Yths was a large empire ruled by King Henri Lodehart, an old, wise man who wanted to teach his people order, wisdom, philosophy and world history. It was located along the flowing Northern Waters, surrounded by dark forests and shielded from behind by the snow-capped Arendsbergen, which were so high that their tops disappeared into the clouds.
The country consisted of four major parts. The first part was called Azucar, the glorious main department where the royal palace was located, the busy state buildings with the golden glory. It was beautifully equipped with the most beautiful garlands and flowers, eccentric murals with embedded gemstones, exuberant street entertainment, color, flair, atmosphere and admiration up to the highest spiers of the cathedrals and watchtowers. Only the members of the Courtly Functional Citizenry lived here: citizens who served in the king's central government.
To the west lay Agriar, with its rich quarters, occupied by greedy barons, sharp-eyed counts, greedy dukes and their equally money-hungry wives. Villas and castles boasted endless hectares of castle gardens and hundreds of servants who worked their asses off to carry out the most impossible orders. Flags and pennants landed in the neatly maintained streets and were admired by wealthy ladies in beautiful dresses of soft silk and velvet, white puffed sleeves and flowy petticoats. They were followed by dapper gentlemen in shiny tailcoats with elegant ebony walking sticks, who took their wives out to dine at one of the fanciest restaurants where the bill was the last thing on their minds.
Salado, which stretched across the entire east side, had inviting charms in its own way. The ordinary, everyday bourgeoisie lived here in small terraced houses or slightly larger farms with associated agricultural land. In the center it was a lot busier with streets that were not overcrowded, cramped shops that advertised their best merchandise and cozy taverns with a wide range of scents. The market displayed fresh fruits in all colors and flavors, the harbor smelled of newly imported fish and salt water, boats rocked precariously on the quay and fishermen dried their nets in the glistening afternoon sun. It was the trading heart of Yths that was populated by people who came and went, ate and slept, worked and rested and negotiated the daily price.
Only Amargo showed the dark side of Yths, like a dark, poisoned shadow in places where the sun did not dare to come, the rotten part of the apple. A mix of dispossessed people and animals homed in this part of the country, worked to eat and ate to survive. Although that work was not always official and a lot of money was stolen or earned in shady ways. It was dark early and very dangerous. Poor people retreated to their shabby, sheltered houses with too many residents for too few rooms without any luxury. Street children played in the dirty streams, little illiterates, dreaming of the world outside the shielding walls that were supposed to obscure Amargo's poverty. In the evening darkness, gentlemen in long dark coats came out and offered their merchandise under the few street lamps. Beggars extended their shaky hands to drunken gentlemen coming home from a night out and children stole food from the rubbish bins. In their eyes shone the lust for glittering money. Men beat their wives, women their children, and children their skinny, neglected pets, who howled for food all night long.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
The worst were the buroons, half human, half animal and few people could identify which animal they came from. Many years ago, King Lodehart's councilor had an army base built in Amargo where experiments were conducted with children, jackals, pythons and blue oil from an underground source. The goal was to create a human species that possessed exceptional strengths to use as an army. Unfortunately, the guards could barely control the animals and no one knew exactly what the blue oil was capable of.
The result was small humanoids, barely four feet tall with dark blue skin and serrated ears. They had widely spaced eyes with oval-shaped pupils and three rows of razor-sharp teeth in what looked like a child's mouth. They walked upright like a human and could understand simple words, although they could only grunt limited sounds. The citizens of Amargo held their breath when they saw a buron sitting on the street corner at night. The creatures loved iron and deliberately gnawed on all kinds of metal structures. There were often forks or spoons on the sidewalk to keep the neighbors happy. Luckily, if they weren't hungry, they were harmless. They also did not like crowds and noise and therefore mainly emerged at night. Although they were small, no one dared to kill them. A brave blacksmith once plunged his iron fire-rod right between the ribs of a buron to save his newly made hooves from the creature's teeth. The buron died in a few moments, but then black slimy blood flowed from its small body, which was so corrosive that only the iron bar and the blacksmith's two gold teeth were recovered. Since then, no one dared to go near a buron. Luckily they were bad hiders. They often involuntarily made a high-pitched noise that resembled a giggling laugh, alerting everyone in the area. Citizens would quickly throw some cutlery out the window and then close their windows, doors and shutters. The mayors and governors did their utmost to obscure Amargo from the outside world and had a gigantic wall built to separate this dark world from the rest. They also organized charity actions to raise money and ease their conscience for those who were closer to death than life.
Like any other country, Yths also had its own flag and just like the other flags, the flag of Yths had a meaning. The flag was white with four red balls. The white in the flag symbolized peace and freedom in the country. The spheres represented each part of the country. In the center was the sphere of Azucar. On the left was the sphere of Agriar and on the right the sphere of Salado. At the bottom was Amargo's sphere, which was clearly smaller than the other spheres. The spheres were in a triangle for a reason. They represented the mythical Triangle of Wisdom or the Aasa. (A for Azucar, Amargo and Agriar and S for Salado).