<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;">Temple of the Order, Gurg Mountains</span></span><br/>"We need to focus on Mazarid, brother," Husam ben Taufiq spoke to the Grand Master.<br/><br/>"Yes, my brother. Mazarid is important," The Grand Master responded. "We must also take care of Ruven as well. Prince Darien el'Ruven is traveling here and should arrive sometime today. I want you to take a detachment of Cataphract Cavalry to ride out and meet the Prince."<br/><br/>"Yes, brother." Husam considered his options and decided he would take two centuries from Yarbay Boutros' Cohort. He would take Binbaşı Cham with him.<br/><br/>"I agree that we need to improve relations with our southern neighbors, but it is also important to foment our relations with Ruven. Afterall, we do reside in their Southern region."<br/><br/>"Yes, brother," Husam bowed to the Grand Master and exited the room. He had dressed in scale armor prepared to ride with the Cataphracts. His helm was hooked onto his horse's saddle. He strode down stairs and mounted the horse named,<span style="font-style: italic">Karim</span>, a Southern word meaning noble. And a noble steed Karim was. Husam always rode with his Aide-de-Camp, Qasim ben Kalb who held the rank of Yüzbaşı.<br/><br/>"Yüzbaşı ben Kalb, we will follow Attia's Maniple out of the fortress and then we ride with Binbaşı Cham and two centuries to meet up with the Ruven Prince."<br/><br/>"Yes brother Taufiq," Yüzbaşı ben Kalb responded. The Aide wore the same style scaled armor. Both brothers also wore the white tabard over their armor with the bright sun emblazoned on the chest. The two riders stood at the edge of a parade field.<br/><br/>The<span style="font-style: italic">post</span>was more rectangular than square, but more oblong than oval. They estimated it was seven miles from north to south and three miles from east to west straddling the bottom of the Gurg mountains separating Ruven from Mazarid. Tuğgeneral Mu'tazz Attia's Maniple were standing on the parade ground, mounted. Brother Attia's Maniple consisted of six Trapezite cohorts or roughly 3600 brothers of the Order. Each cohort consisted 600 brothers organized into six centuries with a Yarbay, commanding. Each century numbered 100 brothers organized into three platoons with a Yüzbaşı, commanding. The Platoon had 33 brothers organized into three sections with an Üsteğmen (Platoon Leader),  Astsubay Çavuş  and Çavuş assisting. Each section numbered only 10 brothers.<br/><br/>Attia's Maniple were preparing to conduct a training exercise outside the post. They were a Trapezite Maniple. The Trapezites are one of four branches of the order of the Temple. These Light Cavalry troopers provide security during movement. Trapezite centuries may be found in front of or on the flanks of the main body of Temple Order units on the march. Their presence acts as an early warning in the event, an enemy attempts to surprise the main body during the march. When in camp, Trapezites form cavalry vedettes or outposts, acting as Listening Posts or Observation Posts (LP/OP) at a reasonable distance from the camp. They also conduct reconnaissance and security patrols (R&S) in areas of operations (AO) in order to gather intelligence on the enemy and prevent surprise attacks.<br/><br/>Trapezites travel light, while wearing leather, studded leather or padded leather armor. They wear a conical iron or bronze helm that slopes inward into a point. At the top of this point, is an 18 inch length of black or brown horse hair cascading over the back of the neck. The riders typically wear a tall black hard leather riding boot that comes up to the knee. The primary weapon for the Trapezite is a three meter (12') lance. At the point of the lance are tied two colored 24" ribbons. One of the colors is white and the other color denotes which cohort the rider belongs to. The Trapezite also carries a sword or mace to use during melee and more often than not also carries a composite recurve bow. Tuğgeneral Attia's cohorts use red, blue, orange, green, black and yellow for each of the six cohorts.<br/><br/>Lord Captain Husam ben Taufiq sat atop<span style="font-style: italic">Karim</span>with his Aide watching as the Light cavalry troopers prepared for their training exercise outside the walls of the Temple. After the first cohort exited the main gate leading north into Ruven, he followed behind the last man to watch the remaining five cohorts exit. Husam and Qasim sat off to the side and watched remaining five cohorts leave. It took almost twenty minutes to clear the gates.<br/><br/>Finally, Binbaşı Qutuz Cham rode out with two hundred heavily armored Cataphracts . Husam and Qasim fell in with Qutuz Cham. "Good morning, brother Cham," Husam greeted the Cohort's executive officer.<br/><br/>"Good morning, brothers ben Taufiq and ben Kalb," the Binbaşı responded. "Fine morning for a ride, wouldn't you agree?" he asked rhetorically.<br/><br/>"Yes, my  brother, it is."<br/><br/>The Cataphracts are the mainstay of the Temple of the Order. They are the riders the Temple gain its reputation from. They are the heavy cavalry and represent the order on diplomatic missions. Cataphracts are the heavy assault force that deploy as "shock troops" to deliver the bulk of an offensive maneuver, while supported by various forms of infantry, when available and mounted archers. They are the "Shock and Awe" in any offensive operation.<br/><br/>The Order of the Temple Cataphracts are universally clad in some form of scale armor, flexible enough to give the rider and horse a good degree of motion, but strong enough to resist the immense impact of a thunderous charge into infantry formations. Their scale armor is made from overlapping, rounded plates of iron of varying thickness from four to six millimeters, which has two or four holes drilled into the sides, threaded with a bronze wire that is sewn onto an undergarment of leather. A similar suit of barding is crafted by artisans and worn by the horse. A full set of scaled cataphract armor consists of approximately 1,300 "scales" and could weigh 40 kilograms (88 pounds). A few Cataphracts wear plated mail or lamellar armor which is similar in appearance but divergent in design to the scaled armor, as it has no backing. This lamellar armor may be substituted for scale armor and worn with a mail undergarment. The horse armor is sectional rather than joined together as a cohesive "suit". It has large plates of scales tied together around the animal's waist, flank, shoulders, neck and head, especially along the breastplate of the saddle. This independent sectional design gives a further degree of movement for the horse and to allow the armor to be affixed to the horse tight enough so that it should not loosen too much during movement.<br/><br/>Those Cataphracts who do not have a leather backing on their scale armor or wear lamelar armor wear a coat of mail over the gambeson and under the lamellar suit. They all wear an iron or bronze helmet with a conical pointed top with mail hanging from the back and sides to protect the neck. Some riders wear a full visor over their face with small eye slits to protect the face, while others prefer just a simple nose strap to keep their vision unblocked. A few riders wear a mail coif and a simple conical helm. All helms have 18" strands of dark horse hair extending  from the pinnacle cascading over the back of the neck and shoulders.<br/><br/>The primary weapon of all cataphract troops is the lance. The weapon is roughly four meters in length, with a capped point made of bronze and is wielded with both hands. Most have a chain attached to the horse's neck and at the end by a fastening attached to the horse's hind leg, which support the use of the lance by transferring the full momentum of a horse's gallop to the thrust of the charge. Members of the Order developed a secure saddle to "fasten" the rider to the horse's body. These saddles have a cantle at the back of the saddle and two guard clamps that curve across the top of the rider's thighs and fasten to the saddle, thereby enabling the rider to stay properly seated, especially during violent contact in battle.<br/><br/>The penetrating power of the cataphract's lance is recognized as being fearful by observers, described as being capable of transfixing two men at once, as well as inflicting deep and mortal wounds even on opposing cavalries' mounts, and are definitely more potent than the regular one-handed spear used by many other Ethnoi cavalry units. This aspect of the Temple Riders have lent the Brethren a reputation as fearful warriors and their cataphracts are widely known for their violence of action when charging into infantry formations.<br/><br/>Cataphracts typically are equipped with an additional side arm such as a sword or mace, for use in the melee that often follows a charge. Some wear armor that is primarily frontal: providing protection for a charge and against missiles yet offering relief from the weight and encumbrance of a full suit. Temple Brothers also carry composite recurve bows to soften up enemy formations before an attack. On this diplomatic mission, brothers ben Taufiq, ben Kalb and Cham were not carrying lances. The brothers in the centuries, however were. The two hundred riders proceeded north across the plain from the Gurg Mountains in a column of two's kicking up dust as they rode to meet the Prince of Ruven.