The Promise of the Wind: Chapter One

It all started thousands of years back in what was believed to be a mystical world, Almata, so far away from the earth, that it would take some centuries for anyone to get there.

Almata was not like any usual place out there. No, it was magical from the word go, too hidden for anyone to trace if it even existed.

Setting out in finding it would be the perfect adventure for anyone who fancied looking for the unknown whether hidden maps corked up in bottles at the bottom of the sea or gold coins buried under dead trees and left behind by pirates.

I must say it was invisible to anyone without a heart as pure as gold.

No occupant of this enchanted world would dare to leave because it was just very difficult and sometimes impossible, depending on the state of the situation.

There was always a strange, sophisticated sort of magnetic pool in this world's heartland that always pulled back whoever belonged there, whether an escapee or anyone evil and showed wrong motives.

They were always cast into the center of Almata immediately especially those whose practices made them stand out from the rest of the crowds negatively.

That was not the only hindrance, there were probably hundreds of things that would change anyone's mind about traveling the road to the Gate of Time-lost Souls, the door for entering other worlds.

Everything in here was magnificent, exciting and at free display for anyone to enjoy. It was actually a crime, and therefore punishable by law for complaining plus keeping a gloomy face all day long as everything was in plenty.

Almata was the great big world, stretching from as far as the North fork or rather Upper ground to the South fork or Lower ground but within it, there were empires, hundreds of them.

Like fingers, they were not the same politically. Some were more powerful than others and the systems of governance were altogether different.

Generally very empire was unique in its own way, considering there were different government systems for each one of them.

Although every empire looked different on the outside, there was something they all shared in common after all that is the reality of things, just like all children bed-wet at a certain age.

They all followed or practiced according to the Zaban, a set of laws that was meant to ensure perfect harmony among the empires because without it, battles and war cries is all there would be at the end of each day.

But that was just one of the reasons for any empire to run its activities in conjunction with the Zaban, the other was to uplift the gods and goddesses of Almata.

The very powerful and most successful empires occupied the North fork while the least powerful took over the South fork.

There were never intermediates. The rule was," you were either a good apple or a bad one."

But I know you can't make head or tail of what lay in between the North and South forks. Now that is where I'm heading.

Actually, there was something called the Middle Grounds or rather the Dark lands. It was not that it was always dark in these lands, no, it is more complicated than you think.

This was the land left as a result of the intersection between the North and South forks.

But there was also a common belief that the very evil ones were thrown her in the Dark lands including escapees who were trying to run away from Almata in search for a better world.

I cannot say any creature that looked like a human because the Almatians themselves were non-human.

The Dark tribes were what one would call the perfect mixed fruit salad or vegetable salad. Living in the Dark lands was like living in the jungle, you needed to have a tough skin.

Dwarfs, elves, goblins, fairies, witches, wizards, giants, genies, warlocks and pixies not forgetting all those other flying creatures belonged here in the Dark lands.

So, what was the political system in the Dark lands given that there were very many species of peculiar creatures?

The Dark tribes were arranged in colonies and each specie had one. Under every colony, there was a leader who made sure everything ran smoothly.

This leader was voted into that post by members of that race following a certain criterion and therefore would be a male or a female.

Gender bias, which had a more chance percentage of surfacing in the Dark lands than the Forks was highly forbidden by the Almatan gods and goddesses and the was a price to pay for anyone who portrayed such character.

But there were exceptions. It was considered a bad omen for a wife or daughter from a royal family to inherit the title of a bereaved Emperor by becoming Empress.

Talking of gods and goddesses, they were to be respected by everyone through worship and offering sacrifices, whether you were from the Forks or from the Dark lands, provided you belonged to the world of Almata.

Again, there was some common ground here, worshipping and sacrificing to the same gods and goddesses.

To make each colony more efficient and well represented, a leader was picked from each one of them and asked to join a special committee known as the Cadena.

The main role of the Cadena was to represent every creature to the gods and goddesses.

It was actually through the Cadena that each and every creature's prayers and problems were forwarded to the gods and goddesses.

The other role of the Cadena was to enforce maximum collaboration amongst all colonies.

That said, there were a set of laws, the Mazan, that stipulated how each colony was supposed to conduct itself to ensure zero-tolerance to coercion and other forms of misbehavior.

And that is how everything was, in the Dark lands.

In the forks, each empire was run by an emperor or empress but trust me when I say those empires ruled by men were more powerful than those run by women.

And as matter of fact, most empires with empresses as rulers were located in the South fork.

There were hardly any cases of power struggles anywhere within the empires as the hereditary system is what worked here in contrast with the voting system that was used by the Dark tribes.

But this doesn't mean that there were no conflicts, such a world would be too perfect and exaggerated.

And do not think the gods and goddesses were always on some watchtower monitoring every step that everyone made.

That would be acting like some psycho and secondly, no one loves a weakling child, the one you have to check on every now and again.

Therefore, the eldest son or daughter in the ruling family was at free will to take over from the Emperor or Empress respectively, as long as they were on their death beds, breathing their last and preparing to go to the Land of the Dead.