Tirigan's Background
The City and the Desert
The Place
Though the Alodians call it the Great Dune Sea the landscape of the desert is far more varied. There are the vast sand seas, called ergs, where the great worms live and the spice blooms are found. There are also the flat, stony plains and the highland plateaus, called regs and hamada respectively. There are hills and mountains, there are wadis and gorges that form where water occasionally flows and there are oases and guelta where the water is.
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It was not the green fields that fascinated me when I first came to Alodia, nor the trees or the reed beds where crocodiles and hippos live, nor even Soba itself with its teeming multitudes. No, it was the river. Not so much the sheer size of it, because I could imagine a body of water like an oasis but much bigger, it was the fact that it was moving. When I first saw the Serpent I almost expected the river to drain away after a few hours. I could not imagine that amount of water in motion could last, but it does. From west to east, from dusk till dawn, forever flowing.
The People
The Kif desert tribes are necessarily small and nomadic. The oases are too fragile for long term habitation so we keep on the move. Our yearly migrations are complex, as the oases replenish themselves at different rates, but through long experience and negotiation with the gods of palm and water we know which stopping points are ready for our return. We take everything with us, using camels and yeddim to carry our small amounts of possessions. These are not our only animals, we keep goats for meat, milk and skins, chickens for food and hawks for hunting and scouting. Life is communal, everyone works, everyone eats, everyone shares in making decisions. Though the latter is commonly achieved through loud, prolonged arguments, often lasting days.
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Soba is divided against itself. There are too many people for everyone to know everyone else so people make sub-tribes based on wealth or location or profession. These tribes are mutually antagonistic, vying for power and resources. Even within each tribe people squabble to gain rank and influence. Soba is dizzyingly hierarchical with position based on birth, wealth and rank. My City Watch, for example, has constables, sergeants, lieutenants, captains and a commander. All this tribalism and hierarchy leads to an astonishing amount of inequality. A fat, wealthy merchant will walk past a starving beggar and think nothing of it. People with no tribes have no protection and no expectation of being treated fairly. The laws of the city are supposed to prevent this but there is no one to enforce them. The Watch is weakened after long neglect and the Satrap uninterested in reform.
Dangers
Life in the desert is harsh and there are dangers beyond thirst and starvation. Much of the animal life is deadly, from the great sand worms of the ergs to the tiny pebble scorpions. There are cheetahs, lions and shadow cats, the fearsome austrech and the lesser basilisk. I was trained to fight from an early age, using spear and crysknife, fists and feet. Many of the hunting beasts are ambush predators so being able to fight with whatever is at hand is vital. Conflict between tribes is highly ritualised and rarely deadly. All out fighting between two tribes could easily lead to the destruction of both.
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The dangers of the city are less physical. I was more than a match for most of the city's mercenary fighters and hard men. No one was expecting a watchman to stand up to them and those who resorted to violence found themselves outmatched. After I had made arrests where none had been made for years my opponents tried other tactics. Bribery and blackmail did not work and I had no family and few friends in the city for them to intimidate. So politics was their weapon, using the unseen influences in Soba that I did not understand, they put pressure on Commander Sardar to have me thrown out of the watch. Old and weary though he was, he resisted. That in turn lead my new found enemies to try more desperate tactics.
Strangers
Strangers are a rarity in the desert and months can go by without seeing a new face. Tribes do meet up for negotiations, trading and celebrations but not often and not for long. The few none Kif we meet are at the spice trading camps at the desert's edge. We trade the spice Melange for tools and cloth and trinkets that we cannot make for ourselves.
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There are many in Soba who were not born there. Some are temporary visitors, merchants and travellers along the rivers, stopping for a while then moving onwards. Others, like myself, settle and find work. Others came here as an escape from troubles elsewhere, one of these is my lover Agna. I first saw her in the market buying herbs. She was tall, pale and with hair so blond it was almost white. The market folk call her the White Witch of the North, though not to her face and not with any malice. I am not ashamed to say that I stopped and stared, she was so unlike anyone I had ever seen before. And so, because I had never been taught not to talk to people I went to talk to her. Two strangers in the city, one from the deep desert, the other from the frozen north, finding each other.
Changes
In ancient days the Prophet, peace be upon him, commanded that Soba be defended and the Kif did just that. The practice of sending young warriors to serve in Soba has faded over the years, most of those who went never came back. My tribe, however, keeps to the old ways and I was chosen at a very young age for that duty. My education included such rarities as reading, how to handle money and Alodian history (much of it turning out to be wrong). At eighteen years of age, two years after claiming my adult crysknife, I was sent off to Soba with much ceremony.
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After a year in the city matters came to a head. I had become somewhat known throughout Soba and popular in the poorer areas of the city. Someone who stood for justice was welcome with people who had none. Gangs, guilds-men and guards would not face me directly and their activities were much curtailed. Threats, bribery and politics could not dissuade me so my enemies settled for murder. While on the way to my lodgings, in the early hours of the morning, I saw a woman being attacked by two men so I went to help. It was a trap and I had been lured in. I was ambushed, masked men coming out from the shadow of doorways and nearby alleys, more than I could possibly defeat. I was wounded and went down under a hail of blows. As I was losing consciousness I was angry, not for myself but for the people who depended on me for hope. I was angry for justice denied, for that fact that the greedy and corrupt had won. My anger grew, then burned and then became light. I blazed. My attackers stunned by this display of power backed away, but that did not save them. I was reborn, my weapons were lost but I no longer needed them. I fell upon my ambushers and they were no more.
A New Dawn
My powers have grown in the year since the ambush. I have found there are others in Soba like me, a small number of men and women who have recently come into power. What our purpose is I do not know and whether we use our abilities for good or ill still remains to be seen. I can only do my best and I have a city of injustice and inequality to fix. One thought disturbs me, the elders of my tribe say that power attracts power. With so many new powers in the city what else will be drawn to Soba?
