Post by Percival on Mar 23, 2013 17:07:34 GMT -5
The Southern Sands
In this parched, blasted desert land there are an abundance of only two things. Sand and War. Three nations, once part of a mighty historical empire, are now in a constant state of conflict. To the north-east, cutting off the area from the resources and supplies of the rest of the continent lies Mir. To the south-west, with the lucrative, but trecherous, sea lanes is Kesh. And between them, land-locked, is Dari, a pitiless place of constant civil war.
The Empire:
Hundreds of years ago the mighty Mirkeshi Empire ruled much of the southern lands. Known for their nomadic tribes, great oasis cities and exotic magics they saw themselves as a beacon of light in the realms of Men. Emperor Ibn-Abel ruled these lands in a manner that historians would call as fair, fostering the furthering of both magic and craftstmenship to build fearsome armies and great building works.
The Attempted Coup:
Eight-hundred years, as most scholars place it, the military council of the Empire saw the development of nearby lands as a threat. Moreover they did not hold favour with the Emperor's wish to allow races other than Humans to call the great desert their home. The nomad tradition of welcoming those who could help a tribe, they thought, was an antiquated and dangerous concept. The more paranoid of the generals thought the newcomers to be spies, saboteurs and theives. Thousands of other peoples came and were proud to call themslves Mirkehi, leaving behind their homelands to seek what they saw as a higher ideal of co-operation.
The military beseeched the Imperial throne to cease this assimilation of others into the country, to prevent further patriation of outsiders. In just forty short years, it is written, there were as many nonhuman denizens of the dunes - mostly halflings and dwarves - as there were native dwellers. With the Emperor ailing, and his heir naive to the machinations of the military it was then that the coup was ignited.
The Schism:
Prince Ibn-Asul was to be crowned as seventeenth Emperor of Mirkesh on the midsummer solstice, his father watching from his sickbed in the Imperial capital of Dariar. The conspiritors, with a large proportion of the Imperial army, stormed the city in a coup d'etat. However, loyalist forces and city militia were able to hold them at bay long enough for the royal family to escape. This was too much for the ailing Emperor, who did not survive the journey north-east to the second city of Bau-An. He did not complete the rituals for passing of the throne, and this gave the rebelling military forces all they needed to sway many xenophobic peoples of the Empire to their way of thinking, claiming weakness in the royal line.
The civil war was bloody, with the capital being all but razed in assault after assault. Accounts of the fighting talk of terrible monsters being called forth at first, but the old ways began to wane as more learned men went to fight and die. With both sides fighting to a bloody stalemate the still grieving Ibn-Asul called for ceasefire. The Coup had been a partial success for the military, who now held all the ports and lands south-west of the capital. The conspirators declared themselves as sovreign and to cease the bloodshed the land was split once again as it had been before the formation of the Empire, with the Imperial loyalists now declaring themselves citizens of the newly reformed Kingdom of Mir, and the separatists resurrecting the name of the lands they now held, Kesh.
The Third Nation:
The war had left the capital, Dariar, a husk of its former self. The lands around it scarred by war and the oasis that gave it life near destroyed. And yet it still held tactical and political significance. During the Schism neither side had been willing to give this land to the other, and so a decision was made to make a third nation and have the remaining citizenry of those lands - mostly those who hadn't the resources to escape the battles and nomadic tribes pinned down by fighting - to elect their leader. And so the Democratic Republic of Dari was born.
Dari never had much of a chance for peace. As the main thoroughfare between the two split nations, and the only source of water and nourishment in the desert lands, it was of course of great value. But as soon as the elected government became friendly with either of its parent countries there would be a sudden outbreak of unrest and they would be ousted. Again and again unrest and reform.
Today:
With Mir and Kesh in a centuries long cold-war they have taken to using Dari as a microcosm of their unquenchable struggle for power and revenge. Dari is nominally ruled by it's elected government, but the actual people are herded like cattle by self-styled warlords left unchecked by uncaring leaders. Children are taken from their homes to be used as soldiers, atrocities occur often, old racial hatreds are used as fuel for fighting. And with fighting, sadly, comes profit.
Mir and Kesh both sell weapons to the warlords and the government of Dari alike. Mercenaries fight for whomever will pay them, and the people who now call themselves Darians pay for it with their blood and their sweat. And because the eternal conflict in the desert is contained on all sides and poses little threat to the world at large all most people do is cluck their tongues at how tragic it all is and put a few coins in the coffers for aid to be sent. Coin that is more likely to be traded for steel rather than bread.
In this parched, blasted desert land there are an abundance of only two things. Sand and War. Three nations, once part of a mighty historical empire, are now in a constant state of conflict. To the north-east, cutting off the area from the resources and supplies of the rest of the continent lies Mir. To the south-west, with the lucrative, but trecherous, sea lanes is Kesh. And between them, land-locked, is Dari, a pitiless place of constant civil war.
The Empire:
Hundreds of years ago the mighty Mirkeshi Empire ruled much of the southern lands. Known for their nomadic tribes, great oasis cities and exotic magics they saw themselves as a beacon of light in the realms of Men. Emperor Ibn-Abel ruled these lands in a manner that historians would call as fair, fostering the furthering of both magic and craftstmenship to build fearsome armies and great building works.
The Attempted Coup:
Eight-hundred years, as most scholars place it, the military council of the Empire saw the development of nearby lands as a threat. Moreover they did not hold favour with the Emperor's wish to allow races other than Humans to call the great desert their home. The nomad tradition of welcoming those who could help a tribe, they thought, was an antiquated and dangerous concept. The more paranoid of the generals thought the newcomers to be spies, saboteurs and theives. Thousands of other peoples came and were proud to call themslves Mirkehi, leaving behind their homelands to seek what they saw as a higher ideal of co-operation.
The military beseeched the Imperial throne to cease this assimilation of others into the country, to prevent further patriation of outsiders. In just forty short years, it is written, there were as many nonhuman denizens of the dunes - mostly halflings and dwarves - as there were native dwellers. With the Emperor ailing, and his heir naive to the machinations of the military it was then that the coup was ignited.
The Schism:
Prince Ibn-Asul was to be crowned as seventeenth Emperor of Mirkesh on the midsummer solstice, his father watching from his sickbed in the Imperial capital of Dariar. The conspiritors, with a large proportion of the Imperial army, stormed the city in a coup d'etat. However, loyalist forces and city militia were able to hold them at bay long enough for the royal family to escape. This was too much for the ailing Emperor, who did not survive the journey north-east to the second city of Bau-An. He did not complete the rituals for passing of the throne, and this gave the rebelling military forces all they needed to sway many xenophobic peoples of the Empire to their way of thinking, claiming weakness in the royal line.
The civil war was bloody, with the capital being all but razed in assault after assault. Accounts of the fighting talk of terrible monsters being called forth at first, but the old ways began to wane as more learned men went to fight and die. With both sides fighting to a bloody stalemate the still grieving Ibn-Asul called for ceasefire. The Coup had been a partial success for the military, who now held all the ports and lands south-west of the capital. The conspirators declared themselves as sovreign and to cease the bloodshed the land was split once again as it had been before the formation of the Empire, with the Imperial loyalists now declaring themselves citizens of the newly reformed Kingdom of Mir, and the separatists resurrecting the name of the lands they now held, Kesh.
The Third Nation:
The war had left the capital, Dariar, a husk of its former self. The lands around it scarred by war and the oasis that gave it life near destroyed. And yet it still held tactical and political significance. During the Schism neither side had been willing to give this land to the other, and so a decision was made to make a third nation and have the remaining citizenry of those lands - mostly those who hadn't the resources to escape the battles and nomadic tribes pinned down by fighting - to elect their leader. And so the Democratic Republic of Dari was born.
Dari never had much of a chance for peace. As the main thoroughfare between the two split nations, and the only source of water and nourishment in the desert lands, it was of course of great value. But as soon as the elected government became friendly with either of its parent countries there would be a sudden outbreak of unrest and they would be ousted. Again and again unrest and reform.
Today:
With Mir and Kesh in a centuries long cold-war they have taken to using Dari as a microcosm of their unquenchable struggle for power and revenge. Dari is nominally ruled by it's elected government, but the actual people are herded like cattle by self-styled warlords left unchecked by uncaring leaders. Children are taken from their homes to be used as soldiers, atrocities occur often, old racial hatreds are used as fuel for fighting. And with fighting, sadly, comes profit.
Mir and Kesh both sell weapons to the warlords and the government of Dari alike. Mercenaries fight for whomever will pay them, and the people who now call themselves Darians pay for it with their blood and their sweat. And because the eternal conflict in the desert is contained on all sides and poses little threat to the world at large all most people do is cluck their tongues at how tragic it all is and put a few coins in the coffers for aid to be sent. Coin that is more likely to be traded for steel rather than bread.