Military Forces in Thedas

Well, Tevinter cult has the advantage of a crapton of mages. In DAO, Duncan considers a handful of mages to be worth more (militarily) than dozens of ordinary soldiers iirc. And that's not even touching on blood magic and demon summoning and whatever else the Venatori get up to, plus the non-magical cultists.

Didn't figure Orlais to be such a military threat. They seemed like a bunch of dandies who is more concerned with their looks and status than to be taken seriously as a military threat.

The Orlesians have a pretty strong military culture. That foppishness is decieving.

I don't think it's ever been implicitly stated, whos has the largest or most numerous military. It's left to us as gamers to assume that this nation or that kingdom, is powerful or not. I can't see them ever making a difinitive statement on the subject either.

I generally, wouldn't go too much on the "seeming" populous we see in the game as what cities we see, always seem alittle light on actual people, same goes for various battles we have seen depicted.

I'd definately agree that Orlais, the Qunari and the Tevinter Imperium are the three big boys, so to speak.

The Qunari possess, technical advantages born of science and they also have organisation and discipline beyond that found amongst the other two. I suspect then, that they might have a numerically smaller force, than either Tevinter or Orlais. Relying on their disciplined, canon wielding forces to methodically and relentlessly beat down their opponents and utilising more mercenary, guerilla tactics, for surgical strikes, with Ben-Hassrath agents and infiltration groups, to disrupt supply and command. It would make more sense then for Qunari forces to be smaller in number, but far more specialised and dangerous in equal number engagements.

Orlais is your quintessential medieval fuedal army, With Noble generals and landed elite, horse mounted cavalry and lower class infantry and knights, backed up with moderate mage and templar support and basic siege weaponry common to the period. I should imagine their forces are larger, numerically than the Qunari, but smaller than Tevinter. Specialised (read, Trained) chevalliers, would make up the bulk of the command structure, dedicated and discipined in combat, with an empahsis on mounted cavalry charges and heavily armoured, on foot melee. The rank and file infantry would be far more numerous, but far less well equiped and likely less well trained to boot. Orlais does have bardic culture however so I should imagine they wouldn't lack for logistical support in the form of scouts, spys and ofcourse, political leverage, giving Orlais otherwise rather rigid and inflexible military force (a rather narrow approach to warfare, imo) some much needed breathing room when they are liekly to engage more versatile or irregular forces.

Tevinter, while being much smaller as a nation, perhaps only a (rather large) city state and it's immediate environs, would likely field the largest force numerically. Which might seem abit unlikely, but, slavery plays a large roll in this regard. I suspect that the back bone of Tevinters army, is less it's mages and more, the vast number of undisciplined, poorly trained and equiped slaves and lower classes they can throw at an adversary, backed up by a significant number of "wild card" mages, in command positions, who's willingness to sacrifice the peons in defense of Empire, would mean a highly aggressive and unpredicatble enemy, that, by all rights, ought to fall apart when encountering even token resistance, but instead, excels by brute force and the element of surprise. The Magisters ofcourse, are expert politicers, they know the value of information and subterfuge, such that the Qunari readily admit, that one of the reasons they have struggled to subdue Seheron, is because Tevinter agents know just how to stir up trouble amongst the occupied populace, all to their own advatnage. Tevinters forces, then, I suspect are the most numerically numerous, but with the largest proportion of which, being rank and file, poorly trained and equiped, and least disciplined, but perhaps the most versatile in terms of thinking outside the box (or using magic to turn the box into a porcupine of death!) The persever by virtue of their willingness to do what others would not and as such, are the most irregular and unpredictable of the the big three.

So militarily speaking, the Qunari are the Prussians of the late 1700's, Orlais are the French of medieval europe and Tevinter.... I can't think of an analogue that fits them that well (those pesky mages!) But they would likely be similar to most bronze age empires, perhaps Ancient Persia or perhaps, communist Russia during the WWII period.

The other nations, it's harder to say as we don't know much about them. Antiva ofcourse has the "threat" of the crows and her myriad alliances with just about everybody, so they don't have a standing army, Rivain is too mysterious at present to say what kind of martial culture they possess. Fereldan is much like medieval england to Orlais medieval France, in terms of military philosophy and structure. I suspect the parallel is similar in terms of numbers and organisation aswell.

Anderfells liekly have a smaller force than most, but likely the forces they do have, are likely to be fierce and uncompromising in battle, making them unlikely conquerors but horrible effective warriors. The Dalish, while perhaps being numerous, are likely to pose little real threat to any of the big three, their cultures are more akin to nomadic celts of western europe, fine at skirmish engagements, but serious battle, they would struggle to adapt their smaller numbers and skirmish tactics to the rigors of pitched battle and while they have at least two ro three mages to every clan, that isn't really enough to turn the tide of such large scale conflicts.

The free marches, I see as similar to the italian city states of the renaisance period, with plenty of hired mercenaries and a kind of condotierre culture, in which enterprising commanders gain recognition, fame and fortune, by virtue of the ability to command and win. They'd have smaller forces, but they'd be some of the best commanded and most flexible in terms of strategy and skills (aswell as flexible loyalties!) Effective, given the right circumstances.

But this is all my guess work. So all of the above could be totally wrong!