Tarim

Tarim is one of the most diverse places in all of Anasayfa. This is the huge region in the northern arm of the continent, stretching from the eastern edges of Skarnal, across the sweeping plains and ancient forests to the western edge of Cetvel's wet lowland plains. Here live the Alak, a strong and martial people. They have a complicated and long history, which we will try to explore.

Plains and Forest
The first thing one must understand is the divide in the Alak people. Though they speak a common language, there are two distinct groups: on one hand you have the sedendary peoples who live(or used to to live) around Lake Pontic and in the heavily wooded areas. They are typical farmers and woodcutters in small towns and villages, sometimes grouped into small kingdoms.

The other group is the nomadic Alak, who for long centuries lived among the horse herds of the wide dry plains. A horse people, skilled riders and archers with no firm home, they follow the mighty herds of cattle which they drive here and there. Warlike and strong, they are a menace to all farmers who live remotely close by.

Physical Appearance
The Alak are a robust people of that are of average or slightly above average height for Anasayfan populations, with the horse Alaks being on the whole slightly taller than the farmer Alaks. They are generally very strong and hale in their prime from their meat-and-milk diets, but are not known for longevity for largely the same reasons.

They are tan-skinned, much like the Cetvel they border, often rendered ruddy and weathered by a life spent in the open. Their hair is either black or brown, and their eyes likewise dark, though often enough one sees blue or green or hazel or amber, since the Alaks mix freely with anyone willing and able to take on their way of life.

Different tribes, settled or nomadic, differentiate themselves (especially among the menfolk) by wearing hair and beards in a peculiar style, and one can easily tell who the allegiance of this or that Alak belongs to by noting a shaved head with a topknot, or perhaps twin braids at the back, or hair left long in the middle of the head and styled up with animal grease, or long moustache without a beard as opposed to a beard without a moustache.

Clans and Tribes
Alak tribes are an important but ultimately transitory phenomenon, forming around a powerful Headsman and rarely persisting beyond the collapse of authority, either his or his immediate heirs. The older and more permanent division of the Alak is into vastly extended clan groups.

Clan groups are composed of nomad families that keep track of descent for long periods, at minumum seven generations, formerly supervised by loremasters and shamans of the tribe, with the priests of Talsor taking that role over in the post-Cetvel era. The extended clan (thousands upon thousands strong) is further usually engaged in matrilinear alliance with another clan of similar size and standing; for example, most if not all the men of the clan of Yushani would take wives from the clan of Zaberezti. Sometimes the reverse is also true (Men of clan Vazyrachi marry women of Ridavachi, men of Ridavachi marry women of Vazyrachi) but most times the alliances are not so close and definite, and familial links may extend over several clans depending on the maternal and paternal side of the family.

When a new tribe forms under a powerful leader - born under an auspicious star, often to a widely respected mother and father, proven in battle and generous with gifts - great family leaders and famed warriors swear allegiance to keep faith and trust with each other and their leader. The oaths usually promise that this would continue to the end of time, but since no such thing has ever happened, it is held to be mere formality. Large families within the same extended clan may thus belong to two different tribes, and sometimes face their own relatives on the field of battle. Alak culture is ambivalent about this; kinslaying and oathbreaking are both terrible crimes and both happen with notable frequency.

The clan is then divided into decimal fractions, and apportioned pasture in the territory it holds. This arrangement is held as sacred until the moment the internal struggles get too heated and a unifying figure is nowhere to be found; after which they may be redistribued. The decimal divisions are also used as tactical divisions in the field of battle. As the men of any given fraction hunt and herd and raid together, they form a naturally cohesive unit. Any newcomers into the Alak world that wish to stay would usually enter one of these divisions and work hard to prove themselves. Without tribal belonging, entrance into the clan system is barred to foreigners. With the proliferation of tribes, however, this is less infrequent than one might think, as lone but successful men within a tribal fraction are sought after by widows of established clans and the daughters of weaker clans.

Divisions go roughly as follows: Zay for 10 fighting men (without counting their old folks, children, women and slaves). That is the smallest unit of the Alak; Ksta for 100; Dosta for 1000, Tuma for 10,000. The largest tribes can have several Tuma subordinated to one Headsman and are truly a force to be reckoned with.

Because of the importance of the matrilinear clan (something the church of Talsor vaguely disapproves of but cannot eliminate), there is occasional precedent that uncles and nephews may be considered in succession and inheritance disputes. This creates lots of contenders for the prize at critical moments, but at the same time helps the clan alliance at large maintain cohesion. Belonging to a weak, isolated clan is just one step above being of no clan at all, and that's just slightly better than outright exile.

Totems, Markings and Writing
Since Alak wealth is measured largely in cattle and horses, they attach great meaning to ownership of such. Both are branded with a simple but distinctive mark, which is not the same as the animal totems that the clans treasure in their sacred histories. Both together would define a person's place in Alak society. An Alak may for example describe himself as being of the lineage of "the Blue Fox who gave the gift of seven partriges to the Steel Heron", but "took the brand of the storm by the river". This would signify his patrilinear and matrilinear clans, as well as his tribe. He could further say that he is in the fifth Dosta and so on down to his 10-large unit, and to those in confidence might specify the exact names of his mother and father.

The brands often carry meanings within them, despite their very simple appearance. Writing as practiced by the Cetvel never really took off in Tarim until some especially persistent Talsorian missionaries thought of making permanent meanings of the clan-marks, most belonging to once-prominent but now extinct tribes. Every letter in this alphabet is thus linked to a story and an iconic image, such as a famous battle or the site where oaths were sworn. As tribes come and go, the alphabet swells with new characters, but older characters also sometimes drop off, or acquire new meanings (becoming numerals, or being reserved for phonetic values of foreign languages) depending on the established associations.

The farmer Alak tend to use Cetvel characters laid out on the same phonetic pattern as the cattle-brand alphabet instead.

Totems are in themselves compound and complex. They usually have an animate center character, usually from some cultural myth, or an animal persona for a well-known hero. They are augmented with colour markings (Dawn-Red Sparrow) or directional meanings (Twin Wolves Looking West), which may be inpenetrable to outsiders but carry vast meaning to those within the clan. The full totem usually seeks to add a short descriptive action (The Silver Horse that woke up Early) and link it with the allied matrilinear clan (The Bear that stared at the Hidden Deer). This complexity is easily conveyed to an Alak speaker because of the highly fusional nature of the languge, which often overlays meanings in various suffixes and prefixes and changes to the word root, affixing additional roots similarly inflected until the meaning is complete.

Most of these totems are conveyed entirely by oral tradition, but some make their way into etchings on glass beads, pottery, weapon decorations and goldwork.

Ancient Alaks
It is not known where or when precisely the horse was domesticated, but it is likely to have happened somewhere among the vast western grasslands, and soon enough the ancestors of the modern Alak learned to ride them over the pasture and on the battlefield. At the same time, many if not most still lived in the ways of their ancestors before they tamed the horse, fishing, hunting and gathering, and practicing slash-and-burn agriculture.

While the divides between the farmers and the horsemen today are sharp and almost unsurmountable, it is likely that there were once many populations that did a little bit of both farming and herding, some more of this and some more of the other, dependent on the territorry they immediately inherited.

However, the horse Alaks soon learned that plunder as as viable a way of life as work, and early forms of tribute economy arose in the plains of Tarim. The forest Alak had no answer to them in the open field. Though they tamed a small forest moose that they used as pack animals, it would not carry a grown man nor stand up to a charging stallion; so they kept to the forest, and thus the people were starting to become divided despite sharing a language.

Imperial Era
How then did the Cetvel conquer such a warlike and foreign people? It was not easy, for many invaders had tried before and been driven away. The Cetvel however, had advantages had that no other would-be invader has had before or since.

For one thing, the Cetvel Empire was fabulously rich. It could harness resources and goods from nearly the entire continent by the time it decided to take on Tarim. In consequence the bribes and gifts to Alak nomadic tribal leaders that the Cetvel emissaries brought could be tremendous, easily as large as the spoils of years upon years of raiding. From silver to silk to glass to iron arms, the gift system became a major part of the Alak economy, and became a key point of Imperial leverage. No Marchlord or Skarnal chieftain could hope to amass a tenth of such gifts.

Secondly, and the flipside, was the fact that Cetvel was strong, far stronger then any other state. It could crush, with impunity, any uprising or revolt. And crush it did, with terrifying force, often using the time-honored Alak tradtion of exile as a punishment. With bribes helping to supply Alak horsemen, no revolt could hope to stand for long against an agressive Cetvel empire - fear and greed would undermine the resolve of the rebels without fail.

Divide and Rule
More subtly employed was the Cetvel genius in working with tribal leaders, manipulating unruly traditional structures to increase the power of each tribal headman, while keeping them pitted against each other. This practice stunted any pan-Alak movement or growth, and as such no overlord or King Headman arose. This made any attempt at uniting against the Cetvel Empire very diffuclt, and by nautre divided and easy to put down, often with the aid of rival chieftains.

The Cetvel also worked tirelessly to break up the common Alak culture. The horse tribes were cultivated as warriors who should not deign to work like the lowly farmers, the farmer Alaks were told instead that they were civilised unlike the nomadic barbarians, and that the future was theirs alone. The Cetvel thus worked at all times to strengthen and protect the sedentary Alaks. Knowing there were a sure ally in any crisis they were given light taxes, and land grants all through the region, even where pastoral populations dominated before. The extensive land development about the Pontic was purely due to Imperial land grants and investment. The farming population grew in those years and levies of sedentary Alaks were also key in keeping down nomadic rebellions.

But the nomadic Alaks showed to be equally valauble satraps of the Empire. They provided an endless supply or horses and cattle, leather and a few other goods to be bought by Cetvel merchants. While taxes were light, the Alaks proved themselves indepsienable as levies. Their armies were large, mobile and unlike any other force the Empire could field. Many a Marchlord or Skarn were dissuaded by the mere threat of roving Alak bands in thier lands. Having such a large loyal force proved to be important for the Empire; the Alak were one of the few that stood with the Cetvel as they slowly pulled out of first Skarnal, then the Marchlands, and finally Highworth.

Fall of the Empire
As the Empire fell from within, its provincial control also crumbled, and the system of checking on Alak against another also collapsed. The bribes became smaller and less frequent, as money became tighter in the Empire. The army shrunk and was often turned inward in civil wars and palace coups. Who cared for a few wild horsemen when the Imperial throne was up for grabs?

As the influence grew less, support for the farmign Alaks also dissappeared and as time went on they were slowly raided and forced out. While it started slow, as the horsemen realzied the Empire would not punish they grew more brazen, raiding and enslaving the settled farmers, forcing most to work to keep the horse-lords rich, while offering a select few the opportunity to join the ranks of the raiders.

But the nomads too gathered wealth unequally; eventually some headsmen became wealthier than others, and could give more gifts to attract more warriors to their side. Their names grew ever more fanciful; while a commoner might be named after a totemic plant or bird or beast, the noble's name boasted of war prowess, riches, power, and favour of the gods.

New Arising
One hundred years before the game start, Vselof the Mighty (whose name meant "lord of all people") - a particularly strong and successful headman and proven warleader of several decades - gathered his forces and swept into the Pontic Lake region, the most powerful of the remaining dominions of settled Alak. Burning and pilliaging, he destroyed the farming kingdom there, set himself upon a new throne and called himself the Alakzero (Man of the Mirror-Lake). With this new title in hand (and all the plunder) he positioned himself as the Headman of all the Alaks, daring any challenger to come and take the wealth and fame which generally followed him due to his power. None did, and as his kingdom strengthened others bent knee.

The next century saw the gradual erosion of power of the farming Alaks, until they now are a huddled and scared people living in the deepest forests, often paying tribue to the plain tribes. Foriegn aid never came and they were too weak to fight back with any hope of sucess. Those that remain in the open fields do so by giving the lion's share of the fruits of their toil to their steppe overlords, who then spend it in pursuit of martial glory.

Culture and Customs
In many ways, the two Alaks have grown as a reaction to each other. It is often easy to see how, over time, they have defined themselves against the other group. For example drums are very common among the nomadic Alak but the farming communites almost never have any. Both people's are full of such differences.

Clothing-
In the sometimes harsh enviroment, clothing is a key technology and resource. The nomadic Alak have long speiclaized in leather, as it is cheap, easy to make, and available to even the most nomadic tribe. It is usually of light make, to allow for easy riding (and to counteract the inherent stiffness). Colors are very rare, and most clothing is simple brown or black. This often gives them a dull look, but colors are often given a pass in favor of texture. Texture is the favored creative outlook of the nomadic Alak's and everything from jackets to saddles and even blankets are often covered in intricate designs and weaves. Toem animals are common features as well, and stylisitic birds, horses and other naimals are often built into other designs. Indeed, these are treasuered trade goods, even in the far South. That said, other clothing types are common trade goods, with silk long being a Imperial staple (although rare in these later days).

For decoration, glass beads woven onto long chains were common. Another Imeprial bribe gift, these often circulated for generations. Many times the blank beads would be carefully carved with the outlines of shapes of totems and sometimes even names. This artwork greatly inflated the value of such beads and are a common fort of excnage. As the bribes fell off, prices grew on these beads until they have msotly fallen into the hands of the Headman who wear these long braided chains with pride and honor. Many times, they are one of the first prizes stripped from a fallen foe.

The farming Alaks however, rarely wear leather, partly out of custom partly out of lack of cattle. Doubly so in these days, few animals remain in sentdeary hands. They much prefer cloth, wool if they can get it. Bright colors are a mainstay of the farmer, often with harshly clashing colors from head to foot. Loose fitting, soft clothes are common and warmth is a bigger concern.Trade with the Marchlords or Skarnal often bring in what other textiles are avaible but these are rare.Weaving and looming are common trades however, and fabric is a common tribute good to the nomads. Unlike the horsemen, animals and figures are rare designs. The favored outlook are simply colors, splashed in broad patterns on clothing.

Food-
As expected, food for nomads generally comes straight from the herds they watch. Cattle is common ont he plains are are usually the most highly valued good a tribe of Alaks can have. Not least of this is the food they provide. Besides the obvious meat, cattle provide milk which is a standard foodstuff. In addationt hey alos provide blood which is commonly worked into food as well. Some smaller tribes also raise sheep or goats, although these are less common (msotly in the Pontic region) which are also killed for food. Harvesting wild grains is mostly a dead tradation, even int he most rural areas. Vetagables and fruits are either obtained in trade or raised themselves in various small towns, villages and the more settled Pontic. Tribute from the farming communites also provies a vaitey of food staples. These provide a fairly varied diet, at least in good years were travel is easy although bread is actually quite uncommon. In hard years, many Alak go long periods of time with nothing but meat and milk.

In contrast the forest Alaks rely on a wide (if shallow) web of food soruces. Due to living under such poor conditions and often in bad terrain, they use a wide variety of farming styles and animal husbandry. Goats and sheep are common, if scrawny. Pigs are a treasured possession and often mark a man of wealth and influence. Cattle are even more rare, often only being rasied purely for use by the nomadic Alaks. The forest deer (moose) is semi-domesticaed and used as a pack animal in the wetter regions and int he deepest forests. It is a irasiable animal though and make a very poor mount or draft animal. Still, they provide an alternative to the far more expensive horse. Vegetables of all kinds from potatoes to beets to wheat are common in small cleared spaces in the forests. Most farms are on small hold areas near villiages and hamelts, for protection. Orchards were common before the domination by the horse people. Additional food comes from gathering berried, mushrooms, nuts, watercorms and acorns, fishing or frogging or catching crayfish in the marshes and pools, or gathering wild honey - pleasant additions to the palate that come at the cost of much difficult, inefficient work. Much of all this food flows out to the plains Alaks.

Myth and Religion
The Alaks have taken on Talsorianism with realative ease compared to other places in Anasayfa, with the Talsor priests stepping into the role previously held by shamans and loremasters. In fact, it was often the shamans and loremasters themselves that converted in order to retain their privileged position. With a few exceptions (such as the persistent importance of the matrilinear clan), the Alak are fairly orthodox. Where they cannot build temples, they instead worship at standing stones in the plains, circles of which form primitive solar observatories.

The priests make horoscopes, keep lineages, collect tribute, number the years, and often act as advisors to the headsmen. Their less savoury role includes weeding out spurious new ideas, heresies, and foreign influence (such as that from Skarnal), which sometimes finds its way among the common Alaks and especially their bards and poets, who cannot be trusted as they'll say just about anything as long as it sounds dramatic and convincing. The innocent minds must be at all times guarded against such misconceptions. One such - and ironically itself the outcome of the solar cult - is that the Horse Alaks firmly believe that the Forest Alak only ever get born at night and are thus naturally disfavoured by the divine. The Forest Alak naturally believe the exact opposite.

There remain, however, powerful vestiges of the ancient lore. The Alak believe that this world is not the only world; that there are in fact many worlds, most much like this one, though some completely alien. Worse, all these worlds are riddled with secret gates and pathways and portals, which open up unexpectedly according to arcane rules none really understand. Some of the most powerful shamans were known to voluntarily walk between the worlds; now, this taks is entrusted solely to the Sun himself.

The unwary horseman, however, is still likely to ride unheeding straight into a trap and be lost, wandering out of sight, an exile in foreign lands. River crossings are seen as dangerous, as are any hills with narrow vallyes between them. Abandoned ruins may portend danger, especially with intact doorways. Anywhere a horse stops and refuses to go may contain an unseen gate. The old forests and the mires are full of such traps, above, below, ahead and behind. While the Forest Alak believe one can avoid them if one knows his lore and wood-craft, the Horse Alak are usually filled with superstitious terror and avoid such places.

A soul of a person who had strayed from the path of holiness is held to get diverted from the straightest path to the Sun, and doomed to wander the worlds beyond the world for long and lonely ages, sometimes manifesting itself as the shape of a rider in the dust storm or the breezy cloud, trying to find his way back.

Such portals are also seen as the source of otherworldly monsters and evil beasts, spilling over into Tarim. It is held to be the duty of every warrior to fearlessly face them in battle, and much of the heroic and mythical lore centers around such events.

Women, Marriages and Children
Because of the importance of the matrilinear clan, the Alak tend to be highly monogamous, with the occasional exception of the Tribal Headsmen, and the priests, who never marry but often adopt bastard children, their own or their clan members'. Foreign priests coming through the Cetvel hierarchy and exiled to the plains are one source of variety in the Alak genepool, as their bastards are commonly adopted by priests who already belong to a clan by birth, as favours to a fellow religious initiate. The midsummer's bonfire celebrations are, as elsewhere, the foremost origin of such bastards.

The Headsmen themselves on some occasions emulate Cetvel lords by marrying more than one woman. Even among these, however, there is usually one actual wife, and several lesser wives of concubines, often from smaller clans or outside the established Alak society. They are not treated badly, but their children are at risk of remaining without a strong clan; it is not unknown for a concubine to beg the principal wife to adopt the children as her own, and thereby give this child uncles and cousins to rely on.

The women in highest level of Alak aristocracy tend to do things that are not completely in tune with their otherwise male-dominated culture. A queen may well ride to battle in her husband's absense, or sentence a man to exile. To say that this is common for the rest of Alak society would be misleading. Most women, though hardy and good workers and riders, tend to lead lives dedidated to domestic work, small-scale industry, and raising children.

Alak families are not very large; women practice a form of birth control in lean years rather than giving birth and having their children die. Dead children are seen as likely to become angry ghosts and trouble their younger siblings out of spite. Because of this, children younger than three years of age are given a new, false, name every year (wth telling meaningins such as No-One, Away-Evil, and Orphan-Girl) before getting a final one at a naming ceremony. As a result of this cultural obsession childhood attrition is fairly low.

Marriages are usually arranged between long-standing clan alliances; however, in some cases, young people may fall in love and stage a "raid" where the man kidnaps his bride. This is usually seen as a slight to the family, and the man has to then face the woman's relatives, either on the field of battle where it is permitted that he would be beaten but not killed, or at the negotiating table, trading away cows and sheep for his transgression. This is one way for men of smaller clans to gain wives from more prominent ones, and is generally tolerated. Any REAL rapine of women, however, would see retaliation aiming specifically to kill the offender and make his clan pay for humiliation. Needless to say, this was, and is, a cause of many blood-feuds and such heroics are strenuosuly discouraged by the man's own relatives. They are, of course, often romatnicised by the poets and storytellers, and thus the tradition never quite dies out.

Exile and Slavery
The Alak like most others practice some slavery, but they have little use for large numbers of slaves. Where agricultural work is done, it is done by the Farmer Alak underclass. In fact, slaves bought for a specific purpose (literate men from Cetvel, healers from Skarnal, smiths from the Marchlands) are best off finding some time to learn riding a horse and driving cattle when they can, because nearly all slaves that prove their worth in Alak society (even pleasure slaves and body servants of the Headsman, if they bore children) have a good chance of regaining freedom within a few years, and a free person that can ride has a chance as long as their tribe is intact.

Having little use for slaves themselves, the Alak are nonetheless a major player in the continent's slave trade. They are vicious raiders and passable merchants; being at the crossroads of the wealthiest parts of the continent, they stand to profit from such trade immensely. Most slaves stay in Tarim exactly as long as it takes the caravan to cross it from one end to the other; the Alak know their sources and they know their markets. In this they are assisted by slavers from foreign lands, especially plantation masters from Voltias, with their nearly insatiable demand for hard-wroking Marchers and strong Skarns.

An additional source of such profit, is exile. Exile is the ultimate punishment an Alak can receive from his people. He (rarely she) is stricken from the clan songs, from the tribe, his totem and brand metaphorically taken away, along with most posessions, except one horse. Once without kin or tribe, the Alak must try to escape Tarim as soon as possible, because anyone can with full legality capture and sell a stranger in the steppe. While this rarely happens to travelling merchants - caravans are readily identifiable and bear the protection of this or that tribe - to an Exile, no such protection is extended, and it is indeed a sad fate.

The few that managed to escape abroad, make their fortune in foreign service, and come back to their homeland as well-off men to join a new tribe hide behind a convenient fiction that they rode out of this world upon unknown roads, and then equally mysteriously returned back again. If they are useful enough, such tales might be believed. Sometimes they are not. The overwhelming majority of the Exiles, however, never manage to escape the plains in the first place, except in chains. This is often the fate of warriors from defeated tribes, especially those by whose loss the most stand to profit. While the common warrior from a large clan can survive the fall of his tribe well enough and blend into a new one, it is far more likely that the victor will be harsh to the former aristocracy; it is no wonder: looting in general, and each other in particular, is the quickest way to win even more fame and wealth.

Abroad, Alak slaves are sometimes used as bodyguards and overseers, but most times occupy other, less comfortable roles such as working the fields. They typically don't last long in such cases.

Horse Archers
The Alak, more than anything else, are renowned as warriors, and one would be remiss to not address that when talking of them. Skirmishes and raiding are part of daily lives for the horse-Alak, from the lords to the common herdsmen. Stealing cattle - mostly from each other - is almost a national pastime and a source of great many disputes. Naturally, being good at stealing cattle is a quick way to gain renown and be invited to serve a headsman or perhaps the Man of the Lake himself, where further opportunities to prove yourself open up, in open warfare, long-distance raiding, or mercenary work. There are few natural horsemen in Anasafya that could match the Alak.

In battle, most of the common Alak fight on horseback, with bow and arrow. The poorest wear little beyond their riding leathers or robes, though most have sturdy open-faced helmets. Nearly all riders carry more than one bow - one for long-range flight shooting, the other for close-range skirmishing, lovingly crafted by master bowyers - or indeed by their users - from horn, laminated wood, sinew and glue, with two curved halves joined by a strong grip and capped with stiff ends that guide the string. These bows are compact and powerful, though they suffer in wet climates, which is why they are typically carried in oiled leather bowcases alongside the arrows.

They keep a variety or arrows in their many quivers, some with long metal tips, designed to pierce through mail and leather, some with simpler, wide heads that leave terrible wounds on unarmoured men or are used for hunting game in the field, while some are crafted to make piercing whistling noise as they fly, setting fear into man and beast. They shoot using a ring they wear around their middle finger, letting the bow draw well past the ear if the rider wants the shot to be especially powerful.

They are adept at shooting in all directions - incluidng the infamous Alak Shot when retreating directly away from anyone foolish enough to give chase. They shoot from standstill in organised ranks, or while chaotically wheeling in and out of range, or while circling menacingly around their helpless quarry, the same way they practice during the great tribal hunts. When faced with superior numbers of archers, they have also been known to dismount and shoot from a sitting position, conserving energy and presenting a more diffuse target.

Arms and Harness
In case close battle is joined, the Alak favour long-hafted cavalry axes, bladed maces, or one-edged swords with a very weak curve, as well as light shields of wood, wicker or leather, enough to turn the blow or stop a spent arrow but not cumbersome to man or horse. Other weapons include a variety of light lances that can be wielded in one hand and slung over the shoulder when not needed, or glaives with broad blades, good for killing wild bulls or hacking through leather and padding. Longer lances, when they are used, are mostly wielded with both hands, delivering a tremendous blow, while the shield is either slung over the back or resting on the wrist. These are mostly favoured by noble riders who go to battle on stronger horses and are protected by armour.

The selection of common weapons rounds out with javelins that are carried in a case at the saddle, and long whips of woven leather strips, which are used to drive off enemy horses or bind enemy lances in self-defense. The whip is carried on a loop around the little finger, and with a whip, an Alak rider has no need of spurs. Likewise, with stirrups, which they use widely even if it's barely known in other lands, their lancers have no need of deep, heavy saddles. Reputedly, this makes them easier to knock off the horse, but it also gives them more mobility while on it, allowing them to attack in any direction, as well as dodge incoming blows.

Gearing the Warbands
The variety of weapons and the dexterity with which they use them have not gone unnoticed: many Alak served the old Empire, and many continue to serve as well-paid foreign bodyguards and convoy soldiers in the settled lands abroad, gathering pay and riches before returning to their native steppe. The professional warriors are thus exposed to many foreign techniques and goods, and bring the best and the most useful back with them, stimulating trade for those elements that the Alak do not produce. While they have abundant leather and use horse-hoof to make scales and splints for lamellar vests, such armour alone is deemed inadequate unless backed by a sturdy robe or jacket, made of cloth that they do not make and have to import, sometimes from far Voltias. Likewise, silk is needed for undershirts, because it binds up arrowheads and makes removing them from wounds more easy. Furs are needed for trim to make helmets and robes warm in winter. Metal is needed for everything else.

The Alak are surprisingly good smiths, though always on small-scale, artisanal level. Partly it's by necessity; they have no nearby mines and can only get iron ore from bog iron gathered by the sedentary Forest Alaks. This iron is of poor quality and needs to be worked very thoroughly to become strong and useful in battle, with the iron wire drawn and beaten together in fantastic patterns and folded over many times before being shaped into a sword, lance-blade, helmet or breastplate. The other source of metal is the tolls they take from caravans that cross their domains, skimming off the top here and there to secure at least some of the vital resource. Above all they prize sky-iron, and pay for it above its wieght in gold. Alak Headsmen go to battle wearing entire tribal fortunes on their persons: metal helmets decorated with gold, breastplates in the shape of shining mirrors with the orichalcum rays represeting the sun hammered in, shimmering mail coats, greaves and armguards. Owning horses and armour often gets you noticed - even non-horse-Alaks, perhaps exile knights from the civilised lands, very rarely wealthy Forest Alaks - can become companions to the Headsmen if they prove themselves by acquiring such treasures.

Horses and Riders
The horses of the Tarim plains are mostly hardy ponies, of short stature but clever and steady in the chaos of battle. They are able to live on the grass they find under the snow, allowing the Alaks to conduct winter campaigns when they feel like, and nimbly negotiate forest edges and even steep hills, allowing the raiders to penetrate areas far from the steppe. However, they are not very fast nor particularly strong, and a rider often has many mounts to keep them from getting tired out. The wealthy Alaks additionally have horses bred specifically for warfare, fine animals that balance speed and power and intelligence, but are less hardy, extremely expensive to upkeep and difficult to control for anyone but the best riders. Although the knightly stallions of the steppe are famous around Anasayfa, overall the Alaks prefer mares as riding animals, as they are usually more quiet which helps in rading, and less likely to charge without the rider's consent.

The Alaks themselves are born riders, often introduced to their mounts at very young ages, and working alongisde their parents watching sheep from hoserback far before they see their tenth summer. This, combined with constant raiding and large-scale hunts, keeps their skills sharp. There are yearly competitions to determine the fastest horses, best archers, and nimblest riders attended by many tribes. At these events, any visiting foreigners are often amazed to see the acrobatic prowess of the Alak, who perform in the saddle tricks and feats few others would try even on foot. This kind of training gives the Alak warriors a fairly uniform understanding of warfare, allowing any capable Headsman to organise them into a rspectable invasion force without undue effort. In battle, riders may be mixed according to ability (though more often according to tribal affiliations) and assigned colours for every division; colours, usually marked by little tufts of dyed horse-plume attached to lances, sword-pommels or helmet-spikes, are in turn associated with signals relayed by a drummer, the specific patterns being indelibly hammered into the mind of every Alak to ever ride to war.

In theory, this gives the Alak captains ability to very closely control and instruct their men and tell every division exactly what to do and when. In practice, however, Alak forces tend to have many subtle fracture lines running inside for political or tribal reasons, and these factors must be carefully balanced against rational application of force and strategy by any savvy Headsman, lest he find himself a general without an army in short heartbeats. Nonetheless, with military organisation being inherent to their culture, combined with their legendary scouting, raiding, pathfinding and foraging abilities, as well as the tradition to not fight all as a group but relieve each other in harassing the enemy before uniting for a final strike when the foe is exhausted, make the Alaks one of the most dangerous opponents one could face, especially when one gets the daft idea of invading their plains.

Fighting on Foot
The Forest Alaks, despite their now diminished and pitiful state, are themselves fearsome warriors, expecially when matching small numbers, and doubly so within their native forests. They are very good archers, stealthy skirmishers, good at ambushes and expert at crossing otherwise impossible swamps to strike the rear. They too have specialised arrows: barbed ones from carved bone, impossible to extract cleanly; others still that are heavy and relatively blunt, designed to stun birds and startle horses. They fight with spears, and axes of all kinds, including massive two-handed ones that can cleave through a horse's neck in one well-placed stroke. They carry extra supplies and weapons using the shaggy forest moose as pack animals, this being the only large animal as at home in the swamp as they are. Their resilience within their own domain and their skill at hiding is probably the only reason the Horse Alaks haven't yet conquered them completely.

Neither the Forest not Horse Alaks have any special ability when it comes to siege warfare. Though both on occasion build formidable forts of packed earth, rough stone and massive timbers to control vital river crossings or defensible hills, they build neither catapults nor siege towers, and they do not train sappers. In all these matters, any would-be Alak conqueror must rely on allies or captured slaves. Most often, treachery, negotiation and intimidation are the methods that let the Alaks within the walls, often with grevious results for the defenders. More often that that, however, the Alaks are content with simply taking tribute and moving on to the next target, and their neighbours, Skarn and Cetvel alike, has learned to accept this as part of the costs of settling near the edge of Tarim.