Introduction
The Imperial Air Force (IAF) is the arm of Metamor's military that is responsible for all land-based aerial operations, including fighter patrol, strategic bombing, reconnaissance and aerial transport. (Naval aviators work under the auspices of the Imperial Fleet.) It answers to the Ministry of Defense. The IAF has airbases located throughout the Empire, as well as forward bases that it leases from allied nations around the world.
The IAF's fighters and interceptors are built around the magical discipline of Aeromancy — the art of performing magic in flight, using an aerocraft to channel the magic in the same way that a terrestrial wizard uses a wand or staff. Because of this all IAF fighter pilots are wizards, and the aerocraft themselves are designed to amplify and direct the magery of their pilots, producing spells of attack, defense and maneuver.
History of Aeromancy and Air Forces
Air weapons first began to see use during the First World War (1832-1838). The first aerocraft were little more than bundles of sticks designed to serve as a floating platform from which wizards could hover above a battlefield, report enemy troop movements, and lob the occasional fireball. Allied air power depended primarily on lighter-than-air vehicles — balloons and airships — with aerocraft serving as messengers and reconnaissance. Espaku countered these weapons with summoned creatures and evokers on flying carpets, and the aerial battles that resulted were fierce and terrifying for both sides. Most aerial engagements took place on the Irombian front, though the naval powers (Rukilia vs. Yamato and Whales vs. Espaku) fought several airborne skirmishes at sea.
Over time the wizards discovered that, even as specific gesticulations and constructs could be used to evoke spells with a wand or staff, there existed others that could be activated over large distances through flight. This led to the birth of Aeromancy, defined as magic that is brought forth with the use of an aerocraft. The devices became more elaborate as the discipline matured and their role changed — from aerial platform, to giant sky-wand, to a vessel that must do combat with other such vessels.
The first groups of Aeromancers in Metamor formed under the name of the Imperial Aeronautic Corps (IAC). However, the air force did not truly exist as a modern military institution until after the Second World War (1885-1893). After the Second World War, the Imperial Military underwent a restructuring and the IAC became the IAF, or the Imperial Air Force.
One of the factors that prevented organization before this is the nature of mages themselves. Wizards are a hidebound lot when it comes to their independent streaks — or their guild clannishness, depending on the tradition they came up in. It was the ever-escalating cost of aerocraft (rare metals, mana engines, and imbued thaumaturgic fields do not come cheap) that finally managed to break these traditions, as only powerful governments could afford the cost of building these devices. Luring a few Aeromancers away with them was all it took for the governments to begin training their own cadres of wizards, leaving less affluent guilds and lone-wolves behind with yesterday's technology.
Structure
In light of this history the IAF both resembles and directly seeks to be cosmetically different from the Guilds that trained its original instructors. They utilize a nine-rank system, similar to that of the southern mage clans of old, but have deliberately tossed aside the color designations in favor of numbered tiers. The least-skilled of Aeromancers are therefore referred to as being 1st Tier, whereas the masters of the art are 9th Tier. The ranking system also incorporates, in addition to inherent power and skill in the manipulation thereof, an element of tactical acumen.
In practice most combat aeromancers are around 3rd Tier, as by the time many mages have risen higher they are less physically able to cope with the g-forces and reflexes needed for aerial combat. They instead take on command and coordination roles from the ground.
There are two basic types of Aeromancers in the IAF: interceptor mages who defend airships against counterattacks and evocator mages that rain arcane destruction down on enemy ground targets.
Modern Aerofighters
Wyvern 4 - the IAF's primary air superiority aerocraft
Current Roles
The Imperial Air Force is responsible for safeguarding Imperial air space, conducting aerial reconnaissance, supporting ground troops, and where appropriate destroying specified targets abroad. In this time of relative peace the vast bulk of a pilot's air time is spent on running patrols to stay in practice for the next war.
The IAF maintains regular patrols of the border with the Dragon Federation, and skirmishes with territorial dragons are relatively common. These dogfights seem to be more about testing the humans' strength and skill than actually doing harm, however, and it is rare for pilots or dragons to be seriously injured in such encounters.
Most pilots serving near Metamor Valley have had an encounter with Guerra, and it is now seen as a final test for areomancers upon graduation from training to be attacked by him. Pilots remember it with reactions ranging from unsuppressed shudders, to anger, to stony silence. Very few remember it flippantly, however.
Known members of the IAF
- Artax- Under a previous name, he was a member of the IAC during the First World War. However those events shook him so deeply that he has not been able to fly since. He then transferred over to the Brightleaf Division.
Character Advice
Aeromancers tend not to be as "bookish" as the rest of their fellow wizards, though they certainly are no less capable of understanding the complex workings of magic. They tend to be physically fit and plain-spoken, and are as likely to be caught watching a sporting event or gambling as they are to be studying the latest advances in magic.
Within the IAF Rickkter is often referred to simply as "the old man" or "the raccoon" in casual conversation.
Author Notes
Sources: Mystic, TheCursed.org forum post, Ask The Author 08/08/2010