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Hengsting, Clan of the Horse
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This Clan is very small, but their herds are numerous enough to make up for the
lack.
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APPEARANCE & DRESS
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Hengsting Warrior (Thegn)
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The Hengsting are physically smaller than most of their cousin Clans, standing between
59 and 63 and weighing 160 to 195 lbs. They have a tendency to be slightly bow-legged
due to starting to ride so heavily and so young, but otherwise are well formed,
with compact and muscular builds. Their hair is most often a distinctive coarse-haired
russet brown that grows into a stiff mane, which many Clan members enhance by cutting
it short and rubbing a thin wax into it to stand it up on end. However, they have
a few true redheads and blondes among them as well.
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Their eye colors range from a brownish hazel to a light tawny brown. The Hengsting
typically wear durable and form-fitting leather breaches and loose homespun shirts,
sometimes embroidered with equine-oriented patterns, and occasionally featuring
some bead work. Hengsting women often wear a simple belt made of horse hair woven
with colored beads where necessary for rigidity.
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They eschew jewelry, preferring practical implements, but do like carved wooden
or etched metal medallions, brooches, and the like bearing horse imagery, and their
armor of course is often inlayed with the same.
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Hengsting women wear their tartans as abbreviated semi-kilts over breeches, while
the men wear half-kilts over breeches. Their Herodi roots show through in the bold
colors of their tartans; Hengsting favor oranges, yellows, and reddish browns, with
some reds and maroons that are difficult for the uninitiated to tell from some Herodi
tartans.
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There is in fact an old story of two Lesser Clans, the Laravies of the Hengsting
and the Ardensi of the Herodi, that live on either side of the Clanhold border and
have tartan patterns that are essentially identical to any save a very knowledgable
observer. The two Clans shared a common ancestry before the Great Clans truly formed,
but in later centuries took to warring with each other across the border. Other
Machtig not directly involved couldn't properly differentiate between the two groups
due to their similar appearance and nearly-identical tartan. The Druids finally
put a stop to it (mostly), but the story is still told as a cautionary tale by the
Skalds all over the Vold.
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GENERAL CHARACTER
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As a people the Hengsting are very close with a national feeling of kinship amongst
themselves. With the exception of a few coastal steadings on Lake Pargo their entire
subculture revolves around the care and breeding of horses, and it shows in their
mode of dress, their artwork, and in their every day expressions.
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Virtually all Hengsting are master horsemen, and many members of the Clan have at
least one mount; and in fact often an individual Hengsting gentled and trained at
least some of their own horses.
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Hengsting tend to be individualistic but with a focus on societal harmony. A common
Hengsting expression is "Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins",
which reflects their general mindset that people can do what they like in pursuit
of an enjoyable life so long as they aren't interfering with other peoples' ability
to do the same.
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The Hengsting like to travel for no better reason than a chance to ride their horses
more, but don't take it to extremes or like to create a hardship for their mounts.
Thus they tend to move around a lot within their own Hold and the surrounding environs,
but rarely go truly far away unless they are on a faring. Hengsting rarely go on
faring casually, but when they do go they tend to go in groups of ten to twenty
riders with one to three remounts each and they cover a lot of ground in a hurry.
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Individually Hengsting tend to be a little distant but friendly enough, unless they
feel insulted or slighted in which case they can become extremely fierce and let
their Herodi roots show through.
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Many Hengsting treat horses as good as or better than other humans, and do not take
kindly to seeing horses abused. Hotter headed Hengsting have been known to kill
or get killed over such matters, but most are more moderate in their approach. A
Hengsting might offer to buy a mount from an abusive rider and rehabilitate the
mount for instance.
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FOREIGN RELATIONS
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Some more adventurous Hengsting drive livestock to far off Shidaal to sell them
directly at market, but otherwise they have no real contact with foreign countries.
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TRADE
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The primary export of the Hengsting is livestock, horses, and products associated
with horsemanship. They import a good deal of their food and various luxury items
via the Huarthmunn and Pargori.
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ORIGINS & ORGANIZATION
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The Hengsting breed horses as their primary occupation and secondarily some lines
of cattle. The Hengsting have three primary breeds of horse that they maintain.
The first is a larger mustang breed renowned for its hardiness and spiritedness
much favored by the Herodi due to the breed's sure-footedness and ruggedness. The
second is a draft horse breed that is much in demand among the Huarthmunn and Pargori
for pulling plows and wagons.
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WALDENHENGST
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The third and rarest breed are the Waldenhengst, which are tall pale steeds said
to be the descendants of an Aelfing-steed named Oulerin that was dehorned by an
Affelaune tribe and nursed back to health by a Hengsting, and the famous stallion
Krieger. Krieger was a storied horse of incredible attribute that was never captured,
but was lured into studding service by one of the first of the Hengsting; many of
the mustang breeds finest specimen are descendents of Krieger as well.
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The descendents of this legendary joining of perfect horse and dehorned Aelfing-steed
are tall stately mounts, typically ranging from pale tans and creams to pure white,
with flowing manes and tails and unusual intelligence. They also live about six
to seven times as long as normal horse breeds.
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Possessed of grace, surefootedness, and courage these Waldenhengst are much valued
by the Machtig and considered to be a mark of great status and wealth. A normal
Waldnehengst trained only for riding commands a price between three and five times
that of a normal horse, while war-trained Waldenhengst command five to ten times
as much as a normal warhorse.
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PROFESSIONS
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The Hengsting are composed of Thegns (45%), Thralls (40%), Non-Thegn Fertigkeiten
(10%), Skalds (4%), Druids (1%), and Zauberers (<.5%). In the past, there
were more Thegns and fewer Thralls, but the times of peace have seen fewer
Thegns step forth until recently.
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THEGNS
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Most Hengsting Thegns use the following Packages or some variation of them:
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Light Cavalry: approximately 43% of all Hengsting Thegns
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Medium Cavalry: approximately 23% of all Hengsting Thegns
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Barbarian Warrior: approximately 23% of all Hengsting Thegns
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Scout (with Mounted Fighting Skill Package added): approximately 10% of all
Hengsting Thegns
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ZAUBERER
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The Hengsting have very few Zauberer but one in particular is very significant.
There are three Hengsting Obermancers. Rarold Vargisdottor is middleaged and is
moderately skilled in Aeromancy and Geomancy; she lives in Dunn Maredsne. Jarevine
Jarssen is a notably powerful Obermancer in his late 40's that lives in Faeren;
he is particularly knowledgeable about Hydromancy.
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Garest of the Tower is an ancient Obermancer that is said to have lived for
almost five centuries. For most of those long years he's lived in an isolated monolithic
tower he raised from the very earth itself in the middle lands between the Hengsting
and the Herodi, a good half a day's travel from the nearest steading. He is potent
in all four elements and occassionally travels abroad on missives as he likes.
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He is said to be terribly cantankerous but to occassionally show uncommon kindness
to strangers. Legend has it he assisted in the raising of Dunn Reitstall's walls,
and that in the last Kor War he razed a horde of several thousand Kor-Vaor single
handedly in the final battle, breaking the Kor's offensive. He is easily one of
the most powerful Obermancers in the Vold, if not the most powerful. No one
has had the nerve to even collect besterung from him for the better part of nine
decades.
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The Hengsting have a few Runecrafters of the tattooing variety, but a Hengsting
Aeldenaren is basically unheard of.
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LAIRD AND HUSCARL
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The Hengsting Laird is of course traditionally called the Horse Laird. He maintains
a mere 20 to 50 Huscarls, but their horsemanship is renowned and rightly feared.
They are traditionally called the Schutze (the Centaurs). The current Laird is Chigante.
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The Schutze stay pretty active patrolling the northern and eastern borders of the
Clanhold to ward off Ungheuer that would raid down into the herds, and maybe a few
young Herodi intent on horse theft from time to time, representing the Laird to
his Reeves, and conducting yearly training camps for young Thegns and would be Thegns
in the summer.
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These training camps, called Ausbildversa (oz-BEE-uld-VAIR-sah), were an innovation
introduced by Chigante when he ascended to Lairdship, and though they were resisted
at first they have grown in popularity and acceptance. As a direct result of these
camps the Hengsting Thegn population has reversed the dwindling it had been experiencing
the last century and climbed back up to a decent number again.
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CLANHOLD
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Nestled in the heartlands between two larger rivers to the East of Lake Pargori,
north of the Huartmunn Hold, and both South and West of the much larger Herodi lands,
lays a wide and mostly flat expanse of lightly wooded grassy plains. These are the
lands of the Hengsting, the Machtig horse Clan.
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Throughout the Clan Hold the Hengsting tend to live in a few larger wooden and occasionally
stone communities, leaving much of their land open grazing. Large stables, huge
ranges of grazing land, and semi-free wandering herd are common.
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CLAN SEAT
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The Hengsting ancestral home is called Duun Maredsne (DUNE MARE-REDS-KNEE) which
lies near the middle of the Hold. However, around four centuries ago Caer Reitstall
was built on the Ordecar river and the capital was moved there.
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Duun Reitstall (DUNE REETS-STALL) is made of stone laboriously dragged and floated
down from the mountains, and decorated with many banners and carvings in both wood
and stone depicting horses in every symbolic fashion possible. It is a larger settlement
by Hengsting standards and has a sizable river port. It has some impressive stables,
though not so grand as Dunn Maredsne.
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OTHER SETTLEMENTS OF NOTE
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Dunn Maredsne (DUNE MARE-REDS-KNEE), the only other fortress in the Hold
besides the capital, this was once the Clan Seat until around four centuries ago
when Dunn Reitstall was built and soon thereafter named the Clan Seat. Of equivalent
size to Dunn Reitstall in most particulars, Dunn Maredsne features an extended stables
structure that is without equal in the Vold, covering almost 20 miles in its entirety.
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Some of the finest horses in the Hold are produced here, and there are numerous
important bloodlines represented in the breeding stock, including most of the Waldenhengst
lines. Seat of a (very powerful) Reeve-halten.
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Amadeal (AH-MAH-DEE-ALL), a Lake Settlement, this steading is unusual for
the Clan in that fishing and river trade are its primary occupations rather than
a more equestrian pursuit. A large steading built on the Ordecar where it spills
into Lake Pargo, it is both well situated and well provisioned. Hengsting from Amadeal
usually use small-boats and broad-bellied longboats to work their craft and trade,
though their Clan ties can still be seen in the horse-headed prows.
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Faeren (FAIR-AHN), another Lake settlement, this one does more standard trade
for the Hengsting, though it too has a thriving fishing community, as it is the
principle staging point for horses being sold across to the Pargori by land, and
as such sees a lot of big business. A large and very wealty steading. Seat of a
Reeve-halten.
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Fohlenver (foe-LEN-ver), a thriving steading, and home to many horse breeders,
including several Hengstkampfwer. This steading generates large herds, primarily
either mountain ponies or draft horses, and sells one across the Herodi border to
Dunn Glennburna, and the other south into the many Huarthmunn steadings in need
of the them. It also benefits from general river trade off of the Gunnarsvik too.
Seat of a lucrative Reeve-halten.
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Lournebrek (LORE-neh-BREK), a large steading similar to Fohlenver in many
ways, save that the breeders here concentrate on draft horses and turn out some
huge specimens towering 18 hands high, which fetch hefty prices among the Huarthmunn
and even the Pargori for the drawing of trade wagons.
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CLAN VIEWS
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The Machtig are an individualistic people, but nevertheless there are some generalities
about how the Hengsting think of the other Clans.
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- Raevoring: Not neighboring and they don't buy horses. So long as they
keep their raiding outside the Vold, we could care less about them.
- Jagrling: They share our distrust of the Ulthferen, and they are a friendly
enough people if you get to know them; just don't expect them to talk much. Friendly
but distant.
- Faendradi: The only Clan smaller than ours, these strange fellows are distant
and don't buy horses, so we know little of them. Stories of them are indistinguishable
from many stories of the Aelfing to our ears, and we hold them somewhat in awe,
like things from a Skalds tale.
- Wundvolding: Distant and seldom seen, they do make good buckles and such.
However, we have our own smiths for making such everyday items as that. In the past
a particularly wealthy Thegn with a taste for chain mail might commission a suit
of Wundvolding armor, and of course Wundvolding craftsmanship is synonymous with
high quality. They do sometimes commission specially trained draft horses from us.
We've been told by the Pargori that they ride them as steeds, but that's surely
a joke. All in all we are congenially distant with our distant mountain-dwelling
cousins.
- Huarthmunn: Neighbors, and the source of most of our food, nearby Huarthmunn
trade heavily across our shared border for good draft horses and prize bulls. More
distant Huarthmunn have to get their horses from the Pargori we sell them through
or the handful of our own traders that travel with a herd through their lands. We
like the Huarthmunn and have a cordial relationship. We sometimes range into Huarthmunn
lands to catch wild mustangs that still come down out of the mountains, and more
rarely to sell our horses, and Huarthmunn are sometimes found in our lands selling
food or buying horses. Our shared border is an open border, and we get on well together
with our southern cousins.
- Pargori: Our closest neighbors and the source of much of our Clan's new wealth.
We generally like and approve of the Pargori, who buy our horses and transport them
out of the Vold to fetch high prices in Shidaal. What's not to like about them?
They are good neighbors, fair traders, and fine folk to lift a cup with.
- Herodi: Our bullying elder brother, arrogant in their superior size and power.
The Herodi have often tried to subsume us into their bloody plans, treating us like
a vassal state at times. We know that in some ways we need the Herodi, as they are
one of the principle buyers of our horses, shelter our Hold from the dangers on
the other side of the Wundvold mountains, and also trade through our lands to get
to the Pargori land and lining the steading coffers in the process. Nevertheless,
there is a lot of resentment in the hearts of many of our Clan for our overbearing
cousins.
- Ulthferen: In centuries past packs of werewolves were known to range into
the Hengsting plains, taking down free roaming horses and occasionally cattle. This
still happens from time to time even into the modern age. Ulthferen or not, a wolfwaren
is a wolfwaren and should be put down. The weres among the Ulthferen should be cured
or killed. We do not trust them and would just as soon see the Clan driven
out of the Machtig if they can't get their wolf curse under control.
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