Insignias

by Anpumes

by Anpumes

Overarchingly, Sērbaka and Kašē respect all public services positions and the individuals who fill them, from the most base, mundane, and thankless to the pinnacle of noble, conspicuous, and rewarding. However, a diverse cross section of intimately related professions, collectively and colloquially known as the Insignias – indicative of the prominently displayed badges (or insignia) worn by those fulfilling these rolls – tend to be the most sought after, prestigious, and respected careers and service positions.

Career

Qualifications

In theory, qualifying for any Insignia position is as simple as being a citizen, however, acceptance into their ranks is not nearly so straightforward. First and foremost, citizenship is a privilege that must be earned, never is citizenship awarded merely for arriving at some arbitrary point in life or development – see Sērbaka – truly little in Sērbaka life is given, without first being earned, except perhaps names.

This applies to Kašē as well, though most reject the very notion of compulsory service and thus never become official citizens of the Ňisa Imperium, never earning the rights or privileges of citizenship – nevertheless, the Ňisa Imperium remains committed to protecting the Kašē people and their homeworld, Kēst.

by Anpumes

Pertinently, all adult Sērbaka (and Kašē) must complete no less than one eight-year (approximately 5.2 Earth years) compulsory term in the Imperium Services Program, with each participant (conscript) facing an ever escalating and challenging program specifically devised to push individual limits, develop and hone necessary and desired skills, with a focus on quelling impulsive behaviors, while simultaneously sharpening instinctive responses with conscious discipline. In essence, the Imperium Services Program serves as a hybridized basic training, advanced individual training, continuing education, and on the job training program, designed to create well-adjusted citizens with a strong sense of Imperium patriotism. Completion of this program earns participant’s citizenship within the Ňisa Imperium, including all associated rights, responsibilities, and privileges, as they apply to Sērbaka and Kašē societies. And if they are one of the lucky few, also an offer to become a full Insignia of select Imperium Service Sections.

Importantly, the Imperium Services Program serves as the only pathway for Insignia Service.

Often, though not always, Imperium Service graduates are presented with options as to which Insignia Section to join. Different sections, having evaluated the potential recruits’ transcripts, records, and merits thus far, present competing offers, including an initial grade, and an outline of benefits and responsibilities. Right of refusal is honored, returning the conscript to civilian life, citizenship intact. However, all healthy Imperium Service graduates remain lifelong reservists, reactivatable in situations deemed vital, such as declarations of war or other significant conflicts – exceptions apply, such as pregnancy, chronic difficult to treat illnesses, or decline of cognitive functions.

Acceptance of an Insignia Section’s offer immediately elevates the conscript to the prescribed rank set by the offer, formalized with the appropriate facial tattoo, color coded, braided section ear sash, Insignia badge.

They are now an Insignia!

Career Progression

Specific details of advancement vary with respect to each Insignia Sections specific needs, requirements, and goals. However, a few basic principles remain synonymous across all Sections.

One, the ever-present, performance record dictates each induvial Insignia’s qualifications for promotion. This record is among the single most important documents to follow any Ňisa Imperium citizen through life; every citizen has one (and most noncitizens living within the Imperium borders as well).

Two, promotion to officer requires completion of Officer Candidacy Training; training that select few qualify for. Requirements for consideration include, gaining at least one rank beyond their initial Insignia Section acceptance rank, followed by submitting their name to the Officer Candidacy Oversight Committee. Alternatively, high-ranking Insignia officers and generals, in good standing, of any section, personally witnessing heroic or meritorious actions may submit a candidate for consideration. However, this is an exceedingly rare occurrence and in some circumstances taboo (nepotism). Once submitted, applicant’s performance record, in combination with, in person interviews, evaluations, and a deep, in-depth background check, dictate qualifications and merit, which is then weighed against other applicants, and the sections current availability, needs, and requirements, with the perceived best applicant selected for Officer Candidacy Training, and potential promotion.

In rare circumstances, anticipating upcoming vacancies that require rapid occupancy, extra applicants may be offered a slot, knowing they will have to wait some time before they will receive the promotion; this option is rarely turned down.

One limitation, applicants may only submit their name once per rank gained, which does incentivize some new Insignia’s to accept lower rank offers in Insignia sections they are most eager to pursue over the highest offered position, providing them opportunity to accrue merit and reputation, while benefiting from the general rapidity of promotion featured among the lower ranks.

by Anpumes

Perception

Demographics

Sērbaka

Incredibly few Sērbaka reject the compulsory Imperium Services term, obtaining citizenship, and continuing their personal journey through life, or becoming an Insignia with all the associated responsibilities, perks, and disadvantages, and continuing their journey through life as part of something larger.

Of the few Sērbaka who do shirk their responsibilities, almost all have chosen lives far away from the Imperium, where citizenship would be of little value in the first place. Still others, raised in other cultures, do not share Sērbaka cultural values but even among these outliers many return at some point in their adult lives to join the Imperium Services and earn Imperium citizenship.

by Anpumes

Kašē

There was a time, at the end of the Two-Worlds War, after Sērbaka annexed Kēst, during the formation of the Ňisa Imperium, when concessions existed, allowing Kašē a path to citizenship that did not involve the Imperium Services Program, however those concessions ended generations ago. Today, Kašē adults must earn citizenship the same way Sērbaka do, through participation in the Imperium Services program, but for a plethora of reasons (excuses, according to Sērbaka), most dating back centuries, many Kašē reject the compulsory service, thus never earning citizenship, the rights, privileges, and responsibilities granted, nor being eligibility for Insignia Service.

by Anpumes

The Kašē populations seeming rejection of the Ňisa Imperium is causing a lot of tensions between the species, problems arising due to extreme differences between the two cultures, straining relationships, especially as they pertain to Insignia’s which oversee so many aspects of the Imperium’s daily operations and interpersonal interactions, placing increasing pressure on Kašē leadership to somehow incentivize future generations into the Imperium Service Program. Nonetheless, Kašē are encouraged to participate, and slowly a growing number are serving terms in the Imperium Services, some of whom become Insignias.

Presentation & Display

Regulation wear, display, and presentation of insignia Sector badges, and/or Insignia Section colors, must conform to some basic requirements, namely, insignia badges (and accompanying colors) must be displayed prominently, on a forward-facing portion of the body. Acceptable locations include, the upper torso, left or right shoulder, around the neck or over the left ear, over right ear, nor any other location about the head is not permitted, but otherwise no single implementation is ever mandated, allowing for personalization of how to display one’s Insignia, provided it is no way obscured.

Insignia Sector

Insignia Sector badges, the source of the Insignia title, represent and identify the specific command under which a servicemember serves or is assigned, denoting the city, region, planet, or another delineable split beneath the broader Insignia Section. Insignia Sectors are the smallest, easily recognizable, subdivision of Insignia Sections, some of which possess long and rich histories resulting in an underlying general goodwill levied upon all who wear these specific Insignia, while others, especially among the Kašē are reviled.

Insignia Section

While not strictly required, often Insignia badges are accompanied by a colored textile product, either a ribbon, tassel, braided cord, or something similarly small but identifiable. Specific colors represent the Section of ultimate jurisdiction over servicemembers and the sectors under their command. By far the most common display of Insignia Section colors is using an ear sash, which when displayed in this manner is required to be placed over the left ear, close to the rank tattoo; Insignia Sector badges are almost universally clipped to the ear sash when present, though this remains unregulated, it is simply customary.

Section Colors

Acquisitions - Violet
Responsibilities: acquisition, storage, distribution, and transport of goods, equipment, and personnel; also handles accounting, payroll, finances, and the logistics of other exchanges including technological integration.

Services - Orange White
Responsibilities: plan, organize, and administer over personnel services, human resources, recruitment, and retention across all sections and sectors, with a keen interest in staying current and valid in an ever-changing climate, especially as alien species become known to the Ňisa Imperium; regular reevaluation of sectors and divisions with a nose toward efficiency and limiting unnecessary interactions and costs.

Diplomatic - White Smoke
Responsibilities: charged with engagement in complex discourse, negotiations, and preservation of relationships with other civilizations, cultures, and species, while continuously protecting Imperium interests, including economic, political, social, and cultural views.

Engineers - Dark Imperial Blue
Responsibilities: preparation, construction, and maintenance of installations, civil projects, infrastructure, bases, and vehicles, including placing, removing, and detonation of explosives devices and other defensive fortification projects.

Infiltration - Smokey Black
Responsibilities: enemy capture, both foreign, and domestic, collecting intelligence, ever fluid with ingress and egress, direct assaults in every environment.

Intelligence - Ultraviolet Light
Responsibilities: provide timely, relevant, accurate, and synchronized intelligence on tactical, operational, nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological threats to operational-level (and above) commanders.

Law Enforcement
Maka – Sea (left)
Kēst – Light Cobalt Blue (right)
Responsibilities: patrols, force control response, damage control response, local reconnaissance, cordon and search, convoy, personnel escort, and site security. High ranking officers and generals of this Section tend to act as judges overseeing one or more Sectors (divisions)

Medical - Amber
Responsibilities: medical professionals, first responders, nurses, doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, and more, providing fully comprehensive health care to servicemembers (Insignias), ex-servicemembers, their families and civilians, especially in emergency situations like natural calamities.

Pioneers - Ghost White
Responsibilities: long-range transport, especially anything outside of the Ňisa solar system, exploration, mapping, locating, tracking, and managing accurate Ňisa maps, especially of objects dangerous to habited portions of the system; also, primary transport for Infiltration Section; offshoot of the Logistics Corps.

Planetary Defense
Maka – Burning Sand (left)
Kēst – Deep Moss Green (right)
Responsibilities: supplemental law enforcement, largely dispersed into rural areas, acting as the law enforcement officer for large swaths of land, currently, a small selection of Planetary defense sectors are leased to nearby settlements to aid in protection from unknown threats; spend large portions of their time training and supplementing other sections.

Signal - Baby Blue
Responsibilities: everything communications, an offshoot of the Acquisition Corps and the Engineer Corps, dedicated to maintaining all communication within the Ňisa Imperium and far-flung resources, ships, outposts, bases, with the central core.

Solar Defense - Vivid Orange
Responsibilities: Solar Defense Insignias, contrary to the name, spend nearly equal amounts of time training both in and out of atmosphere, as well as providing premier skills and support for extrasolar excursions.