Endless: An Autobiography of an Immortal

Chapter 15 - Meso

Spending the next several decades alone on my island was just what I needed to recover. I was able to experiment and grow in my understanding of the world. Now that I had a more complex language I was able to converse with Omni instead of it just giving me colors in response. It started translating as best it could with words that we both knew to explain the things it had learned in the thousands of years it scanned the planet. I learned of all the sea creatures the other devices had been able to see, where they lived, and how they functioned. I was enthralled with learning everything about this beautiful round ball in which I lived. Every single day I would wake up and learn more about different things. Plants, animals, metals. Anything and everything that Omni scanned, it fed back to me and I soaked it all in like a sponge. I couldn't learn everything, though, again due to the language barrier, but that would work out in time. I used my newfound knowledge to create new tools and technology, my house was filled with experiments; failed ones were also scattered around the area. I built a new building just to start housing all of them and honestly, to stop blowing up my house. A few too many bad experiments led to that genius idea. My favorite discovery at this time was magnets, or to be more accurate, lodestones that acted as magnets. I would travel around the world, or at least get Omni to do it, in order to gather a sample of all the ores and minerals it found. I was in my lab when I placed some lodestones down next to some iron. You can imagine my surprise when my fingers got in the way as they pulled each other together. Much fun was had with this discovery.

Before too long Omni notified me of a major flooding that was happening that caused widespread damage and destruction. I went in order to help and I noticed a change happening among mankind while there. The first thing I noticed was that unlike before when a large area with many several smaller cities all working together in peace, now all the cities in the same general area would attack each other for dominance. It was a sad progression to see. I didn't understand why we couldn't just get along, how divisions happen so easily and often lead to violence. Also, unlike before, which had a quasi-religion that held sway but was not in full force, now myths, legends, and gods were fully expanded into several full-fledged religions. Ironically, even though previously they had priest-kings that lead the people, when religions started to get more ingrained with people's lives and thus priests should have had more power, those same positions became secondary to an actual ruler. Kings would prop up in one place after another and vie for dominance. Priests would only lead the people religiously (and sometimes morally) and the Kings would rule them politically and economically. While I had no interest in being involved in their made up fantasies, I did see a possible benefit to being King. I would be able to be more involved in helping a large amount of people all at once. While others wanted to be King for wealth and power I could have those in spades instantly so I didn't feel the temptation for abusing the position. I just wanted to help people, now I just needed a way to become King.

In those days to become the leader of the city you had to make an impact on the people so that they'd be supportive of the idea. If your Father was King this was easier to do, so Nepotism was rampant. It didn't give all Princes a free past to the Kingship, though. You still had to earn the right to rule as well as keep it. This is why there were several turnovers as people would rise to the top only to have another come after him with greater fame. At this point in time Kish was the city ruling the area and making sure everyone knew about it. They were really into Nepotism with son after son ruling one after another. For this reason, I went to Uruk instead. It was a growing city and one I could see challenging Kish in the near future. Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, was the first king of fame, having consolidated the area into a single city. I sat on the sidelines and watched as he grew in fame and arrogance. While he was famous for doing many bad things, that didn't make him the right kind of popular among the people. It didn't come to a surprise to me, or anyone else for that matter, when his son, Enmerkar, murdered him while he was swimming. While I don't condone what Enmerkar did, he was a pretty fair ruler and also built an official temple in Uruk as atonement for his actions; the first temple for the area. This caused the people to credit him as being the one that actually built the city because apparently it's not really a city until a temple is founded. I tried to warm up to him and get into his inner circle but he was far too suspicious of new people. His right hand man and I got along pretty great, though. Lugalbanda used to be a shepherd but his skill with fighting was evident enough for Enmerkar to have him lead the many raids that were happening at the time. I had changed my face to look very young and Lugalbanda took me in and became like a father to me...if he only knew my true age. He taught me many things I needed to know about advancement in rank and how to grow in fame. He also thought he was the best teacher in existence as he'd "teach" me how to fight and I picked it up apparently quickly. This earned me a measure of fame to those that witnessed my skills, so I was well on my way.

During these times the position of King was the leader of the city's fighters, which meant he led the charge instead of just sending them off to fight for him. Enmerkar, while a skilled fighter in his own right, was too greedy and needlessly fought on raids when it wasn't necessary. This caught the attention of Kish and they weren't happy to be challenged in their fame for the area. They started on a campaign to keep Kish on top and I was afraid of what this would mean for Uruk. Thankfully, though, Enmerkar fell out of favor by continuously getting drunk and then trying to go hunting only to be constantly humiliated in front of everyone. Lugalbanda became the King of Fame in order to save Uruk from being a laughingstock of all of Sumeria, which helped my case as I was constantly by his side. His wife, Ninsun, was a beautiful woman who also took me in as my mother. Since I didn't actually have parents I would start saying these two were mine and no one cared enough to start questioning or refuting it. Together they had children and I would be around so much that the kids even called me their brother. For the first time I felt a part of a big family and it meant the world to me.

Since Lugalbanda had a shepherding background, I helped him transform the city into a powerhouse for the area specializing in animal raising. We built grazing areas, butcher shops, leather workshops, the whole works. It became a huge part of our trade network and the city prospered. Lugalbanda grew in fame for leading the city and increasing our wealth. Due to this, Uruk grew in fame even more and finally rivaled Kish. Threatening to take the place as the dominant city had its drawbacks and resulted in skirmishes with Kish happening more frequently. I wasn't a fan of needless bloodshed, so I encouraged Lugalbanda to just talk to the King of Fame in Kish to work it out. He reluctantly agreed and the two of us met with Kish's King, En-me-barage-si, and his son, Aga. En-me-barage-si was famous for conquering many cities in the area and his son was the up and coming for the Kingship himself. We didn't exactly strike peace and friendship, but we left on good terms, respecting each other and our obligations to each their own city and its people. Aga and I actually had a mutual understanding between us as we were both next in line and weren't bloodthirsty. We knew that war between our cities would end badly. We met several times after this as well, each time making progress so we wouldn't go to war.

Unfortunately an idiot fisherman screwed up our hard work. The people of Uruk knew we were meeting with Kish to ensure peace. Some appreciated it as they wanted to live in peace, some even being refugees of Kish's previous battles and not wanting it to happen again. Others weren't so appreciative, wanting Uruk to be the reigning city of Fame no matter the cost. Immediately following one of our peace negotiations En-me-barage-si was walking back to Kish, while Aga and I went hunting to get to know each other more, when a lone fisherman, Dumuzid, saw an opportunity and sieged it. He captured En-me-barage-si unexpectedly and brought him into Uruk as a prize to show off. Dumuzid instantly became the King of Fame for embarrassing Kish so badly. Lugalbanda lost status for not thinking of this himself and never recovered. No one was able to resume the title of King once lost so Lugalbanda wasn't able to effectively do anything. Meanwhile Aga and I were still out hunting completely unaware of the life changing events back home. When we parted, I thought it was the start of a great friendship, but in reality, we parted as enemies before we even knew. Aga obviously blamed me and accused me of setting it all up. I lost a lot of respect with the people of Uruk for releasing his father but Aga didn't let the matter go. He immediately started preparing for war. So I did too.

The fame given to Dumuzid was short-lived when the people realized that Aga was hellbent on revenge. I took charge on a grand project that could help defend our dear city. An enforced wall surrounding the city to bolster our defenses. I know what you're thinking, there wasn't nearly enough time to build such a huge structure since it didn't take much time to prepare for war. And you'd be completely right. A few things worked in our favor, though. For starters, Kish had focused their resources on fighting others in order to keep their fame while having talks with us, thinking we didn't have the desire to engage in war and thus, not a threat to them. Aga had to wrap those up before he could divert enough manpower to attack us. I secretly sabotaged those plans in order to stall them. I would go invisible and mess with their equipment or use the water bottle to turn their marching path into a swamp that would slow them down. I even intercepted several letters sent to commanders to pull back so they would never get the messages. Just little things that caused as much delay in Aga's plan as possible. For the building project, I got Uruk to support it completely, with a little help from my emotion device. Sorry people, it meant your life. Several wanted to take the fight directly to Kish, but I knew that was folly, so instead of wasting time arguing it, I activated the emotion device and just got everyone to agree with me and start the project posthaste. Even doing these things, it was a huge project and had no chance to finish before Aga overcame my distractions, so I cheated.

While the people would be working on the wall, I would have Omni bring in supplies without anyone knowing. I'd also have Omni build the wall while no one was looking, increasing the amount of work done per day. I'd have the people work in teams and when they had the time off to rest, Omni would come in and do a lot of work which I would explain was done by the other teams. They'd see the amount of work the other "team" did and want to beat it on their shift. It helped that the people wanted to be paid in beer and weren't in their complete mind anyway. Either way, we made quick work of the wall and thankfully just in the nick of time. Aga had finally overcome the many delays I threw at him and came to the city with no intention of turning away peacefully. Because of the speed the wall was built and not having been here for a while, he came to the incorrect conclusion that we had been building the wall for quite some time in preparation for this day. He attacked seeking blood for the humiliation bestowed on his family and city. While Aga was preparing for the attack, I gave an uplifting speech to the people. It was the least I could do. Telling them of my past conquests before coming to the city and how I'm there to lead them to victory like I did several times before across the world. Sure I lied. It was time to do battle, not an honest talk with your best pal. I had to give them hope that this was winnable and worthwhile. I told them that if they won this day, Uruk would be the City of Fame for generations to come and be blessed by the gods. As good of a lie as I could think of and it worked. They were ready to bust Aga down once and for all.

One man after another entered my path and was cut down by my years of experience. While I had never waged a war such as this, my reflexes were already trained far beyond that of a normal man and my lack of warfare was made up by speed. I gained new skills by watching others during the battle as well as being engaged with one opponent after another, learning and applying with each win. By the time I made my way to Aga I had matched and surpassed his many years of training and subdued him after a brief fight. I didn't kill him, though. I couldn't. I had made friends with him and I could see how he misinterpreted the recent events. I asked him to call off his attack, which he did. The capture of Aga caused Kish to lose what little credibility it had and the once mighty city lost its title. Uruk became known as the City of Fame throughout the land. While the people of Kish licked their wounds and those in Uruk celebrated, I spent my time with Aga, trying to explain my side of the story. Since he was my captive, he had no choice but to listen. Thankfully, with the help of the people telling him what happened, he was persuaded to listen to reason and accepted the truth. I was happy to have my friend back, though I was saddened that he had to be humiliated to accept the truth. He had no place to go back to in Kish, they wouldn't even let him even go home to get his things, so I welcomed him into my home. I even changed his name to Enkidu so that he could move on and not be constantly reminded of his failure.

I came out of that battle with renown fame. My fighting skills were observed, my protection of others did not go unnoticed, and my success for ending the battle early with the capture of Aga was all added together to give me a Kingship for life. I did my best not to let it go to my head, but I didn't succeed all the time. While I still didn't want material things, I had other needs that Omni couldn't help me with. The women threw themselves at me one after another. Some were already married but I wrongly reasoned that it was her choice so I didn't turn them away. I had also learned that if I did it right, women too could experience a joy that many didn't know they even could. This added to my fame among women, especially the married ones whose spouse ignored their needs. Many husbands, on the other hand, were understandably upset about my lack of restraint regarding their marriage bed. While I didn't pursue married women, I didn't exactly try to persuade them not to come to me. It wasn't until Enkidu finally confronted me about it, knowing that if I were to continue this practice, a jealous husband would come along that didn't restrain himself from killing me. Thousands of years didn't magically make me exactly wise. Even this man of a couple decades was smarter than I was. I accepted his counsel and we became closer friends because of it. Knowing that he had my back and didn't lack the courage to confront me gave me a renewed respect for him. He became my closest friend I had ever had up to that point.

Enkidu and I would have many adventures together. We'd go hunting or exploring or even battle another city now and then when they threatened us. But as a side note, I usually just persuaded the cities to submit either by word or a secret device. The area came under a period of great peace during my reign which I was pretty proud of. When Enkidu and I came back from our many travels he'd spin tall tales of them to the people, who lapped it up like it was gospel. I liked to throw in some things as a curveball to see how he wove it into his stories and the results were hilarious. A giant flying lizard that breathed fire? Of course the people believed that! Little did I know they were actually memorizing them and would later write them down. It was interesting to see these stories and many more written down as if they were real events. History and drinking stories merged together to create a legend even I had trouble living up too. Sadly the people never forgot where Enkidu came from and would make up a humiliating background for him in their retelling of his life story. Nevertheless at this point in time he had become a true friend. I even made a very strange request to him and he still supported me. Like a best friend should.

By this time I had married again after pressure from the elders in Uruk wanting me to continue my bloodline officially. They thought I had a few children out there already but they wanted an official heir to train as the next King of Fame. The issue was that I knew I could never get a woman pregnant. This is where my odd request of Enkidu came in. I needed to find a way to trick the elders and everyone else into thinking I sired a child. I confided in him that I was not able to produce offspring, which was a huge deal back then, and pretty much has always been. If the people found out I would have lost all fame almost immediately but I still had much work I wanted to do. Enkidu was obviously shocked but he was loyal and asked how he could help. I asked him to find someone he fancied that would be willing to marry me, but only have relations with him so I could pass off his child as my own. They would get a child in line for the King of Fame and I would be free of this ridiculous obligation. Granted we all had to keep this under wraps, and at times it was very hard, but it did work out in the end. In time we welcomed a boy we named Ur-Nungal and he did indeed become the next King of Fame. Even after my character of Gilgamesh "died" I would revisit the area and see Ur-Nugal flourish along with his children and ever growing family. Enkidu would have been proud of the man he became.

After that distraction behind me I was able to focus on improving the lives of those around me. This might sound selfish or closed minded, helping only the people close to me, but I knew from the experience of when the wheel was invented, it spread so fast that it seemed that it popped up in all the civilizations overnight. When something life changing gets invented it's shared fast and everyone gets to benefit from it. I don't have to go around sharing the invention over and over again like I did previously. Also, not all areas were welcome to the same idea. Some areas didn't have the same resources so an idea had to evolve to match something they had materials for and be able to use in the same manner. One thing was universal, though, and that was math. Numbers may have been named different things or explained differently, but math was still math. In any case, teaching math was an enjoyable experience for me. Most people, just like today, weren't a fan of math, but occasionally a youngster would be able to pick up on the geometrical or division problems easily. I would take them under my wings and teach them as much as their mind could hold. During one session this one girl kept asking amazing questions that even I had trouble working through. I was writing down an answer on a clay tablet but it was getting dark and she could no longer see clearly. I grabbed my lamp, which was basically a shell from the sea with oil in it, and lit it in order to show her what I wrote. I was going through the answer to her question on the tablet when I looked back to look at her to see if she was following along and her eyes were distracted elsewhere. She was looking at the lamp in fascination and that's when it hit me. They hadn't come up with a lamp idea here yet. Another mistake of mine. Well, it was as good of a time as any to share that, just a way to see in the darkness without a large fire in the room. It was especially useful in the summer nights when you didn't want the warmth of the fire in the house but you still wanted to be able to see. I let her go share the idea with her friends and family and retired for the evening. Little did I know that was one of the few days left I would sleep in peace for a while.

Enkidu and I were off on one of our many adventures when he suddenly got very sick. He was doubled over in pain with a fever and convolutions which made me very worried. I tried my best to see what the issue was but I could not see or feel anything out of the ordinary, just something in his digestive tract. I tried to ask him what he ate, but he wasn't in his right mind. I picked him up and got Omni to drop us off close to Uruk and then carried him the rest of the way into town. We all tried our best to help but day after day his condition worsened. His secret mate - my fake wife - never left his side. If anyone didn't have doubts about their true relationship, it was pretty clear now. I didn't care at the time, I was too focused on trying to help my friend. I found as many herbs and flowers as I could think and made drinks, soups, and aloes in a futile effort to help him. Nothing worked. I joined his lover in wailing and crying as we were losing him. Having exhausted all options given by the people and at the end of my rope I kicked everyone out of the room except my wife and summoned Omni to find out what was wrong. It zeroed in on Enkidu's appendix, something I was not used to looking at and honestly didn't have a name for yet. It seems his was ripped open and causing issues all across his body. So many things that can go wrong with people's bodies and there's nothing I can do to help, no matter how much I try. Not a single thing. It tore me apart.

Enkidu died the next morning. His mate and I were inconsolable for days. We helped each other in that dark time and eventually, by leaning on each other, dug ourselves out of our grief. I gave him a grand sendoff befit a King. It was a beautiful funeral. His son was holding my hand unaware that we were burying his father. I would tell him before too long, waiting until he was old enough to understand and keep it a secret. While the history books would write many things, they would also leave out so much more. Ur-Nungal and his descendants would go down in history as my own, but I wish the people found out much later that my so-called family was actually Enkidu's family. Well, Aga's. He was a greater man than I. It's interesting how the history books left out a great deal about the true nature of all the Kings of this area. Many would be credited with ruling for thousands of years, if taken literally it wouldn't make sense unless I filled all their roles. No, rather, the years given to their rule was judged based on their fame. At least in the beginning of the records. For example, Dumuzid was given 100 years of fame for the capture of an enemy king even though he was actually only King of Fame for about a week. Earlier kings had much more fame attached to them than later ones. My own standing didn't stand the test of time. Not only did people give exceedingly less fame for each passing achievement by succeeding generations, but they also started recording the actual amount of years being king instead of fame years. I got many years added to my reign for building the wall, defeating Aga, my many (often exaggerated and embellished) travels and the inventions here and there, but I also lost many years for not executing Aga and for letting his father go. Though I was actually the King of Uruk for 51 years until my "death", my fame years written down in history was more than double that, so I can't complain.

With Enkidu's passing the mother of his children and I grew closer than ever. Though there wasn't anything sexual about our relationship, we were emotionally dependent on each other and I did feel love for her. We stayed together as husband and wife until her death, raising the children. Once she was also gone I had no real reason to continue this charade and decided to get my things in order so that I could "die" and leave this place. I built up a family and was so happy to be apart of it, only for it to be ripped or fall away when everyone around me died. I focused on the eldest child and got him ready to be the next King of Fame so that I could live up to my promise to Enkidu. Once I was sure he would succeed me, I slowed my heart rate and breathing and pretended to die. By this time the children all knew I wasn't their real father but I did raise them so they were sad to see me go. They gave me a grand send off. Unfortunately they thought they would be honoring me by giving me a burial in the water. I had often mentioned how much I loved being on the water as it was soothing. I didn't realize they took that as a way to send me off to the next life. They wrapped me in linen and put stones alongside my body. They took me on a boat to the middle of the river next to Uruk and after a few words dumped me overboard. I wondered how long I could hold my breath as I never needed to before. As I slowly sank to the bottom of the river I tried to untie myself from the burial bindings. I held out as long as I could, shutting down anything in my body that could do without some oxygen for a bit but nothing really helped. Finally I couldn't hold it any further and gasped for air.

I breathed in. Then out. Then back in. I opened my eyes to see what exactly was going on. A familiar light was coming through the linen. I finally got the bindings off and pulled away the fabric. There floating above me was Omni. I seemed to be in a pocket of air under the water created by it. Saving my life yet again. I asked it to send me a ways down the river, turn invisible and then take me home. While I'd come back to this area a few times to check up on the family as well as the civilization as a whole, I'd spent hundreds of years experimenting with the new ability of underwater protection. Let me tell you, it was amazing. The sights underwater were breathtaking.