Nov/Dec 2018 Lite Challenge Entry: o Iserakal nenaliran (The 21st Mission)
The Empire of Tsevya, a militaristic theocracy, was one of the most powerful empires on the planet 200 years ago. They viewed holy war as the only way to spread their religion, Imaprat. Part of the continual war effort were the ineret, the specialized warrior-priests of the Imaprat religion. After an area was conquered by the armies of Tsevya and a fortress was built, the ineret would occupy the fortress and turn it into a mission of sorts, called an iserakal. The conquered populations of surrounding areas would be brought to the iserakal and would be forced to work for the ineret, farming and producing weaponry for the war, but would also undergo forced conversion to Imaprat. These iserakalt became places of immense hardship for the conquered as the war drew on and Tsevya became more desperate. However, when the war began to turn against Tsevya, most of the enslaved people on the iserakalt rebelled and destroyed them. One iserakal, however, managed to survive the rebellions and aftermath of the war. It was a remnant of an ill-fated arm of the war, as the Tsevyans tried to occupy a remote desert region in an attempt to surround their western neighbor. A functioning iserakal was built, but it was eventually abandoned after a few years as Tsevya began to lose the war, and more troops were needed closer to home. It was forgotten by the remnants of Tsevya and overlooked by its enemies, so it survived for hundreds of years, isolated from the outside world by a barren desert. Two hundred years later, Eirrastese archaeologists discovered it after hearing local legend about a haunted fortress deep in the heart of the desert. It has provided a wealth of knowledge about the now-extinct Imaprat religion and the Tsevyan war, and it is amazingly preserved due to the dry climate. However, archaeologists had been mysteriously disappearing into the dunes for some time after its discovery, which led to the eventual abandonment of the investigation after a couple of years. The scientists believe it was simply ’desert madness’ caused by dehydration, but the local villagers attribute the disappearances to the angry spirits of the slaves who died hundreds of years ago on the iserakal.
This is my first entry in any competition on the forum, so I'm excited to practice my cartography skills and see some amazing maps from the competition! This first image I'm uploading is a very early work in progress, so please excuse its incompleteness. Criticism is appreciated (sidenote: I'm creating the map as if it was made by the Eirrastese archaeologists, so it looks a little inaccurate. Just part of the immersion). Thanks!
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