East
She could feel the cool breeze blowing in across her from the dark dunes. Knelt with her hands clasped she opened her eyes and saw the first rays of the sun bursting out across the desert towards her. It was as if God were reaching out to her and she drew great strength from it. The path to becoming an-shazi was not an easy one, there were very few females who rose to the rank of defender of the faith. Most were al-shazi, men, but that never deterred her. Obtaining her goal at the age of 17 she now finished her morning prayers before her first official command.
“Janni? Are you ready?” The voice of one of her Lieutenants spoke softly from behind her. With a nod she came with deft quickness to her feet and strapped her sword on. The blade was curved gracefully, her leather armor studded and dyed a deep purple to mark her as an-shazi, defender, chosen.
“I am ready, have the men prepare to ride.” Janni strode towards her mount, she was tall for her age and gender nearing 5′9″, lithe and quick. There were few that could look at her dusky skin and hair, her emerald green eyes and call her anything less than strikingly beautiful. But those eyes held an unyielding quality of steel to them and her lips rarely came to a smile. She got onto her horse and motioned her troops into motion as they headed slowly to the southwest.
West
The long white dress was misleading as she walked along the aisle of the great Chapel of Highguard. Her long black hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and the dress clung to a very obviously well muscled body. Jordan was raised in Highguard, her father was a Paladin, her father’s father was a Paladin, so on for many generations back. With no brothers to carry on the tradition and as the eldest daughter she took up the mantle. To be fair even with a brother around Jordan would likely have taken this path.
She moved to the altar where she knelt in prayer, closing her blue eyes as she did. Jordan was a severe girl even by the standards of Paladins, having come to her confirmation as a soldier of the Church at 14 she had been stuck the past 4 years on patrols near the city. But today that would all change, she was being sent southeast to some of the border settlements to patrol them.
Thinking through things as she knelt, her heavy mace was ready, her shining breastplate was ready, her chain mail leggings and shirt were ready. She would do this with ruthless efficiency like she approached all tasks, the border settlements assigned to her would be swept free of all heretics. Coming to her feet she moved to her quarters to prepare for her march.
Janni 1
The command she was given was little more than a routine patrol of some sleepy villages. Her small contingent was to meet with each village elder to be sure all was fine and to inspect the condition of their local daz-alnar, their church. Allowing herself a small smile under her veil at the thought of being the first an-shazi in a couple of decades. Surely there would be reactions both good and bad at her visit as many of the men in the outer reaches of the Empire were less enthusiastic about women taking on any positions of power.
The Empire of Alsa-an-sawa or more formally the Empire of the Children of God was the 2nd largest Empire in the world though if one was to ask Janni it was undoubtedly the greatest. Though she has seen little of it she knew it stretched from the Azraq Ocean far to east all the way to the Acacian foothills that she now rode towards. Far to the north it bordered the Land of the Broken Jaw, a place riddled with barbaric people. To the south was the far smaller empire of Bomhi but the majority of the southern coast was taken up by lush beaches along the Alsa Sea.
Staring to the west she could see the first village in the distance and knew they would easily reach it before sunset. She knew past the foothills lay the Great Empire of Acacia, land of her peoples truest enemies. Frowning as she thought of the name, Great Empire indeed, such arrogance they showed. Their day of reckoning would come, she just knew it in her heart. There had been a frigid peace between the two Empires for the past twenty years. But it was a peace based more on ignoring each others existence than anything else, there was no trade and no legal means of traveling between the two. Though nothing had happened in a long time in these borderland villages it was important to remain vigilant against the Acacians for there was little doubt they would take over if given the opportunity.
Jordan 1
Years of patrolling the city had brought about more than one conflict for Jordan, she was no stranger to combat or to killing when necessary. Though the heretics of the wrongly named Empire of the Children of God had been kept away from their border the past couple of decades, they needed to remain ever watchful. Thus these regular patrols to the few hamlets in the Acacian foothills and her first opportunity to visit them.
Looking stern beyond her years, she knew in her heart that protecting the Great Empire was the noblest of callings. The Empire was by a good measure the largest in the world, at least two times the size of the nearest rival Alsa-an-sawa. Stretching from the Emerald Ocean to the west it crossed more cities, forests and farmlands than a person could easily conceive of. Far to the north was Black Cliff which most people in the Great Empire considered to be little more than another Acacian holding that had not yet “acknowledged” it. To the south across the Alsa sea was the island nation of Zalzahbaan, if there were a place in the world she wanted to visit less than Alsa-an-sawa this was it. The people of Zalzahbaan were wildcards at best and could be counted on for nothing as a whole.
Inwardly she hoped the day would come that the Great Empire finally crushed their foe to the east. Once they took Alsa-an-sawa the entire world would be under the righteous command of the Church and the Great Empire.
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