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The Hunters and their leader, from the book cover.
The Tribe of Face-tail Hunters (known also as "the other Named Clan" or "the other Named", later as "Hunters" or "Song-Hearers") is an organized group of sentient Dinaelurus illumina sapiens that appears first in Ratha's Challenge. It's members are called both hunters or song-hearer.
Organization and structure[]
The members of the tribe are sentient as the Named that bear however some differences. They're hunters, and not herders, and appear to have been specialized in hunting primarily the Face-Tails. Their features are a mix between the Named and the Un-Named: some members are known for bulky bodies and protruding fangs as the Un-Named. Yet they've all the same self-awareness and intelligence of the Named even if with some significant differences. A widespread color of the pelts is brown, while the blood-line of the leaders has silver pelt.
Differently from the Named, they focus their awareness toward inside (rather then the external world) and follow a mental link through a singing coming from their leader. This mysterious song provide the members of the tribe joy, peace, knowledge and instincts to behave according the situation: such kind of collective link at first puzzled the Named (and scared Ratha) because appeared as if the whole tribe was subjected to some kind of mind control and absolute power of their leader. The reality was partially different, because the leader True-of-voice appears to share the collective memories of all the deceased ancestors of his line, providing tactics and instructions: new knowledge are quickly integrated in the song and each Hunter has no need of training before replicate a tactic or a skill. The song itself it's not lacking of faults: when Thistle-chaser (that manage to share the same selfness of her inner side and listen the song) met the tribe, the song included her knowledge and applied it to the hunting of face-tail causing an excessive number of killings and the wounding of the same True-of-voice.
The song also makes them appear "dream-walking" and not much talkative at the eyes of the Named, this is partially true because the specific members of the tribe bear little interest in the individual awareness and give much more importance at the collective group. This doesn't means that individual hurt hunters are uncared (Quiet-voice is feed by the others when he could not move) or that they don't socialize, but their way to show such behavior is seen as weird and at first incomprehensible at the eyes of the Named.
In Ratha's Courage, it is suggested that the song seemed to be transmitted by scent, as much as hearing, but Thistle-chaser explained how it's something that can't be perceived with the normal senses of smelling or hearing. In Ratha's Courage is revealed how the song can be partially perceived during some particular events (as when the whole Tribe gathered together manifests the song) by the Named with smelling and listening, but it's not a full experience of the phenomenon.
Differently from the Named Clan, the Hunters display an unique burial practice that include a communal mourning through the song and expose the bodies of the deceased to carrion-eaters (mostly hawks) on the top of an high cracked rock. This practices is linked with the purpose of the fall ones of "going to air" (being their flesh literally part of flying creatures). A second great weakness of the song and the whole living system of the tribe it's that the sudden death of the leader (and the song) could quickly lead to madness and death all the other members. It's explained how the gift is passed through the line of the leader, but at the time of Ratha's Challenge, True-of-voice is said to have lost her former mate and has no children. However by the time of Ratha's Courage he mated and had children: one of them able to create his own song.
In Bonechewer's Legacy is revealed that the leader's name "True-of-voice" is hereditary. Once the previous leader is replaced by his heir, he's renamed "Once-sung", and the new leader take the name "True-of-voice".
History[]
Ratha's Challenge[]
To be continued...
Ratha's Courage[]
To be continued...