EBII AAR: The Secret History of the Saka

[strelyat]

NOTE: This is my first AAR. I'm trying to write it in the style of an ancient epic. The name is based off of the The Secret History of the Mongols. This is the first chapter, or "book". Hope you enjoy it.

When man learned to tame the wild steppe horses
The whole land was beholden to his might
When man learned to hunt with his trusty bow
Great empires fell from the arrow’s strike.
By the charge of the Eternal Sky Lord,
Bring me the words to recite the great tale
Of how the Saka conquered the great steppes,
Subjected the decadent Yavanas,
And came to rule over all of the land.

Book I: The Struggle for Unity
From the seat of his horse, Azes gazed on
At the great army assembled by him
In the name of the Saka Rrudi
His own father, Sapalbizes the Great.
By the work of his own hands, he had brought
The feuding Saka tribes into one horde
He had decreed that the tribes were destined
To bring their authority over
All the nomads in the great endless steppes
Their armies marched from Chighu’s sweet comfort
To unite the tribes in their new homeland
Many tribesman submitted to his rule
But countless still scorned the Great Rrudi.
When winter fell over the land, Azes
Took his men and had them plunder the herds
Of enemy tribes plotting against them.
They moved swift over the frozen rivers
And seized the livestock of their deadly foes
Bearing the animals victorious
Back to the snow-swept plains of their Chighu.
The chieftain of the enemy Kangju,
Kharda the Ruthless, plotted revenge for
The foul theft of their horse, goats, and cows.
In one of their camps, known simply as Chach,
They found a Saka, known as Miyika,
Branded him a spy of the enemy,
And slew him for his evil treachery
Though there was no evidence to prove so.
Kharda, allied with Homartes of Chach,
Formed a great horde with which they would attack
The camp of fine Raudäka Aryandes.
At the break of dawn, the Kangju did strike,
The hooves of horses thundered over snow.
The Saka mustered their best fighting men
And routed the army of the Kangju!

Still those foul men were not satisfied yet,
So they gathered in the mountain passes,
And waited for brave Oxyboakes
Tall and proud, he was a true Saka man
Renowned for his fearlessness in battle.
Yet again, the Kangju were defeated,
Struck down by the folly of arrogance,
Oxyboakes, joining with his prince,
Laid siege to Chach in vengeance for their dead.
In the north, opportunistic Saka
Renounced their ties to great Sapalbizes.
Even joined with the army of Azes,
The rebellious horde was still larger.
But the loyal Saka trusted their king,
So Sapalbizes triumphed once again.
Jikhona, the traitor’s organizer,
Was put to death for his most evil deeds.
Tribal unity was restored once more
Artisans worked without fear of murder,
Forging great beauty out of their metals,
And the numbers of their herds swelled greatly.
Another people, the Sugda, allied
With the Saka, bringing their best fighters
Into their overlord’s fierce armies.
They took Antiocheia Eschate,
One of the cities the Yavanas built,
Merging into the steppe federation.
In the Saka domain, alien ways
Were blended with the nomad’s traditions
And a new way of life began to form.
At the same time, Homartes met the fate
Of his old ally Kharda in battle
The Saka slew him in the camp of Chach
And the Kangju were finally conquered.
The allied Sugda prepared for winter
On the path of the Râh-e Abrisham
When a Yavanas army from the south
Captured their camp and made slaves out of them.
The sons of the Rrudi promised their men,
“As long as Druvaspa grants our steeds speed
To chase after the cowardly slavers
And bring sweet freedom back to our tribesmen,
The Yavanas shall live in fear of us!”