The Small Kingdom
There once was a small kingdom in a small valley between two large mountains. The people of this kingdom were kind, peaceful people who spent their days reading and working together to care for their community. In the evenings, the people would gather at restaurants and in the courtyard to share stories with one another. Stories of their experiences throughout the day, stories about the books they read, and stories about what they had learned. And although when discussing these stories it often sounded like they were having arguments, the atmosphere was always one of empathy, mutual respect, and the desire to better the kingdom as a whole.
Then on one summer’s day, a dark wizard entered the small kingdom and watched as the people read books during the day and debated late into the night. The dark wizard had came from a land where the goal of the discourse was to win and leisurely reading was considered a waste of time. He couldn’t understand why the people weren’t trying to use what they learned to gain more wealth and power for themselves.
The dark wizard grew to hate the people of the small kingdom and how happy they were. So the he started to sit in on the evening gatherings and whispered spells as he walked through the courtyard. Slowly the people became disinterested in their books, convinced that they had enough knowledge, and the friendly discourse between neighbors became fraught with mental rigidity and the concept of winners and losers.
The king of the small kingdom wasn’t aware of the dark wizard and his spells, just that his kingdom was struggling. So he tried to find out what was bothering the people of the kingdom. He increased how often he held audience and tried to encourage cooperation among his advisors, but to no avail. The people would come and report their neighbors over the slightest offense and the advisors started to scheme against one another to further their own goals over the best interests of the kingdom. All the while, the dark wizard walked around the small kingdom, muttering his spells and smirking at how weak the kingdom’s people were.
Summer turned to fall, which quickly fell into winter. The people were getting louder about their discontent and fighting erupted more often than not over perceived slights and discussions of the “wrong type” of ideas.
The king had long since given up on trying to make things better and was exhausted from trying to keep them from getting worse. Once the king was at the point of giving up, the dark wizard sought an audience with the king and offered his help in exchange for becoming the king’s sole advisor. Tired and devoid of hope, the king agreed and dismissed all the other advisors.
Once in his new position, the dark wizard started to cast spells on the king and further isolated him, making him distrust all others. He made the king believe that outside forces infiltrated the small kingdom and were trying to destroy it. The king made gatherings over a certain number of people illegal, trade with outside kingdoms was heavily reduced, and the types of books published or brought into the kingdom were monitored and severely restricted. Slowly, the kingdom and its people closed themselves off from the rest of the world, convinced things would go back to the way they once were.
Many years later, the king died and left the dark wizard to rule. Afraid of losing his new power and wealth, the dark wizard put in place more rules to further isolate the small kingdom until the neighboring kingdoms had all but given up on trade or writing to the people living there.
Then, one day the magicians of the kingdom closest to the small kingdom began to see signs of a major earthquake near the mountains surrounding the small kingdom. They tried to reach out to the dark wizard, but were ignored. They tried to send warnings to the people of the small kingdom, but were met with distrust or indifference.
Weeks after the last letter from the magicians were sent, the earthquake struck and halves of each mountain surrounding the small kingdom crumbled. The mountains crushed the small kingdom and its people.
