By Brant LaDorn
To Cities and Provinces Treatises
The islands of Jedda Felsuin were once called Teshio. Only the large isle was occupied, while the smaller island of Mymé was the holding of pirates, Sereg, and the whims of the wilderness.
When the Emperor and the Empress diverged, their collective lands were re-named Jedda Felsuin (for ‘Teshio’ is a word which translates to ‘love’, as in the sort held by one sibling for another). The Empress went to Mymé to tame the isle, and Ordo Ridae was the second settlement of the Empress. The city is thought to be at least 3500 years old, and it has gone through a fascinating series of evolutions in that time.
The people of the Empress were immediately attracted to its location. The reasons are obvious even today. Mountains form a beautiful backdrop, the long, sheltered bay tames the ocean waves and is a haven for many fish and other ocean life, and the rolling hills that stretch away to the south beckon to be carefully sculpted into terraced fields of rice, ampa, and keel. The only problem with the location is that it rests so close to the original island of Irutoka.
Perhaps that was the very reason it was settled – in a sense, the Empress wanted to define her boundaries despite the proximity of Irutoka. It was her way of making the firm statement that Mymé belonged unquestionably to her.
Thus, Ordo Ridae began its life as a sort of contradiction to the senses. Out of one eye could be seen a peaceful settlement, with smiling people working the land. Bright temples grew up in the hills, homes blossomed, and a fine village was raised up of wood and stone. The other eye beheld the highest concentration of the Empress’s elite warriors. Almost invisible among the other people of Ordo Ridae, they meditated at the temples, helped the populace with the labors of building and sculpting the land, and practiced their arts in the fields and forests.
These were legendary warriors of great spiritual strength – Kusaki, Aranamai, Tuvo-juut (of the deep woods) to name a few. Three times, in anger, did the Emperor attempt to attack the small village that lay on the sea’s edge. Twice the ships did not even make shore, for in the minds of the Empress’s warriors the seas roiled and stirred, and so too did they in truth, huge waves sinking ships and sending the armada scrambling back to their homeland port.
The third time the ships managed to land, and armored Shai-kan warriors poured forth from the vessels. It was the first time that the Shai-kan would encounter the Yoru-ken in direct battle. The moment is well marked in history, for the Shai-kan's reign of terror was forever crippled as the Yoru-ken more than proved their superiority in the fight.
Ordo Ridae thrived after that, growing into the spiritual heart of the Empress’s lands. Warriors flocked from all over Jedda to join the orders of the Yoru-ken, and the original temples (at first built for old deities) became the mediation grounds for followers of Lakiratai. For many centuries Ordo Ridae served as the highest religious center for all of Jedda Felsuin.
Then the traders came from the city-state of Atalaya, the long-fallen civilization that once resided on Aryn Isle. At that time Ordo Ridae was the only sizeable port of Mymé. Atalaya had just emerged victorious from war-- it was the first time in a hundred years that traders had been free to sail the seas. The trade was extensive, and Ordo Ridae grew large and thriving. A new protection came into place – Ordo Ridae was now immune from large-scale attack, for to do so, the Emperor would have also destroyed the livelihood of foreigners whom he similarly depended on for trade.
The need for warriors in Ordo Ridae was no longer so great, and many of them were summoned to other fronts to do battle with the Emperor. It was a time of many battles, and when Atalaya fell and the trade stopped, Ordo Ridae found itself vulnerable. The Empress sent as many of her scattered armies as she could to defend the city when it was attacked, but her defenses were not enough, and Ordo Ridae fell to a powerful naval strike. Most of the city was burned, and thousand-year-old temples were looted and destroyed. The riches of Ordo Ridae were brought into the hands of the Emperor in one of the bloodiest, most undisciplined military events in Jeddan history.
The once-proud city, left smoldering, became home to a few lonely Lakiratai monks. For nearly a century Ordo Ridae remained a religious center for ascetics and those who were deeply devoted to Lakiratai. In mountain caves and beside streams and waterfalls that ran through the high valleys, people searched for deeper meaning. There was nothing left to steal in the city or its environs, and thus, no more attacks came from Irutoka. Little changed in Ordo Ridae until the arrival of the Yoru-ken.
Once again they came to the city that had been their home. It was the largest sect of Yoru-ken warriors in Ordo Ridae, and the most colorful time in the Yoru-ken’s history. They rebuilt the temples, and people from all over Jedda came to Ordo Ridae to live under the promise of safety afforded by what was, at the time, the most powerful concentration of warriors in Jedda Felsuin.
Ordo Ridae grew. The streets were repaired, fields cleared and re-planted. The trickle of people turned into a flood as the natural assets of Ordo Ridae – fishing, mining, and agriculture, promised new opportunity and abundance.
The Yoru-ken stayed for a long while, and another cycle of Jeddan wars came and went. Ordo Ridae was attacked again, and the Yoru-ken decimated the attackers. The security of the city proven, even more people came, and the discovery of emeralds in the stones of the mountains yielded an even greater rush of people and a surge of wealth. By the time the Masallans came to Jedda, they found Ordo Ridae to be the richest of ports, and trade was quickly established.
It was a golden age in Jedda. Since the fall of Atalaya, they had been alone in the world, and now, at last, another province had made contact. Ordo Ridae became the seat of trade for Mymé, and although the Yoru-ken left for more spiritual retreats, the presence of traders made Ordo Ridae immune to attack.
Today the city remains Mymé’s primary port of trade, and although all shipping is regulated by the governments of Jedda, Ordo Ridae is the most free of Jeddan ports, allowing free trade through special governmental agents. Ambassadors from the major provinces live within the city proper, and at certain times of the year there seem to be almost as many foreigners as Jeddans walking the streets.
Ordo Ridae also serves as a holiday spot for people from all over the Known Lands, offering lush accommodations, easy-to-digest samplings of Jeddan culture, and tours of old, ruined temples to satisfy the more adventurous. It is perhaps the least ‘authentic’ of Jeddan cities, but glimpses of ancient Jedda still exist. Yoru-ken warriors dwell in a few of the lonely temples, and there is a large Isa Lakiratai temple that houses nearly a hundred aspirants.
Grand festivals punctuate the year, and life in Ordo Ridae is generally enjoyable, rich, and vibrant. The clean streets, picturesque Jeddan architecture, fisherfolk bobbing on the waves of the bay, and terraced fields stretching out in green and brown ribs to the distant mountains gives the idea of a bright, peaceful city.
Ordo Ridae continues to enjoy relative immunity from physical attack, although more and more it is becoming a center for political intrigue between the two isles, especially with the presence of so many influential foreigners. Sometimes called ‘Jedda’s Antara’, Ordo Ridae is probably Jedda’s most relaxed, foreigner- friendly city.
It now holds a population of about 6200 regular residents, although estimates suggest that the actual number of people in the city at any time is probably in the 8,000 – 9,000 range, due to traders, holiday visitors, and Jeddans who come to Tichra temple to see the Isa Lakit practitioners.
When visiting, expect to find all the usual attributes of a town, with a special emphasis placed on fine inns, restaurants, and expensive shoppes catering to foreign tastes. We’ll end with a sampling of a few of Ordo Ridae’s most famous offerings.
Tichra Temple – This huge, intricate temple rests on the northern edge of Ordo Ridae, and is a high, sprawling structure with rich gardens and pools. The temple is open to the public, although the ‘inner sanctuary’ is accessible only to aspirants. This is the Isa sect of Lakiratai, where aspirants come, don their green robes, and do not leave the temple grounds for three years or more. When they have achieved their first glimpses of realization and their teachers deem them ready, they will become monks, and will then be free to wander Ordo Ridae and the nearby wilderness. It is usually two or three more years until the monk attains full enlightenment and is released to wander the world as an Isa ‘mystic’.
One can visit the temple to find a quiet sanctuary, to view the rare flowers and mosses growing in the gardens, or to ask questions of an Isa monk. Tichra Temple is Mymé’s largest gathering of Isa aspirants.
Akara Bath House – It is said that the Empress herself funded the building of this public bath house, hoping to draw even more traders and travelers. The structure is young, not even a hundred years old, but it was built with all the care and personality of even the oldest buildings of the city. The bath house must be experienced to be believed. One room is the ‘moss room’, an underground cave where bathers lounge in hot spring water while cool droplets fall from the moss covering the ceiling above. In another, a small waterfall creates four layers of pools for bathing, while still another room is built around natural steam vents and lets bathers soak in a cloud of wet vapor. In yet another room the sound of endless chanting can be heard seeping through the stone walls.
Ima Di Kaila So – (Beautiful Music House) Even the name bears mentioning. Although Jeddan usually places the adjective after the noun, the name of this music hall was ‘reversed’ to make it more understandable to foreigners. The problem, of course, is that either people can’t speak Jeddan (and can’t understand it anyway), or they do speak Jeddan, and the order of the words only makes it confusing. Ima means ‘beautiful’, Di is a word that emphasizes the adjective (such as our use of ‘very’), Kaila means ‘music’ or ‘natural music’, and So means ‘house’.
Here the greatest musicians in Mymé transport their audiences with sublime kaila. Another draw of the Music House is the Isa Lakiratai chanting. Every three days monks from Tichra Temple come and chant, the sound an unearthly blend of resonance and texture quite impossible to explain in words. It brings the listeners into a state of quiet Being as sometimes thirty voices or more resonate, each monk expressing his or her personal interpretation of the ‘world sound’. Like a flock of field-birds, the voices will then rise and fall together, playing and dancing, following no other cue than the ‘ko’, or flow of nature and world.
Rakaché—The word means ‘wild’ or ‘abandoned’. This restaurant is exquisitely expensive, but promises an experience none will forget. You’ll sit down to a dinner of simple but elegant plates arranged with the most delicate offerings of the sea and land. Instead of a single ‘meal’, you’ll get perhaps twenty samplings, each brought on its own plate and composed of a small delight that artfully combines design with taste.
Now imagine eating that with feet flying by your head.
The most skilled Kutubras, or acrobats, of Jedda find their way here to display their formidable talents amidst the diners. They will vault and flip off tables, utilize the beams that criss-cross the ceiling, or do amazing postures upon the floor. They earn gold by ‘catching’ tossed coins given by diners. Of course, their job is to make the catching as entertaining as possible.
While some say that the Kutubras are too distracting, others love the experience, for it embodies the Jeddan concept of Mujaan, or ‘calm within the storm’. Indeed, such is the training of the acrobats that you can peacefully eat your meal, disturbed only by the occasional breath of air caused by the passing of a whirling body.
Ordo Ridae has many other amazements to unveil, but you can be sure of one thing – a visit to the city will definitely prove exciting and memorable!
To Cities and Provinces Treatises