
This is following the usual Hyperborean military doctrine of putting quality above quantity and of trying to use unusual but possible ideas instead of either boring reality or outlandish fantasy.
For slightly more information on the two Ice-Ships, see the previous post "The Ice-Ship Sails." These are partly based on this concept from WWII. Right now one of them's in port in Taekar and the other is near the coast of Elwynn. These are mobile bases and carry most of the other units listed below - in particular, each has one Opal Airship, with the other two being in airfields on the home islands.
The Opal Airships are kind of suspicious; they look like blimps, but it seems unlikely that they're lighter than air, and it's not even clear if there's any helium in them at all. They've got several propellers sticking out of them in odd places, but it's still a closely guarded state secret how they stay in the air. Some people think it's a combination of helium, propellers, and unusual aerodynamic properties; other, more suspicious people claim they cannibalize some old Jasonian technology. Each Opal has two of the Niphiltiyyin fighters, which are specially designed to be very light and to take off from confined areas high in air. I still haven't decided how they manage that; at the very least, they use some glider technology to keep them going until they've generated enough lift, and I'm going to see if a ramjet sort of thing is feasible. Each Opal can also carry about thirty troops.
The snowmobile tanks are exactly that. See this article on Soviet snowmobile tanks for more info. I haven't really fleshed these out much.
The polar bear cavalry is guys riding polar bears. We domesticated these way back when no one was watching, trust me on this. They've got small, easily manipulated artillery pieces mounted on the backs; these ended out being safer (to the mount) than guns. This link pretty much sums up my further thoughts on the matter.
The Paladins have been around since forever, and have had such famous leaders as Ryan Caruso and Philip Locke. Now they're just in my imagination, but they retain their proud combat traditions. Most Paladins have been in the service for several decades. They have a very Eastern warrior-monk sort of ethic, and constantly study martial arts, marksmanship, mental control techniques, and that sort of thing. The downside to the intensive training regimen is that there are very few of them, especially compared to the armed forces of other areas of similar size. The Paladins are famous for the care they take in avoiding casualties; each one is dressed in full body armor most of the time, and they deliberately avoid glorious yet futile last stands. Unlike the foot soldiers of many other nations, Paladins consider themselves members of the upper classes, tend to be pretty well-educated, and often end up in politics. I'm thinking of equipping at least some divisions of Paladins with personal flying vehicles.
The symbol on the bottom right is the Kai-Inskil, which Hyperborea uses in place of a flag most of the time. The text at the bottom sort of says "Raikoth Arkayajoi-Amphion", but it's hard to do right on a computer.
