Militia

Most villages and towns have a number of strong arms that muster as required to deal with wandering predators and other threats. Some may even have a small standing body of such folk. These people are often termed militia. In many cases the militia will train in periods when other work (such as sowing crops in spring and harvesting in autumn) is light and disband when their effort is required elsewhere. Regents sometimes call for a levy, which may entail the members of the militia being drafted as part of the realm's army.
Militias tend to have a variety of weapons and armor, although neither tend to be of high quality. Most militia folk use adapted tools as weapons as they cannot afford specialized weapons. However some have weapons which were handed down over the generations and even armor. Militia as rarely well disciplined by the standards of regular troops with many seeing militia duty as a holiday from 'real' work. Some however - often those with a number of former soldiers, take great pride in their skill and train regularly.
Dwarven militia is notoriously the equal of the regular troops of any other race, for the dwarves live for centuries and train constantly to ensure that they can defend their homelands from the hated orogs.