New Colchis: History

5422AD The Inheritance Debate

Lords had grown accustomed to passing their wealth and privilege on to their eldest offspring. This practice had long been disapproved of by the priesthood, who strove to make the Lordship pass on to the reincarnation of the Lord. They, of course played a vital role in identifying the new-born baby which held the reincarnated spirit of the dead Lord.

The Lords, and the warrior class generally believed that the spirits of powerful warriors and Lords lived on in their direct descendants, rather than an unrelated newborn child.

In 5422AD, the High Priest Magnus declared this idea of spiritual re-birth through one’s children to be a heresy. This was a bold move by Magnus to end the power of the Lords and avert the dreadful war which seemed to be looming. As the Lords died, their power and wealth would pass on into new-born children; probably peasant or priest class, rather than to sons and daughters who had been raised with the warrior Code.

One of the great alliances, lead by the House Sujata, accepted Magnus’ proclamation. The other two great blocs, lead by House Bose and House Gauranga rejected it.

5427AD Lord Bose is Re-Born

By 5427AD tensions had risen to fever pitch. The Lord Bose died. He had been head of one of the two great alliances opposed to Magnus’ decree. His son, Anthony Bose was proclaimed his successor, but High Priest Magnus declared that a boy from the House of Sujata was the re-incarnation of Lord Bose.

Lady Sujata, who had not been consulted, was horrified. Although she didn’t reject Magnus’ declaration outright, she called for further spiritual investigations before she could decide. Importantly, she refused to hand the boy over to the priests.

Magnus ordered all priests in Bose territory to not cooperate with the ‘heretical régime’. Many of them were interred for their opposition to Lord Anthony. Soon it became clear that Magnus’ declaration was not going to have the desired effect. The House of Bose was using it as an excuse to rid its land of troublesome priests, and to arm itself from their stocks of (relatively) hi-tech weapons.