Warrior
The Endless War rages on as it has since
the First Age, and true to its name, the genocidal struggle shows no sign of
slowing. The war has claimed more lives in its long and bloody millennia than all
wars upon Creation save perhaps the overthrow of the Primordials,
though it is impossible to really know. If Mountain Folk and their Darkbrood enemies had souls as mortals do, Creation would
fester with shadowlands devouring it from beneath.
Thankfully, such is not the case. Warriors reincarnate to fight and die anew, a
succession of independent yet interchangeable lives. They exist only to shield
their race from annihilation and are widely regarded by the Conclave as living
weapons more than citizens. Their life is violence, and their death is
violence. They neither know nor care for anything else.
Warriors fight with discipline. Narrow
tunnels and irregular caves do not permit most of the formations known to
mortal armies, so the Jadeborn adapt their tactics
accordingly. Pikemen crouch to form curved lines near
entrances, while troops move in with flamecasters
blasting overhead. Then, these crouch to reload while archers rise further
behind, picking off the stragglers who survived the flames. In other cases,
Warriors set ambushes and devastate enemies with rapid guerilla tactics.
Sometimes, they fall prey to the ambushes of the enemy, and then, they band
together in outward-facing circles to kill as many as possible before death
takes them. Through it all, Mountain Folk Warriors are a clockwork army. They
are precise and exacting, utterly without remorse or mercy, the Engines of
Victory.
Most Warriors live a few decades at
best. Among their subculture, longevity is viewed as a peculiar form of
heroism. Veterans who somehow endure a century or more are
obviously blessed with good fortune and can expect their units to treat them
like living good-luck talismans. For the rest, life isn’t so bad while
it lasts, and many learn to savor the fleeting pleasures of a fleeting
existence. Faced with every cause for despair, most Warriors somehow choose
grim acceptance. They are righteous heroes, each and every one. They have seen
the vast and terrible hordes of the enemy. They know the fate that awaits their
people if they fail. So long as Warriors fight and hold the borders, death is
never the end. Death is only the beginning of another life, an endless march of
lives sacrificed to the Endless War.
Duties: Built for strength and aggression,
members of the Warrior Caste receive lengthy conditioning and combat training
so that they may better kill and die for the Conclave.
They perform this task with almost
religious zeal, rightly convinced that they alone stand between the Nameless
Hordes and the extinction of their race. Most Warriors live at the periphery of
the Mountain Folk kingdoms in border forts, with the remainder being kept in
reserve at strategically placed garrisons throughout the empire. These reserves
provide sentries for Manses, bodyguards for Artisans and a domestic police
force.
Appearance: Members of the Warrior Caste can stand
as tall as five feet, though most are shorter. Their skin has a stony texture
and can even look like stone harshly chiseled into the muscular semblance of
mankind. Many have inclusions of crystal or stone like freckles or moles on
their skin. Age weathers away these edges and facets, gradually smoothing their
features toward humanlike norms over the course of a century. Few live to
complete the process of refinement, and those fortunate and skilled enough to
endure their first century often exchange their stony visages for the leathery
gristle and pocked flesh of battle scars.
Warriors always wear armor in public.
While on duty, this armor consists of heavy mail with heavily spined helms — even those stationed in low-risk areas as
Manse guards or police forces stand watches prepared for war. Off-duty soldiers
may wear as little as a chain shirt or breastplate atop their black uniforms,
carrying nothing more impressive than a sheathed short sword and matched knife
as token armament. The uniforms of the Warrior Caste are made from black
artificial leather and include tunics, pants and high boots.
Associations: Vivid colors, Valor, weapons and armor,
gates, fortresses, basalt and obsidian, bronze and steel, a crimson gear with
spiked teeth (official symbol)
Sobriquets: Myrmidons, Engines of Victory, Children
of Stone, Blades of Autochthon, Steelhearts
Concepts: Charismatic general (Enlightened),
grizzled veteran, idealistic grunt, philosophical sentry, ultimate fighter
(Enlightened), war-machine pilot
The more
prosperous the
flock,
the more predators it
attracts.
One cannot have
sheep
without sheepdogs.