The conquest of Riman was a broadly positive affair, bringing the Urapi more land, resources and manpower. It was not without its issues, however, for example the raiders to the south.

These raiders were an utterly alien people, riding strange arch-backed beasts that the Urapi had never seen prior to their migration. These people were odd, seeming to live most of their lives in places the Urapi would consider borderline uninhabitable, yet it was hard not to respect that. They were strong, forged in a harsh environment just as the mountainous Urapi ancestors had been.

Worthy or respect or not, they were very much a nuisance. The Erda Tupar immediately set to finding a solution, yet each and every one was stymied. When it was decreed settlements were to be protected with walls, those least well defended were targeted instead. When militia were organised to throw back the raiders, they threw them back, but only after days or weeks or looting had already occurred. When punitive attacks were launched in response, the enemy simply retreated into the sands.

Ultimately, it was a Rimanite Branded who offered the solution that saw success. Having fought against the raiders for many more generations than the Urapi, the Rimanites knew them better. Knew that, for example, the raiders were fractured into many groups who fought each other almost as often as they raided foreigners. Though most of these camel-riders were so-called 'Arabs' who despite their political differences nevertheless saw each other as kin, one of the tribes instead called themselves Nizarites, with their own dress, language and culture.

The Erda Tupar saw the relative isolation of the Nizarites from their neighbours as an opportunity. They reached out to their leadership - their elders, they noted with interest - and invited them to meet. Soon establishing that recent Nizarite history was that of defeat, subjugation and shrinking just as the Urapi's had been, it was decreed that the Urapi would sponsor and aid the Nizarites against the Arab tribes, in exchange for protection from those same Arabs and access to whatever expertise or resources the Nizarites had available to them.

The Nizarites were only too happy to agree, reversing their own fortunes upon the sands with the weapons and logistical support provided by the Urapi, and soon gaining a degree of influence over their Arab competitors, opening them up to influence from Varic art and culture and generally encouraging raids to go west rather than north or east.

Map - expansion is in red, previous week's in blue.