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Centaurs of the Dry Steppes |
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Posted on Sun, August 13, 2006 by Dongul |
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Vormaerin writes "The following article is an exploration of the centaurs of the Dry Steppes: their origins, culture, and habits.
Centaurs of the Dry Steppes By: Vormaerin
The Dry Steppes are a vast area of open plains ranging from near desert
to fertile grasslands. Once the home of a flourishing Baklunish Empire,
they are now the domain of assorted nomads and small settled
communities. The majority of the nomads are Paynims and other Baklunish
tribesmen, but those are not the only residents of this vast area.
One
of those races known to inhabit the Dry Steppes in numbers are the
centaurs. Obviously, these plains dwelling centaurs are not identical
to the sylvan/faerie creatures described in certain source materials.
For what reason would steppe dwellers worship a being called "The
Forester" or speak the Sylvan and Elvish languages? Or have darkvision,
for that matter.
These centaurs roam the southern reaches of the
Dry Steppes, between the Sulhauts and Rumikadath river, their territory
extending westwards towards Zahind and eastwards towards the
Crystalmists.
The following article is an exploration of the centaurs of the Dry Steppes: their origins, culture, and habits.
Origins The
Cendarii were a tribe of Oeridian horsemen roaming the central plans of
Oerik centuries before the Twin Cataclysms. Their lands were rich in
gold and silver, which the Cendarii became expert in the working of.
The quality and quantity of their work allowed the tribe to become
quite rich, while the ferocity and skill of their warriors allowed them
to keep that wealth.
As time went on the Cendarii grew ever
wealthier, adorning themselves in gold and silver and buying ever
increasing herds of horses and other animals. And they grew ever more
concerned about their wealth and the importance of keeping their status
even in the lands of the dead. While other tribes would bury the dead
with coins over the eyes, the Cendarii began to bury their dead with
great wealth. At first this wealth was in material things... gold and
silver art, weapons, coins, etc. But later kings realized that their
wealth was in servants and livestock as well, especially horses. So
they started burying servants and horses with their lords. Sometimes
only a few, but the greater kings would sometimes be buried with up to
fifty horses and assorted servants, all ritually strangled.
Well,
this continued for a good long while, the Cendarii growing in skill and
wealth, despite the amounts being buried with the dead. Now the
Cendarii lands were on the eastern edge of the great central steppes,
north of the lands of the Nagas. And, as has been mentioned, they were
amongst the fiercest of the Oeridian tribes in war. So it was that they
were not displaced the way many of their kin were when the Bakluns were
driven eastwards by the Celestial Empire. And they continued to work
their gold and silver, now trading with the Olman of Zahind, the Suel,
the Baklunish, and the other Oeridian tribes. It seemed the tribe was
blessed.
Now as it happens, one of the Suel gods was Llerg, the
Beastlord. And he was fond of taking the shapes of animals and living
amongst them. In this fashion, he sired many bloodlines of superior
beasts. One such lineage were the famed Llergaean Horses that roamed
the the plains of the western edge of the Suel Empire. At that time,
the Suel were being raided frequently by another Oeridian tribe, the
Keogh, and many of these horses ended up part of the Keoish herds. One
of these Llergaean steeds was a stallion of almost supernatural
ability: swift, hardy, intelligent, and proud. Some even claimed he was
a direct son of Llerg. Now this stallion, named Kerchik, was the prized
possession of the Keogh chieftain Rukmin. And, as it happened, Rukmin
was very unlucky in war and his clan was lucky to escape with its lives
after a series of battles with another Oeridian tribe. Rukmin and his
clansmen lost almost all their herds, both of horses and livestock and
faced the slow death of the impoverished on the steppes. But he still
had Kerchik and this came to the attention of Paidraik of the Cendarii,
who offered to buy Kerchik from the impoverished Rukmin. Rukmin
refused, but Paidraik was wealthy as only the Cendarii were and
eventually he offered horses and livestock for everyone in Rukmin's
clan, plus five times Kerchik's weight in gold. Rukmin could not refuse
such a price and reluctantly he sold his pride for the survival of his
people.
So Kerchik came to be Paidraik's prized possession and
lived well amongst the Cendarii. But the time came that Paidraik passed
away and, as tradition demanded, Kerchik was strangled and buried with
him. And knowledge of this came to Kerchik's father, for he was truly a
scion of Llerg. Llerg was full of wrath at the death of his son and
intended to wipe the entire tribe out of existance, but the Oeridian
gods Delleb and Lirr convinced him otherwise. Instead, the three
deities laid down a mighty spell that merged every member of the
Cendarii with their favorite steed (for even the women and children
rode amongst these people). The Cendarii were bewildered and consulted
their seers, who answered that the people had had no appreciation of
their horses before, but now they would have only one and would care
for it even as they cared for their own life.
Thus was the race
of the Centaurs born and they remain fierce warriors and master gold
and silver smiths. But now they own no horses, treating them as kin and
they are greatly angered by those who mistreat or kill horses. The
Invoked Devastation has made the Centaurs even more nomadic than they
once were. Though they still control some of the old gold and silver
mines, much was lost in the Twin Cataclysms and they now trade for much
of their wealth.
Society The Cendarii are
organized into clans, much as their oeridian cousins are. These clans
range from quite small (50 or so individuals) to the quite large
(perhaps approaching a thousand or more). Each clan has a fairly well
defined territory which in wanders, which can be quite large for the
more populous clans. Centaur government is quite simple. There is a
clan chief, whose main function is to serve as warleader in the
frequent skirmishes with other clans and with the paynims. Domestic
matters are the the purvue of the council of elders. The main coercive
power of the elders is the practice of shunning or exiling those who
disobey them. Centaurs do not kill each other voluntarily. Within the
clan, Centaurs are organized into families that are frequently
polygynous.
The centaurs lives focus around hunting and herding.
All centaur tribes have horse herds, whom they look upon as partners.
Mares' milk and cheeses are important parts of the centaur diety, the
remainder being the product of hunting, wild vegetables, and trade. The
males do the hunting, while the females handle the herds, gathering,
and other domestic tasks. Centaurs have to eat a lot to support
themselves, so food is a major focus of their society. Large feasts are
a regular occurence and most centaurs carry a regular supply of foods
to snack on.
Each family also has one or more wagons which are
hauled by horses from the herds, usually with one of the women riding
along side the horses to guide them. These wagons carry supplies, the
sick and injured, the great felt tents the centaurs sleep in, and also
transport the forges needed to work silver and the like.
The
centaurs of the steppes dress elaborately, taking great pride in their
appearance. Cloth and leather shirts heavily decorated with gold and
silver adornments are worn on their human torsos, while elaborately
embroidered and gold adorned caparisons cover their horse body. All
centaur clothing is decorated with animal imagery, including magical
beasts. A common theme is battle with griffons and hippogriffs of the
surrounding mountains, which prey on the centaur's herds (and the
centaurs themselves).
Centaurs retain their ancestral skills
with gold and silver working, producing fabulous decorative pieces of
jewelry as well as small statues and the like for their wagons. The
centaurs are also familiar with techniques for making silvered weapons
able to deal with lycanthropes and other things vulnerable to such.
Many centaur wrought weapons are made this way for decorative and
cultural purposes, certainly far more frequently than simple utility
would require.
Like their Oeridian ancestors, the centaurs are
warriors. They possess great strength and superior agility as well as
unsurpassed control of their 'steeds'. This makes them fearsome
warriors. The centaurs use long composite bows that few humans would be
able to use effectively due to their size and strong pull needed as
well as swords and long spears. The wealthiest centaurs have chainmail
for their human torsos, with less well off having leather jerkins.
Centaurs do not use any sort of barding, more due to the climate than
anything else. When centaurs raid each other, the fighting is an
elaborate form of counting coup, for centaurs consider each other to be
equally under the prohibition against harming horses needlessly.
Against paynims and other human raiders, they are relentless and grimly
effective. Centaur archery is some of the most accurate in the world
and their weapons skills are honed by practice and hunting. The human
tribesmen around them rarely are willing to take them on directly
unless the odds are more than four or five to one in the humans' favor.
All
centaur males are expected to fight, as are unmarried females. Married
females fight only in defense of their homes and do not participate in
raids. Centaurs believe that a warrior strong enough to endure the
hardships of life on the steppes cannot be born of one too soft or weak
to fight herself. Thus centaur women do not marry until they have
proven themselves in raiding and warfare.
Religion and Magic The
Centaur religion is focused on spirit worship. Initially a form of the
Oeridian habit of ancestor worship, since their transformation it has
increasingly added spirits of the animal realms to the lists of
venerated beings. Many of these animal spirits are tied to the Beast
lord, Llerg, and he is the patron of most centaur priests, though some
few follow other gods. Centaur priests are spiritmasters and shamans,
relying heavily on trances and contact with the otherworld as sources
of power and insight. They serve as advisors to the tribes, though they
are considered somewhat strange and do not assist in 'normal'
activities like hunting or food preparation. The spirits the shaman has
contact with are believed to be dangerous for ordinary centaurs to
associate with, so the shamans are kept apart to avoid contagion.
Centaurs
have extensive funereal rites. The entire clan mourns the death of a
member and the corpse is brought along in a wagon, often preserved from
decay by priestly magic, for at least two weeks before burial. Great
chiefs can have their bodies carried about for even longer periods of
mourning. The burials themselves involve building a barrow and placing
the dead centaur within, along with a his best weapons and possessions.
Mindful of their origin, they no longer sacrifice living beings to
accompany the dead.
Centaur magic is generally of the natural
sort, not the book and lab sort practiced by wizards. The centaurs make
little distinction between priests and mages: both serve the same role
and have the same stigma. Sorcerors and adepts represent the bulk of
centaur spell casters.
Relations Living on
the Dry Steppes brings the centaurs into contact with a variety of
other cultures. The most prominent are the paynims and other baklunish
horsemen. Relations between the these two groups are generally bad,
with most of the interaction coming in the form of raids and warfare.
Both sides steal horses from each other as well as defending watering
holes and the like. The centaurs are also fanatical about defending
their burial mounds, almost always sending out powerful raiding forces
to avenge any disturbance of a burial site.
The settled
Baklunish around Lake Udrukankar have more peaceful, though still
strained, relations with the centaurs and there is a fair bit of trade
between the communities. Centaurs often bring the products of their
forges to Kanak to trade for grain, fish, and goods from more distant
places. Similar relations exist with the Zahindi of Sahan and Behow,
though the mountains between keep trade more limited.
The
dwarves of the Crystalmists have some trade with the centaurs of the
steppes below them, based mainly on a mutual admiration for each
other's craftsmanship. The dwarves tend to trade raw metals and
finished steel products such as weapons and armor for gold and silver
artworks.
There are also some sedentary
Oeridians living in communities along the northern edges of the
sulhauts. These Oeridians are generally subservient to the centaurs and
are a mixture of farming and mining communities that trade with and pay
tribute to their centaur "cousins." These sedentary Oeridians are
actually rather ethnically mixed at this point, having absorbed
baklunish, zahindi, suel, and even orcish immigrants over the centuries.
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Re: Centaurs of the Dry Steppes (Score: 1) by Vormaerin on Mon, August 14, 2006 (User Info | Send a Message) | You are welcome. |
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