The Reiksguard

The Reiksguard are the personal knights of the Emperor himself, an order whose loyalty is pledged not to province nor Elector Count but to the throne of Altdorf alone. Founded to serve as the household guard of the ruler of the Empire of Man, they are drawn from the finest warriors of every province, men and women who forsake all prior allegiance to become instruments of the imperial will.

The order fields both mailed knights and disciplined foot, and its Reiksguard cavalry are counted among the deadliest heavy horse in the Old World. Clad in gleaming plate and bearing the Reik's own device, they train ceaselessly within their fortress-barracks, where discipline is absolute and cowardice unthinkable. To wear the white and red of the Reiksguard is to accept that one's life belongs to the Emperor, to be spent without hesitation in his defence.

In battle the Reiksguard are held as the anvil upon which the enemy is broken and the reserve loosed in the hour of greatest need. When the beastmen pour from the Drakwald or the ratmen of the Skaven boil up from beneath the streets, it is often the Reiksguard who hold the line while the city rallies. They know no retreat, for behind them stands the Empire itself, and they will die to the last before they let it fall.