Salaam, effendim, do you come seeking legends? Our protagonist today is the once and future Shah… Lugalszargus.
While but a boy, he came to reign, His jeweled crown an oath to rule with great and noble deed. Then rose three Aslan pashas in revolt, Whose peoples scorned as tyrants cruel. In mountain's pass, two armies clashes, And kismet[note 2] spoke: Three wicked lions would the young Shah fell. He knew but victory alone, in war he seemed like heavensent! With heart so pure, his virtue spread in tales across the lands. His palace stood about his throne, Where all his people far and wide came to revere. Wiser was the Shah than any man, Such that he even reckoned Time itself: "Say not that Time brings all things to demise, But from all things' demise, does Time spring forth." Of thought, he made arrangement, Then of paper loose, a binding whole, Creating that: the calendar, which orders humankind. After the Shah forayed, Finding the Nightzmora, their Khagan Kharanduu, Where in Khagan and Shah, each ruler saw a kindred soul. "For conquest you have come. Come southwards then, with me?" What adversary met them, words cannot permit to tell, Only that fearless heroes tore through the unknown. Shattered was earth, sundered the lands; Would that these memories were never lost to time! All that we have are histories turned legends, Legends weaving reign, the saga of this padisha.
What do you think? I did pretty well with that epic, didn't I? Father says we need only record great men and kings, but I disagree. Why you ask? Because the Shah himself once told me... "You must not let escape what made those heroes heroes so–each history has its reverse face."
The being Lugalszargus and the Khagan fight against is a Collapsal.
Notes
↑From salam (سَلَام), a greeting word in Arabic, and the plural of efendi, "sir" or "maam" in Turkish (Ottoman Turkish: افندی), hence meaning "Hello, ladies and gentlemen."
↑"Fate, destiny" in Turkish (Ottoman Turkish: قسمت ), from Arabic qisma (قِسْمَة).
