Of Harps, and Spears

"So's the legend, my young charge. So it is, that war found us, and none could speak against it or us, for to speak against war is to speak against the stone." spake the Harkgan magistra, Aluvi. Weekly she would speak of ancient lore and philosophy to the eldest of the Harkgan, who in turn had long since forbidden to war-monger-- yet to speak against the stone. Who could, could not? The Harkgan was a fool. One does not run from the colour of ones skin, nor the sense to dwell in the heart. Mind for war, mouth to carouse - none could from these instincts part-- And the boy of six years, soon to begin drilling with weapons proper saw it. It throbbed in him, and hundreds of thousands of equal births, low or high.
He does not question much, not on the outside. He sees these thoughts of vengeance and perhaps 'justice' to deliver in blood with a fevered logic of *everything* at the time being odd as if a foreign carnival. But he has lived in this carnival his life. Six years is certainly long enough consider implications and causation. If I stay my hand-- will the Mihurite, whilst we will grow weaker having seen this population boom, and they will remain strong, and stronger grow? Or the Taergaledian-- ones to possibly have infected on *purpose* and then to grow oysters?
"Ye nan. Sw, I understand. And never to give quarter to a Bloodcoat, or mercy to the Mihurite." yet in his mind moved questions and hesitation and the magistra knew this. Yet her pain she had to lead on to others, for that would be all her children, the ones in flesh to have perished during the Plague. And they call *us* the warlike, cruel ones--! Her mouth tightened, and teeth ground, and feelings of utter hatred moved in her. She was the one empty grids directly into the grave, which was then set alight. She saw her sister strangled over a frozen bread, her father falling to feed her twenty years to grow into fifty, and the neighbouring nations did naught but stand, and watch. Pull their merchants and empty their quarters, for fear of *pox*. We will have our vengeance. Harnoth! Issqar! Then and again, our thousands of mouths, men, memory of slain, slaughter the slouths! South will burn, and west will fall; all guts churn with hate, and men will take the Call!
"Yes. Our memory and ferocity is focused on the tip of the spear, and nothing can we avail our nature but by war. Were I young-- I would be amongst the spires and maidens to march. But I am old. You will see it, self. It is not glorious, the pomp and bedlam of war. Fathers, it is not even necessary. As it is not necessary for men to eat, for the Land will soon forget if all life cultural will fail. Yet we commit to it, for it is our *sense* and our central thought. Promise me, Eyraü, tell me you will rather go to hell than share heaven with a Blood!"
"I swear nan." but the boy was thinking of the harp, and how the wood of yon spear was used post-war in amending the body of the instrument to have been damaged in the fight-- and he did not voice his thoughts, merely pondered them deeply.

Summary

Yon aeons before the Empire of the Kiri, yon before writing and the scrawling of that which existed solely the druid as the memory of all people Eastern, and the Luwari, and their kings. So I speak to thee of these matters ancient and archaic, yet pertinent and prevalent both. Druidic faith speaks of those exceptional, as ye know. It speaks of - we speak of, all Kiri - that men may be inspired by those to have come before, and greatest of these are tha Fathers, men such as Tyóll and the Emperors, captains, generals and those to have martyred themselves before the Mihurite, as they martyred their bodies before their Orthodox lords-- The Myth of the Spear and the Harp is an ancient one, which I intend to deliver this day, and bring alive to thee listeners from far off. Men ask - why is the Kiri so much fight and do battle with murder in mind? Why is the sword and not the quill symbol of the free? Yon myth clarifies the issue. It, and the interpretations of which, are justifications for war and the existance of a militarized nobility, and their rule of swords. For I remind ye all again-- one bundle of our wheat equals ten of theirs. Theirs? Taergaledian, Tvbéran, Mihurite. The land alone will not suffer us to multiply and spread across the land. We may not live in peace and survive both. Botany does much to create crops and gain food and goods, commerce may open doors, yet the sword only may tear them ajar. This land is *harsh* and the Freezing Vigil will cull the weak, so that the strong may conquer, and their strong retainers may, perhaps, conquer the winter itself. Means I know not - yet the rising of a people is near, and the building of yon nation state. I see it. Others see it. And a mark to have been painted may be met with a multitude of shafts loosed; all bowmen know this.

In Art

Mark of Khórr, the war-flag of said House sees the Spear rising from the Sea as a 'burning cross' of sort, meaning a spear being placed into a puddle of water, a well, or a body of water such, is considered a declaration of war. A grave warning, at the very least.
In art, many nobles elect to depict the event of Talmin'zin discovering a spear washed up on the shore as an important mythological event, the beginning of the end for times of myth, and opening of history - the first page, or perhaps the blank page immediatly before.

Date of First Recording

Ancient

Date of Setting

Ancient. Amongs the first known myths in the East. Before the Luwa-aran kingdom, well before the advent of writing in the East.

Related Ethnicities