Cowmen Grasslands

Near the southernmost reaches of the Forest of Getting Lost, stretching from the Frozen Lake down into old Nogar lies vast plains of grass and reeds, known as the **Cowmen Grasslands**. The green fields lies as an untouched canvas, mostly free from the burden of civilisation. The eponymous cowmen are the main inhabitants of this area are as much men as they are beasts, having brutish frames, with the upper body of a man with the lower body of a bovine. Seen by the men of the east as a result of a prank by some god, they have wandered these lands for what seems like forever. They organize in grand herds with up to hundreds of members, bringing with them large numbers of livestock, as the cowmen enjoy drinking milk as a protein-rich supplement to their diet of grass and seeds. Leading them are fat matriachs, capable of magical rituals, guarded by fearsome bull-warriors. These warriors are distinguished by their impressive horns sprouting from their heads, this being seen as a blessing among their kind. The cowmen have little organized religions, and as they have no written language all knowledge is spread through short folk tales. What is known is that most herds worship **Lamagash**, the great winged bull, as the protector of the cowmen and the grasslands. The only permanent settlement of the cowmen is a large shrine to him, and the supporting infrastructure to keep it maintained. Every matriarch is expected to take her herd on a pilgrimage to it once in her lifetime to ensure the blessing of Lamagash.

The cowmen are not the only inhabitants of the grasslands. There exists small communities of humans, a combinations remnants from old Nogar who never made the trek eastwards during the Gnoll invasion, Drunzigar commoners trying their luck and possibly the descendants of Khenomeric refugees fleeing the Gnoll. The small groups of pastoral farmers and herders keep their head low, avoiding the grand cowmen herds if possible, paying tribute to them of they must. When not living as nomads, they stay in the only two settlements apart from the shrine of Lamagash, Tennabrat, a series of farming villages near the border with Drunzigar, and the ruined city of Gatalaya, an abandoned Nogarese city, being now only settled in its outskirts.

There are also periodical Gnoll raids into the area. While no permanent conquest has taken place, the gnolls enjoy the cowmen as slaves. Because of this the cowmen have gained a strong hatred of gnolls, as opposed to their apathy towards most other species. Many a mighty bull-warrior has a collection of gnoll skulls hanging from his spear or horns.

The northern grasslands bordering the frozen lake is home to a subspecies of cowmen known as muskoxmen. Hairier and dumber than their cousins, they enjoy the colder climate near the lake, and rarely venture south. They do not worship Lamagash, and should they meet a cowman they often end up fighting because of this.

## History

The lands around the Rhallaco River are rolling plains of green grasslands, extending for miles and miles with little interruption from geographical accidents. Frequent but moderate rains keep the area green all year long, with the exception of a brief period of cold winter. Ferrets, moles, foxes, rabbits, wolves and even wild horses populate the area. This land seems ideal farmland, and yet, very little agriculture is done in this area. This is because it is the sacred lands of the “**Mataandura Haishü**”, or as the outsiders usually call them, the Cowmen.

The Mataandura Haishü have inhabited the region around the Rhallaco River from time immemorial. By the time the Khenomeric Empire first arrived to the area, the Mataandura Haishü had already lived in the prairies for millennia. The Mataandura Haishü were proud and fiercely independent, caring little for the affairs of the two-feet outside of their homeland, so they refused the initial offer to join the empire. It would be only after a long fight, and the increasing use of magic as a weapon, when the Mataandura Haishü relented, and allowed themselves to be absorbed in the empire. In exchange of cowmen service in the Khenomeric armies, and allow parts of the grasslands to be used for agriculture, the Mataandura Haishü would be allowed to rule mostly themselves. And while the Mataandura Haishü accepted the deal at first, they utterly hated the rule of the khenomeri. Their interactions were not completely negative, though: the khenomeric brought with them the knowledge of metal crafting and weapon making, turning the already feared Cowmen warriors, fighting with their bare fists and horns, into extraordinarily powerful combatants. Their lands were not particularly fit for these new crafts, since there is a considerable lack of rock and stone in the vast planes, and even less metals to extract, so the cowmen mostly bought their weapons and equipment from the outside.

The relation between the Khenomeri and the Mataandura Haishü did not improve with time. The Magoclergy did not trust these “cowmen”, and kept them watched over constantly in search for any conspiracy against them, just in case that they could be exiled and put the entire area to agricultural use. The fall of the Magoclergy was well received by the Mataandura Haishü, but this did not mean their relations with the rest of the Khenomeric authorities improved, on the contrary. Most of the empire did not have a good opinion on the Mataandura Haishü, seeing them as just big dumb beasts, barely more intelligent than the ogres within the empire. This lack of any mutual knowledge or respect for one another inevitably led the Mataandura Haishü to the path of independence, yet they did not wish to spill blood to reach their independence: they saw the need for diplomacy to achieve their wished for freedom, and they concocted a plan. The great matriarches of the Mataandura Haishü, the leaders of the herds, began talks with the groups within the empire that would support a rebellion against Khoraqualumum.

In the year 1.801 ABE, a big rebellion in the Northern Khenomeric Empire, typical by now considering the politics of the region, became quite a lot bigger than expected, which forced the Khenomeric Empire to pay attention in the area. At the same time, the Mataandura Haishü, along other provinces, also began their rebellion, threatening to tear the empire apart from all sides. However, the matriarches, in secret, contacted the khenomeri authorities and offered them a deal: in exchange of Khoraqualumum granting the Mataandura Haishü independence, they would tell them the names of the rebel heads they had contacted. The Khenomeric authorities, having too many problems already and not wanting to fight for a territory that was barely profitable in the first place, agreed to the deal, allowing the cowmen independence in 1.802 ABE. The humans who had settled there were allowed to stay, but most went back to the empire in peace.

Around 2.441 ABE, the Mataandura Haishü began noticing something was wrong. The increasing amount of humans from the Khenomeric Empire crossing into the grasslands was strange, since the two did not have the best relations after the failed rebellion. However, these humans were not intending to conquer the land, they were fleeing from something: the tales talked about gnolls, in amounts unthinkable beforehand, were being ordered around by ogres. Acting as great armies, they ravaged and murdered everything on their path, and even the still mighty Khenomeric armies were not enough to contain them. The cowmen had already interacted with the gnoll in the past, in small numbers. The cowmen used to hunt and pummel them beneath their powerful hooves as a proof of one’s strength, but these stories told something previously unimaginable: organized gnolls, acting as authentic invading armies, burning and consuming everything that they came across. Unlike many of the khenomeric neighbors, the Mataandura Haishü immediately believed these stories, and readied for war. For many years, the cowmen sent help to the Khenomeric Empire, wanting to know information about how to defeat the monsters should they arrive to the sacred homeland. In the year 2.476 ABE, the capital of Khoraqualumum fell to the gnolls, ending the empire for good. The survivors of the atrocities that arrived to the Cowmen Grasslands began helping the Mataandura Haishü to prepare for the invasion. They were the ones who build many of the great weapons used by the Cowmen to fight the gnoll, and many of those would survive into the present.

However, it took a long time to see the invasion arrive to the lands of the Mataandura Haishü. On the meantime, the mass of gnolls ended up coagulating into the Gnoll Empire, with the first litch emperor, Grabagrorr the Great, ordering a massive expansion towards every direction they could. In 2.720 ABE, the first gnoll attacks against the Cowmen began. The numbers of gnolls being unlike anything they had seen before, the Mataandura Haishü had to organize all herds into a single unified command, if they wished to offer any resistance to the gnolls: the rolling sprawls of plains and the lack of fortresses offering great advantages to the gnolls over the Cowmen warriors and human auxiliaries. And yet, the fight between the two sides became titanic. The great charges of the cowmen were even stronger than great heavy cavalry charges, and they rolled over many, many gnoll armies, who just charged in a straight line against the charging Mataandura Haishü. The losses of the cowmen began mounting, however, and the longer the war dragged on, the more it seemed that all hope was lost. Yet, surprisingly, in 2.737 ABE, the gnoll forces began retreating. It is said that Grabagrorr the Great’s lack of strategy and aggressive strategy had overextended the seemingly numberless gnoll, and had to retreat from many battlefields, the Cowmen Grasslands included. The Mataandura Haishü celebrated this, though with some bitterness, knowing that they had only survived by the merest chance. They swore an oath of eternal hatred and revenge against the gnoll, purging and sacrificing all gnolls that could not retreat in time, or those who had been born in the wild and become feral. Nowadays, it is frequent to see the Mataandura Haishü brandishing gnoll skulls and bones as personal decorations.

The damages caused by the gnoll are great. It is believed that more than a third of the total population of the adult Mataandura Haishü died during the conflict. This has made them prepare for a second invasion ever since, but the politics of the Nameless has managed to keep an uncertain peace between the gnolls and the Cowmen… with the exception of the occasional slave raid, of course.

## The Cowmen

The Mataandura Haishü are an ancient species, one of the most ancient that roam the lands of eastern Giantstep. They have upper body half of similar complexion to humans, and the lower half of bovines. All in all, they can easily reach up to 2m of height, with hyper muscular features. Their upper half is considerably bulkier than the average human, and their arms are somewhat longer than a human’s, simply because they have much more body to reach. Their faces are somewhat elongated to the front, and have powerful neck muscles that allow them to support their great horns. The size of the horns vary from individual to individual, but they are usually big enough that their neck is very limited in what movements it can do, and so they have to move their torso to look aside.

They are a sexually dimorphic species. In general, the males are bigger and more muscular than the females, and they also have a much bigger set of horns. However, once every many hundreds of cases, a female Mataandura Haishü is born with innately magical abilities, who can reach up to three meters height. These are called the Matriarches, and once they are born, they are groomed to become the leaders of the herd, and can usually live hundreds of years.

## Society and Culture

The Mataandura Haishü are a nomadic society. They move all year long around the great prairies and grasslands, which are sacred to them. They search for the best and most fertile areas for the grass and sprouts of the highest quality and freshness, which they ear directly from the ground. The look of a human-like being eating like this usually causes a great shock to the outsiders who see them, and thus they have usually been the target of ridicule and mockery from the populations around them. They are also known for taking care of great herds, usually cow or sheep, to feast upon their milk. Once again, the sight of cowmen milking regular cows is a sight that usually confuses any visitor, which can cause dangerous friction between the Mataandura Haishü and them.

The Mataandura Haishü usually avoid contact with other members outside of their species, and when they do meet, it is usually for matters like trading. The behavior of the Mataandura Haishü is quite different from other sentient species. Cowmen do not laugh, they literally have no sense of humor, and they do not partake with each other in any kind of levity. As such, they can clash quite easily with outsiders, especially those who deal frequently with humor or irony. They have proven to be highly aggressive to any provocation and feeling of mockery done to them, usually ending with the provocateur mangled up in the floor with many broken bones.

The Mataandura Haishü society is highly violent. The leader of a herd is the matriarch, massive females that can tower over even the tallest cowmen. Their word is law, but they will usually allow the members of the herd to solve their differences by themselves. Ritual duels are frequent, and for reasons that many that many would think are trivial, and due to the Mataandura Haishü’s natural strength, damages can be severe, though they usually stop before being fatal. Young members of the herd are trained in unarmored combat since they can walk by themselves. Males are usually more violent and prone to fights than females, and play the role of warriors of the herds. Expressing great pride in their strength, they will dedicate almost exclusively to fighting, leaving the females to the care of the children, the livestock and most crafts. Great fights between the males of different herds are a frequent sight when they see each other, displaying their power, strength and stamina to impress a female from a different herd to marry. This helps avoid consanguine problems within the different herds. Many male cowmen also cover themselves in piercings, rings and other small decorative items, showing their toughness and decorating themselves alongside their scars.

The Mataandura Haishü worship the god Lamagash, the Great Winged Bull, the progenitor and protector of the cowmen and the sacred grasslands. This figure is highly important to the cowmen, having dedicated to him the only permanent settlement of the cowmen. At the center of the grasslands, there is a large shine dedicated to Lamagash. Every matriarch is expected to go on an individual pilgrimage to the shrine and offer a great trophy to the god, to keep the blessings of Lamagash upon their herd.

Highest shows of Mataandura Haishü culture are rarer. Cowmen have no written language, their culture survive purely as spoken tales and legends.

## The humans in the Grasslands

Over the centuries, many groups of humans have found a home in the Cowmen Grasslands. Back during the Khenomeric Empire days, the empire had sent people to colonize some areas of the land, seeing as their natural conditions make them excellent agricultural soil. These farmers were sent in small numbers, to not cause a cowmen uprising, so these colonies were mostly of small families working relatively reduced portions of land. Their productive output is generally great, so even these small numbers of settlers were able to produce more than enough for themselves and to pay the empire its taxes. Their relation with the Mataandura Haishü was poor at first, but the cowmen quickly learned how to ignore them, and even began a decent trade with them, exchanging settlers’ agricultural produce with the cowmen’s herds.

These settlers have been in the grasslands ever since, though since the independence from the Khenomeric Empire, the population has been gradually going down. The land only really appeals for those that see a rural life dedicated almost exclusively to survive of the land. The isolation of the grasslands is quite apparent, since the Mataandura Haishü are not particularly cozy or talkative neighbors. Low population has become such a problem that it’s even causing consanguine troubles, as the few families living there have married with each other over and over again. Many farms have been abandoned simply because the families simply disappeared without more progeny. The arrival of many khenomeric refugees helped this to a point, but most of the refugees went across the grasslands to some other areas, and didn’t stay there for long.

The newest inhabitants of the grasslands are the drunig merchants that often come to sell their goods to the cowmen. Some drunig youth that aren’t attracted to the life at the sea may decide to dedicate themselves to land trade, and many of them end up in the Cowmen Grasslands, due to the relative proximity with Drunigzar. This trade is quite profitable for both parties: the Mataandura Haishü obtain many different tools and weapons they cannot manufacture themselves (not because they don’t know how, but because the grasslands are very poor in metals and mines), and the drunig obtain great amounts of livestock.

## The Muskoxmen

At the north of the grasslands, bordering the Frozen Lake, there lives a different race of cowmen. They are believed to be more primitive and brutal than the Mataandura Haishü, and they have been at odds with the cowmen from the grasslands for millennia. They call themselves the **Mataanduva Emme**, but the outsiders call them the **Muskoxmen**. Little is known about them: they are actively bandits and thieves, attacking and robbing whatever tries to cross that area, and do not bother to talk to anyone who’s not a muskoxmen. The records tell us little about them as well. The only ones who apparently know who they are and where they come from are the Cowmen, and they haven’t really told anyone.

What we do know is that these two races have a seething hatred against each other, and they will go to great lengths to fight one another to the death. When these two groups meet, there is nothing of the ritualistic honor the cowmen display when fighting with themselves. There is just violence, brutal and direct, with the intention to either maim or kill.

The Muskoxmen seemingly do not share the religious beliefs of the cowmen. They do not worship Lamagash, instead following their own secret cult.