Seikfrjokaiék U'zjogad (Worldburners' Apology)

[Zanz]

Introduction
When reading the Worldburners' Apology, it is important to remember the sociopolitical reality of the Jelbic Khanate at the time of its writing. The Jelbic state was on the verge of collapse, both culturally and militarily. The Jelbék H'án, Intrsmor Azisrmko Knzmazrk, in his late 70s, had been utterly embarrassed by his defeat in the ancient Jelbic ritual Sbtlshjogad by the Vanukese prince Wrntukai Juhnsrmo Banmek-Sntazed, and Baofluz stood on the brink of disaster after the devastating defeat of the supposedly unbeatable Jelbic horse-warriors at the hands of Vanukese modernity. When Jlekai Klunesrmko first set pen to paper February 4004, Jelbania was staring into an abyss.

The Apology, which became a manifesto for the revolutionary Seikfrjokai movement that would set as its mission the monumental task of the taming of the steppe (Jeztaghék klmojuo) and the modernization of Jelbania (Jelbék zamojuo), was the first and the most eloquent expression of discontent with the state of the Jelbic peoples. It stands both as a condemnation of conservative Jelbic backwardness and as a beacon of hope for the future of the Jelbic homeland.

Contents
1. Kns'hlajogad zsijozuo (Regarding the war)
2. Jelb'koékaiék Kaimrjogad zsjiozuo (Regarding 'Jelbic culture')
3. Taghe zsjiozuo (Regarding the Taghe)
4. H'án zsjiozuo (Regarding the H'án)

[Zanz]

Kns'hlajogad zsijozuo (Regarding the war)

Introduction
The first chapter of the Worldburners' Apology was focused, perhaps naturally, on Jelbania's disastrous involvement and looming defeat in a global war whose reasoning very few in Jelbania understood.

Jelbania had arrayed herself as an ally of Deltaria in opposition to the Princedom of Vanuku, whose military might far outstripped the combined might of the Jelbanians and Deltarians. The war was fought, scholars generally agree in hindsight, as the result of hubris and traditional bellicosity. The Jelbic Khan believed Jelbania to be the rightful heir of the Jelbic warrior tradition, and had recently suffered a humiliating loss in the traditional Jelbic honor ritual Sbtlshjogad to the Vanukese Prince Juhn II's son, Wrntukai Juhnsrmo. As a matter of pride, the Jelbic Khanate went to war. As a matter of tradition, that war was waged primarily on horseback.

This war meant devastation for the Jelbic economy, already devastated by decades of decentralizing neglect (outlined in another chapter) and suffering and death for hundreds of thousands of Jelbanians.

Text
The Jelbic Khanate has, of late, been the subject of a cruel fate ensured by the systemic incompetence of our leaders and by our own backwardness as a people. We were led into a war we could never have won by mad men more at home on the steppe than in civilized states, who bray like the horses they ride upon, and we brayed with them, fools, eager to be heroes and martyrs to honor long outdated.

We were told, of course, that the foolish Wrnukék had allowed himself to become soft, had been made fat and harmless in his shining cities of excess. He rode to war in machines, Wrnukék Mouzij, and had forgotten that Temrkai H'án, a Wrnukék, had slain the Zardic dogs on the tip of a spear, in the old way, in the true way. We were told that he would fold, that his hands no longer were hardened by the reins, his face no longer weathered by the wind, and that his voice was used for Yeudish bartering instead of for Jelbic warsongs, and that Tanhri would see us to victory beneath His wings.

We were told that the H'án was deceived, robbed of his title as Protector on the great northern steppes of Baniray by Manoush trickery on the part of a dishonorable Vanukese prince. In battle, our victory was assured, we were told, because the Jelbék horseman remembered the old ways.

Friends, we were deceived.

And yet, we were at fault.

While the H'án nursed his wounded pride by throwing hundreds of thousands of Jelbanian sons and daughters to their deaths on the Vanukese steppe, the people of Jelbania did worse than nothing to protest - indeed, we frothed at the mouths and called ourselves Jeztaghé and rode happily to our deaths. We wanted to be deceived, and so we were. And now our sons and daughters have died, their bodies littered across the steppe, crushed under the treads of Vanukese armor and blown into oblivion by Vanukese missiles. An entire generation wasted on pride and tradition. Our fertile lands are salted and trampled, and Baofluz will fall to the Vanukese, and we have no one to blame but ourselves for our own backwardness.

Jelbania must be tamed, friends - we must tame ourselves and join the community of nations. We must throw off our backwardness and emerge.