A BOOK OF SCROLLS: The Necklace

THE BOOK OF REQUIEMS:

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IN the days following the great departure of the Fay, from the world of Men, our remnant came to realize we alone were all that remained. We began to rally among ourselves and called for order amid concerns, for having stayed behind. We followed mostly the counsel of the three wisest voices among us: Ven.du.mar, Ba.al.yick, and Nol.Mith.lon. To them was I, A.doro.mir the firstborn son of Beir.dan laid the charge of being their Scribe. All that was done in those early days and the discussions that came thereafter I did write for the books to be kept as a record.

IN this book are set forth the Sha.dols (meaning Judges) of the Nasilian people and their dealing with we, who remained behind in the abandoned Fay city, we renamed Mithar (which means Forgotten). For herein are my personal understandings of the Bedouin, tent dwellers. In those days there was a host encamped outside and about the very walls of the city. Bedouin tent dwellers calling themselves the Nasil, (which means The Remembered). They liberally tattooed their entire bodies with the lore of their people in symbols and with sigils of magic arts protecting themselves from evil. Several tribal communities made up the nine hundred who cared for livestock and made the crudest of handcrafted wares. A single Judge did rule over their eight great leaders of Chieftains.

AT this time, six days had passed after the Great Departure, that it was thrust upon us by the situation presented us by the Nasilians that we were made to choose a leader among ourselves. Without a King, their eyes were ever upon taking the city as the opportunity was always theirs.

Now, among them, there was a man called Mair.i.than by name who was the Judge-Shadol over all the Nasil. He was prideful of his lineage that spanned many fathers; before their collective journey over the eastern Misty Mountains, and before the fled the depths of Harad itself. Shadol Mairithan was respected and held as most beloved. Wealthy among his people for he had three wives, thirty-seven children, twenty-two camels, forty he-goats, and many lambs, golden rings on every finger, and wore the Great Necklace of Flanglogan; that which belonged to the first ruler of Harad.

THE necklace was a huge jade stone set within an ivory-carved tusk of the elephant beast, carved in the likeness of a skull mask. Beaded on either side it road great bear claws, and was ever worn as his sign of power. The Necklace of Flanglogan, (as it was known by them), was the symbol of their office and rightful Judge ruler of the people.

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