In the 198th year of the Pendor calendar, a bloody plague completely destroyed the Kingdom of Pendor. Countless people abandoned their land and fled. During those years, the operation of the entire Pendor continent came to a standstill.
Only the tribes north of the Misty Mountains were unaffected by the Red Death, and so, hearing rumors of food and fertile lands in the south, the northern Misty Mountain people invaded Pendor in 199.
With Pendor paralyzed and in turmoil due to famine and plague, the Kingdom of Pendor lacked the military and financial resources to respond to the invasion.
But the earliest people from the Misty Mountains who came to the south have already regarded Ravenstern as their home, and certainly do not want to return to the uncivilized barbarian tribes north of the Misty Mountains.
So they spontaneously launched an all-out struggle - the descendants of the Misty Mountain people became the greatest force to stop the invasion of the Northern Misty Mountain people.
Without support from the south, Earl Gregory of Ravenstern in the north formed a coalition army and, with the help of the Misty Mountain Highlanders of the Fallen Bay, defeated the Northern Misty Mountain people and drove them back to the north of the Misty Mountains, and subsequently established the Kingdom of Ravenstern.
Today, the term 'Misty Mountaineers' no longer actually applies to this people, only to those barbarians who still live north of the Misty Mountains.
The people of the Northern Misty Mountains have changed very little, and their population is still limited by their barren land.
In order to maintain peace among the tribes in the Northern Misty Mountains, the leaders and shamans of the major tribes in the Misty Mountains have now changed their tactics, transforming the original internal war into external plunder.
They began to systematically send young men from each tribe to the south of the Misty Mountains every year to plunder the richer land of Pendor.
Moreover, this practice was described by the shamans as the will of the mountain god "Viyovis", and gradually formed a rule - this is the coming-of-age ceremony for the people of the Misty Mountains.
Except for the first heirs of each tribe, all others must form or join a raiding team to the Stern Raven Territory when they reach adulthood.
In other words, all members of a raiding team are young people who have just reached adulthood, and the team leader is usually the second heir to a tribe who has just reached adulthood.
Those who can return with a large amount of spoils will be given the opportunity to marry into a large tribe.
If the leader's looting level is high enough and he can bring back good grain seeds, he will be recognized by all the tribes and allowed to form a new tribe - no matter which ethnic group, what they care about in the end is food.
Objectively speaking, from the perspective of the people of the Northern Misty Mountains, there is nothing wrong with this approach. The desolate and barren frozen land cannot support so many people, and sending people to the south to rob is better than killing each other among the tribes.
Therefore, the Misty Mountain raiding team that came to Ravenstern was basically led by the son or daughter of a tribal leader, and the team members were a joint force composed of young people from various tribes.
Since the team members come from various tribes, the leader must be responsible for the lives of the members of the plundering team. If a member of the team dies, the leader will owe a large "blood debt" to the family of the deceased when he returns.
Therefore, forming a plundering team is not a good job. It is like being forced to take risks by borrowing from loan sharks, and the lives borrowed are from other ethnic groups - which means great risks.
Limited by the technical level and resources of the Misty Mountain people, the equipment of the plundering teams is relatively poor, and the "blood debts" of these team leaders often accumulate.
As a result, many Misty Mountain raiding leaders may eventually have no choice but to settle down in Ravenstern, living a miserable life with some robbers.
The existence of this "blood debt" system seems to be to prevent the leader from giving blind commands and causing excessive losses, but in fact, it is a trap designed by the large tribe.
Because the leaders and members of the Misty Mountain Raiding Team were all young adults who had just reached adulthood, they had never seen the world and had little experience in the martial arts world. The quality of their equipment and organization could not compete with the army of the Stern Raven Realm, so most of the leaders could not come back alive.
For the few who came back, their spoils could not offset the blood debt, which often led to the leader's tribe being forced to join the larger tribe due to too much debt.
The great tribes of Misty Mountain thus achieved two birds with one stone.
On the one hand, they had a stable source of spoils; on the other hand, they could use this method to deprive small tribes of most of their combat power and resources in order to annex them.
Thanks to these raiding teams, there has not been a large-scale war among the tribes in the Northern Misty Mountains for more than a hundred years, but the annexation of small tribes is happening all the time.
The 'Cat's Claw' tribe led by Andongjia's father was a small tribe of only 300 people.
But the Misty Mountain people who died in the Noldor Forest were not the raiders led by Andonga. They were all warriors from the Bear Claw tribe, a large tribe of 3,000 people - such a number of people was already a powerful force north of the Misty Mountains.
As the daughter of a small tribal leader, Andongjia brought a plundering team of more than 200 people to the Stern Crow Realm, and the team members came from various tribes.
This is a routine and an assignment that cannot be refused.
Originally, the progress of this plundering team was very smooth.
Andongjia was not the kind of fool whose brain was filled with only muscles. She never provoked the patrols and overlords of the Stern Raven Territory. Instead, she led her team to successfully rob several noble farms in remote locations and obtained a lot of spoils.
But then she met a group of the Bear Paw tribe near Oldenburg, and the shaman of the Bear Paw tribe expressed his willingness to join forces with her.
At first she thought this was a good thing - as members of the same Misty Mountain tribe, it would indeed be safer to be able to support each other in the Stern Ravenland.
The shaman of the Bear Claw tribe suggested that they could join forces to attack Earl Stephen's village of Belbook, which had a large supply of food.
There were more than 500 people on both sides in total, which was more than enough to capture a village, and there was no need to attack the city. This seemed to be a reasonable plan.
But after Andongjia attacked the village, the people of the Bear Claw tribe retreated directly.
Then, a large number of Count Stephen's troops appeared outside the village and surrounded Andonga's plundering team...
Under the rain of arrows from the Ravenstern Rangers, Andongjia suffered a devastating defeat and his entire army was wiped out.
She managed to escape from the battlefield with great difficulty - in fact, she was able to escape only because she was wearing a fur robe and carrying a Ravenstern sword, which made her look more like a Ravenstern person than a Misty Mountain wildling.
Having lost all her troops, she returned to the tribe, but she owed a huge blood debt that she could never pay off.
Not long after that, people from the Bear Claw tribe came to collect their debt.
All the blood debts that Andongjia owed to other tribes were transferred to the Bear Claw Tribe!
It was obvious that the ambush on Andongjia was deliberately staged by the Bear Claw Tribe in order to make her bear a huge blood debt that she could not repay.
So her father expelled him from the tribe to prevent the huge debt from being borne by the Cat's Paw tribe - which would lead to the Cat's Paw tribe being annexed.
Andongjia didn't expect that the people of the Bear Claw Tribe, who are also a tribe of the Misty Mountain, would be so sinister.
But she had no choice but to accept such a fate. She took on a huge debt and returned alone to the south of Misty Mountain.
However, from then on, she was no longer the innocent young person she used to be. Of course, people who have been harmed by such a conspiracy will grow up rapidly.
She began to look for people from the Bear Claw Tribe in the Crow Stern. She knew that the Bear Claw Tribe would use the same method to harm other small tribes. Since the shaman's troops had not returned yet, they must still be in the Crow Stern.
Andongjia did not hate Earl Stephen who caused the annihilation of her army. In her opinion, it was natural for the owner of the village to kill the looters to protect his property. In fact, no matter what the reason was, as long as the opponent was killed in a fair manner, he would not be considered an enemy to the people of Misty Mountain.
But she hated the people of the Bear Claw Tribe.
She wants revenge.
Soon she did find it, near Oldenburg.
This time, Andongjia painted the mark on her face herself and told the shaman of the Bear Claw Tribe that she was about to marry the leader of the Bear Claw Tribe as a concubine, and that the Cat Claw Tribe had also been incorporated into the Bear Claw Tribe.
This statement is actually very credible, because the shaman knows that the leader of the Bear Claw tribe had originally planned to do this.
The claw marks on Andongjia's face are indeed a sign of engagement - the people of the Northern Misty Mountains are relatively barbaric and have always implemented a system of bride kidnapping. Girls without marks on their faces are likely to be kidnapped.
Of course, many fierce women will also force young men to marry.
If there is a tribal mark on the face, it means that this person is the wife or concubine of the tribal leader. Anyone who dares to rob her will be hunted down by the entire tribe.
You can call the marks on An Dongjia's face cat's claws or bear's claws, anyway, they all look like this when applied on the face...
So the shaman had no doubts. In his opinion, Andongjia had no choice but to face this fate.
Moreover, An Dongjia cleverly stated that she had not forgotten that the shaman had ambushed her. If she did not want to be troubled by the shaman when she returned, she'd better do her a favor, otherwise she would be in trouble sooner or later.
The shaman actually believed it - Andongjia's lies and threats all matched the shaman's expectations.
Although the shaman has a high status in the tribe, the leader of the Bear Claw tribe is quite powerful, and with Andongjia's identity, it is indeed very likely that she will become a favorite concubine... Then the shaman will definitely not have a good life.
Andongjia told the shaman that the Cat's Claw Tribe once hid a lot of property and leather in the East Misty Mountain. She wanted to take back these properties so that her father and brother could redeem their freedom.
Her father and brother were tribal leaders, and now that they had been annexed, it was not appropriate for them to become servants. She wanted to take back their property to redeem them, which seemed to be a very normal way of thinking and was in line with the concept of redeeming a blood debt.
The East Misty Mountains are the big snowy mountains to the east of the Jatu Grasslands and the Noldor Forest, but this snowy mountain is different from the North Misty Mountains. The side close to the grassland and the forest has become an insurmountable iceberg due to the influence of warm air, and it is basically impossible to climb over.
But the Cat's Paw Tribe did originally develop from the other side of the East Misty Mountains.
It is indeed possible that a tribal leader who developed from here hid something in an iceberg that no one could cross - the environment on the iceberg is generally relatively fixed, and there are few birds and animals, and things can remain intact for years, making it a good place to hide treasures.
Even if it's fake, it's just a wasted trip... Anyway, the shamans of the Bear Claw Tribe have robbed a lot of villages in the Crow Territory recently, and they originally planned to stay out of the spotlight.
So the shaman asked Andongjia for the specific location, and decided to take her with him to find the property.
Of course, this shaman definitely had no good intentions—but it just so happened that Andongjia didn’t have any good intentions either…
She led the people of the Bear Claw Tribe to the southern part of the Jatu Grasslands, where it bordered the Noldor Forest - this place was extremely dangerous, but it fit her lie very well, because the East Misty Mountains could be seen to the east.
This place has Jatu to the north, the Noldor to the south, BraveShield to the west, and the tallest iceberg in the entire continent to the east. It is the most dangerous place in Pendor. If you encounter any situation, you will have nowhere to escape.
Andongjia, who had lived in the East Misty Mountains, deliberately brought the Bear Claw Tribe here.
Andongjia just wanted to lead the people of the Bear Claw Tribe to a place of death in the same way that the shaman had harmed her, so as to give her a tooth for a tooth.
She was burdened with countless blood debts and was kicked out of her home. She didn't want to live anymore.
However, Andongjia's revenge plan was only half successful here.
The first people the Bear Claw tribe encountered were the Jatu people, and they were the troops of the "Destroyer" Juda.
But just when the Bear Claw tribe and the Jatu people met, a group of Ebony Gauntlet Knights emerged from the Noldor Forest...
About a hundred ebony hammermen.
These Ebony Hammermen originally wanted to lure Aldarian to the Jatu Grassland. In fact, they also sent people from the mercenary group to attract the Jatu troops, so Juda's team appeared here.
But when they saw the people from the Bear Claw Tribe, the Ebony Hammermen had a bit of a misunderstanding - they thought these Misty Mountain people were sent to attract Zhuda's "friendly forces"...
These people from the Bear Claw Tribe had indeed robbed a lot of equipment before, and their clothes were pieced together, so from a distance they did look like a mercenary group with poor equipment.
As a result, the Ebony Hammermen planned to join the "friendly forces"...
As they got closer, the Misty Mountain Shaman of course misunderstood. He thought that this army of hammermen was going to attack them - and as a result, the two sides fought each other in confusion.
At this time, Aldarian also rushed out with more than hundreds of Noldor warriors - the Jatu and the Noldor had a blood feud, and the warlord Juda had a special hatred for the Noldor elves. When he saw the Noldor elves, he launched an attack immediately.
The more than 300 people from the Bear Claw Tribe were fighting with the Ebony Hammermen, so Zhuda of course ignored them.
And it just so happened that Aldarian was also a Noldor lord who hated the Jatu people very much. He thought that the Jatu people were ambushing him...
As a result, the Noldor and the Jatu fought each other.
When the Ebony Hammerman found out something was wrong, he was planning to run away, but Andongjia instigated him: "These people look very rich, and their equipment is also very valuable! And there are only so many of them..."
As a result, the people of the Bear Claw Tribe chased the Ebony Hammer Man and beat him up, chasing him for several miles.
The Ebony Hammermen were few in number and had no will to fight. In addition, the Misty Mountaineers were very good at hand-to-hand combat, so more than half of them were quickly killed, leaving only a few alive.
Later, the shaman of the Bear Claw tribe learned from the Ebony Hammerman that thousands of mercenaries were attacking the Noldor Forest.
This is a good opportunity to fish in troubled waters. The Misty Mountain people, who have been plundering for a long time, like to take advantage of the chaos...
Everyone knows that the Noldor Forest is full of valuable things, whether it is weapons and equipment, horses, or the Noldor elves themselves. Getting anything will be much more rewarding than robbing a village!
So the greedy shaman was tempted, and with the addition of a lot of equipment from the Knights of the Ebony Gauntlet, the morale of the people of the Misty Mountain increased greatly. Seeing that the Jatu and the Noldor elves were fighting to a standstill, the greedy shaman led his troops to ambush Aldarian from behind.
Speaking of which, this shaman is actually quite smart. He knows that this approach will allow the Jatu people to fight alongside him - the Jatu people also make a living by looting, so they should be able to take advantage of the situation!
This way, the chances are much greater!
Aldarian did not expect the Misty Mountaineer to come back. He had the upper hand, but the Misty Mountaineer suddenly appeared behind him and rushed into the archers' formation.
Being attacked from both sides and engaging in hand-to-hand combat, Ardarian had no choice but to retreat with his entire army.
During this retreat, they obtained a lot of Noldor equipment and loot. Feeling that they could still gain some advantage, the Misty Mountaineers followed suit.
Zhuda's troops got help from the Misty Mountaineers for unknown reasons, so they did not attack them. Instead, they followed them into the forest. If the Misty Mountaineers dared to chase them into the forest, then Zhuda's Jatu people must also chase them in.
Because Zhu Da was an extremely brutal warlord, if any of his troops dared to show cowardice, he would shoot the cowardly person from behind.
So this Jatu army can only advance and not retreat on the battlefield!
But it was actually very difficult to retreat once they entered the forest - as they chased, the large force became scattered in the forest, and Zhuda was unable to pass orders to them.
In such a large area of ​​virgin forest, it is inevitable to get lost. Even with modern equipment, it is not guaranteed that you can get out...
These Misty Mountain people couldn't find their way in the forest and many of them got lost, but after wandering for two days, they found this horse farm.
Three or four hundred Jatu people who had been separated from the main force also followed them here.
In fact, until Leon arrived, the Jatu people and the Misty Mountain people had no effective communication - they did not speak the same language.
But they have been in a very strange situation of mutual encouragement these two days...
The Jatu people believed that since the Misty Mountain people dared to attack the Noldor, they must be no less powerful.
The Misty Mountaineers thought that since the Jatu dared to invade the Noldor Forest on a large scale, it meant that what the Ebony Hammerman said must be true. Several thousand troops in the south must have already attacked the Noldor Forest - if everyone dared to attack, then of course they could also take advantage of the situation and gain some benefits.
Moreover, they assisted the Jatu people, and the Jatu people did not attack them at all, which means that everyone's goal was to rob in the Noldor Forest...
Then they discovered that the Noldor were moving their property here - a large group of elven horses and a large amount of supplies.
Of course, the Jatu people became excited all of a sudden...they dreamed of getting Noldor elf horses!
The Shaman of the Bear Claw tribe also became excited. He found that there were very few Noldor elves here, but the property they were transferring seemed to be a lot!