The survival of a civilization. The Ring of Fire

I. AND ONCE UPON A TIME...

         This is the "Legend of the Four Sons" and it tells us very clearly, for each of us to understand what each of us hears, that, once upon a time, two powerful kings waged a magnificent war against each other. A very different war, a war that did not require weapons and did not mean the loss of human lives, a war of attrition between the Kingdom of the Dry Land and the Kingdom of the Seas, two immense expanses that would clash frequently and would prevent each other's evolution. The King of the Dry Land wanted to conquer new territories and expand his kingdom, while the Lord of the Seas wanted to flood the enemy land, at all costs. None had access to the other's territory.

        The stories of that age also say that women in the kingdom of the Dry Land were not allowed to cry, lest they summon the forces of the Seas; on the other side, no ship that was built and launched would float, because it would be sunk immediately by the whirling waters.

        Weary of the same unending failures, the king of the Dry Land gathered his four sons and forced them to leave their parents' house in the Central Mountains and become messengers of peace to the kingdom of the Seas. Before they left, he swore to them that, if they managed to bring peace between the kingdoms, he would allow them to rule over the whole kingdom, in turn, four years each, from the eldest to the youngest. The decision to banish the young men was made, and this would change for good the future of those places...

        Burdened by sadness, each of the four men left alone, taking different roads, leaving behind a grief-stricken mother who knew she would lose for life those souls she held so dear. The suffering caused her to shed bitter tears, which gave rise to four warm springs that followed the footsteps of her sons, and when they caught up with them they turned them into deep rivers lost quickly and forever in the sea.

        With the curse broken by the mother's tears, the four boys established a bridge between the two kingdoms, between dry land and sea, and their names were also the names of the rivers flowing from one cardinal point to another. They then became borders, forming four new kingdoms: River Nor'r separated Zendovir from Isbynorr, Zom'a had Isbynorr on one bank and Narzomand on the other, Gor'n had Narzomand to the left and Salgornu to the right; the last river, Dov'i, separated Salgornu from Zendovir.

        The legend doesn't mention whether peace was established between the kingdom of the Dry Land and the kingdom of the Seas, but one thing is certain: the pain of the four sons banished from home led to the appearance of these four new kingdoms and, every four years, they seemed to want to return home... to the plateau of the Central Mountains, as promised by their own father, "for each to rule in turn over the whole kingdom".

        Whether true or not, "The Legend of the Four Sons" is now a mere illusion of times gone by, every so often recollected by the elderly or whenever a contemporary event matches flawlessly the magical story.

        A time when alliances would be made and broken, during peace or war, they would prosper and fall, would covet or flatter; the friend you had today would become you foe tomorrow. This is the earliest description of a long-gone world, painted in the tones of each civilization, but forgotten over the years in the mists of time, just like a good wine, which, once brought to light, heats up and delights the senses of those who taste it.

        Ehhhh, such troubled times! Nature alone would continue to tend to its affairs, helplessly and bitterly watching the slaughter brought about by the battles of conquest, which sullied its neat garments; it hoped, however, that the time would come when it would rule to its liking, seeking its justice.

        But, until then, the fights for supremacy would be a normal thing, as it had been for ages... Hunter and game, sage and savage, rich and poor, these were and would continue to be the constants.