The Long Peace

or

The Peace of Nagib al Nasser

During this, the beginning of the third lunar year of the solar cycle of the Year of Khusra-Fadhlan, the annual Feasts of Investiture are followed by the rest period commemorating a lasting peace in the old Man-Kzin Wars that make up so much of the state mythology of Cothon-Gadeed.

Just as last year's Long Wake commemorated all the heroic dead of the many wars in a weeks-long period of public mourning, now the Long Peace commemorates the time of an especially binding peace in a weeks-long period of public rest from works. Or rather, has commemorated, as the Long Peace ends tonight!--and was little remarked on by the industrious barbarians up to their own business in the neighborhoods of Cothon and in the depths of the Tel al Safina.

Are the Scribes who have failed to update this chronicle for the past few weeks using this Long Peace as a convenient excuse for their lack of industry? Perhaps! But such is the excuse of the inhabitants of both of the Dual-Cities for the past few weeks, and quiet has reigned in the streets and neighborhoods; the souks have been silent of the hawking of wares, the arenas empty of games or honor-duels, the harbors quiet, for thought the winds of trade never cease, at least the Guild of Longshoremen have the courtesy to keep their work quiet during this time of peace.

And the barbarian-adventurers? The Survivors of the Tel, Durham of the Ringing Anvil, Lord Althis of the Crag Keep, et al.? Surely they have noticed the quiet of the city, but many of them have affairs of their own to run outside the city, and so to them the Peace was little remarked, and has passed by essentially unnoticed. If their industry during this time of public rest caused any scandal, well, it is somewhat to be expected--even the citizen among them, Sesel, is of barbarian ancestry!--and so their ignorance of custom can be looked past, for now.

All of which is to say, the Long Peace has no effect on or for player-characters (... this year). It is noted here rather for historical interest, and as a reminder of the passing of the seasons (and maybe a bit of an excuse!).

What will probably be of more interest to such player-characters are the public Games that will follow this conclusion of the Long Peace.

A Bit of History

During the Twelfth War there was a famous campaign on which a company of Kzin Heroes embarked on an attempt at naval conquest against the more distant holdings of Gadeed. The threat was great, as even then Gadeed relied so much on her maritime trade to feed her citizens and populace--the hinterlands could never produce enough grain!--and so the response from the (at the time) small military cothon at the head of the Garden River to cut off the Kzin adventurers was swift.

After a campaign of sail and counter-sail, the Heroes were finally caught on a smaller island, and the fleet from Gadeed put fire to the Kzin ships, leaving the Heroes and their auxiliaries and slaves stranded, cut off from supplies. Rather than starving Gadeed, the Heroes found themselves starving ... and in an unprecedented move, many of them surrendered as prisoners to Gadeed rather than die the humiliating death of hunger (though only after eating most of their slaves, and realizing that recourse would not last forever ...).

This capture of a company of Kzinti seemed as if fortune were finally smiling on Gadeed; alas, fortune is a fickle mistress, and later that cycle, a host of men were captured in a major land battle elsewhere in the war. However, the Souffet Nagib made the most of the captive Heroes--he sent word to the Kzinti that he was willing to negotiate some kind of a peace for a prisoner exchange, rather than allow his entire army to be enslaved or devoured.

The overture couldn't have come at a better time, for in the ranks of the Kzinti at the time a movement desiring a different way of life had just come into the ascendant. This so-called Hané, or "Pride", had a different vision for Kzin-life than the endless nomadic cycles of the traditional Heroic bands, and because their voices had become ascendant in the councils of the Kzinti, they actually listened to Nagib's pleas for peace--and after long negotiations, agreed to a great truce (several solar cycles!) and a prisoner exchange.

Though this Peace of Nagib was doomed to be broken early, it is still commemorated as a time of hope for the end of the Man-Kzin Wars--and indeed with the ascension of the Hane, it presaged the ultimate development of the stable landed polities of the Mrrshan to the south, the growth of which did finally end the otherwise constant Wars.

This Peace was actually negotiated by the lords of the Bani Tsamr, a once potent clan that is now long since extinct; but their name lives on in the modern Tsamri-Hane Games which will commence with the ending of the so-called Long Peace ...