arcane integrity. In more recent centuries, the Legion has also pledged fealty to the Riftwatch Council, the civilian and arcane body that governs the unstable Riftwatch Plateau. This triadic loyalty — Senate, Basilica, Council — makes the Legion unique among Imperial forces, allowing them operational independence during crises and positioning them as both defenders and regulators of arcane thresholds. While this has garnered them political enemies among more orthodox commanders, their loyalties are unwavering: to the stability of the Rift, the security of the Empire, and the sanctity of adaptive warfare.