Goshawk Tribe

Biodata

Organization

Leadership and Notable Members

• Unnamed chief — Answered the royal court’s summons and departed with the tribe’s elite thousand-man unit before Victor’s arrival 7.
• Zander — Senior elder directing the tribe’s response to the imperial troops. He opposed a reckless mountain pursuit and arranged for the Cors Tribe to attack first 7 9.
• Cross — One of the tribe’s three greatest warriors, credited with hunting down a fourth-tier magical beast alone. He advocated attacking the apparent supply convoy and later proposed killing Moriarty 7 9 12.
• Unnamed shaman — Attempted to invoke the Great Goshawk Spirit during the night raid but died before completing the summoning 12.

Territory and Livelihood

The tribe moved away from the border when the Holy Glory Empire launched its northern expedition. Unable to compete with stronger tribes for occupied pasture and water sources farther inland, it settled in the relatively remote outskirts of the Dragonbone Mountains. Its people had only recently found suitable grazing land when they discovered imperial troops nearby 7.

• Principal assets: Horses, cattle, sheep, and stored fodder 18.
• Pasture rights: The land outside the mountains belonged to neighboring tribes, although the mountains themselves had no owner 8.
• Access to better land: Small and medium-sized tribes such as the Goshawk Tribe could improve their pasture allotments through contributions to the khanate. Cross therefore regarded battlefield merit and captured supplies as an opportunity to strengthen the tribe 7.

Military Strength

Totem Summoning

• The tribe worshipped a giant goshawk and displayed its image on its banner 8.
• During the camp assault, its shaman began calling upon the Great Goshawk Spirit using the Totem Summoning Technique 12.
• Fleeing tribespeople knocked him down before he finished. The resulting backlash killed him; the narration states that he lacked sufficient strength to use the technique 12.

History

The Convoy Bait

Victor’s scouts initially found traces only of the Goshawk Tribe near the Dragonbone Mountains. With his growing army short of supplies, Victor considered luring its warriors into terrain where Tuwu cavalry would lose their advantage 6.

Cross reported an apparent imperial logistics force of fewer than a thousand men, with few cavalry but numerous valuable wagons. Zander suspected that an organized force capable of retreating into the mountains would not be easy prey, particularly while the tribe’s elite warriors were absent. Rather than attack directly, he decided to draw the neighboring Cors Tribe into leading the pursuit 7.

The Plot Against the Cors Tribe

The Goshawk Tribe bribed an informant to pass the news to its rivals. Moriarty mustered two thousand Cors tribesmen, fearing that the Goshawk Tribe would seize the convoy first. Zander nevertheless worried that a Cors victory could strengthen an already dangerous neighbor 8 9.

Cross proposed waiting until the Cors warriors and imperial troops had weakened one another, then taking the spoils and killing Moriarty. Zander ordered a secret muster while preparing the pretext that Moriarty might become possessed by an evil spirit and require intervention. This would conceal their responsibility for attacking a fellow khanate tribe during wartime 9.

The Goshawk force ultimately halted outside the Dragonbone Mountains rather than entering Victor’s intended ambush. Victor responded by preparing a direct night attack on its camp 10 11.

Destruction of the Field Force

Victor’s soldiers approached to within five hundred meters without detection. They began eliminating the hidden sentries, but one raised the alarm, prompting an immediate assault. Despite the warning, the attackers penetrated the poorly fortified camp before its defenders could organize 11 12.

Cross was killed by a volley of arrows while attempting to form a counterattack. His death broke the defenders’ morale, and the shaman’s failed summoning offered no relief. The Third Army’s archers and spearmen cut down the fleeing warriors 12.

Felix subsequently reported nearly three thousand enemies eliminated. Victor then divided his army, sending Felix and Jasper against the two tribes’ strongholds while leading the remaining troops toward the Cors force in the mountains 13.

Destruction of the Settlement

When the Third Army attacked the Goshawk settlement, those left behind were predominantly elderly people, women, children, and other weak inhabitants. The remaining leaders failed to organize effective resistance. An old priest ordered the livestock released to deny it to the attackers, but few herders obeyed before the defenses collapsed 17.

The attackers slaughtered the inhabitants as survivors fled on horseback. Some tribespeople set fires to destroy supplies they could not carry away. The neighboring Cors settlement suffered a simultaneous attack 17.

A later report to the khan described the two tribes as destroyed, with more than twenty thousand people lost between them and fewer than one in a hundred surviving. Victor separately acknowledged that members of both tribes had escaped 24 25.

Captured Assets

• The settlement victory report claimed nearly ten thousand enemy heads; the narration notes that most of those killed were old or weak 18.
• Victor reserved the warhorses, selected suitable cattle and horses for transport, and ordered nine tenths of the remaining cattle and sheep slaughtered. The meat was to be salted and smoked for preservation 18.

Relationships

• Golden Horde Khanate — Overlord and military authority. The royal court conscripted the tribe’s elite troops and restrained open warfare between it and the Cors Tribe 7 8.
• Cors Tribe — Longstanding neighboring enemy. Competition over pasture and water produced livestock theft, killings of isolated herders, and covert attempts to weaken one another 8 9.
• Victor and the Third Supplementary Army — Destroyed the tribe’s field force and settlement, seizing its herds to relieve their supply shortage 11 12 17 18.
• Seventh Tumen — Contained the Goshawk Tribe’s conscripted contingent. Its members’ desire for revenge helped justify recalling the formation to confront Victor 24.
• Black Bear Tribe — A neighboring tribe alarmed by the destruction. It moved its encampment more than a hundred li farther away and reported the threat to the royal court 24 26.

Aftermath

• Khanate counterattack: After Dragon Spine Pass fell, Silas ordered the Seventh Tumen back to the grasslands to eliminate Victor’s army 24.
• Contested pastures: The destroyed tribes’ grazing lands became available for redistribution. Nearby tribes sought military merit to secure first choice of the abandoned territory 33.
• Intimidation of neighboring tribes: The simultaneous destruction of the Goshawk and Cors Tribes discouraged nearby scouts from approaching Victor’s force, contributing to unreliable estimates of its strength 28.
• The Devil Legion’s reputation: The massacres remained a warning to other Tuwu tribes, many of which avoided Victor’s marching army rather than risk destruction 47.