[center][h1]1902, Year of the Prophet[/h1][/center]

[i]Is Emperor Shayaer the new Great Yvor?  Some wonder this aloud, from the highest circle of generals to the lowest peddlers and laborers in the city streets, and even many peasants in the countryside.  Some mean it genuinely, others with irony, others with more than a hint of resentment.  Either way, it is a question worth asking, for Yvor embodied the Aspect of Raegar in a way never seen before or after -except for the Prophet himself, of course-.  The first title of the Great Yvor was The Reformer, and this Shayaer has lived up to, for better or worse.  Whatever critics may say about Shayaer's Purge, it was not far from the spirit of Emperor Yvor's own battle against the nobles of his day.  The second title was The Conqueror, one Shayaer has yet to prove.  It is now his twentieth year on the throne, high time in the eyes of many for his Majesty to make due on this expectation.[/i]

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[center][img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Sultan_Mahmud_II.jpg/456px-Sultan_Mahmud_II.jpg[/img][/center]

Emperor Shayaer Khaitis allowed the slightest of smiles to form across his lips as he admired the painting.  [i]What a man.  What an Emperor.[/i]  He was the greatest hero that any Emperor could hope to live up to, second only to the Prophet Raegar himself.  Emperor Yvor Khaitis, the Reformer.  Emperor Yvor the Conqueror.  The Great Yvor.  He had uprooted and thrown out his own generation of corrupt nobility, and he too had reconquered Raethon from greedy extortionist lords.  He created the Imperial Bureaucracy and the Surv-Vyaez, and he transformed the Surv-Akur from a small auxiliary force to the greatest army the world had ever seen.  And he too had reorganized the land to the benefit of the peasants, in the great Yvorian Contract of Peoples and Settlements.  The contract that supposedly governed the land until Shayaer's own rise to the throne.

It weighed on Shayaer, how what was only inches from perfect could fall so low, mired in graft and abuse so deep it had to be abolished.  He knew he wasn't the only one in Survaek to compare himself to the Great Yvor, but perhaps he was the only one who feared what this could mean.  If what the greatest Emperor in the last millenium had accomplished failed to endure in its proper glory, what would become of the legacy of Emperor Shayaer, who knew well how uncertain that legacy was?  [i]Will it all be for nothing?[/i]

The Emperor shook his head.  He couldn't let such thoughts deter him.  It was too early to ask the question anyways.  First, Shayaer would have to finish proving his likeness to Yvor in the first place.  He would need to demonstrate the Second Aspect of Raegar.  And, if he could say one thing in his defense in relation to that glorious predecessor -his great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather he believed it was- then it was that the international situation was more difficult today than in 1674.  Much more difficult.  But no matter, Shayaer was determined to prove himself equal to the task.

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[center][img]http://www.nzmr.org/images2/turks_gaza2.jpg[/img][/center]

[i]Click![/i]

The flash popped unceremoniously, affecting absolutely no one.  The soldiers' eyes had already adjusted from the bright sun and, more importantly, from their exercises.  Their focus on the horizon ahead was unbreakable.

“FIRE!”

Ten Model 11 Ishui Heavy Automatic Rifles let loose on a new set of wooden targets.  After a long, deafening rattle of gunfire, they were mostly reduced to chips and sawdust just like the last set.  

“CEASE FIRE!”

Normal systems for scoring marksmen were not especially useful here, so the officers present had chosen to rely on the older method of “Does the target look sufficiently dead?”  Of course, the answer was yes for every single one.  The guns were as powerful as promised, and after weeks of training their operators were well in the habit of using them properly.  The drills today were noteworthy in that no one in the platoon had pushed their Model 11 too hard or worked it the wrong way; not a single one overheated or jammed, at least not yet.  Now it was just a matter of repetition, repetition, and yet more repetition until their new skills were second nature.

Of course, the officers still made a show of walking all the way from the firing line to the pitiful remains of the flat wooden dummies.  A few even pointed their batons here or there, and whether it was just for show or an actual analysis of the machine-gun fire was unclear.  When they returned, they had very little to say, except for the occasional tip to tilt a gun slightly higher or lower.

Yet, it wasn't only the commanders making a show of the exercises.  The troops responded earnestly to the tips, gave their superiors salutes like they were drill sergeants in boot camp, and looked at their targets as intently as a cat dying of hunger looks at that small rat or bird that might be their only prey for weeks.  Of course, they were proud Surv-Akur, heirs of three centuries of tradition they surely all hoped to live up to.  But there was something more, a feeling that hung in the air and tugged at the entire unit like a set of strings moving a puppet show.

[i]War.[/i]  War was coming, not someday but [i]soon[/i].  The officers knew the day and the hour, and the troops had a rough idea.  The Grand Survaek Empire, armed with a brand new set of predators' teeth, was about to make its first bloody mark of aggression on Serranthia in over six generations.  At least, that was the hope and the expectation.  It would be up to these men, and hundreds of thousands more like them, to see it through.

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[center][b]DECLARATION OF THE RECONQUEST OF SOUTHERN RAETHON, APRIL 12 1902[/b][/center]

[i]In the name of Aed, creator of all things, and his three Principles of Duty, Mastery, and Dignity, I, Shayaer Khaitis, Sword of Aed and Grand Survaek Emperor, by the authority invested in me by his Holy Excellency Vaekir Koen IX through the Crown and the Red Cap I wear, hereby declare war on the cruel heathens of the Republic of Honneria.  This glorious and righteous struggle I dub the Reconquest of Southern Raethon.

I cite as my cause that the lands of Southern Raethon, which the heathens rule as their own, rightfully belong to the Grand Survaek Empire according the Mandate of Aed and the Laws of History.  Furthermore, the Crown of Honneria has instituted heinous and unholy oppression and corruption of the Survaekom living in South Raethon, oppressing them and turning them away from the Holy Word of the Aedknam and the Raegarnam.

In this declaration, which I decree to be made public throughout the land and beyond the borders of the Grand Survaek Empire wherever it can be brought, I also call upon all faithful Aedakom and all righteous Survaekom in South Raethon to rise in support of their Faith and their Emperor.  For the Faithful of any nation they may be will share in the glory and rewards Aed brings, and Survaekom of any faith they may be will be guaranteed the Justice and Dignity due to them as Citizens of the Grand Empire.

To arms![/i]

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SUMMARY:
– Emperor Shayaer Khaitis contemplates his connection to the legendary Emperor, the Great Yvor, as he considers how to fulfill the Second Aspect of Aed, Victory in War.
– Surv-Akur troops train with the new Ishui Model 11 Heavy Automatic Rifle.  They know a war is about to begin.
– The Grand Survaek Empire declares the [b]Reconquest of Southern Raethon[/b] on the Republic of Honneria to reclaim the former imperial lands now part of Honnerian Serranthia.  Furthermore, the Empire calls on all Aedakom living in South Raethon, whether Survaekom or not, and all Survaekom living in South Raethom, whether Aedakom or not, to rally to the cause of the Empire.