Although being a competent warrior was a requirement to be an arm-bearer, and thus an Ersta'la, these livings weren't exactly military leaders, Ersta'las were the most common titled members of the faiths, and tended to act as sort of city mayors, depending on a city's population, a certain number of Ersta'la would be sent out to live within the local solar temple, and that was pretty much it, they would oversee all sorts of things, but warfare wasn't exactly something common.
Most often, the danger were beasts and monsters, sometimes orcs or molochites but that was pretty much it, only the cities with the greatest population of worshippers of Watchful Undeviginti would ever be attacked during the time of Sanguine Undeviginti, other cities would just barricade themselves in and wait for it to pass, so apart from the Ersta'las that ruled such cities, few had any experience.
Some of the Ersta'las of Sanguine Undeviginti had participated in such attacks, but it was far from being a refined strategy, they merely acted as additional manpower to the corpse-puppets of their patron sun.
"It's easy, we just show up and crack their skulls, drink their blood and eat their hearts! They are weak and complacent, they'll never be able to stand up to us, who have treaded the desert as nomads for years! We are the true inheritors of the land!" an Ersta'la of Cleansing Undeviginti spoke up with a satisfied smile and crossed arms, like he had just revealed the obvious answer to a question.
"You fool! We might have been wandering and enduring challenges for multiple generations now, but that doesn't mean anything here! Those vile strumpets have many Ersta'sols and Ersta'ras! What are we supposed to do against those? They wield vapour much more efficiently than we do, they have kept all of the records on how to do so after the last failed coalition" one of Sanguine Undeviginti retorted, tapping on the sandstone table with his index finger repeatedly.
"What is efficiency in the face of absolute, brute force?"
"Nothing, but you don't actually wield such a thing"
"Perhaps it would be best to strike them in a more sneaky manner?" all of the livings turned to Cheops, who had a hickey clearly visible on his neck, no one paid any mind to this however.
"What do you mean, trickster?"
"I have heard that the capital possesses many things that we do not and that they rely on it greatly, I have been told of fields of something called 'watermelon' amongst a variety of other foods called 'fruits' and 'vegetables' that they grow out of the sand through unknown means… Instead of hunting and hydrating themselves with blood, they focus a lot on these produce- So if we could ruin their source of such things, we could strike a heavy blow before the battle event truly begins" he explained, and the others rubbed their chins and beards in thought.
"That's a pretty good idea, I have heard of such wonderful things myself… But how could we infiltrate such places to do it? I recognise that you tricksters are incredibly apt at concealing yourselves and fooling others, but those 'fruits' and 'vegetables' are only produced directly within the great solar temple of the capital, I believe, entering such a place would be nigh impossible even for an Illusory Ersta'ra" another Sanguine Ersta'la spoke.
"That is an actual proposition however, so even if impossible for us, we should keep that in mind" someone else spoke, glancing at the silent and unmoving Ir'Houwl, who would pass off as asleep if they hadn't been made aware that undeads did not rest.
They all looked in her direction expecting some sort of acknowledgement, but she just stayed still.
"By the way, we are fairly numerous here, so does anyone here, besides our lonely Prime and Watchful friends over here, know of any Ersta'sol or Ersta'ra within our three ranks?" wondered another Illusory Ersta'la.
Everybody was aware that the other two faiths each had plenty of Ersta'sol and an Ersta'ra each, but the fragmented nature of the other three faiths meant that such an illustrious figure could remain unknown to some if they didn't happen to run into fellows who did know about it.
"I have heard of neither for us" replied Cheops, and the other worshippers of the illusory sun nodded along, if they had anyone ranked higher than them, they had not received the news.
"We have one Ersta'sol, I was told, but the veracity of it is to be proven, I suppose we should wait for the one claiming it to come here to check" a red-robed man said, and was corroborated by other followers of the pale red sun.
"There is also an Ersta'sol on our side- Supposedly at least, I heard that they existed but that's it, no mentions of particular feat or anything else, and a real follower of Cleansing Undeviginti would have used that incredible power to at least massacre a few towns, just as a demonstration" spoke one of the butchers, everyone that wasn't garbed in white looking at speaker from the side.
"What? That's just how we do things! Cheops was it?! You sleep with one of our arm-bearers, please assist me!"
"Aherm… Let's not bring in anything personal into this meeting…"
"Aah, so the hickey is from a butcher? Impressive!"
"Anyways…" Cheops rushed to change the topic "...What do you two know about your Ersta'ras? Any idea what truly differentiate one from an Ersta'sol?"
"We all know that the difference between an arm-bearer and Ersta'la is a simple matter of skill and ability to control the vapour, whilst the difference between us and an Ersta'sol is that they can wield the vapour without using a decorated weapon…"
"Well… We do not know, that is kept secret and even we who got to be instructed by Ersta'sols do not have a single clue to what is the big difference between the two ranks- Everyone seems to suspect that there isn't really any large difference and that it's the same as it is with arm-bearers and Ersta'las, that it is just a matter of overall proficiency, or even that it is just nothing but a fancy title that simply means you are in charge" the Prime and Watchful worshipper shrugged, having signed the contract, there was no point in digging further as they could not lie.
"Mmh… We didn't take into consideration the orcs and molochites, as well as that giant- Can't believe there is still one of those around, they could be used as a great source of distraction, they are already distraught by our supposed alliance, if the monster unite and they believe that the giants are back too, they'll have to split their attention, won't they?"
"The circumstances that giant was found in are suspicious however… Does anyone there have any idea what a giant was doing in an abandoned city on its own?"
"We don't really have the means to do anything with a giant"
"We would have stripped it down to the bones and used it as a bone-puppet"
"We would have just killed it and taken a bath in its guts"
"Do you think the giant actually has something to do with our faiths? If so, I wasn't made aware of anything"
"Well, in that case, I guess we can only try to imagine how we could use the monsters as a distraction…"
As they discussed, Ir'Houwl listened attentively, they weren't doing too bad so far, and most importantly, they were actually working together without the contract having to come into play at all.