The MidAranye Wedding: Tamora and RS (Closed)

[Markus]

Preparing for the wedding

The city of Djerb began the preparations for the wedding weeks before the event. The wedding was seen as one of the most important events in Tamoran history of this century so far.  The local authorities spent hundreds of millions of dinars/USD to improve the decorations of the main boulevards and do minor renovations to landmark buildings etc.

On the security side, the imperial authorities targeted foreigners in Djerb and pressured universities and large business to send all foreigners home for two weeks covering the period of the wedding. As far as the imperial authorities were concerned, if a foreign citizen was not absolutely necessary then he should not be in Djerb during the time of the wedding. Of course, not were foreigners were the same. There were more than a hundred thousand Clysperi living in Djerb as were tens of thousands of other citizens from other MidAranye states. Djerb made exceptions for them except allowing them to continue their activities. However, those from Safraen and Socram were treated like any other foreign state and were sent home.

Lastly, in order for the Tamoran people to celebrate accordingly the wedding, the Imperial government together with federated kingdoms decreed 5 days of holyday. All this meant that Djerb was packed full in the days before the wedding as millions of Tamorans arrived from the federated kingdoms to attend the wedding. 

[Markus]

Celebrations

Three days before start of the wedding, massive events were organized in Djerb to celebrate the wedding. Among the events organized was a military parade featuring veterans from the Clysperi civil, a religious service in the grand square of Djerb and a food festival.

Because roads were full, trains became a popular choice to get to Djerb.


As expected, the military parade was a highlight of the celebrations.


The streets of Djerb were packed full.


People celebrated in the city…


Or at the outskirts.

[Markus]

Wedding day – arrival of the guests

The day of the wedding finally arrived. The Tamoran media made sure to cover at large the event and transmit live the wedding. The wedding at the Great Temple of Djerb was scheduled to begin at 11 AM but people gathered in the streets long before that. They were there to see the imperial family, the Supreme Ayatollah and the various royals from MidAranye. And they were not disappointed, aside from the hosts, the highest clergy of the Church, the sovereigns of the Tamoran federated kingdoms and various popular figures in Tamora, the honor guard escorted to the Great Temple the Soter royal family of Royal Seleucid, the Pharaoh of Clysperis  and her soon to be husband, Prince Naser, the Quintelian minister of Foreign Affairs Sofia Aliena and other guests.

Tamoran honor guard escorting foreign guests to the Great Temple


The Great Temple, the seat of the Supreme Ayatollah.


Crown Prince Jamshid Safavid of the Tamoran Empire and Princess Thekla Soter of the Emirate of Royal Seleucid

Wedding day – religious service

At 11:00 AM sharp the Supreme Ayatollah began the religious service. He first addressed the people in the Temple:

The Supreme Ayatollah, the head of the Church of Mani, addressing the sovereigns of MidAranye and all the other guests gathered at the Great Temple

“Dear guests and beloved faithful we have gathered today to witness a historic event but before we begin, I know that some of the guests are not very familiar with our faith, in fact for some of them this might be the first time they set foot in a temple dedicated to God and his Prophet.

It is for that reason I would like to take a few moments and explain a bit about our temple and the ceremony you are about to witness.

I am sure that you have noticed when you came into the two 20 feet statues at the entrance. Those are the Prophet Mani and Alya, the two most revered figures of our faith. On each side there are various other statues of other great people that helped grow and define our faith, they are saints and emperors and other great nobles. I believe you have noticed that the statues are smaller in size the closer they are placed to the altar. That is not because we were lacking in resources but because we are aware that the previous generations were giants of their time and that compared to them each generations is smaller and smaller. The obstacles and challenges they faced and the limited resources and knowledge they had makes it a miracle they succeeded and forces us to not only to follow the path they laid for us but to understand that nothing we face can compared with what they had to face.

As for the wedding that we have all gather to witness, I have called it historic. Let me explain why is that for those that are perhaps not aware of Tamora’s history and that of Royal Seleucid.
One thousand years ago when the Prophet himself walked these lands the great families of Crown Prince Jamshid and Princess Thekla were ruling each a petty kingdom in the MidAranye region.  That is how ancient these two families are. But that is not all because their names are not just ancient but also linked to greatness. The Soter family over the spawn of a thousand years has united more than ten petty kingdoms and forged a kingdom. And then they took that kingdom and built an overseas empire on three continents. The Safavids started their journey in the middle of MidAranye, in the city of Djerb and from here they expended more than two thousand miles until they finally reached the sea of Kyne in the XXth (20th) century. That is how great these two families are. They have shaped not only their empires, the history of MidAranye but also the history of the Sea of Kyne and beyond. They did that on their own, now we can only imagine what they will do now that they have joined though the marriage of today. This is why I believe centuries from now people will look upon this day and say that this was the moment that set in motion a series of events that not only reshaped MidAranye but changed the history of Mundus. So take that back home and tell your children and grandchildren that you were present as a witnesses when the great families Safavid and Soter joined through marriage.”

As he finished he motioned for the young couple to come forward and kneel which the couple did facing the altar.

Crown Prince Jamshid Safavid and Princess Thekla Soter kneeling during the wedding

The Supreme Ayatollah then addressed princess Thekla:

“Tell me young princess, are you here free of constraint and are your intentions pure and noble?”
"I am free of any constraints and hide no ill thoughts or intents" answered princess Thekla without hesitation thus showing she hard rehearsed the lines several times.
“And you young prince?”
 "I am the master of my fate and there is no one on Mundus that can constrain me" answered Prince Jamshid.
“Very well. I ask you then Princess Thekla of the Soter, do you offer yourself to be bonded as wife to Princess Jamshid, to obey him in accordance to the laws of the Prophet and his Holy Book for all eternity?
“I do.”
“To you Prince Jamshid, do you pledge to accept her as your faithful wife, to protect and to provide for her and your children in accordance to the laws of the Prophet and his Holy Book for all eternity?”
“I do.”
“Very well then. I can confirm and all these great kings and queens present here today can attest that you have, without constraint, pledged to become husband and wife. Please rise.”

“A few more words I want to say to you Prince. As husband you will have to protect her for wherever she goes she represents you and your family. You will have to put her safety above all, above the Empire and even above the Church. Because if you are not able to protect her then you are no man and as the future Emperor if you are no man then only the Prophet can save us.”

“Let us now pray in silence for their wellbeing and for God and his Prophet to bless them with many children”.

With that the religious service was concluded and the guests were invited to the party at the Imperial Palace.

[Markus]

Wedding day- party at the Imperial Palace

After the wedding ceremonies, guests were invited to celebrate at the Imperial Palace. The Imperial palace, or better said, the imperial complex, despite its large size, could barely keep up with all the guests that attended.

Such events were always a delicate matter for the staff in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly. While the palace had plenty of servant slaves to cater to the guests, the presence of so many foreign guests (for Tamoran standards) meant that it was hard to make them respect the social standards when it came to the segregation of the sexes. It was not like that staff could tell a foreign king how to act so they did what they could.

The newlyweds did their best to greet the guests and exchange at least a couple of words with them. Princess Thekla wanted to spend more time with her brother and sister but sadly the duties as hosts meant she had little time. Prince Jamshid was a little overwhelmed with the number of guests. He was more of an introvert and greatly disliked large gatherings.

One of the many rooms in the Imperial Palace that awaited the guests.

After about an hour of and half of doing nonstop greetings of guests, the newlyweds took a break so that so that they could prepare for their dance. Since this was a wedding celebration, the official party could not start until they first danced. They both got dressed in brand new while cloths and made their appearance in in largest dance hall of the Palace. Their dance would not take more than a few minutes but they had trained months for it.

Princess Thekla and Prince Jamshid opening dance.

After the first dance was completed, guests were free to dance as their please. Men were first to begin displaying their dancing skills by doing individual dancing:

Afterwards, men gathered, moved to the center of the ring and started dancing the dabke, women surrounded them in a circle:

The party continued until about 10 PM, when Emperor Abbas officially announced the party was over. With that announcement all but the most important of guests were invited to leave.

The end.

[DaveIronside]

Thekla, like the rest of the royal family in Royal Seleucid, was well liked by the general population. For some there was a mixed sense of the occasion when it was first announced, some were annoyed that the Princess was marrying a foreigner, after all the last time a Seleucid royal had married a foreigner it had not gone well. The memory of Akakois marrying the Lodjain Oksana was still fresh in their mind. The fact though that this was a Tamoran also brought celebration. The Seleucid had always enjoyed good relationships with their Western neighbours and while Prince Jamshaid was not well known by all in Royal Seleucid he was someone they thought was a good match to the Princess. Naturally there was some concern that the Princess had apparently changed faith, although many suspected that this was just a surface change of heart. The love of the Soter family brought many people into the parks across the nation where King Heydar had got the local nobles to set up large screens for all to watch the wedding



Some of the more high ranking members of Seleucid society would have expected to be at the wedding of a Princess of Royal Seleucid, however with her marrying a Tamoran Prince it meant many had not been invited. Heydar had considered that. He had arranged for them to gather at the Temple of the Sands which had its own underground cinema screen, usually it had just the royals sat watching films. Heydar remembered days on leave from the military sat with little Golzar watching cartoons surrounded by close to 100 empty seats. Today though the seats were full of the higher nobles of Seleucid not at the wedding. Whilom Queen Katerina, the youngest of the former King's wives, had been left behind to oversee the occasion there so as to make the nobles feel honoured by her presence.


As darkness fell on Ipsus parties continued into the evening, people mingling in the parks enjoying the atmosphere and food stalls. Had the wedding taken place in Ipsus the couple would have paraded through the streets at nightfall enjoying the adoration of the public. As such it became quiet a surreal sight as some people had grabbed manuequins and decorated them in beautiful clothing, one male and one female. The effigies being paraded through the streets. It created some crazy scenes as occasionally one pack of revellers would bump into another and the two would merge briefly, a man from the crowd clambered onto a car ordering the effigy of Jamshaid from one group to be brought forward with the one of Thekla from the other, he gave a blessing like a Seleucid wedding, the crowd cheered and the "married" effigies departed off, the group now one. The process was repeated over and over until soon the swarm of singing and dancing Seleucid had witnessed several "Marriages" and had swelled in numbers. The parade made its way to the Palace where people began placing gifts of food and drink at the Temple that was situated next to the Palace and even in the Palace grounds. The High Priestess of the Anahatism faith gladly accepted them, placing the usable offerings to one side to be used tomorrow to feed the poor.