Author Topic: A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis  (Read 2449 times)

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Offline Markus

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A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis
« on: July 07, 2019, 01:49:13 PM »

Khemnen Palace and the Pyramids of Nafu dominated the skyline 



Prince Naser had arrived Khemnen less than a week before and was beginning to become accustomed to the place or sort of. Sure the city was much smaller than Djerb but that was to be expected since Djerb was larger in population than countries like Vanora or Safraen. And Khemnen had a lot to offer in terms of architecture and a certain ancient feel that the city had despite the horrendous scars the Soviet occupation left all over the city. If rumors were true the authorities were considering a restoration of the most important landmarks that had been literally mutilated by the Soviets starting with the Sphinx but knowing Clysperis’ financial condition he doubted that was more than wishful thinking. There were also some downsides of course like the fact that he couldn’t understand a word the people were saying and their writing was a mess. Worse still few of the locals could speak Parthian.

Like most Safavids he hadn’t traveled much aboard, for them aboard meant going in the federated kingdoms of Tamora, going outside the Empire was a rare thing. So it was no surprise that many in Djerb interpreted his detachment to Clysperis as exile rather than actually doing something. It made sense in a way to see things like that, he had recently lost the competition for being named Crown Prince so sending him away made sense so as to not create issues with Jamshid, his brother. However, he did have a mandate from Abbas and that’s all he cared for now.   

As he got to his room, he decided to spend time reading the news from TINS:

“Speculations over the amount Djerb will pay for Princess Thekla” was one headline.

“Overpaid” Naser said to himself “Why on Earth would Abbas pay 7.5 billion dinars/usd for the Seleucid Princess? Tamora doesn’t need those useless ships and Tamora is in a recession so tax revenues are dropping and with the Seleucid food crisis, Tamora also suspended sales tax on food which means a further cut in revenues.” Naser had nothing against the Seleucid or the Soter but did not share his father’s enthusiasm for them.

Crown Prince Jamshid Safavid to go on vacation in Royal Seleucid at the Royal Lake Palace  was another headline

Naser chuckled as he read that one. He knew how much Jamshid disliked going aboard and how passionate he was about his faith. He didn’t even like Muslims. To have him marry a polytheist and having to go aboard to spend time with her must be pain for him thought Naser. And unlike Abbas, Jamshid didn’t like the Seleucid at all so Princess Thekla would have a hard time to change his mind.  “Which serves him right” he thought.  After all if the Church hadn’t gotten involved he was sure Abbas would have named him Crown Prince. He knew that Jamshid wanted to join the Brotherhood of Tamora and become celibate until Abbas knocked some sense into him. His brother never wanted to be Emperor so that made him the best possible candidate for both their mother and the Church as they would be ones running the Empire in all but name.

Since TINS made several references to Pharaoh Bektaten social media account and he decided to check it out:

“OMG, what is that woman doing? She is purposely antagonizing foreign powers and foreign leaders. And she’s making accusations against the Morelander MoD without any evidence to back them up. She acts like our press.” Naser was genuinely shocked since the Tamoran government was always extremely reserved when making statements. Even when foreign nations hammered the country with sanctions they never retorted with more than generic statements that said nothing. Even with the Slavans, Abbas was always careful in public to preserve the dignity of the throne and not “appease the masses” as he often said. “No wonder that TINS and no doubt the Tamoran people liked her, she is speaking more like the press and the Church rather than a sovereign.” “The woman must be reined in or she will get the entire region in trouble. These foreign leaders all have ego the size of skyscrapers, personally insulting them makes them enemies for life and Mundus is full of monarchies so they stay in power for decades. What has she been learning in Rokkenjima?”   

Naser wondered if Bektaten was truly committed to reforming her country, a term he personally disliked as it gave connotations that implied that political reforms were also on the table. “Grow the economy sounds better” he said to himself. His doubts were not related to her twitter account but to the fact that bureaucracies and interest groups tended to have a strong grip on governments gutting any attempts at reforms. “There is no way to know unless you put it to the test” he said to himself. Next week he will leave aside the boring part about harmonization of financial regulations between the two countries’ financial systems and go bold: suggest an immediate 25% cut in tariffs between the two nations. Tamora had little to worry about since its economy was large but Clysperis was small and their local businesses would feel threatened by such a move. “Let’s see how the Clisperi side reacts to that”. He figured he would get stonewalled by his counterparts and thus force their hand by asking a meeting with Bektaten herself. After all she agreed to lower the tariffs while in Djerb so it wasn’t like he was proposing something that was not discussed. Then he will know exactly where she stands. And to be fair he did look forward to see her again, he enjoyed her presence in the short time they saw each other in Djerb and was curious to see how she would change her demeanor now that the discussions would take place in her kingdom surrounded by an army of officials calling her “a living god”. Also, he would propose to the Clisperi delegation that Tamora invest a billion dinars/usd in their infrastructure assuming they could actually come up with some proposals of projects to be financed. He hoped that would make them more cooperative and if not then it was clear that there was no interest on their side for actually improving their economy.   
 
After preparing his notes for the next meeting he decided to go out to the closest Manist temple in the city. His reason for going there were was not solely religious though that played a major part but also because he wanted to know more about Bektaten and  how people saw her and the Imams at the temple were the perfect advisers in that regard.

Offline Markus

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Re: A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2019, 10:30:43 PM »
In the following weeks since arriving Naser had managed to make good progress in his work as the head of the economic mission. What he didn’t plan however was for Beketaten and him to become close or closer than they should. He enjoyed spending time with her, there was something special about her, not only in the way she spoke but also in the way she could move people with her words. He couldn’t really figure out if that was a natural talent or something she had learnt in Rokkenjima. He suspected the latter. As a Safavid he had been privately tutored from a young age on how to rule over multi ethnic and multi confessional empire of 250 million and how to always keep his distance from the masses. Beketaten on the other hand was educated aboard, among foreigners and common people and that made her not only feel at ease with regular people but she also seemed to be able say exactly what they wanted to hear.  As he talked more with her, he began to understand why she was so outspoken on her social media account. In Tamora people respected two major institutions, the Church and the Imperial throne. The former because of the reverence they had for the Supreme Ayatollah and clergy in general, the latter mostly out of fear. However, in the case of Clysperis those two powers were merged into one. Beketaten was not just a sovereign for her people but also a spiritual leader and they looked to her for inspiration and guidance. No, that wasn’t quite right, there was more than just reverence in most Clisperi that surrounded her, it was almost veneration and he found that a bit unsettling.

But as the days passed and they saw each other more often, his excuses that the meetings he asked for with her were work related became so obvious that he didn’t even pretend to hide it. But the more they talked and she shared her knowledge she had gained in Rokkenjima, the more she shared her vision of Clysperis, the more her self-assured personality grew on him he also realized they were going towards a path that would not end well. Beketaten was not exactly the traditional Tamoran woman. He knew he could never share with her the beauty of praying together, of seeing the world through the same lenses, of having the same history; they didn’t even share a common language. She belonged in a different world, one that unlike many others was very friendly to Tamora  but nevertheless a different world. And every time one would mention the “living Horus” while in his presence it was brutal reminder that the two had no business being together. He also knew that the more he allowed this to continue the more problematic it would become for them, for he was no regular Tamoran and she was a Clisperi like no other. Should the two switch from what they had now to the opposite it wouldn’t just be a quarrel between two regular people but probably affect the relations between the two countries.

Those worries were immediately cast aside when he got another message from Bektaten 'My Naser when will you share the view of the pyramids with me?'

“Oh my Bektaten, you don’t even realize that those aren’t just “the pryramids” they are your pyramids “ he said to himself. He immediately replied to the message confirming they will soon meet. But first he had a surprise for her, one that took a little planning and of course bribing some locals so they keep their discretion. But he had managed to buy a light aircraft and since he was an amateur pilot he would take Bektaten for a view of her pyramids from the sky. He was sure that would not be easy since as the ruling sovereign her security would be vehemently opposed and that was the best case scenario but he could be both persuasive and resourceful. He also had another reason for taking her for a short flight; he would be the one in charge for a change. He was starting to get annoyed that whenever the two were together no matter the context even as Tamoran prince he presented little interest compared to a living god.   


If all went according to plans, the two would see the pyramids from a Diamond DA 40

Offline Markus

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Re: A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2019, 04:59:04 AM »
From the sky the pyramids looked even better or so he Naser thought and he believed that he had managed to surprise Beketaten by inviting her to fly with him over them. It was a sight to behold, so it was perhaps expected that the discussion turned eventually to Abydos. Naser naturally understood the disdain she had for the actions of leaving the pyramids in ruin. It was her faith after all, to feel indifferent would mean she did not care for her faith. He also understood that she carried no grudge towards the Islamic faith. Talking to her more, he got the feeling that Beketaten aimed higher than just bringing prosperity to her kingdom or just focusing on the affairs of MidAranye, she wanted to compete with the largest and most developed of nations which was something that Naser admired in her. Beketaten didn’t feel intimidated by the fact her kingdom was rather small in both population and economy and her plans seemed to be as bold as her speeches. She was not content with just resisting she wanted to take on the whole world.

He also asked  Beketaten  about the situation in her kingdom. When in Djerb, unknown to Naser , Beketaten had told Abbas that there was risk of a coup but that information was not shared with him. Abbas did not consider that was something Naser needed to know so he was shocked when he found out about the executions of the high raking Clysperis military men. He wanted to know just what exactly was happening in the kingdom. He suspected that Beketaten was not doing a purge and there was probably a real threat in her kingdom.

In the coming days they had the chance to meet again at the Khemnen Palace. Beketaten shared more of her plans and the vision she had for Clysperis, all of them ambitious and all of them expensive and perhaps risky. There where forces opposing her in the kingdom and such ambitious plans would certainly displease some. They both thought of ways of how to bring her vision to reality and how to finance all that. Tamora could and would help of course but financing all of it would be almost impossible especially when considering the many priorities Tamora had both at home and increasingly more aboard. 

Naser also thought about the moral implications of what he was doing by pursuing a relation with a woman who was not of his faith. What would the Church say? What about his family? And more important what obligations would he put on his family? He had always benefited from being a Safavid and he was never shy of admitting it but there were also cases where having that name meant further complications. If they were ever to marry then, according to Tamoran customs, the two royal families would allied by blood and such an alliance was not his decision to make.   

Offline Markus

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Re: A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2019, 03:34:36 PM »
 It had been a crazy week for Naser, two events changed things for him. First, it was his stupid mistake of not paying attention at the Elysium Economic Forum and holding Bektaten’s hand, the brief moment being caught in a picture and turning up on TINS for the whole empire and the entire MidAranye region to see. That had the effect of precipitating what he knew from the start was going to happen if their relation kept going. He was summoned to the Imperial palace and no doubt the Church would also want to talk to him shortly afterwards. He knew that it probably meant the end of his delegation to Clysperis. The second event that happened shortly after the first one, bought him some time. Unfortunately it was something he never wished to happen: Clysperi putting two Manists into hospital and vandalizing a mosque. Religious tension and even violence was nothing new in MidAranye, after all Slava Lavosk had literally crucified Dilara less than a year before but this was Clysperis, relations were supposed to be good.   

Bektaten had asked him to come with her at the hospital. He understood she asked so that he would help alleviate the concerns of the local Manist community. What he did not expect was to see Bektaten so affected by the incident, to breaking into tears in private as he comforted her. He found   Bektaten emotional attachment puzzling. Not because he didn’t care for those of his faith but because he had always being taught that as future (potential) ruler to not care about individual sacrifices and instead focus on the interests of the community and the national interest.  Bektaten seemed to have a different approach, one that he found most confusing.

After their visit at the hospital was done, he also gave a short statement to the press. He felt so weird doing that since high raking nobles of Tamora rarely talked to the press. So there he was talking about what was in the end a minor incident but he did it because he knew Bektaten expected that and needed his support. Clysperis was different than Tamora, and Naser was beginning to understand just how much so that was. 

Offline Markus

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Re: A Tamoran prince in the Kingdom of Clysperis
« Reply #4 on: March 01, 2020, 08:49:03 PM »
The last few months had been hectic for Naser as the whole Clysperi kingdom seemed to be disintegrating and fall into civil war. What seemed like a coup d’état by a few influential people turned out to be a full rebellion against Akasha. Millions of Clysperi joined the rebels in their effort to create a new Clysperis, one perhaps more like Safraen rather than a Southern Midaranye state.

But the whole crisis facing the kingdom also affected him on a more personal level. It wasn't because he feared for his life and his beloved Akasha, he knew full well that they would find refuge in Tamora where they would be safe no matter what. He wasn't even that concerned about the foreign troops now fighting in Clysperis. As a Tamoran prince he was taught from a young age the principles of ruling the Tamoran empire and the worst fear the ruling class had was that of a civil war. Tamora was a very diverse empire in both ethnicity and religion and only the oversized military and the hugely influential Church of Mani, the native religion of Tamora, held the empire together. For Naser, like all the Safavid family, a civil war was the worst nightmare. So to see Clysperis, a much more homogeneous country, descend into civil war was unsettling for Naser to say the least because it meant that the same could happen in Tamora given the right circumstances.

The last few months he tried his best to understand more about how the Clysperi society worked. Clysperis functioned very differently than Tamora. Akasha was not just the absolute ruler of Clysperis and the head of the religion of Clysperis but also seen as a god and venerated as such by those of her faith. Because of this she enjoyed a control over Clysperis that Abbas, his father, couldn't even dream in Tamora. However, it also complicated things or so Naser thought because when Clysperi lost their faith in their religion they automatically rejected not only Akasha as a god but also as a ruler. This was in his opinion the reason why so many joined the rebels. It wasn't just foreign influence, trickery, coercion but also the rejection that Akasha was a god. And the Soviet occupation of Clysperis meant that even decades after it ended the ideas they inculcated were still spreading in Clysperi society.

He also kept busy by trying to do its best to preserve the economic links between Clysperis and Tamora despite the raging civil war. His influence was limited but he did his best to use it anyway.  While he and Akasha had yet to be married and assume a more formal role in the government he nevertheless tried to get to know the local “court”, the people of influence that surrounded Akasha constantly. He knew he had to understand who the main people supporting her were and what interests they had if he was to ever help govern the kingdom.

Emotionally Akasha was handling the civil war quite well considering all things. She still couldn’t understand how so many of her people had betrayed and was surprised by the level of support she got from foreign capitals. Naser, like many in the Tamoran government, was not so trusting of the foreigners jumping in to help Clysperis, a fact he was not shy to point out often during their discussions. Just when things seemed that they couldn’t get more out of hand a new pretender, Ramose, made an appearance out of nowhere. While the Tamoran cyber brigades managed to stop him from finishing the broadcast he got enough out to create a stir all over Clysperis. He knew that the Tamoran Secret service was already on it trying to find his location but if he managed to stay hidden for so long then he wasn’t easy to find. The new pretender complicated things immensely, how much support did he have? Did Abydos secretly support him? The latter being extremely important for the future of Tamora’s relation with Abydos.


“Just how many more family members do you have?” he asked Akasha when they were alone.
“Did you know of him before today?” he continued asking.