>> (P&BR p.61 refers to Joraz Kyrem's mercenaries, not to the >> Pure Horse People who arrived at Necklace Horse in the 620s).
> When Pavis was in Dragon Pass, he met Joraz Kyrem "Khan of the Pure
> Horse People, who was anxious to re-establish his family in Prax"
> (P&BR p56) and the Horses used in the breeding were "mares and
> stallions with shining golden eyes" (P&BR p61). The Pure Horse
> People had apparently fled Prax after Paragua trashed Robcradle.
> So to label Joraz's folk mercenaries and to deny that they were pure
> horse people is a bit much.
But the Pure Horse People, who arrived in Prax c.620 ST, somehow survived the two and a half centuries prior to Joraz Kyrem's return without zebrafying their steeds. This casts doubt on your apparent assertion that horses can only survive in Prax by cross-breeding with zebras.
I agree that this is the only way they have in the past become not-horses acceptable to Eiritha ("in bondage, broken from kin"). I submit that there is no evidence that the vast majority of the Pure Horse Tribe became zebra riders in the 870s, nor that there is evidence that the historic Pure Horse Tribe or modern Cattle Bastards of Prax ride "non-horses acceptable to Eiritha." Their particular mistreatment is because they ride horses. The Zebra Riders of the Pavis Royal Guard are not prejudiced against in this way, because a horse is not a zebra.
I agree that Joraz Kyrem's folk were not mercenaries, but Joraz Kyrem did of course hire mercenaries (fighting for land) when in Dragon Pass -- the Sun Dome Templars under Arinsor explicitly, and perhaps the horse folk reinforcements who became Zebra Riders too. I think you'd have a hard job selling a zebra as a "pure horse" of any kind -- granted Joraz' kin were PHP before the crossbreeding, they certainly weren't afterwards. And they weren't *all* the PHP, either.
Finally, I do not think there is any evidence that the Grazelanders, descended from the Second Age Pure Horse People of Prax, and expelled almost four centuries *after* Joraz Kyrem's pioneering experiments, ride Zebras. This suggests that the Pure Zebra People are a figment, not a fact.
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Nick Email: <Nick_Brooke_at_btinternet.com>
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