Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium

by Rajamayyoor Sharma

  I nodded. “I felt the same. Show of hands of anyone who felt… safe.”

  No hand went up. We all felt threatened. Scared.

  Zeus asked, “What do we do? Do we ask all the Final 100 members to return to the High Seat and destroy these men?”

  I shook my head.

  “That was going through my mind as the conversation happened. But it might not work. With the induction of Draconair into the Order of Seven from the Final 100, the balance of power has shifted towards the Order. That, along with the other news you would have heard—the destruction of the main Morgenian barracks which killed seven Final 100 members, would make a Final 100 victory difficult. And if they lose, the Order of Seven can easily overthrow us.”

  “Then what are we to do?”

  “We can turn a tragedy into our strength. If we can harness the source of the barracks explosion and directly control it, the Order will not be able to carry out any further attacks on this council.”

  Ashwatthama shook his head. “I do not agree. I think we should send all the Order of Seven out. Then we get all the Final 100 back and seal off the High Seat. The Order will not openly defy us. They need us for now, for whatever they have planned. Once we seal off the High Seat, even with 50 members of the Final 100, we should be able to withstand the full strength of the Order. We would have the high ground.”

  “Either plan would need high degrees of planning and ability to execute,” noted Brenin.

  “And that would need a new head,” replied Ashwatthama. He was right. We had to vote again. The next in line had disappeared. Any out of order selection of head would be an election. We had established that precedent with me.

  “Who all want to stand?” asked Asahi.

  Ashwatthama raised his hand. Zeus raised his hand. And so did I. Before today, I was looking forward to getting done with my responsibilities, but today morning changed everything. This sacred Imperium had been threatened. One of our members had been abducted. We had to fight, to retaliate. I knew I could lead us to safety, ensure our survival.

  All of us voted for the first round.

  Ashwatthama—5

  Vikraan—5

  Zeus—3

  It was between me and Ashwatthama, just like last time. But this time I wanted to win. I hoped Zeus would vote for me. But I knew Zeus was closer to Ashwatthama.

  “Before the next round, I would want the both of us to get a final word in on our plans.”

  Without pausing for consent, I said, “I love Ashwatthama’s plan. But fatal flaw there is that, as soon as we initiate it, the Order will get alerted to our intentions. We can carry out the explosion idea more covertly.”

  Ashwatthama spoke. “I agree. Order will get alerted. But your plan has no certainty of success. For all we know, the barracks explosion cannot be controlled.”

  So that was the choice that the Imperium had. An uncertain plan versus a risky one. The second round resulted in:

  Ashwatthama—6

  Vikraan—7

  So, I was elected. We were going to follow the uncertain path. It showed the extent of fear in this council. They would prefer to delay any confrontation with the Order of Seven till there was certainty of success.

  “Thank you,” I said, “Ashwatthama—I would want the two of us to explore the barracks explosion directly and report to the council, once every two weeks.”

  It was my way of getting him on the same side. This was not the time for any differences. This was bigger than any of us. This was for the future of the Imperium.

  Ashwatthama nodded. We had one more thing to take care of. “We also need to do quick damage control on the explosion. Asahi—let’s have steady reports coming in. We should look at the story we want to spin and have it out in two weeks.”

  The day ended without any news of Magnot. He was definitely missing. It was a terribly sad day in the history of this Imperium and indeed this continent. What was worse was we couldn’t tell anyone. There would be wide spread panic among the masses if they realized that one of their beloved leaders was missing.

  And as if my day wasn’t sad enough, I had an unwelcome guest in my house when I reached back.

  Anirved was sitting on my couch, reading last fortnight’s newspaper.

  At first, I was scared. All of my hypotheses of his disappearance and death evaporated in a second. Maybe he was Magnot’s abductor. Maybe all of us got it wrong about the Order of Seven. Maybe they were being out of line only because this news shocked them too. I regretted my thoughts and actions against them. But thankfully, by not following Ashwatthama’s plan, we hadn’t escalated a non-issue with the Order.

  But then, fear for my life left me, and it was replaced with rage. And a thirst for revenge. I started to turn to call for the guards.

  “That is not a good idea,” said Anirved, almost reading my mind. “You remember what happened last time. And just like last time, I am here to just talk. You have nothing to fear.”

  “Was that what you said to Magnot before you abducted him? What have you done with him? Is he alive or dead?”

  He looked genuinely confused. “Magnot? What happened to him? Wasn’t he to become the head of your little Imperium?”

  I was confused by his reaction. “What do you mean, ‘What happened?’ You think I am dumb? It can’t be a coincidence that the day you appear is the day Magnot goes missing. You are the only one who had the motive and the ability to take down an Imperium member.”

  Anirved smiled. “The only reason I came here was to congratulate you on stepping down as head. I was sure that the position wasn’t something you enjoyed. As to Magnot, it is unfortunate that he has disappeared. But I did not kidnap or kill him. That is not my style. I just like to talk. That’s all. But it is rather curious that someone that powerful disappeared. Did you have any theories before pinning it on me?”

  I didn’t want to tell this villain anything. Nor could he continue to feign ignorance.

  “If you didn’t kidnap Magnot, and you are not here to hurt me, what do you want?”

  He shrugged nonchalantly. “To talk.”

  “About what?”

  Anirved started to stroll around. “Well, the same topic I had spoken to you about, two years back. Remember? To reflect and change? I have many questions for you. Did you or the Imperium give it any thought? Did you, as their leader, push for any changes? Because although there are no changes out there, you might still have initiated changes in the Imperium which might take years to reflect. Better to hear it from the horse’s mouth. So I came here.”

  I experienced a flurry of emotions. There was confusion, as to whether this man was telling the truth, anger at being called a horse, frustration that this man was back and spewing his nonsense again. I also was getting scared again that my theories about the Order of Seven, which I discarded when I saw Anirved, were actually true.

  “I don’t have time for your nonsense. Are you saying that you weren’t involved in Magnot’s disappearance? How can I believe you? Do you have any proof?”

  Anirved gave me a mischievous smile. “How can I be carrying proof for an incident which I didn’t even know happened, and still don’t know when or where it happened? I am glad you feel I am omniscient but unfortunately I am not.”

  I had a caustic comment ready for him. “Well, aren’t the sages of silence supposed to be omniscient?”

  Anirved’s expression did not change. “I’m glad you have concluded that I am one of the sages of silence. But I never said I am one. I personally don’t know all the stories about the sages of silence, which in itself is proof of my lack of omniscience. But if there are legends about their omniscience, I am sure they aren’t true. I mean, the sages are still human. They aren’t gods.”

  In the mix of all the negative emotions, I felt a new, positive emotion getting added. This guy seemed sane. After all the theories that everyone had come up with about him, I felt that he was saner than most of those versions. But I still didn’t trust him.


  “I see you are great at distracting people from the topic. Answer my question—why should I not call all the guards and the Order of Seven members here to take you out? Prove to me you aren’t the abductor and I will spare your life.”

  Anirved was serious. “No one’s life is yours to spare. You can choose to call the guards or whichever warrior you might please, but you know that it will not be helpful. None of them will be able to harm me and that’ll just frustrate you. Lastly, I will not be able to prove one way or the other, whether I did, or did not abduct Magnot.”

  He was right. There was nothing I could do, but listen to him. I let Anirved speak. I didn’t reply. He took the hint.

  “Well, I am glad you are listening. From what you are saying, there seems to be some hatred and scheming against the Imperium right inside your hallowed chambers. What could have prevented such a scenario? Well let me try and talk about it briefly, as it is related to the point I made two years ago.

  There are four key components needed to lay a concrete foundation for a successful and sustainable society. Let me talk about the first three. The first key component is the law maker—be it a king, a council, a dictator or a president. The law maker needs to lay down rules that make sense for the good of the society. The second component is the guardian of the law—the justice system. This system is important to ensure that the laws practiced are the ones laid down by the lawmakers. The third component is the protector. That is the military—they are necessary to protect against any major threats to peace that might exist within or outside the state.

  Now, there are some essential conditions to ensure that each of these three function well, and that there are sufficient checks and balances in place.

  First condition is that, no component must have absolute authority over any other component. The law makers and the military should be prevented from breaking the law by the justice system. The justice system and law makers must not be allowed to create and enforce laws that are detrimental to the peace of the land, by the military. The military and justice system must also come under the ambit of the laws created by the lawmaker, and the lawmaker should have sufficient power to enforce those laws themselves.

  Second condition is that, within each of these components, the incentive system must ensure that the components function optimally. A good incentive system has three parts. One—It picks the right people, based on merit. Second—It selects those who do the right things, where the right thing is decided by the degree of alignment of their activities to the goals of the component. For example, a lawmaker is doing things right if he has created a law that serves the people he represents well, without antagonizing any other section of the society. Lastly, a good incentive system provides the right incentive to the people identified, which can be either monetary, assets or power, depending on what works the best. Typically, it is a mix of all these, with the lower levels reacting better to money and the higher levels reacting better to power.

  Third condition is that, each of these three components require unconditional support of the people. If any one of them is despised by the people they are meant to be serving, and the other two do not correct the reason for this discontent, the discontent will spread to the other two also. Without support of the people, the system will always collapse.

  The way to ensure that the people are aware of the right facts to support or oppose any of the three key parts, is the fourth key component of a sustainable society. It is the news. The news that reaches the people.

  The fourth part also needs to function sustainably, and conditions necessary to do that are the same as for the other three. Namely, independence from the other three components, good incentive system and the trust of the people.

  Now, until all the four components of the society are perfect across the three conditions that I mentioned, there are 4095[7] possibilities of things going wrong, assuming there is only one way to botch up the incentive system, which is not true. If I don’t assume that, there are four components and five total conditions, so 1,048,575[8] possibilities for something to go wrong. That is a lot of wrong paths possible. As you keep rectifying the system, the number of ways things can go wrong, reduces.

  Now, how does that apply to you? Well, in so many ways. Clearly the lawmakers, the military, the judiciary and the newspapers are not independent here. The people are scared of the first three, but not supportive. Some fear is needed for respect, but only fear, leads to loathing. The people don’t even know that the news is not independent and trustworthy, but as the abuse of news grows, the people do wise up. Other than the merit part of the incentive condition, which is in place for all the four components, nothing else is in place. So that means that there are at least 16 out of 20 conditions that are not met. When I spoke last time, I had asked you to understand this, and try to fix each of these. You need to figure out which ones you need to fix right away to repair the problem you have right now, which is security of the law makers, the Valantian Imperium.

  Given the state of things as they are, there can only be two reasons I can conclude. One, the people, whose support lawmakers do not enjoy, got fed up, and someone managed to get to one of you. That is not possible, as none of you even interact with the people. So there is only one possibility. And it is that the military, the only other component of societal sustainability which operates beyond the power of the lawmakers, did this. You need to figure out which section of the military can do this.

  The way to tackle it is simple—there are already effective laws to govern the military. The problem is that the current structure has the military tasked with the security of the law makers and the land. That is a conflict, as the law makers are dependent on the military for their protection, hence not allowing for the laws governing the military to be totally implementable. So you need to establish an independent way to secure yourselves.

  “I hope that helped.” He finally ended his half hour speech.

  There was just too much for me to absorb in the exhausted state that I was in, but I did. I wasn’t elected to the Imperium for my good looks alone. This man, he was really helpful this time. He helped me clarify my thinking. Although he said many things that I did not agree with, there was a lot he said that made sense. I didn’t know why he was helping us, or helping me.

  “Why… why are you telling me all this?” I asked him, struggling to get the words out.

  “So it seems something made sense to you. I am glad. You see, I am not the enemy. I am just an outside observer, keen to make sure that the land stays happy. Now, you are in power, for better or worse, and you have some admirable qualities. So, I want you to understand what it takes for a state to succeed, as you are the closest in this land… relatively speaking, to help the state succeed.”

  I was really confused. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted more such advice. There is no way I could get this from the other Imperium members, let alone from my advisers. But I wasn’t sure if this man was a friend, or a foe determined to confuse me.

  “I can see you struggle. I will make it easier for you. You have no choice. I will keep coming here, whether you like it or not. You can tell me what, according to you, plagues you and the state the most, and I will try and tell you what is objectively right. Whether you want to follow what I say is completely up to you. Even if you say nothing, I will share my observations and tell you more about what makes a state successful. Now, I am off. Best of luck with your problems. Sorry to hear about your friend.”

  Saying that, he walked out. I was suddenly worried. If someone saw this man walk out without me having raised an alarm, I would be suspected of allying with this man, to stay in power. I rushed after him, as he had already exited by the time this realization dawned upon me. As I stepped out just after him, he was already gone. And by gone, I mean disappeared. My guards hadn’t even moved. As I stepped out, they rushed to me. It was unusual for me to step out at this time.

  “Peace through stability my lord! Is something the matter?
” asked the captain of my guard.

  “Did anyone enter or exit my house anytime now?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

  “Not at all, my lord. Everything alright?”

  “Yes,” I replied curtly as I went back in. Enriched with knowledge, and relaxed after Anirved’s successful, clandestine exit, I returned to my room, to contemplate my next move.

  Weeks went by as we got our hands dirty, figuratively, to figure out what had happened at the barracks. We made no progress. We had received a Secret ink letter from Major Morgan, but it had clearly been tampered with. Each word on the letter had been destroyed, making the letter illegible. We were also wondering how to organize the expedition for the Azmoq reserve, now that our primary guides, the Yerin assassins, had also died in the attack. We couldn’t send anyone without guides, as they could wander the Deliganti Verde till they died without finding the reserve or the village, or for that matter, the exit.

  Then we finally made three breakthroughs. One, we found that Azrial was alive. He had managed to escape the attack, relying on his fine-tuned intuition to sniff out the danger. He was still hit by the blast, and had spent the last few weeks recovering. He told us about the events that led to the attack. Given his escape, he couldn’t see what actually happened. But it was definitely good news for what Ashwatthama and I were aiming towards.

  The second was that one of the Yerin assassins had survived the attack. He had been sent to the Lotus stem by Major Morgan as insurance. The stem, a long cylindrical chamber under the barrack’s central tower, had finally been reached after weeks of digging, where the man was found in a state of extreme starvation. Now, the mission for the Azmoq reserve could be started. We started to pull all the forces from all Barracks near the forests to launch the expedition.

  The last breakthrough was the best. As soon as I knew of it, I was sure that our mission to secure the reserve would be a success.