[center][h3] Eidolon Plains - Unity and Division [/h3][/center]

Marshal Elena rode along the river, eventually returning to a group of hunters all armed with spears. It was unsettling being away from her band for so long, however it would not be long before another marshal took her watch. This was important work. Her band would be among three to graze these pastures next season. In order to support to their combined herd, the fields needed time to replenish and so they needed to repel wild grazing animals, especially the gluttonous long-fur xo. 

She approached the hunters gathered around a small fire for cooking meat. The hunters were telling stories, mostly about the close encounters with intruders. One of the hunters told the story about how their band meet the shroud maid. Elena would have doubted the story, had she not been wearing woolen garments. The Edgar band had been placed in a fortunate situation by their meeting with a spirit, many sheep-herder bands such as her gathered to them to learn their spirit taught secrets. While the belligerent xo herders like to call them Wool-eyes, the proper name is the Sun-Sworn Clade. She had heard that they were beginning to unify under a spirit-touched marshal named Sophia, but it seemed like the other bands refused to accept them as their leader.  

The hunters eventually looked to her and interrupted her thoughts, asking if she had a story to tell. Elena thought for a moment and told the story about how she wandered several days into Dusk Wall on horse-back. It was suppose to be a test of courage and resourcefulness before she could be accepted as marshal. While she didn't tell the others, she praised the Almighty Sun when she was told that tradition would end upon joining the clade. The journey was uneventful, except on the final day, she saw figures out in the distant. Thinking that they might be other eidolon, she approached. They were creatures of stone and dirt. The perpetual darkness made it hard to tell what they were doing, but it looks like they were taking stone and dirt and constructing it to various shapes. When asked what she did next, she told them that she turned around and left, leaving the strange spirits to their task. 

--- 

After being blessed by the spirit and returning to her band, Sophia immediately gained support due to having a horse. Mateo would not surrender as easily, but was pressured into a fight. Even without using her weapons, the match was highly uneven. Mateo's laziness had caused his strength to atrophy. While he pretended his defeat meant nothing, it was enough to sway the rest of the band. He and his lackeys were then sent off to other bands heading far away.

As a marshal, she abolished the position of story-teller. She would permit those to remember stories in their own time, however if they wanted food from the group, they would need to do real work. She permitted those who gathered or hunted to have first pick among what they gathered. She also had more slings created based upon her own, and had several members of her band practice using it. 

However she remembered the wise spirit's words regarding oppression. She would help other bands improved as her band did, and occasionally that meant beating up an incompetent leader or two. Through this, she became aligned with many of the local xo-herd bands. Those that didn't ally themselves tended to find themselves poorly treated. Sophia said anything of the sort, but she never discouraged this behavior either. She had heard other marshals mention that she be given status of high marshal, however she was loathed to follow in the example of the wool-eyes. 

The wool-eyes started to call them the four-horns, after the four horns that xo have. However, Sophia liked the name and they started calling the group the Four Horn Culture. Culture seemed like the right word, they were a group bound by common ideas. They didn't need one leader to tell everyone else how they should manage their herds. 

In one particularly heated meeting of Four-Horn marshals, Sophia was convinced to try to reason with the wool-eyes. She wasn't the only one opposed to the idea, but she was in the minority. It was eventually agreed that if they shared some of their wool product, they would not graze in the areas that they asked. Sophia didn't want wool, but she eventually saw how much the others did. She probably could have stopped it, but doing so would mean that she would be high marshal in all but name. It also didn't feel right to keep others from what they wanted. 

However, after she became invested in ensuring the happiness of her fellow four-horns, negotiations quickly began to fall through. The wool-eyes saw no reason to share their product for something they thought themselves entitled to. When asked what they would accept as trade, there reply was insulting. They would need a spear to surrender a simple wool garment. Did they think that they were so poor that they could not clothe all of their people and so would be that desperate for warmth? 

After meeting with other marshals to discuss this issue further, Sophia walked away at one point to let go of her anger. She used her sling to slay a bird, and was noticed by other bands. The band that had originally owned the weapon was among those heading east, and so everyone but her band was unfamiliar with it. Having a devious idea, she started to teach other bands how to use the weapon. 

While no band wanted to pay the ransom that the wool-eyes requested, they couldn't agree how to approach the situation. Gathering even most of the marshals became more and more difficult as their numbers grew and the grass grew thinner. Eventually, they decided to have a small group of marshals and a handful of their bandmates remain in the area while they sent their herds away. 

Sophia felt an odd surge of relief when she had someone else take over handling the herd. While she rode a horse, she was still a hunter at heart. Even before taking up the sling, she was never good at watching xo and was a gatherer. She honestly didn't entirely know how to handle the wool-eye situation either, but she did know that she wasn't going to let them oppress her. 

[hider= Story Summary] 
The sheep herding Sun-Sworn was formed under the leadership of High Marshal Edgar due to his band learning how to make fibre and textiles. A small group from this clade is protecting a river that they intend to graze next season. A marshal tells a story about how she went into the shadowed area and saw some creatures made of stone and dirt, but she didn't interact with them. 

Meanwhile, Sophia beat up her former herd-lead, and with her new-found horse giving her creditability, took the role of marshal. She implemented new rules, the most important is that she stopped treating story-teller as a dedicated job. She also helped other bands, at least partially by beating people up. 

She ended up creating an alliance of all the local xo-herd bands, partly by her band following her example and pushing all non-aligned bands to move elsewhere. They are called the Four-Horn Culture because xo have four horns and Sophia liked the name. She also specified refused the position of high marshal. 

The four-horns tried to negotiate with the sun-sworn for wool products, but the sun-sworn didn't budge. The four-horns, needing to split up to graze their cattle, left a small group to handle this situation. 
[/hider] 

[hider= Spirit Summary]
Rider of Hevel (Sophia):
Starting: 2 
Ending: 5 
+1 for post, +1 for main character, +1 for length 
[/hider]