Ether 10

Heth and all his family died in the famine—except Shez, who started rebuilding the ruins of his people. He had a good, archival memory, always useful for patterning the future. He wanted a return to the conduct and attitudes of former good times.

Unfortunately he had a namesake firstborn son who turned on his dad. Fortunately—and this made Dad smile—a thief took all of Shez Jr.’s money. Why the smile? Because Shez Jr. was so stuck up about his stuff.

Shez Sr. rebuilt the infrastructure well, brought in teams of architects and laborers to do the job right. The population exploded while he himself lived prodigiously long.

His son Riplakish—from a late, possibly unplanned pregnancy—succeeded Shez Sr. as king. His problems were marital—too many wives and even sex slaves—as well as economic—he overtaxed for his own, mostly self-aggrandizing building projects. (He also overdid his new throne, a gawdy, jewel-bespangled mess.) People who wouldn’t pay the new taxes got thrown in prisons, which he couldn’t build fast enough to hold the tax-evaders. Finally, as far as governing is concerned, he went overboard on the death penalty—though, to be fair, the Torah had applied capital punishment fairly promiscuously.

(One side benefit of the prisons, though, was all the free manufacturing of pricey goods he got from the tax-evaders he’d incarcerated.)

Forty-two years of his reign finally spaded up the anger of the masses. A populist coup erupted and he and his whole family were killed or exiled.

Many years later, a descendant of Riplakish named Morianton marshalled an army of outcasts and laid siege to city after to city, overpowering and occupying many of them. In time, despite some zig-zagging of fortunes, he assumed power as king of the whole territory.

He made a name for himself, though, not by his military prowess but by his generous tax policy and fair-dealing justice system. Still, despite public acclaim, the Lord was all over him like a bear because of his sex-addiction.

Under Morianton, municipalities thrived, median incomes rose, and bumper crops became the new norm of productivity. He lived not only long but well. Till his son Kim took over the throne for the last eight years of Morianton’s life. Morianton had his flaws, to be sure, but (they say) nothing like Kim’s. Sibling rivalry sparked family infighting. One brother enslaved Kim, who had more children, including a son named Levi, who grew up a slave but by the time he was forty-two had fought his way to his own bloody kingship.

Slavery had tamed him and he did well as king. He lived long and prospered. Even God liked him. When elderly, he anointed his son Corom as king—another good one, faithful and, as was customary in his family, prodigiously fertile.

The throne went next to his son Kish, then his grandson Kish. Both were godly men, though Lib, a noted hunter, had the distinction of somehow eradicating lethal snakes in beast-ridden forests that had been previously unhuntable. The market for wild game boosted the economy and, some said, the average waistline.

Lib did so well that a brief overview of lifestyle during his era seems apt:

Laborers built a huge city on an isthmus, the north of which was a population center, the south a huntable wilderness.

Markets were up, buying and selling without, in the main, fraud, cheating, or substandard products. Productivity levels outshot any that had been known, though formal statistics had not yet been instituted.

The dominant industries were mining, metallurgy, tool-making, and jewelry.

Secondary industries included textiles and the garment trade.

Farming was down the list, though it was high-tech. These were mostly meat-eaters. High protein, type-A characters who loved to kill to eat and fuel their blood with the blood of lesser mammals.

Thus was prophecy fulfilled: this was the happiest place on earth.

Among Lib’s many children was Hearthom, who succeeded him. His reign lasted twenty-four years, till yet another coup ended it. He died a slave in exile.

Generations after him lived as slaves. Son to father they were: Hearthom to Heth to Aaron to Amnigaddah to Coriantum to Com.

Com led a slave rebellion that overtook half the kingdom, which he personally ruled for forty-two years till he won a battle with the king of the remainder of the territory (Amgid) and took it over.

Com won that war but lost another one: the war against oath-bound gangs, which, while always seething underground, had again resurged.