Meanwhile, In Fiction...

[the_gneech]

The general consensus of response from yesterday's entry, both within LJ and among some outside friends I sent it to, was that the "When Good Kingdoms Go Bad" and/or "Invasion" storylines seemed to have the most potential of what I'd posted, so I think I'll play with "Good Kingdoms Go Bad" idea a while.

Some of my inspiration for that was actually the relatively large number of Kung Fu movies I've been watching lately, even for me. (I've been itching to get back to my own training, but unable to for financial reasons, other than what little coaching I can give myself, so watching the movies at least helps me see it in action.)

The Shaolin temple, which is more or less the origin point of Kung Fu, has had a long and turbulent history, and has been outlawed so many times that I doubt they've all been recorded. But the practitioners keep up their art in secret, and eventually they come back into favor -- until they fall out of it and get outlawed again. The temple has been burned, sacked, betrayed, and devastated, but somehow always comes back. And while the temple has not always been quite as spiritual in reality as one might like to think, the legend does at least inspire a great story.

So, given that this is just a brainstorming session, how about something like this...

The unthinkable had happened.

The Regent was dead.

General Xanshaar had declared himself the new Emperor, and the entire Imperial Army had marched upon The Shining City. A handful of lords and their faithful had resisted; most were slain quickly. Some escaped into exile; some disappeared without a trace.

General – now Emperor – Xanshaar seized power by calling on dying traditions of Imperial conquest. The pacifistic serenity of the Regency lacked the glorious appeal – and profitability – of raiding the neighboring lands for slaves and gold. Emperor Xanshaar claimed to restore the Empire's former stature, perceived by some to be lost in a time of quiet, if moderate, prosperity.

Xanshaar's scapegoats for this lost glory – the Regent himself, and the Brotherhood of the Morning Star – were devastated quickly and mercilessly. While the Brotherhood had never held official power, its members had many influential positions. Admired and respected for their knowledge, wisdom, and charity, members of the Brotherhood were leaders in many communities, called upon to defend them in times of trouble. Xanshaar accused the Brotherhood of being a secret "shadow" government, conspiring against the rightful powers of the Empire – an accusation which the disaffected Imperial army was sympathetic to. The Brotherhood's philosophy was one of openness, knowledge, and peaceful cooperation ... while the preferred way of many of the generals was that of secrecy, paranoia, and conquest.

Once the Regent was dead and the new Emperor in control of the Shining City, the Brotherhood was outlawed. Its more fortunate members were imprisoned, but many more were executed on trumped-up charges of treason or heresy against the Church of Seven Fires. The surviving members of the Brotherhood scattered, rescuing what scrolls and tomes they could even as their Citadels were sacked and burned. Knowledge from before the beginning of history was lost forever. The music of the flute and the lyre had turned into the march of the pipe and the drum, and once again the Shining City was filled with the gold of conquered lands ... and its streets ran with the blood of the innocent.

Hmm ... all I need now is a whiny farmboy and a golden robot. This may require some revision...

-The Gneech

Comments

Hrm...

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

The plot that you're discussing sounds very much like you're actually going to make the Brotherhood into a shadow government... or, at least, trying to become one.

The problem is that there needs to be reasonable sympathy for the old regime, and reason why people won't actively strike against a reversion to the old regime. It sounds like the Emperor has raised the amount of money into the Empire...

...What if the people of the Empire see only the soldiers getting rich from the conquering, and they themselves grow poorer?

Re: Hrm...

[the-gneech.livejournal.com]

Well, the idea that the soldiers are getting richer and everybody else is getting poorer was basically what I had in mind; also that the laws are getting stricter and life in general is getting harsher. Most of the populace is less-than-happy with the new arrangement, and low-level insubordination by locals would be fairly common, except that it's put down severely, usually with the liberal application of executions.

The Brotherhood of the Morning Star is, in theory at least, mostly a scholarly organization, but also a charitable group, sorta like a cross between The Optimist Club, The Red Cross, and a network of private libraries. They do not -- or in the old regime did not -- have an axe to grind, and no real organizational structure other an informal system of rank for administrative purposes. They were simply a league of like-minded individuals. Their connection with the late Regent was, basically, that he was wise and sympathetic to them (and they to him). General Xanshaar knew that his coup (or is it a junta?) would give the Brotherhood an axe to grind, and that unified, they could become a threat to him, so he struck first to pre-empt that.

Although, as the idea percolates, I'm not sure if I'm happy with that exactly. I do sorta like the idea of a kind of elite guard of warriors. Imagine if Mordred assissinated Arthur and outlawed the knights of the round table, for instance. Or rangers are cool ... maybe I could do something with rangers.

Hmm...

-The Gneech