Yurt of the Khan: BC Hotseat IC thread

[phonicsmonkey]

The Great Khan's Grand Yurt (or ger in Mongolian) is a large portable felt tent built around a wooden frame and drawn by oxen. It travels with the Mongol armies as they campaign, providing living quarters, a mobile command centre and Royal Court all in one.

After the execution of his emissaries by the governor of Samarqand, the Great Khan received a delegation of diplomats sent by the Grand Alliance of Caliphate, Seljuk,Ghaznavid, Mamluk and Rajput leaders, their mission to placate the Khan and turn him from his course of war.

The Great Khan ordered the diplomats held captive and they are now assembled in his Grand Yurt, where they are allowed to converse freely with their captors and one another, and to give and receive messages from the outside world.

[phonicsmonkey]

The Yurt is empty save for the captives and their guards.

The Caliph's emissary to the Mongols, Zahiriddin Nasr Muhammad Aufi picks himself up off the floor and dusts down his white robes.

In a tremulous and quavering voice, he addresses his captors in pidgen Mongolian.

What right have you to seize us and keep us captive here? The Caliph offers the hand of peace and you spit on it!

Where is your Khan taking this army? And what do you intend to do with us?

[Quirl]

Next to the Caliph's ambassador, the slave representative, Khaiden Abdul-Malik, cousin of Quirl al-Mustafa Mubarak, awaits silently. He is dressed in simple robes and a chainmail mask-- a growing custom amongst the slaves meant to signify their sacrifice of personal identity to the will of their divine slavery.

[The Lemongate]

The Mongol soldiers barely acknowledge the hostages. They remain impassible at Zahiriddin's use of their tongue, his word eliciting no reaction or recognition in their cold, dark eyes. Their faces are foreign, asian and indecipherable. They form a semi-circle around their charges, standing idly or in a low crouch. The air in the yurt is heavy with boredom.

[Ramses II CP]

The Rajput emissary has taken to drawing characters from his language idly on his palm. Any who can read them will be able to tell that he is spelling out 'They will come,' over and over again.

[Zim]

The Ghazni emmisary has been pacing muttering to himself for what seems like days. Every attempt to speak with his captors has failed. Finally he breaks.

Fools! I am a representative the Shah of Ghazni, He who rules from the mountains of Kabul to the seas to the south. He will not suffer to have his diplomats treated to by foreign beggars and thieves. Even now great hosts are likely being sent to free me from this collection of hovels.

Satisfied at having finally gotten the rant out of him, the emmissary collapses onto the ground. Despite the brave words he had heard rumors of the great hosts invading his lands, and wonders if even the great Ghaznavid army can withstand them.