Farworld: The Ulkuhn Part 1
There is at this time a fearsome and horrible tribe of savages that seem intent on destroying everything in this region.
What follows is an excerpt from the first volume of The Legends and Histories of Farworld.
The Ulkuhn were inspired by Gengis Kahn and the Mongolian Empire as narrated by Dan Carlin’s voice and Conn Iggulden’s plots. The Ulkuhn, like the Mongols, wove a violent stain into the space time fabric of their particular historical infinity scarf.
Violence always makes for such lovely storytelling, doesn’t it?
The Ulkuhn
~7500-7600 Years after The Fall
“There is at this time a fearsome and horrible tribe of savages that seem intent on destroying everything in this region. It is with a heavy heart that I must flee these sacred lands and take refuge amongst the mountain peoples, lest I be destroyed along with everything I have thus far recorded.”
-The Traveler’s Tomes
There once lived a tribe of nomadic camelmen in the lands south and east of the Womb Sea that called themselves the Ulkuhn. For many generations they had lived off the land, raiding settled towns and warring with other tribes, until approximately the year 7500 when a great empire came to power off the banks of the Womb. Though the name of this empire, along with many other things from this time and place, has been lost to history, it is believed to have come to rule the lands around the Womb, pushing the Ulkuhn east and north away from their ancestral hunting grounds and into the lands of cold tundras where they and their camels struggled to survive.
The Ulkhuhn hated this empire, but grew weaker in strength. A terrible famine threatened to wipe the tribe from the face of the planet, and some of the Ulkuhn decided to strike a deal with the empire: land in exchange for labor. Though the Ulkuhn were wanderers who picked up their tents and moved when they liked, detesting the permanent stone and wood buildings of the settled societies, it was agreed that the Ulkuhn would build new towns for the empire in exchange for access to grain stores and hunting grounds.
They were to build three towns in exchange for grain and land for ten years. But within a year, the empire forced the Ulkuhn to abandon their tents and live in the stone and wood houses they had built. Over the decade, the hunting grounds promised to them were taken, and when the ten years had come to pass, the empire marched an army to keep the Ulkuhn from leaving. The empire had made them a tribe of slaves.
Hundreds of Ulkuhn were killed in the unrest that followed, and thousands more would die in the generations to come. The empire had successfully brought the Ulkuhn and many other peoples to heel and would quell uprisings for at least three generations.
We have only the Ulkuhn as a source for the fall of that empire, and those histories were written at least one generation after the events. With the exception of the two sentences from the Travelers’ Tomes quoted above, there is a sole surviving text from this time and region entitled “A Comprehensive Account of the Ulkuhn People”, by an Elfen chronicler called Heroluvas who claims to have lived most of her life amongst the Ulkuhn. It is one of this world’s most incredible primary sources of ancient history and we will quote Heroluvas extensively.
“They smashed our army in battle, slaughtering without remorse even those who surrendered, then proceeded to besiege the city, poisoning our canals and catapulting the bodies of our dead warriors over the walls into our midst. We had no warning of their coming, except the mysterious reduction and eventual disappearance of our trading partners to the south. I know now that the Ulkuhn had destroyed them all, and will continue to destroy unto lands’ end.”
According to Heroluvas, the Ulkuhn rose up in rebellion against the empire under the leadership of a man named Shalla the Indomitable. Under Shalla’s leadership, the Ulkuhn took advantage of a civil war that had broken out in the empire. Scholars can only speculate on the causes of this fracture, for those details were unimportant to the Ulkuhn who commissioned “A Comprehensive Account…” We know there was a split amongst the more favored people of the empire, and many of the troops that were meant to subjugate the Ulkuhn were called away to battle.
The Ulkuhn under the foot of the empire had no organized warrior caste as they had in their nomadic days, nor did they have many camels or weapons aside from the tools with which they worked. But Shalla the Indomitable rallied all of the young men and women of the Ulkuhn to raid an armory, where they overwhelmed imperial troops despite their lack of arms.
“Shalla the Indomitable led an impromptu militia of Ulkuhn against the imperial armory, armed with nothing but shovels and crude knives carved out of stone. Shalla himself had no weapons but his hands, and with great bravery they fell upon the armored and armed imperial guards, surprising them under the cover of night and fighting without fear.”
With the finely made weapons they found in the armory, the Ulkuhn made short work of the remaining imperial troops in the area, and once again claimed freedom of movement after generations. According to Heroluvas, they did not leave a single imperial citizen alive, neither man, woman, nor child.
But Shalla was not satisfied. He sent word to the Ulkuhn who, generations before, had chosen to bear the tundra and famine rather than work for the empire. These cousins responded with eagerness, swelling Shalla’s ranks to nearly ten thousand. Reinforced with the warriors and camels of their nomad cousins, Shalla’s Ulkuhn tore through the scarcely defended lands, raiding and pillaging with reckless abandon, leaving no survivors in their wake.
“Shalla in his great wisdom saw that the weakness of the empire was the many peoples which it ruled, who would always be unhappy, always be competing for favor, and always be a threat to the Ulkuhn power and freedom.”
Despite Shalla the Indomitable’s importance to the Ulkuhn people, his words were never recorded, with the exception of one short speech, which encapsulates the whole of the Ulkuhn motive.
“With many peoples there will be unending war and suffering, and so it is the burden of the Ulkuhn peoples to rid the world of war and suffering by cleansing it.”
Heroluvas records many of Shalla’s victories, but never records the names of the cities, towns, or peoples that the Ulkuhn destroyed, as the Ulkuhn believed that there must be a total erasure of all non-Ulkuhnut. It seems that though Shalla could neither read nor write, he was aware of his place in history, and believed that if anything survived his conquests, it would forever be a threat to his descendants. It was standard practice for the Ulkuhn to burn any piece of writing they found in a conquered city or town as they systematically cut the throats of the people.
Heroluvas records Shalla’s destructive march to the imperial capital with surprising detail despite the lack of names, but we shall forego most of those writings here. The one note of significance before the climax of Shalla’s campaign, comes from the story of a small city that attempted to bargain its way out of destruction at the hands of the Ulkuhn.
“As the Ulkuhn encircled the city and before its water could be poisoned, their general came out to treat with Shalla.
“‘We know that you wish the destruction of the empire,’ said the general, ‘and this fits our aims as well. As the emperor fights his war in the east, our city is heavily taxed to pay for it. Our sons are taken to battle and we are left with no one to keep the peace as our people go hungry. Instead of shedding each other’s blood, let us combine strength and bring the emperor to his knees.’”
Shalla is said to have smiled at this, and challenged the general to single combat. If the general proved a worthy opponent, his wish would be granted and the city’s warriors would swell the ranks of the Ulkuhn. If not, all inside the city would be destroyed. Shalla prevailed in the duel, but not without difficulty, and so he spared the general’s head. Instead, he took his manhood, but made good on his promise to bring the city’s warriors into his army.
But the city itself was not spared. After sending the new troops off with the best of his own against the imperial army, Shalla ordered the city destroyed as had been all others in their path. No one was left alive, no scroll was unburnt, and the city’s walls were torn down stone by stone.
On the battlefield, Shalla ordered the city’s soldiers on the first charge after taking the best of their horses and weapons. Those soldiers fought valiantly and helped to soften the imperial army’s lines before the fearsome attack of the Ulkuhn cavalry which routed the enemy. Most of the city’s soldiers died in that charge, including the gelded general. Those who survived remained in the Ulkuhn army and were forced to breed with an Ulkuhn woman before being made eunuchs themselves. “Thus,” Heroluvas writes, “began the Ulkuhnut tradition of honoring their defeated foes by allowing their blood to mix with that of the Ulkuhn.”
Shalla died heroically in the battle for the imperial capital, and was succeeded by his son Zethos. In victory, Zethos brought the dethroned emperor outside the city walls to watch as his people were slaughtered and his city was taken apart. Zethos granted the emperor final words to carry his empire’s legacy into history…but Zethos was not impressed with the emperor’s last words and chose not to recount them to Heroluvas.
Imperial soldiers that survived the battle were given the opportunity to fight for their lives, but they must fight without weapons and armor. The few that survived were gelded and incorporated into the army. The city boasted a great library, which Zethos saw burned. Every male of the city was killed. Women of child bearing age were raped and kept in captivity until they gave birth, when their children were taken from them and they were executed.
The Ulkuhn continued their conquest in this manner for all of Zethos’ life, giving a leader of each defeated peoples a final word. Some of those words were recorded, and some of those leaders were even kept alive and treated well as advisors to Zethos. This is how the writings of Heroluvas have come down to us.
Heroluvas was the only child of an Elfen king who was killed in a battle against the Ulkuhn. As she saw her city brought down and her people slaughtered around her, “I was filled with a sense of peace,” she writes.
“When he came before me, my sisters wept, but I was not afraid. ‘I am Zethos of the Ulkuhn, the conquerors of the world. I have laid your army to waste and in a month the walls of your city will not stand. Your people shall be wiped from the world, but the Ulkuhn are not without honor. What would you have us remember?’
Heroluvas was fifteen at the time, and outlived both Zethos and his heir. She did as she promised, and therefore the story of the Ulkuhn has passed down to us.