The humans of southern Erenland are smaller and much leaner than the big Dorns. They have deepbrown skin and glossy black hair. Their eyes are the deepest brown and set in narrow lids that grant them hard stares when angry and bright smiles when pleased. They paint their skin with herbal salves that make intricate designs on their faces, arms, and chests for nothing more than the haunting beauty it creates. They dress in flowing pants and loose robes that offffer them both protection from the elements and the freedom they need to ride and fifight. Like the Dorns, these southlanders once swore allegiance to noble rulers. Under the rule of the Shadow, most of these sussars, or "sworn riders", have been killed or forced to ride as outlaws. Those sussars who pledged their loyalties to Izrador are—like the traitor princes in the north—traitors to their own people, and have become soulless and hollow tyrants under the control of the legates and their orc enforcers. By the time the forces of Izrador reached the southern cities of Erenland almost a century ago, the human armies had been crushed, and only a few cities resisted. Cambrial and Alvedara were both razed for their refusal to surrender. Sharuun, Hallisport, and several other cities still stand, essentially as they did before the war. As a result, many southlanders still live in the cities their ancestors built. Unfortunately, the inflated false economies, brutal Shadow garrisons, and capriciously evil legates that plague these urban areas serve as a constant reminder that while the cities may still stand, the spirit that built them has been all but crushed. There is hope, however. More and more of the southern Erenlanders have retaken the name of their ancestors, the Sarcosans, and have reclaimed the nomadic ways of those conquering horsemen. These mobile bands are led by outlaw sussars or their kin and live in small tent villages that pop up in the night and are gone by dawn. Each of these nomads is as one with their horse, and no other cavalry matches a trained Sarcosan unit in terms of skill and courage. But even these daring freeriders cannot succeed against the beings who occupy their lands, ten times their number of entrenched, well-armed, and well-armored orcs, goblinoids, and turncoat humans supported by legate commanders. Knights and lords are therefore forced to live as bandits and renegades, surviving on wild game and the spoils of their raids. They are continuously hunted by the minions of the Shadow and must be careful whom they trust. Sarcosan riders favor versatility and fifinesse over brute strength. They wield Sarcosan lances and composite longbows when on horseback. On foot, they oftften fifight with a wickedly curved scimitar in one hand and an inward-curving shortsword called a cedeku in the other.