The Wystrian Border Guard

You have been assigned to Wystrian Border Guard, tasked with the duty to keep the First Kingdom of Humanity safe from the ravenous hordes of Orcs and worse that wait just beyond those mountains for their chance to run rampant through our lands. It is only the legendary fighting prowess of this proud unit that keeps them at bay and ensures peace for our land and families. I have no doubt that you will bravely and diligently serve to keep the reputation of this unit untarnished.

And now that I've got the official greetings drivel out of the way, let me welcome you all to the most distant, gods-forsaken, boring waste of time posting that the First Kingdom's Grand Army ever devised. Stay out of trouble, try not to be drunk while on sentry duty, and keep the fraternizing with Orcish traders at the roadblock to a minimum and your tour here will be over in no time.

— Wystrian Border Guard Sergeant greeting newly assigned troops to the guard's base camp

The Wystrian Border Guard was created over two thousand years ago as the Great Strife was drawing to a close. For the Folk of the First Kingdom of Humanity, that god-war began with thousands of Orcs invading through the mountains that separated Lanlokan from the Wystrian Duchy of the kingdom. The invaders pillaged and then burned villages and fields as they came, and it would be many years before the tides of battle turned and the lands could be reclaimed and restored. To ensure the Kingdom would never again be invaded in this manner, the Wystrian Border Guard was created and tasked with defending the mountain passes.

Origins of the Unit

It took many years for the armies of the Gods of Consent, which included the armies of the First Kingdom, to take the upper hand in their war against the forces of the Gods of Coercion, but it eventually did happen. Once they were pushed back over the mountains that separated the first Kingdom from the Orc homelands, it was decided that a significant border defense unit would be formed. It's first mission was to ensure there were no incursions of enemy combatants that chose to sneak back through the mountain passes to wreak more havoc.

Initially, the unit was small -- too small to be of any real use given the length of the border they were tasked with defending, but when Great Strife hostilities finally ended seventeen years later, First Kingdom officials reassigned many of the soldiers to this unit. For over two hundred years, it was by far the largest standing regiment in the kingdom with as many as 35,000 soldiers and officers assigned to it at its peak. During this time, it saw no action at all, as the thoroughly defeated Orcs had no desire to test its abilities.

History During the Common Reckoning Years

After two hundred years of quiet, the generals of the Grand Army of the Kingdom began to recognize that the threat from the Lanlokan border was minor at best. A slow downsizing effort began, culminating in the reduction of the force to the 4500 or so that currently make up the regiment. During the entire span of Common Reckoning time, the only encounters the regiment has had to deal with were with itinerant Orcish merchants looking to sell trinkets to the soldiers themselves.

Official Name

Wystrian Border Guard

Unit Motto

Never Again

First Formation Date

11 Time of Shimmerscale's Pyramid, 17BCR
(prior to the end of the Great Strife, or "Before Common Reckoning")

Unit Classification

Regiment

Unit Commander

Lord Commander Karline Sigursen

Parent Unit

Grand Army of the First Kingdom of Humanity

Unit Structure

The Current Regiment consists of 1350 officers and soldiers. It's composition is as follows:

The Regiment consists of the Lord Commander, a Centurion-Aide, a personal Healer Cleric, a Logistics unit of 27 officers and soldiers to provide administrative support and horseback messenger, and four Companies.

Each Company (330 troops) consists a Captain, a High Sergeant assigned as the Captain's Aide, 2 Company Healer Clerics, 12 horse-mounted messengers, 14 soldiers provividing clerical and logistics tasks for the Captain, and three Centuries of troops.

Each Century (100 troops) consists of one Centurion, one High Sergeant, three Platoons of 30 troops each, a Healer Cleric, and seven soldiers serving as aides and messengers for the Centurion.

Each Platoon consists of one Sergeant, two Corporals, and twenty-seven soldiers. Typically, the Platoon will consist of three Squads, eacn with nine soldiers led by either a sergeant or corporal. At any given time, one Squad will be assigned to some sort of patrol duty while the others rest.

Situational Awareness

The companies of the regiment are spread along the border, with each responsible for covering one of the major passes through the mountains as well as the surrounding regions. Allowing for three shifts of patrols, this means that, at any one time, there are only 120 soldiers actively patrolling a border that spans hundreds of miles. Given that at least half of these are at fixed stations at the roadblocks in the four major passes, the reality is that the Border Guard is not capable of ensuring a completely sealed border. It is fortunate for the Kingdom that the Orcs of Lanlokan have absolutely no desire to cross the border and wage war again.

For a typical soldier, a posting to the Wystrian Border Guard means a two year tour of boredom interrupted by sleeping and eating. The occasional Orcish trader that shows up at the roadblocks provides some distraction and allows a soldier to purchase a trinket or two as a souvenir of the posting. The only other traffic through the passes is by Human merchants who go into Lanlokan, trade for trinkets, and then return to sell these in the village and city markets of the Kingdom for exhorbitantly marked-up prices.

Despite the boredom and lack of any real fighting action, the unit does maintain its morale and sense of history. Guard changing ceremonies are meticulously executed despite the fact that nobody other than themselves are there to see. Uniform cleanliness standards are strictly enforced. The Regiment's commander and officer cadre strive to ensure that no soldier placed in their command becomes lax in any way. This leads some observers to speculate that despite it's officially stated mission, the true purpose of the Wystrian Border Guard today is not a defensive one, but rather one of extended training and discipline.