Tenuria

A History of Tenuria (probably apocryphal, from folk legends)

In the beginning there was Etaukhimós. He came from the warm south, but with a hundred hundred men in a hundred ships he came to the cold north, and made landfall on the iron shore; and with sword and fire he and his hundred hundred men drove out those that resided there, the demons, which are called Sheolites* in the language of the people. And Etaukhimós was made king over the city that he and his hundred hundred men built on the shore of that frozen land; the city they called Ithaë.

Etaukhimós was a good and wise king; he ruled for thirty and three years, and he built a wall around the borders of the fertile land that surrounded Ithaë and the river that ran through it; and his hundred hundred men became a thousand hundred, and a Legion was set aside for eternity to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the rest of the iron shore and the frozen land.

And Etaukhimós was laid to rest, and in his stead ruled Taroboleás, his son. And Taroboleás ruled forty and four years, and he led ten thousand of his finest men up the river, where they conquered, and they battled; and they established another city. And the name of the city was called Isavín. And Taroboleás maintained Ithaë as his capital, and he built a wall to surround Isavín as well, and the road that from it led across to Ithaë. And his thousand hundred men became two thousand hundred, and the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

And Taroboleás was laid to rest, and in his stead ruled Metaklusmós, his son. And Metaklusmós ruled thirty and one years, and he maintained the walls and the garrison, and defended against the Sheolites; and he ruled from Ithaë as had his father and grandfather before him. And his two thousand hundred men became four thousand hundred, and the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

And Metaklusmós was laid to rest, and in his stead ruled Thanatheuriós, his son. And Thanatheuriós ruled forty and seven years, and he maintained the walls and the garrison, and defended against the Sheolites; and he ruled from Ithaë as had his father and grandfather before him. And his four thousand hundred men became six thousand hundred, and the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

[This appears to have been the standard entry for a king. No fewer than sixty-nine such entries are recorded in
the legend, with nothing varying except for the name of the ruler, the length of his reign, and the size of the
population before and after that reign. Only a few rulers are accorded special status; these are the ones that 
expanded the nation to encompass all of its current territory, or otherwise did something else of note.]

…

And in the time of Palemarchós the sixth, the son of Amthuriël, there arose a great beast in the northern wilds; it had seven heads, and ten horns, and seven crowns (one upon each of its heads) – one of alabaster, one of amethyst, one of iron, one of bronze, one of marble, one of gold, and one of silver; it had the tail of a snake, the feet of a lion, the body and wings of a dragon.** In its seven beaks it held seven torches, and with those torches it burned the crops and the fertile forests; from its lion’s feet it dropped rocks upon the cities and the walls; and its cries rent the air and caused one fourth part of the people to die. And when the beast had gone, the Sheolites arose, and overran the Legion to the west; and only by drawing back to the walls that had been built by Angolathrís, could the Legion defend its land. And to this day the cries of the beast can still be heard faintly coming from the land that was retaken by the Sheolites, which they now call the Bleak Hills; nor have the crops ever been replanted.

And until the time when the beast came, there ruled eighty-three kings in the frozen land and the iron shore, which was called Tenuria. From Etaukhimós to Aegeriús the ninth was one dynasty, of forty-seven kings; from Lethartés the first to Angolathrís was one dynasty, of twenty-two kings; from Palemarchós the first to Palemarchós the sixth was one dynasty, of fourteen kings. Thus since Etaukhimós came to the frozen land and the iron shore, until the time when the beast came was three dynasties.

[From this we can deduce that the Tenurian nation-state is one of extreme antiquity; in total – according to the 
legend – it was some 2,728 years between Etaukhimós's arrival on the iron shores to the coming of the 'beast', 
which may represent some kind of natural disaster.]

For sixty and six years after the coming of the beast the people of Tenuria were without a king, and lived in disarray; each city looked after only its own, with no care for others, and the Sheolites walked among the people and slew them, and claimed land; it was an evil time. Then there arose in the city of Téngrad a man, fair of countenance and strong of arm; his name was called Amale'kurós, and he led the thousand thousand men of Téngrad in a war against the Sheolites; and with him were joined the people of Isavín, and Tse'lah, and Ithaë, and all the other cities of the land. The great war lasted twelve years, and forty hundred hundred hundred men were slain; so many that the ground was red from their blood. But the land was reclaimed, and the walls rebuilt, and the Legion fortified; and the Sheolites were driven out.

And Amale'kurós became emperor in his home city of Téngrad, and Téngrad came to rule all the other cities; and thirty and five years Amale'kurós ruled over all Tenuria. He united the cities and rebuilt the roads to connect them, the roads that crisscrossed the iron plains and the frozen land. And he replanted the crops, in the places where the beast had not touched with its seven torches; and he ruled a hundred thousand thousand. And the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

And Amale'kurós died and was laid to rest, and his son, Likhnidás, became emperor over all Tenuria. Likhnidás ruled twenty and six years, and he maintained the walls and the garrison; he built the schools and lit the fires that burned in the city squares by night, tapping the power of the beast and keeping away the Sheolites. And his hundred thousand thousand men became two hundred thousand thousand; and the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

[The record of emperors continues in much the same way as did the record of kings. However, only nineteen 
emperors are recorded. Additionally, the last couple of entries become progressively stranger, as one might see 
below:]

And Do'natus died and was laid to rest, and his son, Dekhiüs the Saletian, became emperor over all Tenuria. And Dekhiüs ruled ten and four years, and he maintained the walls and the garrison; but in his head there resided demons and doubts, and he was known as an indecisive and a weak emperor. And his thousand thousand thousand men became a thousand two hundred thousand thousand; and the Legion continued to defend against the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land. And on his forehead when he died there was printed an eye with twenty rays radiating out from it.

And Dekhiüs the Saletian was laid to rest, and his son, Kaërus, became emperor over all Tenuria. And Kaërus ruled twenty and one years, and he increased the power of the Senate; and the people said among each other that soon rule might turn to the people themselves. But Kaërus was also a weak emperor; he maintained the walls and the garrison, but poorly, and even (it is said) pondered an alliance or peace with the Sheolites, that occupied the iron shore and the frozen land.

And in the time of Kaërus the son of Dekhiüs, there was a great sign; an eye appeared in the sky above the Imperial Palace in Téngrad, and it looked every which way; in height it was three hundred cubits, in width three hundred, and in length three hundred, and it was above the ground at six hundred fathoms. The people said among themselves that it was a portent of coming evil; and they feared and marveled greatly. For six days in the sky hung the eye, silent and unblinking. And on the seventh day the sky was darkened, and there was lightning and thunder and hail; and the eye looked upon the Imperial Palace with a glance of fire, and the Palace crumbled, and in its place it was become Ath'uron***, the place of death.

Then came the great darkness in which all the voices were silenced….

[At this point, the recitation invariably breaks off. No amount of research has uncovered the cause or result of 
this darkness, the voices that were silenced, or anything else of import. For all practical purposes, the history 
of Tenuria ends here.
 
However, it is strongly believed that this is a metaphorical description of the time when the Imperium was 
overthrown and replaced with the current régime, which — while information on it is woefully scarce — appears to
be some kind of state-communist dictatorship under absolute control of a shadowy group of individuals known only
as the Moderators, who answer to none but the even more mysterious High Command.]

[Footnotes:

* English. Tenurian pronunciation Sheola’bi.
** Or vulture.
*** This Tenurian word is closely related to Greek Apollyon, 'destruction'. ]

[More information shall be released someday, but for now this is all we know about the nation once known as 
Tenuria, and today called the si-Thaluö Damalg'iru. This shall be rr45o34g

Please disregard the above message. It is in violation of Code 7172 §7 (Improper Use of the name 'Tenuria' without authorization), Code 6812 §1 (False and/or Misleading Statements concerning the si-Thaluö), Code 919 §3 (Use of a Contraband Electronic Device upon Damalg'iru soil), Code 1104 §2 (Writing in an Unauthorised Language), and Code 6223 §14 (Libel). The authors have been properly dealt with. If you have read the above text, expect agents of the Inquisition to approach you for questioning.

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