Gnorrid the Warrioress - Background Fantasy - Long - 4 of 4

The Broken World

For over two centuries after the defeat of the desert invaders the Regency enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity. There were few conflicts with tribes of primitives on the borders except for the usual slave raids. Although there were many intrigues and conspiracies against the Emperor (as the Supreme Regent was now called), Such conflicts were generally beyond the notice of the general populace. Order and stability seemed to flow downward from the high throne of the Regency.

Supported by the Emperor, the priests of Dhradumus continued to eliminate all vestiges of Goddess worship from the Regency. They replaced the razed temple complexes of the Sisterhood with great temples, monasteries, and compounds of their own. Everywhere there were elaborate works of architecture dedicated to Dhradumus. The Hierophant of Dhradumus (the highest priest and head of their order) had an elite guard, chosen from the best imperial troops to enforce his edicts and Dhradumian law. The Empire and the Priesthood of Dhradumus were entwined and operated as one.

The internal struggle for power and ascension to the imperial throne continued to escalate, however. There were assassinations and attempted assassinations, and during some periods the high office of Emperor would change hands often. It started being said that the most dangerous job in the Regency was that of sitting on the high throne. Nonetheless, men continued to vie for ascendancy to that high office.

Finally, open conflict broke out among factions and various cities began fortifying themselves against their rivals. Accustomed to prosperity fueled by unrestricted flow of goods and commerce across the Empire, few provinces were self sufficient. The internal wars between rival factions and provinces (who took to calling themselves kingdoms once more) disrupted the communication and transportation network of the Regency. The prosperity and affluence collapsed almost overnight.

At first there were riots and conflagrations, then there was mass starvation and plagues. It is said that during these dark years of the collapse over half the population of the Regency perished. Leaders of various provinces reorganized themselves once again into small kingdoms and warfare was almost continuous. Amidst it all, however, the order of the priests of Dhradumus remained intact. Furthermore, they enjoyed immunity from military action, just as had the Sisterhood in the past age. Pillaging soldiers would not lay a hand upon a priest or a temple of Dhradumus.

The Hierophant was chosen by a council of elders and he enjoyed considerably more stability than did the former Emperor of the Regency. By maintaining the appearance of neutrality in secular affairs, the Hierophant remained generally aloof from conflicts. However, the elite Dhradumian Guard was still very much intact. While not the largest force in the former Regency, it was certainly the most well-trained and effective - and the most feared. The Dhradumian Order was more concerned with maintaining universal adherence to Dhradumian codes of dress and behavior than to capricious conflicts of ambitious nobles.

Although several larger consolidated kingdoms remained within the old Regency, kingdoms were constantly breaking up into small autonomous units. Vanquished armies driven from their traditional lands by more powerful foes roamed among the weaker kingdoms pillaging and raping. Alliances were made and broken whimsically and the fortunes of war were constantly shifting. The land was awash in uncertainty, instability turmoil.

Many defeated nobles took their armies beyond the traditional boundaries of the old empire and attempted to reestablish their small kingdoms. These lands were less productive, but the inhabitants were generally poorly organized and easily defeated by the better-equipped and better-trained armies of the nobles. (They tended to leave the desert tribes alone, however.) After conquering a new territory the nobles attempted to impose their culture, superficially, upon the conquered primitives so as to create a peasant class and workforce. This they accomplished with varying degrees of success.

No matter how far the nobles and their armies went into the hitherto unknown lands they were always accompanied by priests of Dhradumus. The priests, aided by the soldiers, imposed the worship of Dhradumus upon the primitives. Any native who adamantly resisted conversion was summarily executed by the soldiers. In this way Dhradumian civilization spread throughout an area that was almost twice the size of the previously known world. Scowling statues of Dhradumus, still clothed in the garb of a desert patriarch, now looked upon dark forests, distant seas, high mountains, and shimmering glaciers.

Much to the chagrin of visiting high priests, however, many local customs of the primitives found their way into Dhradumian worship. Native traditions colored the music and the dress of almost all the Dhradumian holy days. The tone was almost always lighter and more festive, and often the very meaning of the holy day was so distorted as to be unrecognizable as Dhradumian. The local nobles, who were certainly traditional Dhradumians, did after all depend on the labor of their converted peasants for their own prosperity. They didn’t seem overly concerned. As long as the local economy worked smoothly, the nobles were inclined to permit the natives some degree of latitude.

The small new kingdoms were also too far from the center of the old Regency and the Hierophant and his council. A military campaign to enforce the minute particulars of Dhradumian code in these distant lands would have been prohibitively expensive. As long as the natives paid homage to Dhradumus, tribute flowed in, and a reasonable effort was being made to expunge their culture of pre-Dhradumian practices the Patriarch and the High Council left well-enough alone. The exception was several unfruitful expeditions made in response to rumors that enclaves of goddess worshipers existed in the hinterlands. To indulge a few lingering superstitions of the primitives was one thing, but vestiges of the old Sisterhood could not be tolerated. The expeditions found nothing.

There was no longer a clear line of demarcation between a known world of civilized kingdoms and the land of the primitives. At the edge of the old Regency, tiny kingdoms were scattered haphazardly into the previously unknown wilderness. Castles were generally crude and the architecture far less sophisticated than in the old central kingdoms. Many towns in the new kingdoms looked like a blend of primitive and civilized construction. Nevertheless, with almost constant warfare occurring in the central kingdoms, life in the unsophisticated wilderness kingdoms was often much more serene and predictable.

Despite the encroachment of the tiny kingdoms into the wilderness and the near doubling of the size of the known world, the unknown still lay beyond. There was always the unknown. In any direction, beyond the farthest kingdom; beyond the farthest village any traveler or adventurer had ever spoken of, there was the unknown. The all-pervading unknown still loomed in the psyche of men and women. It fueled their fears; their fantasies; their hopes; their dreams and nightmares; and their sense of wonder. This was the state of the world for many centuries after the fall of the Regency.

It is on the fringes of this world that we find the lost remnants of the old Sisterhood. It is here that we find the warrioress clans with their loyal eunuch pages.

The Conclusion

Farrell Squire