Kang and the Eastern Horsemen

But shadow must yield to light and the Eastern Horsemen are, ergo, they must come from some place that supports the living of man. Superb riders and horse?archers they are, clever and courageous, cruel and resistless as the roaring sandstorm, these invaders have in a few short years changed what was formerly considered the quiet "edge of the world" into a churning cauldron of danger and violence.

We search the old books in vain for the genesis of these deadly marauders. The Book of Sekahos reveals that the Lloroi, that great race that once ruled all of civilized Minaria, came out of the East more than a score of centuries ago, but what does the famous book say of the lands which the Lloroi had left and what power was there great enough to compel such a formidable people to migrate West? The imperial inscriptions of ancient days tell nothing of passing interest regarding the eastern climes.

When the Cataclysm at last ended Lloroi rule, stark barbarism prevailed over most of Minaria and men came to an ignorant belief that the world ended over the next hill or the first mountain from their rude huts. When the Dwarves of Ghem discovered precious minerals beyond the Barrier Mountains, they propagated rumors of gods and monsters, and poisonous deserts where no living thing might trod and live. It served their propose to spread fear and warn off others from seeking out their mining camps beyond the Barrier Mountains.

But even the Dwarves seem not to have wander very far toward the rising sun. Be a few years before this writing, a document was presented to the chancellor of Muetar as part of a Dwarven bid to win an alliance against certain raiders who had irrupted into the wastelands under the Dwarven mountains from parts unknown. This document, popularly know as "Adelof's Chronicle" turned out to be an apparently?truthful gloss of much of what the Dwarves have learned over their long history concerning the East and its inhabitants.

According to Adelof's Chronicle, the East as those of Ghem knew it, was inhabited by mortal tribes, but these unwarlike and scattered hunters and gatherers were never a threat to Minaria. They lived as had the savages of the early post?Cataclysm years. Most were human, but a few of these tribes were isolated Goblin or Trollish groups' long cut off from their Minarian brethren.

Exploring farther east, the Dwarves encountered small bands of human herders who lived by tending sheep, cattle, camels, and horses. Struggling against the harsh climate, they knew little of agriculture. They were hearty fighters, but poorly armed and basic in culture and so were judged no threat to Ghem. Beyond these there were also wyrms which lived in herds of mixed sexes, and in strings of herdless males, or even as roving individuals. These did not like the high ridges that the Dwarven explorers frequented, and they met them only incidently. They could be bought off with gifts of gems and gold, which they craved, seemingly for their beauty only, and were unable to seek or recover themselves.

Try as they might, the Dwarven adventurers found no mineral deposits rich enough to compare to those already known in Minaria and Girion, and so their small mining colonies beyond the Barrier Mountains and no secret Dwarven cities of any great size were ever established beyond the Barrier Mountains. This history of these settlements hold no great interest to scholars. They formed a pattern played and replayed over the centuries. The tribes did not advance, and the Dwarves did not seek to help them do so. When Dwarven colonists grew abusive, there was trouble with the nomads. An unwise governor of the colony of Walth tried to punish barbarian pack?train raiders by inviting the nearest tribe (the wrong tribe) to a feast and slew them in treachery. The barbarians rose and Walt was cut off from home and resupply. The starving inhabitants were forced to try to fight their way trough mountain defiles full of enemies and every captured Dwarf was put to death by torture. Only one in ten returned to Ghem, and so many returned only because the Dwarves are among the heartiest and most mountain?wise of people. Many Dwarven towns in the East were sacked over the next few years, and then things settled down again.

Such was the state of things for a long while. But, of a sudden, Dwarven colonists reported strange horsemen moving into the defiles of the mountains, coming in great numbers, better?armed and possessing more and better mounts, taking control of the grazing lands between the ranges of the eastern borderland. The tribes indigenous to the region were easily subdued and made into subjects, slaves, or simply exterminated. The newcomers were discovered by the Dwarves to be a cruel people who neither asked for mercy, nor dispensed it except at the price of heavy tribute.

Increasingly the Eastern Horsemen preyed upon the Dwarven colonies across the mountains, placing such heavy imposts upon them that many marginal colonies had to be abandoned, and prosperous ones were reduced to mere sustenance. The stories told by the refugees from the east swept all of Ghem with loathing of the Easterners.

But discounting the invectives, some worthwhile information could be garnered. According to our meager sources, the martial power of the Eastern Horsemen depends not only upon their unsurpassed horsemanship, but also with their skill with the short, sinew?backed bows and their disciplined obedience to a proven leader.

The steppe men disdain riding herd over their own flocks and this work is considered suitable only for boys who have not yet passed the rites of manhood, and for women, servants, and slaves. Except for a tiny number of craftsmen, such as iron?working and carpentry, all men are expected to be warriors. Misfits who cannot live up to the warrior norm become hanger?ons who must work among the servants and might breed, if at all, only with slaves and other outcasts. Or, if blessed with divine inspiration, become artists, weapon?makers, or shamans.

A woman may inherit among the eastern people, by custom given half of what a warrior brother receives. The womenfolk of chieftains do not uncommonly ride and hunt with the men, while widows are often judged worthy to manage the affairs of their husbands in widowhood.

The nomads shift the summer camps frequently as the thin grass of the high valleys is soon exhausted by their grazing livestock. In the autumn the Eastern Horsemen settle into winter quarters, where summer rainfall allows a good growth of grass for hay?gathering. Each New Year's Day a clan?chief is elected from among the elderly warriors of the most prestigious families.

This chief rules the camp as an absolute lord, as he must, since a strong hand is needed to direct their difficult migrations and to organize raids on which the provisioning of the clan depends, as well as to punish enemies who send raiders. But the clan?chief in turn owes homage to a still greater lord over all the clans of the tribe, who himself owned allegiance to the tribal "khan," or overlord. This khan, for all his lofty title, dwelled in a tent but was followed by a traditional guard comprised of noble youths ?? and nobility falls from having a wealthy father, especially if he had achieved martial fame. If wealth or fame is not continued in the next generation, nobility is not passed on. When the tribal khan dies he is buried under a huge mound in the tribal heartland, entombed with the fruits of a life of plunder, as well as a few slain servants and concubines, to tend him as he is accustomed in the Afterlife.

Incredibly, warriors considered it a rare honor to be sacrificed on the grave of the great khan, to have their corpses arranged wearing rich raiments and seated upon impaled horses about the mound. Only the most depraved of nomads would rob these dead, which is offense meriting a cruel death.

When the nomads inevitable found the passes through the Barrier Mountains, they broke in upon the domain of the Dwarves, their far?ranging raids making hazardous the lengthy marches that Dwarves perforce made between their far?flung mining sites, and even the essential traffic between Rosengg and Alzak.And of that little, what they hear most often are heroic songs recounting the deeds of great chieftains ?? the khans. And of all the chieftains who lead the Eastern Horsemen, more songs are sung about one who is honored in all the warring camps of all the tribes ?? Kang the Destroyer, told in verse while he still lives by the songmen of his people, whose most popular version is The Song of Kang.

Kang's story is both typical and atypical of his people and it shows the social mobility of the eastern horsemen. Kang knew no family of his own, but was a foundling taken into the tribe of a minor clan chief. When Kang was only sixteen, but with the strength and stamina of a boy years older. To celebrate his coming of age, a party of all the neighboring clans was held, the boorah, in which Kang caught sight of Devi, the brown?eyed daughter of Meerut of the Kirtipur. Young Devi, herself suitably impressed with the youth fain would have her father accept the youth's bride price. Alas, there was no love lost between Kang's Patna and Devi's Kirtipur, for the Kirtipur were a people who preferred to play the mercenary for the city men of Trazig whom the Patna disdained and frequently raided.

The Kirtipur did not like to be called hirelings, but worse, the Patna had once robbed the pay wagons of the king of Pterak, on its way to the Kirtipur. In anger the Kirtipur went in pursuit of the Patna thieves, but were lured into a trap joined in by the whole Patna tribe. K'ien, Kang's foster father, as war chief, had each captured Kirtipur flogged with the slave whip and their chief Meerut, Devi's father, was branded upon the palm with a Pternak coin heated on the iron?worker's forge.

So the breech was behind healing. Nonetheless, in the spring, Kang went riding accompanied by his friends Sikkim and Loos. It was Kang's intent to go robbing and raise such a bride price that the greedy K'ien could not refuse it. On their first night out, they sighted enemy horsemen ?? Fatepur riders. The youths saw by the tracks of the horsemen that they were heavily?laden, which incited the youths curiosity. Kang and his fellows shadowed the enemy riders until they paused to rest.

Under the cloak of darkness, Sikkim crept in close and cut the tethers of their horses, then drove the beasts away. The Fatepur chased them out into the open, where Kang and Loos came riding, scimitars flashing. The slaughter was complete and such loot they had won from it!Rings! Bracelets! Buckles! Necklaces! Jewels! The god of the Eternal Blue Sky had guided Kang well. They boys hid their plunder, but Kang, fascinated by a black gem took it as a gift for Devi.

The next day they reached the Kirtipur camp. Meerut met them threatening: "If you come our way as vagabonds, you are unwelcome. If you come to steal, you will know the punishment of thieves!"Holding back his temper, Kang explained his intention to wed Devi, but Meerut only laughed. Proudly Kang ripped open a bag of jewels and threw them at the feet of the Kirtipur chief. "Name any bride price I cannot meet, or present me with champion I cannot vanquish or give me your daughter in honorable marriage!"

"Let me fight him, Father," pleaded Devi's brother Nathu. "I would give me pleasure to take his Patna life!"

Over Devi's importuning, Meerut proclaimed: "Fight Nathu. Win and we shall accept your bride price.Loose and both your life and fortune is lost." And even some of Meerut's own people felt shame at their chief's open cupidity.

Kang agreed though Nathu was five years older and stronger. Against all expectations Nathu took a fatal wound in his reckless charge, though Kang had had no intention of seeking the life of Devi's brother. It looked as though the Kirtipur would mob Kang and hack him down, but Sikkim put a knife to Devi's throat: "Let us be on our way," he cried, "or I shall slay the girl!"

Kang was incensed, but the glitter in Devi's eyes told him that she and Sikkim were co?conspirators in this brazen act.

"I may loose a son!" shouted Meerut, "but I will not lose my only daughter! Let them go ?? for now!"

So the three Patna youths and Devi flee the camp and made for the hills, where the Kirtipur would have trouble following their trail over the stones.At their own camp that night, Devi cleaned and bound the wounds which Kang had taken in the fight with her brother."I did not want to injure Nathu," Kang told his beloved. "It seems a poor thing now, considering what my treacherous sword has taken from you, but I have a gift." He took the black gem from his pouch.

"A necromancer's pearl!" cried Devi.

"A what?" Devi explained what her sorceress mother had told her. These tokens were made in olden times and each had its own secret power. He who divined what that power was would be mighty among his people.

Pleased that his beloved liked his present, Kang slept soundly that night, but when he awoke he saw that he was alone upon the steppe. No, not quite alone. Not far from the campsite, he found his comrade Sikkim dead, his throat torn out as if by a beast. Yes, a beast. He saw it's tracks in the mud. But what had happened to Loos and Devi, and her horse? Had she fled the beast? Had Loos pursued her? But why would he go on foot? Why would he not wake Kang first?

Determined to avenge Sikkim and find Devi if possible, Kang followed the beast tracks which seemed to pursue the hoofprints of Devi's mare. By early afternoon the youth observed that the weeds were only recently broken, their juices not yet dry. From a rise he at last saw a riding figure. His heart leaped, for it was the slight figure of Devi, no doubt! But someone seemed to run on the other side of her horse. Kang guessed it must be Loos, yet Loos tracks were nowhere to be seen ?? just the beast, of which there was now no sight.

As Kang galloped down the slope, shouting Devi's name the slim rider paused and turned about in her saddle. Her glance, even conveyed over so great a distance, seemed aloof, contemplative, not the reaction that Kang expected at all. Then the rider danced her mount sidewise, reveal at last her previously?hidden companion. It was not Loos! It was a beast that walked like a man!

Kang's brave pony reared as the scent of the thing reached it. Kang, equally startled, was thrown into the rushes and only managed to struggle dazed to his feet as the thing rushed upon him.

They fought for a few desperate minutes, until the agile Kang plunged forced the thing to impale itself as it sprang at him upon the ground.

"Well done," said the girl on horseback as the monster shivered and died.

Kang turned toward the speaker. It was Devi, but ??

"Where is Loos?" he demanded, his tone bespeaking his suspicion of her behavior in all this.

"Loos? Why, you killed him," the maid replied mildly. "See." Kang turned. Where the beast had sprawled, a naked Loos lay dead. "You're not Devi!" cried Kang, turning furious toward her. "You're possessed!" He noticed the glitter of the black stone upon her breast. "The necromancer's pearl! It did this terrible thing!"

"You are astute, Kang. Had I warriors of thought as well as strength in the in olden days, my enemies could never have imprisoned my spirit the stone."

"Why did you take Devi?" he demanded.

She shrugged. "I sensed a power of sorcery in her that is lacking in you. After all, her mother is a witch."

"Some part of you is still Devi." He extended his hand. "Let me help you."

"Ride with me, then, lad. I shall soon rule this barbaric land, and you shall be my chiefest servant."

"No, I didn't mean ??"

Suddenly Kang heard the thunder of many horses ?? his Kirtipur pursuers bearing down fast.

"Go," said the witch. "I shall confuse your foes with a spell. But take heed, our accounts are even now. Should you challenge me later, you will certainly die."

Kang had no choice but to flee. When he told his story to K'ien back in his camp, the old warrior called out the Patna riders, to go to the Kirtipur and take the witch Devi for trial.

They first went to recover the treasure that Kang had hidden, but only the empty hole remained. Afterwards, charging into the camp of the Kirtipur, these hardened and fierce warriors found a scene that made their blood run cold. All the men, women and children of the Kirtipur were slaughtered. Some seemed to have been rendered by beasts, some seemed to have died by the blade of murderers, some seemed to have run upon their own swords. It looked like madness had overwhelmed the Kirtipur at the moment of an wolves. Meerut and his wife were among the dead, both ghastly mutilated. Devi, whom they sought, was nowhere to be seen. Yet from that day to this Kang has suspected that it is his destiny to someday meet the witch?woman one final time, and to do his best to send the evil which he had unwittingly released back into the darkness from which it had emerged.

If that comes to pass, it is a tale waiting to be told.

But Kang was given little time to brood upon Devi. Great events were in the making. The tribes farther east and north had been living much like Kang's people, though they were not lith and tall like the Eastern Horsemen. But a leader had arisen amongst them, and united their tribes into a vast alliance of conquest. These people, whom Minarians call the Storm?Riders, swept down upon the countless cities of Trazig and plucked them one by one like rings from a box. As this leader's power grew, he sent commands to the Horsemen to come ride under his command or be destroyed. Some rode to join the great conquers, others resisted and were crushed in lighting?fast campaigns. Kang's tribe, and many others chose to migrate and remain free.

The march, accompanied by herds and families, was a hard one, through strange lands filled with jealous enemies. Many leaders died along the way, and many others rose from the ranks. Unsurpassed by any of these was Kang.

Brilliant in battle, wise in judgement, generous in prosperity, he succeeded his father as clan chief, then rose to tribal chief though he was not out of his twenties as yet, and as the horde reached the Barrier Mountains they knew they were on the edge of another civilized land and would be beset by citified enemies once again. They had to have one who would speak for all the tribes as they put their demands upon the city men. But who should it be? The wise heads debated. They had old warriors aplenty, but they had left the world these men knew far behind. The world ahead belonged to the young and a young man should lead them into a new life. They chose Kang above all his rivals.

It was not a pacific choice. Many were angered that "one with no father" should be raised over so many better descended. He had enemies without number, but friends and supporters, too. His khanship was not a despotism, but the right to lead. What he made of that right would depend upon the success of his leadership in days to come.

The Dwarves first came to know Kang's enmity. He lay siege to Rosengg, though as yet lacked the engines and skills of siege to take that mighty citadel. But turning swiftly, the barbarians destroyed an army of Ponese allies come to assist the short men of the mountains. Then a swift follow up campaign yielded the loot of Crow's Nest, after a forest trek that even the Eastern Horsemen themselves doubted they could make.

The peace was made with heavy tribute paid by Pon and Ghem, and the next few years settled into a pattern of raiding, cattle theft and demonstration from bases located on the eastern side of the Barrier Mountains.

But as new tribes arrived from the East, Kang learned that the mighty conqueror had not been sated by his feast upon the distance cities of Trazig. The pattern of earlier days was repeated along the long road to Minaria ?? subservience to the conqueror, or destruction.

His people could not stand alone, and Kang doubted not that the Storm?Riders would soon follow over the Barrier Mountains. Caught between their enemies in Minaria and those in Trazig, the Horsemen faced ultimate destruction. As upholder of their freedon, Kang could not accept the ignominy that the Storm?Riders offered, and so chose to make overture to the Minarians instead.

But is it too late? While Minarian Monarch are ready enough to trade with the nomads and to accept Eastern Horsemen as a kind of barbarian auxiliary, they are slow to listen to offers of alliance. Their ways are simply too different, they inspire suspicion, not trust, and, besides, who in Minaria believes that the conqueror will ever come. At this hour the Eastern Horsement themselves seem to be the greated external danger that Minaria faces.

Some of his chief urge Kang to make peace with the conqueror and ride with the Storm?Riders against Minaria. Kang yet demurs, and wonders wheter in the end honor and politics can lie cordially under one blanket.

Back to Legends