I'm hoping to host it here ^_^
Alzoru's World, Episode 19: Nafinian Legends Series Part 5: Belaka's Lost Civilization
Belaka is a country well-known for its rich history, and indeed being the place where history was first recorded and bread invented. But Modern Belaka was once home to many warring city-states and a few rich civilizations that made the deserts and plains of the region their home.
But one civilization in particular remains shrouded in mystery, with legends of its riches still spoken of today along with stories of brutal warfare, slave labor, rampant sexism, and trechery. The great kingdom of Kixele is one that captures the imagination of many to this day, many a fantasy story takes place in this ancient place that thrived in Belaka for nearly a thousand years. Evidence suggests that the first city of the empire was built around the year -1500, and the site is still rich with pottery and other artifacts today.
The original name of the city is long-lost to history, but archaeologists call it Kixe-00 for simplicity. At the site one can see ruined houses, a temple to their ancient gods, and a bazaar, all made of various kinds of stone. The design style is very clearly Lynada in origin, and some reconstructed vases show off depictions of their deities, monsters, and other pieces of culture.
According to legend, the city started very small and was stuck in a rut for a long time due to a major lack of wood. The ancient people had to search far and wide just to find any trees, but things changed for them when one man realized that if they can grow food with agriculture, why not try to grow trees as well? And so, the city began managing one of the first tree farms ever, and it was a big success to the point that the site of Kixe-00 is now the third largest forest in Belaka- and every single tree is a descendant of the trees on that tree farm.
Now with a constant supply of wood, they could build more, and build they did. The city became bigger than Wyvitira was at that point in time, which was completely unheard of. They started training a massive military of Lynada, Lugani, and Munitara males that turned the city state into one of the first multi-city countries, and at its peak the empire of Kixele spanned almost all of modern Belaka and some parts of modern-day Tekale and Orkati.
But the most interesting thing about this ancient civilization was not its power, but its extremely sexist religion, and its form of government. The country of Kixele was one of, if not the only nation on Nafine to have a Pharoah- a monarch with absolute power revered as a god among men. According to their religion, the pharoahs were direct descendant of their chief god, Ervaga, the sun. The Pharoahs usually came into power at the age of 14, and their fathers would retire to lavish mansions or palaces to live life in luxury until they died, but occasionally, of course, a Pharoah would die young and his son would take the throne early. Or worse yet, a pharoah would die before having any children, in which case one of his brothers would rule in his place or barring that, his father retake the throne, and barring that, his closest male relative.
As for sexism, in their religion, females were nothing more than slaves to kept for breeding, and kept for breeding they were. The Pharoah, of course, got the first pick of the healthiest and most beautiful females which he kept in a harem of about 5-10. To add onto that, in the royal family, any female child was immediately murdered at birth since it was believed that female children in the royal family were bad luck. And to add to that, any of the Pharoah's Harem that gave birth to a daughter before the first son would eventually be murdered by their own son when he took the throne. Slave women were mostly kept by the rich, and the few poor who could afford one got the bottom of the barrel in terms of health and appearance.
The country's first Pharoah probably came into power around -1300, and it is said the first pharoah was buried with 70 metric tons of gold bars, a jewel-encrusted statue in his likeness, 1,000 of the finest vases that depicted his conquests in war, a whole metric ton of bread, several hundred kilograms of fruit, 1,000 offereings of meat, 1,000 jars of sealed water, 500 silver statues of soldiers, and his favorite slave of his harem murdered to be buried by his side.
And the stories of vast wealth don't stop there. If all legends are true, this empire has buried enough gold with its pharoahs to seriously devalue the modern cost of gold, and enough gems to keep every jewler on Nafine busy for years. So what happened to this wealthy empire of godly kings and female slavery?
In the year 300, the church of Akanotko spread into the region and began to convert some of the citizenry, as well as free the enslaved females, and thus did war break out. At first, the great empire had the upper hand with a much stronger military, but the followers of Akanotko were much greater in number, and very clever. They sent in spies to destroy the country from the inside, and in the year 474, the church managed to convince the Pharoah's favorite slave to murder him with poison, and then sent an army of female assassins to murder all of the pharoah's closest relatives, leaving the bloodline high and dry. They had cut off the head of the snake, and with no pharoah, the whole country quickly dissolved into city states that began to form into modern-day Belaka.
And then, the former slaves of the empire began to destroy historical records and deface monuments of the empire in an act of rage, rebellion, and excercise of their newly-found freedom. However, this act also did a lot of harm sincenow we may never know the secret locations of the pharoah's tombs and the unimaginable wealth therin. Now Kixele's culture, language, religion, and many other things about this ancient super power may never be known.
In the final month of 1936, a Pharoah's tomb was found on accident. In the tomb, archaeologists found a wealth of solid gold, immaculate pottery, a sealed coffin of gold and silver, golden statues of the pharoah encrusted with gems, and sealed boxes that would have been filled with food, jars full of water that of course is horribly fetid and disgusting at this point. And of course, many other riches fill this lavish grave. The treasures of this tomb alone total about 6 billion USD.
Belaka is a country well-known for its rich history, and indeed being the place where history was first recorded and bread invented. But Modern Belaka was once home to many warring city-states and a few rich civilizations that made the deserts and plains of the region their home.
But one civilization in particular remains shrouded in mystery, with legends of its riches still spoken of today along with stories of brutal warfare, slave labor, rampant sexism, and trechery. The great kingdom of Kixele is one that captures the imagination of many to this day, many a fantasy story takes place in this ancient place that thrived in Belaka for nearly a thousand years. Evidence suggests that the first city of the empire was built around the year -1500, and the site is still rich with pottery and other artifacts today.
The original name of the city is long-lost to history, but archaeologists call it Kixe-00 for simplicity. At the site one can see ruined houses, a temple to their ancient gods, and a bazaar, all made of various kinds of stone. The design style is very clearly Lynada in origin, and some reconstructed vases show off depictions of their deities, monsters, and other pieces of culture.
According to legend, the city started very small and was stuck in a rut for a long time due to a major lack of wood. The ancient people had to search far and wide just to find any trees, but things changed for them when one man realized that if they can grow food with agriculture, why not try to grow trees as well? And so, the city began managing one of the first tree farms ever, and it was a big success to the point that the site of Kixe-00 is now the third largest forest in Belaka- and every single tree is a descendant of the trees on that tree farm.
Now with a constant supply of wood, they could build more, and build they did. The city became bigger than Wyvitira was at that point in time, which was completely unheard of. They started training a massive military of Lynada, Lugani, and Munitara males that turned the city state into one of the first multi-city countries, and at its peak the empire of Kixele spanned almost all of modern Belaka and some parts of modern-day Tekale and Orkati.
But the most interesting thing about this ancient civilization was not its power, but its extremely sexist religion, and its form of government. The country of Kixele was one of, if not the only nation on Nafine to have a Pharoah- a monarch with absolute power revered as a god among men. According to their religion, the pharoahs were direct descendant of their chief god, Ervaga, the sun. The Pharoahs usually came into power at the age of 14, and their fathers would retire to lavish mansions or palaces to live life in luxury until they died, but occasionally, of course, a Pharoah would die young and his son would take the throne early. Or worse yet, a pharoah would die before having any children, in which case one of his brothers would rule in his place or barring that, his father retake the throne, and barring that, his closest male relative.
As for sexism, in their religion, females were nothing more than slaves to kept for breeding, and kept for breeding they were. The Pharoah, of course, got the first pick of the healthiest and most beautiful females which he kept in a harem of about 5-10. To add onto that, in the royal family, any female child was immediately murdered at birth since it was believed that female children in the royal family were bad luck. And to add to that, any of the Pharoah's Harem that gave birth to a daughter before the first son would eventually be murdered by their own son when he took the throne. Slave women were mostly kept by the rich, and the few poor who could afford one got the bottom of the barrel in terms of health and appearance.
The country's first Pharoah probably came into power around -1300, and it is said the first pharoah was buried with 70 metric tons of gold bars, a jewel-encrusted statue in his likeness, 1,000 of the finest vases that depicted his conquests in war, a whole metric ton of bread, several hundred kilograms of fruit, 1,000 offereings of meat, 1,000 jars of sealed water, 500 silver statues of soldiers, and his favorite slave of his harem murdered to be buried by his side.
And the stories of vast wealth don't stop there. If all legends are true, this empire has buried enough gold with its pharoahs to seriously devalue the modern cost of gold, and enough gems to keep every jewler on Nafine busy for years. So what happened to this wealthy empire of godly kings and female slavery?
In the year 300, the church of Akanotko spread into the region and began to convert some of the citizenry, as well as free the enslaved females, and thus did war break out. At first, the great empire had the upper hand with a much stronger military, but the followers of Akanotko were much greater in number, and very clever. They sent in spies to destroy the country from the inside, and in the year 474, the church managed to convince the Pharoah's favorite slave to murder him with poison, and then sent an army of female assassins to murder all of the pharoah's closest relatives, leaving the bloodline high and dry. They had cut off the head of the snake, and with no pharoah, the whole country quickly dissolved into city states that began to form into modern-day Belaka.
And then, the former slaves of the empire began to destroy historical records and deface monuments of the empire in an act of rage, rebellion, and excercise of their newly-found freedom. However, this act also did a lot of harm sincenow we may never know the secret locations of the pharoah's tombs and the unimaginable wealth therin. Now Kixele's culture, language, religion, and many other things about this ancient super power may never be known.
In the final month of 1936, a Pharoah's tomb was found on accident. In the tomb, archaeologists found a wealth of solid gold, immaculate pottery, a sealed coffin of gold and silver, golden statues of the pharoah encrusted with gems, and sealed boxes that would have been filled with food, jars full of water that of course is horribly fetid and disgusting at this point. And of course, many other riches fill this lavish grave. The treasures of this tomb alone total about 6 billion USD.
