H.istory

[`` OWNER]

Present Day - Year 28 BC

Wild mustangs had been disappearing from Cappadocia for months after man’s war departed the land, and while the War horses seemed to be surviving effectively, no new horses had entered Cappadocia in quite some time. It was to be assumed that the War horses were killing off their wild relatives, but why new War horses weren’t traveling in from the Euphrates’s shorts remained a mystery.

A few years after the newly revived Cappadocia and man had returned to its shores; desiring more horses and seeking the bloodlines of the war bitten refugees. Somehow word had spread of the stallions and mares that lived in Cappadocia, proving their worth through survival and persistence. Soldiers observed the equine inhabitants and finally understood what kind of monsters they had created; watching habitually peaceful animals prey upon their own kind like cannibals, starting fights and killing due to higher rates of aggression and what appeared to be pure lust. As was common to human nature, these soldiers saw only potential and not the devastation that they had spawned.

In the year 36 BC, Cappadocia become home to yet another war that would redefine its existence and grow the deepest roots of abomination. This time the battle was between man and the horses, where they were once again taken from the wild and trained. The horses either survived or died and none were sparred if they could not fight or reproduce adequately. Once fit for whatever they came to use for the horses were shipped to faraway lands where harsh storms, cramped conditions and disease were endured before arriving at unknown destinations. Only those who were prime brood mares and studs, or had the privilege of being considered the best in combat, were well taken care of. Ironically, the best never survived long for they quickly served their purpose; the greatest of stallions and mares quickly died in battle while the broods who no longer produced were killed.

By 32 BC all of Cappadocia’s resources had once again been depleted, but man still remained. The land did not see the land of man until 30 BC when every horse had been harvested and those that were shipped in from other lands to be trained could no longer be sustained off of the infertile soil. Cappadocia had once been the only destination for those who desired the best under saddle, but quickly became the result of everything else that man touched. The land was left far worse than any time before with many of the trees cut down and the land left burnt. The ground was eaten up by hooves and teeth, carved by hard leather shoes and wounded with innocent blood.

Year Two(37 BC) - Winter

Man deserted Cappadocia and it's habitants more than a year ago, and everything quickly recovered. The cold temperatures which had for so long plagued the land finally lifted - revealing new lands and smothering others. All of the horses seem to be recooperating just fine, but with a few captives taken and one captive killed, there's no telling what will happen. Everything seems really calm with mainly internal fighting in the herds. The Native horses seem to have gone dormant since the arrival of the War horses, causing many to wonder if there are any left.

Year One(38 BC) - Winter

In the Before Christian era (BC), Cappadocia was a land persistently corrupted by the war of man and spoiled by the toxic aftermath. Not only were people captured as slaves, but the native mustangs of the land were harnessed and trained for combat; forced to become involved in a man’s war. After so many decades of stealing the wild horses from their land and compromising natural breeding in order to produce the ‘perfect’ war-horse, there isn’t much mustang left to breed out. Even more crippling, once the natural resources of Cappadocia – fertile soil and pure water – became overused and polluted, and there was nothing left to conquer, the war moved from the land to spread like the fingers of a hand across the rest of the continent; the bare, naked palm being the abused and barren land of Cappadocia. What were left behind from combat were things that no one would miss, but that no one wanted: the mangled remnants of soldiers, dented armor, broken spears and charred grass. Amongst it all are the rigid cadavers of horses, forced to sacrifice themselves for something they didn’t care about; or at least, it started out that way.

With the constantly observed and mandated breeding of specific studs to certain mares, the foals that were born might as well have escaped the womb of their dams being clad in armor, craving the battle and lusting for blood. Wild horses were born with the innate design to defend and protect anyways, but these warhorses were bred to ignore the severest of pain, attack not only other horses but their riders as well, and defend their own riders at all costs. Most of the stallions bred for combat had to be kept separate from even the most passive of mares, and breeding was always a very tense and painful time when their courtiers were caught between the desire to fight and the desire for sex. Eventually the idea of using sex to compromise the steeds of their enemies caught on, and the humans started to train the mares just as severely as the stallions. Though a bit calmer and more reserved, the mares could be just as nasty and their lithe frames made it easier to avoid attacks from adversaries.

The aggressive mannerisms of these new ‘hybrid war horses’ was never a problem since few of them survived long enough to take it out on their ‘creators.’ Many died in combat anyways, so when the humans left Cappadocia, the only concern was how nature would come back from such harsh mistreatment. Fortunately, here and there were a few secluded herds of wild mustangs untouched by man with the occasional loner that escaped before they could be sacrificed in a human’s war; effected by the ordeal, but not completely damned.

Alas! A few steeds from the war have lived and secluded themselves to lick their wounds, but having done so they are ready to take over their land. With more than one of these stallions having been influenced by their breeding and involvement in war, and who also seek to rule Cappadocia, the joy of the war ending has been tarnished by the uprising of an equines war.

The real question is not what will happen, but how these tainted few will be perceived by the pure, wild mustangs. Truly the warhorses are not at fault – they were bred for many years and trained to do nothing but fight and kill, regardless of the situation. How will the wild horses be treated? Will they in turn be captured and forced to be slaves, or change in order to survive? Then there are the horses who escaped in time to avoid any contact with war, but have been molested by the humans and their warped breeding and training. It’s all a question of moral now and a forced way of life. Instincts are still apart of all the horses and drive them to seek the company of others and create new herds. All of the stallions leading these herds are either descended of or are the descendants of the war horses.

So will the war horses have to integrate themselves back into Cappadocia, or will the current residents have to become integrated?