The International Guardsmen Institute is a pseudo-governmental organization run by and for Guardsmen. The official history of the Institute goes back at least 1500 years in the West, although older versions of the Institute exist in the historical record. For instance, the Dogwood Institute, China's "branch", has it's own 3500 year history under the name of the Dogwood Collar. Every culture has either historical documentation of or legends/myths about continent-spanning Guardsmen networks, operating independently of tribes/nations/governments. This has often created animosity between Guardsmen and the countries they live in and/or serve, as it is often assumed that a Guardsman's loyalty cannot be trusted due to their allegiance to the Institute (or its predecessors). This makes war between nations a particularly tetchy situation for Guardsmen, especially those who serve in the military.
Historical Overview
It has been proposed that due to the peculiar nature of bonding, and the life-or-death situation it leaves Protectors in from the moment they manifest, Guardsmen started crafting separate diplomatic relations with foreign Guardsmen in order to broaden the pool of eligible Handlers. Over the centuries these solidified pretty much on a per-continent basis, creating the early predecessors of the Institute's regional branches. Colonialism obviously wrecked havoc with several indigenous organizations, most notably in North America, where the trans-continental Dog Council of the Native American Indian tribes was violently brought to the cusp of eradication and replaced with the European-model Institute of the Americas.
Most predecessors of the modern Institute (and its branches, see below) were originally a form of council or committee of prominent Guardsmen who simply served as advisers for other Guardsmen and as diplomatic representatives for different nations/regions. As it codified itself and became a modern bureaucratic institution (a change that roughly started to occur in tandem with the Industrial Revolution), the Institute developed into a broader purpose, serving the Guardsman community at all levels. Most significantly, non-Guardsman humans joined as support staff, doctors, researchers and teachers as the Institute's mandate spread to include training of young Guardsmen, medical services, medical research, academic research, and diplomatic advising. A typical campus will have a boarding school, a hospital and medical research complex, administrative offices, housing for permanent and temporary staff, barracks for adult Guardsmen there for continuing education/training, a hotel for visiting non-Guardsmen (parents, etc.), an athletic/sports complex, libraries, various cafeterias, and sometimes even a residential college (notably, China, India and Japan have integrated higher education for Guardsmen). Depending on location, there may even be a grocery store on campus. This is not accounting for the large acreage that institutes take up for the sake of training. They are often described as small, self-sufficient "villages" although they more closely resemble a university campus in layout. The Indian Institute has been in the same location for 2300 years and is technically a small town located on a large nature reserve, and is the oldest in-place Guardsman habitat on earth that is still in continual use. These days, non-Guardsmen usually greatly outnumber Guardsmen on Institute grounds, but it is still considered universally as Guardsman-controlled territory, where they are given far more freedom and behavioral leeway than in society proper.
Generally, when Guardsmen speak of "The Institute" they are referring to their regional branch. References to the International Institute clarify it as such, e.g., "The Institute is going to consult with someone from International to find out what the procedure is in that situation."
World-wide branches:
North, Central, and South America
The Guardsmen Institute of the Americas is located in the state of Missouri, USA. It's large, wooded campus is appended to the Mark Twain National Forest. While U.S.-centric, the Institute of the Americas officially handles all Guardsman-related issues for all the Americas, including Canada and the countries of central and south America. In the 1980s, due to population growth in South America, a satellite branch was created on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the Instituto do Sul (Institute of the South), which operates with three official languages (Portuguese, Spanish, and English) and accepts Guardsmen adolescents for training from across the continent and Mexico. It has been pushing for independent recognition by the primary governing body of the International Institute, but currently is still technically under the umbrella of the Institute of the Americas. This is a contentious matter and has been causing more than a little bad blood between the two hemispheres.
The Native American Dog Council of central and north America still exists separately from the Institute of the Americas and as such finds itself with limited funding and opportunities, and is continually petitioning the International Institute for official recognition and support (this is a highly charged political issue and divides Institutes on each side of the debate.
Europe
North Africa & Middle East
Central and South Africa
China
The Dogwood Institute has a documented history going back 3500 years to the Shang Dynasty. Prior to the modern era, the name of the organization was the Dogwood Collar, and was notoriously resistant to opening up relations with foreign Guardsman (although some negotiations with the predecessor of the Russian Institute apparently occurred irregularly). The Dogwood Collar High Council immediately opened negotiations with the Russian and Indian Institutes in the aftermath of the Wuchang Uprising in 1911, understanding that Imperial protection was gone and that the new government of the Republic of China (formed in March, 1912) might not be as interested in protecting Chinese Guardsmen lives or property. Through the "sponsorship" of the Russian and Indian Institutes, the Dogwood Collar was officially integrated with the International Institute and became the Dogwood Institute in 1914. The CCP took over the Dogwood Institute in 1950, and the organization's relationships with foreign Guardsmen Institutes has been uneven since then. During the Cultural Revolution, many Guardsmen were hunted down as relics of the imperial past, and are still considered not-quite-proper communists by the society at large, particularly given the fluid sexuality of the majority of Guardsmen.
Russia
India
Asia
Japan
New Zealand
In 1918, by an act of Parliament and in cooperation with the still-emergent International Guardsmen Institute located in Switzerland, the Guardsmen Institute of New Zealand (GINZ) was founded. The land owned by the institute is actually quite small, located east of Canterbury between mount Taylor and Mt. Harper, near Lake Emma (-43.638725, 171.117303). The land was donated by the family of a Protector, Kevin Davis, who died with his Handler during the War. Guardsmen generally refer to it as Kevin's Place or The KD. The GINZ has permission from the Department of Conservation (DoC) and surrounding sheep stations to use as much land as the want as long as no livestock is harassed and they assist with the annual muster. Ref. New Zealand History & Culture
