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[}}Alanna]

Long ago, though not as long as the beginning of horse's reign upon the world, the island was in tormoil. There was no such thing as herds, though every horse knew they belonged with each other. That is one instinct man was unable to snuff out. Unfortunately, the agression that had been bred into the species for hundreds of years made herd life hard to bare. No one was happy. Twin foals, however, were the least happy. Their names? Malek and Kelam. Their mother, the beautiful Aphrice, was one of the most agressive mares to walk upon this sweet ground.

Before they were ready, she kicked the twins from her protection. It was an accident, really, when man added a gene for mares to want offspring less, and this act of evil proved it. For the first two years of life, the brothers were inseperable. Nothing could come between them. They managed, with difficulty, to find a mare willing to nurse them -- she had lost her own foal to a snake bite. Luckilly, the trait Aphrice showed was still fairly rare. This foster mare, Ayaa, took the twins and raised them. They were lucky, for Ayaa was a diamond in the rough: one of the few horses that still believed herd life was the best life.

Unfortunately, Kalem and Malek managed to get the worst traits from both of their parents, though they never knew their father. Both brothers were as agressive as they come. They were ruthless and very hard-hearted, no matter how much love Ayaa gave them. The only difference between the two was Malek believed in allies and Kalem believed only in servants. As they aged, still travelling with Ayaa, Kalem decided that he was more dominant than his brother. The fight began. Ayaa, despairing at her 'son's' fates, tried to stop the brothers from killing the other. A stray hoof caught her in the soft place just under her head, killing her in minutes.

Each brother claimed it wasn't his hoof that had done it. Neither knew for sure, so both blamed it on the other. Thus started the war. For years, the brothers gathered followers and murdered the other's resources. In a very anticlimactic ending, Malek died after breaking his leg in a common rodent hole. Kalem, no longer with a life goal (avenge the death of Ayaa), perished by his own hoof, as it were. Afterward, the war dissipated. The two main 'herds' of the land disintegrated. Life went back, basically, to the way it was before the war.

Finally, three years later, a stallion saw that he would live longer if he had others fight for him. So began the New Era. Since then, small herds have been sprouting up all over the place. Stallions never lost their desire to pass on their genes, though some mares lost the desire to keep their foals. Over time, three herds seemed to dominate the others. The Own, ruled by its king, Catalyst, ruled by its HIGHEST RANK HERE, and LAST RULING HERD, ruled by its HIGHEST RANK HERE. These three ruling herds hardly ever openly war against each other. Other, smaller herds, look to these three with defference.

Frankly, if you have a band of 6 and fight against a band of 200 or more, you'd back down too or surrender to death. The leads of these three herds change constantly. It's hard to lead a herd of killers. However, the power each lead holds over his own herd and all lesser herds is worth the risk of death to most horses, stallion and mare. These three herds have been in power for so long that if one were to disappear, it would cause panic across the island, and even the mainland would hear of it.