Gantor and Gesawa

Gantor and Gesawa

There was once a world with two nations. Two nations that occupied two halves of the world, with a large sea between them, crossed by ships powered by the wind.

Gantor, the great kingdom, was the nation in the North. It had thick wooded boreal forests that stood tall, and rolling prairie plains which blew in the many winds. It had snow blown tundra that burned in the light and shadowed in the dark. It had amazing northern lights and piercing stars. And it was shining and glowing with beauty each moment of each day.

Across the wild and waving sea, on the southern half of the world, was the land of Gesawa. Gesawa was governed by many councils made up of the people themselves. It was also a wild, beautiful land. There were lush and breathing tropical forests. There were golden and shining savannahs full of great beasts. There were burning and hot deserts threaded through with rivers. There were the great southern lights and bedazzling stars.

The people of Gantor loved their land. They loved its beauty, its wildness, its majesty. They loved their land but they also loved their wealth. They had many great halls filled with many fine and delicate objects. They had elaborate and intricate dresses embroidered with gems, and they had fine platinum, golden, silver and bronze jewellery. They had many technologies that did impressive things and showed them impressive things.

The people of Gesawa also loved their lands. Truly, deeply, wholly, completely. They lived in small huts made of clay, and did not take more than they absolutely needed from the environment. The environment supported them and they supported the environment, and they were happy with their simple and peaceful lives, devoid of the pleasures that the Gantoris possessed, but with great amazement of their own.

The people of Gantor had to mine into their land to gather resources to make into their many things, to make into their wealth. They had to build many factories and roads that cut into the beautiful environment. And they had to build factories that spewed toxic pollution into the earth, into the air, into the water. Because of all of this, their environments around them were becoming sick and sickly.

They saw this and their hearts were very saddened. Their hearts were overcome with anxiety. Of course, they didn't think to stop consuming so many goods. They couldn't think to stop consuming so many goods. But they did try to find another solution. They commissioned their most educated minds to find for them a solution.

The greatest minds of Gantor proposed that instead of mining and cutting through and cutting into and polluting their own lands, their own water, they could mine and cut through and cut into and pollute the lands and waters of Gesawa. They could produce all of their many goods in Gesawa and have them shipped to the north across the sea.

The common people of Gantor asked how they could ensure that the Gesawans would allow them to do this. They said that the Gesawans cherished their lands deeply, and they would not allow the Gantoris to destroy the health of their environments. They would surely fight back, would surely protect their lands with their lives.

The educated folks explained that they had made a design for a special type of collar. Once this collar was placed around the necks of the Gesawans, they would be compelled to obey the orders of the Gantoris. They would then not only be compelled to give up their land, but they would also be compelled to work for the Gantoris, and with their work they would be able to produce many more products for the Gantoris, and could greatly increase the wealth of Gantor.

They explained that since only Gesawa would be cut up and polluted and built upon and mined, Gantor had nothing to fear and all the beautiful, sacred wilderness of their great nation would be protected and preserved forever and always, and so therefore the people no longer had anything to fear, and they no longer had to feel on edge about their lifestyles.

And so the people of Gantor created many collars, one for each person of Gesawa. And once they were done making these many weapons of unnaturalness, of inhumanity, they got aboard many giant ships, armed with guns and ammunition that the Gesawans did not have. They were ready to go to war.

The Gesawans fought hard, fought valiantly, they fought with everything they had. Many, many people died. Many, many men and women and people who were both and people who were in between and people who were neither and people who changed in different circumstances. Their blood coloured the soil red. And their love and their hope coloured the sky dark with mourning and horror.

But all of their sacrifices were not enough. The Gantoris had better weapons than them. And they had the upper hand. Being better at violence doesn't mean that you are better. But the Gantoris definitely thought that it did mean that you were better, and they were very proud indeed of their many military victories that they had won in the war.

Eventually, they rounded up the remaining Gesawans and placed the collars around their necks. The captured and fearful people did not know what these collars were, or what they were for, and they resisted. But they were shackled down anyways and the collars were forced down around their necks. And they realized exactly what those horrible devices were.

And so it was that the Gesawans were forced to work for the Gantoris. They toiled all day, and they were truly exhausted and worn down and frayed indeed. Their minds were frayed, their bodies were frayed, their souls were frayed. The work was hard, it was degrading, it was dehumanizing, it was devastating. But they had no choice but to continue on working, to continue on hurting, to continue on destroying themselves and the environments that they held so dear.

The land, the air, the water of Gesawa was being degraded, was being devastated, was being desecrated. Many mines were bored into the ground itself. Mines, factories, roads, refineries, warehouses, packaging plants, shipping ports, chemical plants, all these things were being built. And the land was being cut into and carved upon, and many, many cuts drained much, much blood from the land. The air and water and land were poisoned with innumerable types of pollution. And even the stars were hidden in the sky by the thick smog.

The land was dying. And with it the lifeblood and spirit of the Gesawans. The people of the southern nation prayed. They prayed to the stars that they could see no more, to the sun that looked upon all their misery, horrified. They prayed to the waters and to the earth, and to the air that poisoned their lungs. But their prayers stayed unanswered, for the Gantoris had too much power.

The Gantoris were very joyous though, for they were awash with immense and impervious wealth, and did not have to sacrifice anything which they held dear in order to get that wealth. They thought they loved the land and the water, they thought they loved each other, they thought that they were caring very well for the land and the water, and for each other. Each day more beautiful and utile things came from across the sea, came to their ports. And everything was going according to plan.

Until one day. Some of the Gantoris went out to their ecosystems, as all Gantoris did regularly. And they saw, instead of healthy and thriving ecosystems, there were vast swathes of death. The plants were all dead, lying shrivelled and browned, almost dust. The animals were all dead, seeming as if they had been decomposing for a very long time. The earth looked like ash and the waters were black. Everything shot their hearts with pure horror.

They did not know how this had happened. For just the day prior, everything had been fine. Why was their country destroyed now? They went to all the others of their nation and told them of what happened. And all the others went out to the land and saw all the horror, and they felt devastated themselves. They did not know what happened, or how it happened, and they prayed to the world for guidance.

It was then that an enormous Vatgi Serpent emerged from the ground, and slithered towards the people. It was very long. Easily long enough to span the entire country. It was quite thick as well. Easily thick enough to swallow a grown and muscular man. It had sharp fangs, and it inspired fear in all those who saw it.

Vatgi serpents were usually much smaller, with a golden, red, and orange diamond pattern on their black bodies. They lived in all sorts of ecosystems, on both sides of the sea. Both north and south. In both countries. And they were the same, no matter where they were, they were both feared and highly revered by all the people.

The enormous serpent spoke in a deafening hiss. It announced that the people would have to change their ways. For if they did change their ways, the environment could be restored back to life, but if they did not change their ways then the living ecosystems of their vast country would be lost forever.

The serpent made them to pick from amongst them four people, who would go across the sea to learn to live with and amongst the people of the south. And these four would come back and teach the rest of the people what they must do in order to rebuild their country. They would teach the people what must be done in order to give life back to the land and the waters.

There were two women, one man, and one person who was in between, who volunteered to go on this mission. They were just barely adults, and remembered what it was like to be questioning and impassioned children. They remembered what it was like to question the way the world worked and the way that society was structured.

They travelled across the sea. And they met the people on the other side. The Gesawans were first mistrustful and cautious around the four youths, not letting them into their lives. But the four explained what had happened up north in their home country. And the Gesawans felt sympathy for them and allowed them into their lives. For, the Gesawans did not want the wild lands of Gantor to die, for it was not the wilderness of Gantor itself that oppressed their beloved country but rather the people of Gantor.

The four youths from beyond the sea worked and toiled with the people of Gesawa. They saw how much the people suffered, how their work took all the joy and the life and the comfort and the safety away from them. They saw how they had no hope for their lives, no hope for the lives of their loved ones, and could hope only for death. And they experienced it themselves as well. They experienced all of it themselves, and went through what all the Gesawans went through.

They also saw how the environment that the people lived in was becoming destroyed. They saw the environment dying, they saw the people grieving, and they grieved alongside the people, and they felt powerless alongside the people. They loved alongside the people. This land was not their home. This land was not their homeland. But they loved it as if it was their homeland. Because all people belong to all land, ultimately.

They were part of the conversations that the Gesawans had, they heard firsthand the hurt and the grief and the draining, scraping pain. They heard firsthand the love and the desperation and the protectiveness. They heard it and they were a part of it and they felt as though these things were happening to their own people. Because they were.

So, they spent four years with the people of Gesawa. And once they felt like they had enough knowledge that they could start teaching and changing their country of origin, they left the Gesawans, promising to come back to visit. They crossed the sea for the second time. And this time the sea did not feel nearly as large as it had felt before.

They came back and taught their people about all the hurt and the pain that Gantor was putting Gesawa through. They taught the people of how the people of the other country were hurting, they were hurting so much. And the land and water and sky itself was hurting, it was hurting so much. They taught the Gantoris that what they were doing was wrong, the way they were treating the other country was wrong.

Of course, the people of Gantor did not believe the youths at first. But they realized that there was only one way to bring back life to their country. They had to listen to the counsels of the youths, who had followed the proscriptions of the serpent.

And so they did stop ordering the Gesawans to make them things. They took the collars off and destroyed them, under the directives of the youths. And they helped the Gesawans to work towards restoring the environments of Gesawa. The Gesawans also helped the Gantoris to work towards restoring the environments of Gantor.

After many generations, the wild lands of the entire world were restored to life and health. In this new and newly-rejuvenated world, there was not two countries, but rather one. The one country spanned across the sea and included all the people of the world.



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