Military basic

 Another reddit post saved here for posterity. Most of it is quotes from my caste post, I'll only copy the new stuff over:

So basically, the basic military structure is officers who were born into the profession (but not rank/command, which is granted by a political leader) heavily supplemented by mercenaries, professionals who weren't born with the right to be an (official) military leader, and conscripts when needed.

Anyway, let's go more in-depth, both in sociology and linguistics. First is the root SRS itself, which deals with conflict and fighting Srīsu ends up meaning "fighter, one who is prone to conflict" and is a generic word for a professional warrior. It is also one of the main components of many military related compounds, like srīsuzō kdīhuzōt "horseman, someone who fights on horseback" (literally "riding fighter") or srīsuzō āwībthzōt "guardian, blood knight, protector by force" (lit. "protecting warrior"). Many times though, people will simply be referred to by their role/weapon like pmīfuzō "spearman" or thtūzōzō "archer". A scout would be a zhilaqzō (lit. "one who walks quietly, stalker").

The generic word for a commander (of any size unit or of a ship) is phruyāzō "commander" but in practice it usually refers to someone who isn't coordinating multiple officers, only regular soldiers. Higher ranks could come from compounds like phruyāzo únukhāzōt "general" (lit. "unifying commander") or from other roots such as jqunāzō "strategist, planner, general" (JQN relates to plans and schemes). There's also mīcphoāb phīmpot ("father's mind") which is mostly a poetic word referring to the warrior caste itself but can also poetically refer to the top general of a high king (when one of those manages to establish himself).