Sarjanus and Sarjanism

Sarjanus and Sarjanism

''The following is an unedited extract from 1.III.35, offering the "official" account of Sarjanus and the rise of Sarjanism. This use of an in extenso quotation seems more respectful than a paraphrase.''

. . . From my research, I learned that twelve hundred years ago there emerged a new leader, but this leader was not a general or a king, but a spiritual leader, named Sarjanus. Born in a small town in the kingdom of Aradamia, he came from a family of poor, illiterate peasants, but as a young boy of twelve he exhibited intelligence beyond his years and was sent to Farenta, the capitol of the Kingdom of Aradamia, to the royal school of Aradamia to become a scribe.

After his training, he remained in Aradamia where he worked as a scribe for one of the ministers to the king until he was thirty-seven years old. In the summer of his thirty-seventh year, he accompanied the minister and four others on a diplomatic mission to the court of Vorhalla, which had been allied with Aradamia during the most recent war. The current war had been particularly bloody, and both sides were at a stalemate. Thousands of lives were lost and important and needed resources exhausted. The mission of the minister – whose name I learned was Axon Bloss – was to journey to the court of Vorhalla carrying copies of the latest peace treaty proposed by Xannameir and its current ally Kalas, and to discuss a mutually agreeable response to them. One night, about a week after they had entered the Ardentin forest, they were attacked by a pack of wolves as they sat around their campfire. Only Sarjanus, and a younger scribe who was severely wounded, survived.

Sarjanus tended the wounded boy as best as he could, and for days he wandered the forest, carrying and dragging the young scribe. Finally, a week after the attack, the young man died and Sarjanus was left alone. As he continued to wander, he prayed for help. He was beginning to starve and suffer from dehydration, and his aimless wanderings had taken him nowhere.

On the eighth day after the attack, Sarjanus emerged from the forest into a rocky, mountainous area and slowly began to climb the foothills of the endless mountain range that stretched before him. Within hours of starting, he was caught in a terrible storm that rolled through the mountains. All around him, lightning flashed in the night sky and thunder roared as he was pelted first with hail, and then with great torrents of rain.

Screaming out for help, he prayed that his life be spared. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light in the sky and a great clap of thunder boomed above his head. Sarjanus fell to the ground, weeping and praying. But as quickly as it came up, the storm passed on, leaving Sarjanus still lying on the ground praying incoherently. He prayed – his forehead pressed into the muddy ground – for hours. Finally realizing the storm had ceased and his life was spared, he lifted his head and saw a large tree on the slope of the mountain in front of him. It had been struck by lightning during the storm and was still burning. By the light it shed, Sarjanus could see the outline of something near the top of the mountain. He waited until daylight, and then began to climb the mountain.

Sarjanus was a scribe of the court of Aradamia not a mountain climber, but after two days of struggle he reached the summit of the mountain and a fantastic fortress. The fortress had a fresh spring with cool flowing water, and he was able to quench his thirst. Fruit trees grew around the outside of the fortress walls, and Sarjanus was able to satisfy his hunger. He thanked the gods for his salvation and as he explored the great fortress, he was amazed at what he found, not the least of which was a great library. He spent two months in the fortress, reading some of the books in the library and living off the fruit trees outside the fortress wall and the water that bubbled up from the spring.

As he continued to read, he found references to winged men created by the ancients who’d once lived in the City of Light, and he realized that these writings were a prophecy of the future. As he continued to study the ancient texts, he learned that these creatures the ancient texts described would someday come and take their place in the world… and rule it.

Sarjanus was amazed as he learned more about these beings. They were not men, but a new species that had been formed out of the alchemy of the ancient ones. The more Sarjanus read, the more he was convinced that this act of unnatural creation and the results thereof were dangerous and evil. He began to speculate that if this race of creatures ever did emerge as the ancient scrolls predicted, they would crush the world and drive all humans at best into slavery, and at worst, to extinction. As he continued to study, a revelation came to him and Sarjanus knew what he was meant to do.

During this time, he also meditated on the fact that of all the men in his party that had begun the journey to Vorhalla, he alone, had been saved by the gods. The gods had also saved him from the storm when it threatened to kill him, and through the storm and the light of the burning tree, the gods had guided him to this place and these ancient texts for a purpose.

The more he thought, prayed, and meditated, the more he came to realize that the gods had spared his life for the special purpose of the salvation of humanity. And he began to realize that his ordained mission was to stop the endless wars of the kingdoms and prepare his world for the eventual coming of the demons who would attempt to destroy them. After two months had passed, Sarjanus took a supply of food and some key books from the library and began the journey back to Aradamia. Then, a strange thing happened.

Sarjanus was not a soldier, hunter, or woodsmen. He was a simple scribe, and his sense of direction and ability to survive in the forest were questionable at best. So without map or compass, he began his journey back to Arademia. While he attempted to follow the rising and setting of the sun and the movement of the stars, within a few days he was again hopelessly lost. But unlike the first time he had been lost in the Ardentin forest, Sarjanus’ faith was now strong. He knew that the gods had spared him to be a prophet, and he knew that he would be delivered.

He continued to wander for two more days until, on the evening of the second day, he heard a noise ahead of him in the forest. He made his way to the source of the sound and there, lying on the forest floor, he found a young boy who had, it seemed, been brutally attacked and left for dead. Using what he could find in the forest, along with water from a nearby stream, Sarjanus ministered to the young man. He tended his wounds and fed him some of the fruit that he had packed for his journey to Aradamia. The boy had been gravely wounded but Sarjanus cared for him, and when he seemed strong enough to travel, the scribe carried him through the forest. For three days Sarjanus carried the boy, constantly monitoring his condition and caring for him as best as he could. By the fourth day, Sarjanus was exhausted, but he stumbled on.

Sarjanus was rapidly becoming weak and dehydrated, and as he staggered along carrying the boy, he began to hallucinate. He started to hear voices all around him, but he continued to push his body to its limits. Finally he lost consciousness and collapsed on the forest floor under the weight of the boy.

An hour later he awakened to the same sound of men’s voices – voices he though he’d imagined, but were in reality those of nearby soldiers from the Kingdom of Vorhalla who were on patrol. Looking up, he could see a soldier hovering over him, and when he saw that Sarjanus was awake he called his companions, who surrounded the half dead scribe and carried both he and the young man he’d tended back to their camp. Offered food and water, Sarjanus quickly regained his strength. It was then he learned that the boy he’d found was Prince Oliver, the son of King Vladimir of Vorhalla. Oliver, along with some of his companions, had been on a scouting mission, and was ambushed. All had been killed except for the young prince, who’d been left for dead. After their attackers had fled, the prince had managed to drag himself a few hundred yards through the forest to a clearing where he collapsed, and was later found by Sarjanus.

Sarjanus and Oliver were taken to the court of Vorhalla where their story was told to the king. In gratitude for saving the life of his son, Vladimir offered Sarjanus whatever he desired: money, land, even a title, but instead of grasping for the rewards Vladimir offered, Sarjanus related his tale of the angel creatures to the king and his court, who were captivated by it.

Sarjanus asked the king only for the chance to tell his story throughout the land of Vorhalla without persecution, and to warn the people of the prophecy. Vladimir agreed and soon Sarjanus was traveling the countryside, preaching his own strange religious message of prophecy, salvation, vigilance, and redemption. Quickly he drew followers to himself and within a few years his disciples were throughout the Kingdom of Vorhalla. They, in turn, went to the other kingdoms preaching their message and just as in Vorhalla, the war-weary citizens of these lands flocked to the message of Sarjanus.

Promises of peace along with everlasting life, coupled with the threat of a supernatural enemy, created a strong religious elixir for the illiterate masses, and soon the religion of Sarjanus grew by leaps and bounds. The people had grown weary of the endless wars of the nobility, and only desired peace. Sarjanus offered them that and more – redemption.

But not everyone was enamored by Sarjanus’ message. One such individual was Axil, the King of Aradamia, who was not too pleased that his former scribe had become a great prophet. Aradamia had become wealthy as a trading kingdom and Axil feared that Sarjanus’ message could undermine his base of power, which relied heavily on slave labor to produce the goods that Aradamia traded. Sarjanus himself decried slavery, and this message alone was enough to convert great hordes of slaves and make them rebellious.

Five years after the conversion of Sarjanus, the scribe journeyed back to his homeland. The king’s spies followed him constantly, reporting his every move to Axil. As Sarjanus began to convert more and more of the slaves of Aradamia, Axil decided that the scribe must be killed.

Axil sent Sarjanus a message telling him that he had been reading some of the writings of the prophet and was so moved by them that he was ready to be converted and baptized into this new and marvelous faith. He suggested that Sarjanus and he meet by the river Dorn, where he’d allow Sarjanus to baptize him and the entire royal court of Aradamia. Sarjanus and his followers journeyed to the town of Dornsource – the headwaters of the river Dorn – and waited for the king and his court. But instead the king sent an army, who attacked Sarjanus and his followers, and killed the prophet. His body was taken to Farenta, where it was lashed to a stone pillar in the middle of the city and allowed to rot in full sight of the inhabitants of the capitol city.

But Axil’s treachery returned to haunt him. When the sun next arose on the city of Farenta, Sarjanus’ body had mysteriously disappeared; in its place, surrounding the stone pillar, were hundreds of flowers. Claims of Sarjanus’ resurrection raced throughout the land. The slaves of Farenta, under the leadership of a renegade slave named Galaxon, who had converted to the new religion, marched on the city and engaged the army of Axil. The fighting was so fierce that it was said that a man couldn’t walk from one end of the great forum of Farenta to the other and avoid stepping on a dead body.

Axil was overthrown and Galaxon seized the crown. In gratitude for his victory, Galaxon ordered all of the slaves of Aradamia freed if they would convert to the faith of Sarjanus. He built a sacred shrine at the site of the pillar where Sarjanus’ body had been tied, and it became a great center of pilgrimage through the entire land. The pilgrims brought with them their money, and the Kingdom of Aradamia continued to grow in wealth and power.

One year after the death of Sarjanus, Galaxon surprised the world by publicly proclaiming his desire to continue the work of the Prophet and stepped down from the throne, placing the crown on another’s head – Eglet, a general in his army. In his year as king, Galaxon came to realize just how strong an influence the religion of Sarjanus had become throughout the land and its people – and how much more it could grow in power and influence under the right leader. Turning his back on the throne of Aradamia, Galaxon shaved his head and took to wearing the robes of a monk. He, along with Sarjanus’ closest companions, created the Holy Office – a type of religious council, which eventually established its seat in Wheems, a small town outside Wrenstatten – the capitol city of the Kingdom of Vorhalla. The fortress of Eagles Rock was claimed for the sect and turned into an abbey, and as the years turned to decades and the decades to centuries, the Holy Office and the religion – Sarjanism – that it promulgated established dominance throughout the entire continent.

As I studied the history of Sarjanism I was amazed at its development, and while I learned much, every new revelation brought with it more questions. The church had acquired vast political and economic power, and had on more than one occasion removed entire dynasties from thrones. They played geopolitical and economic games with the masterful strategies of a chess player, and were able to exert influence in every aspect of society – only ignoring areas they deemed minor or insignificant to their purposes and plan.

They were like a disease that takes over a body, spreads rapidly, and will not relinquish its grip no matter what treatment is used. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I suspected Galaxon had seen a great opportunity to achieve dominance in the land – not as a king, but as a religious leader. And while Kartannus the Great’s death had left a great power vacuum that led to three hundred years of terror and war, Galaxon – in a masterful stroke – became in effect the new Kartannus, ruling under the mantle of religion.

As often happens when institutions become rich and strong, money and power led to corruption, tyranny, and domination. While freed slaves had originally been the base of Sarjanus’ followers, and the prophet himself denounced slavery, the Holy Office currently had the greatest number of slaves in the land. In fact, although slavery itself had been outlawed, the Holy Office actually perpetuated it by creating a new class of citizens – Indentures of the Holy Office who, while not slaves in name, were slaves in fact. Much of the wealth and power that the Sacred Diet of Wheems wielded so effectively had been built on the bones of these so-called Indentures of the Holy Office.

It started, as most things do, rather innocently. Some of the followers of Sarjanus were so devout and fervent in their faith that they pledged their lives and fortunes to the Holy Office. These individuals didn’t wish to become religious leaders, priests, or monks since they felt they were unworthy of that honor, but instead offered their lives through work, sacrifice, mortification of the flesh, fasting, and prayer to the Holy Office. In time, the demand for these volunteers grew – so much so that the demand soon far outstripped the supply of the willing. Eventually they were replenished by other Indentures who weren’t so willing to become slaves of the Holy Office, but were recruited through trickery, coercion, poverty, hunger and threats – just as Luc and his brother Jon had been heartlessly taken from their mother when she was forced to sell them for a meager ration of food to the “Holy Bloodsuckers”, as King Oslo had called them.

The more I studied the history of the Sarjanist religious movement, the more I realized that over time, the entire hierarchy of the Holy Office had become an edifice built on terror, intimidation, and fear. They were a powerful force throughout every kingdom, and I came to understand the fear that had been exhibited in The Great Council of Kingdoms when King Oslo and Prince Drakis first voiced their objections to an alliance with Icaria. And little by little a feeling grew inside me, a feeling that chilled me to my bones, for I knew that it would only be a matter of time until we would have to confront the real power that resided in Wheems.