A lesson in history

The riders opened the double door to let Kopa and Mary inside. Mary walked into a large room with carpets in red and blue covering the floor. There were several windows that were draped with heavy red curtains and the furniture was made out of dark wood.

Tariana was seated at a small table by one of the windows. She was smiling at them as they entered.

“Thank you for bringing her Kopa, you can come back in a couple of hours” she said to him. Kopa nodded and smiled at Mary before he excused himself.

“Mary, how nice it is to see you again. And look at you, you look absolutely amazing” Tariana beamed at Mary.

“Thank you and thank you for the invitation” Mary said.

“My pleasure. Come and sit with me, tell me how things have been while we wait for the tea”

Mary went over and sat opposite if Tariana. She started telling her everything that had happend since she came to Salmis. In the middle of her story the tea was served. Tariana listened to her and added a question here and there or made a comment.

“You look happy, Salmis has agreed with you, or rather having a family maybe?” Tariana said smiling. “Eihter way, I’m happy for you”

“Thank you, it has really been so amazing and unexpected and so much better than anything I could have hoped for” Mary said with joy.

“That makes me happy the hear, you deserve every bit of it” Tariana said. “Now that I have stilled my curiosity and put my mind at ease about your wellbeing I think it is time to talk about why I asked you here.” Mary put down her teacup and looked intently at Tariana.

“I have understood that in Domne you are not taught about our shared history and how the church came about” Tariana continued. “If you are to live here, it is important for you to know our past, it is the key to understanding how we live today.” Mary nodded.

“Would you like me to tell you how Salmisara and Domne ended up as two countries and how the church, the aaris and the riders came to be?”

“I would very much like that” Mary said with excitement.

“We need to go far back into history to see the beginning. Five hundred years ago, both countries were one land. It covered the entire continent and it had lived in peace for as long as anyone could remember. In those times there wasn’t a king or a queen, the land was governed by a priest and priestess. They were decedents of the original priest and priestess, that were chosen by the gods.”

“Gods?” Mary asked before she realised it.

“Yes, there are more then one god, we will get to that a bit later” Tariana explained, and Mary nodded.

“For both the priest and priestess to be decedents from the original ones it meant that they were related, often brother and sister, or cousins.” Mary couldn’t help but make a face, that was not acceptable.

“I know, it’s not something most people would consider” Tariana said as she had read Mary’s thought. “But these were different times and there was a belief that the bloodline needed to be pure. What happens when close relatives produce children together, and keeps doing it in generations, is that some ailments that are uncommon will become more common.” Tariana explained.

“In the case of the priest and priestess it was infertility. Do you know what that means Mary?”

“I think it’s when a husband and wife can’t have any children.” Mary answered.

“Yes, although it doesn’t just apply to husbands and wives. With each generation the priest and priestess found it harder and harder to get pregnant and produce heirs. This reached its boiling point five hundred years ago. The priestess of the time had given birth to a living boy, Acmenaten, but no girl. Neither were there any cousins born. Acmenaten were the last one of his line.”

Mary was captivated by the story, she was sipping her tea and listened attentively.

“A decision was made to save the situation. A man was chosen, one of the noble families that clamed relationship with the priest and priestess were chosen and they chose the eldest son. He underwent a blessing to link him in spirit with the priest and then he laid with the priestess. Do you know how babies are made Mary?” Tariana suddenly asked.

Mary blushed. She knew it had something to do with a husband and a wife. But no one had ever explained it to her beyond that. So, she shook her head no.

“We won’t go into details, but to make a baby a man and a woman needs to have sex” Tariana said bluntly.

Mary blushed again, she knew sex was something men and women did. She didn’t know how, but she knew it was something that should be between a married couple. Although she also had heard that wasn’t always the case.

“So, the priestess and the blessed man had sex”

“Even though she was married to the priest?” Mary asked chocked.

“Yes, and according to history the blessed man had a wife. But this was about saving the ruling family, to keep the country to fall into chaos. After a while the priestess got pregnant and was blessed with a daughter, Samiila. Everyone thought that this was the salvation. But they were wrong.”

“As Acmenaten grew up, he learned of how his half-sister was conceived and a feeling grew in him, that he was the only true ruler. As I told you before, there are many gods, not just one, and they are ruled by the mother and father of the gods. The priest and priestess were chosen to mirror this in the human world.” Tarina continued and Mary was amazed.

“Acmenaten felt drawn to the father of the gods, and as he considered himself the one true ruler, he decided the same must be true for the gods. As soon as Acmenaten and Samiila ascended to be priest and priestess, Acmenaten declared his sister unworthy and proclaimed that the only god that mankind should worship was the father of the gods” Tariana said.

“The people were divided. There were those who agreed that Acmenaten were the only legitimate ruler. But other continued to believe that there was a need for a balanced rule, divided by the male and the female.” Mary had never thought about the possibility of two rulers before.

“Acmenaten saw Samiila as week and thought she would be easy to overpower. But he was wrong, Samiila was strong and had inherited a warrior’s mindset from her father. As soon as she understood Acmenaten’s endgame, she gathered her closest supporters and begin to plan. When Acmenaten made his move to dispose of her, she was ready and fought against him.”

“In the end no one was victorious. The battle ended in a stale mate and with the siblings in either end of the country with their supporters and armies. And so, it went on for almost three hundred years. War upon war was fought, on one side the ones that wanted to worship all the gods as equals, on the other side the ones who only worshiped the father.”

“When Samiila realised that the war wouldn’t be won in her lifetime, she decided to establish an order of people that could protect the old knowledge, that would remember the balance of the world. She created the aari and she gave them the mission of be a group that protected the old ways of life. She declared that from the aari one would be selected, one which held the knowledge of all five branches of the old ways” Tariana held up her hand when she saw that Mary was going to ask a question.

“We will get to that” she smiled. “That is how the aari and the Lady came to be. Now the Lady can as well be the Lord. There is nothing to stop a man being chosen. But men have some difficulties with the last of the old knowledge branches. So most often it is a woman.”

“During the war, there was atrocities being executed by both sides. Innocent lives were lost, and the people suffered. As the aari saw this they gave themselves a new mission, not only were they to protect the old knowledge, but they were also to use it for the best of the people.”

“This meant a lot of traveling, sometimes behind enemy lines. The aari have never been made for combat. But we needed a way to protect ourselves, the Lady at the time instated the grey riders to protect not just the aari, but the people. They were to be a fighting force that were never to be used in war.” Tariana continued.

“That is why they are clad in grey. They are to be recognised as the protectors that they are. If the aari is the head and the heart, the grey riders are our body. We are connected and our purpose are one.” Tariana said with a smile.

“At the end of the war, the land was devastated, and the people was suffering and had dwindled. Something needed to be done. A mediation was called, it lasted for almost five years. The outcome was to split the land in two.”

“The first part was to be ruled by Acmenaten decedent, that had chosen the title king. The other half were to be governed by the Lady. And that is how Domne and Salmisara came to be. The king soon established a church on which he build his state. That is how the church came to be.” Tariana explained.