Valdorian Age - Rising Power on the Frontier
The Endless Savannah
The Endless Savannah is simply called the Savannah by most. It stretches for hundreds of miles between the Nightlurk Mountains in the east and the al’Tarabi Mountains in the west until it ends in the forests of the Desolate Coast. Inhabiting the Savannah are uncountable number of small tribes. Each tribe has its own name, but their society and culture are often similar with minor, but important to them, variations from one to the next. They all speak the same language which the Abyzinian call Tribespeak, but as with their customs, each tribe has a dialect it considers the proper way to speak the language. If a merchant intends to trade with a tribe and keep his head attached to his shoulders, he had better know that tribe’s dialect perfectly.
The tribes are hunter-gatherers and usually number between hundred and two hundred warriors. A tribal warrior wields a slender eight foot long spear and a short sword with a leaf-shaped blade sheathed on a leather strap that hangs from his shoulder. Both of these weapons are mad of bronze, with the chiefs carrying weapons of steel obtained from Abyzinian merchants. They carry large shields, either oblong or almond shaped, made from hide stretched over wood. Both men and women wear long skirts that hang to their ankles. A skirt’s design, usually intricate patterns of geometric shapes and zig-zags, indicate what tribe the wearer belongs to. Tribesmen live in simple tents of oxhide, and once a tribe had depleted the resources of an area, it picks up and moves … which usually lead to a feud with a tribe already occupying this new area.
The tribes constantly fight among themselves as they have for thousands of years. Every once in a while a rumor arises of a great warrior who will unite the tribes into one nation, but nothing has ever come of these rumors.
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