How good would she have to been to have achieved what she achieved?

jmisthe08
edited March 2021 in General Discussion

I'm working on A Idea for A New Major Race for Traveller that will be unique to my Campaign, their race will be called Nacarhs and I have a idea for The Commander of The Fleet that is her Homelands Races first contact with The Imperium but I have a question

The question is about The Commander of The Fleet that is her Homeland first contact with The Races of Known Space, her Homeland is roughly 12,400 years old and by her own abilities she managed to do several things that no member of her Homeland has ever done before

She was the 1st member of her Homelands Navy to become A Rank 1 Officer whilst still still in her teens, its youngest ever 2nd officer, its youngest ever 1st Officer, its youngest ever Captain, its youngest ever Regular(?) Admiral and its youngest ever Senior Admiral and she was also its 1st common born regular(?) Admiral and is its only common born Senior Admiral

So taking all of that into consideration roughly how good would she would she have to been to have managed to achieve everything that she has achieved?

Post edited by jmisthe08 on

Comments

  • ragnarhawk
    Posts: 168

    Interesting.  Have you ever heard of Honor Harrington?  Your Commander sounds a lot like her (and she is supposedly based off of Horatio Hornblower)...  If not, I highly reccomend the series (The first few are available through the Baen Free Library - first book is here:   https://www.baen.com/on-basilisk-station.html)

    Regardless, for your Commander to accomplish this, either they need to have bent or broken some rules, or someone bent, broke, or changed them on her behalf...  There are usually legal minimums for age of service, and in many situations, if you have the education (e.g. ROTC in college), you can enter service as an officer at the minimum age.  (I presume that is what you mean by Rank 1 officer).  Other promotions also often have legal minimums for Time In Service and Time In Grade, but as long as she got started younger than anyone else, she could theoretically stay ahead of anyone else

    For the more senior promotions, performance is often not sufficient, you may well also need connections within either your command structure of senior levels of government (or both).  Field promotions that are later confirmed can help, but those require being thrown into disastrous circumstaances and thriving (so a certain amount of both good and bad luck are needed).

    For the Admiralty, it sounds like there was either a formal or de facto prohibition on commoners reaching those ranks.  That being the case, stong political connections would have been required to achieve those goals.

  • jmisthe08
    Posts: 45 edited March 2021
    I haven't yet decided how she became both her homelands 1st of only 4 regular(?) Admirals to be born A Commoner and its only Senior Admiral to be born A Commoner but I am trying to think of a good way to justify it

    1 idea I like is that while she was born A Commoner it is possible that she perforned some great task or great service, a very powerful noble directly benefited from it and her reward was being made either A Very Minor Noble or A Minor Noble

    The best thing about that is that if it did happen she would now be A Noble, which means that she could become both her homelands 1st of only 4 regular(?) Admirals to be born A Commoner and its only Senior Admiral to be born A Commoner

    Another idea I like is that while her homeland has existed for roughly 12,400 years is that their were once laws that prevented commoners acquiring The Rank of Admiral or higher and that those laws have only been revoked during The 29 years that she's been in The Navy

    The reason I like the 2nd idea more is for 2 reasons. 1st is because Slavery was legal for many Millenium yet America outlawed it less then 160 years ago and the other is that women were inferior to men for many Millenium yet in The UK Women acquired equal rights less then 60 years ago, I think but I may be wrong, and in some parts of the world women are still inferior to men
    Post edited by jmisthe08 on
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