Treatise on Samarra - Publication by Doctor Wilhelm Strauss

[Chrysalis]

HISTORY - CHAPTER TWO, THE TROUBLES:

"And soon there came a time when all of the land was gripped in war and famine and gruesome things, and no progress but that of death was made under the sun. There came men that spoke with the tongues of snakes, and they did hoard all the bread and fuel, and they did nudge man to fight against man, neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother." – Troubles 3:2

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Finding the single biggest reason for the beginning of the “Century of Troubles” proved impossible, and therefore I was led to believe that there wasn’t any single reason, but rather a multitude of overlapping causes that kept building the pressure until the powder-keg was forced to explode. The Temple holds that a figurative darkness that resides in all men was the reason for the conflict, a rather indirect and unitary stance, to be sure, but an unsatisfactory one. Ask five different Samarrans on their opinion on the matter, and you’ll get six different answers at least. Striking up a conversation with a merchant from the Black Gold Fortress, I was led to believe the conflict started due to Assyria City’s incessant increases of oil import tariffs, whereas when conversing with a courtier from the Prince’s palace, I was told that the general unruliness of the vassal states, especially the mining settlement of Khan’s Towers, was what sparked the war. Were any conscious descendants from the Towers accounted for today, I’m almost sure they’d blame the Black Gold Fortress somehow, and complete the story full circle. So what is the truth then? The truth is all of it, and none of it at the same time.

It is known that by 410, at the beginning of Lucien Theron’s first ten year term as Colonial High Commissioner, the baby boom had reached its peak, and the Samarran population numbered some 150.000 people, demand outpacing the current food production capabilities, and causing severe shortages colony-wide. Simultaneously, the industrial development and overall power of the subordinate colonial assets such as the Black Gold Fortress and Khan’s Towers created concerns in Assyria City’s political elites. With its primary focus on food production, Assyria was growing increasingly more dependent on the other settlements for raw materials such as metals and petroleum, its own production capabilities falling far short of the demand. This coupled with ever growing secessionist sentiments from the settlements, created a sort of panic in Theron’s administration. Hence, the High Commissioner took measures to ensure the City’s dominance the only way he knew how. Drawing on currency reserves, he raised the tariffs on import of raw materials from the settlements, and gave out subsidies to local entrepreneurs looking to develop mining facilities and oil extraction rigs in the wastes, hoping to once and for all end Assyria’s dependence on its neighbors.

The impact of this new policy on the economy of other settlements was palpable, and their shrinking wealth made it increasingly difficult to purchase sufficient food, the costliness of which also steadily increased due to the shortages. Several conclaves followed, where prominent leaders from the settlements bargained for respite with the administration, but with no success. Though this is easy to write off as an act of cruelty from the metropolitan authorities, it is far more logical to assume that they actually could not afford it. When diplomacy fails, war inevitably follows. And surely enough, in 412 A.S, the Khan’s Towers threw the first punch. Declaring independence, they started raiding outlying farms and fisheries for food, and though far inferior in numbers, their guerilla tactics were successful in outmaneuvering the City’s peacekeeping forces who as of yet were unwilling to retaliate with a full scale invasion.

In 413 A.S, the Black Gold Fortress followed, emboldened by the success of the Towers, the council administering the Fortress began raids in the south. By the end of the year, Lucien Theron passed a legislature allowing him an unlimited term as High Commissioner until the conflict was resolved, and seeing how he was now sandwiched between two enemies he authorized retaliation by a coordinated missile strike on the outlying hamlets of Assyria’s neighbors, leaving little else than a dusty no man’s land on its borders. This officially marked the beginning of the “Century of Troubles”, and for the next two decades, the sporadic fighting intensified and waned seemingly at random, no side gaining a significant advantage over the other two. The fighting, though brutal, was mostly conducted with mechanized engines of war, the ingenuity with which these were constructed, rising with each passing decade of the war, and the need to fuel them leading the warring factions to expand into the inhospitable wastelands, the fight expanding with them.

By 435 A.S, Assyria City finally launched a decisive campaign, and in a blitzkrieg-styled assault, outflanked the Black Gold Fortress’ forces, the campaign culminating in the siege of the Fortress that lasted for six months. The siege was only broken with the sudden death of the High Commissioner, forcing his forces to pull back and initiate peace talks. As neither faction was willing to continue the fight, they both caved to each other’s demands, the Fortress agreeing to a strategic alliance against the Towers, and the City agreeing abolish tariffs, restore trade and drive down food prices. Intimidated by this new development, the Warlord of the Khan’s Towers, whose name is lost to history, decided to reduce raids to a bare minimum, hoping to not invoke a full scale invasion from the nascent coalition. The new allies however, bided their time and planed for a final campaign to the north that would restore peace once and for all. At this time, Lucien Theron’s son, Marcus Theron, succeeded his father as High Commissioner.

Around 440, the joint surveying of the wastes unearthed the first Ziggurat encountered by the Samarran people. An astonishing discovery of an alien civilization that seemingly thrived on the Planet prior to the arrival of man, and what could have been a discovery with far reaching societal effects, the ripples of which would probably even end the conflict, it was instead quickly swept under the rug and held secret. The definitive campaign plans were finalized in the winter of 450 A.S, and the Fortress’ forces rested through the longest night of the year on the outskirts of Assyria city, while the Assyrian forces already started moving north a few days prior. In the morning, news of a betrayal reached the Fortress’ forces, someone had dumped poison into the river which carried it downstream to where the Fortress siphoned its supply from. Though a student of history such as myself would recognize this as a stratagem, the soldiers did not see it through. So instead of marching north to support their allies, they sacked the undefended city. Having spent their rage, and realizing they could not hold it, they returned to their home. With the alliance broken, the three pronged fighting continued, with all sides now equally weakened, carrying on in a stalemate for the next 62 years.

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