Editing Sigil:Gholibin (section)

== War and Defense ==

The Gholibin retain an old military tradition, though most are not professional warriors. Defense is another responsibility communities distribute according to need. People accustomed to hunting, moving quietly through difficult country, digging, building, carrying loads, and coordinating communal work possess skills readily adapted to warfare.

Their small stature encourages methods suited to them rather than imitation of larger Kindreds. Gholibin make effective use of concealment, difficult terrain, prepared positions, ambush, missile weapons, traps, fieldworks, and rapid movement through country they understand intimately. A Hollowhold threatened by attack can mobilize far more of its population than an outsider might initially expect because the distinction between civilian support and military organization is less rigid than in many Rhone societies.

Music remains part of this tradition. Modern Gholibin fighters may not deploy the immense musical communications of the ancient hosts, but drums, horns, chorla, whistles, calls, and songs still appear wherever circumstances make them useful. A particular community may possess signals understood only locally, while old battle refrains survive far beyond the military situations that created them.

Gholibin are particularly good at making an enemy fight the landscape. Paths narrow unexpectedly, obvious approaches prove inconvenient, supplies disappear, scouts encounter people who know every concealed route, and an apparently abandoned position may simply mean its defenders have moved somewhere more useful.

The Gholibin learned very long ago that courage and stupidity are not synonyms.