The Last Ring-bearer - Kirill Yeskov [196]
At that time the Khand Caliphate was in the middle of an anemic religious war between two sects of Hakimians. It is still uncertain how Éomer decided which one of those was the one true faith. Personally, I suspect that he flipped a coin – the actual dogmatic differences were and are a fertile field for armies of theologians. Be that as it may, he converted his entire Royal Guard, idle and ready to fight anyone at all, to that sect (legend has it that one of Éomer's warriors, when asked how he felt on the path of True Faith, responded: "Not bad, Tulkas be praised – my boots aren't leaking") and went South. The king left his cousintwice-removed as regent in Edoras; sure thing, this plunged the country into dynastic struggles that lasted almost a century and culminated in the War of Nine Castles, which wiped out the entire knighthood of Rohan.
To the total astonishment of his companions, once in Khand Éomer did renounce his previous life, gave all his possessions but the sword to the poor, and joined the order of Hannanites (warrior dervishes). Utilizing his commander's talent in the service of his chosen sect, he crushed the opposition in three decisive battles, ending the twenty-six-year 'holy war' in only six months; the 'good' Hakimians dubbed him The Prophet's Sword, while the 'schismatics' called him God's Wrath. At the end of the third battle, when the heretics' defeat was all but assured, Éomer was killed by a missile from an enemy catapult – truly the best death a genuine commander may wish for. The Hakimians promptly canonized him as a holy martyr, so he should have no problems obtaining the companionship of houranies.
This looks like a good place to stop… In conclusion, I would like to stress that I have filled the gaps in Tzerlag's story at my own discretion. The old soldier bears no responsibility for my inventions, especially since many will now passionately charge the storyteller – who else? – with deviating from the mainstream version of the events of the end of the Third Age. One has to note that the public's knowledge of these events is mostly derived from the adapted Western epos, The Lord of the Rings, at best, and often from the Sword of Isildur TV series and the Galleries of Moria first-person shooter game.
I have to sonorously remind those critics that The Lord of the Rings is the historiography of the victors, who have a clear interest in presenting the vanquished in a certain way. Had genocide taken place back then (where did those peoples vanish if it hadn't?), then it's doubly important to convince everybody, including oneself, that those had been orcs and trolls rather than people. Or I could ask them: how often do we find in human history rulers that would relinquish their power, for free, to some nobody from nowhere (pardon me – a Dúnadan from the North)? Yet another subject of immodest curiosity might be the actual payment Elessar Elfstone had to make to the wonderful companions he had acquired on the Paths of the Dead. I mean, summoning the powers of Absolute Evil (for a noble cause, of course) is totally commonplace, he's neither the first nor the last; but for those powers to meekly revert back to nothingness after doing their job without asking anything in return sounds highly doubtful. At least I've never heard of such a thing. Or I can… I can, but I won't. Whatever for? I have no desire to engage in this sort of polemics.
In other words, guys, live and let live. In our case it translates to this: you don't have to listen to me spin tall tales if you don't like them.
THE END
Table of Contents
Part I – Vae Victis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter