Abbas listened carefully as Beatrice talked. He greatly appreciated Beatrice's comments about the military, he took great pride in their armed forces, as did most Tamorans. He also appreciated the alcohol free gift, having a guest bother to learn of your customs was something rare. He considered for a moment that Beatrice may indeed have come here to understand Tamora rather than start lecturing but he pushed that thought aside quickly.
When Beatrice apologized for the way Rokkenjima treated Tamora he was taken by surprise but managed to hide his emotions. He wasn't expecting a leader of such a powerful nation to make apologies. However, he didn't manage to hide his amazement when Beatrice went further and announced that Rokkenjima will suspend sanctions. He was expecting something more akin to more sanctions, not lifting them without even playing a game of negotiations and asking for something in return. It's true that they were returning to the same state they were a couple of months back but the gesture was greatly appreciated. Leaders of countries would do just about anything than admit they were wrong and reverse course. And the economic impact would be significant, Rokkenjima was a huge market and their political clout was just as impressive, if they lifted the sanctions others nations would think twice before placing any themselves, while others might also consider reversing their sanctions.
"Well Your Majesty, that was unexpected indeed. I greatly appreciate you lifting the sanctions and now that you have explained, I understand why you were tempted to put them in the first place. I have to say, I was expecting you to come talk about the Borlanders or Zimalia, not to really make an effort to learn about us. I believe you're the first leader that has come here trying to understand how things work in Tamora. Our friends the Royal Selecuid do not really count on the matter since they were always our neighbors and naturally have a understanding of the situation. Please excuse me if I am not exactly best prepared to talk about the manner, as I said I wasn't expecting such a turn of events. "
"Allow me to start with the easy part: we are in full agreement that slavery takes away from men their basic rights and their dignity. No Tamoran wants to be enslaved and nobody here claims it's desirable to be slave. In fact, unlawful enslavement or what your legal system would call kidnapping is the worst possible crime for us."
"The hard part would be for me to explain what
I assume makes us so different than much, if not all of Mundus. Without boring you too much, I have to mention a couple of things about our history. Tamora was not always the great country that is today, more than a thousand years ago we were a poor people, totally dominated culturally by our neighbors. In fact we could hardly be called a people as we were divided and weak. Decade by decade, century by century the other powers chipped away at our territory, conquering us bit by bit. Unlike Rokkenjima which was fortunate to have such a great position to the sea, we were a mountain people with our only defenses being geography and poverty. This part of the world did not know great and civilized empires or great trade routes but only war, raiding and poverty. In that hopeless environment our Prophet Mani made its appearance. Despite his title he talked little about God and never claimed to talk for him. What he did though was raise our morale, helped us to no longer be a defeated people and gave us an identity, a set of values. He went preaching through the countryside telling people how blessed people were for being Tamoran. You know how the people called him initially? The Mad." Abbas smiled as he said that. "Only a mad person would be proud to be Tamoran during those times. And after three decades of preaching you know what happened? Tamora lost about a third of its territory to foreign powers" he smiles again before continuing " But unlike 30 years before, Tamora for the first time had an common identity. It was during that time that the Prophet, with other great people of the time, devised the system of government we have today: with the slaves, serfs, free people, nobles and the emperor to protect and lead. He told us how to organize our families and our society as a whole, and the people listened. He never got to see a successful Tamora, but a hundred years after his death, Tamora had reclaimed all its lost land." Abbas stops and says: "Excuse me Your Majesty but if you really want to understand at least a bit of who we really are you need to see things first hand. Would you agree to go on a very short tour?"
Once the Empress agreed, Abbas and Beatrice got in their limousines. This was an informal, unplanned tour and thus much of the convoy stayed behind, still it would have been inappropriate according to Manist customs for Abbas and Beatrice to share a car, so separate ones were used. They drove to a local Manist girls school at the outskirts of the city. It was an regular school by Tamora's city standards. Like the overwhelming majority of schools in Tamora, it was owned and operated by a religious organization, in this case a Manist Temple. According to Manist norms, the school was segregated accepting only girls. He went to class together with Beatrice leaving the security personal in the hallway. The teacher's first reaction was to protest at the intrusion before realizing who Abbas was. She quickly bowed in respect and wanted to instruct the kids to properly greet their emperor but Abbas motioned her to not do so. He didn't want the girls, most of whom were about 10 years old, to know who he was since that would ruin the purpose of the visit.
"So girls, I am Abbas. I am here with a foreign guest who wants to know more about Tamora. Can you help me?
The girls happily agreed as they were glad to take a break from class.
"Let's start with something easy: did you see the parade?"
"Yes!"
"And who was the parade for ?"
"Us."
"Did you like it?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because my father served in the army!" said one girl. Quickly another added that so did her father.
"How many of you had your fathers in the army? Raise your hand!" more than half of the girls did.
"What about somebody in the family?" then all the girls raised their hand.
"What were you studying?"
"The teachings of the Prophet" answered girls in unison.
"Really? What does he say?"
"To love Tamora!" says a girl.
"Why should you do that?" asks Abbas pretending he seemed surprised.
"Because it's our family!" says a girl with others quickly agreeing.
"What about our friends? Who are our friends?"
"We have no friends." answered one girl.
"What about the Seleucids ?" asks Abbas. The girl that answered shies away thinking she made a mistake. Luckily for her another girl helps her:
"We have no friends. We only have each other"
"And that's all we need!" says another girl.
"Thank you, girls" says Abbas before leaving the room with Beatrice.
Spoiler: Manist girls school in Djerb show The girls never found out they were visited by none other than Beatrice Anselmo, Empress of Rokkenjima As they walk in the hallway to get to their cars, Abbas says to Beatrice:
"I believe only kids can summarize the essence of a religion with clarity and honesty. I think at its core Manism is all about loving Tamora like a family and understanding that we are alone competing against all other nations. Things like God and theology come much later in life and are a lot harder to understand."
As they are about to leave the school, the large TV display shows the news.
"Great, this will also show you a priceless piece of Tamora. The judge will announce the sentencing of a man who raped a 19 year old woman and probably left her paralyzed for life. There was enough evidence for the man to be convicted in most law systems of Mundus. This is his sentencing:
Spoiler: Sentencing in Tamora show "For the crimes you have been found guilty your assets are to be taken away and given to the victim as compensation for the damage you caused. As for punishment, you are to be enslaved and given to the victim. As far as Tamora is concerned, as of this moment you will no longer exist. You are to remain a slave until your new master or death shall set you free. May God forgive you!"
"This is Tamoran justice in action: the victim must be compensated for their material losses and in cases of grave crimes, the perpetrator is to be given to the victim as retribution. The whole system is centered around trying to make up the losses the victim suffered. It is not centered around punishing the perpetrator , though that's obviously a secondary effect and certainly not centered around the rights of the convicted. We have very few prisons and we mostly keep people in jail only until sentencing."
"Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent" is a motto on display in many courthouses in Tamora. As he returned to the car, he said to Beatrice: "Please allow us to make one more stop!"
The cars took them to the "neighborhood of the elders". As they got there, they could see apartment blocks in somewhat poor condition, suggesting poverty though not abject one or despair. Most of the people on the streets were way pass sixty years of age. Occasionally people saluted the Emperor probably because they thought they'd knew him but didn't know exactly who he was.
"This is one of the neighborhoods where people who are freed from slavery come. Most slaves when they pass sixty years of age or more are released by their masters. Now I will not pretend masters do this because of the kindness of their hearts but because it makes sense to not cover the costs of health-care and housing when they are so old. It also encourages slaves to work hard knowing that they will be freed when they are old. Do not get me wrong Your Majesty, everything bad you imagine happening to slaves, happens to some in Tamora. I am not sugarcoating slavery just showing you how it works in Tamora. The apartments are owned by the Manist Temples. They provide free accommodation, some medical treatment and some medicine. They do their best to give them a decent life."
Abbas then took the Empress on the terrace of a high story building giving a view of Djerb. The security personal made sure the terrace was empty for both security and privacy reasons.
Spoiler: Djerb skyline show Djerb had grown a lot since its humble beginnings.Seeing the roads now, one can only imagine how hard it was to reach the city centuries ago. "So this Tamora. A nation born in poverty, in a part of the world that had few resources until we were lucky to discover oil, where we had to fight for our survival every step of the way. We had no empires to bring us civilization, we made civilization. We, or better said our Prophet, designed a system of government and a way for society to work that made us triumph over others. He made us understand that we can rely only on ourselves and that is enough to prevail. Look at the city below, from here we got to the sea in one thousand years. Others were lucky to be born next to it. And now that we finally get access to the sea, the world starts sanctioning us. Slava Lavosk puts Tamorans in
internment camps and takes way their possessions, they even had one of our girls sentenced to
death because she's Tamoran. They had her father
tortured and put on display slandering the poor girl. We had the hypocritical Catholics of Ecclesiastical State viscously
attacking an immigrant Tamoran woman for defending her culture, claiming she was a spy. She was not, I would know. All this shows that Tamora is one again besieged by enemies just as the then Kingdom of Tamora was in our humble beginnings. But unlike then, we are now a quarter of a billion Tamorans and with an army few can match. We even have some friends in our neighbors: the Royal Seleucid.
That's why millions took to the streets a while back, asking for
Dilari's release. It wasn't just because the Supreme Ayatollah asked them, he can only do so much. It's because Tamorans know what happened in Slava will happen to any of us if we don't have our armed forces defending us.
So when people ask us to abolish slavery, I don't think they understand what they ask us to do. It would mean that I for example would have to go through the hall of the ancestors of my palace, all of whom supported and accepted slavery, and say I know better than all 52 of them. Even though they are the ones who built Tamora by adding piece by piece on what their predecessors achieved. I would have to say to the Manist Temples, who own much of the schools and hospitals, to no longer preach the word of the Prophet as they did for a thousand years. Or I would have to look in the eyes of the parents of the girl who remained paralyzed because of the rapist and say to them that what happened today somehow wasn't justice and we should just house the criminal, take care of him while they pray for their daughter to walk again. Even if I could do such a thing, which I cannot, I wouldn't do it. No matter the sanctions.
So this is us, Your Majesty. How we proceed from here regarding our relations depends on whether you can accept our position. You coming here to Tamora, lifting sanctions without any preconditions, offering to listen to us, obliges us to consider having positive relations. However, we can't have positive relations with partners that ask us to be fundamentally changed. I'm sure you can understand that."