Realm Guard

The Realm Guard (Tipsprek: Rykskyld) is the land warfare branch of the Tiperyn Realm Defence. As of 2020, the Realm Guard consisted of 211,000 active and 3,800,000 reserve personnel.

The current iteration of the Realm Guard was officially founded in 1345 following the signing of the Stallings Concordant and the unification of the duchies and principalities on the Goidelia subcontinent into the Tiperyn Realm. Although some date its origins date back as far as 1173 when House Highal—Tiperyn's Ruling Family—raised the first Grand Guard of Tipslan to defend the new kingdom from the various Goidelic queendoms and tribal confederations that had pushed back against Teutonic expansion. Members of the Realm Guard are allegiant to the Empress of Tiperyn and when nationally mobilized are under the command authority of the national Ministry of the Sword and its head, the Cardinal of War. However, duchies, principalities and dominions maintain a great deal of influence over the mustering, training, and domestic deployment of individual regiments and brigades when not federalized. As it is politically cost of mobilization the Realm Guard has rarely mobilized for overseas deployment since the end of the Great Kesh War. This excepts units mustered by the Grand Duchy of Tipslan—the home duchy of the Empress and House Highal—and overseas territories.

The Realm Guard has seen combat in all ground wars Tiperyn has fought, including the Dukes' Rebellion, Brigantican War of Independence, Grand Campaigns, Great Kesh War, Valentine Emergency, and the ongoing Nasiri Civil War. The branch's expeditionary role has significantly diminished since the end of the Great Kesh War, largely usurped by the Realm Armada's Fleet Marine Corps due to the latter being readily deployable worldwide and fully under national control. Still, the Realm Guard forms a large part of Tiperyn's strategy in the event of conventional or nuclear war in Western Artemia, with the service planned to grow from about 200,000 men to almost 4,000,000 within months.

Structure
Realm Guard regiments are mustered from and trained and organized by Tiperyn's duchies and principalities. Regiments are then organized into brigades under standards set by the Ministry of the Sword, which fall under the umbrella command of territorial armies. The largest of these territorial armies is the Grand Army of Tipslan, followed by the Armies of Idelrein and Wittenlan. Four of Tiperyn's duchies (Tipslan, Idelrein, Wittenlan, Tytsjerkstera), four of its principalities (Eastrein, Buitenwoude, Oosterkoop, Steinsen) and two of its overseas territories (Nasiria, Chimchag City) maintain army commands. The remainder of domestic principalities and states muster regiments that are then trained and fall under the command of the closest territorial army, although they are typically garrisoned within their home subdivision. The Goidelic-dominant duchies of Poc'her, Darimh, and Rosraig were barred from mustering regiments in 1925 following the end of the Grand Campaigns due to the Goidelic Insurrection. Regiments from all other territorial armies rotate annually in manning garrisons in these duchies.