The Great and Wonderful Moulden Horde
Point allocation: 15/15
Richness: 3
Military: 4
Population: 2
Control: 2
Knowledge: 1
Ferocity: 3
In recent history, there was a great rat civil war. Many perished, and the true victors were not the rat-kin but the skulkers and the stinkers with their ecological niche becoming big-big! Rats needed much to recover, and many recovered in different way. However, one clan had a rather unique way. They were quite a rag-tag of different skills, but at the time were quite few in number. So, they had to compensate. The very first thing they did was find a smaller one of the stinkers (a corgi) with three pups. Threatening their life,
they were able to get the service of the stinkers as mounts and pullers of makeshift carts in exchange for feed; they now have seven total of them. They also found two ironbacks, ready to pledge their allegiance and at some point, they were able to even get two Dark-Wings on their side, though their loyalty is questionable just like the others; they acquired them quite recently, and hold five of their eggs as hostages. At about the same time, the tribe hot the services of several swift-tails after they found
a great big cache of (a seed packet) yum-yums! However, these actions took a considerable toll on the population of small slaves and even the actual Rats of the tribe, which is now only held together by the various servants of the Khan being scared that another servant will turn out to be loyal. And of course, the constant flow of snacks is nice.
The tribe is ruled by a great leader called a Khan, the current one being Norvegicus Khan. It is de-facto a monarchy, since his six favoured sons (albeit he has many he isn't aware of) are the ones he will soon pick from to be successor. The tribe works with only the leader being of a special position, and all else relatively equal. The serving skulkers, stinkers, swift-tails crows and even mouse slaves are also treated quite well but kept under suspicion. However, although the Khan does have absolute power he has to make sure he remains popular, and often runs things based on votes and councils of the whole tribe. Shamans of both the predominant rat-faiths are also quite powerful albeit only in influencing popular opinion.
The Moulden Horde is nomadic, so in a manner everything is their territory. However, as it stands they have to rest every night and this is done by having their various carts being stopped, put in a circle as fortifications and then small Yurts being made with a big (by rat standards) fire being made. There are a total of twenty carts they have, each of them pulled by the serving animals of the Khan or by other rats and smalls, carrying food, weapons, water, and various goods to trade if there is a tribe too strong for them to conquer. Inside the carts is where the breeding and nursing takes place since only respected adults sleep in the small yurts and many choose to sleep outside where they're closer to the fire anyway.
To an outsider, the Khanate is a devastating, brutal force that has betrayed rat-kind allying with all sorts of enemies just for more riches. But, on the inside it is quite good. Food is relatively plenty, one is free to do as they like, have any faith and even the smalls and other slaves, while carrying a derogatory title have quite a good life provided they don't try something as silly as an uprising. There is very little time for leisure in the nomadic Horde but generally it's spent with music and little dances, competitions of one's skill with blade or bow and other such activities with possible practical ramifications.
Though long ago they worshiped the creators like all others, the unifying worship of fire swept over the Khanate and now they all praise it, and while not murdering rats of other faiths for that sheer fact they will do their best to convert them as fast as possible. In fact, they are even getting the mice, dogs, and other servants to slowly embrace their faith.The biggest advantage over other rats that the Moulden Horde has is their comparatively large amount of hired paws and claws with in addition to providing their own great shock potential can be used as mounts to double their effectiveness. The rest of the rats generally wear little in the way of clothes or armour, but are expert archers making bows with strings or rubber bands and whatever flexible material they can find, shooting tooth picks and other projectiles upon enemies. When fighting in melee, they like to make use of a rather unique weapon they have: it is chains from jewelry with each link of the chains being sharpened to make a sort of whip-sword which is virtually impossible and producing devastating bleeding It is used in conjunction with shields of cardboard layered with metal sheets or other materials for a truly flexible fighter. However, their nomadic nature and recent history means that the number of their adults is currently quite small, and they have to wait for them to mature. Meanwhile, their force has to be very elite as a result with each rat being expected to be able to take out someone's eye at a considerable distance with a bow, while practice with their blades along with sword-whips is a daily must. Both males and females fight, so the Khanate knows the meaning of total war. As a sort of siege weapon, one of their carts also has a large toy-bow somewhat modified to shoot sharpened pencils, kebab skewers, and other things potentially lit on fire or poisoned to be a great deterrent against larger animals and to destroy or get past what cardboard fortifications others may make.
