Lasai
The sand cat strain, and the smallest and fastest of the eight. "An athletic and sharp strain of the species. They are hunters of the sanded regions, being able to withstand the harsh climates with little to no water, but still being reliant on it they keep close to House Ikal."
They ride, which no other Lathonian does well, and the riding is what the world knows them for. The Grass Riders of Ikarma are Lasai, and the horses are bred at Ikarma and are not sold.
Body
Tight beige fur with brown striping, wide flat faces, snubbed ears. Five to five and a half feet, the smallest of the strains and the fastest over open country, and the lightest in the shoulder. They hold water badly and know it, which is the reason they stay near a house with a river.
The hand is the species hand and the claws do not sheathe, and in a people who ride that is a genuine problem: a Lasai cannot handle rein or rope without cutting it, and the tack at Ikarma is made of hide cut thick for exactly that reason.
Society
The Grass Riders are the institution: "forty strong Latharian, Sand Cat humanoid Grass Riders, all mounted on their EXOTIC WHITE-BLACK HORSES," masked, sabre-armed, devoutly religious, sworn to House Ikal, their tall spears carrying "various sharpened bones and teeth" lashed to the head.
The mask is not ornament. It is worn against sand and it is kept on in the hall, and a Grass Rider unmasked in front of an outsider has either sworn something or is about to.
Faith
They keep the Kept Law and they keep the cult of Ikalis over the top of it, and they see no difficulty in that at all. The Keyholder of a Lasai company will tell a rider his term and then let the house chaplain absolve him of it, and neither of them finds this strange. The riders swear by the blood of Ikalis and go willing to a heresy when House Ikal requires one.
Lore
Summary
Extended Lore
Still unwritten in the record for this entry.
- What the Lasai were before House Ikal took them on, and whether any ride for anyone else
- Who Ikalis is, beyond the oaths sworn on his blood
- Whether a Lasai company has ever refused House Ikal an order