Chapter 48: Tamaridu, the Centaur

At the northern coast, where the ground was frozen. North wind blew, and vegetation curled at the tips and barely survived.

Tamaridu, the Centaur, crossed his arms and looked down at the stranger. The stranger was an Elf prophet Tamaridu had been searching for the past few weeks. This Elf prophet had been spreading word about something in the wilderness and northern coast which bothered him. And thus Tamaridu of the Iron Hoof Tribe tracked down the Elf prophet.

“Prophet.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about what you’ve been saying across the land.”

“Alright. This is a prophecy soon to come true…”

The prophet began to tell the prophecy.

“In the near future, a king will come. When the king comes, a new world order will be established. Those who reign now will lose their seats, and those who freely come and go in this land will get lost.”

“A king you say.”

“Yes.”

“What is a king?” asked Tamaridu.

“Someone who everyone bows their heads to.”

“Are you talking about the chief of each tribe?”

“No. It is someone even the tribal chiefs bow down to.”

Tamaridu was the chief of a large Centaur tribe. However, he hadn’t ever bowed down to anyone before except for one existence.

“For king, do you mean a god?”

The prophet shook their head.

“No. Gods are not here on the ground, but this king will be.”

“So it’s the chief of all the tribal chiefs with only God above them.”

“That is right.”

Tamaridu hit his chest with his hand.

“Then that refers to me.”

“I’m afraid not.”

Tamaridu looked curiously at the prophet, who had been talking back at him. It wasn’t common for someone to do so. Tamaridu decided to continue the conversation a little more.

“Then are you talking about the Lizardmen?”

Tamaridu had recently heard stories of the Lizardmen in the south called the Black-Scaled Tribe. Because of the large area that the Ears Cut Tribe Gnolls had dominated, it was only after the Gnolls had run away that Tamaridu found out about the Lizardmen. It did make Tamaridu recognize how vast the world was, but he wasn’t afraid.

‘I’ve met Lizardmen before. They are afraid of the cold and sluggish and slow. Like any other species, they’re probably just showing off their powers with how many of them there are.’

Then the prophet said, “Those Lizardmen are indeed powerful and fearful. But they won’t be able to get to the northern coast because there is a strong man standing in their way.”

“Ha, that must be me.”

“Yes. That is right.”

“Then who is the king you’re talking about?”

The prophet turned to the north. It seemed empty, but across a few short hills was the land that the Ogre dominated.

“The one who will be king is going to be a giant. It is said they have a large body and stand on the ground with two feet, and they sit on a throne made of rock. It is also said that Centaurs cannot defeat them in strength, and that they are wiser than Elves. They are in the north.”

“So I can’t be the king?”

“Yes.”

“Are you saying I would serve the tribal chief of the Ogres, Kajin, as a king?”

“Yes.”

“You’re wrong, pointy ear.”

The Elf prophet turned to Tamaridu, but their head had already fallen to the ground before they could get a look. Tamarind swung his favorite weapon, a large ax, to shake off the Elf’s blood.

“I, Tamaridu, do not bow before anyone except God.”

***

A desolate wind swept through the Elf prophet’s dead body. Eldar, the god of the Elves, looked at the prophet without much emotion.

Small Area: Art was the first Small Area Eldar had obtained. Unlike the other Small Areas, this one had a low rating as it wasn’t very valuable in the beginning and was hard to build upon.

‘But of course, it has become useful now.’

Sung-Woon explained to Eldar how the Small Area would be used, and Eldar did as he was told. Just like other Small Areas would allow for Creature Creation to be used at the first level, Small Area: Art would enable the player to give individuals an Inspiration at the first level. It differed from giving revelations through dreams in that those who were Inspired would get intoxicated with themselves. They would believe that the inspirations were their own ideas, and they would want to spread their ideas through artistic acts such as poetry, paintings, dances, or plays. And this Inspiration was contagious.

Therefore, Eldar gave a false prophecy to an Elf vagrant. The Elf vagrant called themselves a prophet and spread the false prophecy to several tribes.

Eldar then said to Sung-Woon, “Do you think this would be enough?”

“What do you mean?” replied Sung-Woon.

In the end, doing what Sung-Woon said had only cost the life of a single Elf vagrant and a few Faith points, so it didn’t matter too much to Eldar even if nothing came out of it. However, Eldar couldn’t really understand why Sung-Woon was so confident.

Eldar said, “I think we’ve confirmed that Tamaridu, the tribal chief of the Centaur, has a lot of pride, and we have stoked his anger…but I don’t think this will be enough to cause bad blood between the Centaur and Ogres.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Even if Tamaridu bears enmity towards the Ogre tribe, it will be the god who controls Tamaridu in the end.”

Sung-Woon easily agreed.

“That's why it’s even better.”

“Better?”

“It’s good if a player and the tribe that the player controls thinks the same way. That would make it easier to lead the player and their species and tribes to defeat. But what if the player and the tribes they control think differently?”

“Ohh.”

Eldar finally nodded in understanding.

In The Lost World, controlling and moving each individual wasn’t intuitive. When The Lost World first came out, the game got criticized by the players as some kind of observing game because the method of moving tribes through Small Areas hadn’t been developed. The only way to force each individual to act as the player wished was Divine Control, which consumed a lot of Faith points. And Faith points were a limited resource.

Sung-Woon added, “To be honest, I don’t know what Solongos, the god of the Centaur, is planning. But I can assure you that Solongos won’t be able to grow just by relying on their loose alliance.”

“May I ask why that is?”

Sung-Woon replied, “Sedentary tribes can continuously grow with land as their base, but Centaurs are a tribe that loots. Even though the Ogre’s environment is rather barren, they will still advance through agriculture. Since the Centaurs are an ally of a large sedentary tribe, they would have to grow by looting only small and medium sized NPC settlements, but that would be rather limited. And this is probably the strategy that Lim Chun-Sik, the god of the Ogres, had decided on in the first place.”

“Aha!”

Eldar summarized what they had understood.

“So Lim Chun-Sik is planning to make the Centaurs, who can be quite powerful in the beginning, friendly in this stage of the game. And then he would take over them once he gets a great edge later on?”

“Something like that,” Sung-Woon said. “I’m not putting a new machination into play on the northern coast. I’m just reminding them of what they have forgotten, or telling them what they’ll eventually find out sooner. Hegemonia realized it quickly and ran away, but not Solongos.”

Tamaridu, chief of the Centaur tribe, had already begun to develop enmity towards the Ogres.

‘Then how would their god, Solongos, feel?’

To Sung-Woon, it didn’t matter if Solongos continued to believe Lim Chun-Sik. If they did, Solongos would be in conflict with their own priest, Tamaridu, and if the trust between the two players broke, they would clash.

Eldar then worriedly said, “But isn’t it possible that Tamaridu won’t believe what the Elf prophet said? Even though the Elf claimed to be a prophet, that wasn’t actually a case. The prophecy is nothing but wild speculation. It does seem like Tamaridu is angry right now, but…”

“Then we can make it real.”

“What?”

Sung-Woon held back his laughter and replied, “You’re going to keep helping me, right?”

***

Even after the Elf prophet had died, the prophecy wouldn’t leave Tamaridu’s mind. This was due to the power of Inspiration from Small Area: Art, but there was no way for Tamaridu to know that. The chief of the Centaur Iron Hoof Tribe obsessed over the word

king

and talked to his subordinates about if he had the qualities to be a king, and about how much the other tribal chiefs lacked the qualifications of being a king. Tamaridu was aware he was being obsessive.

‘The only way to escape this obsession is to become a king myself.’

However, according to the prophecy, one couldn’t become a king just because they wanted to.

‘I need to become a person who is served by others. But would others know of the name Tamaridu in this wilderness?’

As if fate had heard Tamaridu’s lamentations, three guests came to him. The first was an Elf of the Green Eye Tribe. Elves had been an ally for a long time, so Tamaridu didn’t consider the visit sudden. However, the Elf mentioned the prophecy as soon as they sat down.

“Have you heard about the king?”

“I’ve heard of it.”

“Even about the fact that the king in the prophecy refers to the Ogre tribal chief?”

Tamaridu clenched his fists and hit the tent’s frame. The tent, as big as a stable, shook greatly.

“Are you also saying Kajin will become king?”

“No, Chief Tamaridu. I was rather about to say the opposite.”

“The opposite?”

“If someone is to become king, it should be you, Chief Tamaridu. Kajin seems gentle, mild-mannered, and powerful, but he is just a coward who doesn’t want to wield that power. We need to free ourselves from this prophecy.”

Tamaridu was swayed by the prospect of becoming free of the prophecy.

‘I’ve only been worrying that the prophecy would come true until now. But what if there is a prophecy? Can’t I just overcome it?’

The second guest was a Human from Automation. Automation was a place Tamaridu had only heard rumors about, but he was well aware of Automation’s fame. The Human didn’t talk about the prophecy, but said something even more surprising.

“Are you Tamaridu, the king?”

“What?”

Tamaridu felt tempted to say yes, but instead shook his head.

“No, I am not a king.”

“Oh, There is word in Automation that a Centaur king has appeared, so I thought you would be king.”

“There’s…a rumor like that?”

“Not just a rumor. Our lord of Automation heard a king has appeared and has sent a present to build a good relationship with the king.”

Tamaridu saw the rare and precious gift and couldn’t hide his surprise, but he was also disappointed at the same time.

“But I am not a king, so you should take this gift back.”

“What are you saying?”

The Human guest from Automation shook their head.

“Doesn’t the rumor mean you are the one to become king? You at least have the qualities to be one.”

“But…”

“Just keep it. It would be a waste to have to walk back here again, right?”

Tamaridu accepted the treasures as if he had no choice.

The third guest left Tamaridu wary. It was a Lizardman from the Black-Scaled Tribe. Unlike the other two guests, Lizadrmen herded buffaloes just like the Centaurs. Both tribes enjoyed battles and fought the Ears Cut Gnoll tribe. Being allies because the other was an enemy of their enemy was only common among the sedentary tribes. To Nomadic tribes, having a mutual enemy meant that they were destined to fight each other as well. Tamaridu considered whether he should turn the guest away or not.

‘But all the guests that came today talked about a king. And they said I was the king. If this isn’t a coincidence…’

After much consideration, he asked for the third guest to come in, and a black-scaled Lizardman in silk entered the tent.

The Lizardman said, “Nice to meet you. My name is Owen.”