The Tale of Manlavus the Star Buseri.
Sadness is my tale. Sadness for my people, whom Dayzatar looks down upon with rightful distance, and sadness for my Emperor who fell from the grace of Yelm and the Justice of his own heart.
Sothenik was my Lord and Emperor and ruled for many years with wisdom and justice. For all those years and more, I was more than his High Buseri - I was his friend. Thus his fall pains me doubly. His story and mine is the tale I now tell.
Though his rule had been splendid, golden, peaceful and bountiful, always there was complaint and trouble from the lower orders who ever sought to better themselves beyond their place. Those who acquired some form of wealth wandered among the true nobility, parading themselves in an impure display of wealth and poor taste. I attended few functions in the latter days of my Emperors' rule for these "New Rich" were everywhere and below them was a great seething mass of folk who wished to be in their place, spiritually poor though it was.
These folk were soon named the "Want Mores" for no matter how bountiful the land and how magnificent the generosity of my Emperor, they always wanted more. "Make me a Duke!" They cried and we could but blame the days of Nysalor before Gbaji came to end his life. How can we decry such glittering perfection you might ask? Truth is often hard to bare but the truth is that Nysalor spoke for the higher mind, the far seeing noble, such as myself. Thus the common man took his golden advice literally and sought gleaming metal rather than enlightenment!
My Emperor soon became dissatisfied with his rule of such tumultuous people. Always they wanted more and their desire was infectious. Eventually, even the Emperor wanted more and said so ever more loudly as the years of his rule rolled on and monotony soiled his perfection.
Then came the messenger who brought news of a strange and wonderful event. The Hecolanti had come! We were greatly puzzled for we knew not who these Hecolanti were and though I could see far with the sight of Buserian, I felt like an eclipsed star in my knowledge of these newcomers.
Sothenik decided to see what these Hecolanti were that crossed his wide and glorious lands and the whole court traveled with him as well as a great muster of men and priests. There we found these Hecolanti in Henjarl. There was fifty or more great stone men, each the height of a tall tree, all marching resolutely forward to an unknown goal. They were accompanied by a dance group of Aldryami who sang their forest songs while flowers and trees grew around their prancing feet.
My Emperor placed himself before these creatures and demanded an explanation of their presence in the Empire of Yelm. The great stone men stopped and peered at him with eyes of diamond. They said they sought a new land away from the little stone men who had been their masters. Sothenik told them to seek a land elsewhere, in some distant place for Dara Happa would not enjoy their presence. The stone men agreed to his demands and set off to the South, the barbarian lands, where they might carve out a home for themselves.
After they passed out of sight, Sothenik turned his golden gaze towards me and spoke wistfully. "Think of the sights they will see Manlavus, the adventures they will undergo! Such glory awaits them!"
"My Emperor." I replied nervously. "I think little of such things for
is it not our place to serve Yelms' light where we are placed by the rays of his
truthful light?" I asked, hoping to sway my Emperors thoughts to his people and
heavenly father.
Sothenik looked troubled and then sad. "My friend, you have said many things that are true and just and never more so than today yet like the lowest of my people, I want more!"
"More than Dara Happa?" I asked thinking what else could there be? His
answer shocked me.
"Yes, more than Dara Happa!"
And so the end of my lords rule came in that simple realisation.
Sothenik summoned ten heroic companions to him, including myself. We girded for
adventure and strife though it pained me to leave my quarters in Raibanth more
deeply than any could suspect. Leaving Lord Helemshal of Raibanth behind as
regent, we left with little fanfare to follow the path of the Hecolanti. The
people were nervous and discomforted as Sothenik left the city. They begged him
to stay saying they would renounce their desire for more if the Emperor would do
likewise for it was unheard of for an Emperor to leave a people of his own free
will and no-one knew what might happen.
Sothenik would not be swayed and sought the path of the hero. Thus our travels begun. First we followed the Hecolanti and aided them in their quest. Sothenik used the Justice of Yelm to argue them a place among the barbarians. When combat came, Sothenik led his companions to destroy the troublemakers with bolts of fire, mighty blows and deadly magics.
When the Hecolanti had their place I thought we might return but Sothenik had become enamoured of this new adventure and wanted more. Ever more.
I became a hardened traveler over the next span of years as we travelled the far world. Across the hard mountains we went, through snow and ice, past demons of darkness and cold into lands of great beauty and strangeness. Though at times I yearned for my towers and a clear view of the stars, I gained much on my journeys and we all became infected with a wanderlust as great as our masters. He drove us on ceaselessly and we saw the Digijelmi Empire, the cities on the great lake, the Incompletes in their great fortresses of stone and a city which berthed a ship made of a Dragon and teemed with more people than our Glorious Tripolis put together. We sailed on one of these city ships with the Green Men and came to a minor port in the land of Lodrils' children. By then, it was clear that the sights we'd seen had changed us forever.
Thus it was, in this city at the edge of the world, where we disembarked from the Dragonship, that Sothenik saw that he wanted one more thing. He wanted to sit upon his throne once more. I was ecstatic at his decision as were the others though there were but three of the ten heroes who had set out on the adventure with their Emperor to acclaim his decision. The journey had been hard and our path full of violence and evil strangers, yet we had overcome by the Light of Yelm. We had seen through the darkness.
With haste we passed Northwards. The lands around us were in a turmoil of passing strangeness. Upon meeting many of the folk, whom we knew to be barbarians, we were perplexed at the depth of their minds and the complexity of their thoughts. Sothenik had become a connoisseur of strange cultures and delayed his progress long enough to talk to some of these folk at a festival they were holding.
This delay proved to be our undoing. A dance was held at the festival by a scandalously ill-clad group of menand women. They were painted as lizards or the scales of a dragon and hissed and spat as they moved in jerky, sudden ways. The orator cast a great magic on the assembly and spoke in that hissing tongue yet we could all understand it. We were entranced and saw possibilities beyond ourselves that enraptured our minds. How can the clarity of the draconic mind be explained? It seemed as though all our troubles and thoughts were washed away to leave only purpose, understanding, pleasure and companionship behind. We were instantly refreshed and filled with energies both strange and warming.
Sothenik was more enraptured than any there for the coils of Dragon power met his purity and justice and flared into life. They spiraled around him much to the awe of the watchers and dancers and as I looked it seemed that my Emperor grew wings of gold, became resplendent in might and radiant in light. Beyond the mere sight, the strength of his soul filled the watchers and they joined with his perfection at moment and bowed before him, as the Imperial court once had.
Then the ceremony ended. The leader of the band of dancers who called themselves a Waltzing and Hunting band, approached us with reverence and spoke to Sothenik. "Come and meet their spiritual leader for he could show more of your Dragon- soul to you than our meagre magics can allow."
Such was Sotheniks joy at that moment that he agreed to go with them and meet their leader. We were taken far and saw much of these barbarians lands. Much wondered us for they had a society of great strength and the pervasive powers of the Dragon were plain to see in everything around us.
At last we arrived at a city of strange beauty. Odd towers and angular ziggurats twisted our eyes till we descended deep into the earth and the inner chamber of the Dragons Eye. There we met the Inhuman King, coiled and potent. I was stricken with fear and awe by its might and the knowing intelligence in its eyes. Sothenik though looked on as if he'd found a lost soul, a kinsman or brother to speak with after years of solitude.
While I cowered my Emperor conversed easily in the Dragon tongue with the Inhuman King and spoke of his joy at the ceremony. The King asked him to stay and learn for the dragon was in him, stronger than anyone it had met before.
My lord was at first solid in his desire to return to his throne but the great King summoned a magic that seemed like my own of far seeing but at a much greater distance than any I had known. Far to the North we saw what transpired in Raibanth and the Empire. There stood a strong looking man dressed as Emperor though his regalia was incomplete. He was being acclaimed by a great army that marched from the city. The people around him showed their adulation, which should have been reserved for Sothenik but through the twenty-five years of his absence they had forgotten my lord and replaced him with another. At that Sothenik was mightily angry and swore to march against the usurper but the Inhuman King waited till his mind focused and asked:
"With what will you reclaim your throne?"
The question surprised Sothenik but he answered quickly "With the Purity
of my heart and the Justice of my cause!"
"And has such Justice and Purity always assured triumph for the righteous
man?" Asked the sly tongued King.
Sothenik knew his histories as well as I and knew this was not the case and was silent while the Dragonet spoke. It advised him to stay, to learn and promised him aid to reclaim his throne but counseled patience for these Wyrms Friends were not yet strong enough to match the host of men that the vision had shown, yet in time it promised they would be and that Sothenik would rule again, this time immortal and rich in Dragon energies that would give a clarity of mind possessed by no Emperor since Murharzarm!
My Emperor pondered long but in the end silently nodded his agreement and with that simple action, his fate, mine and that of our peoples was sealed.
Time was not what it had once been to me. A hundred years passed and I sat in my tower in Kordros City, holding my drink in my left hand and looked at the stars with my left eye. I no longer needed the lenses of my old Buseri towers to see the distant heavens, my eyes saw with greater acuity than any mere human sight.
Those were not the only changes in me for I was deep in the Dragon energies of the wide lands around us. I was followed by many, had wealth that any Raibanthi could envy and personal power beyond my dreams - and nightmares.
However, my changes were insignificant compared to those of Sothenik. At first he had chaffed and grumbled, keen to seize his position back from the usurpers but the Dragon teachings drew him ever inward, ever distant from his old concerns. Eventually he no longer talked about such matters or when I raised them to him in our increasingly rare moments of conversation he passed over to talk about his latest projects. In the end I became uncomfortable in his presence as he grew in power. His skin became scaly, his tongue forked and his size became gigantic. He was no longer human and his desires changed with his body. His glittering golden skin reflected the power of his magics which were greater in Solar strength than when he'd been Emperor. Combined with his Dragon powers and natural strength of rule, Sothenik had become a deity to many. His name was not known to most, they simply called him the Dragon Sun or the Golden Dragon and I grew nervous of his plans.
My fears for my people grew for I no longer saw Sotheniks desires and the good of the Empire to be one and the same. Instead, he looked northwards with the eyes of a conqueror. His sibilant tongue advised the generals of the EWF on how to war upon the Empire and they did so with increasing success. I thought Sothenik would march with them but he was held back by some Draconic wisdom and deep policy yet I knew that when he did march to war, the Dara Happan armies would be crushed, for his strengths were immense and his knowledge of their defences total.
It was inevitable and I despaired but a plan came to my mind that would not delay Dara happas defeat but could perhaps give hope for the future.
I flew to Sotheniks tower and sought entry, he servants and worshipers knew me and let me in and while the Dragon Sun slept I stole the Mantle of Sovereignly from his side. The Mantle had been on his shoulders since he'd left the Empire and would assure his control and place as Emperor when he returned. The people would be bound by its powers and serve his immortal but unjust rule for eternity. This I could not allow and I escaped into the night, using up my Dragon powers to help me flee and when I gave them up in a flash of power I was untraceable.
I hid among the Old Day Traditionalists in the deadly forests and hills of the North where bitter refugees and hardened rebels gathered to plot and plan. Without the connection to the Draconic energies, I began to age rapidly and as I write this my hands are stiff, gnarled and old yet I am strangely content.
Soon I will ask the tribesman to take me up to the mountains where I can die, looking at the stars that have always given me hope, happiness and direction all my life. I can die knowing that I at least tried for my people, I foiled a great doom and though it may be unrecognised by history, the fact that it is done will be enough for me.
Martin Laurie
Powered by hypermail