LINESII- Into the Darkness

[das]

Excerpts from Kacher-Chronist's "History of Gerber."

I. Introduction.

1. Toghol-Advisor, the great advisor of the Thirty-Second Cecil-King, has told me to write down our land's history here.
2. Having travelled in many lands, he saw that while the people of Khemri, and of Veritas, and of Gorin write down the histories of their lands for the future generations to know, such customs are not present in our land.
3. And for this reason, there are many gaps in our knowledge of the past history of our land.
4. Our history lives on with our people.
5. But gradually, it dies out, and much of it is already lost.
6. To preserve our history for all times is the purpose of this scroll.

II. River Wardash and the Great Cecil.

1. Our land's history is intertied with its geography.
2. The most important fact of our land's geography is the great River Wardash.
3. That name is claimed by the Shalamari peoples to be of Upper Wardashian descent.
4. However, it is unquestionably of our language ["Wardash" stands for "First Water"].
5. It is so called for it was the first large body of water sighted by the Great Cecil one thousand two hundred thirty-four years ago since the exodus from Shaber.
6. The eastern paradise-land of Shaber has been lost forever, having been ransacked by the Kalmar tribes.
[...]
11. Some of the Kalmar tribes were not content with our people's exile, and instead wanted to slay us all.
12. They chased after our people and attacked them with the help of traitors.
13. Yet the Great Cecil rallied our people during the exodus and led them to fight back against the Kalmars.
[...]
16. At last, the Kalmar tribes were defeated and forced to retreat.
17. The Great Cecil's eldest son was slain in battle.
18. The Great Cecil swore revenge, and all of our people swore it with him, and since then dates the feud with the Kalmar tribes of the Tristarians.
19. Yet the Great Cecil also said that revenge will come later.
20. Now, he said, our people needed to find a new land and build a new home there.
21. And so he led them to Wardash River, and there ordered the construction of the city of Cirta, named after his dead son Cirtel.
22. It was there and then that our land was born, and that the Cecilid Dynasty begun, as the Great Cecil claimed for himself the hereditary title of King, with the blessing of the elders.
[...]
26. The River Wardash begun in the south, near the city of Delhi.
27. Delhi was the capital of the Mogul Empire, which dominated all of Lower Wardash.
28. The Moguls were a pompous and arrogant people.
29. They were also greedy, but unlike the Kalmar tribes their greed was of the peaceful and covert kind.
30. Instead of pillaging and stealing, they preffered to trade.
31. Their ruler Akbar sent out envoys to all the neighbouring countries, and proposed trade agreements to them.
32. An envoy was sent to the Great Cecil as well.
33. Yet the Great Cecil turned him down, declaring that he had nothing to trade for with the Moguls.
34. And indeed, they had at the time nothing that our people needed.
35. So any trade would have involved Mogul trickery against our people to get what they wanted out of them in exchange for unneeded goods.
36. When informed of the Great Cecil's reply, Akbar the Mogul was much enraged and declared war.
37. But the Mogul Empire was too distant from our land in those days, and a campaign from one to another would have taken much time and food, which had to be bought from the farmers.
38. Akbar the Mogul was too greedy to fund a war-campaign, while the Great Cecil did not seek war with the Moguls, and neither did his successors.
39. And so the war with the Moguls saw no blood shed, and ended under the Fourth Cecil-King, for by then, things had changed and trade with the Moguls became profitable...

III. Religions of the Old Days.

1. In the early days, most of our people believed in the myriad lesser spirits of nature, but knew not of the greater spirits.
2. The first man to worship the greater spirits, or gods, of Life, Death, Earth, Air and Fire was Ukar-Prophet, who was also called Teresh-Prophet [Prophet-First Priest].
[...]
5. In the days of the Sixth Cecil-King, the worship of the Pentagon of Gods proliferated.
6. Ever more people saw the light, and recognized the greater spirits.
7. As their nature, however, was hard to comprehend for ordinary mortals, the Sixth Cecil-King has ordered the followers of Prophet-Ukar to become priests, study the greater spirits and take up pupils who would eventually replace them.
[...]
9. Yet some people continued to turn away from the Pentagon and to pretend that it did not exist.
10. On these fools the Sixth Cecil-King took pity, and chose to punish them not, unless they broke any laws.
11. This was wise, for in this way those of their relatives that believed in the Pentagon were not offended, and remained good subjects.
12. The old teachings expired soon within decades anyway.
13. Another religion that spread into our land was the teaching of the Khemri Prophet-Sathya.
14. The Khemri were already then a wise and mighty people, with many great laws.
15. But they grew too obsessed with their laws and writings, and so they failed to see the living and natural part of the spirit-world.
16. On the other hand, Prophet-Sathya and his followers had a greater understandment of Death; and while holy simplicity was widespread amongst the Gerberian priests, the Khemri worshipped great wisdom.
17. Just as the Khemri people grew more detached from nature and life, so had their religion become even moreconcerned with Death.
18. And in the Gerberian cities, amongst the wiser of the priests and the nobles, especially those who had went with the embassies to Khemri, Sathya's teachings gained much following, as the Sixth Cecil-King protested this not.
19. While many of the high priests condemned the followers of Sathya, the highest priest, Priest-Tegar, also believed they should be left alone, saying that though Sathya and his followers had much to learn from the Gerberian priests, so had the priests much to learn from Sathya to better understand death and attain greater wisdom.
20. And indeed, as Priest-Tegar encouraged, the Gerberian priests had learned much from Sathya, even while his followers in Gerber gradually expired or turned back to the Gerberian teaching.
21. And so it was that without violence, Gerber's old problems of religion were resolved.

To be continued.

 

[Silver Steak]

Interesting, das. And I wish to be mentioned under the Religions chapter. Or I will make myself noteworthy.

 

[das]

In the days of Sixth Cecil-King, Crystallism was only beginning to emerge. You will be mentioned later on in the relation to all those minions of yours we chased out of the country a few centuries ago.

 

[Silver Steak]

The Crystalists Strike Back!!!

 

[das]

Don't forget that we're allies. Unless ofcourse you want me to forge an anti-Shalamari coalition.

 

[Silver Steak]

No... Shalamari does not judge other nations by their religion or political organization. We just take whatever we can get away with.

 

[das]

We never implied that your rulers actually believe in what they say, you know.

 

[Silver Steak]

Are you suggesting you were implying something else? Just continue with your cronicle.

 

[Thlayli]

Nice stories. One detail, the Exiles aren't THAT anti-Veritasian. They were only angry at the Veritasian government, and its wars.

Oh, so the whole "Damned for all eternity" thing was just a little grudge. Ok.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Oh das in your continuation of the history I want you to be aware that I only bullied Gerber into accepting peace at pre war borders because I could not allow Vertis to gain 60 Gallies.

 

[das]

ROFL. I knew that one of you will bring that one up.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Of course

The 30 gallies were GOOD, of course the earthquakes and etc problems kinda deleted them :/

 

[andis-1]

So iggy, can I safely assume you won't even try to do the update before the 9th of july?

 

[das]

He isn't even here right now, andis.

 

[Silver Steak]

But you are! Finish your (hi)story, das!

 

[das]

Excerpts from Kacher-Chronist's "History of Gerber."

IV. The Quiet Times.

[...]

V. Trade of the Old Days and the Later Religions.

[...]
2. Trade-between-nations flourished already in the days of the Second Cecil-King.
3. Our city Cirta saw merchants from the pale northern people of Aney-Tigot and the wise people of Khemri, who traded both with each other and with our people.
4. And from all this trade, the Cecil-Kings profited, for they charged fees, and the foreigner merchants payed them for it still was more convenient than travelling even further away from their homes.
[...]
7. In the days of the Ninth Cecil-King, trade greatly flourished between the Khemri city of Said and our city of Migra.
8. Also in those days, Veritasians begun coming to Cirta.
9. They were a strange southeastern people that lived away from Wardash.
10. Poor in gods, they made up for this with extreme affection for the one god they did have and greatly reviled all those who worshiped different gods, yet not out of envy, but out their very piousness.
11. Yet they too seeked trade, and overcame their contempt for others for its sake.
12. To Cirta they came from beyond the lands of the Moguls, and said that though they were well-received, in the lands of the Moguls they were as if deaf.
13. That was true, for the Mogul language was unlike any of those of the Wardash or of the Coast, somewhat similar only to that of the Nkondi and the Gorinese, of whom it would be told later.
14. With our people, however, the Veritasians talked freely.
15. Their leader [i.e. leader of the expedition] Taurician was polite, but clearly he and his men despised our laws and customs, thinking them barbaric.
16. For this reason, the Ninth Cecil-King politely told Taurician to leave Cirta, and this the Veritasian did, for by then he himself had heard of the Khemri and the Aney-Tigot, whom he visited then.
17. On his way back Taurician did not visit Cirta again.
18. Instead, years later, Veritasians sent out envoys to the people of the Wardash and the Kalmar, and asked them to accept traders and priests.
19. For deeply pious as they were, the Veritasians always seeked to bring more people into their faith, no matter how alien it was to these people.
20. The greedy Mogul rulers, by contrast, cared little for beliefs when they could make a profit, and accepted the Veritasian proposal.
21. The Mogul people, however, strongly believed in the system of castes, that guaranteed divine stability in their society, in the reincarnation of their souls and in meditation to better understand the gods and themselves, and greatly disliked the way their rulers allowed in the Veritasians.
22. Thus the Mogul greed and the Veritasian priests greatly alienated Akbar V and his heirs from the Mogul people, who viewed them as traitors.
23. The Ninth Cecil-King, though he had continued to tolerate all the other religions, greatly disliked the Veritasian proposal.
24. He rightly believed that if the our people embraced the Veritasian faith by themselves, they would need no Veritasian priests.
25. And neither would they need the Veritasian priests if they chose not to follow their faith.
26. Had the Ninth Cecil-King allowed Veritasian priests in, it would only have caused discord, as though their faith was alien to our people, the priests might have converted some men anyway, and thus would have disharmonized our land, for it would have been an unnatural conversion.
27. For this reason the Veritasians sent no priests nor merchants until the days of the Thirteenth Cecil-King.
28. History does not record the answers of other peoples to the Veritasian proposal.
29. The Veritasians were not the only ones who seeked to spread their faiths.
30. This was also a trait of the Yath al'Shanaal, one of the nations of Upper Wardash.
31. Other nations there were Qua'laen Jal, Nkondi and Gorin.
32. These nations greatly differed one from another, though the Nkondi were more similar to Gorin, and the Qua'laen Jal - to Yath al'Shanaal.
33. They often warred with each other, and just as often allied and traded, and the Yath al'Shanaal spread their faith in all the three neighbour-nations, and amongst the barbarian peoples around them.
34. The faith of the Yath al'Shanaal was in many things similar to that of the Khemri, and yet no religions clashed as often as these two - not in war, but in theological debate.
35. This perhaps was precisely because of the similarities between them, for otherwise there would have been nothing to argue about, whereas this way both sides saw the other as twisting their own ideas.
36. But regardless, the Yath al'Shanaal also believed in death and wisdom.
37. They also believed in the Netherworld, which they constantly tried to contact, seeking wisdom from the dead.
38. And much like the Veritasians, they too were pious and fanatical, which was the one true difference from the much more philosophical Khemri.
39. In the days of the Thirteenth Cecil-King, the Yath al'Shanaal traders begun coming into our lands and trading their famous crystals and metals for our goods.
40. Without any permission, the Yath al'Shanaal priests travelled into our land like they did into others.
41. The Thirteenth Cecil-King, despite the advice from the highest priest, Priest-Nukar, did nothing to stop them.
42. So their teaching was free to gain adherents, though they were not too numerous at first.
[...]

VI. War with the Moguls and the Trickery of Hajan.

1. Though the first Mogul war with our people was quiet and peaceful, it has poisoned our land's relations with the Moguls.
2. Since then, despite centuries of peace and trade, the Moguls and our people continued to hate each other.
3. Most of the times this hatred was well-hidden, but as time passed by more and more incidents happened.
4. So this mutual hatred grew more apparent, and in the end war became inevitable.
[...]
8. But the real war came in the days of the Eleventh Cecil-King and his two successors.
9. In those days, Akbar VI was the Mogul ruler.
10. Even by the standards of his people's rulers, he was arrogant, greedy, lazy, weak-willed and corrupt.
11. Hatred towards him was immense both amongst our and his own people.
12. Meanwhile, the Eleventh Cecil-King was greatly liked in our land.
13. Unlike his short-lived predecessors, he was strong, young and healthy.
14. So was our land, where great cities grew and trade with Khemri flourished.
15. Alas, however, the Eleventh Cecil-King died abruptly on the sixth year of his reign, and it was immediately determined that he was poisoned.
[...]
18. Immediately suspecting the cunning Moguls, the Twentieth Cecil-King begun preparing a strong army, and ordered it armed with the best weapons that could be forged in our land.
19. For this purpose, the Great Forge of Cirta was built, but the weapons forged there were not used until near the end of the war.
20. As soon as our army was ready to march, the Twentieth Cecil-King declared that Akbar VI was to blame for the death of the Eleventh Cecil-King, and declared war.
21. The Twentieth Cecil-King himself led our army to the Mogul lands.
[...]
24. Then our army stumbled upon Gerrabad, the great northern fort-city of the Moguls.
25. Knowing themselves to be inferior warriors to ours, the Moguls hid within Gerrabad, hoping that its walls would protect them.
26. In great rage, the Twentieth Cecil-King ordered great battering rams to be crafted by our engineers, while our army besieged the enemy city.
[...]
28. With those rams, the enemy gates were broken, and our warriors broke into the city.
29. There was much bloodshed as the Moguls tried to stem the tide, but were broken again and again by the fury and power of our army.
30. Finally, Mogul warriors begun to surrender, but were later slaughtered for their defiance.
31. Others, meanwhile, pretended to be commoners and hid in the houses; but later most of them were betrayed or found by our warriors.
32. Both those who betrayed them and who hid them regardless were slaughtered as well.
33. Those of the warriors who chose to fight on rallied in the main square, and were slaughtered there.
34. After that, our exhausted, but still enraged warriors proceeded to pillage the city and ravish the enemy women.
35. While interrogating an enemy warrior before his execution, the Twentieth Cecil-King had learned that the Brahmanic priests had encouraged and often helped the Mogul warriors to fight our attackers.
36. Enraged by this violation of the Mogul caste laws, the Twentieth Cecil-King declared that all the priests of the city were to be slaughtered, while the temples were to be burned and replaced by our temples, for our priests that travelled with our army did not betray any oaths of their own.
37. This was greatly disliked by the Mogul people, even those that in truth agreed with the Twentieth Cecil-King's judgement.
[...]
41. With the fall of Gerrabad, all the northern Mogul lands were left unprotected and fell to our armies without a fight.
[...]
43. Panic spread in the Mogul capital Delhi and at the court of Akbar VI when news came of Gerrabad's fall.
44. Even Akbar VI himself decided that something had to be done.
45. He demanded that a man upon whom all the blame could be placed be found, and his chief advisor Bahdur had indeed found such a man.
46. It was the cowardly general Hajan, who had fled from Gerrabad just before its fall.
47. But Bahdur underestimated Hajan's capability at intrigue.
48. Though himself a master of it like most other Mogul courtiers, Bahdur had not realized how many enemies both he and Akbar VI had found.
49. Hajan, meanwhile, not only quickly discerned Bahdur's plan, but also made his own that was took things beyond a mere power-struggle at the Mogul court.
50. Instead of moving against Bahdur directly, Hajan incited several of the chief advisor's enemies to petition Akbar VI against Bahdur.
51. While Bahdur regained Akbar VI's trust and punished his opponents, Hajan gathered both his loyal forces and those of Delhi's garrison commander Sheran who chose to side him, and used this unorthodox tool of intrigue towards a very unorthodox goal, a rebellion against the entire ruling house.
52. The greatest tragedy of our world is that the most evil are the hardest to defeat, for they have no conscience and can use any means towards their goal, while our means are limited by goodness, honour, or at least a simple dedication towards tradition.
53. Even Bahdur was less evil than Hajan, who, by sinking to a new low, acted in such a manner that Bahdur simply could not expect.
54. Thus Bahdur did nothing as he waited for Hajan's next move as if this was a Mogul game of shah [chess], while Hajan and his troops attacked Akbar VI's palace under the cover of sheer evil and slaughtered everyone inside it.
55. Then Hajan declared himself emperor.
56. And thus as always the trickiest and the most cunning survived and prevailed in the Mogul land.
57. This was not good for the Twentieth Cecil-King, for while in open battle our army could not have been defeated by the Moguls, in the realms of trickery our people was just as outmatched by them as they by us in simple war.
58. On the other hand, the Khemri, though at first disgusted at the Sack of Gerrabad, were even more utterly horrified by Hajan's actions; for while cities have been pillaged before, the slaughter of an entire dynasty by an upstart general was something that never happened west of the Kalmar until now..
59. So the Khemri proposed a defensive pact to the Twentieth Cecil-King.
60. Before he could accept it, though, he suffered the fate of his father - Hajan the Trickster had him killed.
61. Never the bravest of peoples, the Khemri decided to stay out of the war lest their ruler too be slain.
62. They also feared that the Veritasians, who too believed in regicide and trickery, would step in for the Moguls lest it be clearly shown that evil could fail to pay off and instead could be punished.
[...]
65. While the Twenty-First Cecil-King travelled to take command of his father's army, Hajan first crushed a small force in a night attack and then charged with his large army to take Gerrabad.
66. By then most of the garrison was moved forward for an attack on Delhi that had to be cancelled after the Twentieth Cecil-King's death.
67. Thus Hajan easily captured Gerrabad, the people of which greeted him as a liberator - so great was their hatred both for our people and for their old rulers.
68. However, it seemed that his luck had ran out, for the Twenty-First Cecil-King led a great army to besiege Gerrabad.
[...]
71. Eventually, the fort-city was taken and this time all were slaughtered and the city, apart from the temples, destroyed forever.
72. And yet, the coward Hajan once more found a way to escape the city, leaving one of his lieutenants disguised as him to lead the defenses.
73. No attempts to catch him succeeded.
74. Nor was he, despite the loss of his entire army, betrayed by anyone in Delhi - in fact, he was greeted as a hero.
75. Thus always the worst villains in history have been able to rally people around them.
76. This is not because all who are evil are also charismatic and genial; rather, this is because that only those of the evil rulers survived long enough to attain infamy as great as that of Hajan the Trickster clearly had an insane, malevolent geniality and the ability to sway the dark masses to their side.
77. Yet none of this could have helped Hajan, had not the Veritasians, who at all times hated and feared our people, agreed to support him in exchange for a tribute in ships that Hajan himself never really needed.
78. The Twenty-First Cecil-King did not fear the Veritasians, and intended to fight on with the help of the Khemri.
79. But before he could even call for their help, a cruel betrayal happened; the Khemri, also receiving a tribute in ships, also demanded that the Twenty-First Cecil-King retreat from all the Mogul lands, lest they support Hajan.
80. Thus even the wise Khemri were tricked by the Trickster, who had persuaded them that if the Mogul lands were to fall to our people, the Twenty-First Cecil-King would threaten the Khemri as well.
81. Upon hearing this, the Twenty-First Cecil-King cried, for fighting the Moguls and the Khemri and the Veritasians would only mean doom for our people, but not fighting them would mean dishonour and failure to avenge the fallen warriors and the Eleventh Cecil-King, and the Twentieth as well.
82. His old chief advisor, Kaar-Advisor, had noticed the tears of our king, and understanding the reason consoled him and said: "Nothing is eternal, and one day things would change. If we withdraw now, we will save ourselves, or at least our descendants, for the day when we could avenge this. If we fight on, we will all be slaughtered, and would then remain forever unavenged."
83. With a heavy heart, the Twenty-First Cecil-King agreed and ordered a retreat, but not before all the Mogul lands held by our warriors were burned and salted, and all the buildings there destroyed, and all the Moguls enslaved.
84. Hajan the Trickster said nothing of this, nor did he say anything about his newfound allies not returning the galleys despite there being not a single battle fought, for he was relieved by the salvation of all his plots and now celebrated his dark victory.
85. Thus this war that might have become one of the most glorious parts of our history became the single most shameful and infamous one.

To be continued

OOC: Right-o, I think I insulted just about every nationality in my vicinity sans the Tristarians and the Davarians, whom I am saving for later on.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Damn Straight you insulted everyone.

Its great, totally IC.

 

[das]

Thanks, I try. I probably won't be going to hard on the Khemri after this, as they were mostly fighting the evil Veritasians...

 

[Kal'thzar]

Actually you appear to be kinder to me than most.

Philosophical religion, tricked people.

Kinda taking the blame away from me.

Now i was going to write a story in relation to that game Thy came up with but I can't find it.

 

[das]

We did mention that you're cowards, though. But meh, you're just lucky because Toghol-Advisor, the great advisor of the Thirty-Second Cecil-King, is the one who ordered the writing of that history. He's the leader of the pro-Khemri faction at the court. And besides, we ARE allies...

EDIT: Btw, what is that game that you're talking about?