OOC: This thread is closed to all but the members of the Heroes and Foes.
*** Khazan
He looked at the great city of Khazan that appeared outside of his window. The winter had come, and the multi-colored walls of the buildings in the city contrasted heavily with the sea of white around it. He could see, emerging from the snow, enormous yellow towers ending with blue tops that looked like an opening of a radish; and the massive pyramid like endings on the enormous walls that surrounded the city. Between them stretched a sea of wooden houses, which the further the eye went turned into a sea of yurts, where the poorest of his people dwelt.
He turned around to see a reflexion of himself in a mirror. He was Moxmet-Amin Xan Girey, the great Khan of Kazan, Lord of the Bulyars and the Ugurs. A man of middle height, but with well built, iron like muscles hiding beneath his clothes. He wore a long green robe with white paintings that ended around his knees, and tan trousers; ending in upward curving boots. His face was triangular, with extending cheekbones and small, deeply set eyes; pointy nose made an impression of a beak of some predatory bird, and mouth was hiding under a short, well trimmed beard with a moustache. Black hair hid beneath a golden pointy cap with precious jewels over it.
The Khan left the room, and walked through the elegant walls of the palace, entering into a small room. Inside, in front of a table, two men were sitting.
The first was tall, well built man wth broad shoulders and long arms. He had an oval face with enormous beard falling out of it. He wore a long, blue robe and a cylindrical cap over his head. This was Tukhay Bek - head of his Diwan of War.
The second was visibly smaller, with his beard almost unexistent; a plump body and fat emerging from his cheeks. This was his brother, Axmat Morza.
"Salam, my friends." the Khan spoke as he sat on a chair "I have gathered you here in private because I want to discuss it before I lay this before the diwan. I have received a representative of the trade guild yesterday and he told me that we are slowly running out of yassir captured during our last campaign."
Of course, thought the Khan, this presented a problem. During the year of his predecessor, the slave trade grew to enormous proportions. There was always a demand for more slaves, and the Bulyars and the Ugurs were all too eager to deliver.
The problem was that the sharia given to the great Prophet-Bek Ural specified that his followers were forbidden to wage war for the sake of loot alone. In practice, this command was often ignored and border beks frequently raided neighbouring lands for sake of plunder and yassir alone. The Khan wondered how long before the wrath of the Tengre Khan will fall on them for violating sacred laws.
The pressure on him to start a war was already mounting. His people carved for war - but being a good follower of the Heavenly Khan, he could not start one without his blessing.
"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Tukhay Beg "We should inveate those apostates at Yurga and enslave them!"
"And fight our brothers and sisters? Sell them into slavey? Tukhay Beg, this is against the sharia!"
"What they are doing is against the Sharia!" countered Tukhay Beg "They worship fallen Alps and disregard words of the Lord of Everything! A proper jihad would teach those infidel dogs their place, and give us plenty of yassir to sell!"
The Khan did not feel well with this suggestion. If the khan of Yurga, Selim, that gave him refugee when a rebellion in his own country forced him to run. Was he supposed to repay him by invading his lands and enslaving his people, who were his brothers to begin with.
"No..." he said "I will not repay Selim Xan's mercy on me by invading his lands. There will be no war with Yurga."
"Selim-Xan may want war with us, however. Just because my Xan is virtous does not mean that Selim will be." the head of the War Diwan stated.
"Then we will deal with him, Inshatengrexan! But I will not be the one who intiiates hostilities against our brothers, wayward they may be." he stated.
Tukhay Bek lowered his head, admitting defeat of his case.
"As my Xan commands!" he uttered "But my Xan needs to be aware that my Xan's people will still want war. If not Yurga, someone else will have to be the target. We could go north."
"The venture North will be extremely unprofitable. If we are to attack something, we need to conquer a target that will give us a considerable return." his brother added.
The Khan closed, anger filling his heart. He always tried to rule justly and well; and yet, the more he did, the more he started to realise that being just meant problems. Contrary to fables and epics, where the heroes won without problems, in reality following good meant paying a terrible price.
Was this a test from Tengre Xan on the unfaithful nation? He knew that despite his best attempts, the Bulyars and the Ugurs still secretly practiced worship of the Alps. Stonnings and burning of idols did not remove the problem. The results were evident - where the covenant with the Tengre Xan stated that five of the faithful will chase away a hundred foes, the battles that he fought were hard...
But maybe this is what his people needed. Just as iron was shaped in flames, maybe his people needed to be put through tirals and tribulations to overcome their flaws as well.
"That leaves the East, then." he said, imaginging the map in his head.
"It is true that there is a lot of prosperity in the East." Tukhay replied, stroking his beard "But my Khan, if we are to go East, we will need an agreement with Selim. He will likely want his daughter, Aslanbika, to be given in marriage to be made the xanbika."
The thought made the hair on the Khan's head stand straight. While he had a debt to pay to Selim for his hospitality, Selim was still an apostate who bowed to the fallen gods. How could he marry his daughter?
"Our of question!" he shouted "I will not marry a daughter of an idolater."
"My xan called that idolater a friend just moments earlier." Tukhay countered "If he is an idolater, why is he my Xan's friend?"
"I have a debt to him!" the Khan slammed his fist on the table "But that does not mean that I will sacrafice my morality for political gain."
"My Xan, please calm down." his brother stated "The fact remains that it is the path that my Xan chose himself. My Xan has a responsiblity to follow. If we do not do it, we are left with nothing. And then we will be in even greater trouble than we are."
"Choosing lesser evil is still evil!" the Xan shouted back.
"But will it lead to evil?" Tukhay querried "What if my Xan uses this occasion to spread the true religion among our wayward brethern? What if she sees the majesty of her husband, and repents?"
"Or she could poison our children with idolatry and we will become like the Yurga is."
"But this is the risk that we have to take."
The Xan closed his eyes and pondered for a second. His entire conscience raged against the idea. But he was the Khan and he had to make a choice. Indecision could cost him even more.
He sighed. The choice was made.
"Send envoys to Yurga." he said "It is time we forge an alliance."
