Work Text:
The Annals of the Kingdomme of Ankh.
Originally written during the Reign of King Veltrick II.
Edited by The Guild of Historians.
Editors’ Note: This book has only been recently rediscovered. The Patrician, Lord Vetinari, has graciously allowed it to be published to the population at large stating that it was of “extreme historical interest to possibly more than one party in our city”.
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This is an account from before King Alguinna II and even before Artorollo (builder of the Forum). This is an account from the time of the Heathen Kings who once ruled our kingdom before being vanquished and in their fear, fleeing north. We understand that his royal majesty Veltrick II has asked these early kings to be erased and that only his line be existent as Noble Line of Ankh but we, the authors, feel that these early kings are of historical interest.
One account comes from a diary of a young to-be queen. We only have a few pages of the diary left for between her death and our receiving it the book appears to have been burnt.
The soon-to-be queen writes the following:
“I am the Rose of the Winds. It is what my father calls me. He tells me that our family is from all ends of the disc and in me they unite perfectly. I am the Rose of the Winds in fierceness and in beauty. Trace my origins back to the winding winds of the disc and in me you will find warriors and healers and thieves and lords and Good Men and good men.
I am the Rose of the Winds and so I am a necessity. I guide sailors on the seas, I bring rain to desperate farmers, I keep warm air moving edg-wise across Agatea, I carry distant spices and sands of ancient Klatch to new Ankh.
I am the Rose of the winds and so I am destruction. I am tempests that crush feeble ships against the shore, I am the tornadoes of the plains destroying livelihoods in an instant, I am the howling, shredding winds of mountain passes, I am sudden weather, I am magic corrupting your sense of direction.
Queens are both are they not? Fear and love. Life and death. This king I am marrying thinks so. He is the winter night and I am the spring day in colouring and age. My father says that he’s a good man but not a Good Man so I should be all right. No manner of happiness can come from marrying a Good and Just Man.
I am the Rose of the Winds for my future husband says that I have a sense of direction he feels he does not. He holds my hand as he was taught. I lean into him as I was taught. We do not write letters to each other.
My mother calls me Esperanza which means hope. She does not tell me why.”
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As this passage is from the early days of the kingdom dating is difficult. Current historians place it in the first or second line do to the nature of the language and the mentions of Agatea. The Compass did not exist at the time, regardless the date, and so we are not sure exactly what she means when she refers to the Rose of the Winds. There is no queen in the books named either Rose or Esperanza. Throughout the passages we have remaining her name is never mentioned.
The next excerpt comes from the early kingdom – fourth line to be exact. It was written by Princess Hermosa to her father. Hermosa was a common name in the royal family and as there is no date, or mention of her father’s name, we cannot be sure which Hermosa it is who wrote the letter. What is known is that it must have been written within fifty to seventy years before the conquest by Veltrick.
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“Father,
We have arrived to the city safely. Mother sends her regards. As so Lolo and Tilly. Lockey has written his own letter to you. I have attached it to this one.
I find the city much as I last remembered it and it is hard to believe that we have been gone so long. How old was I when we were forced to leave? Five? Six? Too young to truly understand what was happening. I look at the palace and all I can remember is fire.
Did the city burn terribly? I just remember holding onto mother and crying. I was such a child. But I suppose, to you and mother, I still must be though I am now 17.
Lockey says that he cannot wait to be king. I do hope you won’t take it too harshly, he is just a boy who is seeing his home for the first time. Mother told him to hush and not wish ill on you, our beloved father.
[half a page missing]
The city streets are marble and there is a grand throne in a grand hall. Tilly and I spent the day looking for the crown but we cannot find it –
[sentence ends abruptly. Rest of the page is missing.]
I sometimes worry for [unreadable]. I think Lockey spends too much time on his own. He’s queerly quiet for a boy his age. But mother says he may grow out of his shy phase.
[more pieces missing.]
I cannot wait until you arrive with your army. You will look so glamorous and mother says that your armour is the most beautiful and fearsome armour in all the disc. She also tells me to write to you and say that she has good news for you.
Sincerely your affectionate daughter,
Herma.
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The nicknames of her siblings unfortunately leave us no clues as to which exact family this is. However, the fact that they are apparently returning to the city after being gone for ten years leads us to believe that this is during the reign of Romulus Tarquinius.
The next excerpt is from the diary of the famous fifth wife Corrina of King Leonus. She, after her husbands “untimely” death went on to marry that merchant from what is now known as Genua. His name might as well be whipped from history.
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[starts mid sentence]
cannot believe what Marc tells me. That there are men outside the walls. What walls I want to ask him. What bloody walls? We don’t have any because this farce of a city has no money. My dear dead husband and his family were too busy drinking and whoring it away.
I ran into the palace guard, the captain of it, and said to him (rashly but bugger it), “I think kings are a damned waste of time”. And he said (rashly but bugger that, too), “Your son is the son of a king”. And I replied, “he may be, but I will make him a leader and not a king”. The captain didn’t reply.
What is with my former husband and his family and their feuds? Marc tells me we will not last the night. That Veltrick’s army is too many and we are too few and fuck this cursed city and these cursed kings.
I have sent my son off. They will come and they will slay Marc and stick his handsome head on a pike with some dirty sign. Then they will come and they will rape me and kill me and stick my head on a pike with some dirty sign. Queen whore, maybe. I am ever a realist. But the child they will slay in the crib will not be mine. And this diary will be burnt before ever they lay their filthy eyes upon it and I pray to the gods that -
[The last part of the page is missing]
I want to tell Veltrick to not turn his back on his son for his son has a murderer’s eye. This new line of “noble kings” are no more noble than the last line.
I curse the day this city ever heard of the idea of a One True King.
[The rest of the diary is illegible having been mostly burnt.]
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We, the authors, would like to make an addition here and clarify that the entirety of the previous royal family has been taken care of. King Veltrick II would like all readers of this to know and understand that there is no threat to his rule or the rule of his descendants. That line of “heathen kings” will no longer rise up to threaten the Kingdom of Ankh.
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The Guild of Historians would like to apologize for the abrupt end. The only survivng copy of The Annals was badly damaged since its original publishing. We will hopefully publish a second edition within a year.