Excerpt from the Terralore Sources electronic publication of An Abridged History of the First Triumvirate, Chapter I: The Foundation, publ. 1742 by Gvaranor Davuul, translated in 2119 by the old spacers Jack Tam and Vivian Morse.
Of the Youth & Accession of Suthra Sheneo
It befell that forty-four generations following the disentangling of Sabaea, by which means the spirit of Sin Shiian had left the world, that a great volcanic fire emerged in Tharsis, spilling ash, fire, and snow upon the land of Sirith. Now, Clan Suth, who had descended from the old bloodline of one of the attendant military clans of the old goddess, lived in Sirith, and remained still as wardens of the land. Many felt reluctance to leave in the aftermath of the ashfall, even as the realm fell into chaos. Famine and war were unleashed upon the world in those days and the winters were harsh indeed, killing the unlucky and the helpless.
So one of the daughters of the lord of Clan Suth, Suth Tanda, gathered all those who wished to leave behind her banner, and fled from the burning lands of Sirith. And she was yet a young woman, in only her 28th year, when the journey began. In its long traveling, their clan took the new name of Suthra, and Tanda grew into her adulthood, becoming lord of the clan and taking four spouses. She bore forth a single litter of her own, only two of which survived into adulthood in the frigid seasons and poor crop yields of the years following the ashfall. One became her foremost heir and her aide-de-camp, and she took the name Sheneo; the other became her personal memorist and advisor, and took the name Teshva.
Now, as the armies of Clan Suthra approached the land of Kasuura, they saw a realm poorly defended, squabbling amongst itself, though rich in resources, food, and water. War divided Kasuura, as it had in Sirith; the lesser clan fought amongst each other, each seeking to take the whole realm for themselves. So Suthra Tanda led her forces into the land, with her children in two, and began seizing the land; she first instructed her heirs to travel to all the clans of the realm and offer her terms of submission, thereafter she waited a handful of days. The few that submitted were given gracious allotments of land and autonomy within her allied forces. All those that refused were destroyed in turn. Suthra Tanda destroyed their cities, burned and leveled their palaces, and slew the lords, enthralling their heirs and ended their houses evermore. Suthra Sheneo took part in these ill-doings of violence, and learned the psychic arts from her mother and sister, taking her first thralls of the mind.
Then Suthra Tanda ruled over Kasuura for sixty-six years, twenty in co-rule with her daughter, Sheneo, educating her in all arts of administration and governance, placing her in various offices of her royal council, and instilling in her the values of the old post-Shianist spiritualism. Sheneo also trained with her sister, the memorist, in reading the memories of her thralls and subjects. Here she became a talented reader of minds, taker of remembrance, and psychic charismatic. Her skills began to surpass those of her mother, and even her sister marveled at her ability.
Now in her later years, Suthra Tanda became sick and disabled, stricken with maladies which confined her to bed, and thus gave Suthra Sheneo full control over the government of Kasuura. As the hour of her death approached, her mother lay on her deathbed. And on the night of her death, she called forth her priests and her daughters; she bade the priests to anoint Sheneo with all holy oils and ointments. Then, she dipped her own fingers into a cup of ritual pigments and painted the golden eyes of Shiian upon her daughter's cheeks.
"Here is your queen," she said, "now obey her with all your heart, as you would for me, and protect and nourish her until the end of her days."
These were her final words. And Teshva, the new queen's sister, is said to have looked in the memories and the threads of past and future, and was awed by what she witnessed.
Within one passing of the foremoon, Suthra Tanda died. Suthra Sheneo wore the eyes of Shiian for the rest of her reign.
Of the Yearning for Sin Shiian throughout the Ruuknan.
In those days, many queens, clans, and lords of clans did claim that the spirit of Sin Shiian lived yet within them, or wished that it had. In the long millennium of her reign, many had called her the Living Goddess and the Golden Mother, and even now, centuries removed, many longed for her return to the word as she had once promised. Even the rabble told stories of her reign, singing songs to her name and glory; all this occurred before the enlightenments of Arun had spread throughout the Ruuknan. So great was this tendency of salvationist Shiianism that in every century, plentiful warriors and psychics arrived who took her titles and visage, and proclaimed themselves Sin Shiian come again.
The turnings of history had fallen upon Desuul in that time, for the philosophers and industrialists had come to reshape the world in their own image, bearing gifts of steam, smoke, gunpowder, and fire. In the mind of every rook, a song both new and old began, the weeping cry of history's end. And as all great ages pass, and are felt in their dying, the verses slouched from beneath the canyons and sands of the Maw of the Word, traveling through Noachis, then Sabaea and Hellas, to Cimmeria beyond, and even Elysium in the east faraway. Memorists across the world spoke of the passing of ages, priests did holy rituals to prepare the way of Shiian, and preachers spoke of the coming end of the world, advising all the children of the old goddess to make themselves right.
Within a lifetime, the world had been demolished, sent to die stricken with progress, and rebuilt by new generations, throngs of people with no use for another time's dead gods, collated memories, or wicked histories In the Ruuknan, farms and old clans disappeared, and their lands became villages, trade centers, cities of industry and flame-power. The world moved on from the psychic queens, the pillaging warriors, and the psiocratic order they had built. Mental thralls and clairvoyants seemed woefully ancient, the living reminders of a most arcane and strange past.
A new order, still in its laborious birth, had been furnished by aristocratic lawmakers, philosophic theorists, and militarist wardens, motivated by new ideas of privilege and personal rights, individualism, tributary finance, and the openness of the law. Chaos and disorder spread across the Ruuknan in those days, and the world lay in grave jeopardy longwhile, for the realms had been torn asunder by the new and uncountable voices which spoke in their own right for the first time.
For many, the world had grown too fast, into a terrible and confusing adolescence. Those that refused it turned to the living memories, kept in permanent unlife by the memorists and priests, submerging themselves in the images of the past, living in the old order vicariously through the minds of others. They cried out to their dead goddess and willed her to speak once more.
This was the state of the world when Amarasuthra Sheneo appeared; all the bloodshed that followed came from this primal need for the return of Sin Shiian's voice.
Of the Succession of the High Queendom of Daara
Then, in the sixth year that Suthra Sheneo was sole queen of Kasuura, the old High Queen of Daara, Tsind XIX, died of a fever, having already been stricken with years and fragile in constitution and in health. Now, all her litter had predeceased her, mayhaps from inhalation of the ashfall, which had poisoned not merely land but living bodies as well. She then had prepared no proper heir, for the sole remaining issue of children was a princeling of ill-conception, born forth by her youngest daughter some years before. And the child was much too young to be queen, and unacceptable besides on account of her birth. Tsind XIX would be the last of her line.
Thereafter, all lords of the realm answered summons by the regents unto the capital, for they were to do their duty in resolving the succession. And Suthra Sheneo was among them. The histories mention the Queen of Kasuura little, for much accounting of that long-forgotten conclave has been lost to the passing of time, or distorted willfully, even destroyed, by the whims of Suthrists and their propagandists. Here the memorists and their tellings are of greatest import, for while the written record has suffered over the years, the living memories of the City of Miir are everlasting, only sometimes mutable by repeated recollection.
Now, in like wise as the calamities befalling the world, so did many crises befall Daara amid the last years of Tsind XIX, for by the end of her reign, the queens ruled out of turn and independent of their liege. The proper authority and control had broken apart as Tsind XIX lay dying; each of the queens, lords, clans, and even the rabble themselves found themselves the absolute and supreme rulers of their purview. Into this chaos, the unenviable task of selecting a new sovereign had been laid before the lords of the realm.
The histories tell us merely that the lords had heard tell of the mighty deeds of Suthra Sheneo, and had so elected her, in hopes that she might do the realm remedy. Memorists tell the narrative in a much different way, which appears all the more detailed and believable. Now, Sheneo knew the pattern of decaying feudalism well. She had seen and participated in her mother's conquest of Kasuura and learned much, and now in a similar way, she sought to bring the High Queendom under her control and then to order.
As the days of the conclave drew near, Suthra Sheneo brought her armies and many trusted psychics of her clanfolk into the capital of Daara ahead of her, announcing her intent to attend the conclave and signaling her intent to claim the throne. Many among the lords assembled in Daara had done much the same, so none truly suspected yet of anything other than simple desire for the High Queendom, which most longed for also. Now began the process of securing the throne: to this, fabricated tales were spun of Clan Suth and Clan Tsind's kinship; gifts and promises were made to the military wardens of Daara, for the purchase and secure their loyalty in the ongoing trouble; Suthra Teshva, the queen's sister, made a number of charismatic speeches before the conclave. All this was done with the knowledge of the Queen.
The psychics of Suthra acted quite boldly now, swaying wavering electors and holding some enemies of the Queen under psychic control – chief among them the attendants of the regents. Some of the memorists say that thralls were taken from among the lord's retinues, to frighten them and assure their good standing with their liege-to-be. The Queen herself attended the conclave only twice, each time seizing the minds and memories of a lord who opposed her.
At the conclave's conclusion, Suthra Sheneo secured the vast majority of votes, and whispers were told in the years afterward that many who voted against her suffered mysterious and altogether strange fates. Some saw their heirs perish in accidents, others fell sick, and more still became unwavering allies of the new ruler after her psychics visited them in the night.
That summer, the Queen of Kasuura was crowned Suthra I, High Queen of Daara; with the queendom quickly brought to order through treachery, she turned her eyes upon the rest of Noachis and Sabaea.
Of the Unification of the West
The war for the west, that is, Sabaea and Noachia, began two years into the reign of Suthra I as High Queen of Daara. Suthra, who had only upon her accession to Daara's throne taken her customary spouses, secured by marriage the nearby realms of Taaran and Nuur, marrying their tsaan princes. In this way, she reunited the realm of Daara as it had been in the glory days of the Tsindic dynasty.
Now, during this time, the High Queendom of Hratha fell into disorder when Clan Maara, its liege lords, collapsed into blood feuds and open war. The claimants to the queendom were Maara VII Turiin, a liberal reformist, and Maara VIII Techek, a conservative and neopsiocrat, who looked to Daara and its new ruler for aide. So, following the marriage pact with Taaran and Nuur, Suthra I took as spouses the two sons of Maara Techek and declared war against Maara Turiin.
The war lasted just three years, much of which Suthra I spent on campaign in the field, always flanked closely by her psychics. Armies chased one another in the snowy river-beds of Sabaea, drinking from geysers to stay hydrated, venturing into underground caves for moisture and safety. Skirmishes in these caverns continued the entire war; some emerged years later, unaware of how long had passed, how the war had ended, or that it had at all. It is whispered in Hratha today that some still linger in the subterranean depths. Now, during the war one of Suthra I's husbands bore forth a litter of pups, presumably her own, and she would use these pups to her advantage in short order.
At the conclusion of the war, Suthra's armies captured Maara Turiin, and delivered her unto the High Queen. Now two things occurred, very quickly after one another; the first is that Maara Techek died in a cavern skirmish, apparently having fallen down from one level of the cave to one some distance below, crushing her spine and dying instantly; the second is, days after this battle, the High Queen of Daara spent some time conditioning the captured Maara Turiin, and, with the aid of her sister, enthralled her. With both claimants to the realm of Hratha dead, and the realm in chaos, an opportunity presented itself to seize control of the queendom before any rebellion could be fomented.
This she did, seizing the throne on behalf of the foremost among her husband's pups, installing the infant as a figurehead High Queen of Hratha. She then assembled a regency council for her young child-ruler, and placed at the head of it the enthralled Maara Turiin, now as close to her mind as her own flesh, and she ruled Hratha on behalf of the new queen through her.
Thereafter, for the next decade, she made war upon the lords and clans of all Noachia, the Hellas Coast, and even ventured deep into Sabaea, threatening the Anharith of Syrtis and having her armies do raids upon Cimmeria. She herself went on campaign into Sirith, the land of her childhood, seizing back much of the realm from the chaos the ashfall had wrought upon it.
With all this completed in a short time, she became undisputed ruler of the entire west of the Ruuknan.
Of Suthra I as Empress of Mars
By the records of history and the tellings of memorists, Suthra I possessed none of the charisma which made her sister, Suthra Teshva, so famous; she was, rather, shy and reluctant among the public, speaking seldom even among her court or royal councils. Those who counted themselves among her true and faithful celebrated this quality of hers. Indeed, she interfered infrequently with the daily duties of administrations, nor the dramas or pleasantries of her courtiers. She was a mystery to her contemporaries, who wrote of her as a creature of awe and majesty that continually confounded them.
Still, all knew of Suthra I's power in command, and also of her psychic prowess. So great fear stirred among all those who knew her, that she might, if so inclined, take their minds or memories from them, and this kept them loyal, even to the point where thinking of rebellion was never done in her presence. They whispered that Suthra had the gift of Shiian upon her, the enrapturing glance and entrancing eyes. She, even now, bade the priests reapply the ritual eyes of Shiian upon her cheeks each morning, the ones her own mother had drawn upon her so long ago.
As she assumed the mantle of Empress of Mars, many did speculate and wonder aloud whether or not Suthra might indeed be possessed of the same spirit of Sin Shiian. Her loyal soldiers called her Carrier of the Voice, that is, the voice of the old goddess. In her public speeches, Suthra Teshva spoke of her sister in this way, cultivating the image of a goddess returned.
Now, Suthra I, in her own way, believed in these tales. She refused all accusations of godhood, but was disinclined to condemn those that worshiped her, merely bowing her head or otherwise sending them on their way. In her memories, she viewed herself as a prophet for the return to the world of the spirit of Shiian, in a political and historiographic way.
In the tellings of the memorists, her views are expressed in this way, in conversation with her advisors:
"The return of Shiian is the passing of the ages, and with each age her voice grows louder from the Maw, and when you do hear it in your own mind, and see her words spoken in the word with your own eyes, then shall you see the living goddess again. This begins our final age, when the ways of Shiian will return to us. The old ways shall be revived, the old Mind rejoined over the years, and the rook of Desuul shall be recreated in her image, the image of unification and wholeness."
In that moment, and with that aim, did Amarasuthra Sheneo become the first since the time of Sin Shiian to lay claim to not just the Ruuknan, but to all Desuul. Then did Suthra I stand at the apex of her power, and her sister placed a grand crown, one fashioned after that which Shiian had worn herself long ago, upon her head. The ultimate goal became the unification of Desuul under one banner and spirit.
Suthra I stood for the new age psiocrats, who yearned for the return of the gestalt mind, and of thralldom. Her enthrallment of the old High Queen of Hratha marked the beginning of a new trend: all those that refused to bow to the reunification of the world would be reunified by force. She sent her thralls as messengers to all remaining queens of the Ruuknan and beyond, to submit to her reign. These writs arrived, under cover of ash in Noachis, sandstorms in the north, snowfall in Cimmeria, and amid the mist of Syrtis and Isidis.
Few lords agreed but the ideologically committed and cowards who feared her wroth. Now, in turn, the Great War began, the first to employ repeating rifles and cannons, and the last before the Triumvirate's foundation…
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AN: This is part one of a series of posts on the Foundation of the Martian Tirumvirate, which we'll be covering from multiple perspectives.
