![[khuzait banner.png]] ![[the karakhergit woman atun.png|inlR|150]] # Atun ## Warrior and Clanswoman of the [[Karakhergit]] Nomads # Backstory & History [[Atun]], of the [[Karakhergit]], is one of [[Istiana]]'s agents. (Not sure if an agent and informant are the same thing here.) [[Asaios]] on Atun. (See page [[12]]) > [...] I traveled alongside [[Istiana]]'s agent, [[Atun]]. Her people, the [[Karakhergit]], are still nomads. I met her near her Tribe's summer encampment on the outskirts of [[Baltakhand]]. > [...] > Like many young [[Karakhergit]] women, she carried a bow, sabre and lasso and took her turn riding patrol around the herds of sheep and horses. She told me that it takes a half-dozen riders to safely move a herd, and that her people were constantly short of manpower. In the old days, when the [[Karakhergit]] were only one of many tribes living the nomadic life, it was easy for her people to find wives and husbands. But today, few other clans are willing to send their children to live the hard life out on the grasslands. To make matters worse, she said, it is next to impossible to prevent the herds from straying onto ever-expanding farmland, which means that the [[Karakhergit]] were constantly engaged in small battles with one village or another. [[Atun]] said that, in the old days, a [[Karakhergit]] maiden would not marry a man until he had slain his first enemy. Today, she said, she'd settle for a man who'd merely wounded someone, although she knew it would be a rocky marriage, as she had killed two of Khan [[Monchug]]'s men in a skirmish and husbands often become quarrelsome and turn to drink when married to a more accomplished wife. > [...] > [[Atun]] was good company. I asked her why the [[Karakhergit]] did not abandon the steppe life and pledge fealty to Khan [[Monchug]], who was always in need of warriors and would honor them and grant them lands of their own, so they didn't need to fight their way across the Devseg every year to use their traditional pastures. She gestured up at the blue sky above us, where an eagle was circling. "Should he burrow like a rabbit?" she asked. This was what they thought about farming. > [...] > As I was walking back to [[Vostrum]], my mind in a daze of dreams, a [[Khuzait-Khanate]] rider appeared on the road ahead of me. I was delighted, and startled, to recognize the horseman, or horsewoman I should say, for it was [[Atun]]. "Did the eagle get a taste for burrowing?" I shouted. "Are you fighting for the Khan now?" She looked glad to see me, and told me even eagles get tired of hearing everyone in their clan gush and admire someone else's [[Imperial]] loot, and may desire some of their own. > > We chatted a bit about our journeys, and she told me a bit about the bickering of the victorious Noyans as to who should receive [[Vostrum]]. Then I did something rash. I told her that I had managed to save a bit of money, and asked her if she would consider marrying me. I said that I had never killed any enemy, but there was a good chance that my rock had at least bruised someone. Better yet I had no desire to kill anyone, and thus I would never be jealous that her count should exceed mine. She laughed, and said that this was indeed a point in my favor. She told me that she would consider it. Then she bid me farewell, tossed her hair and rode off to the [[Khuzait-Khanate]] camp. If she does indeed consider it, even for a few minutes, then I suppose it will be the greatest honor anyone has ever done me.