《Empire in Crisis》


 Prologue

    Everything changed when the System made a System-wide announcement and ensured that every sentient being on six worlds heard and understood it. The leaders, temporal and spiritual, on a further nine worlds also heard this announcement that marked the end of an era and the start of a new era.


    ting: The Russians have slain the Gods Feroxibus and Sisanna stopping the Gods of Light invasion of their country. Their counter strike has rendered the City of Gods and half the Holy Mountain it was built on into radioactive dust. The Gods who were in the city are likewise dead. No magic was used!


    The six worlds consist of:


    Badonia, a fertile if slightly arid planet with numerous scattered shallow seas and the home world of the Empire of Light and the Pantheon of Light.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    Astrikar, a world of deserts and narrow fertile coastal plains, The Empire of Light¡¯s earliest conquest.


    Stratsiosina, a verdant world with extensive mountainous zones inhabited by barbarous peoples prone to headhunting. The sentient forests play host to bloody handed Druids. The Empire of Light seized several footholds to control the natural gates and more civilized zones.


    Auricia, a rich world with fertile soil and mineral rich hills. The Empire of Light has been concentrating on Aurica due to the relative abundance of gold and silver deposits.


    Ervenica, a world of high mountains and windswept high plains, its coastal zones are capable of sustaining a considerable population density so long as the scarce water supply is carefully managed. The Empire of Light has seized the areas it considered worthwhile either directly or through client kings. Ervenica and Aurica are linked by countless natural gates, both large and small and share many features of religion and culture.


    Midgard, well dear readers you will recognise itas a close clone of Earth.


    So here is the tale of the wars and rebellions that marked the birth of a new era for these five plus one worlds.

 Chapter 1.01

    It was a nice day on the world of Ervenica, the two suns were shining in a clear sky and the day was growing hot. Eluntor and a couple of his friends were accompanying a small group of itinerant priests of Atargis, the fish tailed patron goddess of his home city and the goddess of bounty and harvest.


    Eluntor was feeling uneasy, he had no reason for his feeling, the suns were shining, the birds singing and the bees were buzzing amongst the flowers. He shook his head in amusement, not that the flowers could compete with the garish splendor of the priests in their purple striped tunics and saffron colored silk robes and befeathered turbans in assorted bright shades. Eluntor noted that his older brother Sla¡¯tor was adorned with a bright scarlet one today.


    Their party arrived in Elvacaar, a mid-sized coastal village. Elvacaar¡¯s mud brick fortifications were somewhat run down and the place didn¡¯t seem overly prosperous. The suns were high in the sky indicating it was shortly after the noon hour. The sea sparkled about a kilometer distant. Eluntor was feeling uneasy; it was as if some disaster was hovering in the wings. Eluntor was starting to feel as if it was too late to do anything about it.


    Eluntor sought out Ras¡¯tor the priest in charge of this excursion and did his best to persuade him to change their plans and not stop in Elvacaar, but to set out immediately to their next destination.


    ¡°Don¡¯t be worried Eluntor, Atargis is watching over us and nothing will happen. We will stick to our plans, anyway Dullak is a full days journey from here and I¡¯d rather not camp out under the stars.¡±


    Then Eluntor approached his brother and tried to persuade him to accompany him.


    ¡°I can¡¯t leave my fellow priests brother,¡± stated Sla¡¯tor, then jokingly suggested, ¡°hey brother have you reconsidered, you could still take me up on my offer and become a priest of our lady yourself. With your gifts you would have more influence when you get one of your mad starts.¡±


    Eluntor shuddered, however fond he was of his goddess he was fonder of his manhood and had no intention of emasculating himself in order to join the priesthood.


    The priests stopped in the village square, as war their usual practice. They checked their heavily made up faces and lowered the image of their goddess from the back of their donkey.


    Eluntor and his friends readied their flutes; Eluntor could not help feeling helpless in the face of looming calamity.


    As soon as a suitable crowd gathered, Eluntor and his friends played a wild tune on their flutes and Eluntor used his magic to amplify the sound and create the illusion of various dancing flames.


    Sla¡¯tor and his fellow priests were soon dancing wildly and shouting, whirling around with their necks bent, their long hair flying. They soon entered an ecstatic frenzy and started biting themselves and cutting their arms with their knives.


    The villagers were enjoying this unexpected but welcome performance, a break in their otherwise dull lives of backbreaking toil. Unfortunately for them their lookout also became engrossed in the spectacle and thus did not see the arrival of the Tharkian pirates. They came flooding into the village clubbing or killing the stubborn and rounding up the remainder.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    The pirates grabbed Eluntor and his friends as soon as they were spotted, as the pirates knew that they would be worth more on the markets due to their skill at playing an instrument. He had the misfortune to witness the decapitation of the priests and the statue of the goddess as the pirates could collect a bounty paid by the Empire for any priests of a competing religion.


    The pirates culled the able bodied, killed any children who tried to cling to their chosen merchandise, discarded babies and loaded their cargo onto their galleys. It was all over in less than an hour.


    One week later the pirates unloaded their cargo of slaves for a quite modest sum per head to the official in charge of the main slave market of Lauconia, one of the provincial capitals of the Empire of Light. The flutes plus an indication of whom they had belonged to netted the pirates double the price for a dejected Eluntor and his friends.


    They had the dubious luck of being considered entertainers; they were the first amongst their fellow unfortunates to be fitted with a slave collar blessed by a priest of Iustitius, the God of Justice of the Pantheon of the Gods of Light. This did mean that they weren¡¯t tested and thus Eluntor didn¡¯t end up with a mage¡¯s slave collar as should have been the case.


    Eluntor was one of the many sold to Fraggatus a factor of one of the big landowners on Scalsil. He was unlucky that a citizen of the Empire bought him but lucky that due to his perceived skill he was fed adequate rations. This meant that he actually arrived in Scalsil alive and healthy, a fate that was not universal amongst his fellow victims.


    Eluntor was subjected to some rather arbitrarily harsh beatings and soon learnt to hate his masters with a passion that he was barely able to hide. He managed to put together an act including sleigh of hand, jokes and flute playing. He was exceedingly lucky that his masters found his antics amusing and soon he was touring the islands huge agricultural estates with a few other performers for the profit of his masters. The troop was managed by Slundar Vicarius a freedman employed by Harpax a knight of the Empire and one of the harshest landowners on Scalsil.


    Over the next couple of years Eluntor polished his act, he gambled with his safety by adding boasts that he would topple the current masters and become the king of Scalsil to his act. He even promised some of the kinder and more generous members of his audience that he would spare them when the time came. He found he had to dice with disaster to maintain his sanity. The sight of how the slaves were mistreated by their owners on the estates just stoked up the flames of his hatred.


    Most of the slaves on the estates suffered from malnutrition and were clad in rags or nothing but their chains. He understood that this was due to the huge influx of slaves due to the Empires wars of conquest on Auricia, in which thousands were sold into slavery, additionally the slave dealing of the Tharkian pirates whose activities were practically unchecked and if this wasn¡¯t sufficient corrupt Empire provincial governors occasionally organized man-hunts among the lower class of country provincials. This all contributed to a constant supply of new slaves at very cheap price, which made it more profitable for their masters to wear them out by unremitting labour as they could be cheaply replaced.


    Eluntor felt his goddess whisper in his dreams and with her promises and his skills in prophetic magic he knew that given the opportunity ¨C remote as it was ¨C of freedom from the collars then he had a chance, just a chance to make good his boasts and grind the oppressors faces in the dirt.


    Tens of thousands might die, would probably die in a rebellion but thousands of slaves were already dying unnecessarily every year of toil in the fields from dawn to dusk with chains around their legs, and being locked up in suffocating subterranean pits by night.


    He had faith in his goddess! He would succeed!


    Then the miracle happened. The system announced the death of the Gods of the Pantheon of Light. The slave collars crafted and blessed by the priests of Iustitius broke at the moment Iustitius was slain. All slaves in the Empire of Light were freed of the collars restrictive and coercive divine magic.


    He was FREE! His vengeance could begin!

 Chapter 1.02

    The troop managed by Slundar Vicarius was currently residing at one of the estates of the hated Maphilios of Haevva, an exceedingly rich man of a proud and haughty disposition. Ragallis his wife was worse as she seemed to strive to outdo her husband in all things.


    Eluntor seized his chance, he persuaded Gravak his fellow slave and the current gladiator of their little troop that the time he had foretold was at hand, together they were able to free some of the slaves of their chains the armed with a few daggers and repurposed agricultural implements they stormed the estate killing everyone they found that wasn¡¯t a slave.


    Eluntor and those he had freed the remaining slaves of their chains. Eluntor gave a speech whilst using his magic to hold their attention. He easily persuaded four hundred of his fellows to arm themselves and follow him in seizing the nearby town of Haevva, the most telling argument for the slaves was the fact that Maphilios and Ragallis were currently in Haevva.


    Eluntor led his little army into Haevva, he used fireballs to demoralise what little opposition they found and the illusion that he was covered in fire to inspire his followers. They poured through the gates of the town and surged with the utmost bloodlust into the houses therein. The slaves army, such as it was rapidly grew as most slaves they encountered gleefully joined in the slaughter first executed their rage and cruelty upon their own masters, and slaughtering anyone else.


    The slaves having been rendered animal like by the cruelty of their masters sated their lusts, they raped and tortured the citizens of Haevva sparing not even the babes in arms.


    As the carnage was ending, Eluntor having managed to save most of the smiths in the town, ordering them to be chained to their forges to make weapons for the armies that he would need to free the resrt of Scalsil. The original four hundred had searched everywhere but had still not found Maphilios and his wife Ragallis. Then they were informed that they were hiding in an orchard near the city.


    Eluntor ordered some of his men to capture them and presently the ill disciplined horde returned with them, securely bound with their hands behind their backs, taunting and ill-treating them all the while. Surprisingly they showed kindness and compassion to their daughter, because unlike her parents, she had shown pity and compassion towards them and when possible had helped them.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Maphilios and Ragallis, somewhat the worse for wear were taken to the town¡¯s open air theatre currently containing the majority of the triumphant ex-slaves Maphilios pleading all the while for his life whilst his wife maintained a stony faced silence. It did them no good, Ragallis was tortured to death by her servants and Maphilios was forced down onto his knees and had his head hacked off with a dull axe.


    Eluntor stood on the bloody stage and praised his followers for their courage and dedication, he told them that hard times were ahead and great challenges had still to be met before they could live in peace and prosperity.


    Then Gravak and a few other personal friends raised the chant, King Eluntor, Be our King, and the like. Soon all the slaves who had heard his prophesies before were roaring in agreement.


    Gravak then joined his friend and commander on the stage and in front of the assembled masses handed him a simple crown and an ornate sceptre. Eluntor placed the crown on his own head and proclaimed in a loud carrying voice, ¡°The goddess Atargis is with me, I proclaim myself King Lantiarchus of Tyrixa. Let this island forever more bear the name of Tyrixia, a name free of the Empire¡¯s taint.¡±


    The ex-slaves cheered wildly.


    Eluntor, or rather King Lantiarchus then made several appointments, amongst them Gravak became his chief of security and Traeus another ex-slave from Auricia and a former senior officer in the army of King Selippus V became his commander in chief.


    * * *


    The news spread rapidly especially amongst the slaves and less than a week later Leonata led her own slave rebellion in the port city of Akragas on the North coast. Leonata saw her forces rapidly grow in size and despite some stiff opposition the slaves triumphed storming the cities citadel with the fury of desperation. Here however most of the local Scalsilian natives joined the slaves against the citizens of the Empire of Light as soon as it was obvious the slaves were going to win.


    Leonata shrewdly used them and ensured that all the prominent citizens had ample opportunity to display their vindictive spleen attempting to ensure they would have a near impossible task if they wanted to get back in the Empire¡¯s good graces.


    She was able to procure decent equipment for about a third of her forces and leaving a garrison behind led her forces to Haevva taking several towns and sweeping up many slaves on the way. She left Akragas with an army of three thousand and arrived to hand King Lantiarchus six thousand eager volunteers.


    She was welcomed with open arms and appointed second in command of the army.


    It didn¡¯t take long before King Lantiarchus controlled most of the centre, north and east of Scalsil, or rather Tyrixia.


    As for Maphilia daughter of Maphilios and Ragallis who had once attempted to alleviate the slaves¡¯ sufferings, was delivered by a suitable escort to the Empire¡¯s garrison at Katanja by order of the King.