The Kingdom

Did El Elyon care whether I was part Nicationer or not? I wasn't sure, but until I knew it would be best to assume that He would be willing to overlook the matter of my mixed heritage. If He didn't, I truly would be alone in the world. As it was, I still had my faith and this horse, which wasn't such a bad animal, even if it was of Nicationer birth or perhaps it had been stolen from a Kingdomer on one of the many raids by the surrounding nations into the Kingdom of Smirnaz.

I looked off to the East. There, across the bordering Nicationer Nation of Roba and the great Masag River, were the Wastelands. The Wastelands were the location of the original kingdom of all Ayenathurim, the world on which I lived. That kingdom had been from the time before, but it was long since gone now.

It was said that those of the old kingdom had been unable to keep the precepts of El Elyon. Not only had they not kept the holy commandments, but they had fallen into doing the perversities of all the lesser nations of Ayenathurim.

There had reached a time when El Elyon had become so wrathful at their disobedience that He had driven them out from the good land beyond the river, which He had then turned into a wilderness of sand and hidden dangers.

Over time the wilderness of the Wastelands had become a dwelling place for monsters and every mad beast, whether of human or animal origin. The Yesathurim, El Elyon's chosen people of the old kingdom, were driven out into the rest of the world for their rejection of El Elyon's covenant. Scattered, they now roamed over all the kingdoms of Ayenathurim, with no place to call their own.

With the fall of the old kingdom El Elyon had ushered in a new covenant, which only a few of the Yesathurim accepted. The new covenant had not been one limited to just the Yesathurim as the old covenant had been. Out of this new covenant the seven Kingdomer Nations had been born.

There had been dreams on the part of the early Kingdomer's to reconcile the Yesathurim into the new covenant, but those dreams of oneness with the Creator had dimmed over the years to the point that few still held out hope of it ever occurring. In many regards the opposite had occurred. The Yesathurim were looked down upon and scorned by both Kingdomer and Nicationer alike to the point that they were considered not worthy of life.

I wasn't sure why, but I headed my horse down off the hill in the direction of the neighboring country of Roba. I would make my way through it and then I would go into the Wastelands of the old kingdom. There I would not be looked down upon for my birth, for to the monsters I would look as tasty a treat as either unbeliever or Kingdomer alike.