#asdriags

RHÛN REGIONS MOODBOARDS - [IX] Horseplains

Horseplains or Morad collectively referred to all the lands of southern Rhûn (or Harrhûn), east to Gathod and the Sagathavuld.

The Northern Steppes of Khand merged invisibly with the Horseplains serving as hard-fought northern borders of the Variag-realm. The Asdriags knew this region as Asdriagien Lîtto, their old ancestral homelands from which they had been driven out by their Variag kinsmen.

RHÛN REGIONS MOODBOARDS - [X] Pûstrava

The Pûstrava were arid foot hills reaching out east from the Ered Lithui serving as border between Gathod and northwestern Khand. It was the homeland of the Asdriag tribe.

The Asdriags were a collection of nine Ioriag tribes that dwelt for much of the Second Age among the arid foothills of the Pustrava and the Horseplains (land that they called “Asdriagien Lîtto”). In T.A. 1100 the tribes were forced to flee the region they called home because of mounting aggression from their stronger neighbors in Nurad and Khand.

In T.A.1640 these scattered bands inhabit areas of central Gathod and eastern Dor Rhûnen. The Gondorian military Cáno at Thorondir blamed much of the recent instability of Dor Rhunen's frontier on the Asdriags and has led repeated excursions into the plains to drive these tribes back into the east. The westernmost tribes were the most desperate of their kind, sheltering where possible in the foothills of the Dwergabergos and the Ered Lithui, living on what can be hunted or scavenged in the wild.

In Gathod, the Asdriags had enjoyed a bit more success. Some tribes had laid claim to lands on the fringes of Odhriag and Brygath ranges. Other than the occasional territorial squabble, these Asdriags dwelt for then in relative peace. They had settled into a stable migration cycle across their territory, which while poor by the standards of their neighbors, is a place of abundance in comparison to the Pustrava. In the end, however, the Asdriags were an Ioriag people and were sometimes wont to revert to the martial ways of their ancestors.

Odhriags, Donath, and Ibnotithuida alike casted a wary eye toward Asdriag lands. While their lack of numbers has never allowed them to dominate their neighbors,their fierce warriors were more than capable of wreaking significant mayhem in Gathod should the need arose.The easternmost Asdriag tribes dwelt in ranges near the city of Mistrand and had become entwined in the politics of that city. Nemol (the former King of Rhûn) had recognized in the traditional tribal priestesses (the "Hûriga") of the Asdriags a rare talent for witchcraft. As a result, Asdriag priestesses enjoyed some degree of respect within the city. Some of the more prominent priestesses had evenworked their way up through the ranks of Kerkassk's religious organization and then sat on the Osvoda's personal council in the city. There was then even the rumor of a union between the former Osvoda and Taran Karkuva, the chief priestess on the council. This coupled with the increasing reputation of Asdriag warriors within the Kharg Huka promised to raise the Asdriags to a new level of prominence in southeastern Rhûn.