Amaeus Zakratii: Amaeus Zakratii is the youngest child of the Trae Mestraes, yet paradoxically is the founder of the Zakrat Order and therefore the oldest member of the Order. As the youngest brother of the three, he had both of his brothers watching over him and at the same time, impressing upon them their respective lifestyles. However, Amaeus was in the unique position of being the charge of his brothers and as such he was able to take the role of mediator between the two of them when they became angry at one another. He viewed the role of being a mediator and neutrality to conflict and ensuring that an equitable settlement could be reached as one of the greatest callings one could strive for. This philosophy would become the foundation of the Zakratii House and the Arbitrator faction Zakrat. Amaeus’s writings and sayings remained the same throughout his life, however, like his brothers, his writings and sayings did change post-Battle of the Bloody Hills, but, not in the way of his brothers. While Harun became more conservative, Craven became more revolutionary, and Amaeus seemingly called back to his earlier writings and sayings with an added sense of urgency and emphasis. His early writings seemingly were ahead of his time in terms of understanding the cycle of violence and that in order for progress to be made, the cycle must be broken and that some people are going to have to give up quests for vengeance and make peace with their demons. His philosophy of mediation put him in a unique position where he was able to time and time again bring his brothers into the same room to talk with one another and try to understand their differences and come to a compromise, with some success. This reputation seemingly has carried over throughout the ages down the Zakratii House, with them being called upon by any and all Houses of the Zakrat due to their impartial nature and the fact that they show no favoritism towards any House. However, their neutrality has drawn the ire of both the Traditionalists and Revolutionaries for their non-stance on many issues. While both Philosophies appreciate the fact that they have a dependable mediator, the fact that they hold no strong stance on anything but being neutral becomes quite tiresome after thousands of years.

What’s more is that, unlike the other two Philosophies, the Arbitrator philosophy has explicit instruction from Amaeus Zakratii of being non-violent, or at the very least being non-lethal. Needless to say, the Zakrat Order is a religious military order and with a significant chunk of their population subscribing to this philosophy, tensions can get flared quite easily. However, times seem to be changing as the newer generation of the House of Zakratii has seemingly broken off the chains of neutrality and have become more of the mediator that Amaeus Zakratii historically was rather than being purely neutral. Raksha Zakratii, who had become close friends, and rumored lover to Anton Valda, learned about Reformist Zakrat from him and by applying the non-neutral nature and end goals of that philosophy, and the emphasis on mediation from the Arbitrator philosophy, she was able to create a new version of the Arbitrator Philosophy known as the Counselor faction. In the modern day, the Arbitrator Philosophy is split into three different factions known as the Peacemakers, the Mediators, and the Counselors. The Peacemaker faction is the most orthodox of the factions, becoming fully neutral and non-violent, adhering to the Arbitrator Philosophy in the strictest sense. The Mediator faction is essentially the same as the Peacemaker faction, however, they are not as non-violent as the Peacemakers and are open to violence, albeit to a limited extent. The Counselor faction is the newest and most radical faction, utterly rejecting neutrality, while still maintaining the role of negotiators, and is also open to violence to a greater extent than the Mediators yet stop short of sanctioning full-scale open war. Instead, the Counselors favor the “Aggressive-Defense Doctrine”, which states that they will not attack anyone unless attacked, and in times of allied warfare, they will provide garrisoning support behind the lines. In the modern day, the Peacemakers have seemingly fallen out of favor, yet as many Zakrat political historians can say, their fall from power is more of a culmination of many years of ineffective policies and their neutrality which has led to many people having grudges against them for not coming to their aid in times of need against other people. As of now, a combined alliance of Mediators and Counselors has formed a formidable political bloc led by Raksha Zakratii and her longtime fiancé Hakim ibn-Rashid which has all but trounced the Peacemakers’ political power. However, it must be said that the Peacemakers may yet live on not in formal government, but as an idea that has been transmitted to every corner of Zakrat life, seemingly creating a new brand of pacifist Zakrat in the style of their House yet following the basic neutral and pacifist principles of the Peacemakers. From Amaeus’s writing, it can be seen that while he did appreciate neutrality in many situations and said that being a mediator was one of the greatest callings a person could have, he would not approve of the Peacemakers’ and Mediators’ dogmatic dedication to complete neutrality. At the same time, he would not approve of the “Aggressive-Defense Doctrine” either, as he would see that as an excuse to wage war under the guise of defending oneself.

Craven Valda: Craven Valik is the middle child of the Trae Mestraes and the most radical of the Trae Mestraes. As the child born after Harun, he had to bear his older brother’s overbearing nature and as a result, became something of a rebel for life. He always seemingly had an attitude that spurned authority and always questioned what he had been told and rather saw conflict as a necessary stepping-stone to progress and that change was the ultimate expression of good. This philosophy would become the foundation of the Valda House and the Revolutionary Zakrat. Ironically though, his writings and sayings remain largely the same over the course of his life, however, they were and still are remarkably revolutionary. However, where his revolutionary fire seems to pick up is around the same time that Harun’s writings become more conservative and patriarchal, which has led many Zakrat scholars to conclude that with the already tense nature between the two, Craven was attempting to counteract Harun’s writings. As Harun’s writings became more conservative, Craven’s writing became more and more revolutionary and more hostile towards authority as a whole, seemingly becoming the early advocate for Zakrat Anarchism. He started to fully oppose the system of hierarchy that the Trae Mestraes had agreed upon early in their lives and instead wished that people that were in positions of power were only people that got there through merit and the consent of other Zakrat. Nearing the disappearance of the Trae Mestraes, he started to make good on his hostility towards authority and hierarchy by experimenting was non-hierarchical power structure in smaller Temples, but upon his disappearance, the project was largely abandoned by the successors in favor of squabbling with one another. However, in recent years, the newest generation of Valdas, led by Anton and Crevan, have restarted this experiment, with Anton Valda enacting the program of his forefather in the Southern Temple with moderate success. In the modern day, the Revolutionary Zakrat have been split into two factions similar to the Traditionalists, however, their end goals are the same, but rather their methods are different. The first faction is known as the Reformist faction wish to reform the Zakrat to be a non-hierarchical body through peaceful methods. The other faction, confusingly, is known as the Revolutionary faction who wish to change the Zakrat to being a non-hierarchical body through any means necessary. As is the nature of their very philosophy, each faction has taken power over the other seemingly every other year which has led to neither being able to build a firm power base for very long. However, in recent years, Anton and Crevan Valda have seemingly done the impossible and brought together the two factions in common purpose and have created a political force to be reckoned with across the Order. Whether Craven Valda would approve of some of the actions taken by the Revolutionary faction is uncertain, however, the utter hostility they have towards the Traditionalists of both factions would most likely not be appreciated.

The philosophies of the Trae Mestraes are as follows:

Harun Valik: Harun Valik is the firstborn of the Trae Mestraes and as such viewed himself as a guide to his younger brothers, whether they liked it or not. Due to the fact that he always wanted to keep his brothers safe, he became a firm advocate of keeping things the way they were as to not cause any undue conflict. This philosophy would become the foundation of the Valik House and the Traditionalist Zakrat. However, his writings and sayings drastically change from his younger years to post-Battle of the Bloody Hills. In that battle, he lost nearly his entire immediate family save for his wife and infant daughter. Without his knowledge, almost all of the rest of his seven children had arrived at the battle. He had only permitted two of his adult children, his daughter Reika and his son Ulman, to come with him to the battle. The rest of the children hid their faces, as was the custom, but hid amongst the various other armies, concealing their House identity and forming ranks with the other armies. During the course of the battle, it became a slogging, brutal battle where no quarter was shown to either side and even the Archers of Harun charged down the mountain to bolster the lines. After the battle, Harun discovered that his son Ulman had been shot in the throat almost immediately after they started the charge and his daughter Reika had died mere seconds before the battle was declared over by the last strike of the Reichen forces. He wept for his children, but he was prepared to lose them as he knew they had come with him to battle. However, when they started to gather the dead and reveal their faces, the other Mestraes began to wail in anguish as they started to find the bodies of Harun’s other children in their own ranks. Soon enough, the Seignians started to find the bodies of Harun’s children, and the Faisal himself, who had lost two of his children, began to wail in anguish. Harun though did not show any emotion. Instead, he took his brothers and they immediately set out for the city of Reichen, cutting down any stragglers they found and taking the walls of Reichen with ease. There at the city, he displayed undue and uncharacteristic callousness towards the innocent people within Reichen and was content to slaughter them wholesale. When he returned to Amon Seign, he became far more possessive of his family, especially his wife and daughter, and imposed many restrictions upon them and when he had a son, he raised him to be as possessive and also ingrained within him that he was the only one who could protect the family, seemingly forgetting that his daughter Reika fought with him to the end of the battle. There are factions within the Traditionalist way of thinking which are split along these lines of pre and post-Battle of the Bloody Hills. The pre-battle faction is known as the Authentic faction, while the post-battle faction is known as the Renewal faction. Over time, the Authentic faction has traditionally held the most sway, however, in modern times, the Renewal faction has gained enough power that they now pose a serious threat. However, Harun Valik would still be horrified by the Renewal faction as they took his, albeit misogynistic and possessive writings, and took them to eleven.

The story of Amon Seign seemingly is mutually tied up in the story of those that consider themselves a part of the military religious group known as the Zakrat Order. The Zakrat's origins are no mystery as they have recorded their entire history since the very beginning of their ministry. According to Zakrat texts, the Order was founded by three brothers belonging to a long-forgotten noble family in a place known only as "The City" as its name has been struck from the historical records by the command of the three brothers. These brothers are known as the Trae Mestraes, the Three Masters, and were the very first individuals to be gifted with the knowledge and ability to use Magicka. Each brother took on an aspect of Magicka for themselves to master and grow the strongest in order to teach the other brothers and their growing number of followers. The youngest brother, Amaeus Zakratii, known as the Founder for his founding of the Zakrat order, chose to master the Aspect of the River, mastering control over water and its accompanying Magicka. The middle brother, Craven Valda, known as the Warrior for his role in militarizing the Zakrat, chose to master the Aspect of the Sky, mastering control over lightning and its accompanying Magicka. Finally, the eldest brother, Harun Valik, known as the Lorekeeper for advancing Magickal knowledge and ensuring the safety of scholarship, chose to master the Aspect of the Flame mastering control over fire and its accompanying Magicka. The Trae Mestraes are the only ones to ever have been given the title of "Mestrae", all other people must put their position before "Mestrae", for example, "Heamestrae" or "Headmaster" or "Granmestrae". The respect for the Mestrae borders on the divine, yet, as any Zakrat will tell you, "We serve the Mestraes, never the Kamilshan!".

To make a long story short, the Zakrat have what one might call a "complicated" relationship with god-like entities in their world. The Mestraes at one time tried to master the secret of immortality, an act that angered the so-called gods and started a war in which the Trae Mestraes emerged victorious and left all but the gods of Death, Life, and Fate dead. However, the strangest thing is that Zakrat philosophy does not condemn those who worship deities, but instead encourages it. This is mainly due to the fact that the Zakrat have different words for the type of deities being observed. For the ones that the Zakrat fought, they are known as "Kamilshan" which translates to "The ones who have power". However the word for deities that we are familiar with, such as Allah, God, Woden, Vishnu, and others like that, they are referred to as "Kamilfleata" (pronounced Ka-mil-flee-ata) which translates to "The ones who judge". This distinction is very important in Zakrat beliefs and philosophy as they have a vehement hatred of deity-like figures that just have power and use it for nothing but their own pleasure, but for deity-like figures that have a grander purpose and instead guide people and have a more of a subdued effect on the world. They are seen as figures that have far grander designs than their own pleasure and instead have a far larger plan for people. The Zakrat believe also that so-called mortal beings are just as worthwhile as deities and that the only thing separating them from deities is the mortal coil of life, hence while the Trae Mestraes attempted to figure out the secret of immortality. This at times gets into conflict with other religious ideas of divinity and the nature of God and mortals (See the Tower of Babylon for what I'm talking about), yet the Zakrat are a strange synthesis of beliefs about never yielding to deities and at the same time embracing them.

Speaking of beliefs, now would be a good time to understand just how varied the Zakrat beliefs are. Each of the Trae Mestraes developed their own philosophy regarding "Hii" or "The Light" and "Nahl" or "The Darkness". The Light is defined by all Three as "All that is Good and Whole in this world" while the "Nahl" is defined as "All that Wicked and Cruel in this world". As one can guess, with such a broad definition of what is essentially good and evil, different interpretations of each arose rather quickly. And by quickly, I mean, the Trae Mestraes themselves believed in different philosophies during their own lifetimes and have carried on to their descendants.

Story ideas

So I've been thinking about this for a long time, and for whatever reason, now seems like a good time to finally start writing a story of mine in a public setting.

Lassies, Laddies, and Lassens, I give to you the Saga of Amon Seign and the Zakrat! This story takes place both in our current day world and on the world of Zevel, a place that is quite similar to our own, yet is filled with magic and magical creatures. However, this ain't your normal high-fantasy and sci-fi setting, no no no... Instead, Amon Seign has something of a unique connection with our world, being that it possesses the ability to create gateways from its world to our world, and has been doing so for the last 5,000 years. In that time, Amon Seign has always maintained a strict policy of keeping their presence unknown to the population of Earth, blending in and infiltrating nearly every civilization on the planet to have a nearly constant stream of information on human activity in the world. Yet, Amon Seign is a country that is full of emotion and full of dreamers of a better world, as such, they are swayed heavily by the suffering of other people and the desire to preserve cultures and peoples that may be lost in our world. It is with that in mind that Amon Seign established the Enclave System, wherein people from our world on the verge of extinction, genocide, massacre, etc., would be saved from their fate to live out their lives and prosper in Zevel. It is through this system that people like Jews, Taínos, Wu Hus, Congolese, Armenians, Ezidis, and many dozens of other people have been able to escape what was a terrible fate and grew their culture completely safe from the persecutions that they subjected to. In the current day, these people, who were on the brink of destruction, now number in the hundreds of millions combined.

All of these people live under the protection of the Faisaldom of Amon Seign. Taken from the Arabic word for a "Decisive Ruler", a Faisal is what would have happened if the Enlightened Absolute Monarch idea came to people 5,000 years early. The Faisal of Amon Seign is the absolute ruler of the country with their authority being second to none. However, the Faisal is supposed to take care of their citizens in a manner that makes them connected with their people and allows for a far more just society than one might imagine. It also helps that within Seignian Law, there is no charge for rebellion, meaning that similar to the German legal system, should the Faisal oppress their people, the people have the legal right to rebel and depose the Faisal. It is fortunate, then, that throughout Seignian history, the Faisal has only been deposed a handful of times, only to be replaced by a different family member of the same family. That family is that of Blackhearts, and despite their name, they have, generally, been quite kind people and rulers, with the latest Faisal, Sebastian, being an avowed pacifist and following through on his principles and dismantling most of the Seignian Military except for some ceremonial units and a part of the Aerial Forces, which his children and grandchildren are intimately involved in developing.

Amon Seign is by and large the supreme power in the world of Zevel, having conquered the majority of the planet through both arms and diplomacy, and most places not controlled by them are instead under their suzerainty. Interestingly enough, these vassal states are made up of particular groups from Earth which Amon Seign has used as a sort of pre-conditioned soldiery for the areas that were conquered. For example, in the northern part of the continent, the Seignian forces used Gothic, Visigothic, and Nordic refugees that were already accustomed to winter war to quickly conquer the northern lands. On the home continent of Amon Seign, the Faisaldom is surrounded on on sides by large vassal states that are made up of various groups from Earth. In the north, Gothic, Visigothic, and Nordic peoples rule over the Kingdom of Reitgotland. To the east, Ezidi and Kurdish people rule the Kurdish Republic. To the southwest, Ikko Ikki adherents rule over a revived Ikko Ikki Monastic order, while to the southeast, survivors of the Miao Rebellions rule over the United Jiuli. To the upper southwest, Native American nations of both the plains and the coast rule over the United Nations Confederacy (much to the confusion of the Earth United Nations), and in the lower northwest, the Herero and Namaqua peoples rule over the United Kingdom of the Herero and Namaqua (Again, much to the confusion of the United Kingdom of Earth). Each of these nations swore fealty to Amon Seign to preserve and protect the Faisaldom and to stay in a pact of mutual defense and economic goodwill.

However, within Zevel, there are two nations that are part of what could be called the "free nations", of Zevel, which never swore that fealty. The first and original of these nations is the Republic of the Arashii-Kai, a pirate republic spanning a large island chain in the northern part of the world and several smaller island chains throughout the rest of the world. Thanks to Amon Seign's lackluster navy, the Arashii-Kai have been able to maintain their independence from Amon Seign, in spite of numerous attempts to stem it. The other nation to be considered a "free nation" is the United Workers' Communes of Southern Amon Seign. As could be guessed by their name, they are a sizable nation, comprising one-eighth of Amon Seign's original borders in the southeast of the country. What could also be guessed by their name is the fact that they are no friends of capitalists, but instead are made up of various socialist and anarchist citizens who were shunned by capitalists, fascists, and state socialists alike. The Communards were given their lands in an extraordinary peace agreement with Faisal Sebastian who stayed true to his pacifistic principles and prevented a general leftist uprising while also creating a socialist state in the middle of his country.

Amon Seign has been at peace for many years, and has not seen a major war since the great Final Conquest of the Ravensbruch Alliance in the southern part of the country nearly 300 years ago. Yet, the winds of war are howling loud for this seemingly peaceful nation. The Zakrat, who have been the constant ally of the Seignians since their inception, have sparked a civil war within their ranks, turning the once peaceful lands of Amon Seign into a battlefield for their ideologies. Worse yet is that there seems to be yet another force operating in the shadows as well, that is neither Seignian or Zakrat that seeks both of their destructions. Whatever is the case, Amon Seign, The Great City, will stand tall in the face of this danger. It will not falter in its ideals, nor will she fail her people. She will persevere through this conflict and come out stronger than ever before. For Amon Seign! For the Light! For the People!