Chapter 4 – The Kerait
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Over the last 1000 years, Tom had worked on spreading the knowledge of forging and building amongst all the races, while Jasmeen had started whispering amongst the other races so that they too could gradually learn to make bows and work on their archery. Jasmeen had taught the Dark Elves as well as the centaurs how to make recurve bows, while the remaining races she had taught to make straight bows. As a result, there were already whispers of Gods and slowly by word of mouth people had begun to believe in Gods and Goddesses. I was beginning to get worried, perhaps we were speeding things up too quickly. Shouldn’t we give them all this knowledge slowly? Let them discover some of it by themselves? I voiced my concerns to the two of them as they came out from their rooms. Speaking of which, while initially, we’d started in a white room, the room itself had become transparent as I created the world, sort of like walking on see-through glass. It helped to look upon and follow all the happenings down on Earth. From there, there was a small doorway that connected into what was now a small passageway with three different rooms for the three of us. The number of rooms would grow if any Gods were chosen.

“You’re underestimating how dangerous magic can be. The sentient races aren’t the only beings that have access to magic. The wild animals, birds, and fishes will all slowly be affected by the magic that surrounds them and pose a greater threat to all the races as time passes. Already the wolves around the Wood Elf tribes have started to show some elemental affinities and the and mule deer in the region have also started to show occasional mutations with white horned mule deer showing some level of healing magic. Soon the other races will face dangers the likes of which they have yet to come across.” Tom explained banishing most of my worries almost immediately. “Further growth will come almost painfully slowly, with most of it being concentrated around survival.”,Tom said pretty much ending that conversation.

“Well then which race do you think we should descend among?” I asked mentally preparing myself for the obvious Dark Elf suggestion that would come from my sister and sure enough, “Dark Elves!” Jasmeen screamed as if her eager face hadn’t already betrayed her excitement. “ We don’t have to descend among the same races you know?” Tom pointed out calmly, which I had to admit was a good idea. “ I do think, however, that at least one of us should go to the dwarves all things considered. They are without a doubt in the worst position of the lot. The centaurs would be a close second, they are close to realizing the existence of a higher power. Guiding them for a bit would not go amiss I suspect.” Tom mentioned continuing his point. “Alright, that sounds like a plan. How do Gods descend? Is it the same way I do?” I asked, curious as to how they would descend. “ Gods can choose to appear as anything they want as well as in the manner you do as a regular person on Earth unlike the Realm Lord because we Gods don’t have the same level of raw power. We are your subordinates and tied to you. Therefore the world can bear our power when we descend, the same is not true of the Realm Lord. You possess now the power that helped you create this world. So, of course, you can only descend as one of the mortal races.” Tom’s explanation made a lot of sense, but it was also rather inconvenient. It meant I had to work my way up through any race I was trying to influence where Jasmeen, for example, need only state who she was and show her power to command the respect of the Dark Elves.

I took my sweet time picking which Tribe I’d be descending among. Currently, the centaurs lived in a society that had only two social groups, the tribespeople, and wanderers were the two social castes in centaur society. Wanderers were considered outcasts, weaklings. The people that none of the tribes wanted, they were often harassed by the bigger tribes, paying part of their livestock as tribute every year to the nearest tribe. The tribes made took with them their homes in the form of gers. Gers were a kind of tent made of felt and other animal skins. The domesticated goats and sheep which were their primary food source and dairy. They were good falconers as well, having learned to tame the birds from birth often. The Centaurs had three large tribes of around 300 each and four small ones with around 150. The strongest of the tribes were the Borjigin, they had by far the strongest warriors, talented at fighting with the saber. The Olkhunut were the tribe most talented at archery, their arrows were sharp and their bows better than the other tribes. The Kerait were the weakest of the large tribes but they possessed that which none of the other tribes did, wealth. The Kerait had a monopoly over an iron mine that meant that they were the primary source of weapons amongst the great tribes. The Kerait were the tribe that I felt best fit my ambitions, there wealth and knowledge meant that it would be easier to find a leader to groom amongst the Centaurs due to their trade connections. Not to mention the Kerait were the tribe in charge of holding the Kurultai, the meeting of all the Khans and elders of all the tribes at which the debate over their creation continued even now.

I chose to be born as the son of the younger brother of the Khan of the Kerait Tribe. I could have been born as a winged centaur if I wanted to but that would defeat the purpose of attempting to guide a leader as I would always be a threat to his authority. I was named Tsubodai by my parents, and for the first 8 years of my life, I just let go of everything I’d been holding on to. All the baggage from my previous life and all the regrets. It was wonderful having a family and unlike most centaur families I was the only child of my parents, probably something to do with one of my parents not being able to have children easily. I was showered with love and while I didn’t have the luxuries of an A/C or the internet, it was fun. I’d just run every day I could, trying to get used to having four legs instead of two now. The tribe was like one big family, everyone would look out for you and take care of you because a tribe functioned only when every member had the others back. We would often get news of the other tribes every year and it seemed to me at least, that every year that the tribes would face harsher and stronger beasts, with rumors of marmots that moved so fast that catching them had become harder and wolves that sometimes grew larger than they were supposed to. The debate regarding the creation of the centaurs had been running for almost two decades now with people referring to Jasmeen and Tom, insisting that one must be the true God and other a heresy. Things were coming to a head and the air was filled with the smell of blood.

 

A lot of this chapter has historical references buried within, the names I chose for the tribes especially all are based off of actual nomadic tribes. I was absolutely blown away by the attention the book's received so far so thanks for all the support. Don't forget to comment if you have any suggestions and as always Thanks and Gig'Em.

Updated on the 18th of October, changed chieftain to Khan.

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