The Empire of Lirith Kai has a fairly large number of men (and women) under arms at all times. These fall into several groups: the Border Legion, the Regular Army, and the Militia are the main ones.

The Militia consists of all able-bodied adult citizens save those debarred from participation through ill health or some gross violation of honor. Militia members may be of either sex; they provide their own weapons and armor and generally train as a group for a day or two every month--a province or region will normally have two or more (usually more) militia groups that train at different times. They are not paid for their time, nor do they expect to be. The Militia usually train and operate under the local Provincial commanders, as described under the Regular Army. In times of unrest, the Militia in a region may be order to "stand to arms" for a period of a week or more; different local Militia groups may alternate at such duty.

Regular Army troops, also called Provincial Army troops, which are charged with maintaining the Emperor's Peace in the provinces and especially on the borders, are raised, trained, equipped, and paid by their commanding officers, who must be members of the nobility of the Empire and residents of the province in which they serve. These soldiers are professionals, following no other work, and are supposed to be "under arms" or ready to fight at all times. They may be troops of any type, at the choice of the noble who assembles them. The ranks to which such nobles may lay claim, the number of troops they may raise, and what training is required of them are specified in the section on the Noble Caste. To be permitted to raise and command a body of troops in the Regular Provincial Armies of the Empire is a great honor, if an expensive one.

Although it is not usual or encouraged, the actual members of a provincial troop raised by some noble may be foreigners. More than one troop in the An-Kiu Valley is composed entirely or largely of "barbarian" warriors from the western plains beyond Imperial border; about one in three of the members of such groups become naturalized citizens after a while.

The Border Legion is maintained at Imperial expense, and regiments of it are posted on those parts of the Empire's long borders which require their specialized services. They function not only as army troops, but as a customs/border patrol force, and even a police force where necessary. The Border Legion is commanded by professional officers, who may be of any caste provided they have successfully completed the training offered by the Imperial Military Academy; most officers are "knighted" or made lirans, eventually, if they are not noblemen born. The Border Legion has a reputation for toughness, efficiency, and unswerving loyalty to the Empire, so much so that, according to tales circulated within the Legion, the troops of an officer who attempted treason rose up and killed him, successfully defended the fort he would have betrayed, and then turned themselves in to the officer commanding the relieving force; according to the stories, the private who led the troops in this action was ennobled for his efforts.

Troops of all sorts may be found in the Regular Army, as the noble officers who raise the Provincial troops are not limited by other than their good sense (if any) and their pocketbooks in what sort of troops they wish to command: infantry, cavalry, or chariots, lightly armed and armored or heavily. The Border Legion, the "workhorse" of the Imperial armed forces, numbers only infantry and cavalry--they have no use for chariots on the borders--and they tend to be fairly lightly armored. Some subdivisions of the Sun Legion are heavy cavalry, but even they put off their armor to deal with most problems using speed and intelligence rather than brute force. The present bias of the Imperial Army as a whole is toward mobility at the expense of weight; thus the relative disinterest in heavy cavalry and chariots.

There are also army engineers, who build roads and bridges for the other troops (and also demolish them) and build and operate siege engines. One branch of the engineers builds and maintains the fortifications of the Empire. The "artillery" part of the army is a subgroup of the engineers, and they deal with catapults and balistae, "ratani-fire," and explosive projectiles of various sorts, etc.

The quartermasters deal with supply and transport.

Over all of these groups is the High Command, the professional officers who control the disposition of the different troops and plan campaigns, assuming command when major operations are to be carried out.

If the Border Legion is the elite of the Imperial Army, the Sun Legion is the elite of the elite. Paladins all, these warriors are answerable only to the Emperor himself, standing next to but outside of the normal army structure. Members of the Sun Legion may be assigned singly or in groups to all manner of tasks by the Emperor and certain other officials designated by him; theirs is the duty of dealing with grave and unusual threats to the Emperor's Peace.

Similar to the Army in structure and training is the Highway Guard. Members of this force patrol the major and lesser highways, and sometimes the byways, and safeguard travelers thereon; the Imperial Couriers are drawn from their number. In time of necessity, the High Command may direct the Highway Guards to the assistance of any army group or to take on the duties of an army unit where one is not present.

The River Patrol, found mostly on the An-Kiu River (although there are small units on some of the fairly important tributaries to the An-Kiu), is the water-borne branch of the Highway Guard.

The military tradition is strong in Lirith Kai, and the citizens generally respect the army and its members. The army doesn't commandeer provisions and livestock, it isn't quartered willy-nilly in civilian homes, and it is generally well behaved (if maybe a little rowdy at times). The mood of the citizens will, of course, vary from time to time and place to place, but the present feeling is generally positive. It helps, of course, that all the citizens (that's ALL of them) have had some military training and serve in their province's Militia.