Motorsteed
What would Rust Banner be without the motorsteed? To carry its riders from horizon to glorious horizon? To warm them with the heat of its combustion engines in the ices of the coldest desert nights? To bring them safely through the worst of stormweather on swift wheels, or to new grounds when stale lands yield nothing more to claim?
By age 13, a young triber is paired with their motorsteed. If they are not accomplished riders by this time, they are exiled - unless the elders recognise in them some exceptional talent that can be made use of back in the secret tribe holdings of Sher'Tara, deep in the interior lands. There, under a different kind of exile, they will quietly serve the tribe as master builders, or as shamans, or as tinkers to decipher the mysteries of the Magi's artefacts.
The bond a rider builds with their motorsteed is hard for the other tribes to understand. True, crews and pilots of all tribes come to develop an affection for their vehicles (or shake their fists and curse in outrage at their machines fail them one time too many times). But for Rust Banner, a tribekin's connection with their motorsteed is as sacrosanct as their bond with each other.
From the purrs and howls of its engine they can diagnose it. With reflexive certainty they can recite its multitude parts, the histories of its repairs and refits, disassemble it, then return it lovingly to wholeness. And when they take to its saddle, rider and steed are as one.
When a tribekin can no longer ride, they are consigned to the ancestral places - to tend the dying, or to die themselves. If they where mechanics of renown, perhaps their motarch will bring them to Sher'Tara to live out their remaining days shaping engines and traveller's tools that they themselves will never again use, as they try to hold onto what remains of their pride.
When a Motarch can no longer ride, they can no longer lead; and the strong, and skilled, will take their place, just as they had taken the place of another.
Original lineart by pennypine.co, colouration & background by Eskalat
Rust Banner
By age 13, a young triber is paired with their motorsteed. If they are not accomplished riders by this time, they are exiled - unless the elders recognise in them some exceptional talent that can be made use of back in the secret tribe holdings of Sher'Tara, deep in the interior lands. There, under a different kind of exile, they will quietly serve the tribe as master builders, or as shamans, or as tinkers to decipher the mysteries of the Magi's artefacts.
The bond a rider builds with their motorsteed is hard for the other tribes to understand. True, crews and pilots of all tribes come to develop an affection for their vehicles (or shake their fists and curse in outrage at their machines fail them one time too many times). But for Rust Banner, a tribekin's connection with their motorsteed is as sacrosanct as their bond with each other.
From the purrs and howls of its engine they can diagnose it. With reflexive certainty they can recite its multitude parts, the histories of its repairs and refits, disassemble it, then return it lovingly to wholeness. And when they take to its saddle, rider and steed are as one.
When a tribekin can no longer ride, they are consigned to the ancestral places - to tend the dying, or to die themselves. If they where mechanics of renown, perhaps their motarch will bring them to Sher'Tara to live out their remaining days shaping engines and traveller's tools that they themselves will never again use, as they try to hold onto what remains of their pride.
When a Motarch can no longer ride, they can no longer lead; and the strong, and skilled, will take their place, just as they had taken the place of another.
Rust Banner
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