Cossacks are extraordinary people.
They are kind of like semi independent nomadic warriors, who live in the southern east part of Poland ( today's Ukraine ), called "Wild Fields", because they are like the outskirts of the "civilized world".
I'd say that they resemble American Indians a bit in a way.
Since just like Indians were completely different than most of the Americans of that time, they were also like "out of this world" comparing to the rest of Poland.
They had a lot of charm, but some darker side as well, trying to life a piecefull life most of the time, but also battling against the Poles if necesary, just like American Indians fought with the American Army when treatened .
As most of Poland, and most of the world at that time, is largely feudal, they are outcasts from that system. But Poland is too weak to control the cossack territory, and has a lot of other problems to deal with, so cossacks are left to themselves.
By origin, they are mostly former peasants or other types of exiles, dropouts, from the traditional society even outlaws.
Some are born cossacks, some become cossacks by joining them as teenagers or adults.
Most of them are of Ruthenian/Ukrainian origin and are loyal to the orthodox church, but many come from other groups and nations.
Some of them came here from Russia, some from the Turkish/Ottoman Empire, some from even farther parts of the world - it's said that there are some Spaniards and even Scotts among them, former soldier who just happened to be in their area and stayed, or former turkish slaves who wer freed by the cossacks and decided to live among the cossacks since them.
Even some polish members of nobility and lower classes join them, since the way they live, constant "adventures" and dangers are like a drug for many.
They don't wear any kind of uniform, being usually poor, they wear whatever they can find, and often march barefoot, often without even a shirt.
Tho, one thing is pretty common to most of them. Their tradional "exotic" haird cut, called oseledets. It's a long lock of hair, often dyed black and made to look shiny, sprouting from the top of the othwervise closely shaven head.
A lond moustache is an another feature they are famous for.
Wide red pants - sharovary - are also very common.
They fight with anything they can find, tho they don't have any kind of military school or academy, so all their knowledge about warfare comes from practice.
Thye fight well as infantry, they can live on a low amounts of food and water, march for long hours and so on...
But, since they don't really have any kind of a regular army, and care about their personal sovereignity maybe a little too much, they usually can't withstand a battle with a regular enemy.
They fight well indivudually, being skilled with basic weapons - like pikes, sabres, spears or muskets and warhammers - but thye don't fight well in a formation since they are a bit lazy - they don't like to train together or to listen to their officers.
Tho, they can fight extremelly well when they are endangered, like, when they have to defend a town or a fort.
Even on the battlefield, they can form a powerfull defence position, when they tie up their warwagons together, forming a kind of a moving fortress, with guns and cannons defending the perimeter.
And since they often raid turkish territory, traveling by rivers and sea, they are often good sailors, operating a fleet of small gunboats, called "czajkas"...
So they are somewhat like bucanners of the ukrainian lands really, turning into pirates if they attack turkish cities, and turning back into indians when they have to defend themselves against the regular polish cavalry.
But, since Poland can't really control areas inhabited by the Cossacks, they are somewhat independent, and live their own life, organizing themselves into semi-regular armies, to defend themselves from their enemies.
Among those are Crimean Tatars, semi-barbaric descendants of mongol warriors, who organize predatory raids on the polish territory and often raid trough cossack lands as well.
But surprisingly, it is the Poles who've became their biggest enemy so far.
For most of their time, thet've remained loyal to the Polish Crown and king, joining the traditional polish army, whenever they were called to bear arms against foreign enemies - like Russians or Turks or even the Swedes in the far north.
But... since Poles never really respected Cossack's pride and wish to be free, since many among the polish nobility wanted to enslave them and turn them into peasants, they've rebeled from time to time.
Still, for many years, both of the sides - Poles and Cossackt - managed to find peace between them and cooperate.
Until...
After the Chmielnicki Uprising, which ended with a chain of suprising victories on the cossack side, and surprising defeats on the polish side, almost all of former ties with Poland were broken.
Thus, former friends and traditional allies, became enemies for many many years to come.
Only a few of the cossacks remain loyal to the Poles and to polish king, for various reasons.
One of them is OSTAP, a cossack giant, almost 2-meter in height, and God knows how strong.
He is really a gentle beast - he can kill enemies with his own hands if necesary, he's is powerfull enough to break ropes or chains and still, but he is also a somewhat quiet guy... loves to play his balalaika, an ukrainian type of guitar, and becomes best friends with small polish Tatar - TEMRUK, thus, creating a contrasting duo of personalities and sizes :)
And of course, as almost every cossack, he also likes to drink a lot of vodka and to puff his pipe :)
The reason why he fight on the polish side is simple, he's seen how the success of the Urprising changed most of his cossack friends, turning them into greedy bloody beasts, seeing his comrades kill other comrades in order to gain power, becoming what they all hated - a new semi-feudal state with their own nobility, that they all hated so much.
So, feeling cheated by his former leaders, especially since they allied themselves with their former enemies - Crimean Tatars and the Russians - he decided to change sides, and join the Poles.
But, feeling that a cossack case, cossack lands and cossack way of life is already gone and will never come back, he lives in a state of constant sadness, quietly grieving over the destruction of his former way of life and of his former cossack friendships.
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