Fiction:Tenet/History/12

=Reign of the First King, ch. 5=

With the resources of the Da'mir Empire now at his disposal, King Makann set his sights to the other civilizations of the Namthrakian continent.

Makann's approach was simple: to every city-state or nation not currently under his rule, he would send emissaries, offering their rulers a choice between absorption by the newly-named Kingdom of Tenet or conquest by the same.

If they chose to be absorbed, they were required to abandon all previous religions in favor of the Dichotomous Church, and all their people were to be initiated into it. In addition, their rulers would be subordinate to King Makann, and they would need to pay a regular tithe to the core Assurhab cities. In return, the Tenet would distribute those tithes equally among all its constituents, and would offer military protection against outside threats.

Some nations found these terms intolerable, especially in regards to religion. Known as the Refusalists, their ranks included Abarrai, Dersut, Hathsim, and Imyrrha. Some declared King Makann to be a false prophet who used trickery to disguise himself as Eschaton, while others simply refused to become vassal states. In any case, they refused to be absorbed. Thus, conquest became necessary.

Leaving his daughter Annina to handle administration of the empire, King Makann personally led the conquest of each resistant nation. It was his nature to offer them a second chance at surrender once he arrived, with no ill feeling; only if they refused him a second time did he attack. And while he was famously even-handed and tolerant to those who accepted absorption, he was infamously ruthless in war.

Perhaps the best example of this two-strikes policy lies in Makann's total destruction of Imyrrha. Having been refused twice by the city-state, Makann famously put the entire city to the torch...