There could be no project better than to further improve the land. There could be no response better than limited retaliation against the perpetrators of attacks and their immediate circle who supported them. With so much food coming in from the well-watered and tended fields, there was definitely enough that there could be some set aside for the keenest fighters to spend their time training, sparring, and standing watch. The success of raids by outsiders dropped quite rapidly as these warriors took up their new job, but then something funny started to happen.
With a guaranteed ration for spending their time studying how to fight rather than breaking their backs in the fields, and usually reporting directly to the Big Man or the sub-chiefs if he wasn't around, and having a rather appreciated job of protecting the community, the new warriors very rapidly became very attractive marriage prospects, especially to any of the young women they might have helped personally protect from raids. The clan heads liked their sons to be warriors and to marry warriors to their daughters.
As such, it was inevitable that a warrior would be a Big Man one day within a relatively short number of handovers of the position.
Bold Ashryn they called him, and upon his ascension the entire tribe was most pleased with having this charismatic and energetic man. Ambitious, proud and vainglorious, he immediately made moves to cement his legacy, such that all would speak of him for generations to come with all the gusto of a man in his prime with something to prove.
Ashryn's great work was to...
[] Bring the thinking of warriors to other walks of life
[] Build a great house in the centre of the community
[] Dedicate a place to spirits and ancestors
[] Further expand the irrigation system
[] Improve the warriors further
Unfortunately, Ashryn's pride and ambition came with a dark side: he could not let things go. Worse yet, as a warrior, he was used to dealing with problems in terms of attack and defence, which meant that as soon as he could, he contrived to continue an old conflict from his younger days, against a tribe where they had "one that got away". Another warrior of a sort who had made his fortunes sneaking past Ashryn's patrols to steal food and women, including in one infamous case a young woman Ashryn had a clear attraction to. For the new Big Man, the old wounds to his pride could not be healed with anything less than the destruction of his nemesis and everything around the man. He lead attacks, he gathered the entire male populace of the village to sweep the enemy away, and still his foe, soon enough called Crow for the black feathers he stuck in his hair, would not die.
With every passing season that Crow and his band remained alive, Ashryn's rage grew ever greater. He lashed out at all around him, from critics within the tribe to other tribes who tried to take advantage with less skill than Crow or simply got in the way. Hundreds died, and outside of his immediate presence there was great anger and complaint, but when actually next to Ashryn the skills that had brought him to his position shone through and none could quite find it in them to speak out against him when it came time to raise their voice over the possibility of replacement.
Finally though numbers and brute force won out over Crow's skills at evasion, and Ashryn had his revenge three times over. First when he scattered Crow's people to the winds. Second when he brought his mace down upon Crow's head and shattered both with his wrath. The third time when he took Crow's daughter with Ashryn's old crush - long passed in childbirth - as his prize. A most beautiful young woman, she was of the sort who normally only elders would have been able to pair in order to keep the young men from fighting over her. While the argument that she was really part of the tribe being reclaimed held some weight, there were many who found it concerning the level of violence that had gone into everything. Ashryn's first wife was particularly upset with his decision, but no one wanted to tell him no, that he couldn't, that he was wrong.
No one knows quite what happened, but many said that Crow's Daughter had inherited her father's cleverness, and whispered in Ashryn's ear things that he wanted to hear, things that would ultimately lead him to greater ruin. More and more Ashryn began to turn against his own tribe, seeing enemies all around. Former allies were stripped of positions, the distribution of food became inequitable, and there was even violent reprisals from Ashryn and his warriors against "enemies". Finally though it reached a tipping point when he tried to demand that one of the sub-chiefs give him one of his daughters, noted as well for her youthful attraction, in marriage. Sick of the Big Man's behaviour, the sub-chiefs all turned on him as one at the next meeting. Five of them fell to wounds from Ashryn and his warriors, but the proud chief found himself brought low by the fury he had kicked up among his own people with his inflexibility and arrogance.
The lesson learned here was...
[] How Big Men were chosen needed to be changed
[] Power needed to be taken from the position of Big Man
[] The Big Man's wife needed to be it's own position
[] Warriors should be kept away from politics
However, in the immediate aftermath, there was one final detail: Crow's Daughter, her belly full with Ashryn's child. Rumours about her abounded, and few trusted her, although she was not without her defenders, not with advocates who pointed out that though she was a probably guilty of sowing strife, it was not like she asked to be drawn into this mess. A few even praised her act of revenge for her father even if they cursed the strife she brought. Still, even if she was related to the tribe through her mother, there were many who saw her as an outsider deserving of death or exile.
For Crow's Daughter...
[] Only death would do
[] Exile, perhaps to find the remnants of her kin
[] Her mother and her child were of the tribe, she could stay
