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Ok, a teaser...thoughts and criticsms please.
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The voices, the screams, the sheer bloody nightmare still haunts me to this day. Until now, when I put ink on parchment, I have never spoken of what I know; what I have done. It is only now as I am on my death bed do I believe I can finally face the pain and confess to what I have done. Maybe it is some hope that a god somewhere will forgive me; maybe it is simply a need to have peace of mind, to confess my sins as it were, though I am not Roman nor Catholic.
My name is Utana and I was once a member of the King's elite troops, the Immortals, feared and despised warriors of the Persian armies. But the Persian armies are no longer feared, but they are despised, decades of hatred continuously swelling against them from other nations. You see, in my life time, Persia has risen from obscurity to world power and then into poverty. But it is not this which the historians will remember. In the grand scheme of things, Persia was but a pretender on the world stage. No, the historians will remember the short, brutal reign of Persia as the world's most powerful Empire through the brutallity of its soldiers and the tyranny of its leader.
Every passage has a beginning and mine began when I was but a boy of eight years. Persian scientists had discovered a hard substance called iron that could be used to forge armour and weapons the likes of which had never been seen before. It was a momentus occassion for the nation, which was effectively ruled from afar in Rome and Thebes. Trapped between the Illian Ocean and Rome and Egypt, Persia played the meke child to its powerful neighbours. Lacking the capability for producing an army, the King of Persia was faced with the threat of invasion daily and selling Persian pride and possessions was the only way to keep it at bay. Gods knew that the Persian army couldn't.
The advent of iron was a turning point, though apparently the King refused to utilise it. Instead, his son, Prince Xerses decided to secretly begin the training and building of an army. Xerses had no spent forty years like his father had saying yes to the Caeser's and Cleopatra's of Rome and Egypt. He was head strong and a patriot at heart, but his methods were less than ideal. But as Prince, with backing from the military high commanders, Xerses formed the Immortals and there was little people could do to stop him. Immortals. The very name is ironic as we suffered more losses per hundred soldiers than any other unit in Persian history. Xerses made the Immortals his own secret army, laying wait until the time was right.
It was obvious the right time wasn't quick enough coming, because the King died suddenly without reason by the time I was sixteen. I had only just finished training in the Immortals after being recruited from the Persopolis docks. Even before the dust had settled from the King's death, word was spreading that he had died at the hands of his son. However the King died, it still meant Xerses ascended the throne as King of Persia and the slippery slope to hell had been crossed.
Once Xerses had obtained the throne, he revealed the existance of the Immortals and even I was surprised at how many of us their were. Scattered throughout Persia in every city were divisions upon divisions of Immortal troops, all sworn to die in battle to protect Persia and the King. I couldn't tell if I wanted to die for our new King, but time is not a patient mistress and I wasn't given much choice. Follow the King wherever he chose to go, or die a traitor's death.
War loomed large over our heads as Xerses refused to bow his head and bend his knee to the Romans and Egyptians. They threatened invasion, even annihilation, unless Xerses met their demands. Xerses sent each envoy back to their leaders minus everything below the neck.
Xerses' harsh rule was beginning to take effect at home as well. Civilians strung up in cages in town squares were a frequent site as so called traitors were rounded up and left to rot in the sun and picked to pieces by the crows. Xerses ruled brutally and did not hesitate to use his power to enfoce his rule and the Immortals were the King's tool for administering his rule. I still remember the gut wrenching screams of a woman who I stabbed while she tried to free her husband from the traitor's cage he was confined to. At the time, I shunted my feelings away, justifying my actions by telling myself I was simply following orders. Now, I am not so sure. Killing her had seemed so easy at the time, but her screams still haunt my dreams. She was the first person I had ever killed. It would not be the last.
Within a year of taking the throne, Xerses went to war.
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The voices, the screams, the sheer bloody nightmare still haunts me to this day. Until now, when I put ink on parchment, I have never spoken of what I know; what I have done. It is only now as I am on my death bed do I believe I can finally face the pain and confess to what I have done. Maybe it is some hope that a god somewhere will forgive me; maybe it is simply a need to have peace of mind, to confess my sins as it were, though I am not Roman nor Catholic.
My name is Utana and I was once a member of the King's elite troops, the Immortals, feared and despised warriors of the Persian armies. But the Persian armies are no longer feared, but they are despised, decades of hatred continuously swelling against them from other nations. You see, in my life time, Persia has risen from obscurity to world power and then into poverty. But it is not this which the historians will remember. In the grand scheme of things, Persia was but a pretender on the world stage. No, the historians will remember the short, brutal reign of Persia as the world's most powerful Empire through the brutallity of its soldiers and the tyranny of its leader.
Every passage has a beginning and mine began when I was but a boy of eight years. Persian scientists had discovered a hard substance called iron that could be used to forge armour and weapons the likes of which had never been seen before. It was a momentus occassion for the nation, which was effectively ruled from afar in Rome and Thebes. Trapped between the Illian Ocean and Rome and Egypt, Persia played the meke child to its powerful neighbours. Lacking the capability for producing an army, the King of Persia was faced with the threat of invasion daily and selling Persian pride and possessions was the only way to keep it at bay. Gods knew that the Persian army couldn't.
The advent of iron was a turning point, though apparently the King refused to utilise it. Instead, his son, Prince Xerses decided to secretly begin the training and building of an army. Xerses had no spent forty years like his father had saying yes to the Caeser's and Cleopatra's of Rome and Egypt. He was head strong and a patriot at heart, but his methods were less than ideal. But as Prince, with backing from the military high commanders, Xerses formed the Immortals and there was little people could do to stop him. Immortals. The very name is ironic as we suffered more losses per hundred soldiers than any other unit in Persian history. Xerses made the Immortals his own secret army, laying wait until the time was right.
It was obvious the right time wasn't quick enough coming, because the King died suddenly without reason by the time I was sixteen. I had only just finished training in the Immortals after being recruited from the Persopolis docks. Even before the dust had settled from the King's death, word was spreading that he had died at the hands of his son. However the King died, it still meant Xerses ascended the throne as King of Persia and the slippery slope to hell had been crossed.
Once Xerses had obtained the throne, he revealed the existance of the Immortals and even I was surprised at how many of us their were. Scattered throughout Persia in every city were divisions upon divisions of Immortal troops, all sworn to die in battle to protect Persia and the King. I couldn't tell if I wanted to die for our new King, but time is not a patient mistress and I wasn't given much choice. Follow the King wherever he chose to go, or die a traitor's death.
War loomed large over our heads as Xerses refused to bow his head and bend his knee to the Romans and Egyptians. They threatened invasion, even annihilation, unless Xerses met their demands. Xerses sent each envoy back to their leaders minus everything below the neck.
Xerses' harsh rule was beginning to take effect at home as well. Civilians strung up in cages in town squares were a frequent site as so called traitors were rounded up and left to rot in the sun and picked to pieces by the crows. Xerses ruled brutally and did not hesitate to use his power to enfoce his rule and the Immortals were the King's tool for administering his rule. I still remember the gut wrenching screams of a woman who I stabbed while she tried to free her husband from the traitor's cage he was confined to. At the time, I shunted my feelings away, justifying my actions by telling myself I was simply following orders. Now, I am not so sure. Killing her had seemed so easy at the time, but her screams still haunt my dreams. She was the first person I had ever killed. It would not be the last.
Within a year of taking the throne, Xerses went to war.
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