Garrison

Of the three military divisions, this one absorbs the most recruits; the Survey Corps kills its members too quickly and the Military Police admits too few, so the majority land here. The work demands versatility. Soldiers rotate between defensive Titan combat, operating the cannon batteries mounted along the Walls, rifle duty, security details, and crowd management, since the branch touches both Titans and civilians daily.

On paper the Garrison fields 30,000 soldiers, a figure that includes trainees who have not yet graduated, though only about 10,000 of them are ready for combat. Organizationally it breaks down into regiments of 1,000, brigades of two or three regiments, and divisions built from two brigades. Its emblem is a pair of roses.

Its people span every motivation, from those simply avoiding farm labor to those who enlisted specifically to shield loved ones from the Titans. Before Wall Maria's fall the branch had a reputation for drinking on duty and general indiscipline, barely above the Military Police in quality. Losing Maria changed everything: the survivors became tactical, innovative, and rigorous, and the branch is now regarded as the most dependable force after the Survey Corps. Erwin Smith observed that the southern divisions, hardened by actual Titan contact, outclass their counterparts in the interior.

Wall defense defines the branch: patrols, repairs, improvements, and constant preparation for a breach. When a Wall is broken, doctrine calls for a layered response built around evacuation. A vanguard of regular troops meets the Titans near the breach to buy time, a middle guard sweeps up any that slip through, and a rear guard of the finest available soldiers protects the civilian escape route through the inner gate. During the Trost battle the trainees were slotted into the middle guard, with Mikasa Ackerman pulled into the rear guard for her exceptional ability, and the vanguard was all but annihilated. Cannon barrages and harpoon nets supplement the soldiers, maiming Titans before they reach the streets. Once every civilian is out, the gate closes, the district is sealed off, and the soldiers withdraw to the Wall top.

Because no force could patrol the entire circumference, the districts jutting from the Walls exist to concentrate Titan attention where monitoring is easiest. A separate emergency plan governs breaches of the outermost Wall, prioritizing moving the population to the next Wall inward before a settlement, or the whole territory, is overrun. Though primarily independent, the branch lends the Survey Corps support when the situation demands it, as at Trost, during the costly ride to recover the kidnapped Eren Yeager, and in the bombardment of Rod Reiss's colossal Titan at Orvud District. After the Titans' true nature came to light, its mission shifted to guarding the island's coastline against Marley, and following the Battle of Heaven and Earth it was folded with the other branches into a single Yeagerist-controlled army.

Dot Pixis, the branch's most celebrated officer, commanded the southern territories and proved its finest motivator, rallying demoralized troops at Trost. Hannes, a unit captain, saved Eren and Mikasa as children in Shiganshina. Team leaders Rico Brzenska, Ian Dietrich, and Mitabi Jarnach anchored the Trost recapture, which Dietrich and Jarnach did not survive. Captain Kitz Weilman and squad members Anka and Gustav also serve, while Floch Forster began his career here before founding the Yeagerists; former commander Lobov and soldiers such as Samuel, Daz, Sandra, and Gordon round out its known roster.