Militias of the Boundary Republic

The Militias of the Boundary Republic were the units that made up the military wing of the Boundary Republic. While to an outside observer, Marshal Edward Garan would be the de facto leader of the militias, he actually held very little power. With the population wary of any army controlled by the central government, the Boundary Republic was forced to have most power delegated to local commanders, with their only real control over the militias being the procuring of equipment. Even still, the Republic was usually forced to cave into the demands of the militias, with popular support lying with the local militias.

Most of the militias had existed before the beginning of the Boundary Republic, and how each was trained and equipped reflected their beginnings. Units descended from the tended to be much more similar to  units, while those militias descended from groups of untrained civilians on the frontier were much less trained and well-equipped.

As a result of their power, commanders of militias descended from units usually controlled all the militias in a certain province. For example, the Fenceline Army, one of the largest units of the Boundary Republic, was formed by powerful militia officers asking that the other militias come under their command, and in return, the less trained militias would receive training and equipment from the other ones. As a result of deals such as this, Edward Garan became more of a figurehead than anything else for militias outside the capital, and even inside the capital, while he held more power, he acted mostly in an advisory role, only to have control in the event the Capital Garrison Commander was killed during an invasion.

This lack of any unit controlled directly by the Boundary Republic government led to the creation of the Independence Brigade, a militia, that, while ostensibly under the control of a militia officer, was in actuality commanded by Marshal Garan.