Fragment of the Gorieda, #2

Fragment 2, “Forsaking History”

Now, in these days, the Doctrines of Marukh were Imperial Law, and the teachings of his Order were the belief of all, at least outwardly. Empress Ami-El believed fervently in the Order, as would her only child and heir; she was known to have a close relationship with the simian prophet, meeting regularly to pray with him in the Temple of the One. Diligently read in the Alessian chapels were the Exclusionary Mandates, chief among which was, “1: That the Supreme Spirit Akatosh is of unitary essence, as proven by the monolinearity of Time”. Akatosh was all, and the other Aedra were but his children or chosen saints and messengers. Thus, the High Prelates pronounced to the people that Akatosh had reinforced the Divinity of her bloodline by purifying it of the unnecessary, “brutish aspect of bloodletting”. Some were dubious still, especially the Nibenese south of Che-i-dal and the superstitious Kothri, but most were just happy to see confirmed peace as opposed to civil war and the ending of the Covenant some had begun murmuring of. Peace had blessed the land for many decades; what the Temple taught made perfect sense to many, and the babe was praised from his earliest moments for his grace, refinement, dignity and sense of status.

Naturally, Ami-El desperately wished to believe the Temple’s teaching regarding the Prince, and thus, with the full support of the Temple, launched a campaign of “restoration” across the whole of the land, destroying heretical art of all kinds and rooting out cultish dissent, but specifically destroying all depictions of the heirs to Alessia bearing horns, stating that such heathenistic artworks were too barbarous to portray appropriate majesty. Village chapels were desecrated all across the land; despite strict criteria and orders from the distant Empress to be gentle with the “misguided” populace, the Legion grew lusty in their destruction and violence, and no country chapel was left unharassed. Revering the One, it was nothing for a Legionnaire, a devoted husband and family man, to tear down a statue of Mara, goddess of love, for bearing the top of her stone cleavage too low through a chiseled robe; nothing to a devout Colovian, a logical and intelligent tactician or strategist, to smash an idol to Julianos the Wisdom God, patron of foul magic-users. 

After much deliberation and consultation with her Prelates, in the 81st year of her reign, the Empress did the unthinkable; with the aid of healing masters and temple elites, she had her single horn and the stump of her horn long since past, magickally removed and the scars healed over, leaving a smooth white brow without a trace of taurine blemish. All this forsaking of history, destruction, and Sovereign sin she performed to help cement her child’s hold on the Ruby Throne, whether she knew this in her heart, or only in the dark recesses of the mind...