L'anthologie Dystopique des Héros

Közgazdaságtan és vallás (Egy Lövés)

Pergrande Kingdom, Ishgar

Last time, we talked about the ancient history of the Pergrande Kingdom from ancient Rome, to today. Now let's study another country in Ishgar. Can you guess what I am talking about?

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I am referring to the Sultanate of Desierto. It is a landlocked country that almost shares a border with Pergrande. What makes it unique is the fact that it is the only Islamic kingdom in Ishgar. When did the people of Desierto convert to Islam? We turn back the clock to many centuries ago to find out. Long ago, the land of what is now Desierto used to be inhabited by a nomadic tribe called the Berbers. They herded their goats from drier land in the south to the north, where the climate is more suitable for vegetation in what's called the "wet season", when high rainfall leads to a decrease in temperature, but it only happens in the north of the country. The south is arid desert, so there is very little to no rain. The Berbers temporarily set up their camps in the north to stay there while their livestock grazes, but when the vegetation dries up in the dry season, they migrate south and wait for the next wet season. Because they are good caretakers of goats, cattle, and sheep, the Berbers have made huge profits in selling their livestock to other tribes. They even traded with sedentary kingdoms on occasion and sent their sons to intermarry the nobles of neighboring kingdoms. Marriages are arranged between the father of the groom and the father of the bride, in which the groom's family pays 10 sheep in exchange for the hand of the bride. This tradition has been maintained orally for generations, along with the worship of the god of the rain and the sun. One day, a Berber merchant was driving with his caravan by camel to trade in the faraway Kingdom of Isvan, a country whose climate is the exact opposite of Desierto's. they had to travel through slippery dunes and across the border with Iceberg then Isvan, fortunately the chief of the Berbers gave him a passport with his signature stamp on it. So he can travel anywhere he pleased, as long as he provided it to the border guard. Well unfortunately as he presented his passport at the border with Isvan, the guards did not recognize the seal of his chief, so they detained him until the King of Isvan received a response to a letter confirming his entry. The king was a power-hungry man, named Charles I, who aspired to rule a great empire almost like the Alvarez Empire in the western continent, but his country's military was weak and disunited. The merchant's detention in Isvan provided an opportunity to try to take control of Desierto, because he figured the Chief was too much of a coward to take him on.

But his calculations were proven wrong when the Berber chief wrote a scathing reply that insulted him and his country's honor, for detaining a merchant without just cause. So Charles summoned a war council with his richest landowning nobles and proposed a declaration of war. After hours of arguments in favor and against, the nobles unanimously agreed then sent their armies to fight with the King's men. Altogether, Isvan invaded Desierto with a force of 250 million men, half of which were Icebergian mercenaries sent by the Tsar to support Isvan's conquest. It would later prove to be a terrible mistake for, when Desierto fell under Charles's control, he turned to invade Iceberg, again with unanimous support from the nobility. The Tsar was only a young boy of thirteen, so he was inexperienced in how to lead his country in times of war and peace. Alosi was occupied without a fight after a 3-week brutal sack of the surrounding countryside, thus Iceberg was conquered by Isvan. Fiore's king, Wenseclas the Great, did not enjoy watching his neighbor conquer country after country because, it upset the balance of power in Ishgar. So he sent messages to his allies in Seven, Dragnof, Pergrande, Midi, Minstrel, Caelum, Enca, Joya, Stella, and Veronica imploring them to teamp up under an allied coalition. It was called the Allied Powers and their goal was to first liberate Alosi in the Tsardom of Iceberg, then occupy the capital of Iceberg, Blandford. It would force King Charles to stop invading all of  Ishgar then to the negotiating table. After years of fighting between Isvan and the Allies, Blandford was occupied, as planned. But King Charles had a secret ace up his sleeve-a wild dragon that he trained to attack his enemies. In response, it was unleashed and the Allied military was decimated by the dragon's raids of their camp. Out of the 350 million men that fought in the war, 10 million died fighting the dragon and King Charles's men that continuously launched sortie after sortie to destroy their encampments. The Allies were defeated and Isvan demanded to take control of them all in return, for an armistice.