Sildaz Karaja

*"Our first Sultan has been dead for a long time now and our lands are too large for our current ruler to maintain influence over, the Golden Sons have not only bred some of the best warriors in the east but also the best leaders, I do not intend to bend the knee to a Sultan I cannot respect even if half the Sultanate do I am a Golden Son and I will do what is best for our people and maybe a little for myself as well."* - Sildaz's words before shortly departing Nakash to found his own Emirate

Sildaz Karaja was a male Easterling born within the large borders of Nakash far away from the capital to travelling merchant parents from which on his travels his parents would buy him his first sword inspiring him to become not only a trader but also a fighter, in his youth he would practice sword fighting and hand to hand combat mixing the two into his own dancing fight style. During his time in the capital Sildaz would witness the Golden Sons showcase a graduation ceremony between two warriors where one would die and the victor would be made an official member of the group and an honoured warrior, after seeing this great duel he knew that his own path in life was to join the Golden Sons who also at one point trained and served Brezir the first Sultan of Nakash. Attending various tournaments across the desert and meeting with people connected to his parents through their trade Sildaz would eventually be allowed entry into the Golden Sons camp where like the other recruits would begin his rigorous training in hopes of becoming one of them, for a few years he would master the craft of wielding all types of different swords and spears to further diversify his arsenal. Eventually his time would come when Sildaz and the other recruits would participate in the Sons' tournament where each of them in rounds would fight each other either to the death or until one of them yielded, having made his way through the rounds he would make his way to the final duel which was hosted in the capital of Nakash where Sildaz whilst using his training would also use his own dancing style of combat to out manoeuvre his opponent and win the fight. After winning the duel Sildaz would be deemed an official member of the Golden Sons having access to their specialty forged armour and swords for him to use at his own leisure, now being a member of the Sons he would serve the ruling Sultan of the Dirîng Dynasty as their protectors solely allowing him to pursue other work or other ways of making money without serving the Sultan. In this period of the realm the east was becoming unstable with the days of Brezir having long gone for over a century his descendants had become more corrupt and even utilised slaves which was something that only occurred before the days of the Sultanate, during this time of unrest Sildaz knew that eventually an open rebellion or civil war would happen in the next few years if tensions grew and to solve this he would declare that the Golden Sons once produced a great leader like Brezir and that with his ideas the land may once again know another great leader declaring that he was going further east to found a new kingdom and create a sense of balance across the large desert. In his travels Sildaz would manage to make it past the borders of Nakash and reached even more large amounts of untamed deserts including various oasis which would provide great water sources for his new kingdom, deciding to settle on the land he would officially form the Emirate of Knaia with Sildaz being crowned as the Emir "of the sands" being a fair and just ruler in his own people's opinion including the opinion that he was more of a merchant ruler than a fighter however he was not challenged. By the end of his reign in 799 of the First Era he had solidified Knaia as the second biggest Easterling kingdom being just north east of Nakash.

## Biography

### First Era

#### Desert Son

Sildaz was naturally born into the nomadic lifestyle having both his parents being traders or merchants traversing across the desert going town to town to keep their business afloat providing a stable enough life for their child, whilst on their travels his parents would save enough money to buy a small regular sword for their son mainly as a gift and as a hobby but he would take this more seriously practising consistently with sword fighting treating it like a dance which allowed him to come up with his own smooth form of fighting style that he would continue to work on in his travels. Whilst spending some of his time practising with his new sword Sildaz would also learn the merchant trade his parents were training him to do to help him eventually set up his own business which in turn would also help him become a great talker and negotiator in his future becoming a leader and ruler, at some point in their travels the family would arrive in the capital of Nakash where his parents sought to attend a public event to sell a lot of their wares. The event that Sildaz got to watch was a final duel between two finalist combatants that had gone through years of training to eventually become a member of the ancient Easterling order the Golden Sons with the victor being inducted, as he witnessed the duel he would truly see a battle of styles and different techniques which saw both warriors put each other closer and closer to death with each strike they swung at each other. Eventually the duel would end and the victor would prevail allowing for all in attendance to witness the ceremony of induction for the warrior to become a member of the elite warrior order receiving his golden armour, having seen this entire thing Sildaz knew from that day on that he too wanted to one day become a great warrior like the ones he had seen in the arena but to get into becoming a recruit for the Golden Sons would be harder than he realised. Whilst still training himself he would also attend local tournaments and arenas that would help him garner a reputation alongside building up his fame across the land which would also bring attention to him, having participated and won enough tournaments Sildaz would formally be invited to join the Golden Sons recruitment program where he alongside other recruits would be trained for months on how to fight properly getting them ready for the Sons tournament to determine the next member of their group. During his training he would learn other fighting techniques which allowed him to vastly expand his arsenal including the use of spears and even shields although he would still rarely use shields as he believed it limited his mobility when he was in a fight, eventually after years of training the recruits would be put into the official Golden Sons tournament where each participant would fight another participant until a final battle which would be held within the capital city to determine the newest member of the group. Being one of the last participants Sildaz would utilise his training combining it with his own dancing fight style to swiftly avoid his opponent's heavy strikes with ease getting slight jabs in between moves before delivering the killing stab that ended his opponent and crowned him the victor, having won his duel Sildaz was officially inducted into the Golden Sons being given his own golden armour and weaponry inscribed with the Sons symbols.

#### Knaia

Now being a member of the Sons he would primarily serve as a guard to the Sultan however since the group maintained its own independence members of the group were able to pursue other work either for extra money or to garner a larger reputation, one of the Sons he would meet would be a prime example of both of these points with the man he met being one of the most famous blacksmiths in the east owning multiple smithies across Nakash. Seeing as he was brought up in the art of commerce and trade Sildaz would use his newfound reputation and payment for winning the tournament to begin setting up several caravans across the desert which would be a wise investment as he garnered a considerable amount of coin alongside having a network of connections, whilst serving his guard duties to the Sultanate he would notice the greed and corruption witnessing the increase in the use of slaves and the upper class only getting richer. Whilst he was growing up Sildaz would be told of the great Dirîng Dynasty with its founding member Brezir uniting the lands forming the Sultanate of Nakash however what he was currently seeing was the complete opposite of what he had been told, further into his time serving in the Sultanate he would continue to question the leadership of the kingdom and his own place within it. Eventually it would come to a point where he no longer believed in the Sultanate and chose to outright insult the Sultan believing him to put his own needs in front of the people he served and due to this Sildaz would distance himself from the capital where thanks to one of his travelling caravans he would come across a large portion of desert and land north east of Nakash being relatively unsettled, this discovery would give him the idea of building up his own nation like the great Brezir once did and so he would mobilise his caravans and traders to begin settling on the lands helping him form his own smaller eastern kingdom of Knaia which instead of being a Sultanate he would opt for an Emirate allowing for a proper government to be formed by the people and Sildaz would be named the Emir with the nickname as the Emir of the Sands being the first Emir of Knaia. Whilst the size of this newfound kingdom was considerably large and the second largest kingdom to Nakash they would pose no threat to the Sultanate as Sildaz wanted his nation to focus more on culture and trade of other kingdoms which thanks to his network and caravans they would reach as far as Evras allowing for the southern kingdom to be aware of the eastern kingdoms existence, even though they were no longer members of the Sultanate Sildaz would still maintain the tradition of building the Karaja Dynasty serving his family and descendants however they would not always be direct rulers with some members of the family line choosing to give rule of Knaia to another family member. Ultimately after forming the Emirate in 768 of the First Era Sildaz's reign would go on peacefully and prosperous for the rest of his life until he passed in 799 of the First Era where like other members of the Golden Sons would be buried with his armour as a symbol of his dedication to the protection of the east.