Hadon of Ancient Opar
Page 24
10,452 B.C. (1148 A.T.) Klakor completes the reconquest of the island of Khokarsa. Kwa-mim, the greatest of the epic poets, born in Miklemres, At the age of twenty-eight, she will create the Pwamwotkethna, or Song of Kethna. This is based on the wanderings of Kethna and the founding of his city but is historically inaccurate. The songs of much earlier heroes and heroines are incorporated in it, making them contemporaneous with Kethna, and much mythological matter is embodied. The language is based on that of the city of Khokarsa, but Kwamin borrows words from other dialects and even coins new words.
10,449 B.C. (1151 A.T.) Fleet of Miklemres destroyed by Klakor, and Miklemres capitulates. This event marks the be ginning of the conquest of the queendom of the coastal Kemu.
10,448 B.C. (1152 A.T.) Opar conquered by Sakawuru pirates under Gokasis. They control the precious metal and jewel trade. Plumbing invented and installed in the palace in Khokarsa.
10,443 B.C. (1157 A.T.) Klakor’s herald, the bard Roteka, arrives in Opar to demand surrender. His head is sent back to Klakor, arriving there in 1159 A.T. But Klakor has died.
10,440 B.C. (1160 A.T.) Kethna seized by allied Oparians and pirates of Mikawuru and Sakawuru.
10,427 B.C. (1173 A.T.) Gokasis proclaimed himself king of kings of the Kemuwopar after taking Wentisuh. The first Khokarsan expedition against the alliance destroyed outside the strait of Keth. Awodon, the Praxiteles of Khokarsa, born. Owalu, Qeth-ruth, and Mukha become major cities. The poetess Kwamim, a guest at the court of Wentisuh, is taken prisoner and carried to Opar.
10,423 B.C. (1177 A.T.) to 10,420 B.C. (1180 A.T.) The hero Rimasweth, leading a Khokarsan expedition, strikes Kethna from overland and, leaving a holding force, bypasses Wentisuh, and Sakawuru and raids Opar. He slays Gokasis (son of the first Gokasis) in hand-to-hand combat, massacres the citizens, and takes Kwamim. His fleet is caught at the Strait of Keth and destroyed, but he and Kwamim, with three numatenu, escape.
10,417 B.C. (1183 A.T.) Kwamin first sings the Pwamwo-trimasweth, the Song of Rimasweth. This is the second-greatest epic of Khokarsa (some critics consider it the greatest). It is the first to sing of living heroes. The barbarian Klemklakor are numerous enough to require large punitive expeditions.
10,397 B.C. (1203 A.T.) Awodon begins work on his masterpiece, Kho and Her Children, a frieze of sixty-four figures along the marble base of the Great Tower of Kho and Resu. A fourth expedition levels Kethna and Wentisuh but is destroyed in the Battle of the Bay of Opar.
10,390 B.C. (1210 A.T.) Siege of Opar begins. Mikawuru and Sakawuru blockaded but resist storming. Expeditions sent out to West Africa, the Mediterranean, and Nile Valley. (But none return.)
10,389 B.C. (1211 A.T.) Opar taken. Spectacles invented.
10,387 B.C. (1213 A.T.) Sawakuru taken, its citizens executed, and a ship sent out to arrange for colonists from Khokarsa to repeople it. Mikawuru resists successfully.
10,386 B.C. (1214 A.T.) to 10,266 B.C. (1334 A.T.) A hundred and twenty years of to comparative peace, prosperity, and expansion of population.
Awodon completes his great work at the age of seventy, dies two years later, and is buried in a hero’s tomb. Work on the Great Tower proceeds apace. Networks of stone roads built out from coastal cities along the shore and inland, and a network completed on the island of Khokarsa. Census in 1334 A.T. shows that population of the two seas is an estimated two million (This was the peak.) The town of Rebha, built on piles in a shallow spot in the southeastern Kemu, becomes important in sea commerce. Border forts built to strengthen defense against Negroes of the Western Lands. Another unsuccessful expedition against the troublesome pirates of Mikawuru. The explorer Dyth-phida discovers that an arm of the Kemuwopar is about to cut through the middle-west mountains on the western shore. This portends the eventual drainage of the two seas, but this should not start until another estimated two or three hundred years have passed. The chief priestess of Khokarsa, Aquth, proclaims that this drainage can be averted only by a downgrading of Resu and a return to more conservative forms of religion. Minruth III considers building a gigantic dam, but since this will halt work on the Great Tower, he takes no action.
10,265 B.C. (1335 A.T.) Opar half-destroyed by an earthquake, but rebuilding begins at once. The Whooping Plague first appears in Towina.
10,261 B.C. (1339 A.T.) The plague has spread all over the empire. Crop failures and a deadly disease among the fish cause great famine. The Klemqaba devastate Bawaku but are themselves struck down by the plague. The city of Khokarsa is half-destroyed by an eruption of Khowot, and the citizens flee.
10,257 B.C. (1343 A.T.) The population has been reduced to three-quarters of a million. The empire has fallen apart. The majority of the royalty has died. A numatenu from Opar, Riqako, marries the only surviving priestess able to bear children in the city of Khokarsa. He becomes the Reskomureeskom, the king of kings, literally, the Great Fish-Eagle of the Fish-Eagles.
10,061 B.C. (1539 A.T.) Heliqo discovers connection between malaria and mosquitoes.
10,050 B.C. (1550 A.T.) The climate is getting warmer and drier. There is, however, still ice and snow in abundance on the peaks of the Saasares. The level of the Mediterranean has risen. Khokarsa is once again in the ascendancy. All the states of the Kemu acknowledge its suzerainty, but in fact are semi-independent. Kethna sends tribute but acts as if it were independent. Though the population has increased, there are still some areas that have not recovered. The pirates of Mikawuru are giving more trouble, and there are pirate bases in the Kemu. There has been little progress in technology. Iron weapons and tools were introduced circa 1340 A.T., but since the main iron-ore deposits are deep inside the Saasares, it is expensive. Bronze weapons and tools are still much used.
10,049 B.C. (1551 A.T.) Minruth IV wins the Great Games of Klakor, marries De-makwa, the chief priestess.
10,042 B.C. (1558 A.T.) Bissin, inventor of a crude steam engine, is born.
10,036 B.C. (1564 A.T.) The herculean and ill-fated Kwasin, Hadon’s cousin, is born in Dythbeth.
10,034 B.C. (1566 A.T.) Demakwa dies. Minruth marries her cousin, Wimimwi, and so no Great games are held.
10,031 B.C. (1569 A.T.) Hadon of Opar born. His father, Kumin, is a crippled numatenu who has been reduced to sweeping the floors of a temple. His mother, Pheneth, is the daughter of an overseer of slaves, so Hadon has a poverty-stricken childhood, and his parents are of a low social class. Both parents are members of the Ant Totem. Awineth, daughter of Minruth and Wimimwi, born in the temple of Kho on the slopes of Khowot. Electroplating of metal by means of a primitive battery is invented.
10,018 B.C. (1582 A.T.) Kwasin, drunk, ravishes a priestess of Kho and kills some temple guards. He is exiled instead of being executed when the oracular priestess of the temple of Kho at Dythbeth (where the sacrilege took place) says he should be sent out of the land but permitted to return when Kho so decrees. He wanders off into the Western Lands carrying his great brassbound oak club.
10,013 B.C. (1587 A.T.) Wimimwi dies. Awineth becomes the chief priestess. The Great Games are scheduled to be held within three years. (Enough time has to be given for all states to be notified, the preliminary Lesser Games held to choose three main contestants and their three substitutes from each state, and for the contestants to journey to the city of Khokarsa.) Minruth asks his daughter to marry him, but she refuses. Minruth (called the Mad behind his back) plans to keep the throne by hook or crook. Ruseth, a fisherman, invents the fore-and-aft sail.
10,012 B.C. (1588 A.T.) Hadon becomes one of the winners of the Lesser Games in Opar.
10,011 B.C. (1589 A.T.) The events of Hadon of Ancient Opar begin.
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