Revela

Horsewomen of the southeast, the Revela are one of the oldest warrior cultures in Icaria.  Known for their skill on horseback with any weapon imaginable, they are much sought after for their bravery and loyalty to patrons.  Their economy rests on their reputation: they are hired as bodyguards, often for caravans. 
 

Located south of Lake country, the Revela don’t hold solid boundaries of their land.  They move with the terrain, the weather, the whims of their elders, for they are not bound to the land but to themselves and their horses. 

 

In the dark places where things are whispered, it is said that the Revela are bound to their horses, that to destroy the equine would be to destroy the women.  They cannot survive without their steeds.  

 

No one has ever come close to this hypothesis.  

 

From birth, the horsewomen train as a group.  They do not know who their biological mothers are; this would lead to loyalty.  Instead, their girls grow up together, raised by all the women in the tribe.  

 

Theirs is a community of women.  Never are there boy children born to the Revela; they know themselves to be blessed by Anaia for this anomaly.  When a Revel turns 17 years of age, she is celebrated in a coming-of-age ceremony.  She is then expected to leave the tribe to seek a fortune and a baby elsewhere in the continent.  

 

Fierce fighters, the Revela hold their skill with weapons above almost all other attributes, save loyalty.  They are often hired by travelling parties to protect them on the road.  During this time, a Revela seeks a mate, not for life, but rather for copulation.  She seeks a man for his strength, his keen senses, and his intelligence: all things that would serve a future Revel well.  

 

Sometimes, the Revela leave in pairs, having trained to ride and fight at the same time.  These pairs are incredibly deadly, able to maneuver on horseback and strike more targets at the same time.  These pairs are more costly to those looking to hire the Revela.  

 

In the Fae wars, they chose not to fight on the side of the humans, fearing they would anger Anaia.  Instead, they occasionally fought on the side of the Fae, particularly the centaurs, if the battles came close to their wandering.  Centaurs hold a special place in the Revela culture, as their part equine nature speaks volumes to the women.  

 

The Fae never forgot the service the Revela rendered; the humans didn’t either.  And while the humans are perfectly happy to hire the Revela, some too curse them for being race traitors, betraying their own kind.  Then again, others don’t think the Revela are human at all, rather a half-majik breed of something new- humans embedded in the continent.  

 

The Revela don’t much care about what humans think, so long as they pay and provide offspring.  

 

A curious collective, the origin of the Revela is masked in myth, their story lost to the twists of time and memory.