They were barbarians of such asperity as to leave us shocked and dismayed at the complete absence of civility and disregard for our essential belief in the noetic journey of mankind; but when they burned our texts, murdered our scholars and left our culture striped and riven like a savaged karst it was clear that this was the end time and no accord would ever be possible with these bloodthirsty Conquistadors, with their heinous weapons, and that thing they called a horse.