The Roamani (Patreon)

Of all the zebra tribes, none are more pivotal than the Roamani.  With their long, vertical stripes, the Roamani seem to blend together into a unified force that can equal any enemy.

While many claim the Orah were the 'last tribe', the Roamani continued to march for centuries after the other tribes settled across Zebrinica.  Roamani armies would move to deter any threat that encroached on villages, then continue on.  Roamani warbands became legendary for their prowess in combat, and were celebrated as mighty heroes.  But many of the other tribes feared that these warbands could either turn against one and other, or against the tribes they claimed to protect.

Thus came the great effort to settle and end the Migration once and for all.  The Propoli built entire cities for the Roamani to inhabit.  The Tappahani and Carnillians threw feasts and bacchanals to sate them.  Even the Achu challenged them to fights, where the losers would stop their march.  However, all would fail as the Roamani kept to their duty, mustering out at dawn and continuing their march.

It wasn't until the Starkatteri raised the cursed city and threatened to call down a star that the Roamani way would change forever.  The fractured warbands were too scattered and disorganized to prevent the Starkatteri seers from predicting and neutralizing them individually.  It was only by unifying under one general command and authority that they could liberate territory claimed by the Starkatteri.  Eventually, in desperation, the Starkatteri tried to summon a star, only for the attempt to explode in their faces.  The Starkatteri were thusly cursed and the newly unified Roamani was rewarded with the prestige that much of the tribe desired.

Roamani are organized around the strength of the group over the strength of the individual, the veneration of good leadership, and on harmony and unity.  All individuals are to contribute what they can, despite personal weaknesses, and those who can lead should.  Roamani do everything as teams.  Families are large, polyamorous units with hierarchical leadership.  Children learn in teams how to do everything, and chores as a must.  Elders supervise and educate.  Clothes, toys, tools, and weapons are all shared, and everyone is responsible for their upkeep.

However, every individual Roamani is expected to know their strengths and weaknesses.  Thus, a series of tests are crafted for every Roamani to undertake and be categorized.  Borrowed from the Achu, the Trials range from simple academic tests to debate to war games meant to bring good leadership to the fore.  Success or failure in trials lead to rank, which leads to status within the tribe.  Elders are also expected to pass trials to demonstrate their fitness, and failure to do so can lead to demotion or retirement.  Some Roamani proditor refuse to take part in the trials, becoming 'observers'.  These pariahs may live with Roamani, even procreate, but will never be given leadership or responsibility.  However, high ranking Roamani do take their observations seriously.  Many Roamani proditor act as supervisors during the Trials, and have exposed corruption in the past.

Roamani fashion is decidedly unitarian.  Clothing are uniform, with rank and family denoted by pips on collars and shoulders or helmet plumes.  Homes are built in easily fortified and defended blocks, each one identical to its fellows, and easily barricaded in the event of an attack.  Roamani like cheap, efficient, and easily shared goods, much to the chagrin of materialist Propoli.  Roamani frequently skip modern transportation infrastructure, though they are quite fond of trains which can transport an entire family together.

Romantically, the Roamani are polyamorous.  Once someone has undertaken their first trial and passed it, they can mate with anyone else who has passed their first trial.  Gender is largely irrelevant, and unlike the Carnillians, steps are often taken to prevent unwanted pregnancies in younger mares.  Bisexuality is encouraged and it is encouraged for individuals to not be neglected.  Elders will frequently arrange 'transfers' to bring in new blood and genetics to families to prevent inbreeding.  Any child birthed is a part of the mother's family, regardless of sire, and expected to have a place regardless of the circumstances of their birth.  Occasionally officers will 'wed' and form exclusive breeding groups, but their children will be subject to the same rules as everyone else.

Every Roamani has two traditions: serving in a military position for a minimum of three years and undertaking the great patrol once in their life.   The imperial legions and leadership are thus over half Roamani, until the advent of the war.  Even the weak are expected to serve as bureaucracy, logistics, medics, or other fields.  'The bureaucrat that gets the bullet to the soldier is no less vital than the soldier that fires it.'  is a common saying in the tribe.  'You can fight one Roamani with ease, but you better be ready for ninteen more.'

In the first Empire, the Roamani were celebrated heroes who fought and pacified many of the race's enemies.  Demographically, the Roamani were the second largest tribe, after the Carnillians.  Roamani teams could be found everywhere, working in groups of ten and twenty towards whatever goal were desired.  For many, Roamani were the military and the defacto government bureaucracy.  

However, the manifestation of Nightmare Moon in Equestria humiliated and frustrated the tribe.  They lacked the shamanistic means to counter the power.  In addition, in the second Empire, the Roamani became victims of their own successes.  In defeating most of their adversaries, the tribe's fortune faded.  While the tribe did see some success with industrialization, it lacked the prestige that duty and service had permitted.  Teamwork may have been valued in a factory, but it was hardly a battlefield.

The rise of the last Caesar as a Roamani was something of a fluke.  The Propoli and Roamani elders were closely entwined thanks to Roamani workers in Propoli factories.  The Roamani, planning to back the Propoli, selected a decent, but relatively unknown Colonel as their candidate with the expectation that he would do a good showing, and then bow out to the Propoli candidate.  The Colonel was known to be sympathetic and protective to Starkatteri in the past, and thus was dismissed as unelectable.  However, the Propoli candidate died in an accident, slipping and breaking her neck, and thus the Propoli were forced to back him.  The Carnilians, who had already resigned their candidate, joined the block.

The 3/3/3/3 deadlock set in, and the Starkatteri cast the deciding vote, deciding history.

In the runup to the war, the tribe had a resurgence of enlistment.  Many cities, eager to show solidarity to the new caesar, joined up to the point the legions turned them away.  However, other tribes had severe friction with the Roamani, in particular, the Atoli, who felt the Roamani had corrupted themselves by accepting the Starkatteri vote and believed that had they rejected it, another round of voting would have put their candidate on top.  The Atoli harassed Equestrian business partners, and one crew of 'pirates' even held a group of ponies hostage to force the Caesar to beg their tribe for help.  The Caesar refused, and the Roamani tribe marched to free them.  However, the Wonderbolts were sent in and liberated the hostages before the Roamani could arrive.

This lead to a number of effects.  The Roamani felt utterly humiliated at failing what had been seen as a trial for the entire tribe in general.  It lead a widespread feeling of animosity towards Equestrians.  It also showed the deficiency in Legionnaire technology and organization, leading to a restructuring of the military.  As anti-equestrian sentiment spread, businesses were pinched between the realities of trade and projecting loyalty.  All this culminated with a tarriff crises and a halt of Zebrinican coal shipments.  While technically paid for, those shipments had not been cleared to be released.  When Equestria 'liberated' their coal, it was another slap in the face to the Empire and the Roamani tribe.

The first part of the war was unconventional.  The Roamani tribe was not an existential threat to Equestria to be zapped with rainbows.  So while the Equestrian Royal Guard kept the tribe at bay, the Roamani saw this as a trial to be overcome and a chance to regain their pride.  the Roamani learned from these fights on how to combat winged and magical enemies.  They kept the fighting away from civilian areas, and even allowed the enemy to escape early in the war so they could fight 'worthy opponents' in the future.

However, as the war continued and Zebrinica suffered lack of access to Equestrian gems, the war's end seemed inevitable: the tribes would elect a new Caesar, most likely a Mendi sunstripe, who would sue for peace.  Even the Caesar himself seemed resigned to this outcome.  Then Littlehorn happened.  The attack on the school shook the Empire to the core, but moreover was the Equestrian accusation that a zebra was responsible.  The caesar's plans for an investigation yielded to the political windfall that fell in his lap, and he accused the equestrians of being behind the disaster.  Then princess Celestia resigned to be replaced by Princess Luna.

The war was utterly transformed.  The tribes, almost unanimously, pledged soldiers to the cause.  As Equestria reorganized around the new administration, the Roamani took what they had learned to forge a million strong army.  Peace, or defeat, became unthinkable.  The Roamani tribe became almost indistinguishable from the legions.  All targets were now on the table, and the zebras made early wins along the eastern boarder of Equestria.  However, the battlefront around Hoofington and Broken Ridge calcified and five years after her ascendancy, the war had yielded precious little.

The fiasco at Broken Ridge with the Mendi and Celestia cemented the Last Caesar's command.  The Roamani tribe had been decimated by a generation of war, being reduced in half.  when the day of doom struck, countless tens of thousands more would perish in megaspells.  When victory was declared by the generals, the Roamani were exhausted.  The loss of Roam and other major Roamani settlements caused the tribe to retreat to a number of small settlements to try desperately to repopulate their numbers.  If peace had been allowed, they may have succeeded.  However, the Legions demands for recruits and the Roamani tradition towards service bled the tribe further.

Two hundred years later, the tribe had barely stabilized, and then only due to outsiders joining the tribe.  The Roamani still stand, though weak, and wonder just what is their place in the world.

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