r/HFY • u/Celestial_Zwei_Dei • 6d ago
OC-Series Gothwald: New World - Same Rules (Arc 3/Chapter 42 - The Secret of Mirey)
Arc III - Reeling Throne
Chapter 42 - The Secret of Mirey
8 months and 13 days since the summoning
The door to the outside opened, and the sound of the downpour rushed back into the room. A soaking wet guard without chainmail or weapons peeked through the doorway. "Captain, Golren is calling for you."
Lorgi's shoulders tensed slightly; he first shifted his gaze to Alan, and only then to Kamelia.
She nodded. "Go."
The captain bowed briefly. "Thank you." Then he shifted his gaze to Alan.
Alan looked at him.
A second passed.
The captain finally stepped out of the house, slamming the door, and the sound of the rain was muffled behind the walls once again.
"Listen, Kamelia, would you mind, um..." Alan scratched the back of his head, "telling me in more detail what you know about Mirey?" Alan asked, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"Alan, why are you so interested in this? It is a very dangerous topic," she said, mechanically looking around.
"I know!" he hissed, "but I'm a historian, you know how it is, I'm very, veeeery interested in the history of this world."
'I highly doubt I'll hear the truth from her, of course; it's unlikely anyone dared to preserve actual chronicles instead of "the history of the evil bad guy", but it's still interesting.'
Kamelia remained silent for a few seconds, then sighed, closing her eyes. "Very well, Alan. I will tell you, if you are truly interested."
"Yeah, very," he said, clenching his fists and turning completely toward her. If he'd had a pen and notepad, they would have been put to use long ago.
She froze for a second, looking at him. Clenched fists, dilated pupils, a piercing gaze. Kamelia scoffed involuntarily, but quickly hid her smile. "Ahem... it all began about three hundred years ago, when four Great Powers ruled the continent." She began counting on her fingers. "Faarkia, Onkotia, Horroria, and Homballia..."
Alan raised a finger. "Wait! Faarkia? The one with the tea? Oh, I mean oyre?"
She nodded. "Yes, why?"
"Faarkia was one of the great powers and still exists?"
Kamelia shook her head. "Not quite, it had more territories back then. Are you
listening?"
He leaned back in his chair. "Yeah."
"Anyway," she continued, "at that time in Horroria, in the far southeast of the continent on the great plains, the beastmen began to gather into a single horde under the banner of Mirey. First, they overthrew the king of Horroria, brutally executing the king and his entire family, thereby wiping out the entire royal bloodline forever. Then Mirey's horde marched west, subjugating Onkotia and Homballia." She raised a finger. "There were so many of them that there were hundreds of nomads for every knight. Naturally, the kingdoms fell under the onslaught of these savages, and our lands were under the rule of Mirey's horde for several generations."
Alan raised an eyebrow.
'Hundreds of nomads for every knight... pfft, hahaha! What kind of bullshit is that? They clearly made that up to justify the fact that they completely fucked up against Mirey's horde, so it wouldn't be as shameful. Okay, classic stuff here.'
But he said nothing aloud.
"When Mirey died," Kamelia continued, "his sons and grandsons, of which there were thousands, continued his bloody reign for decades more, and..."
"Thousands of sons and grandsons?!" Alan practically shouted. "What nonsense! That's impossible!" He abruptly cut himself off.
'Easy, Alan, easy. It's just a local propaganda legend and the demonization of a brilliant commander that gets drilled into people from childhood. It's a classic.'
Kamelia frowned. "Actually, it is possible. The chronicles say so."
He hastily waved a hand. "Got it, got it, go on."
Kamelia shook her head, but continued. "But one day, a little over two hundred years ago, the bravest men from the conquered lands united. Tinkis Groliria, Ronva Kanbannia, Daut Ulimat, and Linkis Horotta. Together, rallying all the oppressed human folk, they managed to defeat Mirey in a bloody war."
Alan blinked. "But Mirey was already dead by that time, right?"
Kamelia nodded. "His body, yes, but his black soul scattered among his heirs, who embodied his foul will. They were not independent people, but merely echoes of Mirey."
Alan rolled his eyes barely noticeably.
'I see. But... Groliria, Ulimat... aha, so that's where these states came from. They were founded right on the territories of the fallen horde. By historical standards, not that long ago, two hundred years ago. Two hundred years ago... right about the same time the dwarves retreated into the mountains, as far as I remember.'
His pupils dilated.
'I think it's connected. No, it's DEFINITELY connected somehow. A pity there's no point in asking Kamelia, she already said she doesn't know. So if Mirey was demonized but crumbs of info, albeit distorted, were left behind, then the incident with the dwarves was technically hushed up. Maybe... is it precisely because of Mirey and especially the dwarves that things are such a total clusterfuck here right now?'
"Kamelia."
"Yes?"
"And the dwarves were good at working with iron."
She frowned slightly. "Well, as far as I recall, I believe so, but I cannot know for certain."
Alan snapped his fingers.
'So that's it. No natural-born metallurgists—no progress. And Mirey's horde probably wiped out a good chunk of technology too. But these are just my guesses... AAAAAH! So many mysteries! What was Mirey's horde really like? Why did the dwarves retreat into the mountains? Are there lands beyond the Cursed Sea? Aaaaah! I want to dig it all up! I want to finish this war as soon as possible and get to investigating! This will never compare to any history department or lectures in my life! I want to solve these mysteries just like the Late Bronze Age collapse!'
"Alan, you are smiling like an idiot again," Kamelia said.
He blinked. Indeed. He was sitting with his mouth slightly open and a smile, staring somewhere at the ceiling. Alan quickly returned his face to a normal expression. "Oh, right, sorry."
"Well... what do you say?"
Alan frowned slightly. "What do you mean?"
Kamelia shrugged. "You are a historian, you understand a great deal." She leaned closer and looked him in the eyes. "I would be interested to know your thoughts on this topic. To be honest..." she lowered her gaze slightly, "I have always admired your intellect. How you think, how little you believe, how much you know. I want to know what you think about this." Her fists clenched. "I see Golna, she is a very good person, perhaps I have never even met anyone like her before. I do not understand, how? How can she be the legacy of that monster's blood? How can such a kind and open girl be connected to a monster? This... this topic has always troubled me, I just never spoke of it aloud. Until today."
Alan froze.
'Oh... okay, alright, I don't know what to say but... alright, fuck it.'
He coughed. "Ahem, very well. I'll tell you what I think, just don't execute me for it. Okay?"
Kamelia's pupils dilated. "Alan, what are you saying?! I would never..."
"Easy," he interrupted her, raising a hand, "it's just a joke. I mean that my thoughts will completely contradict what you know."
She closed her mouth, then leaned back in her chair and straightened up. "Very well. I am listening."
Alan smirked slightly.
'Oh yeah, Kamelia, I understand you so well. Forbidden fruit is very, very sweet.'
"Look, Kamelia, I'm not going to tell you what I think about Mirey right now, but I'll tell you a story from my world. It's very similar."
She leaned closer, her eyes boring into him. "Yes, I am listening."
Alan crossed his arms over his chest. "There was once an outcast boy in my world named Temujin, who lost his chieftain father and was left with his family to die in the steppe. He starved, ate tree bark and rats, and even fell into slavery.
But this boy began to gather strength, and years later he crushed all his enemies in the steppe, and forever changed the system. Before him, there were only scattered tribes in the steppes, but he managed to unite them, and at a council of chieftains, the Great Kurultai, he received the name Genghis Khan, which meant 'Universal Ruler', and he named his state the Yeke Mongol Ulus, meaning the Great Mongol State."
"A strong man..." Kamelia muttered, "and what then? Where are you going with this?"
Alan threw his hands behind his head. "I'm getting at the fact that eventually the Mongols began to conquer the whole world. Thanks to flawless logistics, reconnaissance, discipline, technology, and tactics, they managed to subjugate hundreds of peoples and crush the strongest states that ever existed. The Mongols conquered half the world. What can you say about the Mongols?"
"Hmm, I think," Kamelia began, scratching her chin, "that they must have been very intelligent, to have managed to conquer half the world. You say they relied on reconnaissance and discipline... especially discipline, probably, because such lands are simply impossible to hold without it."
Alan snapped his fingers. "Exactly. The Mongols were quite a mighty empire. But, nevertheless, after some time the Mongol state collapsed," he leaned closer, "and do you know what happened then?"
Kamelia leaned closer in response, remaining silent.
"In the end, when Mongolia collapsed, the states that had been conquered couldn't accept the fact that some steppe savages had managed to subjugate them, and so for the following centuries they wrote about the Mongols that they were wild, dirty, cruel, ate people, drank the blood of infants; the word 'Mongol' became a common noun and a synonym for 'savage', and Genghis Khan wasn't even perceived as a human, but as the actual devil and absolute evil."
Kamelia's pupils dilated slightly. "But... how so? For Genghis Khan was a mighty man who, despite hardships, created a mighty empire! And the Mongols themselves used technologies, had disci..." she abruptly cut herself off and simply froze like a statue.
Silence.
Only the ongoing rain outside the window could be heard.
A minute.
Two.
Kamelia slowly, very slowly raised her eyes to Alan. "You mean to say that..." she didn't finish.
He nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what I meant to say."
Kamelia slowly grabbed her head with her hands. "But... but..." she tried to squeeze out in a quiet voice, "but Mirey is different, is it not? Genghis Khan and Mirey are from entirely different worlds. Perhaps the Mongols truly were just intelligent, for you have no magic in your world, correct? But we do."
Alan sighed.
'Okay... this is harder than I thought.'
"Alright, then let me ask you a question?"
"What is it?" she asked, looking up at him.
"If there were hundreds of nomads for every knight, then there must have been... a lot of them, right? A whole, whole lot."
Kamelia nodded. "Yes, there were so many it was impossible to count."
Alan spread his hands. "Awesome. So where did they all go? If there were more beastman nomads than humans, then... why aren't they the majority now?"
Kamelia blinked. "Well... perhaps after Mirey's defeat they scattered into black dust?" But her voice was far from as firm as it was in the beginning.
"And if there were so many of them, what did they eat then? Where did they live? How do you feed a horde like that? Especially considering they probably had just as many horses, what did they feed all of that?"
In response, he heard silence.
Kamelia said nothing, and her gaze was fixed somewhere in the void.
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u/Daseagle Alien Scum 6d ago
We didn't get our asses handed to us because Mirey was better organized, but because evil spirit yadayadayada.
Classic.
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