The Guild Caravans that used to line the trade routes through the deep desert of the South surrounded themselves in guards, ande boxed themselves inside stiffingly hot armoured wagons pulled by Yeddim. The Villages and Trading Posts of the south surround themselves with pits filled with sharp spikes and field militia's of pikemen and fast skirmishers, hoping not so much to protect themselves as convince the Raiders to go elsewhere. The Royal Guard has long thought them inhuman, but instead creatures of glassy black stone given human shape and likely related to the Fae. The Varang have long built great stone fortresses in the hills, sending to them those fated by their birth to die or to ascend the ladder of heaven and become heroes. The Tri-Khan would often curse the Realm as cowards, while arranging hired mercenaries and Delzahn Warriors against the lines, not dreaming that his dread came from another direction.
Among the Raiding Barbarians of the South, few are more feared than the Obsidian Horde. Until the Father took Chiaroscuro, most thought the Delzahn to have been tamed. The Dobi are generally held as harmless as long as harvests have been good. The Camel Raiders and Dune People are terrifying, but only strike but seldom. Yet when the black-skinned horsemen ride over the dunes, their war cries followed shortly by the screams of their victims, the South takes notice. When the Silence then descends, and the Souls of the dead meet with the Deathlords, the South wonders who will be next. Even the Realm has memories of standing against the Horsemen of the Dunes, and the ferocious battles that resulted are taught and retaught in the House of Bells, the lessons learned and strategies employed set forth as examples -- for time and again, the Legions of the Scarlet Empress have turned aside the Duneriders, when no one else could.
Now those Legions are more reserved and careful, and the Chieftans of the Horse grow bolder and more desparate, riding out further and further. The Dobi have taken the hardest hits from their former fellows, but all the Nations on Southern Stretch of the Inner Sea have paid some attention to the Hordes actions. It might seem but a small thing compared to the march of Deathlords and the rise of the Demon Princes, but the average citizen feels that the difference is only a small thing.
Little thought, of course, is given to the day to day life of the Duneriders. Few know the secrets they keep, the sacred songlines through the deepest desert that they follow, from Oasis to Oasis. Little consideration is given to the hard life that they must live, on the white sands of the South.
The Duneriders travel in small groups of five to ten families, called a gathering or a clan. Every man has his own horse, which is as much a part of his family as his wife or children. Indeed, all that he owns, he carries with him on his mount. Nor is he alone in such; his wife will have a horse as well, though due to the responcibilities she has of gathering food and lifegiving water, and caring for children (who ride with her, on her mount, until they are old enough to recieve their own -- another reason few women are warriors). Seldom does any mated couple have more than two children; excess children are left to die of exposure as sacrifices for the old Gods of the Dunes.
The clans are tightly knit, each a large extended family. They are also tightly woven by bounds of marriage. While raiding and warfare between clans is not uncommon (as it keeps the clans strong), the clans seldom marry within the clan, to avoid inbreeding. Thus the various Clans of the South meet together in massive Horsemeets several times a year. It is here that young Hordesmen are put through the rites of adulthood, and given a Horse of their own. Young lovers court, dance and love, and are finally wed over the course of many scattered meets. The man joins the clan of his new wife, adding his spear and bow to their might. Often, these Horsemeets grow quite large and end with a massive raid against a nearby settlement or city.
In recent years, Horsemeets have grown more frequent, and more and more of them have ended in large migrations and even large raids against the rich cities of the South. Something has riled up the Hordesmen, driven them from their traditional ranges, and brought them in closer contact with the soft lands of the South.
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