We seldom realize the beauty that lay before us until it is no more. Our country was once young and fertile. It had been untainted by the strife that had consumed the motherlands of old, which harbored the salted land and withered souls of those who had remained. We came, we saw, we took, with little regard for that which had come before us, and here we built that which we believed our utopia. We thought of ourselves as the Keepers of Order. Prideful in faith, and believers in law and authority, and we thrived for many centuries unchallenged. But paradise is not built on a foundation of sins. Pride was our first sin, and the mistake from which all other come.
In time others came from across the great sea. We welcomed them with open arms. However in time they became known to us as the Bringers of Chaos. Upon their arrival, they looked upon the land with contempt, and despised every thing the Keepers of Order had built. Between our two peoples, there was little that physically differentiated us other than the Bringers bodies being more muscular than that of the Keepers. The Bringers were a strong people, often escapees, or those who had been exiled from lands far away, and alien in culture to the Keepers. Life had been cruel for them, but somehow they preserved. The Bringers were not used to the new found freedoms and choices their new homeland offered. They resented such. A large portion of the Bringers longed for their old counties, and their old ways of life. They believed that strength came through conflict, whereas the Keepers believed strength came from peace. The Bringers always sought change, as they were perpetually dissatisfied as a people. The Keepers however were content with the order of daily life. The Bringers had lived amongst the Keepers in peace for many generations, but longed for strong authority and direction that the Keepers society lacked. But as each day passed, many Bringers would meet in secret, planting the seeds of discord in the minds of anyone unfortunate enough that to be susceptible to their influence. The Bringers ideology stood in stark contrast to that of the Keepers. Our own children were the most affected by the new perspectives that had been introduced into society. The rebelliousness of youth towards their teachings and traditions, made the Brings way of life all the more enticing. As the Bringers grew in population, their influence spread far and wide, and their ways of life became more accepted with each day. Their demands for voices in government were welcome, and their council seats grew in number, as their thirst for power became insatiable, and the rage they felt within themselves grew.
Like most change, it happened over a period of time. The Bringers of Chaos grew in number, as more crossed the perilous sea to join their brethren in this land. They quickly became the fastest growing faction within the government. Laws were specifically drafted or changed solely to benefit the Bringers as a people, while simultaneously disadvantaging the Keepers of Order. The Bringers used the rule of law that the Keepers had put in place, against them at every opportunity. These laws were used to slowly dismantle every part of the Keepers society. There was nothing about the Keepers way of life that the Bringers respected, or could even tolerate. The Keepers were weak in the eyes of the Bringers of Chaos. The Keepers, solely intent on maintaining peace, would capitulate at every turn, but the attack on their way of life only intensified.
One day violence broke out in a city where the Bringers of Chaos had become the majority of the population. The minority Keepers of Order who lived in the city were beaten and driven from their homes, which the Bringers took for themselves. This would become common place in the villages, the cities, and across the country in the months that followed. When local leaders of the Keepers went to the capital to find a resolution to the violence, they were greeted by a large number of men dressed in blue uniforms guarding the capital building. This was an unusual site, as this many guards had not been present on previous visits in the years past. To their surprise they found that the numbers of those who represented their own people, the Keepers, had been greatly diminished within their government. The council that they stood before, was represented by a three quarter majority of Bringers. The Bringers that sat on the council wore blue uniforms identical to those of the guards. When the Keepers pled their case to the council, they were only told that change would come, and then they were sent back to their city. In time change did come, but not to resolve the issues the Keepers had brought before the council. However, most Keepers chose to ignore the increasing tensions happening all around them, or at least until it personally affected them. Months passed, and then years, and the situation began to spiral out of control. Then came the rise of the Blue Guard, and the day of the Great Reckoning.
And so it had begun. The resolutions had been passed and the edicts handed down. The chronicles announced the societal changes that were to come to the horror of the unbelieving Keeper population. This led to chaos in the streets, as an army of people dressed in blue uniforms, like those of the guards and council members at the capital, were marching through the city. They were the Blue Guard, they informed the population as they proceeded. They were the implementors of change, as dictated by the government. Likely the Blue Guard were marching through all cities across the country. The Bringer’s army, which was great in number, were armed with guns, swords and clubs. Many carried torches, while others led dogs. They went from house to house, forcing the Keeper occupants onto the streets, in the cold of the night, and gathering them together. Those that resisted were beaten or worse. As the Blue Guard marched on, they destroyed statues, burned books found in houses, and eradicated any religious imagery that they found, all to purge society of the sins of the past, and to forge a new future, the government proclamations declared. Some of the Blue Guard held banners as they marched through the streets, listing the parts of society the will be irradiated.
END THE SIX EVILS, the first banner read.
Then six more banners followed.
OLD CULTURE
OLD CUSTOMS
OLD HISTORY
OLD HABITS
OLD IDEAS
OLD KNOWLEDGE
These were the things that the Keepers of Order’s society was founded upon. To destroy this was to destroy them as a people. This the Bringers of Chaos were well aware. The Blue Guard continued their push, herding the Keepers through the city, and gathering others along the way.
The full moon had reached its zenith brightly illuminating the city. The local Keepers of Order were being brought to the city center, where the largest of the places of worship stood. The Keepers were pressed tightly together, as they proceeded past many Blue Guards and their aggressive dogs. Closer to the temple, the line of Keeper citizens was split by the Blue Guard as well as their civilian Bringer associates, and Keeper children under the age of fifteen were taken from their parents. The parents began to panic, as their children cried, while being forcefully removed from the area. Several Blue Guards fired shots into the air, to regain control of the situation. Their guns were pointed towards they faces of those who grew disruptive, until the Keeper people regained some composure and proceeded. Afterward each adult Keeper was brought before the temple and forced to kneel even more tightly together than before. They encircled the entire structure, row upon row, spanning at least thirty deep, as even more Keepers were brought to the temple. Some of the captive Keepers began to recognize familiar faces amongst the Blue Guards ranks. Young Keeper adults who had become indoctrinated into the Bringers of Chaos’s ways, had joined the Blue Guard, rebelling against their nation and families. All the while the Blue Guards guns remained pointed at the Keepers they held prisoner. Meanwhile, a large number of the kneeling Keepers took notice of a glow in the distant horizon, coming from the direction of a neighboring village.
A sudden noise from a loud speaker broke the silence, startling the captives. The sound came from multiple speakers encircling the temple and the Keepers. “This is the voice of your new provincial leader. You may refer to me as comrade, a term you will become accustomed to, as names will become obsolete in the New Order”, the deep male voice on the loudspeaker said. “There is a change coming, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. It is inevitable. It will happen no matter what you, or anyone else tries to do. It will effect everything. It will start with religion, politics, economics and culture, and will end with the entire restructuring of your lives. If you join the movement now, there will be a place for you on the other side of the revolution. If you don’t join us, things won’t turn out well for you”, the disembodied voice of the provincial leader warned. The Blue Guard lined up ten men on each side of the temple, forty in total. “These men resisted the guard”, the leader stated. “You can cry out, but do not move and don’t try to run. This is your only warning, and this is their consequence for their disobedience”. The deafening sound of machine guns filled the air, as did the screams of the horrified captives. Before the forty men’s bodies hit the ground, the Blue Guard opened fire upon pockets of terrified Keepers trying to flee. This continued for only a minute, but long enough for over one hundred Keepers to have been killed. Their blood soaked the remaining captives who were in a state of shock. “Actions have consequences”, the provincial leaders voice coldly stated. “Let us continue. Your life as you have known has ended. The nature of life itself will be reinvented. You will be free. Free from old cultures, old customs and old habits. You will be free from the lies of history, as the past will be no more, and as new history will begin from this day forward, and the people will write it together. You will be free from dangerous ideas and knowledge, as all you will ever need to know will be provided to you by the government” the leader proclaimed. “We will begin again, with a new vision, one where no one shall have any more than anyone else. We will eliminate privileges, like the ones enjoyed by the majority. We will eliminate inequity, as properties will be divided by communities and housing will become shared. We will eliminate advantage, as the majority will no longer rule. We will become one people, strong and obedient”, the leaders voice becoming louder and higher in pitch. “And with one people I mean the elimination that separates of our two peoples. We will put in place a Ministry of Reproductive Diversity, to ensure that future offspring produced, are only of the refined genetics. The weak will be weeded out, for there will be no place for such in this society. There will be laws enacted forbidding reproduction solely of ‘your’ inferior stock. Your marriages will be dissolved and suitable mates will be appointed to those of you who survive the coming transition. Your consent in this matter is of no concern, as you are not given a choice”, his voice coldly stated. “You are wondering where your children are.. They are fine”, the provincial leader voice was interrupted by a woman who yelled for the return of her child. A single shot rang out from one of the Blue Guards guns, as a bullet pierced her forehead, and she fell backwards into the crowd of screaming Keepers. “Again, actions have consequences” the voice from the loud speakers stated. “Your children have been sent to a re-education center. You will be joining them soon. This will be necessary to adapt to the societal changes. Understand this, we believe in the truth of this change for the betterment of the nation so much, that we are willing to eliminate anyone or anything that would stand in its way” his voice said threateningly, as multiple members of the Blue Guard approached the Temple, then shattered all the stained glass windows on the ground level. “You think of us as barbarians, but you've never considered that we see you the same way. You cling to your primitive religion and moral superiority, barely raising a whisper to defend yourselves, even when the signs of what was to come were right in front of you. You are not even worthy of pity. Your God will not protect you from what will come”, the Provincial leader said mockingly, as members of the Blue Guard set the Temple ablaze.
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