The Vallisian Dark Age
A Proof of Wisdom
“The years of the Dishonored One’s rule and the ten years after were the Dark Age. During that time, the Dishonored One and the old nobles of the west abandoned the Pact and embraced the occult. This betrayal brought greed into their hearts and caused them to forsake their duties to the people. Where they ruled, abundance was stripped from the land and replaced with famine. These are the results for those who have forgotten reason.”
In Vallis, any child older than eight can repeat these lines and the lines that follow from memory. They’re a part of the compulsory education mandated by my mother and her government upon her coronation.
This and wiping Great Grandfather’s name from the historical record were amongst her final reforms targeting the Dark Age. Before she had taken the throne, before she had even come of age, she had thoroughly destroyed what would be the memory of those times. Great Grandfather was killed in the capital’s siege and the nobles of the west were executed. The people who participated in their occult practices were also executed. The people who only bore witness, but did not renounce these actions or pursue the enforcement of the Pact, were executed as well. As for what was written, every record of the old aristocracy’s occult practices was destroyed and the possession of such documents became outlawed. Discussion of the details and the description of their occult practices also became outlawed.
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The enforcement of these laws, particularly the ones related to speech, have been strict enough that it is rare to find a Vallisian who would even speak of those times.
I pity our subjects who can no longer speak of their past, but their circumstances have given me a question. How severe was the betrayal of the Pact that even the common man fears these laws?
For those who lived through that time, it is said that a recollection of their daily experience beyond the barest of details risks breaking the law. It is to the point that children are told never to ask a Western Vallisian about their time in the Dark Age. The only words safe to repeat about those times are what we teach to the children.
“After seventy-three years, the Dark Age ended when Queen Elaine took the throne. We give thanks to those who have delivered us from the occult. We shall forget our evil deeds, but we shall not forget those who rescued us from them.
“We give thanks to the late Duke of Corm, Henry, the duke’s late son, William, and the duke’s grandson, Robert. They fought and won the war for the throne while fending off Multisian invasion.
“We give thanks to the late Queen Cordette. Though fear was in her heart, she abandoned her father, brought legitimacy to the duke’s war, and rallied Oremaris to the valley’s cause. We strive towards such acts of valor.
“We give thanks to Oremaris, our eternal allies to the south. They saw through the lies of the western nobles and fought with the old duke to restore the Pact’s glory.
“The Pact has been restored. Our country has been restored. We must never surrender the Pact again. We must never accept the occult again. The occult must be removed from our memories. Only then can the people of the valley look again towards tomorrow.”