The Diplomacy-Story.
To the north, beyond the mountains and hills, beyond the swamps and jungles, there lie a land, and in that land dwelled many peoples large and small, foolish and ignorant all of them. And amongst those of them that lived the closest to the Rajai Empire there arose one people in particular, the Kan, and they have carved out a Blasphemous Empire of their own, yet it was small and not too ambitious, and thus for a long time it was allowed to be in peace, as they were lambs for the slaughter, and so could wait while the Rajai fought off fiercer, less patient peoples.
And yet the Kan grew numerous, and with their numbers grew their ambitions. They also learned to tame horses, and grew proud; they learned to ride horses and learned to fight from horse-back. In those times the Fendiar, another Blasphemous Empire, grew desperate in their war against the Rajai, for they were a foolish and petty people that attacked the Rajai, failed and now knew not how to survive the fruits of their foolishness as the Rajai ever so steadily moved northwards. And so the Fendiar agreed to pay a great tribute to the Kan in exchange for the Kan sending their horse-men to fight against the Rajai. And the Kan sent, and the Rajai fought; and the Fendiar also sent more of their warriors, and them the Rajai fought as well. The northern blasphemers were numerous, they used not just horses but many other ingenious tools and cunning strategems, and yet, again and again, they were defeated.
And so the Kan fell back and set up a camp at some distance from the Rajai. They were grasped by fear, for not even the horse-men could ride down the Rajai, and now the Rajai were moving northwards, perhaps soon to threaten the Kan heartlands. And the Kan-chief was worried, and the Kan-nobles were worried, and they gathered and talked, and all of them discussed what they knew of the Rajai. They knew not much, and yet enough: they knew that the Rajai fought against many enemies, and yet never were defeated or stalled for long; that war was life for the Rajai, and that the Rajai never stopped fighting before their enemies were destroyed, and many nations were already destroyed in this manner. And they knew that, long ago, some nations tried sending envoys to the Rajai, but the Rajai took and sacrificed them. Some of the Kan-nobles claimed that the Rajai merely thought them to be spies, and would surely not do so with Kan envoys; but there was little confidence in their voices. Nonetheless, the Kan-chief could find no other way out; for even though he had sworn to fight the Rajai previously, he was a petty coward deep in heart like the rest of his people, and truly did not wish to die.
So he closed his eyes and pointed at one of the Kan-nobles; and that Kan-noble at whom he pointed wept, for he was now the Kan-envoy, and he had to go to the Rajai.
But go he did, trembling though he was, and eventually he reached the Rajai camp. He gathered what little courage he had in him, and went into the camp with raise hands and open palms, hoping that the Rajai will not kill him if he shows that he is unarmed and does not try to sneak in, because the signs he made were used by other peoples in that northern land when they wanted to negotiate peace.
The Rajai did not know and did not want to know peace, and they did not know and did not want to know any such signs, so they grabbed him all the same and carried him to the golden idol of the Golden Bird, near which sat Rajaraja V, king of the Rajai.
One of the Rajai warriors that caught the Kan-envoy spoke: "Rajaraja V! We have found this warrior of the Kan outside of the camp. He was unarmed and tried to talk with us, so he was probably trying to negotiate peace. We should kill him."
For that indeed was custom amongst the Rajai. And Rajaraja V nodded; and the Kan-envoy shuddered, as he was brought closer to the idol and Rajaraja V, whom he understood to be the king, took out a ceremonial stone knife. It was crude, and dying from it was, to a northerner, both dishonourable and painful (but as the Rajai knew, to be sacrificed was truly the highest honour one who was not Rajai could hope for in a perfect world; hence they always took great offense when sacrifices were somehow displeased with their lot).
But before the Kan-envoy could be exsanguinated, silence fell upon the camp. Frenetically the Kan-envoy looked around, but could comprehend nothing, for he was not Rajai. He could listen, but he could not hear. The Rajai listened and heard, but did not understand. And only Rajaraja V, who stood in a ceremonious pose and stared at the idol, listened, heard and understood: and at last he hid the knife and ordered the warriors to let go of the Kan-envoy. And Rajaraja V looked at him and told him, in a tone that conveyed messages across languages: "Tell your chief to attack the Fendiar, and you will have respite. GO!"
And the Kan-envoy ran away in relief, and never returned, and went to the Kan-chief and told him of what has happened.
As for Rajaraja V, he was old, but strong in body and strong of will; he was not questioned, for all knew that the Golden Bird spake through the royal bloodline, and besides, all agreed that there was wisdom in making enemies fight enemies, at least while there were other enemies to be fought. And from that day on, diplomacy became a part of the Rajai art of war, but never anything more, for the purpose of the Rajai was conquest and everything else was merely means to conquest.