Herald of Steel

The maester towers in the capital were where the royal court trained its new priests and scholars.

We say priests and scholars as if they were two separate things, but most times they were the same thing, just called differently depending on the circumstances they were employed.

Both of them studied the same religious text, but scholars were priests who then chose to further continue their study in the human domain- gaining knowledge in literature, philosophy, art, languages, mathematics, and history.

And thus as it could seen these priests were not the same as the priests in the local temples and shrines.

The latter was employed on an ad-hoc basis by the local head priest. They could be young boys the temple had taken in from the local area to be used as servants and assistants.

Over time, they would then gradually become part of the clergy, having mastered the various chants and rituals by repeatedly hearing and seeing them over many years.

If there was truly a shortage, they could even be taken from the most devoted and regular attendees, ordained by the local priests, and sent to head perhaps a small parish in some nearby village.

But that was not how it worked in the capital.

In Adhan, one had to pass an entrance exam to enter the measter towers and then pass it to truly call oneself a priest. Or more specifically a maester priest as they were called, although the first part was rarely used openly by anyone other than the priests themselves.

This was Adhania's equivalent of the university and most graduates from there indeed had a very rosy future in front of them.

For one, the Grand Temple would be solely staffed by them. And in a theocratic nation, just this was enough to make most common people mad with desire.

Priests, from the 'main temple', or maester priests as they were called, were undoubtedly far superior to the rest of the clergy in the country, and their reputation was even equal to, if not sometimes even more than some nobles.

This was because these priests were under the direct command of the king and also put in charge of various high level theocratic and bureaucratic responsibilities.

Such as- they were tasked with organizing all the various religious functions across the country, arranging and overseeing the annual pilgrimage Jtaama, keeping accurate books of the temple tithes, settling various civil and criminal judgments among believers, and lastly, interpreting and making new religious laws and rulings.

So in many ways, they were as much religious figures as they were bureaucrats, helping the king run his court.

A fact that became especially true under Amenheraft's father's rule, as he found these commoners to be far more trustworthy than those filthy landed elites.

After all these priests had no land, no army, and all the tithes they collected officially belonged to the king- the supreme head of the temple.

So for the first time since in their storied career, these priests from the maester towers began to be favored over the nobles in the royal courts. Enjoy exclusive content from empire

They had their powers dramatically increased, now being able to directly mediate conflicts between nobles- something that previously only the king could do and much more pragmatically, they were awarded the power to act as magistrates within the province of Adhania, a power that had rested solely with the noble families before that.

And magistrates in Adhania were far more powerful than what their modern counterparts would suggest. They were basically the judge, jury, and executioner all packed into one, possessing similar power to an absolute king in front of commoners and freedmen.

This arrangement came about because Adhania had no formal court system.

Usually when there was any conflict, nobles could bring their grievances directly to the king and the royal court and then later, to the high level priests of the Grand Temple for mediation.

While the commoners would mostly try to resolve them through mediation among themselves and their relatives or if it was big enough even the village or town elders.

Only if it involved something really huge like cold blooded murder or theft of land, would the local lord or priest get involved.

Thus given the usual severity of the crime being judged, magistrates were given the power to execute the word of the king on the spot.

They could even apply the existing laws in any way they saw fit.

For example- a person committing murder in another's house could be additionally charged with trespassing, breaking and entering, intending to steal, coveting another's wife, and colluding with slavers, to name just a few.

So if a magistrate wanted to screw over a commoner, the sky was the limit.

They even had the power to throw one in the dungeon for three months without stating any cause or reason and deny any chance at bail.

And if you ever disrespected them… well good luck.

Unless the king or a Pasha personally intervened, your life was basically over.

All these privileges were once the sole possession of the nobles.

So it could be seen how the nobles became dissatisfied with Amenheraft's father over the changes.

This was not any kind of subtle attack on their base power, but a direct axe chop to their very roots.

And as Amenheraft mostly ruled on his father's behalf, and the man was still alive, whether he liked the changes or not, he did not dare change it.

Instead, to keep his father pleased, the then crown prince could only double down on it.

Thus under his rule, the priests almost completely replaced the noble within the royal court, with Manuk, a commoner, even becoming Amenheraft's right hand man- basically the prime minister.

But whether Amenhearft did this out of his will or was simply carrying out his father's order until the old fogey expired and then planning to reverse it, it did not matter.

In taking such reforms, the poor prince quickly began to push away more and more of the already unhappy nobles.

They had been increasingly getting fed up with Amenheraft's father's erratic, half mad acts, and became hopeful when the much saner, more moderate son took over. They thought this would mean a return to their former heydays.

They had even expanded considerable political capital petitioning the former king to let the crown prince take over based on this assumption.

Which perhaps that made Amenheraft's 'betrayal' cut all the more deeper.

The young prince was also unable to bridge the two differences in time, ultimately leading to a sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

Whereas before Amenheraft's father would only suspect the nobles to be plotting to overthrow him, now they began to actively do it. Or even if they were not directly involved in killing the god king, they certainly did not take steps to protect or warn him.

While sensing the nobles became more and more unreliable, Amenheraft had to rely more and more on the priests to carry out his rule, causing a vicious cycle.

Until the whole thing eventually came tumbling down with Alexander and Ptolomy.

And as far as Alexander knew, after Ptolomy took office, he quickly reversed many of his father's policies, the most visible one being making Pasha Farzah his prime minister, thus placating the nobility.

But despite many of the pull backs, the prestige of the priests in the common consciousness still remained firmly cemented.

Priests were always seen as the most respectable job by the common Adhanian- pretty understandable given Adhania was a theocratic nation,

Not only did this involve serving the gods and the divine directly, but it was also seen as the only way for common Adhanians to get any advanced education or real status in society.

And this desire reached their most fevered pitch with the example of Manuk.

The bald headed head priest's tale of a commoner becoming the second most powerful man in the country, possessing the constant ear of his king and being on par with most pashas- the highest of the noble peerages, all reverberated like thunder across the ears of every commoner, to the point it sounded like more a fairytale than truth.

But whether it was true or not did not matter, many crazily worked to try and follow in his footsteps despite that.

They believed that even if it was just a legend, even if just 10% of it was true, that was still big enough of an enticement to make the pursuit worth it.

Thus as it could be guessed, competition to get accepted into the measter was as fierce as it could be.

The pass rate was only around one in fifty!

For context, at 2%, it was nearly twice as 'easy' to get into Harvard than the measter towers, as the former stood at an 'enormous 3.5% acceptance rate.

Now, all the above things were said to show just how rare of a find a measter was, much less an enslaved maester.

A 70,000 ropal price tag was really not much.

Alexander even thought it was cheap, dirt cheap- a measter should at least cost 100,000 if not double or triple that if he was experienced enough.

"Hehe, welcome, esteemed lord. Yes, this is a maester straight from the capital. Here is his badge as proof." The slaver then excitedly greeted.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

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