The Calling
The calling pulled at our essence like a tide, shifting the great waters of the earth in a dance of its own design, as we, the First Born were being guided to the lands that lay beyond the horizon. We all felt it, my brothers and I, we all suffered the call like a deep, painful longing for something precious lost and so it was no surprise to us when my father brought us together to tell us of the journey we were about to make. He received no resistance from ourselves nor our families, for we knew that it was our destiny and so we strode aboard the ships and set sail, as the rain beat down upon the decks striking our faces like cold, wet kisses of goodbye from the lands we had conquered and ruled for several centuries.
The calling pulled at our essence like a tide, shifting the great waters of the earth in a dance of its own design, as we, the First Born were being guided to the lands that lay beyond the horizon. We all felt it, my brothers and I, we all suffered the call like a deep, painful longing for something precious lost and so it was no surprise to us when my father brought us together to tell us of the journey we were about to make. He received no resistance from ourselves nor our families, for we knew that it was our destiny and so we strode aboard the ships and set sail, as the rain beat down upon the decks striking our faces like cold, wet kisses of goodbye from the lands we had conquered and ruled for several centuries.
It was not a good crossing and the storms thrashed at our ships day and night, raging against our masts and hulls and tearing at their fixings as if the gods themselves were determined to keep us from our destination. It was on the 42nd day at sea that I lost my father, I watched his ship rise into the air on the crest of a mountainous wave and then disappear quite suddenly upon its descent, to rest in the watery halls of Arausio, lord of the deep. My father was an ancient even amongst the First Born, he had walked with the gods and fought in their wars and his presence must have pleased Arausio for the storms gave way quite suddenly and the skies cleared and our journey met no more disasters before we made it to the lands we were destined to rule.
With the loss of my father our party required a leader and so once we had mourned his loss, we prepared our camp and dwellings and came together for the ‘Great Naming’. We are the Alumaani, descendents of the First and favoured of the Gods. Our traditions are ancient and our rituals sacred and so we were gathered together for the ‘Great Naming’, the gifting of the title of ‘Ard-Ri’ or ‘King’ in the tongues of men. The title is passed from father to first-born, though if a father judges his first born unworthy, he has the right to slay them and pass the title onto the next, such is our way. On this day though, there would be no threat to my right to rule for my father feasted with Arausio and could do nothing but raise a toast or scowl at my ascendance, I was now the Ard-Ri, the Greatest Named, the leader of my people, the King of the Alumaani and I had work to do.