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SHARANS [SETTING: Ishamael's office as Acting CEO of the Darkfriends, in the absence of the Chairman of the Board, Mister Great Lord of the Dark himself! (His friends call him "Great Lord" for short). Or at least, this is the T'A'R manifestation of that office, since Ishy is still bound in the flesh for the time being.] [Ishamael is busy singing an old song from one of his favorite musicals of the old days . . .] ISHAMAEL [singing]:Close your eyes and surrender to your darkest dreams! / Purge your thoughts of the life you knew before! / Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar! / And you'll live as you've never lived before . . . [Ishamael breaks off as his alarm clock rings] ISHAMAEL: Lovely song - but that show had a ROTTEN ending! When I become Nae'blis, I'll insist they rewrite the final scenes to more properly reflect the way Intelligent Evil always triumphs over Naive Goodness in the long run! But now, I have another interview to give. It's 10 AM here at Shayol Ghul, so it ought to be about 4 am in the city where my Sharan Station Chief currently resides . . . I sent her word to be sound asleep and ready for me at that time . . . [He snaps his fingers to summon her] [Nothing happens.] ISHAMAEL: Huh? Let's try that again. [SNAP!] [Still nothing] ISHAMAEL [fuming]: There had BETTER be a good excuse for this! [Several minutes later, the Sharan Station Chief finally materializes. She is female, about forty years old, and wearing a nightdress which changes into silken robes (although the colors keep changing) as she becomes aware of her surroundings and realizes this isn't just a dream] ISHAMAEL and SHARAN [in unison] What took you so long? ISHAMAEL [blinking, he's not used to this sort of thing]: Was that an echo I heard, or did YOU ask ME - SHARAN: I said, "What took you so long?" Do you know how long I've been trying to stay asleep so that I would be ready when you summoned me? ISHAMAEL [glancing at the clock on the wall, which tells him it's about 10:15 AM local time): Er . . . a quarter of an hour? SHARAN: No, OVER TWELVE AND A QUARTER HOURS! ISHAMAEL: Come again? I told you to be asleep by 4 AM, and it's now 10:15 AM here, and your part of Shara is about six time zones away, so it follows that... SHARAN: Don't you even know which way the earth rotates? My home town is six hours AHEAD of your clock, not six hours BEHIND! It's about 4:15 PM, not AM, back there! For over twelve hours I've telling all my servants not to disturb me, I'm still tired and need more rest, and they must think I've gone crazy since I don't have a fever! I finally had to swallow a sleeping draught to conk out again, and that was when you finally got me! ISHAMAEL [muttering]: Pesky time zones . . . how is a fellow supposed to keep them straight? I swear, when I'm Nae'blis first thing I'll do is introduce Universal Time. If that means some people wake up at sunrise at 3 PM every day, and go to sleep around 7 AM for the night, so be it! Anyway, how are things going in Shara? Who's in charge these days? SHARAN: Well, sir, an impartial observer would have a terrible time making up his mind on that issue. For instance, the nobility of Shara generally believe that absolute power rests, if anywhere, with male and female rulers in alternation. Seven years of the Sh'botay, followed by seven years of the Sh'boan, followed by seven years of a new Sh'botay, and so on. On the other hand, the merchant class look upon themselves as the rulers of the nation since they control all the money. True aristocrats supposedly are disgusted by the thought of concerning themselves with anything so common as the Silk Trade, so the merchants have a good grip on it, although in practice they have to pay lots of taxes, naturally. But then the aristocrats turn around and spend most of the tax money on silly luxuries which only the merchants can provide, so the merchants do pretty well for themselves. The Peasants look at the chaotic bickering and falsehood on all sides and conclude that only the Pattern itself causes the continued stability of the realm, as exemplified by the death of each ruler after 7 years, always alternating between male and female. ISHAMAEL [nodding agreeably]: And who REALLY rules? SHARAN [giggling at the Great Lord's little joke]: WE do, of course! By which, I mean we the female channelers! We are the �servants' of the Sharan rulers, and naturally we make sure that each ruler quietly expires after the seven-year limit is reached. ISHAMAEL: Always? SHARAN: Well, except in a mere handful of cases where a Sh'boan or Sh'botay has actually had the nerve to argue with the itemized daily schedule of whom to interview that day, etc., which we thoughtfully prepare for them! In that case, the quarrelsome monarch dies hastily and his or her mate begins a seven-year term a little sooner than they expected, and has to arrange a new marriage in a hurry in order to have a clear successor. ISHAMAEL: I love it! How the White Tower would gnash their teeth if they realized that while they have ostentatiously tried to manage one end of the continent for over three millennia (and been losing ground steadily!), a rival organization of female channelers has been doing a much better job, UNSUSPECTED, at the other end! It makes me want to pat myself on the back . . . SHARAN [beaming]: My family has always appreciated the way you arranged for us to become the hereditary leaders of the channeling enclaves, Great Lord. ISHAMAEL: I just wanted to make sure that when the Dragon is Reborn, he won't find a few thousand saidar users suddenly flocking to his banner from this corner of the world. What with the Seanchan sul'dam/damane teams trying to kill him, the Aes Sedai trying to gentle or brainwash him, and your own outfit following my orders (although most of you don't know that I give the orders in Shara!), he'll be hard put to find any sane channelers to support his claim! Admittedly the Aiel was a tough nut to crack, but I'll burn that bridge when I come to it. Speaking of which . . . are the people well-prepared for Tarmon Gai'don? SHARAN: Let me put it this way: these days, most people believe what our official histories say: The Trolloc Wars were a joke! There may have been a few nasty border skirmishes along the edge of the Blight during those 300 years, but nothing that ever meant true danger to the security of the realm (such as cities falling to the Shadow). ISHAMAEL [chortling]: How quickly they forget! So when Trollocs move against the Sharans in FORCE for the first time in centuries, they will . . . ? SHARAN: PANIC! ISHAMAEL: That's the way to do it. They'll take a long time just to get over the shock of seeing a real army of Trollocs coming down their throats, well-organized and ruthless! As one of my great role models once said, "The moral is to the physical in war as three to one." Of course, by "moral" he was referring to psychological issues of moral rather than high personal moral standards, but his point was valid . . . [He shakes his head] Am I rambling again? SHARAN: Absolutely not, Great Lord! Never did mine ears hearken to the words of a man less prone to pointless rambling than yourself! Indeed, a more concise and well-spoken man (one burdened with great authority, to make the comparison apt) it would be hard to imagine, even if one believes the ancient legends of the man called Silent Cal, or Calvidge. I might even say - ISHAMAEL [raising a hand hastily]: I recognize that deception and flattery are the foundation of the "moral values" of your culture, but PLEASE don't overdo it! SHARAN: Sorry, Great Lord! ISHAMAEL: That's all for now. Go home. [Snaps his fingers again, and she's gone]. Now, where did I put my appointment book? Next up on the timetable is . . . is . . . egad, that's all there is! I postponed the other interviews until several months from now! I finally get some time off! [raises his voice] SHAIDAR HARAN! GET IN HERE! I WANT TO TALK TO YOU!
Most of the info about the Sharan culture is based on things stated in the novels and in the Guide. The precise attitude of the merchant class is something I invented, however. The bit about the merchants having most of the money, and being the only ones who have any intelligent ideas for investing it to make even MORE money, while the aristocrats consider haggling over a few coints to be beneath their dignity, is based loosely on my understanding - such as it is - of the setup in feudal Japan (and Japan stayed feudal until the mid-nineteenth century). A true samurai was not overly concerned with such sordid, worldly matters as making shrewd investments in foreign trading ventures, etc., if I have this right. (You will note that the samurai types no longer rule in Japan - the big corporations allegedly do that instead. Proves something about who had the smarter view in the long run, perhaps?) I have no particular reason to think this is the way it works in Shara, but I decided to invent a little data to make it more interesting :) Silent Cal (or Calvidge) is a reference to the U.S. President Calvin
Coolidge, also known as Silent Cal. It is said of him that one night at
a banquet, a lady seated next to him said, "Mister President, I bet
a friend ten dollars that I could coax at least three words out of you
tonight!" The thing Ishy was singing at the start is a verse from a song called "The Music of the Night," in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. I always thought it would make a great theme song for a Forsaken, so I quoted a bit of it here. The Phantom ultimately died after the beautiful girl fell in love with the brave, handsome, aristocratic young suitor instead of the brilliant, mysterious, ruthless, charismatic, and hideously ugly fellow who had been manipulating her. For some reason, Ishy takes this sort of "happy ending" as a personal insult :) ] |