hh2节译：怀言者军团组织结构

The Word Bearers followed much of the structure of the Legiones Astartes during their earliest incarnation. Warriors belonged to squads, squads to companies and companies to chapters. This functional structure remained largely unchanged from when the Legion was the Imperial Heralds until their overt treachery on Isstvan V. The rediScovery of their Primarch and the influx of recruits from Colchis did little to change the Legion's basic structure, rather it added layers of organisation. This second layer of organisation was concerned, not with the makeup of units on the battlefield, but with the ideology of those units.

在怀言者军团最早被塑造成型时，他们遵循了阿斯塔特军团的很多结构。战士们属于小队，小队属于连队，连队属于战团。从第十七军团尚为帝国传道者之时，直到他们在伊斯特万五号公然叛变，这套运行结构都未在很大程度上发生变化。原体的回归与科尔奇斯新兵的涌入也几乎未能改变军团的基本结构，而是增加了组织层级。第二套组织层级所关注的并非是战场上单位的构成，而是这些单位的思想观念。

The Word Bearers employed all the squad configurations seen across other Legions, with a tendency towards keeping the size of all units high. While other Legions might be content with or even favour, units of only a handful of warriors, the Word Bearers would typically keep its line units at a much higher strength. Squads of twenty were common across all companies and chapters, and typically took a tactical configuration. These squads formed the core of the Legion and the keystone of its philosophy of war: the aggressive advance of warriors in force.

怀言者军团使用了在其他军团中能看到的所有小队结构配置，而且他们倾向于让所有单位都保持在大规模的状态。虽然其他军团可能满足于甚至是偏好仅由少数战士构成的单位，但怀言者军团通常会在前线单位中保持多出很多的兵力。在怀言者军团的战团和连队中，二十人组成的小队是常见的，而且他们通常采取战术小队配置。这些小队组成了军团的核心以及军团战争哲学的基本原则：部队中战士们的侵略性前进。

Squads in turn belonged to companies, usually a hundred strong though sometimes larger or smaller depending on their role's nature. The Word Bearers had a tendency to dedicate companies to a particular battlefield role, designating companies as assault companies, line breaker companies, reconnaissance companies, and so on. These companies would often deploy in combination, again showing the Word Bearers' favour for massed forces and sledgehammer actions.

小队依次属于连队，连队兵力通常为一百，不过有些时候也会根据他们的角色特性而或大或小。怀言者倾向于专门让若干连队们担任某个具体的战场角色，并将连队们指定为突击连、阵线突破连和侦察连，等等。这些连队通常会被联合部署，这再次展现了怀言者对于大规模部队和强有力作战行动的偏好。

Companies were grouped together into chapters of between 500 and 3,000 warriors. Each chapter bore a name and sigil based on the constellations of Colchis: The Serrated Sun, The Osseous Throne, The Crescent Moon, The Weeping Hand, The Coiled Lash, The Exalted Gate, The Twisting Rune, The Scold's Bridle, The Night’s Chalice—each were found within the Legion's ranks. These large formations were often the building blocks of Word Bearers campaigns. Most Crusade fleets consisted of at least one full chapter, and the largest might have several.

连队会被一起组合成人数在500到3000之间的战团。每个战团都拥有一个基于科尔奇斯星座的名称和纹章：锯齿烈阳、白骨圣座、新生白月、垂泪之掌、螺旋长鞭、显赫高门、缠绕符文、训斥之缰、黑夜圣杯——每个都能在军团的部队中被找到。这些大型编队通常是怀言者战役的基本单位。大多数怀言者远征舰队至少由一个战团组成，最大的那些可能包含数个战团。

Although their methods of war were often workmanlike in application, they always displayed a taste for the symbolic act. War was not just a process, it was a message, and so the Word Bearers would often include notes of the spectacular into their campaigns to make their point. A number of unique formations in their ranks echo this tendency. As an example, the Chapter of the Broken Scythe consisted of armoured artillery, siege tanks and mounted flamer squads. Their role was to level cities and strongholds in a single attack and leave nothing but Scorched rubble. Also of note are the Ashen Circle. Descending from the sky on jump packs, they were the destroyers of false gods, ashen angels sent to reduce libraries and shrines to cinders with flamer and, where a truly lasting destruction was required, phosphex. Attached to chapters but standing as a circle apart, only the most dedicated could enter their ranks. Many passed through their ranks before ascending to the role of Chaplain.

虽然他们的战争方法在应用中经常是技术娴熟的，但怀言者们经常会对象征行为表现出品味。战争不仅是一个过程，它是一种使命，所以怀言者们通常会在他们的战役记录中加入显眼的注释以表达自己的观点。许多独特的怀言者编队都会回应这种倾向，例如，破刃之镰战团由装甲炮兵、攻城坦克和装备火焰喷射器的小队组成，他们负责在单次的进攻中将敌人的城市和据点夷为平地，只留下被烧焦的瓦砾。同样值得注意的是灰烬之环部队，他们是捣毁伪神之人，他们使用跳跃背包从天而降，是被派去用喷火器焚灭图书馆和圣地的的灰烬天使，而且倘若真的需要持续的毁灭时，他们会动用磷火武器。灰烬之环附属于战团，但会以内环的形式独立分开运行，只有最具献身精神的战士才能加入该部队。许多人在晋升为牧师之前都有被晋升为灰烬之环的经历。

It is worth noting that throughout its history, the XVIIth Legion made extensive use of bonded auxiliaries. In the days when the Unification Wars were blurring into the Great Crusade, the XVIIth Legion would often recruit bands of militant followers from those they had conquered. This practice continued throughout the Great Crusade, and these formations were often as much mobs as they were military formations, but again their presence in many campaigns added to the XVII’s ability to apply overwhelming force to an enemy.

值得注意的是，第十七军团在其历史上广泛使用辅助军。当统一战争正在向大远征渐进时，第十七军团就经常在被征服者中招募好战追随者组成的战帮。这一行为也持续贯穿了大远征，这些编队通常是与军事编队一样多的暴徒队伍，但是他们在许多战役中的再次出现还是提升了第十七军团向敌人施加压倒性兵力的能力。

Legion Command Hierarchy

军团指挥等级体系

Lorgar was both commander and spiritual father to his Legion. The hierarchy of authority within the Legion reflected this dual nature, divided between military and spirituality, between mind and heart. On the one hand, the Legion followed simple and robust lines of authority. A chapter master led each chapter, a captain each company and a sergeant each squad. It was common for a chapter master to designate one of the captains as "sub commander", to act as his lieutenant. The second line of authority in the chapter was spiritual. The Chaplains, although nominally attached to companies and chapters, in reality were a brotherhood unto themselves. While each was a warrior, their concerns were not for the business of direct command, but for the strength of their brothers spirits, for the clarity of their purpose and the purity of their actions. Each Chaplain fitted into their own hierarchy, with ascending tiers of knowledge and respect. High Chaplains were the ruling circle of their kind, and at their centre was the First Chaplain.

珞珈是第十七军团的指挥官兼精神圣父，军团内的权力等级体系反映了这一双重特征，分为军事与精神之间、意识与心灵之间。一方面，第十七军团遵循着简单且强有力的权力线条，每位战团之主都领导着一个战团，每位连长都领导着一个连队，每位军士都领导着一个小队。一位战团之主指派一名连长作为“次级指挥官”担任自己的副官也是常见情况。战团中的第二条权力线条是精神层面的。虽说牧师们名义上附属于连队和战团，但事实上他们自己就是一个兄弟会。虽然每位牧师都是一名战士，但他们并不关注如何直接的指挥任务，他们关注的是对兄弟们精神的增强，让兄弟们志虑忠纯。每名牧师都与自己的等级相适应，随知识和受尊重程度不断提高，等级也不断提升。高阶牧师们是牧师群体的统领内环，居于其中心的是首席牧师。

The two strands of authority within the Word Bearers often crossed and blurred. While theoretically separate, no lowly line captain would question the authority of a senior Chaplain. Given that the reasons for fighting were as important to the Word Bearers as victory, decisions about the course of a war or battle were often made by the Chaplains and enacted by the commanders. This blurring and fusion of the spiritual and military command was also present in Lorgar's inner circle. This group comprised the Legion's ruling council, and included both commanders and Chaplains. Even within this small group there were two who held more power and authority than any others. The names of Kor Phaeron and Erebus are now heavy with infamy, and one cannot help but wonder if the Imperium's fate would not have been different if these two had not been Lorgar's most trusted counsellors.

怀言者军团中的两条权力线条经常交叉和渐进。虽说理论上两条线是分离的，但没有哪位低阶连长会质疑一位高阶牧师的权力。考虑到对于怀言者而言战斗和胜利同样重要，通常会由牧师们做出关于战争和战斗走向的决定，并由指挥官通过。这种精神和军事指挥互相融合与混淆的现象也出现在了珞珈的内部圈子里，这个团体由军团的统帅会议组成，包括了指挥官们和牧师们，而哪怕是在这个小团体里，也有两个人拥有比其他人更多的影响力和权力——他们就是现在极为臭名昭著的科尔 法伦和艾瑞巴斯，我们也不禁要思索：倘若这二人并非珞珈最为信任的顾问，帝国的命运是否也会有所不同。

War Disposition

战争配置

The strength of the Word Bearers at the time of the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre was thought to be approximately 140,000. It is now clear that this figure was a lie. Four decades earlier, when the Legion was rebuked at Khur, it was approximately 100,000 strong. That they had made a notable increase in recruitment was clear, but far from swelling their numbers by 40,000, the Word Bearers had grown to a far greater strength. Mass recruitment from every world they conquered, and the use of rapid geneseed implantation and hypno-indoctrination meant that by some reports their numbers might even have rivalled those of the Ultramarines. Certainly the scale of their actions during the opening phases of the war, and the casualties they suffered, indicate that few others could have approached them in size.

怀言者兵力在伊斯特万五号登录点大屠杀时被认为是大约140,000，现在很明显这个数据是假的。在登录点大屠杀四十年前，怀言者军团在Khur世界（机仆：完美之城所在的世界）遭到训斥，那时他们的兵力大约为100,000。很明显怀言者军团征兵数有了显著的增长，而且并非仅仅增长了40,000名战士，他们的兵力膨胀到了一个大得多的数量。怀言者在他们征服的每个世界上大规模征兵，而且会使用快速基因种子植入和催眠灌输的方式（制造新兵），据某些报告称他们的人数甚至已经能够匹敌极限战士。他们在战争初始阶段的行动规模和他们遭受的伤亡显示几乎没有其他军团能接近他们的数量。

In addition to the surge in numbers of the Word Bearers, the number of vassal warbands and half-feral fanatics who accompanied them reached extraordinary numbers. In the extermination phase of the Isstvan V Dropsite Massacre, one survivor estimated that a horde of 50,000 faced the Loyalist enclave of Nurin. That such forces were lost and yet more were unleashed on world after world in the years that followed shows that behind the Word Bearers themselves stood millions more willing to die at their command.

除了怀言者军团战士的数量激增之外，配合第十七军团作战的仆从军战帮和半蛮人暴徒帮派数量也严重扩大。在伊斯特万五号大屠杀的灭绝阶段，一名幸存者估计Nurin飞地的忠诚派部队要面对50，000人的怀言者仆从军部落。再随后的几年中，此类部队损失了，但是有更多的被释放在一个又一个世界上，这表明在怀言者背后还站着数百万原因在他们的指挥下而死的仆从兵。

Given the actions of so called Abyss class vessels in later campaigns, it is also clear that Lorgar had increased his Legion's naval strength, possibly to levels which exceeded that of the Imperial Fists, who were thought at the time to control the largest fleet of any Legion. Such an increase in strength, and the delicacy with which it was concealed, indicates that Lorgar went into the war ready to embrace the carnage that would follow.

考虑到所谓的深渊级战舰在随后战役中的行动，很明显珞珈也提升了第十七军团的海军实力，而且可能超过了帝国之拳军团的海军实力，后者在当时被认为控制着所有军团中最大的舰队。怀言者军团军力的增加以及被隐藏起圆滑敏感表明珞珈在前往伊斯特万五号参战时便准备拥抱之后的大屠杀了。