Guntartars
Average appearance
Their skin tone is a very grayish brown, their hair is dark brown, their noses are bent and relatively big, and they aren't particularly tall. They usually have green or brown eyes, and their hair is a bit wavy.Native region
The North Yamuhi steppe. A flat-ish grassy region with few trees and less rain than you would expect. All the moisture from the Yamuhi gets blown east because of a cold air current coming from the Saniri mountains. The moist air hits Lake Rhuli and goes north until it reaches the Suelian Sea where it gets blown west until it reaches the Zama Jungle and gets halted by the Mankan Mountains. Thus, the north Yamuhi Steppe doesn't get enough moisture to become a forest and the Zama Jungle still exists north to it in the middle of nowhere.Life and culture
Lifestyle
They are a semi-nomadic people. They usually live a nomadic lifestyle as horse riding cattle, horse, sheep or goat herders. They are amazing horse riders because they start learning how to ride horses on their at the age of 6 years. They are also the best horse archers around because they start learning professional archery at the age of 14, and they start learning horse archery at the age of 16. They are made into warriors at the age of 20 and are tasked with protecting their clan/family/tribe. Every able-bodied Guntartar boy gets this education regardless of wealth or stature. According to Guntartar religion, one can only become a khan if he is a man who is capable of shooting arrows off horseback from a bow, because otherwise he will anger the spirits and they will cripple all his men so they can't become horse archers. Women are not taught horse archery, but everyone is taught how to use the sling at the age of 8.Fashion
Men have long beards with colored beads which are usually made of bone or horn. They tend to wear their hair in braids with beads.Horses
Horses are a central part of Guntartar life, culture and warfare. Guntartar horses are small, but they are incredibly fast, very strong for horses their size, and seemingly tireless. They tend to have piebald coats with white, brown and black, their legs are longer than those of most horses and they can live off of a grass only diet (a lot of horses can't). When traveling, a tribesman usually brings along some 1 or 2 extra horses, but a warrior travels with up to about 6 horses in total and he changes horses during battle to avoid riding a tired horse.The Guntartar Coat of Arms
All Guntartar Coats of arms have this in common: A horse head with wings and lightning bolts trailing behind. The horse is there because the Guntartar lives by his horse. The wings are there to symbolize the Guntartar speed and the lightning bolts symbolize the power. The colors and underlying patterns vary depending on the tribe or family.The Uncatchable Philosophy
The Guntatars believe that when they got the horse, the goddess Hunae gave them a natural gift and connection to horses, but she gave it on a condition. They must do their best to be uncatchable horsemen in battle so as not to lose their gift. Therefore, they came to favor the bow over the spear as a basic weapon because it allowed them to shoot from a distance and become uncatchable in battle.Advancements and inventions
The stirrup
In the 15th realm of secrets the Guntartars are the ones who invented the stirrup. They invented it at around 500 B.B. Because they start riding at a young age and because they have to be able to move around quickly which is done best using horses, they invented the stirrup to aid people who had trouble mounting horses and allow them to mount their horses on their own. This invention was quickly spread and wound up becoming very popular. They later figured out that if you use two of them, one on each side,it really helps with mounted combat by providing more stability than just a saddle and reins.Trade
Guntartars are materialistic people. They hate staying put, but they love getting a touch at everything. By encouraging the development of trade and striving to control and maintain trade routes helps them satisfy this want.War
Usual weapons
The main weapons Guntartars use are the following: The horse, the recurve bow and a LOT of arrows. This is a direct result of their training and their culture. However, many Khans and Khagans realized that you sometimes need a bit of shock cavalry and infantry as well. But Guntartars make horrible infantry and their small skittish horses don't make good shock cavalry partly because they can't be properly armored to be cataphracts without losing the needed shock momentum and because they would never commit to a proper charge. However, their bow-making technology is relatively advanced and with a large assortment of arrows they are tough to catch (according to their philosophy a Guntartar must do his best to be uncatatchable). Along with their bows and arrows, all Guntartar horseridden warriors are extremely proficient with slings and they always carry at least one sling on them at all times along with some 30 lead projectiles to throw with them. In earlier days, before before the stirrup made shooting bows from horseback easily by allowing you to stand on them while the horse was moving, javelins were also commonly used. Back then, horse archers had to be more like dragoons to get a really good shot. They would ride to a location, stop, shoot, and gallop away. Otherwise, their shots would be less likely to hit a target in favorable spot without closing the distance to a few meters. The assortment of specialized arrows the Guntartars have is immense. They have like 27 different arrows with their own unique uses.Usual battlefield tacticts
The Guntartars travel around with their horses outnumbering them at two horses per man at the very minimum (they prefer traveling with three to four horses per warrior) and this allows them to switch horses to make sure that their best horses aren't tired at decisive battle points.The sway or slay conquering strategy
When an army of Guntartars wants to take your city, they give a single chance to surrender without a fight and become a tributary and you won't be harmed. If you don't, they will besiege your city and do whatever they want with it. That means loads of killing, raping, looting, enslaving and sometimes raising the city to the ground. A result of this is massive depopulation in certain areas. Peoples and nationalities who live in places that fought a lot of Guntartar waves and lost and had been there for many generations have a large Guntartar "genetic influence". When sacking cities they commit many atrocities. These include rape, murder, forcing abortion on pregnant women, gripping babies by their legs and swinging them so their heads are smashed against rocks, taking children as slaves, looting and burning buildings to the ground. It's a wonder that Arquado Barbarossa was able to discipline them and prevent his Guntartar auxiliaries from behaving in such a vile manner and act more like the well disciplined and civilized Berini soldiers.Culture
Major language groups and dialects
The Guntartar language is similar to Sanskrit in that it's an Indo-European language and that each word has like 20 synonyms. This makes it very easy for them to compose songs, epics and poems. Each tribe has a slightly different dialect with adjacent tribes having no difficulty understanding each other. When looking at the history of their language, you see that the dialects gain similarities when there is a khaganate and they split off when it disintegrates.
Art & Architecture
Their art mostly comes in the form of music, poetry, clothes and ornate bows and slings. They aren't really known for their building and cooking. Whenever they built something they would hire foreign builders to do the job. When it comes to cooking, it isn't very impressive. mostly boiled meat, grilled meat, smoked meat and the like. Not a lot of spices or salt added.
Common Myths and Legends
Legend of the Muugalu
Pantheon
The Guntartars believe in gods that aren't immortal.Hunae - goddess of wind and motion
She is one of the main gods in Guntartar religion. She has the form of a horse that is in and one with the wind (I really can't describe it properly).Bataar - god of war
Bataar is one of the main gods in Guntartar religion and he is one of the most powerful. Bataar is one of Hunae's sons and he often works with her. He rides a bird-dragon and he has a magical bow that any arrow it shoots never misses can pierce armor and freeze it's targets, and his javelin returns to him on it's own after hitting it's target. He wears shining armor made of gold and steel and his helmet is made of the skull of Goktu the rhino (one of his siblings). He is missing his left pinky and his right ear because Goktu bit them off when they fought (Goktu told Bataar he was the strongest but Bataar had none of that and challenged him to a fight to the death and Bataar won using just his javelin which he got from Hunae in order to stand a chance against Goktu. He got his bow later as a prize (it belonged to Goktu)). The ornate designs on his clothes and armor tell all the wars and fights of mankind. The first horses are his and Hunae's children.Historical figures
Sun-Ra Khagan I who was the first to unite all the Guntartar tribes and form a Khaganate.
Related Organizations
Related Myths
Related Locations
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