People of Ultara, children of Aldarian Descendants, in light of the ongoing rebellions, this story will be different from all the others I have written thus far. I will speak about the person who has inspired me to write.
....
Have you ever heard of Ino Antara?
Perhaps that was a stupid question for me to ask at the start.
Of course you have!
Who in Ultara has never heard of Leader Ino Antara? He is someone even the babies born of Maldarian Descendants have heard of before, much less you the children of Aldarian Descendants.
With the wisdom of a hundred scholars, he led Ultara through the Great War when our previous rulers cowered. With the bravery of a thousand men on the battlefield, he defeated the Great Evil which threatened our lands.
After defeating the Great Evil, Leader Ino Antara used his wisdom to govern all of Ultara. He destroyed the system previously established by Noble Families and allowed those of low births to receive opportunities to obtain wealth and freedom.
Education, Trade, Agriculture, and even creating fair Laws, he has improved every Sector of our society and built infrastructures that improved the lives of all in Ultara.
Leader Ino Antara is a great figure that everyone in Ultara should be grateful to for the rest of their lives.
It was even said that during the summer of his birth, chants could be heard coming from the high heavens, that Ultara experienced three straight days of rainfall, thus preventing the struggling farmers’ crops from dying due to the harsh drought that summer.
Even before Leader Ino Antara fully entered this world, he was helping Ultara. He was destined to be Ultara’s Great Savior. His existence is like the shining star in the night sky that guides us all to the most prosperous Era of Ultara. He will forever live on in our memories as our Father, our Great Leader, and our Savior.
Oh by the grace of the Gods, bless our Great Leader Ino Antara.
However, these things are merely the glorious times of Leader Ino Antara. In the past, he was never seen as a beacon of hope.
After his birth, Leader Ino Antara was nothing more than someone of lowly birth. He was born in a village on the outskirts of Ultara. His mother was a regular seamstress who worked out of their home, while his father owned a butchery.
Because his father’s butchery was one of the few in the village, one could say that his upbringing was better than most of the other children in the village. However, in those times, the Noble Families were neglectful and allowed the Great Evil to run rampant on the outskirts of Ultara. As a result, their village was always subjected to raids which ultimately led to killings.
It was during one of these raids that Leader Ino Antara’s mother was murdered.
Leader Ino Antara at that time was only six, but as young as he was, he had joined his father who gathered the men of the village and drove out the invaders. In that battle, Leader Ino Antara showed glimpses of his bravery going on to behead more than a dozen of the Great Evils' heads.
The villagers hailed him as their hero and celebrated his victory as well as mourned his mother’s death.
It was said that it was while kneeling at his mother’s grave that Leader Ino Antara received a message from the Gods to liberate us from the rulers that had plunged Ultara into oppression while they themselves lived lavishly in their gold-decorated palaces.
With wisdom unbefitting of his age, Leader Antara started to educate the children and even the adults in his village.
More raids occurred but each time Leader Ino Antara led the village men to defeat the Great Evil. The survivors of the surrounding villages that were destroyed also began to gravitate to Leader Ino Antara’s village.
By the age of ten, Leader Ino Antara was seen as the head of the village, and under his lead the small village eventually grew in number.
During this time of growth, Leader Ino Antara never stopped teaching the villagers. He would write books that educated the villagers about agriculture so they could provide for themselves and their families, as well as teach them ingenious military strategies so they could fight off the Great Evil.
He even introduced new social and economic norms that differed from the ones created by the Noble Families. These new ideals allowed those villagers, who were considered low birth, mere pheasants by the Noble Families, to form a sense of self. They no longer saw themselves as mere dirt that could be trampled on by those Noble Families, but as flesh and blood that deserved to be treated like humans, like equals as the Gods had intended.
Those same books that Leader Ino Antara wrote when he was so young are still used to this day. They built the foundation that Ultara stands on today.
However, these books back then weren’t seen as treasures as they are now. When they were leaked to the Noble Families that ruled Ultara at the time, they were seen as blasphemy and a challenge to their noble statuses.
How dare mere commoners have this worldview? How dare pheasants of low birth try and break the system of power they’ve established?
Leader Ino Antara became their most wanted villain in the entirety of Ultara when the small village reached a number in the tens of thousands. These tens of thousands of followers of Leader Ino Antara all adopted his ideals and were no longer willing to stay under the Noble Families' tyranny.
Out of fear, these Noble Families sent an army of a million to wipe out Leader Ino Antara’s followers. Even the records of this battle were lost in time, only known now due to Leader Ino Antara's retelling.
This was the first time Leader Ino Antara had lost a battle. All his followers were either killed or imprisoned. The only reason Leader Ino Antara had not died was because he was forced to leave. He had wanted to fight and die with them all, but he was ultimately dragged away by twelve of his followers before they were surrounded by the Noble Families' million-strong army.
However, the Noble Families thought he had died as his followers had created a double to die in his place when he escaped.
After escaping, Leader Ino Antara, who was only a young boy, lived several years in the shadows, mourning his father and his followers’ deaths.
But it was during these years that Leader Ino Antara received another message from the Gods, and with that message he found the will to continue. He promised himself that the death of his father and followers would not be in vain, that he would fulfill what he was born into this world for, to lead Ultara to a glorious Era.
However, Leader Ino Antara knew his previous method was wrong. The system that the Noble Families had created, which was nothing more than a system of slavery to the lowborn, was too entrenched into Ultara that any thought or idea that went against it would stand out before being squashed by those Noble Families.
So, instead of going against it, Leader Ino Antara went along with it, all to tear it apart from the inside.
His first step was to conceptualize books, that on the surface, seemed like mere fictitious stories, but in truth, had themes and ideals hidden between each line that were the same as the ones he first taught the villagers.
At the age of nineteen Leader Ino Antara became renowned in Ultara for his stories. Even the Noble Families, being clueless, praised how a mere commoner could create such vivid and fantastical stories. They even invited him into their circle, and disseminated his books even more throughout Ultara, allowing them to reach every corner and crevice.
But while these Noble Families were enjoying his stories, his books over the years had been teaching the commoners his ideals, ideals that could only be seen through by people who were in their situations, oppressed and enslaved by the Noble Families.
For over two decades, Leader Ino Antara wrote countless books until he was known as the greatest storyteller of that age in Ultara. However, in the last decade of his writings, he had shifted his texts, slowly consolidating the commoners' Will and ambition all over Ultara.
Leader Ino Altara's plans soon came to fruition when a perfect opportunity arrived. Due to the negligent rule of the Noble Families, the Great Evil had gathered their forces on the border of the Ultara in order to launch a frightening attack with an army of several million strong.
Using this time when those foolish Noble Families refused to stop the Great Evil, Leader Ino Antara acted, gathering the commoners of Ultara and ousting the Noble Families from their high thrones before going on to defeat the invading Great Evil.
This, Descendants of Aldarian, is the true story of our Great Leader Ino Antara. Your ancestors were once those low-birth commoners who followed Leader Ino Antara and guided Ultara to the greatness it is today.
Do not listen to those false narratives that have been circulating about our Great Leader Ino Antara by those Descendants of Maldarian. They are descendants of the Great Evil that tried to invade our lands, how can you trust their words?
Our Great Leader Ino Antara was wise and just in his actions. He rightfully killed those Noble Families and destroyed their system of oppression on your ancestors.
How were they peaceful? How were they kind? Those Descendants of Maldarian, those descendants of the Great Evil, claim they were as such, but it is all a ploy to destabilize your beliefs.
They even claim that they themselves were such a peaceful Empire before our Great Leader Ino Antara invaded them.
Lies.
All deceitful lies that you, the Descendants of Aldarian, can see through to be false.
Their rebellions now are a result of our Great Leader Ino Antara’s recent death due to old age.
Oh by the grace of the Gods, bless our Great Leader Ino Antara.
But know this Descendants of Aldarian, we will never surrender to their tyranny. Our Great Leader Ino Antara might have died, but there will be someone who will lead Ultara to glory once more.
Even if that person has to be me.
All GLORY TO INO ANTARA!! ALL GLORY TO ULTARA!!
-Ultara’s future greatest storyteller of this age, Ion Atarna
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4 comments
Hi, Tseth ! I got here from the Critique Circle e-mail. I think the story has good bones. I like the world-building aspect of it. You did a good job hashing that out. If I could suggest, I think you need to use that descriptiveness on the leader's actions. What specific examples does he have in fighting the class system or the evil in this world? What exactly is in those books ? What tales did he write that are allegorical to the rot in society? I think if you were a bit more specific in showing (not telling) us what a great man Ino Antara...
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Hi Alexis, thank you for the feedback! I also wanted to detail the stories in the books, but when I found this website at around 12 and decided on a spur of the moment to write a short story that night, thank you again for the feedback. Oh, side note, Ultara was indeed a peaceful Empire and so were the Royal Families. Ino Antara was the one evil, he fabricated his upbringing and the threat faced by the other Empire, a hint to this is how exaggerated his upbringing sounds and that all records of that battle were lost until his retelling. The...
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I was going to say it had a bit of a, well, North Korean vibe to it, but I wasn't sure that was the intention. Hahahaha !
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I chose to write this from the protagonist perspective and took a meta-approach where this story itself signifies the change the author has on him. It also contains some underlying themes you can spot on the second or third read.
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