Sails of the Fourth World

Sails of the Fourth Wind (or أشرعة العالم الرابع / 'Ashrieat Alriyh Alrrabiea in it's native tongue) is a compendium of folk talkes, mythologies and tomes that make up a large portion of the Levant Diarchy's dogma, philosophy and religion. After the devastating effects of the Spell Plague *and* subsequent revolution that created the Diarchy, the inhabitants of the Levant were on the verge of total disunity and chaos. The then Chair of the Diarchy, Amberly Muf'Addei, commissioned for a great heroic work to make the bedstone of a unifying Levant culture.

The result of that commission was Sails of the Fourth Wind, which was several separate tomes published throughout the Levant's "Year of Victory" (which was the final year of the revolution and the declarement of the Levant as one, joint state.) in roughly 30 different entries. It was published by a deaf/mute philospher under a pen-name; Kadiga of Babylon. She died before her work could be completed, in which she envisioned 127 works instead of the now 30 or so. However several contemporaries, peers and writers still today work with the notes she left behind to piece together the remaining 100 stories.

Today, Sails of the Fourth Wind is looked upon by Levant occupants as a joint unifier among tribes and the Levant's greatest work. It serves as a set of precedents and rules for hower the tribes should treat one another, and explains the heritage of each one. It is both a history and a mythology, as parts of it are true and others clearly fabricated as the narrative dips and dives between real historical figures and events and clearly fabricated fiction.

Here is a complete transcript of the collective works.

## Transcript

still work in progress this will take a while :(

(Note: The transcripts listed here are the english translation, and as a result, some linguist nuance has been lost)

### 1.

* Daria and Mercusus1 had two sons. Artyrin the Elder and Zosimos the Younger. Now, as Mercusus lay upon his death, he asked his eldest Artyrin to accompany him. Artyrin's needs lay within the tribal lands of Galilee to put waste upon insurrection2, unso Zosimos became his father's ward in passing.
* Mercusus was mourned on the tides of the sea3. As Artyrin returned from his endeavors, Zosimos informed him that Mercusus had passed the throne onto himself in Artyrin's absence4. Artyrin contested this claim and left Mecca to make himself ready for war.
* Zosimos knew well his challenge ahead, as Artyrin, veteran of the Galilee insurrections, had made himself capable of making war5. Zosimos fled the capital of Damascus and marched southwest into Egypt and the Sahara with his traitor army. Artyrin fervently claimed the capital in his absence and made himself ready to keep.
* Underestimated, underprepared, Zosimos' march grew long. Unaccountant for the hot sons of the desert he had ran dry in the 15,000 parasangs6. However, in his march that snaked through the northern coasts, Zosimos called forth many Bedouin raiders which held his name in reverence7.
* Zosimos lined the red sea, and with steady footwork chased legends in mountains. Upon the Isador Cradle8 he found the beast9 in which he did not seek. Informed of the designs he held against his brother, the beast asked Zosimos that:
* "For this, you have not served your father, as he hath departed. For this, you have not served your country, as it has departed. For this, you have not served your throne, as it has departed, too. The path of service is a tower, in which neither up nor down is there sky nor ground: Those who are served must always serve. I cannot bend the knee to those who know not how it is done."
* Zosimos thought upon this, and said forth: "My service is not to myself, but to my life and my future. Where I am is where my duty lies, and I follow what God wills of me. With Him, I am in service."
* The beast was satisfied with his words, and raised his banner within it's clutches. Thus Zasimos marched home, confident with his tally.
* Zosimos returned to the Capital Sands 2 winters after his start10. Artyrin in his absence had executed Daria, their mother, by way of beheading11. Artyrin had furthermore assumed Zosimos dead upon the dunes of Egypt and had not had defense prepared.
* Zosimos' army was 30,000 strong. Among it lay the Beduins, Beast and traitors. Untrained barbarians and grunts prior of the land. Their skill and equipment was limited, but their numbers many and their morale superior. Artyrin's army of 5,000 officers and royal guards were much higher in training and equipment, but lacked in number.
* Zosimos lay siege to Damascus in the spring, approaching from it's western face among the mountains where his machines lay into the stone and began it's blanket. His army set upon the top of mount Hermon as it's bottleneck, forcing Artyrin's scouts to fight sparsely up the mountain and were ultimately repelled.
* Zosimos knew that his advantage was in time. The city defenses, only 5,000 strong, were too great to contend with on open ground. His plan was to wait until the winter and starve out it's occupants. His opportunity would deliver itself sooner.
* Upon the third month of spring, Zosimos matched the walls of Damascus attended only by his troop 30 strong12 for talks with his ruling sibling, which he had raised sword against. At 30 stages13 Zosimos ceased and said thus in public forum made by thy brother, Artyrin and his 5,000 strong.
* "Let not your loved ones die, though we are dead. Disperate bloodshed makes fools of us both. To you, gripping the city; let thy women and children free so that they may flee from this calamity and breathe free. They need not die for either us to win."
* Artyrin was unsatisfied with his brother's display, as well as his advisors. His brother widely known among his follow as knave and fraudulent: "My trust ill-placed in you, brother. You have done little to display your honor, thief of crowns and mark of my caste. For what reason do I have to place trust in kind such as yourself? For pray tell you take me for; fool? Honor not maketh dull mind, and for you I spare only doubt and ill-tides."
* "By my very advent, I have proven true to my word. I confessed unto you my father's wishes, and you took heed. I confessed to you my intent, and you took heed. I approach your walls in faith and you took heed. What I have said I would do and what I have undertaken have little parsed. What which undertaken has created is not my invent, but God's, and for that I cannot control."
* Thus, Artyrin and Zosimos had reached their agreement. Artyrin would allow the innocent to part from Damascus only if Zosimos had made his army gathered forth so that they could not give chase. Zosimos did so, his army gathered upon Damascus' steps as the woman and children bleeded from the city walls and marched north, to Europe.
* Upon three days of their leaving, Zosimos approached the gates again in uniformed manner. Without Artyrin Zosimos addressed the 5,000 altogether.
* "Cease and lay down arms, for which you prepare to die for nothing. Your families and children you no longer defend. You lay your bodies down for mud, street and concrete, and your homes now lay empty. Those which you love dearest now are safe from either party, and without it's people, your city is hollow and without bearing. Valor in death for an empty home is as feckless as it is in equal to the city's condition itself."
* Zosimos' words struck them true, and thus many of Artyrin's men lay down arms and fled north to their fleeing families. Artyrin left only 2 divisions14 to his banner. Zosimos then gathered his army and made his assault. Thus began the Battle of the Exalts15
* Zosimos approached the city at some 600 stages, halting along the Al Kiswah village. From the eastern road he sent 6 divisions and 1 company16 of infantry, which followed forth by some 2 divisions of Bedouin cavalry in rank accompanying it's flanks. Along the west came the bulk of his forces, some capitus17 of infantry. Through the southern, main road came Zosimos and his beast, with only one division of troop.
* Artyrin knew his numbers, now thinned, would be heavily stretched. For every one of Artyrin's men, there were 14 of Zosimos' barbarians18. Artyrin gathered his troops along the Abu Ad Dardaa and the Assaker19, and made his command at The Damascus Sword20. From there they brought nets and wire to skin across the Bedouins21 as well as cannons to match Zosimos' beast. Laying the wires across the streets of Old Damascus22 and placing their guns within and atop the civil peaks of Al Qanawat23.
* Zosimos began his assault upon the eastern road. His troops began the initial assault upon Al Shaghour24 through the road. They continued unabated until Al Yarmouk25. A faulty guide had led the Bedouins into the small suburb, and there they were accosted with refugees in hiding and their advanced slowed. The main contingent of infantry skirmished within the small district of Al Qazzaz26.
* Nahr Eshe27 became Zosimos' "Six Feet Grounds."28 Within the corridors and ghettos of it's district, Nahr Eshe cobbled with bodies at the foot of the beast alone. The cannons within Al Qanawat kept him and his beast at bay, even as his western section flooded through the highway into Nahr Eshe29. Thus Zosimos' campaign would have, perhaps, died if not for the Bedouins and the eastern sect.
* Discerning the nature of the cornered companies, the Bedouin sand swipers suddenly altered their strategy and pushed west, around the southern edges of Nahr Eshe and flanking the guns through the western streets. The guns were felled, and as the infantry pushed north into the Jewish Quarter, Zosimos the Younger pushed west into the Sword of Damascus and the battle was won.

1 - Daria and Mercusus were the rulers of the Arabian region when the Visarian attacks began in 2015, and it's largely when the story of the Levant Diarchy begins. Sails of the Fourth Wind doesn't remark or discuss the war much aside from this.

2 - The insurrection was sparked by a civil disunity in the tribes between whether or not Saudi Arabia, Iran and other world powers should stand with the Alliance in the Visarian war. Some, including the government, felt that the Alliance was just another name for the western powers that had previously invaded them and that there should be no attempt to help them. Others felt the Visarians represented a more potent threat.

3 - It's unclear what exactly this sentence is supposed to be conveying. It's potentially referring to an ancient technique of burial.

4 - It's unclear if Mercusus had actually passed his throne to Zosimos, or if Zosimos was making up his father's bequeathal.

5 - Artyrin is believed to be almost 12 years Zosimos' senior. By the time Zosimos had attempted to claim the throne, Zosimos was 23 and Artyrin was 34. Artyrin had already spent many years as a military commander, Zosimos had not.

6 - Ancient Persian metric, roughly 1 parasang equals to 6 kilometers.

7 - Zosimos already had good standing upon the time of his attempted coup among the Bedouins. Namely because Zosimos had attempted years prior to lower taxes among the nomadic tribals, both because it was too difficult to tax them anyway and also because they were the main engines to a massive illegal drug market that fueled the throne.

8 - Isador Cradle is a fictitious peninsula rumored to be located on the western banks of the Red Sea.

9 - Zosimos' beast is a point of very high contention among scholars, as no one knows exactly the nature of his "beast". Repeated translations of it only being referred to as such suggest that there is a specific name for it out there. Some believe it was an actual, physical creature of some kind. Other more realistic scholars believe the beast represents something. Perhaps a disease Zosimos had contracted, or that Zosimos was actually a super and the "beast" was his power, or even just a simple idea Zosimos had to reclaim the throne.

10 - The winter of 2017 was notoriously brutal. Artyrin, in Zosimos' absence, had gone on to conquer almost all of the Middle East and had put the young Pasil and Amber in charge of the Levant Diarchy, which was only a fief then. At the time many had come to regard the two would-be rulers with disgust.

11 - Daria was executed by her son, Artyrin, after rumor spread that Daria had aided Zosimos in his escape from his brother. In order to save face, Artyrin had done the beheading himself.

12 - Back then, most lords, kings and men of the court were always accompanied by a small cohort of close friends, companions and fellow adventurers. This is so that their personal guard would always fight to the death to protect them, and rarely ever backstabbed them.

13 - Another ancient unit of measurement, the Stage is described as "one pace" or roughly 5 feet.

14 - Around 1,350 units, or the exact amount of troops their father, Mercusus, used to break the Zion tribe centuries prior in his first battle and test as ruler.

15 - The title of the battle derived from the fact both armies believed that Zosimos and Artyrin were exalted among men. Ironic, seeing as the battle would either immediately or later claim both their lives.

16 A Company is roughly 675 units, or half a division. Primarily used for scouting or small quarters engagements. 17 - roughly 14 divisions, it's also more conventionally known as an "army" or a "proper" army.

18 - The term barbarian is used in metaphor for rebels, as the author Kadiga was believed to be favorable to the loyalists.

21 - A famous strategy to deflect Bedouin cavalry charges where monofilament wires were laid out across roads and avenues so that the riders would be "skinned" or clotheslined by the wires as they unknowingly charged through.