Lancers
Rows of glittering speartips. Masked, metal faces, impassive and unmoved. Reptilian steeds, snorting clouds of dust from their nostrils as they wait languidly in the sun for their riders to urge them on.
And above it all, the honoured banner of the tribe flies, as blue as endless sky.
These are the sights that the children of Thousand Spears are taught to desire. An elder will stoop down and, placing his hand on their shoulder, point to the arranged ranks of lancers, as still as deadly statues, movement coming only from the occasional bob or shake of an impatient mount.
"This, child, is what you have survived for. For your trials, this shall be your reward."
When a child of the tribe is very young, they are taken into the desert, and left there. Some will make it back - dazed, dehydrated and sunburnt, distraught unto stunned silence by their ordeals; but strengthened and proved in a way that can never be taken from them, and that none can deny.
Those that do not make it are not seen or spoken of again; save, perhaps, as sun-bleached bones, uncovered by the winds and spotted by a passersby. And they will turn their heads away - those unworthy of life cannot be acknowledged.
The survivors will spend the rest of their young lives learning the ways of the tribe - those of martial prowess, and stealth, and honour. They are taught to fight with spear, and knife, and bare hands. They travel to the soaring bloodstones, where they learn the skills of capturing and training hadrassa, those steed beasts long favoured by the tribe for their toughness, and their loyalty. They will learn the calm arts of subtlety and position, so that with stealth and patience they may defeat any foe, no matter the weapons and warmachines they might bring to bear.
"What good is an engine of the coward-tribes when a spear is driven through the heart of its pilot?"
And when, finally, they are ready, they will become lancers. Their gifts will be three: a tsaltalloy mask, a steed (now the sole property and responsibility of the young warrior), and a dagger, curved and sharp.
"Your first kill with this weapon will be your greatest," they are told.
Image by Ellen
Thousand Spears
And above it all, the honoured banner of the tribe flies, as blue as endless sky.
These are the sights that the children of Thousand Spears are taught to desire. An elder will stoop down and, placing his hand on their shoulder, point to the arranged ranks of lancers, as still as deadly statues, movement coming only from the occasional bob or shake of an impatient mount.
"This, child, is what you have survived for. For your trials, this shall be your reward."
When a child of the tribe is very young, they are taken into the desert, and left there. Some will make it back - dazed, dehydrated and sunburnt, distraught unto stunned silence by their ordeals; but strengthened and proved in a way that can never be taken from them, and that none can deny.
Those that do not make it are not seen or spoken of again; save, perhaps, as sun-bleached bones, uncovered by the winds and spotted by a passersby. And they will turn their heads away - those unworthy of life cannot be acknowledged.
The survivors will spend the rest of their young lives learning the ways of the tribe - those of martial prowess, and stealth, and honour. They are taught to fight with spear, and knife, and bare hands. They travel to the soaring bloodstones, where they learn the skills of capturing and training hadrassa, those steed beasts long favoured by the tribe for their toughness, and their loyalty. They will learn the calm arts of subtlety and position, so that with stealth and patience they may defeat any foe, no matter the weapons and warmachines they might bring to bear.
"What good is an engine of the coward-tribes when a spear is driven through the heart of its pilot?"
And when, finally, they are ready, they will become lancers. Their gifts will be three: a tsaltalloy mask, a steed (now the sole property and responsibility of the young warrior), and a dagger, curved and sharp.
"Your first kill with this weapon will be your greatest," they are told.
Thousand Spears
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