Like all the other planets in its solar system Calandria was made by the Creator. It had four continents which were separated by straits, for they were not far apart. Together they formed a huge land mass surrounded by silver water. The sun exerted a strange attraction upon minerals in the southern hemisphere so that when the planet rotated upon its axis, the southern hemisphere was always closer to the sun than the north. It was therefore warmer, and life on Calandria had originated in the south.
The Oldland of the south was inhabited by the People of Knowledge. They were very small, with enormous shining eyes, intensely curious and always busy. They were rumoured to have special powers bestowed when the world was made. Even those who disbelieved called them the Seers, Hearers and Speakers because of their remarkable abilities.
The Seers knew the truth when others did not. They could tell when people were lying, and their advice was of great value. Because they always knew what was wrong, they were the great healers on the planet. The Hearers had direct contact with the Creator. If they listened closely they could hear the Voice Itself and know what was intended for the world. They were the Keepers of the Flame and the conscience of Calandria. But all original ideas came from the Speakers. They spent their lives spreading these ideas, sharing them with others so that everyone else would know what they had discovered. Without them the people of that world would have been both helpless and bored. And so the Seers, Hearers and Speakers were forces for good on the planet.
The Warland of the east was a windswept plain. On its western half the earth was good, and all the tall riders who passed through wanted to keep it for their own. The eastern half was desert, and almost nobody lived there. Shortly after Creation, the riders had arrived on the plain seeking adventure. They were naturally restless and athletic, and the charted lands of the south had bored them immensely. They sought the unexpected, and they found it. For as each nation took possession of the Warland, it was attacked by the others and expelled into the Newland of the north.
Only the most ferocious remained behind. They were called the People of Fire, and all trembled at the thundering hoofs of the powerful beasts they rode. The most predatory of all living creatures, they slaughtered all who opposed them and left a trail of blood in their wake. Yet they did not lie and they did not torture. In time they became the sole possessors of the Warland. But they were so numerous that many of them returned to the Oldland of the south, where they became undisputed masters of all they surveyed.
The Newland was a cold and barren place, and there was no adventure in the constant search for food. The first people to arrive there were the Ataar. They were physically strong people who became individually independent in the harsh climate of the north. By dispersing into small family groups over a wide area, they did not overextend its limited resources. They learned not to be dependent upon group support, either physically or mentally. Each of them survived through strength of will. The Ataar were followed by the Tanaar, who were more numerous. They took their name from a Newland nation, similar to the Ataar, whom they had pushed farther north.
What to call these people? The Tanaar name must not be used in case it confuses their identity with the nation they displaced. Yet they also must not be given the title known among the People of Fire, for others of their kind remained in the Warland and did not change as they did. In future ages some of their enemies would call them the Brethren because of their solidarity. And for want of a proper name, the Brethren they shall be. Less bulky than the Ataar but equally strong, the Brethren were determined to survive the ravages of the Newland. Sadly, there were too many of them for the few resources it could offer. Some of their number would have to starve.
The largest and strongest of the Ataar decided to move west. Even bigger than other Ataar, they were referred to as giants. Travelling north of the Brethren, through ice and snow, they searched for a green land where their struggles would be over. When they had gone as far west as the Silver Sea, they moved southward into a place that opened their eyes with wonder. For the Peaceland of the west was a cool, green paradise, a quiet realm which had lain uninhabited for many years.
No sooner had the giants found their new home than a swarm of Seers arrived from the Oldland. They were an immensely fertile people who needed to expand, but who did not wish to stay in a crowded land where war was imminent. Soon the dark, lush forests of the west at the edge of the Silver Sea were full of tiny people with huge eyes. So advanced were the Seers that in those ancient times they had already developed a space program and had colonized two nearby planets. At first the giants were displeased at being inundated by Seers, for they had wanted the land to themselves. But there were advantages to living alongside people who knew the Speakers well. And something about the deep green, moss laden forests made them feel at ease. In time the giants integrated with the Seers, and as they did so they became Seers themselves and lost their size. But in that part of the Newland directly to the north of them, the giants of the Ataar still reigned supreme.
The tranquility of the west was destined to be shattered. For the People of Fire would be torn by internal strife. It was a rule of the Warland that nation succeeded nation for the heart of their power, and the latest winner had been a confederacy. The rulers of this confederacy had gathered allies along the outskirts of the vast plain, promising them a share of the loot if they joined their invasion. The confederates were in the tithe extraction business. They were bandits who quickly grew rich, for the vast plain was an ideal landing place for spaceships from more advanced planets. Merchants arrived from these planets, laden with riches and seeking to trade them for the natural resources of Calandria. Such travellers were relieved of these burdens in return for their lives. They went back to their home planets telling tales of demons who drank the blood of their enemies from skulls encrusted with precious metal. Among the People of Fire, exaggerating one's reputation didn't count as lying. After a while the spaceships stopped coming.
Of all the People of Fire, the most savage and ferocious were the Tattoos. They made coats from the scalps of their enemies, and each warrior among them hung severed heads up to smoke by the thousands. The Tattoos became angry that the rulers of the confederacy were no longer honouring their promises. Although hopelessly outnumbered, the Tattoos rebelled. The women fought beside their men. The plains were drenched in blood. Other members of the confederacy feared to join a lost cause, but secretly admired the people who would fight against such odds.
Such was this admiration that an all-out effort to destroy the Tattoos would have sparked a revolution. At the cost of many lives, the rebels were enslaved and transported from the Warland. After their expulsion, a related group from the eastern desert contacted sympathizers in secret and plotted the destruction of the ruling nation. Gathering at the borders, they invaded as their allies attacked the rulers from behind. The founders of the confederacy, once the most feared people in the world, retreated to the mountains and never returned. The victors looked around, but the Tattoos were gone.
The clear air of the Peaceland had been full of tiny sounds, the babble of a trickling brook, the twittering of birds, the rustling of leaves. Suddenly it resounded to the clang of metal and the beat of drums. The Tattoos had arrived in the forest of the Seers.
In time the newcomers became aware of the shining eyes watching them from the hushed, dark green depths. They became aware that criminal acts against the tiny shadows would be followed by silent death from the poisoned arrows of the Seers. The forest people were gentle and kind, but as the great healers of Calandria they possessed weapons unknown to all other people on the planet. The Tattoos came to think of them as a separate species, and left them alone. The Seers let the Tattoos rule the Peaceland as they saw fit and remained hidden.
The newcomers prospered greatly, conducting a lucrative trade with their relatives, the People of Fire who had taken over the Oldland of the south. These people, who were called Sentas, had integrated with the Speakers. Most of them were still tall and fierce, but had shining eyes. The Tattoos adjusted to living in a land of forests and mountains. But they would rather have been riding against the wind, for they were restless by nature. And then the Brethren, due to population pressure, began to move in from the Newland of the north, where they had destroyed the Ataar giants.
What followed was a mystery to the Brethren for many centuries. For the Tattoos, who were far more powerful and far more terrible, dispersed and made room for the Brethren in the eastern half of the Peaceland. The Tattoos saw a war brewing with the Seers, a war which had been started by the Brethren. Because the Brethren avoided them, the Tattoos probably had no idea why all the Seers in the forest had suddenly become hostile. But they knew that something was very wrong.
The Tattoos had lived alongside the forest dwellers without disturbing them. But the arriving Brethren had attacked the Seers with the express intention of exterminating them. Having avoided the Tattoos, the Seers had never observed them closely and had never learned their language. For the first time, these wise little people did not see the truth. They made the mistake that nation after nation would make in the future –they thought the Tattoos were Brethren, and attacked them. For the two groups looked remarkably similar, and it was fashionable among both to cover their heads in ways that just happened to resemble each other. Had the Seers lived up to their name, the Tattoos would never have departed and the history of their solar system would have taken a different course.
The Tattoos left in disgust. A well travelled people, they knew of better locations. They moved to the south and the west of the Peaceland, leaving behind them a guerrilla war so ghastly that it defies description. In the areas where they moved, the Seers had never confronted the Brethren, and so the Tattoos lived alongside them in peace. But the restless warriors were only moving from one trap into another. Their new home was the worst place to be, for it was an area geographically accessible to the Sentas, those relatives of theirs who had taken over the Oldland.
The Sentas were not as ferocious as the Tattoos. Through integration withthe Speakers, they had somewhat mellowed. But through that same integration, they had also become thoughtful and organized. When some of the Tattoos arrived for a visit, the Sentas were taken by surprise. Like all escapades undertaken by any People of Fire, this one was intended for fun and profit. In the process the Tattoos, looking like something from the Sentas' worst nightmares, stormed the revered high council, taunted its convening elders, and returned home with no awareness of the effect their challenge had produced. For the Sentas were themselves still People of Fire, and as such they would not tolerate the menacing presence of such neighbors. Using Speaker methodology, they approached their revenge with a scientific attitude, and at the earliest possible opportunity they ravaged the new home of their rivals.
Because the Tattoos were ferocious to the last, even with chains holding them down, the Sentas were happy to kill them off. After capture, the average length of life was two years. The Tattoos lived and died in their fetters, gnashing their teeth as the whips cracked over them night and day. Slaves next to the dead bodies ripped them off the shackles, for an overseer who got within reach would have been savagely torn limb from limb. Had the Tattoos succumbed at an early date they would have survived, but it was not in their blood. The Seers, on the other hand, patiently waited for the invaders to leave. They learned what they chose to learn from the experience, for their elders had taught them to embrace a truth no matter what they thought of the bearer. All People of Fire were skilled negotiators who made compliance worthwhile, and the Sentas were no exception. Their terms were clear, and induced rational responses in their subjects. The Seers reacted appropriately, and eventually they throve under the Sentas, who protected them from an integrated Tattoo and Brethren nation which had been preying upon the little people.
Feeling their power, the Sentas clashed with the Brethren. But the source of Brethren strength was far away in the heart of the Newland, and the forests they had recently invaded were not particularly accessible from the south. By driving the Tattoos out of those forests, the Seers had destroyed the very people who could have saved them. For the Brethren had cut down those forests, along with the inhabitants hiding there.
Victory over the Seers had left the Brethren traumatized, filled with choking images of horror and fear that a hideous, silent death lurked in every shadow. In short, they were worse than ever. For although the Seers did not know it, their level of knowledge was forbidden by the Creator, and would always bring about more harm than good. When they were told this fact they promptly destroyed every trace of it, but the Brethren had already told everyone on Calandria that they were evil creatures. A few corrupt Seers were sorry that the knowledge had been destroyed, and secretly sought it. In the last days of Calandria they would succeed, and together with the Brethren they would bring about the destruction of the solar system.
The price of victory over the Seers, followed by war against the Sentas, left the Brethren with the impression that people with shining eyes always sought their destruction. A few of the fertile little Seers were left in the remnants of the ancient forests, to slowly regain their numbers as the centuries passed. When the Sentas returned to the Oldland, all areas that had belonged to the Tattoos became available to the Brethren. After what they had been through, the Brethren hesitated to attack the Seers in these lands, but they regarded them with mistrust. For a second time they switched names, in case there might be trouble –this time with a Tattoo nation that had been killed off by the Sentas.
Some of the Seers who had survived their war with the Brethren fled north to the Newland. Destitute, they travelled by night, raiding farmsteads. Kindly wives left food out for them, and woke to find token gifts on their doorsteps. Under cover of darkness, the Seers fled westward until they reached the Silver Sea. It was there that they finally became visible to the Brethren in the north, that both sides confronted each other and saw clearly the people they had feared. And it was there that a love was born. Slowly, gradually, these remnants of a wise and ancient people integrated with the relatives of the invaders who had shattered their culture. Thousands of years later, farmers in the Newland would tell stories of the Seers. They would speak of them as something precious, something wonderful which they believed they had never met. And as they spoke, unknown to themselves, their own eyes would shine with a light from the distant past.
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