In a time long past, in a land far away, there was a once a
troubled kingdom. Despite the efforts of the King to offer justice
freely to all, many of his subjects were troubled by unscrupulous
merchants and greedy landowners. Time and again, the King heard
claims of goods not being delivered, or disputes over land.
While the merchants and landowners were able to produce
documents and affidavits to their defence, the King grew
increasingly troubled. He felt that his subjects were being
wronged, and he grew distrustful of the scribes that thronged the
hallways of his courts and marketplaces.
One day, three wizards visited the kingdom. The wizards had
travelled from the Far East, where as Masters of the Satoshi
School, they had developed many curious spells. The three wizards
were brothers. Na was the youngest, and was made to work hardest by
his elder brothers, Ka and Mo. Mo, the eldest, was versed in many
arts still unknown to his brothers.
Their offer to the King was simple: through the use of their
magic they would remove all corruption from his lands. In return
they would expect to be well paid for their efforts. Keen to
be a just and respected ruler, the King agreed to the wizards’
plan. But while their offer was simple, the plan itself was
complex.
The wizards explained that, through an obscure art, they could
cause words and images to appear within a certain type of rock, or
crystal which could be found commonly throughout the land. Once
imbued with words, a crystal could no longer be changed even by a
powerful wizard. In a masterful show of power, Ka and Mo embedded
the King’s favourite poem and then a painting of his mother in a
pair of crystals of the highest quality.
The wizards explained that rather than relying on parchment
which could be faked or changed through the cunning application of
pumice stones, they could use inscribed crystals to create
indelible records of trading bills, property sales and other
important documents.
The wizards also demonstrated to the King how, by channelling
the power of their masters, groups of their acolytes could
simultaneously record the same words in crystals all across the
land. This meant that not only would there be an indisputable
record of a given trade, but that there would immediately be dozens
of copies available across the land, for anyone to check. Readily
available and verifiable copies of any bill of trade would mean
that no merchant could ever falsify a transaction.
In payment, the wizards would receive a gold piece for every
crystal inscribed by their acolytes. Each crystal providing a clear
proof of their works.
Impressed, the King decreed that henceforth, all across his
lands, trading would now be carried out in trading posts staffed by
teams of the wizards’ acolytes.
And, for a time, everything was fine.
But the King began to again receive troubling reports about
trading disputes. Trust was failing once again. Speaking to his
advisers and visiting some of the new trading posts, the King
learned the source of the concerns.
When trading bills had been written on parchment, they could be
read by anyone. This made them accessible to all. But only the
wizards and their acolytes could read the words inscribed in the
crystals. And the King’s subjects didn’t trust them.
Demanding an explanation, the King learnt that Na, the youngest
wizard, had been tasked with providing the power necessary to
inscribe the crystals. Not as versed in the art as his elder
brothers, he was only able to inscribe the crystals with a limited
number of words and only the haziest of images. Rather than
inscribing easily readable bills of trade, Na and the acolytes were
making inscriptions in a cryptic language known only to
wizards.
Anyone wanting to read a bill had to request an acolyte to
interpret it for them. Rumours had been spreading that the acolytes
could be paid to interpret the runes in ways that were advantageous
to those with sufficient coin.
The middle brother, Ka, attempted to placate the enraged King,
proposing an alternative arrangement. He would oversee the
inscribing of the crystals in the place of his brother. Skilled in
additional spells, Ka’s proposal was that the crystals would no
longer be inscribed with runes describing the bills of sale.
Instead each crystal would simply hold the number of a page in a
magical book. Each Book of Bills, would hold an infinite number of
pages. And, when a sale was made one acolyte would write the bill
into a fresh page of a Book, whilst another would inscribe the page
number into a crystal. As before, across the land, other acolytes
would simultaneously inscribe copies of the bills into other
crystals and other copies of the Book.
In this way, anyone wanting to read a bill of sale could simply
ask a Book of Bills to turn to the page they needed. Anyone could
then read from the book. But the crystals themselves would remain
the ultimate proof of the trade. While someone might have been able
to fake a copy of a Book, no-one could fake one of the
crystals.
Grudgingly accepting this even more complex arrangement, the
King was briefly satisfied. Until the accident.
One day, the wizard Ka visited the Craggy Valley, to forage for
the rare Ipoh herb, which was known to grow in that part of the
Kingdom. However, in a sudden fog, the wizard slipped and fell to
his doom. And at the moment of his death, all of the
wizard’s spells were undone. In a blink of an eye, all of the
magical Books of Bills disappeared. Along with every proof of
trade.
Enraged once more, the King gave the eldest wizard one more
opportunity to deliver. Mo reassured the King that his power was
far greater and that he was uniquely able to deliver on his late
brother’s promise. Mo explained that through various dark arts he
was able to resist death. He demonstrated his skill to the King,
recklessly drinking terrible poisons, and throwing himself from a
high tower only to land unharmed. Stunned at this show of power,
the King agreed that Mo could take up his brother’s task.
For a few months, the turmoil was resolved, until fresh reports
of corruption begin to spread.
A dismayed King granted an audience to a retinue of merchants
who had travelled from all across his kingdom. The merchants
claimed to have evidence that discrepancies had begun to appear in
the Books of Bills. In different towns and cities the Books showed
slightly different numbers. There was also talk of a strange,
shadowy figure who had been present at many of the trading posts in
which discrepancies had been found.
Troubled, the King sent out soldiers to set watch on the trading
posts, giving orders that they should attempt to capture and bring
this stranger to the court.
Many weeks of waiting and watching passed. More evidence of
corrupted Books of Bills continued to appear. Challenged to explain
the allegations, Mo scoffed at the evidence. The wizard suggested
that the problem was illiterate merchants, asserting that his
acolytes were above suspicion.
But finally the king’s soldiers captured the shadowy stranger,
and his identity was revealed.
While Mo was the oldest of the three wizards, he was not the
eldest. There was a fourth brother, named To. Much older than his
brothers, To had been stripped of his riches and banished for
studying certain forbidden arts. It was from their brother that Na,
Ka and Mo had learned many of their spells, including the arts of
inscribing crystals and books, and the means of channelling their
powers through acolytes.
Except To had not taught them everything. He had kept many
secrets for himself and was able to corrupt the spells used to
inscribe the crystals and Books. He was able to change page numbers
to refer to other pages which he had inscribed with different
words. He had been selling his skills to unscrupulous merchants in
an attempt to grow rich once again.
Sickened of wizards and their complicated schemes, the King
banished them from his kingdom, never to return.
The King then turned to the task of once more building trust in
commerce across his land. He did this not by trusting in magics and
complex schemes, but by addressing the problems with which he was
originally faced. He decreed the founding of a guild, to create a
cadre of trusted, reliable scribes. He appointed new ombudsman and
magistrates across the land, to help oversee and administer all
forms of trade. He founded libraries and reading rooms to increase
literacy amongst his subjects, so that more of them could read and
write their own bills of trade. And he offered free use of the
courts to all, so that none were denied an opportunity to seek
justice.
Many years passed before the King and his kingdom worked through
their troubles. But in the history books, the King was forever
known as “The Rock Thane”.
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