Braves are the workforce of your tribe; they will build, repair and upgrade constructions (only braves can build), collect wood and generate most of the mana. You can train them as preachers, warriors,firewarriors, spies, or build boats and build balloons with them (they can also get in those vehicles, as any other unit). They are poor fighters and twenty can easily be wiped out by four or five warriors and must attack in numbers if they wish to overwhelem a shaman (when playing online, that will almost never happen, so don't waste your braves like that). Braves can be gained either through breeding or converting wildmen using the Convert spell on wildmans)

It is a good idea to keep a number of braves in your village to keep it in order and to provide reinforcements if needed.

Never keep braves (or any other unit) idle, as idle units will generate less mana than working or moving ones, so make sure they are doing something even if they are just walking in circles.

For a long time, it was said that:

"Braves generate the most mana when they are in large huts, then medium huts and then doing anything else. This means that braves in small huts still generate the same mana as they would doing something outside of it."

But note that this information is WRONG, and after the most recent studies on this matter, the real information is:

"Braves generate the most mana when they are either moving, working or inside any kind of building. Idle braves generate lesser mana.

This means that, as long as the brave is inside a building or working, he generates good mana, but when he is idle, he generates few mana."