'
The Calabim was pointing at the heads and laughing.
Then Tasunke drew his sword and pushed the edge to the Calabim's neck.
"Wait! You do not kill a messenger in cold blood! You cannot do that!"
By now the Calabim atrocity had sunk in. The Hippus screams went from horror to fury and rage. More and more Hippus started to call out for blood, Thessalonica's cries for a peaceful nonviolent solution notwithstanding. Some were even calling out for war against the Calabim to avenge this atrocity.
"No." Tasunke shook his head.
"Not a proper war yet. You see... as of current we are not strong enough to defeat the Calabim once and for all. In our current situation, a war would mean that we would lack the advantage of surprise, and need increase our strength one. step. at. a. time." Tasunke pressed his sword against the neck of the Calabim emissary, applying a little more pressure with each word.
"That is not an efficient way to wage war." He briefly withdrew his sword from the neck of the Calabim.
"Instead of that... we will prepare ourselves for a war, not rushing into things but carefully planning out our moves. We will build up our strength..." - and as Tasunke raised the sword high above his head the Calabim went even more white from fear -
"and once the time is right, we will deal a swift and powerful strike to our opponent, to bring him down and ensure he never gets up again!"
And with these words Tasunke brought down the sword upon the Calabim and beheaded him in one swift stroke. The Hippus cheered him on, but Thessalonica briefly looked away from the spectacle, overcome with sadness at the Hippus calling out for blood.
"I'm sorry, Thessalonica. I did what I had to do. That man was a murderer, and whether he killed Hippus or not he was certainly not welcome here. Nobody will bring the heads of Hippus men to my empire and get away with it."
Just as Tasunke had finished his grisly execution of the Calabim, he was greeted by a bunch of orcs.
"We are going to kill bad man in the north in name of the Hippus!"
Tasunke just rolled his eyes.
"We're not going to declare war on Flauros just yet, but I will call upon you once we are ready."
"No. Orcs heard of bad man in north. Holy place to She-who-Burns captured by bad man with power of cold. Orcs want to kill bad man to recover holy place, and carry out mission of She-who-Burns. We run to north, find bad ice man and kill him."
Tasunke let out a guffaw.
"You think you can kill this 'bad man' all by yourself? If he's even there? Sheesh, I might consider helping you in your crusade against this 'bad man' or whoever he is but ye'll have to wait until I can send a proper army to aid you."
"No. She-who-Burns has visited us and told to go kill bad man in north, and take back holy place. She-who-Burns never patient. She-who-Burns never hold back. She-who-Burns always hungry for blood of our enemies, and SO ARE WE!" The rest of the orcs cheered on their leader's inspirational words as the others of a sleepy Altheriol-ta-Mealthiel came out to see what all the fuss was about.
Tasunke turned briefly towards Thessalonica.
"Ye're gonna have to explain me a bit here, since those guys ain't giving none. Who exactly are they from and why does their goddess want them to do this?"
"They are from Bhall, the Angel of Fire. Bhall is mostly connected with passion, as are her servants. While their old enemy Mulcarn, the Angel of Ice was killed at the end of the Age of Ice, they say that Mulcarn's divine spark lives on in a man. I presume that man is the 'bad man' the orcs talk about. Bhall wishes you to go out and send her servants to defeat this man, and thus bring down Mulcarn for all eternity."
"That's good, right?"
"Yes, it is good. Be careful, though. Passionate lust for combat is not a good way to win the battle."
Briefly Tasunke frowned.
"Don't lecture me on how to field an army and make it fight."
The orcs would eventually find Auric Ulvin. War was not yet declared.
Another envoy reached Tasunke a few days later.
"I bring word from Tya Kiri. We keep safe the way of Lugus, held by us over the seas. Once you can get a galley over here and trade with us, we might be able to show you the way."
Tasunke pondered the offer. For now he lacked the knowledge to get the job done. Meanwhile, the Hippus went about their business of building an empire.
The city of Conrond Mor was founded, but there was something ominous about the Hippus' second city. While food at the city was plenty because of the Hippus fishing activities and farms, the city had a monumental landmark to the southeast which marked the sepulcher of Barbatos - an apprentice of the great Kylorin and specialist in Death magic. It was said that with the proper knowledge any civilization could harness this necromantic power. Whether Tasunke would eventually do so was yet to be determined in the future, but no god knew of Tasunke's future... yet. For now the tomb seemed harmless although the growth around the tomb was a bit... off.
Radonnor followed some time after Conrond Mor. A coastal city similar to Conrond Mor on the other coast, in that both cities were located on a hill and both of them had plenty of food. Only the evil landmark on the edge of the city was not there.
The few men in the Hippus lands who could hear of civilizations beyond their scope had received information that Bhall's minions (probably) had wiped out no less than two nascent civilizations. No matter how difficult they were to truly kill or how long they have had to master the art of fighting, Sandalphon and the Sidar were sent to Arawn. For good.
Another calamity seemed to have struck the Elves. Diviners found out that Faeryl and her minions had run into trouble - or was it all just a ruse? Nobody could tell for sure.
Other oddities happened as well. The orcs were not yet allowed to attack the Illian Empire, but instead they did some training against... odd... monsters. Evidentally
someone had been messing around a bit, leading to some rather odd creations walking the earth. They saw corpses ridden with disease and men built out of wood. The orcs sent a lot of them back to their maker, whoever that was. Far up north, they also discovered a tower to the Hippus patron deity Tali, from which they saw the resting place of the Rod of Winds.
A great many of the gods shared one goal, though it grew dissimilar from there - to have Tasunke found their way. Many gods wished for Tasunke to gain their religion, a religion, or even just to think about religion. Tasunke heeded their call and introduced philosophical debate among the Hippus - as excitable as the Hippus are, philosophy was taken up with enthusiasm though the many common Hippus just followed on some weird left-field theories. Other discoveries on the way were more useful for the time being - Mysticism allowed for debate among elders to be held, and for Tasunke to centralize his rule in Altheriol.
With the growth in mind, Tasunke knew that the Hippus were quickly gaining in strength. If war came, he would be ready for it. If peace remained, he'd also survive.
It depended on the many, many gods of Erebus.
Thanks.
