Lands of Red and Gold #103: Di Meliora
Life has kept me fairly busy lately (and likely to be busier soon), but in the meantime, here’s a brief update.
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“War is no innate instinct of man. It is a pernicious offspring of ancient education... War is simply the name given to theft when conducted by a sufficiently large robber band.”
- Benjamin Maimon, The Dissent of Man
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26 August 1708
Yigutji [Wagga Wagga], Kingdom of Yigutji
The herald struck a mallet against the gong. The sound of vibrating brass filled the throne chamber.
Puckapunyal, King of Yigutji, Lord of Summer, Eagle of Heaven, Master of the Land, Son of the Sun, waited just out of sight at the monarch’s entrance. The sounds of conversation faded as the courtiers heard the gong.
The herald gave the gong a priming strike, deftly keeping it inaudible, then struck the gong again, this time making a much louder boom across the hall. Voices fell silent completely.
Only then did Puckapunyal enter the chamber. Ancient etiquette dictated that no-one could speak in the monarch’s presence until the monarch had spoken himself. The royal privilege of first address went back to the long-vanished days of the Empire. He had always insisted on maintaining it, at least for public meetings. If he lost the royal privilege, he would weaken the court’s respect, for they would see a man rather than a monarch. If he lost too much of their respect, the loss of his throne would soon follow.
The men of the court wore robes of a range of bright colours, all topped with the decoration that current fashion dictated: a pointed headdress and symbolic wings rising from their shoulders. It resembled an eagle taking flight, as it was meant to; a mark of the royal bird. The women of the court wore elaborate, colourful headdresses and shoulder ornamentation of many sticks spread out in a semi circle, with vivid fabric between them; the mark of the rising sun [1]. The greatest finery by those who could afford even in these troubled times, but then Puckapunyal had always insisted that appropriate clothing should be worn in the monarch’s presence.
So it had always been. Yigutji was a realm which preserved proper etiquette and dignity. Even when his ancestor Larrakeya overthrew the last of the decadent Emperors in Garrkimang [Narranderra], he did not remove the proper forms of conduct which had been maintained by the dying imperial realm. Dignity and restraint were the best form of life; something which over-loud, argumentative Tjibarri had never grasped, and something even Wadang [2] often forgot.
After Puckapunyal had settled himself on the throne, he signalled for the Sunbearer [3] to approach. In a loud, clear voice which was designed to carry throughout the throne chamber, the king said, “Tell me how fares the realm.”
Karrakatta, the Sunbearer, spoke in a similarly loud voice. All as had been intended. This news was meant to be heard by the nobles, or else Puckapunyal would have organised to be given it privately.
The Sunbearer said, “Twenty years have passed since great-sleep ravaged the Land and killed so many of Your Majesty’s subjects. Twenty years since the last great plague. Some have died since then, from smaller plagues and from the last war, but the numbers of Your Majesty’s subjects now grow for the first time in living memory.”
“No more plagues?”
“The physicians, who have studied the writings of the Raw Men, say that almost all of the bushfire diseases [epidemic diseases] which are described there have now reached the Land. Those which remain are largely maladies of warmer lands, or so I am told. If Fortune favours the Land, then no more new maladies will afflict Your Majesty’s realm. The plagues remain, but they claim fewer subjects.”
“And what of other causes?”
“War and raids remain, as they have always done. But in the last days, they have not cost the lives of so many subjects as in the earlier times of constant struggle, when the Time of the Great Dying consumed both by disease and war.”
Of course war has reduced, since we made the pact with the Gunnagal. The triple alliance between Yigutji, Tjibarr and Gutjanal was more than sixty years old, now. No alliance between all three kingdoms had ever lasted for more than half of that time, before. Puckapunyal’s predecessors had gladly made that alliance all the same, and kept to it. Recognising the need was simple enough: greater foes now troubled the Five Rivers, powers whose threat meant that the three kingdoms needed to band together out of mutual need.
And, it must be said, because obtaining the new weapons needed Tjibarri goodwill. So it was, and so Puckapunyal had held to the alliance the previous kings had made. For now, he would continue to hold to it, too. The need remained; the Land had much recovering to do before war with Tjibarr or Gutjanal could be contemplated once more. Of course, he did not make the mistake of trusting Tjibarr, even now. Never trust a Gunnagal, or so the maxim went. Princes did not have friends, only ambitions, and if ever the Tjibarri thought that their ambitions would best be served by fighting Yigutji, then war would resume. The kingdom needed to remain ready for that.
“After so long, perhaps the Time of the Great Dying is over,” Puckapunyal said. “Perhaps the Land will finally recover.”
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From an article which appeared in the Daily Intrepid, an English-language newspaper published in Tapiwal [Robinvale], 21 September 1996
Today In History
Battle of Bundaroo
Two gross years ago today [4], at the Battle of Bundaroo, the Hunter scored a resounding victory over an alliance of his enemies, and changed the course of Aururian history.
For such a climactic battle, we know surprisingly little about how and where it was fought. In Lawrence Hardy-Wrethe’s memorable phrase, the Battle of Bundaroo is “the most significant battle in Aururian history about which we know nothing certain.”
Literary sources for the battle are blatantly contradictory, save for a general agreement that the Hunter won by flanking the opposing forces at least twice. The numbers given for each side do not match: the four main accounts of the battle found in the True History of the Yalatji, the Orange Bible, The Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever and The Lord of the Ride have no agreement on the quantity of forces on either side. Even the location of the battle is uncertain. Each of the four main sources gives detailed descriptions of the battlefield, and none of those are fully compatible. Four possible sites for the battle remain in serious contention amongst archaeologists and historians.
What is certain is the outcome of the battle. Before Bundaroo, the Hunter led a coalition which controlled perhaps two-fifths of the Yalatji and Butjupa manpower. He was opposed by an alliance of all of the other significant warleaders, under the nominal leadership of one Yongalla. After that battle, the Hunter was the undisputed warleader of both peoples; the Great Hero, as his title can best be translated.
After the battle, with no internal foes remaining, the Hunter turned his attention outward.
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[1] Puckapunyal is not familiar with the bird, but if he had seen it, the current style for Yigutji noblewomen would remind him of a peacock.
[2] Wadang is the dominant ethnicity in the kingdom of Gutjanal, the third Five Rivers kingdom.
[3] In the Yigutji court, the Sunbearer is the head of the officials responsible for record-keeping, censuses, archives and related matters. In essence, the Sunbearer reports to the king on the status of the realm. Finances and military matters are handled by separate officials. The Clawmaster (a shortened version of Keeper of the Eagle’s Claws) coordinates finances while the Lord of Winter is responsible for reporting on military matters, organising defensive fortifications and the like (but not commanding armies, which falls to the king or various nobles).
[4] i.e. 288 years ago. While this newspaper is written in English, Gunnagalic readers would still view that as a significant number of years, since they count in a base-twelve number system and would find two grosses as symbolic as two centuries (or three centuries) would be to native English-speakers.
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Thoughts?
