Quest: In a city...

lagoticspy on July 18, 2012

In a city without a name No! Stop right there.
You always start like that. Has it gotten you anywhere in the past?
She sat on the steps and looked down at the calm
sea below. They say that the nameless one came brought his army across the sea.
His 300 ships and their yellow sails were first seen by a watcher in one of the
towers. The news spread through the proud city and the men made ready for war.
The war came and went and the proud city was conquered and renamed. Maybe
renamed isnt really the right word for to be renamed perhaps something must
have a name to begin with? Before the city was conquered and renamed by the
nameless one it had no name. Well it had so many names for throughout time it
had been given name after name mostly by conquerors, but none of them had stuck
or lasted very long. The original name of the city if it ever even had one was
long lost and forgotten and the people of the city had grown to take great
pride in the namelessness of the city that they lived in. It didnt need a name,
it just was. If it had to be called something they referred to it as the city
or the nameless city or the city that has no name. The last to conquer it was
the nameless one. Perhaps the thought of a city ripe for naming had an appeal
to him or maybe he crossed the sea and came for some other reason. It matters
not, and if it does matter well it is not known. What is known is that after he
conquered it he took his own name and thrust it forcefully onto the city, and
reluctantly the city went through the motions of taking it for it wasnt given
the choice. It is unclear when the people of the city as a whole stopped saying
the name. Some say that the inhabitants of the city stopped saying it even as
it was being thrust on them. Those that say that are of course wrong. It is
well documented that most if not all the inhabitants of the city reluctantly
spoke the new name at least through the reign of the nameless one. Seventeen
generations later it clearly was already the case. It is known that at least
the last three rulers of the nameless ones line never heard their last name
spoken by anyone except for in secret by members of the royal family. The last
one of course ended the line when he threw himself into the sea and no other
member of the royal family was willing to accept the crown. The royal crown was
instead given to a beggar chosen by lottery. The name of almost every beggar
was entered into the lottery. Valor Smith (The winner of the lottery) never
tried to name the city that had worked so hard to have no name and his
descendants still rule the city to this day.

The nameless one had a name, but by attaching it
to the city the name itself was lost. Where does this leave his descendants the
ones still living in the city he won in war so long ago? It leaves them
nameless. Wait no. It leaves them with a name that no one will speak.