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0laffson β King Arashir
#anthro #armor #armour #avian #bird #caracal #cat #falx #fantasy #feline #furry #hawk #jewelry #king #lynx #medieval #middleages #originalcharacter #rich #soldier #sword #traditional #warrior #watercolor #watercolour #middleeastern
Published: 2018-12-17 14:43:35 +0000 UTC; Views: 8252; Favourites: 388; Downloads: 64
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Description
Big lore dump incoming, skip it if you don't care!
Arashir Bahir Kor was the last great king of Sirath, the city where Shadi currently lives, before it was conquered by the human empire of Elaris, and later invaded and colonized by the empire of Laatven. When in the year 1384 Arashir met the first ambassadors of Elaris, his kingdom was not in the best shape, since it was in the middle of a costly war to stop the advance from the north of the fierce lizard-like Sa'jiir.
Arashir had never met humans before, and accepted help in term of military support and resources in exchange for great quantities of gold. What he didn't know was that the Elarians made the exact same offer to the Sa'jiir, and once the two sides had bled each other out, the Empire decided to strike.
The Kingdom of Sirath was conquered easily thanks to the superior technology, and king Arashir died fighting after refusing to surrender. His son Navid, still a child back then, was allowed to stay on the throne as a vassal of Elaris. During his reign numerous rebellions occurred, due to the fact many Ajshar citizens saw their lands and shops taken from them and given to human settlers, and this often caused the Elarian empire to repress the non-human population with all means necessary.
After the Laatvian-Elarian war in 1434, Sirath was taken by the Empire or Laatven, and things got even worse for the conquered Ajshar and Sa'jiir, who were subjected to an even greater oppression. King Navid, now adult, tried to organize a resistance against the human domination, but after 2 years he was defeated and executed together with his whole family, with only one of his children surving. The year 1436 was the definitive end of the Kingdom of Sirath, which is now a Laatvian governorship.
The last surviving member of the Kor dinasty, Arash Kor , was hidden by Ajshari loyalists and he currently controls a small part of the slums of Sirath. It is likely local authorities know who he is, but they tolerate his presence, since he never showed any interest in expanding his small "kingdom".
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Sorry for the horrible wall of text, but sometimes I enjoy writing about my setting's lore! 
In any case, after all the pages and sketches I posted I decided to work on a few colored drawings. I needed a bit of variety, and I was also afraid my submissions were starting to be a bit repetitive. Besides, I really felt the need to draw one of my super-detailed armor concepts!
Hope you like it! ^^
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Comments: 104
I'm happy to hear that!
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Great design and a great story, too!
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That's not a wall of text! That's lore! I like lore! So, nyeh!
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Haha glad to hear it mate!
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It's actually based on Indo-Persian mirror armors.
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Nice!! I love the background on this guy. The history was fun to read. I really do hope he does expand his kingdom...Β
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Thank you a lot man!
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Awe.... well crap... THE CATS WILL RISE AGAIN!!
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I'm or was a author, but never get any feedback for my story. Because of that I stop writing. I kinda get ideas, but don't feel like continuing them.
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Aw, I'm sorry to hear it man! I'd still suggest not to give up, even if the lack of feedback can be discouraging.
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Look up "Writing Bad" on Facebook. They're VERY supportive, very helpful, and have zero tolerance for trolls. Not gonna lie, sometimes a post will get lost in the feed, but the vast majority of the time, you'll get the feedback you're looking for.
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I don't have a Facebook account, never like that place.
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There are some good critique avenues there, as well as several chats, "games" and other places. I think there is even a "Critique Partners" account on there. If you want to try again, might be some places that would help you.
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Thats some highly detailed armor, very impressive work your awesome!
What kind of bird is that?
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Thank you so much!
A completely fictional species.
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Love the armor, but a king needs his crown!
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Thank you a lot!
These cats don't really use crowns usually, besides he's more of a soldier at heart than a king. ^^
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Iβm sure that the Laatven Empire will collapse someday as all empires do. And it will be a mess when they do. Remember what happened after the Roman Empire fell?
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I have to check up on my history
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Sorry about that. This comment was meant for Olaffson.
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1st off, I wish youβd include this much lore in some of your posts, it adds context and makes it more believable and understandable.
2nd, great job with the armor! Itβs gorgeousΒ
Finally, have you ever considered having your lore made into books or incorporated into a website based around your world? If so, please direct me to it, Iβd love to learn more about itΒ
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Well, it seems people liked the lore so I may indeed add more of it in future works!
Thank you SO much mate! ^^ Glad you liked it. And no, at the moment all the lore you can find is in the descriptions. I really should make a "history book" for my setting
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An expanding kingdom of felines (be they furries or nekomimi) would be nice, too
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Haha not for the moment!
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OK, no neko. But it is (or was) thinkable that some mad wizard tries something like that
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I think both human nations made capitol mistakes when it comes to how they handle things in Sirath. Having a client Kingdom or Tributary State does not mean you have to get involved directly. Especially not if you have countless of your own people actively replace the natives and their properties away. This only causes resentment and invites rebellions. As it happens in the lore of your story.
Anyways, enough politics. I love the backstory and i certainly love the armor, highly ornamented heavy lamellar armor, one of favorite types of long-used armor types.
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There would have been rebellions in any case, most likely, but this situation really didn't leave non-humans any choice. They were almost forced to fight back, and then they were all butchered or deported.
The Empire of Elaris has changed quite a bit now, since the new emperor took the throne. They granted almost equal rights to all non-humans, hoping they'd get more citizen willing to pay taxes and soldiers in their wars. The problem is human areas have been flooded with non-humans from all the neighbouring territories, all looking for better life opportunities, and this caused some frictions.
Thank you a lot, lamellar armors are indeed great looking!
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Mhhh I see. This could have been avoided I think. I mean history proved that even after conquest, two different cultures can merge over time. In this case not in regards of becoming an intermixed population, but maybe on a cultural level.
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Honestly, yes and no. You're completely right with the advantages but there are their own disadvantages, particularly in a larger geopolitical sphere. Rome saw this in their conflict with Persia, either side would flip the client kingdoms of the other when possible--and they were often easier to flip because they had little to lose when a massive army they had no chance of stopping showed up on their doorstep.
The alternative of client kingdoms is assimilation. In the real world groups of people who conquer others either assimilate into the local culture or have the local culture assimilated into their own. This is pretty visible in the Norman Conquests, the Aarpad's settling Hungary, Lombard Italy and that's just a handful of Western examples (Mughal India, Qing China are a handful of Eastern ones--Persia and Greece are excellent ancient examples, as is Rome itself). There is an advantage in us all being human on our planet: we can assimilate into other cultures in one or two generations. This creates a common identity: a shared language, culture and values; what it means to be Roman, proverbially.
If the occupying force is large enough, powerful enough and stable enough to stick around for one or two generations following the conquest you'll usually see a distinct shift in the culture--a sort of blending that creates its own distinct culture from the previous groups. As humans we usually just want to be left alone, so in such a scenario you can chop the head off the nobility and so long as the ordinary folk don't suffer 'too much' the average farmer shrugs his shoulders and carries on.
The problem you run into is when fantasy races actually cannot cross-breed. As one side or the other is forever marked as outsiders there's only a few options, really. A client kingdom, as you suggested. One species accepting the second billing--forever then resting at the whims of the morality of the more powerful species. Or extermination. Realistically, the last one is the rarest in our world usually because you couldn't hunt every last person down--they would flee, assimilate, or migrate. But in a setting with many different species and races (and the leopard literally cannot change its spots) its entirely possible such a thing would be more common. After all, we find lots of reasons to kill each other in the real world over relatively minor things, imagine then the differences between lion with their mighty manes and tigers with their slinking solitary nature?
Anyhoot, sorry for the wall of text! I just love talking about this sort of stuff.
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Nothing to be sorry for, a quite refreshing read. ^^
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Well, thank ya! If you're ever interested in talking about that sort of thing do hit me up. I mostly sit on my hands and do nothing while waiting for my publishing house to catch up. 
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Gladly, I actually had to give some of your points some thought. I think the major mistake the Humans in the story was to forcefully replace parts of the native population. If they had... lets just say... done as you said, eliminate the social elites and leave the major population be, treat them like equal subjects to the laws of the wider Empire, maybe things wouldnΒ΄t be so drastic by this point. ItΒ΄s even possible that the regional economy would have benefitted and thus the natives of the Area. The People may have benefitted from the more advanced technology brought in by humans, improvement of waterworks, maybe even administrative improvements leaving to stable or even lower taxation. And what population likes infrastructure improvements and more stable or lower taxes? x3
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Very much so. There's always going to be some level of people being jerks but so long as your Justice System doesn't cater to one side over the other you can gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people. A fair and just broker does a lot to build trust and that trust, combined with stability, is ultimately what the vast majority of people would have. Through history, as odd as it might sound to modern ears, freedom wasn't really that important to people. Having enough food to feed your family, that your jobs were safe, that you wouldn't be murdered in the streets--those were usually the priorities for the average folk. In that way when a new force comes into power, if it's canny, they will promise those things and even make an effort to deliver. So long as it is then properly managed the vast majority of folk don't find the need to rise up and revolt. Much of that relies on reading the social norms of a society: if you tax something sacred or important to people you're much more likely to provoke ire than something as simple as a head tax. At the same time you can see the reverse being true into the modern world as well: if there is a moral imperative against vast wealth then taxing the wealthy rather than everyone is an option. Very much it requires a governor who understands first the people they are governing and second the politics of the Empire surrounding them.
You do, of course, get bad governors appointed for all sorts of reasons: political ties, powerful armies, vast wealth, a bribe for something else. Yet the damage they do is limited assuming they are either competent (always a gamble) or at the very least hands off. An incompetent governor who needs their hands in all the pies at once is likely to screw the whole thing up. If they're lucky in that case they'll get recalled, at worst they provoke a revolt and get themselves killed. I say at worst in that scenario because open revolt is bad--it pulls armies away from the front, it discourages trust, it takes time for populations to recover and the economic damage it can do can easily create a situation in which you're basically reconquering your own territory. Ironically, there's a fantastic opportunity for a foreign power to use revolts as a justification to invade as well: "Look at how they butcher our brothers and sisters! Look how they kill our children and parents!"
The problem you face in the time period is mostly limiting sacking. Not impossible to do, but demanded a conqueror of incredible personal fortitude to look his men in the eye and say: "By the gods, you will treat them as you would your mother and father." I love dealing with stuff like that. I get to do so in the novel I just tossed at my publisher where the commander of the forces is given that advice (in this case to release captives) but refuses to do so because of the expectation of her men to take slaves (which means wealth to improve their own lots in life). Sorry, don't mean to gush, but I love writing. ^///^
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To be fair, he was just trying to protect his people from an invasion.
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Thatβs what the Romeβs emperor kept telling everyone.π
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Yeah, he certainly looks like a king. Just look at that fancy armour!
Too bad he fell to one of the oldest tricks in the books, though.
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Indeed!
Yep, poor guy!
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