Death, And Therefore Rebirth

Irony, And Therefore Pleasure

“Such a lovely sensation, without a doubt,
is a god’s and a man’s greatest treasure.”

             The Maren family was one of the most powerful in Ernalda. Descended from Avrene Irta [third daughter of Mantea and Iran Prihir I; lived (280-334)] and her uncle, Feru Prihir (251-306,) the Marens had a reputation as a family of legendary warriors. Though the family would later be notorious for their chauvinism, the Marens initially preferred women over men, likely as a result of their prior attachment to women.

            Because of this, Avrene's daughter with Feru, Erea Maren (300-348) was seen as her parents’ heir as opposed to her older brothers, Stel (297-332) and Fereu [(297-351); splintered from the Marens to form the Ferlyn clan with Lyne Arall I (295-327).] Erea slept with Murn Vìntus in the year 320, resulting in the birth of a daughter named Amera.

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             For the first two hundred years of Iremu, the Marens weren’t powerful at all. They were seen as yet another splinter off of the Irtas, and lived in the Iræa of Irta, a realm in the centre of Ernalda where men were seen as vastly inferior to the women. Haughty and passionate, Irtan women saw men as disposable things whose only value lay in their sperm. Many boys were either killed at birth because of their sex or, if they were especially unlucky, forced into slavery at the age of four. Men that were suspected of being impotent were slain in groups of twenty. In areas of Irta where there was a shortage of children, the government would employ human traffickers to abduct fertile men from other realms, including foreign Ireni. To be an Irtan man meant that you were abused since you could walk, in too many different ways for you to count. You were not a human being; your only worth was your seed.

           Amera Maren loathed this injustice. Aside from having a rebellious streak, she possessed a great talent for fighting. Her very name meant “war sister,” and so she would die with the reputation of a legendary swordswoman. But for now, she honed her skills with a rusty knife as she stole essentials from other people. Iremu meant nothing to her or her family: for them, the battle was to survive on the streets of Visela, the capital of Irta from 370 to 541. What a contrast she made to Adelea Irta (481-541,) the Irene. Misandristic and authoritarian, Adelea hated two groups of people: men and the splinter clans, seeing the latter as traitors to her régime.

           Amera, who matured 13† times slower than a human, was the head of the Marens, which currently consisted of her and distant descendants of her uncle Stel. In 541, she was almost 19 in her years when she galvanized her family into action and filled them with a burning desire for independence. With them, she razed and raided Visela, killing Adelea in the process. She won the support of many Irtans across the country, and began to amass an army. Adelea’s sister and successor, Veldine I (483-549,) was powerless to stop all this. In just a few months, the Marens went from a downtrodden family living on Visela’s outskirts to the most powerful contender in Iremu. Their matriarch carved out a new realm from the carcass of Irta and called it “Nurea,” which meant “our home.” A year later, she took most of northern Ernalda, killing Iren Seral and his seven sons, all of which were war legends themselves, in the process. Many men asked for her hand in marriage afterwards, but in the end, Amera married a man who was considered to be beneath her.

         That man was Asteu Hernal (539-580), a second cousin of the then ruler of Arene, Æreu Hernal I (512-578.) The two never loved each other, but they liked each other's company enough to have three children: Tera (564-737), Juren (568-739) and Seret (571-887.) All took their mother’s surname. For the most part, Nurea did retain a matriarchy, but men had more rights in Nurea than in Irta. Amera respected and liked her husband, even making him a fellow general of her army. The Irene of Nurea found joy in conquering realms and making fun of her enemies. A desperate Veldine had told Amera in 543 to surrender and relinquish her title of Irene in exchange for being made a governor of one of Irta’s states. She also told Amera to adopt their national flower, a plant that served to encapsulate the nature of the ruling family and their people. The Irtan flower was the sunflower, but Amera began to put the narcissus on her banners with a smirk.

          Amera was murdered in 678 by what was probably a vengeful descendant of Iren Seral, and Tera retaliated the next year by killing said descendant, continuing a cycle of murder between the two families. Over the centuries, the Serals would kill hundreds of Marens, and the other way around.

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            At the age of 155, Tera Maren wed Aren Nirenta (484-883), the son of Irsat Tursarì (272-786) and Perea Ædla (449-507.) The two had five children that survived infancy: Avru (731-1190), Irsate (731-1049), Veru (733-847), Synea (735-937) and Tèretia (737-1102.) Tera, who had been the Irene since Amera’s murder, died shortly after Tèretia’s birth. Her will stated that Juren would be the regent for little Irsate; Tera did not want Aren to rule Nurea, as he had an Iræa of his own. Juren barely lasted two years as a regent: in Brya 739, the Marens faced off against the Derls, an act which cost Juren his life. He left Nurea in chaos and an unborn child without a father.

             Upon learning of his brother’s death, Seret, who lived in Aralyn, decided to return to Nurea and take Juren’s place as Irsate’s regent.The truth was that when one took his experience in government and references under consideration, they would find that Seret was a nonpareil. His late wife, Verea Arall VII (643-690) had ruled Aralyn in her own right until she died and named their then two-year-old son Terenu as her heir and Seret as Terenu’s interrex. Now, Terenu was fourteen in his years and was old enough to have his regency terminated. Seret did just that and returned to Nurea, where he received a warm reception despite the state of mourning that the realm was in.

           However, the Marens had no idea how much Seret had changed in seventy or so years--they also had no idea that such a change could take place. Aralyn as a whole was a patriarchal nation, and Seret had been subject to a fair bit of sexism in his youth. In order to secure an alliance with Aralyn, Amera had married him off without a thought. To find himself in a realm where men were seen as superior fueled his imagination and innate drive for power. He quickly adopted the beliefs of extremists, which placed a balm on his hurt soul.

          One of those beliefs was that women were the spawn of a supernatural evil, like the phœnix, and that only men were actual humans. These she-devils were sleek and voluptuous, and seduced men with large hips and soft breasts, dragging them to the fiery depths of Dervet and turning them into dæmons indefinitely. As most women possessed the ever-lethal combination of brains and beauty, he figured that unless they were reduced to nothing but a womb, they could destroy all of Nurea. He wanted to protect Nuræan men from being corrupted by the opposite sex. Above all, he loved power, and the chaos in Nurea enabled him to procure what he wanted.

          Upon learning of the condition of his sister-in-law, who was a distant cousin of his, Seret hoped that she would give birth to a son that thrived. If that happened, Seret decided that he would become that child’s regent and disinherit all of Tera’s children, making them their father’s heirs instead. If it didn’t, Seret would just crown himself Iren of Nurea, disinherit Tera’s children, marry again and it would be his children ruling Nurea after his death. Either way, Nurea would never be the same again....

†Maturation rates for people with varying rates of divine blood:

Full deity-- 25× slower than humans
Half deity-- 13× slower than humans
Quarter deity-- 7× slower than humans
Three-quarter deity-- 19× slower than humans
Eighth deity-- 4× slower than humans
Sixteenth deity-- 2.5× slower than humans
Thirty-secondth deity-- 1.75× slower than humans

People in the series that are known descendants of a god, but are only 1/33 divine or less (matures 1.749× or slower,) will be considered a full human. In order to figure out how slow a character matures, one needs to know how slow his parents matured, add the parents’ maturation rates together and divide the sum into two. The maturation rate is indicated by a whole or a decimal number, not a percentage.

Ex: Full deity (25) + quarter deity (7) 

25+7 = 32
32 ÷ 2 = 16

This person matures 16 times slower than a full human.

Note: If the parents of a child have the same amount of divine blood (ex: the quarter deities Tera Maren and Aren Nirenta), the child will mature at the same rate as both parents.