Americ’s diary part I - What came before.
I cam out of the south lands not the deserts of the east, where the vainglorious tombs of kings even more ancient than our
kings of kings still fester with the unquiet dead, but the steppe of the west with its scattered
cities, long trade routes and equally ancient culture. I am Americ of the
Kelarashi noble by birth but no great lord’s son. A proud one none the less in
whom the blood of those who overthrew the evil Asuri and the accursed Orisans
still runs, if weekly in this late age. We are horse lords we Kelarashi as our
long fathers where and most of us are content with the life they lead rousing
only to war when the northern barbarians make war on us or the cursed Orisans
goaded by one of their long dead kings rise up in revolt
Yet even as a
callow youth I was not happy to live that life a horse under the sky. I felt
called to some vague destiny far beyond my home land but I was not to know
quite how far hence that destiny would lead me. First I decided to travel into
the lands of the northern barbarians as our great king had crushed the armies
of the latest petty empire to rise amongst them and trouble us just before I
was born and there was peace to travel for those who wished to. So I travelled
and found many horrors and marvels when I did as well as my calling in this
life.
Let it be known
that the King of Kings oppresses no one and if you keep to his law he will
allow you to live as you please for his realm is wide enough that all who wish
can find a comfortable life within. However in the Northlands they are beset by
oppressors and every ruler no matter how petty oppresses those who they rule.
Indeed as I travelled it seemed to me that the smaller and less impressive the
ruler the more they felt the need to oppress others. To hold men and the kin of
men as chattel to bind them to the land or in webs of forced oaths. This is
wrong and even in these countries far from the wisdom of our ancient culture
there where those who also saw this. Indeed the North men even had a true god
who would aid those who would have the north men as free as the peoples of the
great king. I saw this as good and I will admit not being as observant as some
in the religious practices of my own people I found this god much to my liking
and sought out a priest of the faith. Not easy for in a land beset by tyrants
all who would have men free are outlaw and hunted and I said that I would swear
loyalty to this northlands god and go forth and also seek to relive the
oppression of the northern folk so that they could live as free as we in the
blessed lands of the south.
It was not easy
to be accepted as the northerners where suspicious off me I know, know and the
history of us resisting the attentions of so may of the petty empires of the
north was in the north often told as our king of kings going forth to conquer
them. Tat we had conquered the lands of the evil Asuri and the accursed Orisans
in ancient times was held up as an example of my peoples imperial ambitions in
the present.
The Asuri gave
themselves over to the worship of devils and the lords amongst them where more
devil than man. That they made war on my fore fathers and the other peoples of
the steppe to gain slaves and subdue them and that the first King of kings
arose to bring a unity to these peoples and gather them together to defend
against this. In the end after long war when the Asuri would make no peace they
would keep longer than was necessary to recover from their last defeat. The
King of kings had no choice but to over throw their country and put their lords
to the sword if they resisted and the temples that they worshiped devils in
where cast down. However the common people and even the half devil lord lings
where not oppressed provided they acknowledged the King of kings and swore
freely to honour his law and abandon the evil practices they had formerly
followed. In the end the remnants of the Asuri had a better freer life under
the rule of the King of kings than ever they had under their own devil kings.
The Orisans
whose country had been reduced to ruin by the depredations of the Asuri invited
the King of kings into their land to rule as all the lineages of their kings
where extinguished. The country had long
since fallen into anarchy and been in decline before the first of the Asuri
kings made his pact with the host of hell.
Even so from time to time some madman finds the tomb of one of Osran’s
great kings and the king’s unquiet spirit stirs up a revolt to restore the long
dead king to the throne of an empire almost as long dead as the king. Even so
the King of kings is compassionate using no more force than needed and allows
the Osran’s to live along their river as the please .
Still I digress
but honour of the Kelarashi and the King of kings must be defended. Eventually
by persistence and by not shirking form the task of bringing liberation to the
northerners I managed to prove myself to the priests of the god and they
trained me in the ways of the god, so that in due course I was made its priest.
After that I spent some time going about in the northlands liberating those
that I could where I could, but I felt that I as a Kelarashi I needed to seek
the place of greatest oppression. I prayed for guidance and my god guided me to
the city of Ebaran hard by the blight scar where the creatures of the abyss had
over run the land and where only checked by a great army drawn form all the
northlands and the magic of the pale. Here was the evil and oppression fit foe
a proud Kelarashi to pit himself against.
I was in Ebaran
a scant season with the companions I have gathered on my trip north patrolling
the Pale line and driving back the lesser demons and their allies who could
cross it a foot and raiding north into the blight to loosen their grip on it before
Ebaran fell on the day of the great muster and I fell with
it coming to rest in this strange place.
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