Sword-sisters

"No longer shall we hold our shields to protect those who would see us as weak and unworthy! Drop your shields, sisters, and take up the chastising sword with which we shall charge into the ranks of our oppressors! They call us maidens, and treat us as cattle, subservient and lacking free will and the right to decide what to do with our bodies, whilst they drink, feast and fuck their way as we are forced to sit and wait for one of them to grace us with his seed?! I say no more! Each of us, each of you here, is strong and can do what you want, just as them!
Forget your past, shieldmaidens, and embrace your new names, rise from men's servitude as Sword-sisters! We will live by the sword, side by side as a family until all those who oppress us will be punished or until every last one of us falls in battle!
The hour of freedom is at hand!"

Aresia the Unbound addressing her followers before the Eve of Blood

Sword-sisters, also known as Aresia's Warsisters, were a large insurrection of Naradic shield-maidens who decided to fight the oppression and injustice that was being done to their sex and ultimately create a society ran exclusively by women, with all men being mere slaves, used only for breeding and hard labor.
The Narads have a long tradition of female fighters, called shieldmaidens throughout most of their history, who mostly filled a supportive role to their husbands or other male family members on the battlefield. Similarly to a later knight's squire, a shieldmaiden was expected to care for her husband's horse and equipment and assist him on the battlefield, mostly to guard his flank and provide him with any equipment he might need replaced without leaving the battle or attempting to find it on the ground in the heat of combat.
Despite their supportive role, the regular exposure to front line fighting has eventually created a strong sense of warrior culture among Naradic women, much like their male counterparts and many of them started to advocate for shieldmaidens to have a more independent and active role on the battlefield, citing known heroines who broke the mold after their husbands fell and fought in their place with equal skill and valor.
These notions, however, have been shut down by their male counterparts, insisting that a woman shall stay obedient and supportive of their husbands and other males and the women did not have the numbers or the social status to dispute the status quo. Most shieldmaidens continued to serve, albeit the issue has created a rift between the warriors and the more progressive of the shieldmaidens of Naradic society.
Not all shieldmaidens accepted their predetermined role, though - the number of combat-hardened women that defied their husbands would grow and become a social issue that could no longer be ignored. Over the following years, several shieldmaidens have deserted their husbands and tribes in hopes of finding a better life on their own. The reaction from the greater part of the society did not seek to find a compromise, but to repress the rebellious attitudes of these women, who, according to both the men and the traditionalist, conservative women, "seemed to have forgotten their place".
At first, new heroics were composed, focusing on the strong bond of a shieldmaiden and her warrior husband on the battlefield, extolling the virtues of the traditional shieldmaiden. When this propaganda did little to ease the women's dissatisfaction, more severe measures started to be implemented and the issue became more radicalized, without any chance of a peaceful compromise and deescalation.
Many shieldmaidens were accused of purposefully getting their husbands killed in battle in order to take their place on the battlefield with little to no evidence confirming their guilt. Traps were set up for deserting shieldmaidens with the promise of a hidden female society that would embrace them and protect them. Women captured this way were severely punished by Naradic custom of desertion from the tribe - often tortured and then sent into exile too wounded to survive in the harsh Naradic wilderness.
Small isolated insurrections sprang up during this period, but were all quickly ended, with the notable exception being that of Aerild Jarsdottar, who has, along with 23 of her fellow shieldmaidens, taken control of her clan leader's hold and held out for 3 days only to kill each other once the clan forces broke through their defenses rather than risk capture.
Aresia Falksdottar was a shieldmaiden to her husband Jorn the Bold, with whom she lived in a loving relationship and saw little need to symphatize with her fellow shieldsister's rebellious attitude. Jorn respected her and they both ran their household and fought on the battlefield together, side by side. This idyllic state would come to an end, however, when Jorn was struck by a Renwaaki arrow in the eye and would die to his wound soon after. Aresia, shattered from her loss and blaming herself for her husband's death, was too lethargic to resist the advances of other men and soon was made to remarry and join her house with Taelstad, Jorn's cousin.
Taelstad was a cruel and strict authoritarian figure and his oppression on Aresia and their household reignited the flame in her heart. Defying her new husband time and time again, the breaking point came when Taelstad beat her to the point where she lost the child she was pregnant with. Infuriated, Taelstad became even harsher and more aggressive and tension escallated to the point where Aresia, in a fit of rage, killed him and took off from the village, never to return again, only with her armor, shield, and weapons and 3 days' worth of food and drink.
Finally recognizing the plight of her kin, she would come to save and train any deserting shieldmaidens that she could prevent from falling into their former husband's traps or from getting lost in the wilds and would slowly build up her forces, feeding them by raiding nearby villages. Despite her following slowly increasing, she was eventually forced to take her sisters and leave the Naradic homelands in order to avoid capture. With no other possibility of feeding themselves in the lowlands that they were unfamiliar with, Aresia and her company would work as mercenaries for a number of years, becoming a well known and respected force in the lowlands south of Aldir Vorhvul.
As her influence swelled, refugees were reaching her even as far as Aden-Karsach and word of her sister's execution for supposed murder would reach her, once again reigniting her anger at the injustice back home.
Aresia would rally her followers and appeal to their strength and ability to not only free themselves of oppression as they have already done, but to enforce change and renamed her company to Sword-sisters, urging them to follow her back into their homeland and punish their oppressors by sword, instead of hiding behind a shield. While many stayed back, unwilling to abandon the life they have been building for years, a significant number of sword-sisters followed Aresia back to the mountains, ready to give their lives for justice.
Aresia's Sword-sisters would take Faenir Hold in a brutal night attack that would come to be known as the Eve of Blood and publicly mutilated Raenolf of Hadla, a particularly cruel and well known enemy of the movement, blinding him and cutting out his tongue, before seating him on his throne and pining his genitalia to it by a spearhead.
This event was considered the beginning of the Aresian Rebellion, which would see many clashes and atrocities committed by both sides over the following 3 years, with a large number of women joining Aresia and dying for the cause. Eventually, Aresia and her depleted forces were pinned down at Fort Guldafr and besieged by a large force made up of several naradic clans. The Aresian forces refused to surrender, willing to die as martyrs to reinforce their cause even in death and would make the much larger sieging force pay a dear price for their attacks.
The siege finally ended after four months as the united clan armies broke through the inner gates and took the castle, having to kill everyone inside, including Aresia, as the defenders suposedly fought to their last breath. After the rebellion was defeated, both sides were too exhausted to continue fighting and some small, token measures were implemented to appease some of the women's requests.
The true impact of Alesia's Sword-sisters and their rebellion would become apparent years after the her death, however - the female population of the clans decreased significantly due to the fighting and executions and women would become more crucial than ever for the survival of their clans in the harsh environment - and remembering the lessons learned from Alesia's uprising, women would use this newfound importance to society to strengthen their position and slowly become more influential and powerful than ever before, helping to steer Naradic society in a new, less traditional direction.