Riddari and Southern Riddari

Riddari & Southern Riddari

Sister Ships on the Sea of Grass

Two nations ride rather than rise—mobile heartlands moving where the wind lays the grass. From a distance they seem one people in motion; up close they’re sisters with different tempers, sailing the same green ocean on parallel courses.

The Land They Ride

• Riddari (North): Higher, drier, and harsher. Tall fescue and needle-grass whisper over rolling hummocks; sudden storm lines march out of the Ingens. Water lies in long, wind-bent lakes and cutbanked rivers. Nights snap cold and star-bright.
• Southern Riddari (South): Lower and softer in profile. Meadow-sweet belts, reed-choked sloughs, more sheltering copses. Rain comes warmer, longer; spring arrives earlier and lingers.

Both realms measure distance by days of good pasture. Tracks are braided into the land by seasons of hooves, then brushed smooth by the wind.

Who They Are

• Riddari (North): Spare speech, strict camp order, iron hospitality. Their praise is quiet and their wrath efficient. They prize endurance, wind-reading, and the ability to make a camp stand in a gale.
• Southern Riddari (South): Warmer laughter, broader song, sharper color. They favor speed, rope-work, and the art of turning a near-disaster into a good story by nightfall.

Both hold to the same bones: horses first, word kept, stranger fed before questioned.

Sovereigns & Symbols

• Khatan Mare Dumur (Riddari): A calm hand on the rein—strategy, patience, and the dignity of measured words. Her standards carry the knotwork horse: strength bound to purpose.
• Katan Alli Morvi (Southern Riddari): Charismatic, quick to action, keen-eyed for opportunity. Her banners bear the running sun-horse: speed in service to the people.

When they meet at the Unity Festival, their yurts stand side by side; their councils twine like two braids of one rope.

Camps, Herds, and the Way of Going

• Mobile cities form in rings: outer herd-lines, inner hearth-rings, a central green for drills and councils. Streets are rope lanes and desire-paths; the city faces the wind.
• Work of the day: Dawn checks, grazing rotation, farrier’s circle, tack-mending, water scouting, then drills or trade, then feasts or songs. Night watches turn with the stars.
• Horses: The heart of both nations. Bonded mounts read breath and seat; a low nose-rumble warns of bad footing; two short exhales mean ready. Riders water and rub down their horses before they eat—always.

Law, Courtesy, and the Plain Tongue

• Greeting: No bowing—fist to chest. Easy tap for equals; a sharper strike for elders.
• Camp entry: Call, “Salt and shade?” Wait for “Salt and shade.” Step in only then.
• Table: Eat what’s offered; end with “Well ridden.”
• Listening word: “Spur quiet.” Hush and heed.
• Trail signs: A grass braid on a stake = good graze; braid with a knot = predators near.

Maxim shared by both: “Step light, speak true.”

Arms & Riding Arts

• Riddari: Lance at canter, bow at distance, and the discipline of holding formation in crosswind. Defensive circles and wind-angled charge lines are signatures.
• Southern Riddari: Rope-and-snag work, close sprint skirmishing, feints and wheel-backs. Their couriers can cross broken country like water.

Neither fights for conquest; both fight like storms when kin or herds are threatened.

Trade & Ties

• Riddari (North): Leather, beadwork, cured meats, trained remounts; guides across the higher plains and to the Red Hills’ edges.
• Southern Riddari: Dyes, reedwork, felt, smoked fish from the southern rivers, festival crafts.
• Neighbors: Kvassi towns see them as necessary partners; Corasine pilots trade paths through the fens; Bine watches and worries. The Sister Ships keep to their lanes but dock where sense and profit meet.

Faith & Feeling

Sky, wind, and steppe are the quiet shrines: blessing whispered at the withers, thanks given to water, songs for the fallen sung low into the grass. Oaths are taken hand-to-rein, never glib. A broken word is a broken saddle—no one rides far on either.

How to Travel Among Them (for outsiders)

• Mind the horses; let them smell your hand before you touch.
• Keep lanes clear, fires banked, and knives racked at feast rings.
• If a foal strays, be a fence, don’t chase.
• Prove, don’t boast. Ride well, help when asked, and pay praise to the joinery—how things are put together—before the ornament.

Why “Sister Ships”

Because both realms tack by weather and season, heave-to at the same constellations, and answer danger with speed and discipline. One rides under a cooler sky, one under a warmer sun; both are held together by reins, rope, and the unbroken line between rider and horse.

Wind at the withers.