The Lord of a City

Taking great artistic license I have prepared a story with the styling of John Norman upon the ancient Hindu legend of Indra. I pray none are offended by this as I hope this story can be enjoyed for the valuable meaning it tries so hard to bring. I present to those here "The Lord of a City". A Gorean retrospect which asks "Can a lowly slave save a great and powerful Ubar from the wrath of the Priest Kings?"

Ages ago in this harsh yet fertile land there was one of the prevalent Ubar's of Ar named Indra. Often after his dinner with his favored slave Indrani at his side he would rejoice in looking out across the city in wonder as how majestic the city is. Ar has always been blessed to be the central hub of all the lands. He would ponder on such things as he wandered the great halls of the castle keep while enjoying the soft company of his girl. They would wander the halls together while looking at the paintings of the past Ubar's of Ar. Indra would think of how they fought to become the leader and the accomplishments they made as keepers of the city. Like so many other Ubar's before him he had battled to become the authority of Ar and wanted to bring under his reign a greatness like no other. Not only for himself but his kinsmen so that the city as a whole would be a shining example to the rest of the land.

After giving it much thought he proclaimed that the city would build the Great Wall of Ar to surround the greatest city of all. He had this concept of what he wanted but what he really needed was a master draftsman to plan such a grand scheme. He would often tell the girls of his harem how he had such grand ideas and so his most favored girl offered her humble thoughts that he should try to bring the best builders in the land by holding an event. He thought it was a wonderful idea so he ordered a festival to be held for all the builders. Offering a reward to the draftsman that has the greatest design of all, he sent emissaries across the lands proclaiming an additional reward to the Ubar of the city that the builder would come from. Many an Ubar knowing the true power of Ar and the benefit of being friend to the city had sent their own emissaries and their most brilliant engineers to where they all came to the Festival of Builders.

The festival as a joyous event in that the whole city offered up food and entertainment. The man with the most outstanding architecture of course won the competition and they became The Grand Master Builder of Ar and their Ubar was granted reward of riches and slaves in exchange for such genius. Still the task at hand was so great that all the builders were hired and smaller rewards were sent to each Ubar in turn as this Ubar of Ar would be a reputable man to his own name. The city watch amazed as they began building The Great Wall of Ar. When after the first section went up the Ubar realized he could no longer see the mighty Voltai Mountains from his throne. This troubled his mind and so he brought the Grand Master Builder to his chambers and they discussed designing a new keep for his throne room. They talked about how to build it with a much higher cylinder so he could see over the Great Wall of Ar.

And so it was they were building the Great Wall of Ar and the Ubar's Cylinder of Ar majestically rising from the valley below the Voltai Mountains. As The Great Wall and the Ubar's Cylinder of Ar grew so did the jealousies of the other great halls of the high castes grow. How could he have this magnificent tower and yet they would not benefit from such great changes? This Ubar was a proud man and wanted to have the most grand city of Ar that had ever been seen, much less a city needs to have a proud council or he would constantly have challengers to being Ubar so again he brought in the best builder of all the lands into his chambers and they drew up the plans to make the great halls of the free in Ar. The gold of Ar is almost limitless and this was affordable as the many kingdoms had paid tribute to such a great Ubar. How ever no matter how much gold there is in the world there are only so many builders to cut all the stone.

They would look over the city as the Great Wall of Ar and the Ubar's Cylinder of Ar, and the Great Hall's of Ar were being torn down and rebuilt. And the Ubar and the builder constantly adding new things of grandeur to the scheme, they grew frustrated at a task that would never end. The prayers of so many builders weary of never ending changes and work went to the priests and even the Grand Master Builder was troubled as the city would never be completed if the Ubar did not constantly want greater and better changes. The ears of the priest went to the Priest Kings who once more looked down from the high peeks of the Sardar Mountains to see the City of Ar that was once again growing in it's greatness. The Priest Kings gave this careful thought and consideration, so they planned and sent for a voyage of acquisition.

A day came to where a stranger was wandering the lands of Ar and looked to the great construction going on and began to laugh out loud at all the mistakes the builders were making and made comments on how to correct the errors with more efficient ways. This all to quickly caught the eye of the Ubar as the other builders were bewildered by this strangers wisdom. The Ubar was amazed at his knowledge and wanted to learn more as he wanted to have the very best City of Ar that the land had ever seen. He brought the stranger to his chambers to discuss what would need to be done. After offering him a meal fit for any master served up by his very own favored girl he talked more with the stranger who told him "If you want to deign the best city then you must have the best slaves in all the land to do the labor! I just happened to have the best slaves in all the land that can build the greatest vision of Ar the world has ever seen!"

The Ubar agreed and paid the stranger the highest reward ever heard of and the stranger brought to Ar a grand army of slaves that worked diligently with out question to build the city with a speed none had ever remembered. The Ubar was pleased and yet puzzled though as he watched all the slave workers. Many of their faces seemed so very familiar to him yet he would lay awake at night while his favored girl would try to sooth him. Sleeplessly trying to remember who these slaves were and how did he come to recognize their faces. One very hot summer day he approached the stranger watching as the slaves were still working tirelessly and asked him, "These men that work so hard to build this great city, some of them seem familiar to me. Where did you obtain them?"

The stranger only laughed and said, "They were given to me as a gift from the Priest Kings them self. The only work they ever do is to improve the city of Ar as that is all they ever wanted to do." The Ubar looked so very puzzled at the stranger not understanding as he had never heard of such a thing before. The stranger laughed loudly and proclaimed, "Every last one of the slaves! Former Ubar's of Ar all!" The Ubar stood there as the reality sank deep into his bones that some how he had angered the Priest Kings in his ambition, but now there was no stopping the plans as how can one turn away a gift form the Priest Kings? He stood there watching the slaves as they worked under the hot sun and yet in their eyes he saw only the pride of their labor, in that they to desired to see the city become majestic. Still the thought of becoming a slave of labor for the Priest Kings drove fear deep into his heart.

The slaves continued building the city yet he swore to repent and went to the temple of the Priest Kings to pray. He then thought to become the most proper man he could become and gave an oath to the Priest Kings that he would over come his transgressions. Vowing celibacy he went to his keep and gathered his harem and brought them to market to sell off. One by one he sold off his slaves to the bidders until it was time to sell his most favored slave. The girl with tears in her eyes fell prone to his feet pleading with him to not sell her off, that she would follow him no matter what path he would choose and obey his orders with out question. If only he would keep her to his side and she would live by his command. Hearing her plea he decided still to keep his most favored slave to serve in his home but she would have to remain celibate as well and no longer sleep in his bed.

Many months passed by as the Ubar would go to the temple of the Priest Kings every day to help the priests clean and care for the temple as such things should not ever be done by a slave's hands. His slave dutifully taking care of the keep and cooking good meals would but obey and never let her mind so much as even wander to thoughts other than to serve her master. In time the grand city was built and the stranger having done his part wandered off to the north. Some builders remained to take care of the city but most were no longer needed and returned to their own homelands. The council had taken much power of the city and the bureaucracies began to run rampant as the Ubar spent too much of his time tending to the temple. The ever loyal slave was becoming worried as she swore to serve her master and yet there were rumors of challenging the Ubar's rule.

Doing the only thing with in her powers she went to the temple of the priest kings and prayed for her master that he would be spared the wrath of the priest kings with out loosing his life from being challenged as Ubar. A priest listening to her silent whisper told her, "We are put here to be what we were meant to be. We are nothing more. Nor are we any thing less." That night she lay in her bed as the meaning of the words slowly dawned upon her. With greater understanding she crawled to the bed of her master as he gently awoke in his bed feeling her presence. Not quite awake he was still groggy in his vision and before anger could take him she begged, "Please master I beg of you to hear my plea! Take mercy upon me entering your bed but I beg you to hear my words."

Still waking from his slumber watching his beautiful Indrani as she was almost crying, tears welling up in her soulful eyes. "I am your slave and it is my greatest wish to serve you as that is my right full duty that I take pride in knowing I am yours." Tears rolling from her eyes down her cheeks as she slowly stripped from her silks revealing the full beauty of her form. "How am I to serve the Ubar of this great city if I am not allowed the honor of baring to this city the heir to the throne? You are the leader of this city, is it not your duty as Ubar to serve the city?" And so the Ubar learned the final lesson of humility. He is not to be the greatest Ubar the world has ever known, nor is he to be a slave to the Priest Kings. Just as his favored girl takes pride in serving to his love, he is simply to keep his station as the Ubar of Ar in pride of knowing he has done his job serving the city.