Motakol

**Motakol the Unifier** (Eosome: **Motakol Džōdaarörata**; Bujanski: **Motakol Velkovrono**; **Holy King Motakol**), or **Motakol the Kind** was the founder of the first unified Wonao nation, the earliest predecessor to the island of Bujan.

## History

### Unification

Motakol was born during a dire time, when a great blizzard starved and corrupted the kings of Resovjant into murderous warlords. Some of the tyrants who ruined the island were from other islands, and cannibalism and human sacrifice were widespread. In later history, this dire age is now known as the Old Hiranol, the Weeping.

Saddened and horrified by the gruesome carnage around him, Motakol went into hiding, meditating to the ancient gods of his people. He later emerged as the leader of a ruined village, whose survivors were surprised by his kindness and wisdom. Motakol also met with a man in red and black armour, who claimed to be the mountain god Kaononai. The Forge God chose him as his champion to fight the brutality all over the island, so he bestowed Motakol a magical mace made by him and several martyrs, and toughness on his body against any who would injure him.

More people gathered around him and protected other towns from hunters who would enslave or eat their prisoners. His kindness and justice also led to entire towns and his foes' warriors surrendering and defecting to his side, or raising his banners to join his crusade. Their condition was never to eat human flesh or blood ever again, or risk everlasting damnation.

Within three months, Motakol united Resovjant, ending the brutal practices of cannibalism and human sacrifice as abominations against the Gods. He led his armies against the other tyrants who settled in the west, but in spite of their furious slaughter of the tyrant-kings and their warriors, they remembered their King's teachings, and spared anyone who was not a soldier or who bowed and surrendered. Motakol's growing army was joined by the kingdoms of Varu and Motakol, who also rejected the cannibalistic practices that ruined the island.

It was during his war against the cannibals when he adopted a young male tiger who was his companion and pet.

One warrior, the greatest and the most feared of all the cannibals, was Gula, a warrior who slaughtered and dwelled in a mansion. In that mansion were vats of human blood, where he dipped teeth and bones from his victims in a grisly, twisted collection. He tried to kill Motakol and eat his remains, but Motakol wounded him and chased him all the way to his mansion. The sickening sight and smell of human flesh drove the rising king into a fit of rage, that as soon as the cannibal warrior leaped upon the king, Motakol impaled his face with his spear, tearing him to pieces. He lit a fire and yelled a curse against Gula's whole family, burning the cannibal in his mansion.

After slaying Gula and burning his house, Motakol purged the tent-city of Akrindo. There, he killed the master-butchers who governed the city and gave many prisoners torches to burn the tents and their soldiers with fire. The prisoners rescued many others from the slaughters and followed Motakol to liberate their homeland.

He created a code of laws, the Krudaka Code, to protect his people from ever returning to the corrupt attitudes of those dark times. Many of these laws were suggestions from his own people, warnings and precepts to guide the whole kingdom to avoid the ruin of the past. He also established the age-old elective monarchy that survives into modern Bujan.

### A Land in Pain

In the later years of his reign, he became more miserable. His priests, advisors, viziers, and peers learned that he was constantly traumatised by the killings that he saw as a young boy. The carnage that he witnessed were exactly the reason why he created his laws, out of fear that people would commit the same horrific acts. His own people started to show signs of panic, even in the most peaceful of days, ever-worried that the dark times of war would return. This was when many other Resovjantians tried to soothe the people, to help them and the king heal from the many horrors they witnessed long ago.

On his deathbed, he pleaded his son not to ever commit the monstrous deeds of the warlords. When his son promised and swore to all the Gods to prevent the tyrannical horrors from returning to Resovjant, the elderly king passed away. He smiled for the first time in many years, but on the very moment he breathed his last.

When he died, a thunderstorm raged across the island for three days and three nights: the weeping locals took it as a sign that the Gods were saddened by his death. For now, there will never again be a king as saintly as Motakol, no matter how wise or good any king after him would be.

In accordance to the customs of his home, his people placed his coffin on a ship, with each of its three sails written with a prayer to the Gods. It was sent without a captain to a whirlpool, where it was sunk into the depths.

Legends claimed that a lightning bolt shot up from the whirlpool to the stormy sky, and the clouds that raged for three days scattered. A new star appeared on the sky - it was a sign that Motakol had ascended to godhood, to protect the peoples that he served in life.

### Successor

50 years after Motakol's son, Tarautol, was coronated, a wise peasant discovered that mangroves were able to create new land by building up sediment from the sea. The practice spread to the other farmers of southern Resovjant, who planted more trees and waited in regular cycles.

Whenever the trees died after newer trees moved the coastline further south, the land was available for farming. They were joined by fishermen, who were able to reach the richer waters more easily without having to sail for days for troves of fish.

Centuries later, the new south coast happened to be washed by floods caused by winter rains and melting snow. Abandoned farmland became the plots for new, accidental forests.

## Legacy

Motakol's son and descendants renounced the splendour of past kings before them, as they swore to him and the Gods to obey their own subjects as the highest of stewards. Some kings and dynasties forgot the pledge of Motakol to protect their people, instead devouring and ravaging their homeland and subjecting it to great curses. But others honoured the pledge, and in turn they were honoured as among the many heroes of Bujan's people.

The westerly town of Motlano-na-Mikhivonu, along the Mihivon River, was named after him. It was set up three years after Zvesta was founded, and it is a haven of many universities.

The Bujanski cultural obsession with justice may be influenced by Motakol's reign and legacy. Like Motakol before them, the Kings of Bujan and their people were scarred by the many atrocities done by their enemies, that they avoided many abusive behaviours that resembled those of their tormentors. Long after his death, Motakol also inspired Bujan's people to become more helpful and kind, like him.

Two alleged "heirs of Motakol", as claimed by the Wonao people, included Koschei and Dostagir. Koschei created a code of laws that influenced Bujanski society, that they were the only legacy that was praised in modern Bujan; the king himself is still hated for wasting his reign on a destructive elixir to prolong his life. Dostagir, the first king of modern, independent Bujan, was a kind ruler whose wisdom and courage made him more similar to Motakol's justice.

Motakol's unification of Bujan was traditionally held on May 28, celebrated as one of two Victory Days for Bujan. The other Victory Day was at June 28, the next month, for Bujan's independence from Wannaenid oppression.

## Trivia

* The dystopian cannibalism and bloodshed that took place before Motakol ended those practices were inspired by the 2014 movie "Noah".
* The mass killings that took place just after Bujan's independence are known as the "New Hiranol" or "Gula's Revenge". Although many of the targets and victims of the mobs were Terran fanatics and their families, the brutality that took place led to comparisons to this ancient war.

## See also

* Koschei the Red
* Wonao mythology