The Legend of Immigration

Story 2 [Finale]

A/N: Remember, khanates were medieval kingdoms in the steppes of Central Asia ruled by different Turkic tribes like the GökTurks and the Western and Eastern Turkic Khanates. The Khan was like a king in Western culture. Check out "khanate" on Wikipedia for more info, but be careful not to plagarize. I do not encourage it.

The year was X476 and the date was September 4th. An ancient Empire known for its Roman culture once existed on the eastern side of the Ishtarian continent. It was known as the Pergrande Empire, and the official language there was Latin. Men wore togas, while women dressed like Roman women. It was once a polytheistic nation that worshiped a parthenon of emotionally unstable deities led by Jupiter, the Greco-Roman King of the Gods and God of Thunder, among other ambitions. He, Poseidon-God of the Seas, Hades-God of the Underworld, and Freya- Norse Goddess of Fertility were the three most commonly worshipped deities in the Pergrande Empire. But one hundred years ago, a new monothiestic religion spread there from a distant land far beyond Ishgar called Christianity. Now, everyone in the empire were Christians, the official state religion of the Empire. Sadly, the country was under attack. A "barbarian" tribe was invading the eastern outskirts of the Pergrande Empire from beyond the imperial borders with an unexplored continent called Khazaria, where the Khazars' ancestral homeland was located. Khazar raiders on horseback would burn villages near the border with Khazaria and destroy public institutions like libraries and forums, where noblemen discussed politics with each other. At the end of the day, villages and towns all over the empire except for the capital, Rome, was destroyed. There the empire was on the brink of utter collapse. The legislative and executive government body called the Senate was made of corrupt politicians. Instead of providing for the defense of the empire, they kept their family earnings in their pockets. So the army was underfunded and there was no way to raise money to pay them. Eighty-three percent deserted and joined the Khazars, due to offers of riches beyond their wildest dreams while the rest went home. Now the Roman deserters and invading horsemen from Khazaria laid seige to Rome. After three months, the city surrendered and a three-day sack ensued. People who refused to give everything they had to the Khazars were sold as slaves at the construction site of the Tower of Heaven in the middle of a secluded island off the coast of the Country of Caelum's northern islands. Slaves that were kidnapped from Rome were sold to slave merchants who placed them on crowded slave ships bound for Midi, where they were transfered onto slave trains bound for Hargeon, Fiore. From there, they were transported by ship again to their final destination: Caelum. The journey west from the now-defunct Pergrande Empire to Caelum was horrendous, as slaves were not treated properly and left for dead. Some actually died on the journey while other survived, only to die while building the Tower of Heaven off the coast of Caelum's northern islands. As for the empire, it was taken over by the Khazars, who renamed it the Khazarian Khanate. Churches were demolished, before new temples dedicated in the name of the Turkic deities, were built in their ruins. Kök Tengri-God of the Heavens, Kayra-Supreme God of the Cosmos, Erlik- God of the Dead, and Umai-Goddess of Fertility were the most commpnly worshipped deities in the new Empire. The first Khan of this nation was a man by the name of Alp Arslan of the Seljuq Dynasty. He was born the son of a chieftain of a Khazar sub-tribe and spearheaded the conquest of the Pergrande Empire as a teenager of nineteen. Like his father, he was a benevolent ruler who listened to the advice of his Grand Viziers or advisors. He always finished wars that were started by rival tribes and now, rival kingdoms in Ishtar. One example was the Kingdom of Dragnof, neighbor of the Iceberg Tsardom, their neighbor to the west. In the spring of X490, King Julien I of the human faction of Dragnof along with King Igneel IV of the dragon faction stopped paying tribute. To prevent the collapse of the kingdom, the two co-rulers were forced by Khan Alp Arslan to pay a tribute of thirty-thousand Jewels per month. Of course, it was just a ruse to buy time to improve their armies who were made of raw recruits. Dragnof was famous for the export of iron ore from the mountains to their neighbors. As a result, their business grew and the kingdom grew wealthier on a yearly basis. Alp Arslan viewed their sudden rise in wealth with suspicion, thinking they bribed their neighbors with low prices on iron ore that was in reality, very expensive. Hence, he forced the co-rulers to pay a monthly tribute of 30,000 Jewels. Unfortunately for them, when news reached the Khan that Dragnof was preparing for war, he was livid. He immediately led a punitive mission through the Tsardom of Iceberg into the Kingdom of Dragnof from the East. Two hundred and fifty thousand horse riders with magic swords along with thirty thousand mages and two thousand infantrymen laid seige to the capital. After three months of fighting, the city fell along with the kingdom itself. Kings Igneel IV and Julien I were both shot to death with arrows in punishment while their sons were sold as slaves to Caelum. Dragnof turned into a client state dependent on the Khan himself. He had the right to remove a king from either faction if he wished and choose a new one. After Dragnof was subdued, the Khazars returned home and peace returned to Ishgar on Christmas of the year X500. Four hundred years later, the Kingdom of Fiore had become richer than ever before thanks to its business in aromatic flowers and spices for making perfumes as well as cooking at high-class restaurants all over Ishgar. Alp Arslan had passed on in X510 due to old age, so the throne was passed to his son named Bayezid. He was crowned Bayezid I on New Year's Day in the yeat X519 in a temple dedicated to the Turkic God of the Heavens. Sadly a close relative of his had fallen ill of pneumonia and succumbed. He was only ten years old, so Bayezid looked for ways to revive him. He did find one way and it was to revive the kid as a manmade demon called an Etherious. Sadly, it was frowned upon by a cult dedicated to the Turkic God of Death so they forwarned of a curse where the young Khan would be immortal but would kill the people he was fond of, against his will. Nonetheless, the boy who died of pneumonia was revived as a demon and as a result it was said that Erlik, angry at this act of insolence, cursed Bayezid with the Curse of Contradiction. He enjoyed watching children grow before the curse, but now he couldn't do it. He would unconciously kill them and weep remorsefully as a result. After centuries of killing several people by accident, he never left the royal palace. Bayezid became a cold-hearted tyrant whose goal was limitless power. In his mind, he was rejected by the world so he will turn his back on them. Children were forced to join the army as elite knights called Janissaries while noble children were brought to visit the Khan, only to be killed. It was in this world, that a boy named Dmitri Gorbachev grew up as an orphan in a secluded orphanage. Young Dimitri left as a teenager of eighteen for college at Fiore, where he learned all kinds of magical atributes. His favorites were Devil Slaying, God Slaying, and Dragon Slaying magic. He studied under demons, dragons, and priests of cults dedicated to the Turkic gods. Acnologia, the notorious King of the Dragons and Black Dragon from the Book of the Apocalypse took him in as a pupil when Dmitri was found wandering around the continent. Under the Dragon King's care, the lad was put under brutal training where he was taught to look at humans as mere insects. So after his training ended and Acnologia left to rest on July 7th, X777, Dmitri had changed into a cold-hearted man with the behavior of a soldier. He was constantly on guard even when wandering alone and his soldier's mind was feared by all.