A Broken Paradise (The Windows of Heaven Book 3) (42 page)

435
Aenusi is born at Sa-utar to Seti and Arzura. At around this time Seti and Atum-Ra notice that traders doing traffic with Mataq begin profaning the name of E’Yahavah. Y’Raddu learns to work gold and copper.

458
The Coven of Zu settles near the Firth of Ardis. They begin to worship Leviathan, and practice human sacrifice of infants.

476
Met’U-say’El is born at Q’Unukku to a concubine of Mehu-ya’El. The contraction of the boy’s name means
Death of El
, and is his mother’s protest against the reforms of Seti enacted by Y’Raddu and Lilitua.

492
Assuri founds the colony of Ufratsis. The Assurim penetrate Southern Nhod, and eventually begin to capture mottled savages as slaves.

513
Khavilakki completes his capitol city of Erdu on the Pisunu.

521
Explorers out of Balimar encounter signs of habitation in the lands around the Firth of Ardis. Glyphs sacred to the Sisterhood of Zu are found with evidence of infant sacrifices.

532 on
Zu discovers that the civilization of Seti lies to her south. She plots revenge on Khuva for inspiring Lilitua to drive her people out, and begins to train female sorceress-warriors. Knowing Seti will find her ere long, Zu builds secret forts in the
Kharir Ardisu
. Meanwhile, the sons of Kush colonize the Central Sea Islands, and begin to spread into the great southern landmass. Foundation of Bab’Kusha—
The Gateway of Kush
.

535-586
Met’U-say’El leaves his father’s house as an outlaw.

543
Atum-Ra has a vision of two World-ends.

563
Rumors of Amazon warriors come to Sa-utar from Balimar.

575-577
Seti constructs the Two Obelisks of World-end at Sa-utar.

578
Word comes from Balimar that female warriors are indeed attacking caravans and harassing the colonies. Seti marches north with 400 cavalrymen, and 1000 Dragon-slayer infantry.

579
Zu’s Amazons ambush Seti’s force in the Parn Gap. The Dragon-slayers take heavy casualties from poisoned arrows. Seti retreats to Balimar. Zu withdraws to her secret strongholds.

580
Seti forays north of Balimar but finds the lands deserted.

586
Met’U-say’El
assails the King’s caravan. Y’Raddu is slain. Mehu-ya’El
becomes King at Q’Unukku. The other sons of Y’Raddu migrate north, and found a colony after their father’s name. Eventually all the lands in the Mataq region are called Y’Raddu, even the city of Q’Unukku itself is named Ayur Y’Raddu by later pre-Deluge chroniclers.

587
Children begin to disappear from homesteads in Balimar.

596-632
Zu breeds the stolen children of Balimar, and raises their offspring as Amazons. Because they have the darker red skin of the sons of Seti and Balimar, they are able to infiltrate the south to work Zu’s long-term plan against Khuva’s children.

608
Aenusi son of Seti takes A’Nu-Amma his sister to wife.

611-640
King-El Mehu-ya’El makes war on his estranged son’s bandits.

619
Met’U-say’El
seizes Q’Unukku from his father, Lilitua taken. The King shifts his flag north to the colony of Y’Raddu.

625
Khae’Nani born to Aenusi and A’Nu-Amma.

632
Amazons raid Balimar again, evading patrols by hidden paths through the
Kharir Ardisu
. Whenever a homestead is destroyed, Zu places trained daughters of the stolen children in the ruins to be found as “survivors.” Dragon worship infiltrates the sons of Balimar through them.

633-638
The Siege of Q’Unukku:
King-El Mehu-ya’El surrounds the city, but his willingness to starve even the people of his own capitol turns many of Q’Unukku’s town folk to Met’U-say’El.

638
Met’U-say’El breaks the siege. The King drives the rebels south, thinking to exile them in Nhod as his ancestor did to Qayin. But the rebels turn west, south of Lake Mataq, and hold Lilitua hostage. Mehu-ya’El
pursues them to the western mountains and bottles them in the Unicorn Pass.

640
Met’U-say’El agrees to release Lilitua if the King-El will give the rebels provision to migrate west through Wurmwood. Mehu-ya’El
agrees. The Queen Mother is released, and the rebels depart.

642
Met’U-say’El founds the city of Met’U-say’El.

672
Seti investigates the child stealing and human sacrifices in Balimar. He discovers that the Dragon worshipers are not a hidden tribe of Amazons at all, but rural youths from Balimar’s own Saardom.

685
Saar Balimar launches a surprise massacre of anyone found wearing popular Dragon amulets, although most are only rural luck charms loosely patterned from amulets found in deserted ruins, and not worn by actual Dragon cultists. Hundreds of youths summarily impaled without trial.

686
Atum-Ra sends a letter of rebuke to the Saar. People in Balimar begin to question the moral leadership of the elder tiers.

688-717
Saar Balimar wages genocide on the Amazons, but expends so many resources to search the ravines of Ardis to such little avail that many of his people call the campaign a fool’s errand. Balimar returns home in 717 a broken man, fearful that “Amazon sorcery” enabled Zu to evade him. Later information shows that Zu’s tribes are actually so decimated by venereal diseases that few remain. Though Zu herself survives, she is never again able to infiltrate the Saardom. She doesn’t have to. Balimar’s fanatical zeal causes enough sympathy and defection among younger generations to ensure that Dragon worship advances in one form or another without her.

720
Balimar
son of Heh’Bul dies young. His eldest son becomes Saar, and swears fealty to Atum-Ra and Seti. He teaches against Dragon worship while denouncing his father’s excesses. Many youth come back to E’Yahavah, but not enough to hold back Zu’s animism for more than a few generations. The sons of Heh’Bul begin to fade as a people, and as a moral force, and are eventually absorbed into the tribes of Seti. The vales around Ardis continue to harbor secret Dragon shrines.

736
Khae’Nani takes his niece Amu’Alaeleta as wife.

783
L’Mekku the Warlord is born at Met’U-say’El.

7
88
Birth of Udaha to the youngest daughter of Atum-Ra.

795
Maha’Lahl-aey’El born to Khae’Nani and Amu’Alaeleta.

828
Seti’s Code written. Atum sends out priests to read it abroad.

850
Met’U-say’El dies of fever. Young L’Mekku joins a clan migration pushing further west.

855
Mehu-ya’El of Y’Raddu assassinated. The Y’Raddu Civilization breaks apart into warring city-states. Lilitua takes direct political rule of Ayur Y’Raddu (Q’Unukku) and continues as High Priestess until her death in 966. She keeps the wall guarded against Nhoddic savages. The city-states of the Mataq region remain in constant warfare for several centuries.

922
Death of Assuri in Assur’Ayur. His sons grow discontent with Atum-Ra’s choice of Seti as ruler over them, however distant it is.

930
Death of Atum-Ra. Seti takes the title of
Archon
, and rules the clans from Sa-utar. L’Mekku receives priests and sages with Seti’s Code, and abolishes the blood sport games of the remnant of Zu, though he permits a non-lethal version of the games to continue yearly.

931
Rebellion of Assuri and Kush:
The Kush clan marches on Sa-utar to contest the Archonate of Seti. Assuri’s forces waylaid by wurms in the Haunted Lands. Seti sends Khae’Nani to Erdu with cavalry.
The Battle of Erdu
: The sons of Kush retreat. Kush dies under siege at Kushtahar.

933
Maha’Lahl-aey’El marries A’Dynakha.

935
Khae’Nani’s army invades Assuri along the southern coast.

938
Seti joins Khae’Nani at the front. Assuri counterattacks, and drives the Archon’s armies back along the coast. Khae’Nani chooses the city of Regati as a place to make strong.

941
Joined by northern mercenaries led by the warlord L’Mekku, Seti and Khae’Nani push into Assuri again with a second column from Balimar marching south through Paru’Ainu. Assuri’s sons are defeated. The Archon leaves garrisons and havens for his fleet of bireme oar ships.

943
Grateful for L’Mekku’s aid and wishing to maintain peace on his northern borders, Seti gives Udaha to the young warlord as wife. L’Mekku and his bride depart for the north, and found Ayur L’Mekku on the Firth of Ardis. They encounter a remnant of the Amazons, but drive them into the mountains. The peoples slowly merge after Zu’s death
circa
944.

944
Birth of Iya’Baalu and Iyu’Buuli to L’Mekku and Udaha.

94
8-1200
L’Mekku annexes Met’U-say’El and sweeps across the Polar Moors into Y’Raddu, naming his territory
Lumekkor
. Lilitua, aged, dying, and wanting peace, prophesies that kingship has shifted from Y’Raddu to Lumekkor. She cedes her cities to L’Mekku in 955, although L’Mekku never completely pacifies the region, and leaves it to the herdsmen of his son Iya’Baalu in 1200. From then on, Iya’Baalu allows the Y’Raddu city states to rule themselves, keeping the peace with unicorn cavalry only when intercity squabbling threatens his cattle conglomerate.

960
First sightings of the
Ardisu Glory
. Lights appear in the sky above the mountains all over Balimar. Descent of the Watcher captains Samyaza and Uzaaz’El upon Mt. Ardis with 200 followers. For many decades, they remain in secret conference in the heights. It is later said that remnants of the Zu’s coven became their servants. Birth of Iyared
Salaamis to Maha’Lahl-aey’El at Sa-utar.

963-1213
Disputes over the
Ardisu Glory
rock Seti’s priesthood and Dragon-slayer teaching communities. Many elders in Balimar have visions and dreams after witnessing the flying lights. Many Balimar factions urge Archon Seti to receive the sightings as divine visitations, but he refuses.

970-1213
The Golden Age of Seti.

999
Death of Khuva.

1000-1110
Middle Colonial Period of Seti. The Far West colonized.

1090
Iyared takes his cousin Baraqa to wife.

1112
Iyared departs from Sa-utar, weary of the controversy over the “Ardisu Glory
.”
He founds the city of Salaam-Surupag. Meanwhile, seafarers from Assuri reach Ae’Ri and Dudael across the southern ocean.

1122
Birth of Q’Enukki to Iyared and Baraqa at Salaam-Surupag.

1134
Q’Enukki begins to have dreams that seem to come true. Iyared takes the boy to Sa-utar, and leaves him in Seti’s fosterage.

1134-1142
Seti fosters Q’Enukki, who makes no claims about his dreams and keeps them to himself and the ancient Archon. Seti shares with the boy his vision for a series of teaching megaliths. They make drawings together for the Sphinx and the Gates of the Rising and Setting Sun.

1135
To Seti’s outrage, L’Mekku of Lumekkor takes Tzuillaeha, an under-aged cousin, as a second wife besides Udaha, after killing Tziullaeha’s brother in a duel. Song of L’Mekku (Genesis 4:23-24).

1136
Tzuillaeha bears Tubaal-qayin to L’Mekku. After giving birth, she drinks the Concubine’s Root for the next 565 years, until she desires another child in her old age.

1142
Seti confirms on his deathbed the seerdom of Q’Enukki. Aenusi becomes Archon. Q’Enukki sent back to Salaam-Surupag with the promise that he will build Seti’s Megaliths when he comes of age.

1152-1182
Q’Enukki studies astronomy and mathematics. He invents a decimal number system that uses
zero
. Sexigesmal ciphers remain common.

1182
Q’Enukki earns his sage scrolls. The Sacred Academy in Sa-utar invites him to teach. Tubaal-qayin studies physics, mathematics, prophecy, and astronomy under him until 1197.

1197
Tubaal-qayin learns the smelting of copper, gold, and orichalcum at Sa-utar. He builds the smithy of Bab’Tubila in the Parn Gap.

1199
Q’Enukki develops a theory of planetary attraction, and invents the telescope.

1201
Tubaal-qayin discovers tin, and smelts bronze. He honors his father’s alliance with Seti, and builds a great armory that sells swords to both his father and the army of Seti’s Commonwealth. Relieved, Archon Aenusi declares Tubaal-qayin the “Father of Metalsmiths,” and builds a monument to him at Sa-utar.

1203-1210
Q’Enukki constructs Seti’s Sphinx on the Aeden Pass with bronze cutting tools and moldable kapar stone. Some say that at this time he makes his first visit into the Sacred Orchard.