Era 23, the Vanadium, was the
longest by far of all the eras of Ooranye's history: it lasted
55,391,027 days, or 2,256.7 Uranian years, the equivalent of 189,565
Earth years.
Syoom itself was the arena almost
entirely; there were few expeditions into Fyaym, and indeed, often Fyaym
was forgotten, as though sfy-50 were the edge of the world. The
four hundred million square miles of Syoom amply sufficed for the
adventurous urges of most of the people, who had been reduced in numbers
by the Great Winter and were kept from increase by the waste of war and
other conflict in this least intellectual and most swashbuckling of all
eras.
Indeed there was little need for
the challenge of Fyaym, when Syoom seemed bigger, more chaotic and
perilous than ever. More of it became forest;
velng multiplied their huge mounds in the plains,
sometimes holding humans captive for generations inside these artificial
mountains. Abatis, planted for the protection of towns against
various perils of the plains, themselves grew into dangerous ecosystems
or rogue states. Reformers and heroes puctuated the
mediocrity of hereditary monarchies. The powers of Fyaym, looking
on, discovered no threat to themselves, and perhaps encouraged the
longevity of era 23.
It was a golden age for the strong
and the adventurous, the cheerful risk-taker and the soldier of
fortune. A Terrestrial teenager who has thrilled to the tales of
Barsoom, would naturally love to read about the Vanadium Era more than
about any other of the eras of Ooranye. Yet it should not be dismissed as
a mere adventure playground, for it was so vast in
duration that almost everything set down in these paragraphs was contradicted at
some point or other - thus occasionally rewarding the student of more subtle aspects of
history.
Politics
and society
During the
early days of this era, Nalre Zitpoidl was still alive, an old man now,
wandering from city to city. Was he still Sunnoad? Or had
one of the deposition ceremonies, which had been enacted during the
Great Winter, been legal? If he had been deposed, this was one of
only a handful of such
cases in Uranian
history.
Zitpoidl wrote his memoirs and left
them to be rediscovered and published many eras later. He alone
had noted that the tajarens had returned to Syoom, had looked the land
over and had seen that there was no longer anything in its civilization
for them to gain a purchase on - Man was now too simple to allow them to
strike a deal with his racial unconscious; Man had ducked below
such blows.... This could be seen as Zitpoidl's vindication,
though few knew of it at the time.
The
uncertainty surrounding Zitpoidl's status reflected upon
the subsequent history of the sunnoadex in Era 23: the institution continued,
but frequently passed many lifetimes in a state of reduced
effectiveness, almost of abeyance. The Noad of a powerful city
such as Vyanth or Ao or Pjourth might possess more influence than the
person who wore the golden cloak of Skyyon.
As has been noted, city-minds were
reduced in awareness during the Great Winter. Their somnolence
continued into Era 23. One of the effects this had on human
society was that people had to undertake many of the tasks which
formerly the city-minds had willingly performed under the guidance of
the "coaxer" professions: engineering and maintenance works; manufacture
of tools, weapons, vehicles. A new labour-intensive culture
developed. This gradually led to more class distinction,
originating with the contrast between skilled and unskilled labour, and
becoming intensified with the development of extremes of wealth and
poverty - though no one ever became destitute in a Uranian city.
Aristocracies of birth arose; after a while even hereditary monarchies -
anathema to most ages of Uranian history - evolved in many cities.
Dynastic selfishness led to the evil of war between cities. The
final consequence of all this, as will be seen, was the
downfall of the era's culture, originating in the creeping onset of
the institution of slavery.