Oases: Hope and Endurance - Introduction

In a parallel universe at a parallel time existed a parallel Earth called Oases,  a desert planet, which is home to the light brown to blue black peoples called  the Oasesians. This is one of their many stories. 

My name is Alama Kumbukumbu (Mark Chroniclers). I belong to the secret organization called the Milenia, for we are 1,000, no less and no more, which have for thousands of years recorded the history of this planet we called Oases. As is our custom, I will describe our planet at present before I begin my story.

The planet Oases is name so based on its geographical environment. This planet is one large ball of sand populated with 120 larges oases that is 100 to 300 kilometers long  and 50 to 150 km long. 50 of the oases roam the northern hemisphere 50  of the oases roam the southern hemisphere, and 20 roam around the equator. The largest of the oasis is  called the Amazon and it does not move. It is an oval that is 500km long and 300 km wide and no one have  ever transverse it or even flown over it. It is tangle of vegetations and mysterious animals. It is thought to be the where life on this planet originated. For thousands of years the people of Oases where nomadic and  live within the oases or live between the oasis which moves from 1km  to 3km per year. The are at presently map 987 small oasis dotting this planet. They also more across planets in a random manner, so we think. They were about 1 km to 3 km round and moved about 1 km per year. There was a time for about 1,000 years  in which many of the smaller oasis disappeared and no one knew why. It is assumed that hundreds of thousands died. There was war for the remaining oasis and the Milenia almost was wipe out. That is a story for another time and another place. However, suddenly those oasis began to return and for the remaining civilized populations that was left  restarted their calendar from zero. It is 1595 alfajiri mpya (new dawn) (1595 a.m).

In 1595 only two civilizations remained on Earth, so they would say. All other were nomads. They were the kingdom of Timbuktu and the queendom of Meroe. Both empires where at their height. They have conquered several of the Oasis nations and was competing for trade around the globe. There were three new technologies that was independently develop in each of those nations that propel them to the peak of their power. It was the invention of the hoover transport (HT), airships (AS), and staff armaments which was able to project a ball of plasma over a long distance. This made swords, bow and arrow, and cannons almost obsolete. However, there were difficult to make and so if there were enough soldiers with bow and arrow they could eventually overwhelm a army with staff amendments. However, the HT and AS though they could carry more that the average Ngamia, was barely faster than them. The Ngamia could cover  a long distance with ease carrying an average rider 200 km in a day and with a load  of up to 100 kg 100 km in a day. The hoovers could do the same. 

The hoovers was not propel by an engine, but by  centrifugal force. There were built and would be pulled top speed by a horse and then set loose and it will  hold that speed over a flat terrain for close to 200 km. No one knew how it worked, but it worked and the two nations of Timbuktu and Meroe were doing all they can to build more and more for their army and for their traders. Some of the wealthier individuals of each nation would have human runners to pull the hoovers as fast as they could go which was about 45 km/hr. Many of those wealth barges were elaborate and design for the long desert travel. Many hoovers were just cramp buses for the middle class and poor traveling those same distance trials across the dangerous open desert. The major route of travels was between the two nations of Timbuktu and Meroe and even though they hated each other for a time the wealth created by their trade with each other keep war at bay.  

The kingdom of Timbuktu was rule by the Mansas. This was a very male dominated society. The administrative leaders are always only male. The spiritual leaders  of the state religion   was always only female.  The Queendom of Meroe was the opposite. The administrative rulers of the nation was always only female whereas the spiritual leaders of the state religion was always only male.  In Timbuktu everything was very masculine. The city was called the fatherland. In Meroe the city was called the motherland and very strong feminine. Only men could be in the army in Timbuktu whereas in Meroe both men and women where equally requited in the army. The  city environment was also very different.

The Queendom of Meroe was magnificent. Meroe  was one of the few placed on this planet on which water did run free. It would have followed the Nile River   in the parallel  world of Earth. However, this Nile River was called  Mto Mkubwa (Great River). The came from large lake called Lake Victory by the Meroeans. It was a the Lake Victory Falls did the Mto Mkubwa begin and started its great northern trek to the Mediterranean Sea Marsh which was approximately 100 kilometer square. The Mto Mkubwa water was brackish and unable to be consumed by humans even though it was filled with life; which was consumed by humans. Certain part of the Mediterranean Sea Marsh was drinkable and a major civilization grew up among the marshes that could possibly one day rival Timbuktu and Meroe. However, that is another story for another time. The Meroeans found that if they build a marsh through which the water would run it would clean the water and make the water drinkable, at least for a while. The marsh they built was large covering 10 square kilometers, but the when the water got to the other side it was clear. The Meroeans create a 100 km square that was surrounded by a 10 meter deep moat that was a 100 meters wide. Inside that garden over 10,000,000 people live. The government was a semi-democracy. Only women could vote. The Queen was elected by the parliament which consist of 1,000 women who created the laws. The queen once elected ruled for life. Within the civil government any one qualified could be appointed to a position except for the administrators where all were women. Therefore, there were men that were generals, postmasters, judges, and other civil positions. Even so, it was the women that made all of the laws and where the administrator of the nation of Meroe.

This was rare in the history of Meroe. The elected queen or Candance, the proper was Nzuri III. Her grand mother Candance was Nzuri the Great rules for 50 years before dying of natural causes. She ushered in a new era of technological advancements and began to control some of the oasis that transverse that region. This outreach of power projection was notice by Kingdom of Timbuktu. Which leads to the potential conflict that seem to on the horizon. For you see two oasis that is claimed by each of those nations is less than 200 km apart. The distance between Timbuktu is 5,500 km and right between those two nations was two oasis that seem that they would eventually merge. Tension is in the air. It took about two month via ngamia to travel to and from from Timbuktu to Meroe and back. With the hoovers it took 30 days if the driver had skills or they could get stuck in the desert all alone with no real way to propel themselves. This has happen many time to too many who were greedy and not careful. The desert drive between the two nations can be one that is exhilarating and one that exhausting even to death.

The distance between the desert nations did not stop the trade between them. In the drive to control that trade that have embark in taking over those oases that where between getting closer and closer to the edge of war. Now there was talk about actually invading and taking over the other nations. The nation of Timbuktu could not be more different that the nation of Meroe. It was male dominated and the leader of that nation was the king (Mansa) Musa the III, the grandson of Mansa Musa the Great. Timbuktu was a walled enclosing of 100 km square. The wall was 50 meters tall and 25 meter thick. There was a four gates that was equal distance from the corner of the square. At those 12 gates there was a square km fort that housed 2,000 soldiers. The history of Timbukta was also one of war and constant intrigue in comparison to Meroe. Hence, the high walls and military culture. Meroe has had it war, but they were in many time would not last more that an year. War with Timbuktu was last decades, with the Nomadian - Timbuktu war being the most devastating. Even so, that is another story for another time.

The time that the nation of Timbuktu finds itself is one of greatness. Within the wall there was obsession we very large or very tall building such as the massive tower palace which we located in the center of the capital city. It rose 100 meters and it was once that artificial platform that was 4 hectare square. One could travel on one of the many elevated highways from the palace to each of the four walls even though there were strategic draw bridges in case the enemy started to head toward the palace one of elevated pathways. They were 100 meters wide and spectacular view when lit. The water came from rain. Even though the nation of Timbuktu was in the middle of the desert it raise in that area about 1 inch a day. Some though that was one of the many reason for the many war. Whoever control that spot had water. It was a strange weather phenomenon. Timbuktu has to learn to keep the water since it was so hot that the rain would evaporate even before it hit the ground. It could be actually raining and one if walking dry under the clouds. There were close to 100 100 meter squared equal positioned within the city that was designed to catch the water. Those towers 200 meter tall and through an elaborate system provide running water to all the buildings within the city using just gravity. It was similar to the capabilities within the nation of Meroe's capital, but less perspicuous. Those towers was massive and when lit made the city of Timbuktu, which was on a vast desert plain look spectacular. The 2.1 million people that lived in that city was proud if the city and the relative peace that they have had outside of the past 100 years of the oases wars. They were able to conduct these wars without major disruption of the daily life.

Part of the life of the Timbuktu was the mandatory participatory of all in the state religion. Religious freedom reigned within nation of Meroe, even though many did participate in those spiritual rituals by choice. In the nation of Timbuktu the had 1 prime minister, 10 deputies to the ministers, and 100 Centurion advisors to the Mansu. All laws were debated and passed through this small group of powerful men with the Mansa having the following word. Even though there were women in the administration of Meroe outside of the legislative body only the administrator could be male. Both Meroe and Timbuktu were spectacular cities, within the nation of Meroe having a distinctive feminine flavor and the Timbuktu being stereotypically male in its architectural flavor. This is the backdrop of the story that I will be sharing with you today.