"I wished for peace, for all states need peace to rest and prepare for the next round of wars. But time and time and again I was drawn into new wars, for this was what the Greater I, the BAAL INCARNATE, wished."
- Maluk Ahiram, the Malukal Book: the Book of Ahiram.
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It was strange, but true. The Syrians wanted to conquer only the small northwestern Arabic statelet whose people invited the Maluk anyway. But... It came out wrong, for some reason.
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Nabatae.
A tiny Arabic state with a Malukist majority.
A state on the brink of rebellion.
Not to mention a state just entered by a Syrian... chariot. Just one chariot. The army assembled to face the threat was shocked by that. The Malukists in their ranks begun to re-consider the rebellion thing.
Then came the whole bloody Syrian horde. Black-skinned camel-riders all the way from the Nubian (read: Saharan) Desert, Malukal chariots with their fanatical charioteers swinging axes... or, more often, spears and swords at the Nabateans, blue-robbed spearmen the only parts of whose faces that were seen were the hateful eyes, the archers who sent forth black arrows that by their own appearence could frighten a Navatean to death...
Well, they came. Quickly. Mercilessly. So fast that Malukist rebels didn't even have the time to finish lynching their general when their god came, terrible and glorious in his chariot. He was a Phoenicean merchant once, but now he was promoted to the Only God of the World. His dark face, once a theme of much ridicule and caricatures, was now the face of an angered God. No longer did he seem... chubby. No, now he was gigantic and majestic. In his hands, a mighty spear.
The Malukists, awe-struck, bowed down to him.
Nabatea fell within just a day. Ofcourse, an entire week had to take place before Maluk collected all the oaths of fealty at the old Nabatean capital, but from the first day of the first battle, no more resistance came.
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Ahiram really intended just to receive the oaths and go home, to keep the buerocracy on its toes - many expected to get richer while he wasn't watching, he was sure, and albeit Oran was still struggling along there, Oran was increasingly old and senile. Not to mention that Ahiram didn't trust the Petrian neither. But it so happened that the new Malukal subjects had also a bit of grievances. Most of them didn't matter, but... they were unhappy about the Yathribi Empire to their south.
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[fast forward]
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The Yathribians put up much more of a fight, but it was naturally for naught. They werecked a lot of good chariots, and their camelry was even more skilled then the Syrian one; they outflanked a large body of spearmen. But the strenght of Syria, and its army, was in that casualties didn't really matter. The Organism lived on, there were more then enough people to take the place of the casualties in the line that eventually smashed the Yathribians, and their city fell. Malukists were rejoicing in the streets and getting very drunk indeed; NOW was the time to go home, having received the pledges of loyalty.
Then the news of the Quyrashi army invading the southern realms of Yathribia came. That just wouldn't do.
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[fast forward. very fast.]
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"It would seem that something of a battle took place here."
"Yes, indeed. Strange that they didn't pick up the arrows, though."
"Broken arrows, my colleague. Besides, this was a DESERT. They probably... didn't notice."
"Maybe there was a road here once? Why fight here otherwise?"
"Colleague, don't be a revisionist. There is no road."
"IS is different from WAS."
"Colleague, there would have been something left."
"Why? The sandstorms were plausibly quite ferocious here in the past."
"Possibly, colleague... Very well, it would seem to be the time for breakfast. We mustn't leave the Lord-Observer waiting."
"Ah, surely. Just don't forget the coordinates, like the last time."
"Colleague..."
But the colleague already was quite excitedly running towards the teleportation device, flapping his wings somehow. The two penguin archeologists departed, but not before the first one noticed the black banner of the invincible Quyrashi army, forever stomped into the desert. It was here that the invincible army ceased to exist.
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[fast backward]
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The procession entered Mecca. The Maluk eyed down the vast black (covered by a cloth of black brockade) cube-shaped structure in the middle of the city. An object of veneration by the few remaining pagans here, albeit some Malukists liked it as well...
Mecca grew rich from the piligrimage, it was considered a holy city. Most disturbing.
The only city that there should be is Damascus. And so thousands of slaves will be herded across the desert, and will carry the entire shrine there. This will cause rebellions, but Ahiram knew that it is best to cause such rebellions and to make his enemies go out in the open. That was how he got by all this time.
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Year after year of campaining, and yet the Syrian army was hardly tired. It always had time to rest. One by one, the coastal tribes have submitted; the Bedouins of the area, mostly Malukists, surrendered without battle as well. Jiddah tried to resist... and was punished for its insolance. The Syrian army paraded across it, carrying before them the Cross. The Cross beared on it the crucified king of Jiddah, who claimed that he would crush the Malukists and the Syrians with ease. He was thin, and partially-devoured, a most gruesome picture. Noone dared resist the Syrians.
Ahiram was about to head north. But then...
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"Well?" - asked Ahiram the petitioners. Merchants, local merchants.
"O mighty God! O Baal! O Maluk of-"
"Well?"
"Oh Great Ahiram! The perfidious Sabaens, they are placing high tariffs on our trade!"
"Sabaens?"
"They used to call themselves "hajji arabhim"."
"Exiled Arabs. I see. They charge high tariffs?"
"Yes, yes, o Wise One!"
Ahiram sighed quietly.
"O Wise One!" - the taller petitioner said - "The Perfidious Sabanion can only allow itself such arrogance by the virtue of its control of the vital trade routes. Perhaps you could simply conquer the Yemen, and gain ports with access to the Arabian Sea! They will be forced to surrender!"
"Or at least, you could humble them in the field of battle, and make them apologize!"
"O Great One! Or maybe you could seize Damot itself and destroy it!"
"O Wise-"
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[fast forward]
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And Ahiram agreed, reluctantly, to fight another war. "But that's the last one", he swore. Suddenly, a new circumstance appeared - Malukists, though not as widespread here, rebelled. The Syrian army faced very little trouble crushing the Sabaens. But all this left quite a problem, as Ahiram hardly knew what to do with this land which he never wanted in the first place.