Motherheart Dragon Priest

Motherheart Synopsis

Two Empires, One Enemy.

The Holy Roman Empire rules Europe, the Mediterranean and the Levant. From the east the Mongol armies are a constant threat to the peace with the Saracens.

The Soong Empire rules Cathay and holds south east asia in tribute. From the west and the north the Mongols seek to undermine the Emperors mandate from heaven and take the Empire for themselves.

Two men from opposite sides of the world are thrown together by the politics of these, the two greatest Empires in the World.

In the wilds of an Australia still inhabited by giant beasts they both confront their greatest fears.

It is the 13th century and the peace that Holy Roman Emperor Frederich the Great founded with the Sultan of Aegypt, Al Kamil, still extends throughout the lands of the Mediterranean. To the east the border Kingdoms are constantly harried by the Monqhul Tartars from the steppes of the Kievan Rus to the mountains of the Tamarians and Armenians.

So far their armies have been kept at bay.

Frederich’s sister is Queen of Jerusalem and Mater of the Frederichan Reform Church created to implement the revelations of Joachim of Fiore and to forever banish the power of the Pope now exiled in Paris.

The Mater shares the Triple Throne of Jerusalem, created out of the great peace between Islam and Christianity; with a Jewish and a Muslim sister elder. The Emperor and the Mater seek to end the accursed Monqhul incursions and wish to secure the aid of the Great Empire of Cathay and its rumoured christian religious leader Prestor John in this endeavour.

The family of Marco Polo are about to set off on their return trading journey to Cathay. They are to be accompanied by the emissaries of the Emperor and the Mater and who will seek the Prestors aid.

Maximillian Hart, a young priest with exceptional linguistic skills, is tasked as scribe to this mission. Hart befriends the young Marco Polo who takes him under his wing in the ways of the world during their travels.

Hart discovers that Cathay is now split into two empires with that of the Monqhul ruled by Qublai Qhan in the north about to send its first ambassadors to the Soong capital in the south. This are the steps in the newly achieved peace after the Soong defeated the Khan in his attempted invasion.

The Soong, as is their way, have offered trade and cultural exchange to bind the two empires together in peaceful endeavour. The great symbol of this is to be a joint trade mission south to the Spice Islands and to the fabled Southern Dragonland.

For centuries Soong military officers and government officials have taken ship with Jomon(Japanese) traders for the “Journey to the South,” to Katithandra, the Southern Dragonland. Katithandra is an Australia that might have been had the megafauna survived and flourished in a land with more mountains and an inland sea - the Mother’s Womb.

In Katithandra, these Soong acolytes are tutored by the dragon (Megalania) riding priests of the Temple of the Mother’s Naked Heart who are a meritocracy who meld Daoist philosophy and Aboriginal traditional law. 

Hart is chosen by the Qhan of the Monqhul, again because of his linguistic skills, to accompany this joint trade mission; but is that all it is?.

In Katithandra he becomes immersed in the politics of the mission and the melded society of Aboriginal and Asian customs that is the Temple of the Mothers Naked Heart.

The priests of this Temple are also tutors: to travelers and traders, arbiters to Aboriginal clans, and administrators of trade; between Katithandra and all others on this fat round belly of the Mother that is the world of the thirteenth century.

Soong Thunder General and Grandmaster of the Temple, Stillness Desert, has retired his Soong military commission and taken a life of contemplation in the wilds of Katithandra. He has history with the Monqhuls and thought never to suffer their attention again. With their arrival in Katithandra, he must struggle with the responsibility for rebellious local acolytes, new Soong students and their politics, his relationship with the Jomon trader Consul and the succession of the King of the Mountain Dragons.

In Motherheart Priest, we follow

– Hart as he is befriended by a White Tigress priestess, elevated to bishopry, gains renown for bardic skills and befriends the enigmatic Priests of the Temple. Hart struggles to comprehend the trade mission’s politics and his own loyalties.

– Stillness Desert and fellow priests of the Temple as they struggle to subvert the trade mission before the Monqhul can destroy the power of the Temple of the Mothers Naked Heart, and in turn the Soong Empire.

Katithandra astounds and confronts Hart, and he becomes intrigued by the Dragon Riding Priests of the Temple. Experience after experience confront him, and he finds his trust in these skillful priests growing stronger than he thought possible.

With the trauma of an earthquake and then a Choosing Ceremony, Hart realises his allegiance is changing as his trust in the Priests of the Temple continues to grow.

Where do his loyalties lie? To the Mater and his Order? To the Qhan and the trade mission; or to the priests of the Temple to whom he has entrusted his life.

What will this young priest become?