matthew o,neal

Republic

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley. The valley was once beautiful and full of life. The birds sang in the trees. All are dead now. Your greed and your wish to be independent doomed all of your blood lines. In your arrogance you rebelled. You believed that God was on your side; that the capital in all its decadent glory had no taste for blood. That your kin, my ancestors, were weak and more interested in making money than praying to the one true God. You where wrong. Your rebellion sparked two decades of war. The horsemen of the dead South burnt the capital to the ground. The republic lost the wheat fields of the North and the centre provinces starved, but all of this was temporary. We rebuilt the capital and sent expeditions into the South to slaughter all they found. A thousand heads were used to line the walls of the capital. The northern provinces and more were brought into the fold of the Republic and then and only then did the Republic’s wrathful eye turn back to our little breakaway state that had started all the problems. Our armies surrounded you and gave you one last chance for redemption. The patriarch gave you a list of 562 names to be executed and their heads added to the wall of the capital. Your great leader laughed in our faces and told us that we would run out of room to bury our dead. My ancestors laughed to themselves. We had already run out of land to bury our dead. A week later the Republic marched into your lands and crushed your armies and then slaughtered your people. They burned every city and town to ground, they salted the land and carried away your cattle. All of this suffering did not satisfy the Republic. My ancestors brought five dragons into your valley and released them, telling you that you would only be forgiven once the dragons were dead. Until then your people must work as slaves to the Republic and now your time is running out as all can see the Republic’s institutions are dying. The Republic is an Empire in all but name and the legal scholars all agree that if the Republic ceases to exist your people can never be free again and will be slaves for ever.”