![[calradic empire banner 8.png|]] # Eleftheroi ## Free Peoples of the Steppe ### Tier 3, Nomad Tribe / Outlaws The Eleftheroi, 'the free people', live on the steppe lands at the edge of the [[Calradian-Empire]]. Originally the descendants of runaway slaves and debtors, they soon became highly valued by the local [[Imperial]] commanders for their knowledge of this frontier zone. Their leaders have been granted titles, their young men taken into the retinues of archons and emperors. But though they are now very loyal to the idea of the Empire, they remain quite hostile to its actual authority. This minor clan is part of [[Calradian-Empire]]. Homebase is [[Amprela]], with possible ties to [[Imperial]] house, [[Impestores]]. # Game Files / Developer Diaries The Watchers / Guardians of the Hills Cut Content - Possibly [[Southern-Empire]] Minor Clan - Possibly Became [[Eleftheroi]] Outlaw / Mafia Minor Faction  string id="str_comment_special_clan_intro_eleftheroi.default" text="{=QpBmbygb}You may have heard of us - the Eleftheroi. Our fathers were thieves and runaways and troublemakers - we won't deny it. We came here because they didn't want us anywhere else. But I'll tell you this - if the empire survives, it'll be thanks to men like us, doing the hard bloody work out here in the wild fields, not those who sleep comfortably in their beds."> [— comment_strings.XML]   Lanthas in the broad plains south of Lake Tanaesis. This is good sheep country, but in a land scoured by [[Imperial]] fugitives, wild [[Eleftheroi]] riders and steppe nomads ([[Khuzait-Khanate]]), the villagers here have learned to watch their flocks closely [[Amprela]] is the foremost town of the far northeast of the [[Calradian-Empire]]. Watchmen stand atop its towers, looking out for beacons from the frontier fortresses to the north, east and west that might signal the approach of raiders. Horse archers recruited from the rough [[Eleftheroi]] freemen drink in the barracks, waiting for the order to ride out against horsemen from the steppe. Cataphracts sally through its gates to vie with the princes of [[Principality-of-Sturgia]] for control of the trade crossing the nearby network of lakes known as the Iltan portages. Melion in a narrow valley near the center of the Myzead, a rugged plateau in the east of the Empire. Villagers here cultivate mulberry bushes. The leaves are harvested and fed to silkworks, producing thread much valued by both refined [[Imperial]] nobles ([[Calradian-Empire]]) for their court wear and hard-riding nomads ([[Khuzait-Khanate]]) and frontiersmen ([[Eleftheroi]]), who wear it beneath their armor as an extra layer of protection against arrows.