The Ride

The Ride is a vast grassland on the Southwestern corner of Cozeroth populated by two distinct races. Humans and Centaurs coexist peacefully for the most part on the prairies, tending their herds of horses, and following the massive Boanta herds as they wander the grasslands grazing. It is believed that prior to The Breaking of the World, The Ride was a human kingdom that ceased to exist during the cataclysm. Centaurs took in the surviving humans, and taught them to exist with nature, which led to the current state of affairs in The Ride.

The denizens of The Ride, are hunter gatherers, who harvest the bounty of the plains as they wander, taking a Boanta when needed. Every part of what they take is used or consumed, and they honor the spirit of the fallen beast, in song and ritual dance to thank it for sustaining them. Respect for their prey is what keeps these hunters alive and propagating.

The Centaurs and Humans of The Ride can be found in family groups, of single race make up or mixed, and the leadership of these wandering groups seems to vary from clan to clan. What is universal, is their dislike for the men of Antowal. The horns of the Boanta are prized by the Noble families in Antowal as an aphrodisiac, and poachers are always encroaching on The Ride to try to kill the giant bovines and saw off their horns, leaving the rest to rot on the plains.

The denizens of The Ride take this as an act of war or outright genocide, and frequently launch raids into the countryside surrounding Antowal, as a punitive measure. This has resulted in outright war between the two nations at least a dozen times since The Breaking. Such is the hunger of the Antowalians for the powdered and processed horn, that they do not mind sacrificing the sons and daughters of their kingdom to sate it.

As is mentioned elsewhere, there is no centralized leadership and authority amongst the denizens of The Ride, sometimes however, a particularly charismatic individual or skilled battle leader can convince several clans to join in concerted effort towards some goal. These alliances rarely outlive the success or failure of their endeavor, though.