Ryendorians

"The coward believes he shall live forever, If battle he faces not; But old age shall grant him no peace, Though spears have spared his life."
Ryendorians hail from the rocky crags of Ryendor . They are descended from a long line of warriors and mystic seers. Legend has it that theyare innately more proficient with the use of weaponry than any other race. They excel in all arts concerning blade and shield. The most naturally talented warriors in Eard, the Ryendorians believe that they are born to battle. However, their pride and fierce independence of spirit makes them more suitable as scouts or skirmishers, or as free ranging heroes and adventurers, than as rank and file soldiers. In addition to their cultural affinities for many weapon and armour styles, The Ryendorians are also blessed with hardy constitutions and fleetness of foot. They are tribal in nature and tend to interact and trade with the graymorians more frequently than other races due to their distance from them. This has led to an ancient and nasty prejudice among the other human races that the Ryendorians are more of a beast race than human. They are generally average heights for humans and have a sturdy but athletic build. They are known for having dark but piercing eyes and a variety of hair colours. They also have a longer life expectancy than any other human race, the oldest living Ryendorian is Durvas who is currently 175 years old. 
== History ==
Ryendorians used to be a roaming collection of tribes until they started to notice that rather than just raiding territory constantly and leaving the countryside as a depopulated wasteland, it'd be more profitable in the long run to just take it and manage all the resource production in it. The fact that serfs are tied to the land made it simpler to just conquer a territory for goods and labour instead of raiding for it. For quite a long time a large chunk of the ark was owned by the Ryendorians, although they all got quickly assimilated into the nations they've conquered, to the point when they started to think of themselves as Arkian in just a two or three generations after settling in. The Ryendorians also have a level of prestige in the Novus Empire, as they were the preferred recruits for the Emperor's bodyguard, the Vektelarian Guard, over other internecine imperial subjects (no doubt due to the Ryendorian emphasis on sworn oaths to leaders holding weight and the hefty perk called polutasvarf that permitted them to legally loot the treasury whenever the emperor dies of natural causes).
Category:Species