THE TRAINING BANDS

The Training Band System is a universal method of dividing cadets into cohorts given the different abilities, limitations, strengths, and weaknesses which are seen in each age group. Nobles and the upper echelons of society are usually trained as officers, while the majority of the population make up the bulk of the military. Training bands were first introduced by Pericles in the second year of the Third Era as a means of bolstering the dwindling numbers of the Adengen army. It resulted in the first documented use of professionally trained youths in war to great effect. Soon, its enemies copied its system, and by the time of the First Calamity, every nation had adopted the Training Band System as a standardised method of professional training. In Alben, there are four major bands: the White Band, for boys and girls in their adolescence; the Green Band, for youths in their teens; the Red Band, for young adults in their twenties; and the Blue Band, for fathers and men above the age of thirty. There is a correlation between being professionally trained and the survival rate. Hence, joining the Training Bands is a highly sought-after goal for many in the midst of war. While a standard militiaman or peasant levy has a survival rate of fifteen percent by their fifth year in war, this percentage doubles if a soldier undergoes two years of training.

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