THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 writen on March 7, 1995 translated by the Author English text kindly revised by Bill
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE FREE COMMUNE OF SILVANA" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
CHAPTER 3 - The Very Right and Serene Commune of Silvana. The Commune first war. The freedom
On 4 Fr LIV (1099) under Horse regency and Slim captaincy, Sunsweet and Mountain Castles were built. When completed, the walls united the four castles. Then construction was started on the building of Finegate and the flight of steps leading from this gate to Flowerfield. Also a revision of the Statute was done. On 1/4/3 Se LV (1103) we have the definitive drafting of the "Very Right and Serene Commune of Silvana Statute". This is the first time that the name of the territory appears in its entirety and it is evident that at this point the community feels juridicially free and independent from all the neighbouring potentates. Moreover the Statutes contain only the fundamental laws, separating these from the common law which was in the "Regulations".
For the first time appears the role of the Defender, who with the Rector and the Captain sits in the new body known as Regency. The Rector is elected by all the Companions twenty years or older, the Captain by all the family heads, that is by the Forum, the Defender by all the soldiers on duty in the various castles, be they Companions or Friends. Each is elected for a twenty year term. If one of them retires or dies before the end of his office, his substitute is elected, always for a twenty years term.
The proof of the importance of this date comes from the fact that in the same year, a few months later, the neighbouring powers raised a total block of the territory borders - nothing and nobody can enter or go out from Silvana. This leads to a war, the first that the Commune fights. The war ends in favor of the Commune, that as a result acquires some new territories as reparations for war damages. Richton surrenders Frontier territory, Kindton gives Mines, Cottageton surrenders the two territories of Stony and Sunny, and Breadmount gives Drainage. The commune territory will remain unchanged after this war forever; it will never gain nor lose territories. The politics to defend these territories without attempting to get new ones, will be one of the elements guaranteeing for generations the freedom of the Commune.
But on 2 Le LVII (1147) the Lords of the neighbouring territories, as a means to undermine Silvana independence, bring a suit against the Commune at the Great King's high court, demanding that the Commune also pays taxes to the Kingdom. The King sent Strongray as his minister plenipotentiary, at the head of two thousand infantrymen and fifty cavalrymen. The Regents, warned in time of the plenipotentiary's arrival, ordered all the gates closed and went down, alone and unarmed, wearing the "State dress", to Drainage at the boundary with Breadmount. Here the three alone block the road to the officers' and soldiers' cortege.
Strongray dismounted his horse and went to talk with the three Regents, who told him, "We don't want a war. If you prove to us that the Great King has the right to receive our taxes, we will pay; otherwise, you will leave us in peace". Strongray was convinced to pass the boundary accompanied only by ten officers and ten armed horsemen, leaving all the others beyond the boundary. So they went up to the Cliff, passing through the Finegate.
Strongray was in admiration of the beauty of the fine gate, of the Cliff facade, of the powerful fortifications and finally of the interior of the Cave. Here the Regents had him sit on a kind of wooden throne put on a lower level of the triple stone throne, but they sat on normal seats at his same level. Therefore they demonstrated to the plenipotentiary that the Commune had never paid a tribute to any town, city, temple, or Lord of the past or of the present for about a thousand years.
The experts thorougly checked all the documents shown to them and found them to be valid and truthful. But the plenipotentiary was not yet satisfied, "You say you are a free and independent people, but what is this freedom? I want to question common people, not you monks. Bring in front of me an illiterate for each of your built-up areas, so that I can ask them questions."
The Regents accepted at once. We have the chronicle of that occurrence and the answers given by the Commune people.
The King's plenipotentiary, minister Strongray, sitting on the throne prepared for him in the Great Cave, asked of the people gathered and chosen by his men, "Tell me, what does freedom and independence mean to you?"
Lamb from Livewaters answered, "The Commune men never paid a tribute for fifty generations, neither to foreigners nor to a man of the Commune."
Guide from Temple said, "We who live here never paid a tribute to any living being, nor to gods or lords, and now we don't pay either, because when our mother feeds us at her breast we know that in the Commune we all are equals, young and old people, Friends and Companions, and nobody is superior to another."
Sensible from Borough said, "For all the time of my life I never saw a man of Silvana Commune bowing in front of another man, nor paying him a tithe, or tax, or tribute of any sort, and also my elders said they never saw such a thing."
Rufled from Woods said, "For all the time of my life I always heard that we all here are equal and free and independent because so said our Master Silvan."
Cockerel from Garden said, "Amongst us there is no slave or servant and no man is forced to serve or to obey another man other than the shift-leader of the work and only during the work time. None of us is committed except to the Statute and to the Regulations. Also the Regents are bound by these, like me. This is what it means to be free, equal, independent."
Porter from Serene answered, "Man is born free, therefore he is not to be submissive to the will of another man for any reason. I came here freely to answer to you, and freely I will go out from here when it pleases me."
Morning from Lilvalley answered, "Man is born free and owns what he needs and for this he has to respond to nobody besides the Awakened Prince, on the day he will be in his presence."
Nicegift from Weir said, "The free man gives his food to the traveler, his roof to the refugee, but nobody can claim his food or his roof."
And last, Charming from Silvana, a young soldier, said, "As a soldier I obey my chief, as a son my father, as a man the Awakened, as a Friend the Statute and the Regulations; other than these I don't recognize that anybody has the right to tell me what I have to do or not to do."
Then Strongray stood up and said, "You really are a free, proud and strong people. I will tell my King that you don't belong to anybody and that to anybody you can't belong. Therefore no tribute can be asked to you. May all the gods always protect you."
He gave the Regents a certificate of his decision and, gathering all his men, went back to Royalton where he came from. Before leaving he left as a goodwill gift his mantle of white silk quilted with gold.
Then the Regents gathered all the population and declared that day a solemn, perpetual holiday called "Perpetual Freedom Day". On the Drainage border was erected the Memorial of Perpetual Freedom, where in the bas-relief can be seen the three Regents stopping the king's plenipotentiary. The Silvana flag, sky-ble with a gold sun, was hemmed, to remember that day, with the white silk of the King's plenipotentiary's mantle.
On year 1 Le LVIII (1166), as the Forum had become too big and was mainly formed by old people, it was reformed making two changes - each family had to choose amongst its members being between twenty and sixty years old, a representative to be their family-head; moreover each borough elected each year a certain number of representatives proportional to its inhabitants, to form the General Council, composed of sixty members, all chosen amongst the Friends - 4 from Livewaters, 5 each from Serene, Lilvalley and Weir, 9 each from Temple, Woods and Garden and 14 from Borough.
And last, in imitation of the neighbouring territories, Silvana had their Lord. He was chosen from amongst the Companions, was considered the successor of Master Silvan, therefore he was seated on a tall throne, under the Founder's statue; he was elected for a ten year term. He was chosen from amongst the Companions being between twenty-five and thirty-five years of age and had to be the handsomest of them. But, differently from the Lords of the surrounding territories, he didn't have any real power, he was just a symbol. He was covered with honors, dressed in a splendid way and he presided over the Regency, the General Council and the Forum, but without the right to vote. He was therefore very different from the Lords of those times, even though he had all their symbols and name.
Moreover the army, formed by swordsmen, lancers and archers for a total of 671 warriors in permanent service, got uniforms of different colors according to the castle they belonged to; each army was commanded by a lieutenant, each castle by a guardian and all together they elected, like before, the Defender.
It is of the following year a report written by the great priest Proud of Royalton, and we don't know how it ended up on Silvana's archives as it is addressed to the "Great King" of Royalton, where he describes the "Very Right and Serene Silvana Commune", overlooked by a "very tall and steep stone", crowned by four castles "solid and strong and impregnable and well guarded", surrounded by "a wide and very delightful territory" where there were eight "wall protected villages". He describes in great detail the Finegate, and also the Road gate on the south, the Main gate on the east, and the Valley gate on the north. He also describes the "very delightful cemetery that looks like a garden with very beautiful statues of white marble resembling chiseled ivory". The fact that in his letter he doesn't describe anything about what is inside the city walls makes us understand that he didn't enter, or was not admitted, inside the built-up areas.
But this report is interesting for another aspect - it concludes with a consideration: "It is a real pity that a pearl of such a great beauty doesn't adorn Your crown, but this virile and proud people, for always free and independent, this small but strong and gentle territory, never knew a master and never will know one, as long as the gods will be respected in Your lands." It almost seems, as we will see later, a prophecy.
In this same year there is found a ballad in rhyme, composed of not less than 9,999 tercets, narrating the love of a Companion for a married Friend. In summary the story is as follows:
"In Woods borough lived a young man, twenty five years old, named Resolute Furrows, a basket maker, married with Violet Well from Lilvalley. They had three small children. Each morning Resolute climbed up to Flowerfield to decorate with flowers the grave of his ancestor Furrow. And every day a young Companion, named Third, twenty years old, went down to Flowerfield to decorate the grave of the Founder.
The first time Third saw Resolute, he became infatuated with him, but when he knew he was married, he thought he had no hope to be united with him. Notwithstanding this, day after day, his passion was becoming stronger and deeper. At first they just greeted each other and each time Third felt his heart jump in his chest. Then they also started to exchange a few words and Third was happy just to see him, and sad when they had to depart.
Third almost couldn't sleep any more; he was totally fascinated by Resolute, by his nimble and sound body, by his luminous smile, by his deep and sweet voice, by any of his moves and words. He desired him with all his being, and yet he knew that he could never have him. The more he repeated to himself not to think of him, the less he was capable. Therefore he started to intensely pray to the Awakened Prince, the Founder Master and all the gods of the sky, of the earth, of the waters and of the elements to succour him.
He decided to pretend not to see him, but Resolute greeted him and asked him what was up, and if he was ill. Third answered no, everything was fine, but when he went back to Silvana, he went to bed and was unable to leave it from then on. Resolute, not seeing him any more for some days, decided to go to the Cliff to ask news about Third - they told him that he mysteriously fell ill and nobody was able to understand the reason and no treatement seemed of any effectiveness.
Third was languishing, grew weaker and weaker in spite of the affectionate and diligent care of the Companions. Particularly a Companion who was of his same age and was his friend, named Prudent, who assisted him night and day.
"Third, my sweet friend, what is wearing you out so much? What is making you grow dim like a wick burning out little by little?" he asked him, but Third didn't answer.
Meanwhile Resolute went every day to ask for news of him and always left for him a sweet fruit or a rare flower. Until Prudent guessed there had to be some relation between the Friend's visit and the Companion's illness. Thus a day Prudent asked Third, "Tell me, my sweet friend, what is there between you and Resolute?"
"Nothing, I swear", the young ill man answered in a whisper, but a tear shone in the corners his eyes.
"You can trust me, I'm your friend, I will never betray you, you know it". Prudent insisted, but Third didn't tell.
Until a night, in his delirium, Third murmured, "Resolute, my sweet beloved one, I'm dying because we cannot love each other."
Thus Prudent received confirmation of what he had guessed. He didn't want Third to die, but on the other hand he well knew that such a love was not possible, therefore he didn't know what to do. So, in the middle of night, he went out of Silvana and asked the armigers on guard at Finegate to open to him and allow him to go down to Flowerfield.
Reaching the Master's grave, he lay down on it and prayed to him, for the sake of the love that united him to Deer, to enlighten him and not to let Third die. He prayed all night long, until dawn colored the sky pink behind the Cliff. But he didn't get any answer to his prayer. He sadly went back to the Cliff and went to watch at the bedside of Third. The youth didn't recover consciousness and his body was trembling all over, shaken from time to time by deep moans.
On the following night Prudent went again to pray on the Master's grave, until dawn, but again he didn't get an answer. He went there on the third night and cried for a long time, as it seemed that Third was very close to death. When the moon came out, he saw a man coming, thus he hid himself. The man was Resolute, and he prostrated himself in front of the Master's grave and said, "Silvan, father of us all, Third is dying and nobody knows the cause. Why? I feel I'm in love with him, even though I know I'm not allowed to, and therefore, for the love that you left us as a bequest, I pray you, take my life, but let Third live! My wife will find another husband, another father for our children, my life is not important. Take my life and give it to Third!"
Then Prudent went out of the bush behind which he was hidden and said to Resolute, "I heard your prayer and am deeply moved. You love Third and offer your life for his. Also Third loves you and he is dying because he cannot reveal to you his love. I too prayed the Master to rescue Third's life; who knows, possibly if we pray together, the Master will enlighten us and let us understand what we have to do to give back life to Third."
Resolute, who didn't know that Third was in love with him at that point, was moved and said, "Yes, let's pray together and we won't stop praying until the Master will enlighten us."
They laid down on the ground, one at the left and the other at the right of the Master's grave and started again to pray in their hearts, with all their strength.
On that same night, the Lord of Silvana was not able to fall asleep. He then walked on the glacis until he was above Finegate; when he looked towards Flowerfield he saw, distinctly illuminated by the moon, a Companion and a Friend lying down at the sides of the Master's grave. At that time of night, those two, in that position, made him curious. Therefore he asked the guards to open the door for him and went down to the Master's grave.
When he reached it, he saw an amazing thing - the head of the Friend was surrounded by a light-blue halo and the head of the Companion by a golden halo. He tried to call them, to shake them, but it was totally useless - they were alive and yet felt nothing. Then he kneeled in front of the grave and prayed.
And a very light luminous mist appeared on the grave and took the shape of the Master who, smiling, said to him, "Didn't you understand my sign? What means the light-blue color?"
"It is the Companions' color..."
"And who has it around his head?"
"The Friend, and... and the gold, symbol of our freedom, is around the Companion's head... But I still cannot understand."
"They have to swap their roles and everything will be solved." the Master said.
"Everything? What?"
"Look and you will understand." the Master answered and the Lord had a vision of all the vicissitude and understood.
All was back to normal and the two rose up and saw the Lord and greeted him in amazement. He told them about the vision that the Master sent him and what was the solution of their problem. Both rejoiced very much. The Lord made them undress and exchange their clothes. Then, with them, he went down to Woods, to Resolute's house. Here they found Violet, waiting at the door for them.
The woman said, "A dream woke me up. I dreamed that I had to lose my husband and that I would have a new husband... but I see that you are still alive, Resolute."
"Yes, but you see that I'm wearing the blue habit. I came to tell you that I have to divorce from you. But if you accept him, Prudent, that you see here, will be your new husband."
"He seems to be a well-mannered and handsome person... so, my dream was right."
Prudent told her, "I will love you and will love your children and if you want, we will have more children."
"So be it, then." the woman answered.
"Tomorrow come to the Cliff and we will annul the previous marriage and celebrate the new one. Now I leave you with her, Prudent; be a good husband!" the Lord said.
Then Resolute, after saying farewell to the woman, to Prudent and to his three children, went up to the Cliff together with the Lord. Once there, the Lord took Resolute to Third's house. "You will spend the night here with him. Tomorrow morning you will be officially accepted amongst the Companions. But you already are one, as so decided the Master. Now, go and give back life to Third."
When the Lord went out, Resolute undressed completely and slipped under Third's blanket, embraced him, caressing and kissing him, warming his cold body with his body. Little by little Third stopped trembling, then opened his eyes and saw the smiling face of Resolute.
"I'm with you? Is this a dream?" he asked with a feeble voice.
"No, it's real; I came to give you my love." Resolute sweetly said to him and kissed him on the mouth very intimately and for a long time.
Third, thanks to that kiss seemed to gradually recover his forces, pressed against Resolute, embraced him and finally they started making love, both feeling the joys of paradise. They united, giving one to the other several times with great passion and only when they heard the song of the morning lauds, they understood that the sun was already rising. Then, even though reluctantly, they wore their blue habits and went to sing with the others.
Also Prudent with Violet and the three children arrived. Then the Lord told all the reunited community the vision he had, and he declared annuled the marriage between Resolute and Violet, freed Prudent of his bonds with the community and celebrated the union between Prudent and Violet, committing to their love the three children. Then first was celebrated the admisson rite of Resolute, and soon after also the union rite between Resolue and Third.
The long poem concludes with two songs - the first one narrates Prudent's love for Violet and the three children and also tells about the three more children they sired. The second one narrates the beauty and happiness of the union of Resolute and Third, describing in realistic and yet lyric terms how they made love.
What is interesting in this long and beautiful poem is mainly the concern of the possibility of changing status among adults, and it is not described as something exceptional - even though it is the Master's vision to solve the problem, nobody opposes, nobody finds it weird, the rites are clearly preexistent.
The second Silvana war. The secret archives. The complete educational system
Life in Silvana proceeded quietly until, with the bordering kingdom in dissolution, the various local Lords proclaimed themselves Kings and started wars to extend their territories. Little by little the Texts of Richton enlarged their territory at the expense of Powerton, Braveton and Kindton, while the O'Villas of Breadmount conquered Cottageton. The two new kingdoms were now bordering and the O'Villas entered into war against the Texts for possession of Powerton. The war lasted for more than one generation, that is from 1 Le LXIV to 4 Le LXV (1290-1313).
Silvana tried to stay out of the conflict, but soon the war moved onto Silvana territory, because a group of soldiers of one or the other party, crossed the frontiers of its territory when, being in difficulty, they were chased by the soldiers of the other army. Weir was sacked. Thus the Forum asked to be at a war ready state to protect its boundaries. Silvana troops were amassed along the White river marking the boundary with Richton and Powerton territories, and they built the great wall of Weir, closing the valley, and two small castles - Woods Castle and Frontier Castle.
The task of the Silvana army was to not allow entrance of armed soldiers on its territory, driving them back with their weapons. If they asked for asylum, they had to be first disarmed, undressed of their uniforms, then hosted if they considered themselves refugees, or taking them to another point of the boundary chosen by them and allowed to go away, free. This policy at times led to armed clashes of small numbers, which were always won by Silvana warriors, who kept their frontiers safe.
When at last the two Kings decided to make a peace treaty, Powerton was in the hands of the O'Villas. The two Lords asked Silvana to act as mediator for peace and they went, with an escort of only ten knights each, up to the Cliff. Genius O'Villa King of Breadmount and Right Texts King of Richton, after signing the peace treaty, released a declaration of gratitude, extremely important on a historical level, because both the Kings declared that "The Very Right and Serene Silvana Commune is a free and sovereign state, an independent nation, a territory inviolable in its present boundaries, marked on north by Swift river, on east and south by White river and Drop river and on the western side by the ridge of the hills being on Sunny, Stony and Mines territories, where the boundary is marked by white stones. These boundaries, solemnly ratified by this document, will never, ever be changed."
In the same year when the peace treaty was signed, the Regency decided on the building of the secret archives behind the great statues of the Awakened and of the Founder. The two huge statues sit on a paralleliped of raw rock, five meters tall, six meters deep and four meters wide. Under it is excavated an L shaped gallery leading to the center of a long corridor, parallel to the back side of the Great Cave, on which opens seven halls - one at each end and five on the side in front of the entrance. All are excavated from the raw rock. The walls of all this complex are decorated with very fine homoerotic high-reliefs, a collective work of the Companions. All along the corridor they show scenes of love preliminaries, on the extreme left hall scenes of oral sex, and in the other six halls scenes of anal sex. It is a representation that exceeds in beauty the famous stone Kamasutra of India. In all are represented on the walls exactly one hundred and four couples and twenty-one more on the ceilings. From the documents it appears that all this hidden complex was destined from the beginning as the secret archive and treasure deposit of the commuity.
The basement of the statues of the Awakened Prince and of the Founder Master, hiding the entrance, was covered by high-reliefs hiding an ingenious mechanism to allow access, that luckily was never suspected by the invaders of the small state and that therefore the rich archive and treasure are preserved, untouched to this day.
In year 5 Le LXV (1319) the census of the population reports a total of 2767 people. It was felt there was a need to establish an accurate educational system. The difficult task is entrusted to the Companion Able of Good, as he often traveled in the nearby territories and visited several kinds of schools. Able laid out the educational system following a pattern that for many generations remained practically unchanged - the children from their birth to four years old, the age of the Seed, will be reared by their families; then, from five to nine years old, the age of the Leave, they will attend a school to learn reading, writing and reckoning. They will spend the twelve hours of day in the school and the twelve of night with their family; from ten to fourteen years old, the age of the Flower, they will live inside the school and learn history, sacred scriptures and how to make love; from fifteen to nineteen years old, the age of the Fruit, they will live for the twelve day hours with their family or the Companions, and for the twelve hours of night at school, where they will study.
The Flower age is the central one, where boys and girls will understand if they are inclined to become Friends or Companions. The choice, in fact, will be made when they reach their fifteenth year of age. Before puberty they will learn to touch each other, then after puberty they can have complete intercourse amongst themselves, be it with their same sex mates or with the opposite sex, so that they can understand which is their way.
New schools are built, one in each borough, and teachers are assigned to each - 50% will be Companions, 25% men-Friends and 25% women-Friends. For the first time in this project we read also of possible intercourse between two women - it is not that it didn't happen before, of course, but only now it is told in an explicit and clear way.
This will lead soon to the request to also found the Companion-women group. The documents of the debates amongst the Companions are really ineresting. In year 4 Se LXVI (1323) the first decision is made concerning this request, saying: from now on the community will be divided into brothers and sisters and the name companion will be used only to designate who is united in a couple. Moreover fraternities will also be open outside Silvana's main borough, in the various Castles of the commune. The task of these fraternities is taking care of the schools and of the rites. Each fraternity elects for five years a father or a mother. Thus is formed the Little Council that will work with the Regency for all the order problems.
This compulsory educational system rapidly leads to the diffusion of literacy skills of all the population. This in a time when the neighbouring populations were 90% illiterate. The new schools in this period have a population of about 135 full time students and 270 half time students, therefore they required 270 beds, of which about half "mixed" and common, and then another half "separated" by sex and individual.
To our present culture it could seem weird thinking that children under fifteen years of age were sleeping all together and had sexual intercourse with their own or the opposite sex, under the eyes of their mates. But it is this that gave them a simple, pleasurable and serene vision of sexual intercourse. From fifteen years of age up, on the contrary, sleeping and making love in individual cells allowed the youths to develop also affection in a personal way, a basic component of the physical relationship.
If in fact a person does not have difficulties showing their physical desire and can live it in front of others as well, but that same person has then a natural decency to show their affection, because this doesn't involve him/her only physically, but on a deeper and more inimate spiritual level.
To the children it was also taught how to avoid unwanted pregnancies when they had complete intercourse with the opposite sex, and also the rules of sexual hygiene. The teachers and the other adults could not sleep with nor have sexual intercourse with the students before they reached the fifteenth year of age.
This system of sexual education seems, therefore, extremely efficient and balanced. A proof is that, after this reform, the "sexual crimes" in the Commune territory are drasticly reduced, as well as divorces or changes of status.
During the Flower age, at the attainment of puberty, there was a small ceremony performed where hair was untied and cut short. At the passage to the Fruit age, with another simple ceremony, the students abandoned the children's short tunics and wore for the first time the clothes of adulthood.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 4
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