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 continental armies. The largest of these continental armies is the Grand Army of Tipslan, followed by the Armies of Idelrein and Wittenlan. Five of Tiperyn's duchies (Tipslan, Idelrein, Wittenlan, Tytsjerkstera, Hawkreath), 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 continental 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 continental armies rotate annually in manning garrisons in these duchies. When federalized and deployed overseas, multiple brigades typically come under Corps commands that coordinate the maneuver of their subordinate brigades. One or more Corps then come under geographic Theatre commands, such as the Nasiria Theatre Command or the Santa Magdalena Mission.

The Realm Guard's active duty maneuver component, the Realm Guard Maneuver Command, is manned by 117,000 active-duty personnel (out of 211,000 total active-duty personnel) and consists of 35 maneuver regiments, 1 independent parachute battalion, and 2 independent fires regiments. Each Continental Army furnishes a Training Command that is responsible for mustering, training, and maintaining combat readiness for its regiments, as well as independent logistics, intelligence, public relations, military police, and other units. Meanwhile the reserve component contains enough personnel to muster 380 maneuver regiments in addition to as many independent supporting units, although the Realm Guard Reserve has not been called upon in over half a century.

Realm Guard Maneuver Command (Active)
''This list includes active-duty maneuver units. It does not include independent support units nor reserve units. The reserve component of the Realm Guard is theoretically able to muster 380 maneuver regiments in time of war for a total of 950,000 personnel.''

Current deployments
The Realm Guard maintain several overseas deployments, broadly categorized into permanent peacetime postings and rotational combat deployments. Although a domestic deployment, Western Tiperyn is considered to be a combat deployment for some units, but units that are permanently garrisoned in this region are not considered to be permanent overseas postings.

Tradition
Realm Guard units are stepped in diverse traditions with each of its Contintental Armies and Territorial Corps free to dictate their own traditions including dress and parade uniforms, mottos, grooming standards, secondary titles for officers, and special designations for units. All armies, however, do abide by branch-wide standards when it comes to combat readiness, primary rank structure, combat equipment, and unit organization.

Specially designated units
Several regiments within the Realm Guard are specially designated with titles they carry in addition to their official classifications.
 * The Rifleer Regiments of the Continental Army of Hawkreath are designated 60th, 61st and 64th Mountaineer Regiments (Hawkreath) owing their heritage to Hawkreath's elite light mountain infantry. They are also airmobile, unlike other standard Rifleer Regiments.
 * The Rifleer Regiment of the Grand Army of Tipslan is designated the 10th Airmobile Regiment (Tipslan) given its dedicated air assault mission and training.
 * The Rifleer Regiment of the Independent Chimchag Brigade is designated the Realm Chimchag Regiment.
 * The Mounted Rifleer Regiments of the Continental Army of Eastrein are designated the 83rd, 84th, and 85th Dragoon Regiments (Eastrein).
 * The Tank Regiment of the Continental Army of Buitenwoude is designated the 91st Cavalry Regiment (Buitenwoude).

Army-specific dress uniform colors
All Realm Guard armies maintain the same standards with regard to their combat uniform and field service uniform. However, armies are allowed to use unique colors in the construction of their dress uniforms. Although the armies typically adhere to the Pattern 4 Uniform (Dress) in terms of cut and components, each uses a different color pallette.

Enlisted
Enlisted personnel in the Realm Guard are those who do not serve by commission from the Empress and Ministry of the Sword. These include Junior Enlisted, Non-Commissioned Officers (who hold positions of tactical or technical authority), and Warrant Officers. Warrant Officers are not commissioned by the Empress, but serve as Regimental Sergeant Majors, Technical Specialists and Deputies of Trade Schools through warrant from the Commander-General of their specific army.

Uniforms
The Realm Guard has five basic categories of uniform: the Physical Training Uniform, Combat Utilities, Trade Utilities, Field Service Uniform, and Dress Uniform. All but the Dress Uniform are universal among the Realm Guard's armies, with the Dress Uniform being varied slightly army-to-army.

The Field Service Uniform, colloquially referred to as Service Khakis, is the standard garrison uniform for all Realm Guard Forces.