5001-HârnWorld/3rd Edition/44

Mejenes the Great
Mejenes had royal blood and was a veteran of border wars. Xuaka’s military skills may have been equal to that of Mejenes, but the resources of the Corani Empire were far greater. After four years of protracted war, which included victories for both sides, Mejenes was able to pen Xuaka inside the walls of Aleath while the Corani army laid waste to his kingdom. Xuaka could do little but accept the terms of peace offered by Mejenes in 447. The Kingdom of Aleathia would be restored to its pre-war borders for the balance of Xuaka’s life but would then be willed to the Corani Empire. When Xuaka died of natural causes six years later, the terms of the peace were honored and Aleathia became a Corani province. Mejenes died in 465 and was buried amidst an unprecedented outpouring of public grief. Other emperors had done more to improve the lot of their people, but it is always the great soldiers who are best loved.

Decline of the Empire
With the last obstacle to Corani hegemony in the west removed, the empire seemed destined to rule all Hârn. Another emperor of Mejenes’ skills might have done so, but the six emperors who followed him were not soldiers. Mejenes’ own son, Sylud the Scholar, was vehemently opposed to military spending. This led to the total collapse of the northern province of Peran when Kustan was captured in 477, its garrison massacred by the Kubora.

With the exception of Mindrithar, the empire was then cursed with a series of incompetent emperors. Saurach was a religious fanatic who promptly got himself assassinated after seeking to ban all religions other

than the Church of Agrik. Korad was a pliable moron, totally unable to control the acquisitive Corani nobility. Shorka chose to ignore affairs of state and appointed his eccentric court astrologer, Workol, as chancellor. Workol managed to alienate nearly everyone with excessive taxation and nonsensical policies based on his readings of the stars and planets.

The last emperor, Medak, was a vigorous and strong emperor but came too late to save the empire. He clearly perceived the rot and decadence that had infected the realm, although his cure may have been worse than the disease. One of his first acts was to execute Workol and then hundreds of others were put to death by impalement. One of these was the prophet Balsha.

Balsha the Prophet
Born of a common soldier in the Corani province of Rethem in 520, Balsha was destined to become the most important religious personality in the history of Hârn. At 32, this charismatic priest of Morgath achieved prominence by correctly predicting a hard winter and poor crop. Over the next six years, Balsha’s fame grew. Aided by a destructive series of plagues and famines that the imperium could not check, his preaching of Balshanism, a heresy of Morgathianism, and the uncanny accuracy of his prophecies, won him a large following. Medak thought it wise to terminate the rantings of this “petty troublemaker” and Balsha was dragged to the impaling stake in 558 at the age of 38. His dying words are reputed to have been:

Balsha’s lieutenants made these words a call to arms. Thousands flocked to the martyr’s birthplace of Ithiko and the Balshan Jihad was born.

The Balshan Jihad
The disastrous Red Death, a deadly plague that ravaged all Hârn at this time, fed the rebellion. By 560, the whole of Rethem, where Medak’s purges had seriously depleted the army’s will to resist, was under Balshan control. Encouraged by their success, the Balshans gave siege to the city of Merethos in 562 and it fell after a brief siege. Its captors gave the city its present name, Golotha, which is believed to mean something like “dark victory” in the secret tongue of the church of Morgath.

= =