Mombadin

Mombadin (Peshwir 3948 - Belam 4019) full name: Abd Bardu Mombadin ibn-Fatha al-Surami al-Hedjazi, from the village of Hejaz is the founder of the Hisuuani Caliphate, the Mombadid Dynasty and the noted inspiration of the Ayba'dhja Asiaha'wabha. Considered by the practitioners of the Hamalfite Folk Cults and of the Ayba'dhja Asiaha'wabha to be a messenger from the Gods and a prophet of heaven. To the practitioners of the Ayba'dhja Asiaha'wabha he is held as being the restorer of faith to the two true superior beings, L'wna and C'lestia and proved their might and oversight as being the strongest of all of Heaven's agents.
Mombadin was born the son of a herdsman's family in the village of Hejaz. Mombadin had never known real wealth and lived as a serf to the Hemal-i Shea Shiekh of the Hejaz-Suram clan. He as well never learned to read nor write, and lacked a formal education in many things. He followed his father, Fatha ibn-Talun as a shepard tending to their flock of goats. Often he would wander into the desert for moments of solitude.
In the village Mombadin was known for suffering often random seizures as was considered mentally retarded as such, lacking the apparent ability to control his body or his own consciousness. Often times he would awaken from his seizure episodes telling fantastic - if nonsensical - stories to those who surrounded him.
Following his first truly prophetic visions he was able to rally his kinsmen and followers about him. This meeting with great resistance from the Shiekh and ultimately drove he and his followers out of their home. Attempts to destroy him were met with failure. Ultimately the eclectic prophet was able to amass such a following he reclaimed his home and abroad to begin a new era for the Hamalfite people.
Mombadin's visions - or Amiliah - were recorded in a loose guide from oral recitation in the book Al-Amiliahu; a compilation of sermons he gave, stories, and allegories concerning Mombadin with attributed citations to how many parties claimed to be present.
== Sources to his Life ==
=== Al-Amiliahu ===
Many recounts of Mombadin's life stems from the recitations recorded from oral tradition in Al-Amiliahu, which wrote and recorded the many hundreds acts, deeds, sayings, and sermons of Mombadin during his life. Though it lacks chronology, ultimately preferring to orient itself from stories from those with the most citations to those with the least, and thus the least supported stories of Mombadin's life. As such, biographers and scholars must often re-construct his life on their educated guesswork and cross-references to any written records provided, oral histories, or monuments. Archaeological efforts are often rendered difficult since the desert sands often shift the landscape and make it disorienting to relocate many places Mombadin is said to have performed various acts.
Events asserted by Mombadin himself are given priority over others.
Often times Mombadin is referred to in abstract or through titles. "Voice of the Goddesses" is often invoked as being a predominant title.
=== Biographic Attempts ===
Several generations after Mombadin's death there had been several attempts to record and write down Mombadin's life in a chronological effort and to explore their prophet in a secular, humanistic manner. The writings of Abu ibn-Jaffaru roughly a hundred years after his death made what is regarded as the most solid attempt at composing Mombadin's life story, crafting the present image of his life. Abu - being a Vizier in Caliph Morrod ibn-Talid al-Mombadid - was able to personally sit down with the direct male descendant of Mombadin to seek out and record any personal family stories passed down from grandfather to son to grandson to procure a more accurate attempt at writing out Mombadin's story.
Additional attempts have been made to draft more accurate biographies of Mombadin, but with the eventual collapse of the Mombadid dynasty after Morrod the efforts were pale. After Abu many attempts at writing out Mombadin's life began to suffer and generally copied Abu's "Life and Actions of the Voice of the Sun and Moon"; published post-mortem by Abu's son Qafir. This class of biography became known as al-shira al-asghar, or low biography.
== Hamalfite lands pre-Mombadid ==
Before Mombadid and his successor's unification of the Hamalfite tribes much of the land lived in a disorganized state with no unity. There were known to be many thousands of clans drawn under a hundred tribes through marriage or simple domination. This state had come from the collapse of the Bewudid Kingdom. Following the kingdom's collapse many of the ancient fortresses fell to disrepair or simply collapsed when the old Shiekhs no longer found central support. The kingdom's capital - Bewudid - was lost to the sands itself and is said to have sank into the ground. This fractured state persisted for about four-hundred centuries.
Since then many settlements disappeared as nomadism experienced a revival. The Hamal-i Shea took over many of the coastal villages and carried on the older practices in a matter geared to sustain themselves.
In the politics of the region there arose two tribal confederacies, the Shalim-Kafid of the north and the Gabul-Urd of the south. Mombadin was born into the confederacy of the Gabul-Urd.
== Life and Actions of the Voice of the Sun and Moon ==
A summary of his life goes as follows.
=== Childhood ===
Mombadin was born in perhaps the month of Peshwir during what was for certain the year of 3933 to Fatha and Qisab. As a youth he played among the goats and was known as "The Kid". By the age of twelve he began showing signs of uncontrolled, random convulsions. The priests in the village offered little in the way of a cure, though provided means to control it through herbal drugs or tools and training to lessen the risk of injury to himself or others.
Throughout his youth and early-adulthood the episodes seemed to rise and fall. The herbal remedies were often expensive though and he went without medication for much of his childhood, only receiving it to calm any potential seizures during public events or family gatherings, or when in the presence of the Shiekh Abu ibn-Gabi.
=== Adulthood ===
Mombadin married his first wife Dinna at the age of eighteen, she was fifteen. This brought to the family a sum of five ewes and two rams to their flock. However it was believed that Dinna was infertile, or distant from Mombadin as they never had children. Other rumors suggested she was a lesbian and she disappeared when he was twenty-two.
By this time he had mostly adopted his father's flock and spent much of his time tending the flock to pay debts made by his brother, Siruz.
Mombadin received his first prophetic vision at the age of thirty-one when he was tending to his flock to bring home at night. When as he looked out to the desert he claims he was struck with a bright light. His body "filled with molten heat, like hot iron", and when his vision returned a pair of horses descended from the heavens. This account is often claimed to have been seen by several others from the village, though the exact identities of these persons are unknown.
In any case, these figures claimed to the be the Goddesses C'lestia and L'wna and they spoke to him about the ancient days, when the Hamalfite people were a single power. They told him where to start, and asserted the throne they sat upon which man had forgotten. They revealed to him a glimmer of heaven before leaving.
Mombadin returned to the village in a panic. Shouting of the wonderful site. In the days following he recounted his tale word-for-word. The passion and consistency of his stories convinced many he was for once not being wild and began to revere him as a powerful man. They gifted him with livestock and support, thus beginning his career as a prophet. As expected, Abu ibn-Gabi was not amused with the shift in the local power balance and ordered Mombadin executed. The prophet recieved a vision of his death by the hand of Abu's men and was able to rally his supporters and fled.
==== The Desert ====
Mombadin and his supporters fled into the desert ahead of Abu's agents, escaping their home. Mombadin promising to them they would find protection under C'lestia's light and L'wna's darkness as they had proclaimed themselves to accept their superior existence. In the desert he regularly managed to lead them to wells where they could refill their water and consoled his followers that despite how little water they carried it would never dry out so long as it was on the lips of a faithful good man.
While in the desert they made raids against the caravans of the Abu and his allies, seizing them and their slaves. Claiming the word of Heaven he announced that there is freedom in the bosom of the Goddesses and if they would have their milk they would be free. They seized the chance, and Mombadin armed them and set free their former masters who refused conversion.
Mombadin's desert campaign is said to have lasted fifty days. On the 49th he had a vision of Abu and an army riding out to hunt them down, lead by the caravan drivers that had went home. In consultation he also had a vision of a sandstorm should he ride in the right direction. After receiving this vision he lead his men west to the location shown to him by C'lestia and L'wna, where they crossed with and met Abu's army on the fifty-first day. As seen, a sandstorm swept the army and confused Abu and his mercenaries and they got lost in the field.
Mombadin and his men hunted the sandstorm, finding the scattered remnants of Abu's army and slaughtered them. Those that surrendered did so to Mombadin, and offered their services in exchange for their life and he enslaved them.
For his victory the Sheikhs of the Gabul-Urd pursued Mombadin on command of the Shiekh-Emir Konfar. Mombadin won battle after battle. After his fifth he was visited in solo by L'wna. Mombadin claims it was her who gave him the sword of Ibd-il Shlam and told him to take back him home and the village of Nedjz, from which he will build a kingdom.
==== War with Gabul-Urd ====
Mombadin's existence in the desert had been considered by Konfar as being little more than an episode of banditry and relegated to the tribal chieftains and sheikhs in the land of the confederacy. However as Mombadin's fifth victory as the site of Urd the Emir was beginning to feel significant impatience and began to recognize the threat. However before he could effectively rally an army and with many of the forces of his vassals slain, enslaved, or having surrendered their loyalties he was incapable of forming a proper force against Mombadin.
Mombadin turned to Nedjz as he sent for the conscription of foreign mercenaries. But before they could arrive the 10,000 strong army of Mombadin had arrived in the dunes outside of his holding.
Mombadin's army was far larger than the measly force Konfar could raise at the moment. Feeling peace could be made swiftly Mombadin invited Konfar to his tent to discuss terms. The Emir accepted to meet with him and approached Mombadin to hear him out.
However no terms could be decided and they two declared against each other a trail of irons to be conducted in a cyprus grove on the village's edge. The two met on the spot where they fought, and where Konfar was slain.
Without the death of their leader though, the army of Konfar did not relent or surrender to Mombadin's army and instead became enraged, attacking Mombadin's force in revenge. By the battle's end Mombadin and his men had slain every adult male in the village, taking the wives as slaves.
Konfar's death and the loss of Nedjz sparked a great deal of anger with Gabul-Urd. Hejaz soon fell to Mombadin as he secured himself on the southern coast, establishing a border on the river between him and Konfar's son, Qifar, now anointed Emir of the Gabul-Urd union.
Qifar, young and foolish ordered Mombadin captured and slain, emptying out what remained of his father's coffers on foreign mercenaries and courting in shiekhs from his rivals in the Shilam-Kafid to deal with the heretic in the south.
Again, Mombadin received a vision of the army marching from the edge of the Mirelands. He ordered his followers to establish a position north of the river. Claiming he saw visions of cavalry, he said the Goddesses instructed them to dig ditches in the sand.
On the arrival of Qifar's army of 12,000 battle commenced at the Site of Misab. Qifar deployed his cavalry first, who forming a bulk of his army kicked up such a cloud of dust they could not see the pits dug in the sands before them. It was only until they had come upon them they saw the sandy pits, but the horses slipped and fell into the valleys, breaking their legs as they fell and throwing their men out of their saddles.
Trapped at the bottom Mombadin's men were able to finish the job with their spears and arrows, slaughtering the first wave by the hundreds before the rest turned back and routed for their master's lines. The sight of the dead horses filling sandy valleys was so much for their war steads that consecutive charges could not make it passed the line of the dead, and many more were felled in archer fire from the top of the dunes.
Qifar ordered the remnants of his army to strike against Mombadin and strolled out ahead of his force to take on Mombadin. However they were out-numbered and they were driven back and slain by Mombadin. Qifar escaped unscathed as he turned from the sight of the brutal melee.
The results of the battle were a blessing upon Mombadin's men, and he ordered the army pursued. For the next several decades Mombadin's men pursued and harassed the Gabul-Urd tribes, breaking the confederacy down and eventually slaying Qifar himself 3396.
=== Personal Life ===
Mombadin took several wives throughout his life as prophet of his people. He sired three sons from them: Rashdun, Hormud, and Imiah. Rashdun would become Mombadin's successor and thus first Caliph. Hormud would later die in battle against the Shilam-Kafid. Imiah died young from pneumonia.
Mombadin was well-regarded as a spoken-voice poet and many of his poems survived as songs and were written down years after his death in the Al-Amiliahu. As well, he took to studying birds and horses, becoming a collector of prize-blooded horses and of finches he purchased from merchants. Many of the birds he collected that survived him were ultimately released. The prized horses he owned were bred into the royal blood-line still ridden by the current Caliphs and their retinue guard.
=== Death ===
Mombadin died at the age of seventy-one, in the year of 4019 from complications in regards to his breathing. Court apothecaries reported he had begun coughing of blood in his last days, and for the months previous he had troubles breathing, complaining of a "heavy discomfort" in his chest.
In any case, he made one last lesson in his death. Before his closest and oldest followers he counciled them on death, praising it as a great equalizer and that all men will eventual reach heaven. This much he had been assured of by the Goddesses.
Category:New Voldranians Category:Characters Category:Hamalfite Category:Leaders Category:Deceased