Rakatan Imperial Army

The Rakata Imperial Army was the military force of the. Despite its name, the only represented a minority of its personnel, occupying the  officer positions, while the junior officers and lower-ranking troops were slaves and volunteers of different species. One of the earliest major galactic militaries, the Rakata Imperial Army consisted of millions of troops that were used in the Rakata's many campaigns to conquer different parts of.

History
As the broke out of the western side of  and began invading many other inhabited worlds, their  expanded quickly. Their power in the allowed them to conquer and enslave many species, causing the Infinite Empire's slave markets to fill up quickly. Around 30,000 BBY, the Rakata stopped fighting wars themselves, seeing no need to put themselves into danger when there were plenty of other species they could use for the gruesome tasks. A new imperial army was assembled by the Rakata nobility, with the Empire's ruling requiring all other s to provide slaves for this new force. He sought to limit their power somewhat by this and prevented them from building up their own private armies.

The new army consisted of both slaves as well as volunteers, mostly relying on numbers to overwhelm their enemies but also not lacking in skill or discipline. The slave-soldiers became the most common infantry unit of the Infinite Empire. The Imperial Army was one of the earliest major galactic military forces to exist.

Varitai
The Varitai (meaning "slave soldier" in the language) were the basic units of the Infinite Empire's army, consisting of slaves of various species whose free will was broken by the. Most Varitai were born into slavery and taken at a young age to be trained as soldiers before the Rakata performed a dark side ritual on them to break their will and bind them to their masters, making the slaves not capable of disobedience. The slave soldiers also lacked any regard for their own lives and had a high tolerance for pain, fighting on oblivious to any grievous injuries or overwhelming odds. The Varitai were highly disciplined and capable fighters but also used numbers to overcome more skilled opponents. The Empire's slave markets always provided a large supply of new "recruits" so they were regarded as expandable and usually fought to the death.

Members of the Rakata nobility that had large numbers of slaves were obliged to provide a certain number of them to serve as Varitai or Kuritai in the Imperial Army, limiting their power somewhat. Many were simply taken from their home worlds and drugged into forgetting their past before being sent into training.

Kuritai
The Kuritai (meaning "slave elite" in Rakatan) were the more skilled shock troops of the Infinite Empire. They were slaves raised in similar conditions as the Varitai and likewise bonded using the dark side of the Force, except they were trained more brutally so that only the best warriors survived to become Kuritai. They were taken at a young age and put into gladiatorial arenas where the less capable were killed off. While the Varitai used overwhelming numbers to attack, the Kuritai were more skilled and operated in smaller formations, often planted into Varitai or Free Sword units as shock troops. Like the Varitai, they had a high pain tolerance and could not do much other than follow orders from their masters due to the dark side binding.

Free Swords
The Free Swords were soldiers that came from the non-enslaved citizenry of the Empire's five hundred worlds, their ranks including both volunteers and conscripts. Unlike the Varitai and Kuritai, they were typically not raised in brutal conditions, nor were they bonded with the Rakata by the dark side, so they were still capable of independent thinking. It also made them less disciplined and more inclined to surrender or desert, as normal soldiers would. Many Free Swords were from the poor lower classes of the Empire and sought to improve their standing, while others were conscripted to fill a quota during times of war. Non-Rakata noble families frequently sent their children to serve as junior and senior officers to increase their prestige, or were sometimes forced to by the Rakata to ensure their loyalty. The Free Swords were typically used in second wave attacks after a line of Varitai softened enemy defenses, and were backed up by Kuritai.

Mercenaries
To increase manpower during particularly difficult campaigns, mercenaries were sometimes hired by the Infinite Empire to back up its army's regular forces. They varied in species and were often better paid than Free Swords, but consisted of groups experienced in combat or skilled in another area. Experts in some fields, such as engineering or medicine, were hired for their particular talent to serve as support. They were still regarded as expendable by Rakata generals, however.

Structure
The Rakata Imperial Army was one of the first major military forces that existed in the and the Rakata were the first to implement a standardized order of battle on such a scale. Most units of the army more or less followed the standard organization, with only the more remote garrisons being more likely to deviate from it. The Imperial Army was structured as follows:
 * Theater
 * Army
 * (3) Division (20,000 troops)
 * (4) Regiment (5,000 troops)
 * (4) Battalion (1,250 troops)
 * (5) Company (250 troops)

Notes:

Ranks
The Imperial Army's lower-ranking troops mostly consisted of various enslaved species while Rakata occupied the highest general positions. It was rare for a non-Rakata to become a general, as the highest rank they could usually attain was colonel.
 * Lord High General
 * Lord General
 * General
 * Colonel
 * Major
 * Captain
 * Lieutenant
 * Ensign
 * Master Sergeant
 * Sergeant
 * Corporal
 * Trooper