The Tedrel mercenaries were an exiled nation that formed into mercenary companies. The Mercenary Guild however, issued warnings to their members not to fight either with them or against them due to their fanaticism. brutality and complete lack of anything resembling honor. They held to no oaths, but those made to each other. They could, and had, turned on their employers and allies.
Three or four generations before the Reign of Sendar, in "a land south and far, far east of Karse"[1] there was a terrible civil war. The losing side went into exile, and eventually became the Tedrels. Having nothing, beyond being skilled fighters, they became mercenaries--a nation of wandering mercenary companies, seeking a homeland. There was nothing they wouldn't do to obtain a land of their own.
Over the generations, the Tedrels changed encompassing all the worst in humanity--the epitome of cruelty. They determined not to marry or have families until they had their own land to settle down on. The only women in their midst were camp followers and enslaved women to be used for breeding. The men and women had separate camps. The youngest children stayed with the women. When the boys are around ten or eleven, they were taken away from their mothers and forced into the Boy's Bands. The boys were not given anything, including food. They had to steal what they could, then fight each other for it. Many died, but those who survived become the kinds of fighters the Tedrels sought in the next generation.
Tedrel Wars[]
Looking to eradicate Valdemar once and for all, Karse hired the entire Tedrel nation. The mercenaries built fortifications along the Valdemar border, then opened a long series of wars that stretched across four years of fighting. Their plan was to bleed Valdemar dry, then invade in a final push when the nation was too weak to defend itself. It would have worked had Valdemar not caught on to the scheme. Using the knowledge of who some of the agents were, they carefully planted evidence that the tactic was succeeding, luring the Tedrels into launching their invasion too soon.
In the final fight, King Sendar of Valdemar was killed, but the Tedrels as a people were entirely destroyed. The men who escaped the battle took on new identities. Some stayed in Valdemar, others moved on to other countries. The women either escaped into Karse and were absorbed by the population, or resettled into new lives in Valdemar. That left only the children, who were wholly welcomed into Valdemar, a number of which were Chosen before the army had a chance to march home.
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- ↑ Exile's Honor, Chapter 7