To mark the publication of Stephen Deas' 'Dragon Queen' in paperback (it has been on the shelves only a few hours less than this post has been up, or something like that) I'm lucky enough to be hosting a guest blog on the history of the Taiytakei, the dominant culture in the series. This is a very long blog post and the reason that I'm posting it so close to lunchtime is that I reckon it will be the ideal accompaniment to your sandwiches and crisps (or whatever you're having in fact). Go on, have a read...
Gazetteer of the Taiytakei Realm
It was long a desire of
mine to study the mysterious Taiytakei traders when I was a senior alchemist
within the Palace of Alchemy. Their one great hunger was well known to us and
made us, in a way, their enemy, for we could not allow any dragon to fall into
their hands. I did not understand this in
my early years as an alchemist's apprentice. Later, as greater mysteries
and secrets were revealed to me, I knew we could not permit any dragon to be
raised where there were no alchemists to dull the growth of its mental
capacity, the resurgence of lifetime after lifetime of memory. By then,
however, it was too late. I had acquired my fascination. The ways of the
Taiytakei seemed strange and mysterious, their abilities remarkable and
magical, and although they shared a secret now and then, it was clear to any
who cared to look that they knew the order of the world far better and more
thoroughly than they would care to admit. We formed a club (not of my own
making) of those alchemists most curious to know more. We compiled papers,
recording what little we were able to establish of where they came from and
what their world was like.
We knew so very little.
Now I am their slave,
taken in the last gasp of Speaker Hyram's reign. An alchemist's duty is to
serve those who claim mastery of dragons, whoever they are, to keep the world
safe from their awakened fury. I left many alchemists behind me, perfectly
capable of fulfilling that duty in the world where I was born. Among the
Taiytakei I am alone. They say they will take eggs from the King of the Crags
and the Prince of Furymouth, although they do not say how. They ask me to build
and prepare an eyrie, and have found the most wondrous home for such a thing.
Whether they will fulfil their desire and bring dragons to fill this home I am
creating, I cannot say. While I wait, I study them, as once so longed to do.
Perhaps one day, these documents will find a way back to the land of my birth,
and to the alchemists who were once so curious. I have written them in part
from what I have seen with my own eyes (such places as Khalishtor, of course,
but also the Crown of the Sea Lords and the Palace of Leaves, and I have
watched the Konsidar and the Lair of Samim drift far beneath my feet as I float
on Taiytakei Glasships). Other places I have described from what those around
me say is true. I cannot be sure that what they believe is indeed always the
truth, but I do not think any have sought to deceive me, and in matters of
simple history and geography, in the simple descriptions of places and palaces,
there is no reason why eyes would lie. Other records I have taken from the
Taiytakei books, which I devour with unseemly greed. The simple facts of what
is where and how they appear are largely beyond dispute. Others remain as
impenetrable to me as they have been to the Taiytakei themselves for a thousand
years. Beneath the surface, there is much that even the Taiytakei do not
understand. In truth, they are perhaps even less masters of their own destinies
that we are of ours. I have done my best be truthful. I have sought both myth
and reality, and have endeavoured to distinguish them. Inevitably, at times, I
will have failed.
I hope the Taiytakei will
fail in their hunger for dragons and leave me to my studies, but I fear they
will not, and my fear is not for me, but for them. For I am but one alchemist,
and they cannot make another, whatever secrets I tell them, and when I am gone,
they will face their dragons alone.
Bellepheros
Grand Master Alchemist to
Speaker Hyram of the Nine Realms, Protector of the Order of the Scales.
A
Simple history of the Taiytakei
No records remain of the
earliest histories of Takei’Tarr, and one is forced to root around myths and
legends that have passed into folklore, looking for what threads may appear,
and also among the stories of the other folk, those who are not a part of the
culture of the Sea-Lords. The Elemental Men, it seems, have gone to
extraordinary lengths to supress any memories and traditions of that time; but
still, while it is a death-sentence to even set eyes upon the Rava, which may
contain the only true history of those days, certain stories are too widely
spread to supress. Such stories speak of a time when the world was one place
and there was no storm-dark, although many Taiytakei scoff at the notion and
argue that the world has always been the way it is. However, it is a thing of
great interest to me that those few myths and legends that do speak of
times before the great cataclysm also speak of god-like men of superlative
power who dressed in liquid silver, a clear analogue of our own Silver Kings.
In the case of the desert peoples, for instance, their earliest histories speak
of their tribes having lived “in heaven among the gods,” and the very few descriptions
or pictures of this “heaven” refer to the gods as “men of silver”. There are
hints and traces of this too in more urban Taiytakei culture, although it is to
be found in stories that have since lost their meaning and in old songs and
rhymes. It is frustrating not to have more to work with – the desert tribes
also consider the Elemental Men to be some semi-divine intermediaries of their
gods while the mythical Righteous Ones of the Konsidar are vile demons. Also
lacking in is any notion at all of any true gods, even though many of the
tribes from which the Taiytakei grew still have their rituals and stories. This
is perhaps not so significant to one such as myself, hailing from a land where
the Great Flame has faded from grace and most people make offerings to shrines
of their ancestors; nevertheless, for the Taiytakei to have no sense of the
world's creation nor its creators, no sense of afterlife or of what happens
beyond death, and to have reached this view despite their own stories (and the
powerful and significant and all-pervasive religions they have encountered in
other realms) seems strange. Nevertheless, some taboos exist that are familiar
(not burying the dead under the earth, for example – the Taiytakei bury them at
sea for the most part) and may have their roots in these long-forgotten
traditions.
It is accepted, however,
by most Taiytakei that some cataclysm once overtook their land. There are many
different notions of what this “Splintering” truly was, from being the event
that destroyed large portions of the world, wiped the Silver Kings away and
gave rise to the storm-dark to explanations far more mundane – those who
espouse the latter will argue that the earth-shattering events recorded in the
histories of many of the different cultures the Taiytakei have since
encountered were unconnected in both cause and time. However, it is clear that
some sort of great event once shook Takei’Tarr, and it is my own opinion that
the story is sufficiently widespread in disparate origins to suggest a single
common event.
Early History – the
Elemental Men
The most fertile and
prosperous region of Takei’Tarr is and always has been the western coast, and
this is where the first kingdoms arose. These early stories of the centuries
after the Splintering speak of towns and cities that were built among the
remains of something other, presumably the remnants of whatever culture existed
previously and has now been lost. These early stories remain, however,
fractured and scant. It is only with the coming of the Elemental Men that
Taiytakei history truly beings.
Disputes between towns and
cities and even kingdoms were settled almost entirely through murder and
assassination rather than open warfare. The appearance of the Elemental Men –
sorcerous assassins against whom there appeared to be no defence – appears to
have thrown these early city states into utter disarray quickly followed by
subservience as the Elemental Men styled themselves as the new arbiters of
these disputes. From all accounts, their interference in day to day Taiytakei
society was extensive but subtle. The establishment of very strict rules for
the resolution of disputes, and the existence of an effective and terrifying
method of enforcement, cascaded down throughout the society. Taiytakei laws remain
strict, rigid, simple, ruthlessly enforced and almost uniformly adhered to. It
is hard to assess the influence of the early Elemental Men beyond the system of
law that has grown around the Taiytakei, but even the Taiytakei themselves will
agree that their rigid laws influenced the growth of their highly bureaucratic
means of self-administration, and the threat of the Elemental Men and the
severity of all punishments even for lesser crimes has resulted in a system of
governance that is very inward looking and prone to analyse its own decisions
and actions for possible mistakes. This tends to make the Taiytakei slow to
react, but when they do, it is with comprehensive and thoroughly researched
actions. The Taiytakei consider that the lack of conflict following the
appearance of the Elemental men has allowed them to spend more of their efforts
and energies on more creative pursuits and hence their superiority to the
cultures of the other realms they have visited; this is called into question,
however, when one observes that their treatment of other realms is largely one
of exploitation and of systematic efforts to undermine the development of other
realms – up to and including fomenting wars on the scale of the War of Thorns
on at least two occasions. As the Elemental do not interfere in this, it
appears that their doctrine of peaceful resolution of conflict through an
unanswerable threat of assassination is limited to their own culture and
domain.
Another early impact of
the Elemental Men, well documented by the Taiytakei themselves, was the
eradication of all organised religion within their sphere of influence. The
early Elemental Men were entirely ruthless about this, quite content to murder
anyone who tried to oppose their will. Early Taiytakei society appears to have
considered the sun and the sea (interchangeable with the moon) as principle
deities, with many also worshipping the “silver angels” who were seen as the
messengers of the sea-god but almost certainly hark back to the legends of
similar creatures prior to the Splintering. The Elemental Men wiped these
practices away with such efficiency that almost no records of them remain, let
alone any temples or relics. The practice of worshipping local spirits was more
tolerated, although public places of worship were forbidden (the shrine to the
Goddess of Fickle Fortune atop the Dul Matha is a notable exception; this
likely came about because the shrine exists far away from the early influence
of the Elemental men, and was well established before they came into contact
with it – by which time, attitudes had changed and a more permissive attitude
to the shrines of lesser gods was in force).
Rise of the Enchanters
Most of all, the Elemental
Men opposed any practice of sorcery. Any showing a talent for sorcery were
either dissuaded by simple means or, if they persisted or could not control
their talent, were killed. Several notable sorcerers rose nonetheless, and the
stories of Abraxi, Ren Shaha and The Crimson Sunburst are widely known and
often repeated, frequently with so much embellishment that the truth is all but
lost underneath. Certainly all three caused a great deal of trouble for the
Elemental Men. It is said that in dealing with Abraxi and her acolytes, the
Elemental Men learned almost all of the tricks and turns they would need in
later years for dealing with the sorcerers and priest of the Dominion.
[Author's note: It is worthwhile to contemplate how the ferocious aversion of
the Elemental Men to both worship of the old gods and to sorcery arose, and
how, with those values embraced by the Taiytakei as a whole, how they affected
their dealings with the Sun King (considered a manifestation of the old sun god
on earth) and the Dominion as a whole (highly religious and devoted to exactly
those gods reviled by the Elemental Men, and more recently with Aria, whose
most powerful sorcerers apparently put those of the Taiytakei to shame)].
Dealing with sorcerers who practiced their art in the shadows soon became
something of which the Elemental Men were extremely capable, but the last of
the three great magi caused problems of a different kind, for the Crimson
Sunburst was also queen of the might slaver city of Cashax, and practised her
sorcery in a manner that was both overt and not obviously sorcery, for most of
her magics were presented in the form of enchanted devices. Her story is well
known (although a hundred versions exist presenting it in a hundred different
colours). The Crimson Sunburst proved to be a formidable sorceress who
understood the Elemental Men far better than they cared for – several of were
killed in attempts to destroy her, and three were famously captured in prisons
of gold – the first recorded use of this metal to contain an Elemental Man.
Furthermore, her creations – golems and the like – proved remarkably resilient
and although they provided little opposition to the Elemental Men themselves, many of the lesser
shapers who served at that time were killed battling them. After the Crimson
Sunburst was defeated, several of her acolytes were spared, on condition that
they would share the secrets of the golems and other creations, and would
forswear sorcery of any other kind. This they did, and became the first
Enchanters (and also the first Navigators). The Elemental Men men would later point
out that the Taiytakei had filled the western coast of Takei’Tarr, that twelve
of the Fourteen Cities had been built and twelve of what would become the
thirteen Sea Lorda sat on their thrones, that two hundred years had passed
since Ten Tazei had mapped the northern coast of Takei’Tarr, that the world
held no more mysteries and this is why they permitted this turn of events. It
is often forgotten, among the miracles of glass and gold that now abound, that
these first Enchanters pre-date the first crossing of the storm-dark.
The First Navigator
Among the first of these
Enchanters was the man who would become the first of the Navigators, Feyn
Charin. Given his association with the Crimson Sunburst, Feyn Charin was
already a colourful character, and his story is worthy of some length in its
own right. An acolyte – and perhaps more – of the Crimson Sunburst, Charin had
been measuring the Godspike (with what instruments is not clear, but the only
exact measurements currently recorded for the Godspike are said to be those
made by Feyn Charin five hundred years ago). After the Crimson Sunburst’s fall,
his researches were allowed to continue. After years of apparently achieving
nothing at all, one day he flew up into the storm-dark around the Godspike
cloud and vanished; when he came back a few hours later, he left the Godspike
with all speed, hired the first ship he could find, and sailed it straight into
the storm-dark near Xican. All assumed he was possessed by some madness and
that he and his ship, the Maelstrom, would never be seen again, but both
appeared again three months later. They landed in Xican filled with stories of
a strange land filled with winged fire-breathing monsters but no one believed
either Charin or his crew. The Maelstrom travelled across the storm-dark a
second time, this time bringing back slaves stolen from the coast. It was the
first time any Taiytakei had seen a pale-skinned man, and the new spread like
fire in summer. Over the next two years, the Maelstrom crossed the storm-dark
six more times, taking princes and several Elemental Men. Three years after the
first voyage, the Maelstrom made its first voyage to what Charin referred to as
the Northern Realm. Although the Taiytakei did not make contact with the
Dominion, the absence of fire-breathing dragons in this second realm made it
immediately more appealing. A year later, the Golden Crane led a second
expedition and the Taiytakei made their first contact with the Dominion. By
then. However, Charin himself had become a virtual recluse within his fortress,
the Dralamut. Although in later life he did once return to the Godspike, he
would not enter the storm-dark there a second time and no navigator since has
done so and returned. He died in madness and alone, raving of silver men, his legacy
long since taken by his apprentices for their own ends.
The last two centuries of
Taiytakei history have been, to Taiytakei eyes, glorious. In their first
encounter with the Dominion, the Taiytakei found themselves faced with a
culture that vastly outnumbered them was, much superior in its mastery of
arcane arts (although with the very significant exception of the Elemental Men,
for whom the Dominion have never had a parallel) and was in many ways
technologically more sophisticated. Through assiduous planning, ruthlessly
uneven trading agreements and the occasional campaign of assassinations, the
Taiytakei have establish themselves as the great power of the sea. Taiytakei
navigators opened up what is now Aria to the Dominion and then, a century later,
engineered its rebellion and a subsequent bitter war which drove the Dominion
into a century-long period of stagnation. The Taiytakei may not have sorcerers
and sun-fire hurling priests, but their black powder rockets and the lightning
cannon and other weapons now make them masters of every world to which they
sail – and that is all of them – save one: they do not yet dare to face the
dragon princes of my home.
It is perhaps ironic,
given their preoccupation with the Dominion for the last three hundred years,
that they now feel most threatened by the colony they once helped found and
then used to break the Dominion’s spine. While the eyes of the Taiytakei were
elsewhere the empire has taken such great strides forwards in such a short
space of time. Aria has had gold, a great deal of gold which the Taiytakei and
their Enchanters desire and for which they have steadily paid, and now it is
that empire that looks poised to challenge them. It will not last, they say.
Not while the Taiytakei are the masters of the storm-dark and with the
Elemental Men to protect them.
As for the Elemental Men
themselves, it is not clear at all how whether and how much they have guided
the Taiytakei in their dealings with other realms. They seem detached and
aloof, but I am not so sure. I believe the question is not whether, but how
much, and wherever I see, here and there in the histories of other realms and
particularly the Dominion, the unexpected yet fortuitous deaths of the mighty
and the powerful, I must wonder if I see the glimmer of the Elemental Men.
