War and State in the Sultanate

[Doofus]

War and State

The Silver Age, Line of the Sultans

Averroes Tashfhin

The defining quality of the Line of the Sultanate is warfare. This age is characterized by near-endless warfare, calamity, and apocalypse not seen since the mostly forgotten Kinslain War. From Uzpek to Osman VI, The Disc has been embroiled in conflict with six major powers fighting over what remains of Marib's Caliphate.

So ubiquitous is this conflict, that entire theaters of conflict are glossed over in our histories. Such as the arrival of the Orentid Dynasty, the breaking of the Thousand Clans at Nusrum, or Baz'eels following rout from the Rampart. This is likely due to the tangling politics and general lack of apparent enduring conflict, which I posit is one of Baz'eels greatest shortcomings. These conflicts, factions, and rival houses, should be treated with respect as one with a sword to your throat should be. We must understand what allowed them to flourish, to stamp them out.

It may seem natural to hand wave these wars as normal battles of successor states, but I state that conflict on this scale had never been done before. Near five-hundred years of constant war, strife, and calamity. When you put such into perspective, it is a wonder the Disc did not become a waste-ridden place like before. A wonder we were put into such dire strait by the Ring-Fall, and the death of the King, Honored Be His Name, Savior of All.

This should put into scale, reader, that Baz'eel, despite being the rightful heir to the Caliphate. We are not immortal, we can be defeated, and such is natural in our world. This is a lesson Qadira, and her Admiral Ravindra should have taken to heart, reading the hundred years of history which came before them. So driven by the greed of the Glimmer-Pearl trade, they rushed to bring strife to an enemy they knew little of, worse, that they underestimated.  What does Ravindra's charge into an unmoving, idle, and pacified fleet signal, if not underestimation? This was no trap, a trap requires one to be tricked. This singular event sums up the entire war of pearls.

That being, something that should have never happened under the Sultana Qadira, Al-Naffaya, while valuable, was not worth the entire destruction of the royal navy, nor was the Sultana's wounded pride worth the War of Pearls. The event which I posit, nearly single-handedly has forced Baz'eel into this period of Stagnation, only recently broken by The Eagle.

The Sultana should have still sought war, but war need not be quick, it need not be a single snap decision in anger that leads to the death of thousands. It requires planning, forethought, and faith. Money should have been spent to reinforce our trading routes, our coastal ports hardened, and our mages allowed reign to conduct operations ahead of our fleet. Al-Naffaya might have been taken, yes, but the war would have been won, not lost by a singular suicidal charge.  It has been nearly thirty years since Qadira's death, and still Baz'eel has not recovered from the loss. Al-Naffaya in no way, could produce such funds that would make the millions of dinari burned in these years, worth it.

Sources of Sophron:

War of Pearls, Nazir ibn-Yusuf
Lives of the Maribid 5th Ed, Rayrul