Jahad's Army
The iron fist that keeps the Tower in line.
Jahad's Army is the colossal military machine that enforces King Jahad's iron rule across the Tower. It's not just an army—it's a sprawling hierarchy of Rankers, Regulars, and legions of bureaucrats who run everything from floor tests to suppressing rebellions. The Army answers directly to Jahad and his top commanders, and its grip extends from the lowest floors to the highest, though that grip loosens in the lower, more chaotic regions where irregulars and rebels operate freely. It's the backbone of the Tower's order, but also its most visible target.
Quick Facts
- Affiliation
- King Jahad
Lore & Background
Jahad's Army isn't a single, seamless monolith—it's a sprawling web of competing factions and shifting loyalties. At the top sit the Squadron Commanders (like the iron-fisted Kallavan and the calculating Lyborick) and the Princesses of Jahad, each leading elite forces with their own agendas. Below them, countless Rankers oversee floors, administer tests, and hunt down Irregulars or rebels. The Army also includes the Administrative Bureau, which keeps the Tower's daily operations humming, while the Workshop remains an independent organization that supplies technology to various groups, not a division of the Army. Its reach spans from the lowest floors to the highest, though its authority is strongest on the higher floors—such as the 134th floor under direct royal control—and frays in the lower, lawless regions. Loyalty to Jahad is the official creed, but beneath the surface, the Army simmers with internal rivalries. The Royal Guard and various squadrons jostle for power and favor, leading to betrayals and secret alliances. Princesses of Jahad operate as individuals or within their own factions, not as a unified corps. Figures like Yuri Zahard have challenged the status quo, showing that the King's grip isn't absolute. The Army's ultimate mission is to preserve Jahad's reign, but its heavy-handed methods make it a prime target for FUG and other revolutionaries. In the current timeline, the Army is mobilizing for all-out war against FUG and the Irregular Bam, who threatens to shatter the Tower's order. Key players like Kallavan, Lyborick, and the other Squadron Commanders are central to this conflict, each pursuing their own hidden goals. The Army's strength lies in its sheer numbers and resources, but its dependence on Jahad's authority makes it vulnerable to cracks in the system—and those cracks are widening.
Reader's Guide
Jahad's Army is the Tower's official military and administrative force, built to enforce King Jahad's absolute rule. Its goals: maintain order, crush any rebellion (especially from FUG), and manage the选拔 of Regulars through the Floor Tests. The Army is led by top Rankers, including the Squadron Commanders (like the ruthless Kallavan and the cunning Lyborick), the Princesses of Jahad (such as the rebellious Yuri Zahard and the legendary Adori Zahard), and the Royal Guard. It also includes countless Rankers, Regulars, and support staff who operate across all floors. Membership is open to those who pass the tests and swear loyalty to Jahad—but loyalty is tested daily, and not everyone passes.
Jahad's Seat of Power
King Jahad—rendered as "Zahard" in certain translations—occupies the apex of the Tower's political structure. He serves as the chief leader of the Ten Great Families, the collective governing body that presides over the entire Tower from its highest floors. This position places him above every other known authority within the enclosed structure, including the Rankers who have earned their status by reaching the summit. The Ten Great Families do not merely advise or counsel; they constitute the ruling institution, and Jahad stands at its head. His authority is not derived from a single floor's guardian or a local contract but from the overarching governance that the families collectively maintain. In a hierarchy where ascension is earned through increasingly demanding tests of strength, dexterity, and wit, Jahad's role as chief leader suggests a power that transcends the climbing mechanics entirely. He is, in essence, the final authority to which every floor's administration ultimately answers, making his position the gravitational center around which the Tower's entire political order revolves.
The Immortality Pact
One of the most consequential elements of Jahad's rule is the contract he established with the Tower Guardians, a binding arrangement that rendered him immortal. This pact effectively removed him from the natural cycle of aging and death that governs every other inhabitant of the Tower, including the most powerful Rankers and the administrators who oversee individual floors. The contract is so absolute that it creates a singular vulnerability: only Irregulars are exempt from its terms. By the logic of the Tower's rules, this means no Regular, no Ranker, and no administrator can bring Jahad to his end. The sole class of beings capable of killing him are those who entered through the sealed doors under extraordinary circumstances—individuals like Twenty-Fifth Bam. This singular exemption transforms the Irregulars from mere outliers into the only existential threat to the Tower's supreme leader. The narrative weight of this fact is immense, as it channels the entire conflict toward a small number of individuals who, by definition, are stigmatized and regarded as calamities by the very people Jahad rules over.
The Architecture of Obedience
The Tower's physical and social architecture reinforces Jahad's authority at every level. Each floor is divided into three distinct layers: an Outer Tower serving as residential space, an Inner Tower where ascension tests are conducted, and a Middle Area functioning as a connective network between floors. Ascension from one floor to the next is permitted only after passing tests of growing difficulty in strength, dexterity, and wit, and only those deemed worthy by Headon, the First Floor's Guardian and caretaker, are granted the opportunity to climb. Those who succeed become Regulars, and the rare few who reach the summit earn the title of Ranker. Crucially, Rankers are typically assigned to administer the lower floors, creating a system in which the most powerful individuals are locked into service roles beneath the Ten Great Families. This structure ensures that raw power is always subordinated to the governing body at the top, where Jahad sits as chief leader. The sealed, impenetrable doors that separate the Tower from the unknown Outside further isolate this hierarchy, making the system self-contained and, under Jahad's leadership, effectively inescapable.
The Irregulars as Calamity
Within the Tower's rigid order, Irregulars occupy a paradoxical position: they are the only beings capable of killing the immortal King Jahad, yet they are treated as threats to be contained. Unlike Regulars or Rankers, Irregulars possess a special connection to the Tower that allows them to manipulate Shinsu with little to no constraints, regardless of whether they hold contracts with the floor administrators. This freedom from the Tower's contractual framework is both their greatest power and the source of deep institutional fear. The case of Enryu, an Irregular who killed the then-administrator and guardian of the 43rd floor—a feat previously considered impossible—shattered the assumption that administrators were truly infallible. In the aftermath, Tower inhabitants came to view Irregulars not as individuals but as destructive forces, calamities foretold by the Tower's own prophecies to bring about upheaval. Even High Rankers, the upper echelon of the Tower's most powerful, regard them with dread. For Jahad, whose immortality contract leaves him vulnerable only to this class, the Irregulars represent not just a political challenge but the singular mechanism by which his rule can be ended.
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