Week 14 Story: The Fallen Kingdom

Once upon a time, there was a great kingdom in the heart of India. This kingdom was called Reyansh. People from far and wide would come to Reyansh in search of a better life. Reyansh was the most powerful kingdom that any people on Earth had laid their eyes on. Under the leadership of King Yahnu, citizens of Reyansh saw their kingdom flourish. That is, until it just didn't anymore.

As more and more people came to Reyansh, the kingdom's elite became more and more greedy. Citizens of Reyansh were already the most heavily taxed people throughout all of the land. At first, the people were okay with this because they were promised great protection by King Yahnu and his army. As more and more immigrants entered into the kingdom, King Yahnu issued more and more taxes. The elite of the kingdom thrived off of these taxes.

The normal everyday citizens became more irritated with the ruling elite, as they were paying more and more in taxes while the streets became more crowded and deteriorated tremendously. Few citizens here and there would bring up the unrighteous happenings, but there was never enough continuity for a serious revolt. But then came Yanshto.

Yanshto, a disowned son of a ruling elite in another kingdom, was a low class citizen himself. Yanshto knew what it took to bring people together for a common cause. He had seen his father do it plenty of times. He knew exactly what to say. Large crowds of low class citizens would gather from all around the city to hear the words of Yanshto. He would point towards the streets to show the degradation. He would then point to the golden castle on the hill, far in the distance. Yanshto made sure that the citizens knew where their money was going. It was almost time for a revolution.

King Yahnu heard rumblings about Yanshto, thanks to spies throughout the city. The king knew something must be done to end any chance of a revolt happening.

One night, while Yanshto was asleep, one of the king's guardsman broke into his shack and stabbed Yanshto. As he laid dying, his screams were heard. Neighbors of Yanshto quickly ran to the shack. The guardsman tried to escape, but he was tackled by followers of Yanshto. The guardsman was wearing an elite cloak, so they knew who he was and who sent him. He was hanged ruthlessly.

King Yahnu hoped to wake up to good news, but he received word that his guardsman hadn't returned. Meanwhile, the citizens were planning a full on revolution.

Hundreds of thousands of people from every direction marched the streets in route to the castle where King Yahnu lived. There was nowhere the king could hide. The people wanted revenge for Yanshto's wrongful killing.

The people made their way to the castle and began destroying everything in sight. So many fantastic monuments in shambles, windows bashed, paintings torn to pieces, and guardsmen brutally murdered. The people made their way to the once proud King Yahnu and showed no mercy. Over the years after the king's death, the kingdom would see many leaders and many revolutions. Reyansh would crumble.

Author's note: I have always loved the stories about great kingdoms. By far, the most interesting thing to me is thinking about what happened to the kingdom for it to not be in power today. Most of the time, there's never a direct reason, so I decided to make a story that had a sot of direct reason.


Cool picture of a castle I found online, that I would like to represent the fallen kingdom Link


Bibliography: Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link