DeConstructing the Sekuatean Empire, Part 2

THE DREAM LAND - continuing report
(...a genre-mashing epic of interdimensional intrigue and police procedural, a psychological thriller marbled with twisted humor, steampunk pathos, and time/space conundrums.)

Like most stories, the beginning has been lost in the womb of time, yet I shall attempt to bring to the discussion a reasonably brief summary of the most important facts.

Once upon a time there was a planet. And this planet sat in the middle of a solar system ruled by two suns, a large yellow one and a small blue one. And on that planet were continents and oceans and some people to change all of that. A civilization developed. None can recall how that happened or exactly when it could be recognized as happening. Yet soon there came to be nation-states and one of them was called Sekuate.

In those days the primary land mass known as Zissekap was evenly divided between the Danid people in the north and the Rouê people of the south. Often there were clashes between them and the boundary shifted with the wind. Considering what came to pass in later years, this was considered a golden age and many heroes and legends were fired in the furnaces of storytellers.

At some point amidst the high civilization of Zissekap, with its kingdoms and tribal groups, an invasion occurred. Arriving by sea, the new Ghoupalle people were believed by Danid and Rouê to be descended from the gods. Accommodation was made for the invaders. Over the generations, the Danid were pushed into the mountains and the Rouê were pushed into the desert. A new civilization was built atop and among that of the original inhabitants.

Fantasy stories often have such dichotomies, rivalries between ethnic groups, and references to gods, heroes, and legends. However, when Earth nerds Sebastian Talbot and Gina Parton found themselves in this new world, they were quick to recognize that they were not amidst some cute, fluffy-bunny, or Hobbit-like playground of fantastic scenarios. Rather, they were terrified of being found out as Earthlings.

They need not have worried, as it turned out, because they closely resembled the majority of the population, the Ghoupalle “race” which controlled most of Zissekap. The political entity known as Sekuate was where they found their home and where most of their lives* were conducted. In the Ghoupalle year of 1440**, Sekuate was divided between a northern state and a southern state. Two small nations separated these portions, its capital and largest cities being in the northern one. This division was a source of conflict generations old. It was eventually resolved when the ruling family of Tomodon-Sarrêban was overthrown by a group of five revolutionaries, called the Gangus Council, their legions of followers, and the army, commanded by a sympathizer, General Bandar-Traf who supported them.

Sebastian caught the worst of the revolution, civil war, and annexation wars that ensued, stuck commanding a cavalry regiment, while Gina found herself the unlucky hostage of a Zetin warlord, just to save her adopted people from defeat. By that point in Ghoupalle history (1529-1533), Sebastian was married to Zaura-Matousz, a Ghoupalle woman and was working as a cavalry captain and professor of military science. Gina was married to the conceited prime minster of Tebbicousimankalê, a large nation in northern Megank, the continent to the north and east of Zissekap and the sworn enemy of the Sekuatean Empire. 

Sebastian and Gina each struggled to free themselves from their fate while trying to help end the wars. "History sucks while you’re in it," Sebastian reportedly said at the siege of the industrial metropolis of Siaa in northern Tebbicousimankalê (Pouor-12:1533).

But I digress….

To fully deconstruct the Sekuatean Empire, we will need to understand much more of its history and customs. We may also need to understand who these Ghoupalle people are and how the Danid, Rouê, and even Zetin people plot to wipe them out of existence. To escape that future war of extermination, certain science-minded individuals may yet identify a cosmic phenomena whereby the world of Ghoupallesz could connect to the world of Earth….

*"Lives" would be the correct term because while they continued to age at their baseline Earth rate, the years of Ghoupalle civilization passed like months. It became necessary to remove themselves from one “time zone” and begin again in a new one.

**"Ghoupalle years" measure the years after the invasion of Zissekap.

COMING FALL 2012 

[2 cents to you if you caught the typo.]

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(C) Copyright 2010-2012 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.