Lord Zee
Ashh
Frettzo
Vec
Nokeyeor 1 - Nokeyeor 2 - Mesathalssa Divinus Wikia page
Nokeyeor 3
It had been a while since the trade of the salt road came to a halt, to the many people who lived in the land strip that went all the way on the southern ocean from Mesathalassa to the Dwarven Citadel, that meant the end of their age of luxury. Trade with cities south of Alefpria was possible, but far from the necessary to keep their ways of lives intact.
As the old clans struggled to keep order and prestige, new, more vigorous ones rose and found new ways to bring riches to their people. When the war in Mesathalassa started and many such clans were hired as mercenaries, they would suddenly find themselves in very different lands, learning different things, getting a lot of practical military knowledge on the fields of a rich foreign land.
Needless to say, it took very little time after the mercenary work ended before people once again looked at the lands in the north as a source of profit, this time, however, they would not be bowing to any king.
The reindeer riders struck as winter arrived, knowing they would be gone by spring. Mesathalassa was not ready for the wave of a thousand raiders going from village to village plundering what they could. But neither were the riders, the experience their veterans had beforehand was useful in the navigation of the fields and village raiding, however, besieging cities was not as easy and many struggled to keep the banners from splitting up, as the many greedy adventurers wouldn't accept the rule of their generals.
Yet the sheer numbers of the southern raiders made up for most of their mistakes. By the time the realms became aware of what was happening, they were already deep within their territory, going from village to village, sometimes even lucking out in a poorly protected town. As winter reached its peak, there were raids happening as far as southern Krastas.
Most of the important cities in the realms had built up defenses during the wartime, years after it, many had been kept, even if downgraded, those were enough to protect most capitals.
The one exception was Mirny. Dahleria, daughter of two pilgrims, had got as far as she did in the last half-century by knowing well how the gears of the region turned. Sometimes by quiet intrigue, other times by brinkmanship, the priestess knew well how far she was allowed to go and what the ripples of her actions would be. From turning Mirny into a theocracy, to establishing slavery in a region of freemen, to continuously winning more influence in the war, she knew it all when it came to Mesathalassa. Perhaps blinded by pride, or from an extreme case of selective attention, she allowed disaster to happen.
By trying to deal with the incoming raiders like one would with a local noble, the priestess would lead herself on a path of many mistakes, the fact she had never built up a practical military lead during the war only becoming one more factor in what would follow. Soon, Mirny would be surrounded and unprepared to give an answer, most of its army was days away and the defenses had never been built as she knew no local army would climb up the hills. She was right, no local army did.
Perhaps if it were one of the ex-mercenaries, the disaster would have been limited, but the city fell to one of the split-off adventurers, too young for control and morals.
Most of the other attacked realms would feel the weight of the Great Raid even if their major areas were successfully defended. With exception of Imga, where King Xabud Of Rok truly made a valiant effort to protect his people, all other authorities simply holed up and allowed disaster to strike the minor villages. Spring came, the raiders went, but the scars of the attack were fresh, the drought would be stronger on that year, the villages that had been simply slaughtered being far luckier than the ones who faced the rest of winter and the next year without any sort of food storage.
The situation of Mesathalassan agriculture was becoming critical, with a devastated countryside and most crops not ready for the climate change the region was undergoing fishing was once again becoming the main source of food. Yet, fishing hadn't really advanced in the last half-century, and the population had far outgrown what the sea and rivers could provide. The harbor cities had little option but to shut their gates in the face of all those who fled their withering farming villages, further killing any sense of regional authority.
That did not apply to Imga, Xabud had been seen as the good king, one that ran to his people aid, and with the extermination of his rivals, he was able to act quickly and without worries. The man was also smart enough to have started to think about how to deal with the drought before it peaked, though at first he was too worried about the war and establishing the kingdom, on the five years between the end of the war and now he had already started to do his best to guarantee the future of his realm.
The creation of hunting guilds similar to the north, the founding of salt mines on the frozen south, the incorporation of reindeer riding into his culture, creating trade routes with the better established Eastern Mesathalassa, making colonists out of the extra population villages could not maintain, and creating the first non-librarian center of studies, one that focused on understanding nature and agriculture, among many other key decisions to keep Imga on the map.
And the results showed, the decade between 40 to 49, despite the great raid, was one of great wealth for the unified realm of Imga. Then in 49 the second great raid started.
Tales moved fast among the forgotten Salt Road, the raiding of Mesathalassa had been far from successful, but still brought some wealth, and some wealth was more than no wealth, which quickly turned the eyes of many towards the region. This time, the raid was not led by simple mercenaries and starry eyed adventurers, but by proper leaders of clans, even ones who had emigrated all the way from the far west, the most important of them having even stepped on Alefpria, in a peaceful way, of course, else there would be little left to tell the tale.
It was easy to tell the raiders these times were made from a different cloth than the first few, the easiest way to tell was the gigantic tundra beasts being herded by the reindeer riders or the glimmer of bronze and iron, while most of Mesathalassa had been scrambling since Mirny had been destroyed.
All of King Xabud's greatness would mean little in combat, some say rulers are successful on virtue and fortune, and there was no fortune in sight as the tundra beast outright stomped the defenses of Imga.
With the southern kingdom toppled, the next step would be to raid Igar-Kuri. The city could always look like one big expanse of hovels, but in its trade ports and fortified merchant houses was a great wealth.
Due to some miracle, it was at this time that the leaders of Mesathalassa finally noticed it was time to react as a region to the threat. The miracle was mostly the yells of a very tired and aged Sheru of Kivico and the terrible fear caused by the idea of Igar-Kuri, the mud covered jewel of Mesathalassa, being gone. Meanwhile, even with priestess Dahleria of Mirny long dead, Dahlerianism continued to thrive among the Elysian philosophies, the desire of revenge against the southern invaders was strong, and across the converted villages, priests started to form their own militia with the intent of saving the faithful in the great harbor area, creating another force to match the raiders approaching Igar-Kuri with its tundra beast.
And then the armies met, an exact half-century after the day the stars fell.
It was, by any interpretation, a massacre. The expected betrayal between the armies of the realms and the religious army never came, but both together were still not enough to match the might of the technologically superior and better organized reindeer riders. Still, Igar-Kuri was nothing like anything the riders, even the most experienced, had been ready to deal with. The city was as wide as Alefpria, though lacking the glory and organization, it had multiple walls, so when the tundra beast went in, the riders found themselves with little option but to go forward, through the hovels, towards the juicy core of the city.
They expected the armies to have their morale broken at one point or another, but they never did, initially they would run and scramble in sight of the tundra beast, but as the realization their homes would be next on the menu should Igar-Kuri fall dawned on them, all soldiers found a new desperate courage to stop that attack.
With a thousand arrows, the beast fell, falling amidst where once were many homes. The raiders had no other besieging option to break deeper into the city, so the attack came to a halt, but the combat continued. Igar-Kuri was defended, but it was, by all means, a defeat of the unified armies of Mesathalassa, chasing away the raiders from the south was out of question, in fact, Kivico had lost so many it would, over the next year, lose its control over the protectorates of Krastas and Jan.
For the riders it was a much simpler task. They had conquered Imga, so all they would need to do was to keep it as a stepping stone, summer would come and go, and when winter arrived, the second great raid would continue.
Despite his sixty or so years, the old leader of the reindeer riders had never seen the seasons move by, the flowers growing among the snow, the winds of summer blowing away the petals, and the odd coldness of the orange and yellow of fall. It brought him peace and a desire to continue living in that land and perhaps even pick up the plow and live more like the people in the north.
It had been a few lunar cycles since they occupied the fortress, and, while he demanded obedience and servitude from the locals, he felt like he was better than what led these people before, as he had only heard tales of regicide, massacres, and starvation.
Perhaps, should all things work out, he could provide something to his people beyond the warfare caused by the collapse of Dundee. And...
Was that something on the window just now?
Without thinking much, the old man and wanabee king moved towards the window to see if he saw it right, perhaps if he had spent some more time among the intrigues of the harbors, he would have avoided that mistake and called the guards.
Many in the region had been thinking about how they would take down the invaders, complex plans, subversive actions, last stands, all those taking into account they would be again an elder raider who knew more about the world than they did and had been in more wars than they could count. Such red tape was unnecessary, no matter how many victories a man had, no matter his honor, no matter his wit, one quick swing of a sword did the job. And a job it did.
Destiny had smiled at Runza like it always did, guiding her to where she belonged. The issues here and there had been mostly learning experiences. Of course, the army camping on the fortress that was her childhood home did a thing or two to help her to be where she was. The raid leader's fear of being in the 'capital', where the home fortress of the recently crushed noble house was, had sent him to a far worse place, one where old servants still loyal to Imga were and where a pretender had been making the stage for her return. Now the stage was set.
It was a quiet night, the old man slaughtered without a noise. Some of his most trusted sons and leaders were there too, some sleeping, some drinking, all very vulnerable. The heir of the Thanfong clan smiled, it would take one hour to clean the fortress with the help of her loyal servants still in service to this day. With the great stag dead, the herd would break, the many armies of riders, stuck in place by the summer heat, would be little more than lone deer in a forest full of wolves.
[1 might spent to make Runza Thanfong a hero.]
Retaking a throne was easy, retaking a kingdom, however, would be a complicated journey. Loyality was not a thing Mesathalassa valued, the blood that ran on her veins, dating back to the foundation of clam Imga, back on the Elysian days, would not guarantee the reconquest of what was rightfully hers. Traitors who would not accept her sovereignty over the realm, remnants of the great raid... It was almost disheartening to think about it, that before she even got a chance to bring greatness to Imga, she would need to traverse a long rough road to get back what her predecessors took for granted.
But Runza did not allow herself to lose hope, she had not allowed herself give up when she was captured in Kodekzia and imprisoned; Or when she escaped but took a boat that went on the opposite direction of where she wanted to go, ending up in the shores of a civilization from the far north, past the dusklands, south of hain kingdoms and a woodland so great it made the jungles of Mesathalassa look like a garden; Or when she was taken by pirates as a slave.
She had been around the world trying to return to her land, fighting many times for her life, gaining many scars and even losing an eye. It was too late to be weak. Furthermore, after seeing so many foreign lands, she realized many things, both why she belonged nowhere but at the new realm of Imga, but also the many issues the rule of her family and the Rok family had. There was so much to be done, and she would do it all, failure was not an option.
Today was her first day as the queen of Imga, it was still early morning, the city was still whispering her return, especially the bards, who she paid extra to make sure they would put emphasis on how much she had been through to come back and banish the invaders the Rok branch had failed to repel. It was a necessary step, as Xabud had been a very successful king, even she agreed, and the hordes were not all that bad, as them using Imga as a base brought a good share of riches to the land, that she did not agree with, but the people thought what the people thought, and it was time for them to think otherwise.
The first thing that she would decide was her clan name. Imga, Sunmen culture in general, did not use clan names at all. However, considering all the other human peoples and many non-human folks used it, it soon made its way into their culture. At the time, the two feuding clans for the sunthrone ended up using the name of the son their splinter originated from, Rok and Thanfong. Runza did not like that, there was only one name that mattered, and that was Imga, their blood had ruled and led the people for so long that in comparison the feud between two sons was nothing but a small spot in its history.
Runza rado Igar-Thanfong, was the name she settled with, not having the will to break off completely from the name of her family. The problem was that if any Rok remained, she would give them an idea, but she was pretty sure that the other family had been as thoroughly destroyed as hers was by their hand, hopefully even more.
She planned a few days of feat and ceremony, it was not the best thing to do when she was effectively at war, but, it was important to make sure the capital loved her, it was important to tell her story, and how much she sacrificed for them, it was also important to make sure all who disliked her felt like they were the weird ones, to make them outcasts in their own home.
Furthermore, the news would be helpful to bring fishes to her net. The raider generals would be in chaos after the death of their commander, none would dare to attack her alone, fearing the stories leaving the capital, and as such it would take them at least one lunar cycle to respond. The leaders of Imgar armies, however, be it resistance or the ones holed up in hill towns, would be quick to arrive, they had been leaderless for a while, after all.
They would, however, not be there to help, but to instead circle her conquest like vultures. Runza knew she was a terrible end to their ambitions, most of them fancied declaring themselves kings of Imga, with the bloodline supposedly gone any 'liberator' who conquered back the capital would be considered 'good enough' to sit on the throne, better than nothing.
Not that the queen did not have a plan to deal with that. On the end of the seventh day since her return, all military leaders of Sunmen descent had arrived, and Runza decided to meet them all at once in the fortress.
While dressed as a queen, she sat on the ground, not on her throne, she wanted to avoid antagonizing them too much, the time in which she would be free to rule her subjects with great vigor was yet to come.
Immediately, the eight men in the room shot her many questions, some not even waiting until they had sat down in a circle around the firepit. How she planned to tax the lands, how she planned to reconquer land, how much autonomy she would give their towns, why should they give up their towns, was she truly Runza or an impostor.
The queen's response was simple, she extended a map and drew on it with a charcoal. "This is the core land, and it will be under my rule. These are the other fortresses within the realm, I would like to divide it between you, who have shown loyalty to the throne."
As the map went from hand to hand, eyes widened, and it was hard to judge what exactly had surprised each of them. Was it the sudden offer of land? The division of the kingdom into sub-sections? The first thing brought up by one of the men present were neither of those.
"My lady, there are areas here... which do not belong to the realm of Imga."
"Then to who do they belong?"
"Well, this one is under a raider lord."
"I do not accept any claim of any southerner anywhere near these lands. We will take their lands wherever they are. I also have no intention of returning the lands to those who failed to protect them. Understand this, you are all here because you defended yourself well while remaining loyal."
Another man questioned further. "This one was not taken by anyone. It belongs to Igar-Kuri's patrician."
"Igar-Kuri, Port of Imgar, and who are the Imgar?"
"We... are?"
"Correct. We, the people of Imga, and who is the leader of Imga?"~
"You are."
"Exactly. I do not accept Igar-Kuri's claim of sovereignty, their expulsion of my ancestors was, and continues to be, a short-lived mutiny."
"Short-lived? My lady, they have been free for more than three generations."
"I am building a realm that will last three hundred generations. In the long term, it will be but a single blade of grass amidst a large field."
There were constant glances of doubt within the room, they were not sure the woman's warlike was good for their interests. All of the men were warriors, but they were old warriors, who had had their good share of war already.
"You do not have to trust my promise of union now. First, we will focus on retaking what most accept as ours. I am sure by the end of our campaign you will come to see my intents are true and tangible."
It took them a moment, but finally, they accept it. Reconquering the lands of Imga became very interesting with the promise of lands being rewarded to them. Most of Mesathalassa had so far worked under the assumption all lands belonged to the king, when the system of the Harbor Kingdoms started to fail, nobody had translated the harbor-ship-sailor classes to the agricultural reality of most nations, Runza, however, was playing with the idea of subdividing the realm in a similar way to that old system, where she would rule over the lords, who would rule over the farms. Her worry was that the king role in such a scenario was far less necessary than the old harbor kings, but for now, it would do.
"None of you know how to read, correct?" All of those in the room nodded in response, some grunted. It was not something that had spread far into the south and many doubted the need of it, after all, all northern nobles they found were a bit light on the head, surely that could have to do with keeping all their thoughts in clay. "Well, I wrote something, it is just a collection of laws, so we know well the roles and limits of my rule and how your ownership of the land works. The last thing Imga needs is to be conquered again by a foreign invader because half of the land under the king did not know it was under the king or that it had to fight for him. I will have one of my servants read it."
This had been the very reason Runza had decided to divide the land. The population of Mesathalassa, despite all the issues with war and famine, continued to rise. It no longer was formed by little villages who were satellites of the harbor cities but had grown to have a web of minor and major towns that sometimes relied on the cities but would be mostly autonomous if left alone. The formalization of the hierarchy of the lands was key to keep the realm alive, Runza had wondered why it had not been done before, considering had learned how hierarchy worked very well. Then she heard of how Kivico had sent the queen's children to rule over Krastas and Jan, and it dawned on her that the large families or councils of other lands had so far mitigated the issues with informal borders to the point they did not even notice it. That was good, one day or another the cracks would show, and Imga would be ready.
The battles extended from summer to fall. There was no time to rest, the colder it got, the easier it would be for the raiders to regroup or attack. To outsiders, it felt like the invaders were falling like flies, yet Runza knew her lone stag view was more fit, because while cornered and made into easy prey, they still had horns that could easily take a wolf down should it not be careful, and the fewer wolves, the harder it would be to hunt.
So far, the casualties had been few and the victories countless. This campaign had been named 'deer hunt' by the popular, but Runza introduced the name 'Fist of Imga' as a more proper name. It was necessary to stop the views of reindeer as foreign if the realm was to reach its destiny.
"Say, Ayisi, have you ever noticed how the deer from this area are different from the ones used closer to the coast?" Ayisi being a slave woman she had liberated, to an extent, from the council of the raider king. She was a servant to the shaman and the merchants, and as such, she was pretty smart, something Runza wanted in her group, yet she had issues seeing the world beyond her limited situation, finding the very idea of surviving on her own to be absurd, and while this was not something the queen sought on others, the ensuing loyalty was very nice.
"Now that you mention, I did notice some differences in leg size, musculature and fur allocation." she observed.
"Yeah, the ones from the groups that settled in the coastal plain are different from the ones in the hilly north and the swampy east." she said, the question had always been rhetorical, Runza was mostly just lonely and hated to think too much without expressing her thoughts.
"Maybe it is because they are better adapted for such environments. The riders with the best-fit deer for an area had a higher survival rate than the ones who didn't."
The queen nodded. "But this was not something done on purpose, right?"
"We do have a preference between lighter or heavier deer, but I never heard of people breeding reindeer to ride in a specific area."
"Well, you will hear now, for sure. I wonder just how much I can do with this, but setting up a mountain, coast and swamp heard would be idea right now."
This left the ex-slave most perplexed. "From the way you speak you are implying you will keep these herds of animals?"
"Oh absolutely. Why would I not? My plan is simple, I will have riders added to my realms army and create royal herds. I know it is not a tradition of our people, but survival comes first, tradition comes second."
"Oh..." the southern woman pondered for a moment, nodding at Runza's thoughts. "You are wise. I imagine it will be a great advantage for the kingdom once, in five years, when the training of the first batch of riders is done, you will have a formidable raiding band at your disposal..."
"Five years?" she laughed, and shook her head. "I am actually thinking of a one year training routine. It can be done, it just needs to be intense, condense the lessons as much as it can and cut down on the rituals."
"One year? These animals are not simple to command, you need a deeper link..." she wondered how the queen's plans would work, she found it hard to believe.
The first winter was a hard one, by the time half of Imga was recovered, but the remaining raiders had become far more united in their resistance. As spring bloomed, it was back to a slow fight of tradition, but Runza would not have it, she wanted this war ended by the next winter.
She had a plan in mind, one she brewed even before the strike of luck that brought her back to the throne. This project led her to ride deep into the Mesathalassan Wildlands, were villages were thin and the biggest ones were actually just fancy inns. Though the plight of the coastal area had also been felt deep inland, including the drought, that, from what she heard, dried up entire spots of jungle in the north, many villages remained somewhat prosperous, and tradition endured.
In the depths of the woods, the trees were far too big to be cut down by any human tool, however, certain animals existed that could easily bring down a tree, and the key to survival was to somehow create an alliance between such animals and the humans living in the region. Such a thing did exist, in the depths of the forest giant sloths had been somewhat tamed by the locals to bring down great trees with ease in exchange for food.
The thing about tools is that while they solved one problem, they could also, accidentally, have a use beyond the planned. Axes, for example, were great at cutting wood, also great at killing people. Sloth taming worked like axes, and, much like the counterpart tool, could be easily transformed into a weapon.
Tundra beasts were great tools of siege and fear, but, they were too hard to come by, Runza wanted something similar, but faster and easier to control. Of course it could not walk past walls, but she was more focused on the fear factor, siege could be done by other means.
The fall campaign had been successful. Runza's mind was overburdened thinking of all the new methods she wanted to implement after having learned about them while away from her homeland, it was thankful those who followed her in hopes of having land in her new system were also somewhat skillful at what they did, and kept a strong sense of practical and direct action while the queen focused on the theoretical.
As winter dawned and the once rare snow returned, the battles intensified. The united resistance was still even numbered against Runza's force, but the autumn combats had been mostly to set up possible hard blows during winter, when their pride would be at its height. Also in winter, the first deer riders joined the battle, and the queen used then not only as a strategical advantage but also as a signal to some of the tribes that had migrated from the south that she was open to deal with them. In fact, all through summer and fall she had been working on that, on how they would be accepted as citizens of Imga and receive their share of wealth... which was just a convenient thing when the desperate defense against her moves continued to force more and more of their people to fight and make sacrifices to stop Runza.
Runza expected a victory, but she was handed something beyond that. The queen had been wise to keep the sloths out of combat until a decisive one happened, where forces from all sides clashed at once. The results were great, despite giant sloths being small compared to tundra beasts, they managed very well to strike terror at the enemies. Without the footsoldiers to maintain ground control, the riders saw themselves dancing the dance Runza wanted them to, she did not aim at the common man but at their leaders. They had not come with the best-fit animal to ride the hilly region of the fight, and when Runza and other riders gave chase, many were unable to escape.
And as such, the defense collapsed, and Runza had won back her kingdom... and a bit more. Because of course, the riders had not simply taken land from Imga, but also from neighboring lands. There was no good reason for those lands not to fall under Imga, though, Runza would need to asses how much conflict each one would bring.
To the east, to keep all of the lands around Ros-Zujau seemed simple. The region had been heavily occupied by reindeer riders and had no other authority over there now beyond Imga. Obviously, Runza wanted to push towards Igar-Kuri, so whether they agreed or not was meaningless, furthermore, they were still weakened. In the north, however, it was all a bit more complicated, Mirny had fallen a while ago, much of local power was a mess... yet, going too far, would cause issues, on another side, if Imga were to secure Mirny, it would be without doubt the new leader of the region.
Ayisi had been serving Runza for a few years now, yet she was impressed at how little she saw of the queen ever since their early days. Runza was a woman that seemed unable to stay in the capital for more than a few days, during the war she was busy leading armies so she would gain the people's heart, now, she was busy making sure the realm was being rebuilt properly in order the keep the people's heart.
At first glance it was Ayisi's impression that Runza was a very eager and careless person, that impression was right, and the queen knew it, and by knowing it, she started to act more patient than most, as she always assumed any whim or instinctive feeling she had would need to be thought over. Even now, where she had the forces and momentum to continue a march of conquest against many neighboring powers, she immediately focused on refining the armies and reincorporating all the recovered land into the crown's rule.
In that scheme of things, Ayisi had been assigned to continue working on the management of the capital. The reason was simple, Ayisi was from the lands beyond the south, and as such she had no chance to create a parallel power to the throne as the people would not follow her and the elites despised her. Many others of her people within the conquered areas were given similar positions, as well as some from north Mesathalassa.
Ayisi was by far the most trusted of them all, and she was tasked with what Runza described as the "Kingdom Maker" of all tasks, the one which would decide the future of all the land.
The old king, the one killed by the raiders, had this personal project from his musing over the nature of plants and crops. The scholars spent most of their time pondering over how they should approach the task instead of taking clear action, it all would be thwarted by the fall of the kingdom before they started to do the first plant.
Runza wanted to revive that, and this time under the particular philosophy that seemed characteristic to her rule. She did not want a place of thoughts but a place of discernable results. "A house cannot be erected in a week, but a wall can, and one wall a week makes a house in one lunar cycle, and one house a cycle makes a village in a year." It was not to say that Runza did not believe in the power of theories, she knew how savvy thinking was key to win the wars, but there should be a set of practical tasks that can be done daily in order to constantly and will, given a set amount of time, achieve something, even if that thing is not the main result expected.
Gathering the surviving members of that project, Runza set them to go out to the villages, home or foreign, and take notes on the local plants. See how big they grow, how fast they grow, if there is a difference in texture or appearance, among many other tasks. It was Runza's theory that much like the reindeer, plants too could be selected by how well they act in certain areas and then isolated from others so only that sort would be grown. The most amazing of it all, to Ayisi, was that the queen did it all in three days, it took her three days in the capital to set up what it took years for the previous realm to do. And there were results soon, and much like she had told her once, the importance of tools is not much the use they were made for, but the new, unexpected uses they could have...
Ayisi waited in one of the palace's room with one of the plant scholars, as Runza had recently returned to the capital after another long and grueling southern campaign to create more distance between the area of the reindeer clans and the realm. It was also very popular with the local population.
The queen soon arrived, nodding slightly to the two. "Ayisi, Yatel. You have requested an audience?"
Ayisi hated to talk, it was something taught to slaves and that stayed with her even after freedom, so she let the man start, even if his words were mostly hers. "Your majesty, we have been doing on reports on local flora, and, uh... We found something that might be of your interest."
The queen waited a bit. "And that is...?"
"We found a flower."
"... And? You know you can speak, right? You are a scholar not an actor, you do not need to pace your words for suspense, just tell it all already." she huffed.
"Right... Uh... It is a flower that grows only in certain lands..." Runza gave him a stare that quickly made him realize he'd die if he did not continue talking. "certain lands which have salt in them. So..."
"Oh! So we could use the flower to find where there is salt to be mined?"
"Ah, yes, this is what I would propose, yes. See, it grows in some coastal lakes with water that contains salt... but they are very common in Ros-Zujau."[/color]
"In the swamps? I would never have looked for salt mines in the swamp. It would be great if we had salt being mined within the realm. Is that all you wanted to say?" the man nodded. "Great, you are dismissed."
As soon as he left, the queen took both of Ayisi's hands, a wide smile on her face. "See? I told you our kingdom is blessed by gods."
The woman smiled with her, but while the news was good, she had never witnessed her so happy since the day she took the throne. "Is salt that important?"
"Yes, but it is not that. The salt mine could justify everything I have done so far. As we leave the stupor of a new rule, more vultures have been trying to oppose all I do for cheap power grab. They question my attempts to build up the structure in the east, they question my campaigns to the south, they question my hostility to the north."
Ayisi nodded, even though she did not agree that all opposition to Runza was mere opportunism. The campaign in the south had been mostly meaningless, in her view, just cheap attacks to keep the people happy, even though they now started to tire from wars.
"See, with that, I will have a good reason to really push for more raids on the south, and not only that, but to help build villages in the region."
That was so odd Ayisi couldn't help herself. "Why? I am confused on how it connects."
"Salt is something we all need, that is known. But the only trade partners we would have here are the other realms along the coast, and they have little to offer. Now, if we were to create a route with the Hainland east, that would give us some good opportunities for trade."
"But the..." Ayisi took a deep breath, "The distance is too great. My aunt's husband once went exploring the region, and he said it took days for him to see the mountains giving up for a passage. Uh... It is surely more distant than a trip from this city to Tabata in the far north. Except it is all very barren snow land."
"I am sure a usable mountain passage will be found one day or another, you worry too much Ayisi. We will also be producing more food, so we can support some projects in the cold expanses. If this works, Imga will become rich beyond our dreams."
Imga was a realm of great ambition, nothing but the total control over the rightful lands would satisfy its people. That was what Runza believed. Sheru knew that, she had seen many like her.
An amateur could have seen a war or two on the horizon, but Runza was wise enough to see many and knew exactly what would be the forces that would truly be on the path between the realm and local hegemony. On one side, Sheru feared her because she was such a warmongering woman, on the other, especially now that 'The Ogre' was old and felt the north was and would continue to be in a decadent state for a while, she felt like a woman like Runza was the region's best hope to regain its course.
Nevertheless, Sheru knew even if she was active, she would never have predicted how well Runza danced around the issues that were presented to her. Not only she knew who would be her enemies, she knew in what order take them. Igar-Kuri was by far the land closest to Imga and the one that was by all means rightfully part of the realm. Yet, it was the one that should be attacked last, for it had two allies.
One, were the Dahlerianists, radical Elysium worshipers who Kivico had been trying to contain, second, was, of course, Kivico itself. The Dahlerianists would close the routes to Mirny, which would stop the realm from getting enough equipment, furthermore, they knew how to put up a long fight, and even if victory was assured it was a painful one.
So, what Imga and Runza did was simple, focus it all on Mirny instead. Of course, taking over Mirny would get her on a war with Kivico, the key was, first, warring with the Dahlerians, this would bring them out of Igar-Kuri, and let Imga approach Mirny without worry. Then, somehow, using some technique she did not know, they found many mineral spots in the lands near Mirny that were previously unknown. These new mines fueled the armies and the rage of the lords of the non-theocratic lands near Mirny, it took little time for one of them to make a mistake, justifying actions in the region. Kivico's leadership, as it was expected, feared to enter combat too soon and seem like an aggressor, and instead entered it too late and with the thought that Runza was like the many foolish leaders that fought the land before, the queen of Imga knew she had not the supplies to fully challenge Kivico, instead, she defended what was hers and made a reasonable peace deal.
And with that, it was done, the three forces between her and Igar-Kuri were done for. Kivico still had something left, but waging another war against Imga was out of the question without risking its control of the north. So Sheru's land just watched as Runza unified the south and half of the middle. Achieving the successes which her sisters and the council of Kodekzia had dreamt about, and it was all absurdly organized, with a clear rule and an organized control of the land. All that in the hands of a woman that was of a young age still, and who would continue leading forward for at least a few more decades.
If the first fifty years since when the starts fell were ones of decline, the next fifty could very well be ones of reconstruction.
The days of the 'battle' in Igar-Kuri, the city still scarred from the raid and with bones of the Tundra Beasts still clinging to its sides, were ones of heavy rain. Many of those who fought would end up sick after the such a long exposition to the weather, including Runza. She would never get better, and would be the queen of the hegemon kingdom for only two months before the sickness took her away.
Sheru knew Runza from when she was a young lady, and she knew she was eager and believed too much in destined greatness, it was a shame she learned she was wrong in such a way, or that years of controlling her impulse meant nothing in face of a single time she decided to rush it all a bit and get the control of the city she dreamed of conquering.
Being also the last successor of the ancient family that ruled Old Imga before the flood and leaving no children, she left behind a crisis for the realm to deal with. Nobody was a proper successor, and for now it was unclear what the fate of the land would be.
It was a shame. The tablets of Kodekzia tried to glorify it, but it was clear that this was another bitter story for Mesathalassa's Nokeyeor, a long tale of the land where ambition goes to die. And upon looking at the copy of the history keeper clay tablets, Sheru couldn't help but to feel old, so many names she once knew and where now gone... She knew she too would soon be gone, albeit, having lived to old age which was a rarity for rulers. Worse of all, was the last one, after the last few words, the smooth clay waiting for new words. Last spring she knew what she would read there, but now there was just mist, uncertainty.
61 F.E
