Talk:Barrayaran Imperial Military Service

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On Rank insignia:

There seems to be a discrepancy in the books. As listed on this page, Captains tags are blue rectangles - this is corroborated by Memory, Chapter Six.

However, in The Vor Game, Chapter One, when describing the new Ensigns :"The same shiny blue plastc rectangles of shiny new-won rank armoring the collars" is the only reference I've come across of the colour of the Ensign's tabs.

Either: -There is an inconsistency; Or -They are different shades of blue (e.g. Navy Blue versus RAF Blue)

On Ranks: Aren't there enough references to the rank of Commander (between Lieutenant and Captain) in the earlier books (e.g. Commander Vorkalloner, Commander Illyan, Commander Vorhalas) to merit a mention in the "Rank Insignia" table? It does seem as though the rank fell into disuse later, with people routinely stepping straight from Lieutenant to Captain.

--AdrianCooke 21:26, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

Further to my above, the Ensign's rank tabs are described specifically as "pale blue" in Mountains of Mourning, which, if we assume that the Captains' tags are darker blue, resolves the discrepancy.

--AdrianCooke 20:56, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Officer Ranks in ImpSec

LMB needs to make up her mind on military ranks, because I just realized that Major D'emorie of Komarr fame is in ImpSec. Major is NOT a Space Forces Rank. Any thoughts on this....? Dachande 14:51, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

An avid reader of this series, I happened upon the note that ImpSec has its own rank structure with a great deal of surprise, because it was clear to me in my reading that ImpSec is a combined-service branch. For evidence of this consider that it is populated by both generals and admirals. Illyan retired with the naval rank of Captain, but the retirement pay of a Vice Admiral (Memory), and was succeeded by, first, General Haroche, then when he was removed, by another admiral or general whose name escapes me at the moment. The apparent head of ImpSec's medical department in Memory (at least it is he who leads the team doing a post-mortem on Illyan's destroyed eidetic memory chip) is Admiral Avakli. So it is clear that ImpSec draws its personnel from both ground and space forces, and they retain their rank progressions. I have observed that the rank of Ensign is used in both ground and space forces. LMB may or may not be somewhat confused about military rank structures, but in the early US military, for instance, the rank of Ensign did exist for ground troops. Mike (talk) 18:14, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

I am going to act a bit on the info I present above, and adjust the article accordingly.Mike (talk) 18:15, 11 May 2008 (UTC)

The entire Imperial Service is a combined service, not jut ImpSec (cf General Metzov in The Vor Game) However, while serving with the space forces, they use navy type ranks, but ground forces use army type ranks. A space force captain, reassigned to a groundside job may have the name of his rank changed to colonel. LMB has said that the system is so complicated that only the Barrayarans understand it (but I can't find the quote now.)Don Sample (talk) 09:49, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Ah, that seems to make some sense. I do recall Miles asking General Haroche if he had ever had ship duty, to which he responded in the negative. This would seem to bear out what you say. I think that LMB's statement that the system is so complicated that only the Barrayarans understand it covers her from having to explain it herself, because she screwed it up in print before realizing what she did. Or perhaps it was planned that way from the start. Hmmm. Rethinking... Mike (talk) 05:36, 9 June 2008 (UTC)