Saksaha Mergen

Saksaha Mergen
Born	Φwιτé (FWEE-Tuh) (658-01-02)January 2, 658 Uςψδ (UU-so͝op), Chiefdom of Loon
Died	February 10, 723(723-02-10) (aged 65) Muksu, Kayanid Kingdom
Nationality	Downwinder, Valleysian
Other names	鵲射, Φwιτé Æcæcæ
Occupation	Poet, smuggler, soldier
Years active	672-723
Known for	Lady Dēnag's Managerie, The Silk Boat Disaster of 675
Notable work	The Ten Magpie Volumes, The Demon in Blue Silk (included in the volumes), Saksahasada, The Animals at Yaksa

Φwιτé Æcæcæ, more popularly known as Saksaha Mergen, was a Downwinder artist, musician, and entertainer who achieved most of his fame in the Kayanid Kingdom during the turn of the 8th century. His works were most known for their very direct, onomatopoeic poetic style and rugged, macho themes of crime, warfare, camaraderie, and thrift.

Active during a "Golden Age" of art and poetry, he amassed considerable fame and fortune learning from and collaborating with his fellow artists and poets in Northeast Narushia.

Life

Early Life

Saksaha Mergen was born in the Feather Valleys frontier of the Chiefdom of Loon in what is now United Valleys, in the village of Uςψδ (Goldlake) in 658. He was given the Valleysian name Φwιτé (Archer), and spent much of his early life on the move. His family belonged to the porter class, an important but servile occupation on the frontier of Loon. His family primarily assisted merchants arriving via the Whale's Road network along the coast.

During these early travels up jagged mountains and along twisting coastlines, Φwιτé became very interested in the stories told by fellow travelers, be they merchants, soldiers, rogues, or entertainers. The young boy enjoyed the adventurous hikes far more than his home in Uςψδ, which was experiencing hard times, including a spree of murders that counted his cousin and uncle as victims. At the age of 14, he began to participate in criminal smuggling operations, which resulted in his capture by Jusin privateers.

Military Career

After almost two years being held ransom by the privateer band known as the Sunbangyŏng (순방영/巡防营), Φwιτé was bought into military service by a corrupt officer of the Kayanid Kingdom (which controlled much of modern Buyo) and spent of year of service as a sapper in the Kayanid Army. His commander visited Lord Isagŭm of Hwando, and on recommendation of the lord's wife, he was recruited into the Hwarang, an elite royal bodyguard of all-male warrior poets. His predominantly negative experiences with the Hwarang had a profound affect on his poetic perspective, and his time in service was dominated by thoughts of escape. He found little familiarity with the large minority of other Valleysian Hwarang soldiers, who, unlike him, came from high-class backgrounds of Looner states-people and military officers.

The Kayanid Kingdom was in a period of expansion, and his studies of art and literature were frequently interrupted by musters to skirmishes and wars, especially with pirates along the coast. He found himself in the center of a crisis when Jusin lords and ladies began to hoard small but expensive leisure ships called Kyŏnbang (견방/絹舫), which then began to be stolen and sometimes destroyed by smugglers, fishers, pirate bands, and river brigands. The Hwarang were called upon to stop the thieves and return the stolen watercraft, resulting in two months of small but perpetual naval engagements around the coastal city of Maehol in late 675. The thieves were more organized than expected, and a thousand people died during the campaign.

The conflict led to him being embraced as a brother by his fellow Valleysians within the Hwarang, and they helped orchestrate his successful desertion from the order in 677. Two of his accomplices, Eнec (Falcon) and Gψςé (Goodson) were executed for their part in his escape, and the now outlaw began to publicly perform poetry about the two to keep their names alive. He would remain an outlaw for several years, although despite his paranoia, he was never actively pursued by the Hwarang or any Kayanid authorities.

The Waterfall Years and Later Life

Φwιτé left the Kayanid Kingdom in secrecy, eventually finding a small audience among influential poets and musicians on Swans Island (a tributary of Loon), impressing them with his knowledge and appreciation of spoken and lyrical poetry. He found multiple benefactors around the archipelago, and began to dream of and write about amassing wealth and power and forging a lasting legacy. He briefly rejoined his family in Uςψδ for a season in 680, before setting off again to go into business with his brothers Oяï (Longway), and Agxa (Lion), who had similarly lofty ambitions. They traveled to Swans Island and purchased a large ship called the Fat Shark (황사/黄鲨), and began assembling a crew. The brothers set sail to the North, eventually settling in the Kayanid city of Helzumun. Φwιτé took the name Mergen, Oяï took the name Goro, and Agxa took the name Arsalan.

The brothers sold their ship and took up occupations as bodyguards for local criminals, and began to accumulate a large amount of wealth via smuggling. Worried about the prospect of buying land and attracting authorities to investigate the fugitive Φwιτé, the brothers assembled a traveling carnival, mockingly named "Lady Dēnag's Managerie" (德纳格动物园) in reference to a cruel Sacami noblewoman who abused Φwιτé before his desertion. The carnival toured and performed in the primarily Tamun-speaking regions of the Kingdom (the language was preferred by Φwιτé), holding famously gaudy shows that would showcase and sometimes mock fashion trends popular in the Kayanid Kingdom and along the Usnean Coast. After five years of touring, Φwιτé adopted the members of the carnival into his family, forming the Æcæcæ (Magpie/鵲) Clan. Still fearful of a potential arrest for his desertion, in 687 Φwιτé and his new clan moved toward the city of Muksu, the cultural center and capital of the Kayanid Kingdom, seeking a pardon.

The city officials initially refused to allow the band of outlaw poets into the city, and Φwιτé, feeling defeated, camped outside the city awaiting arrest and execution. Many poets affiliated with the Great Academy of Muksu, knowledgeable of his work and reputation, appealed for his pardon to be granted, and the city offered one in exchange for his clan swearing fealty to the Kingdom and settling near Muksu. Φwιτé agreed, and became an official artist of the kingdom. Due to the popularity of the epic The Book of Kings, he was commissioned to compose a new epic in the style of his Downwind Valleysian people, and created The Ten Magpie Volumes (691), a massive, multi-language and multi-authored collection of poetry assembled from many coastal poems and stories along the Usnean Coast. His brothers left the city after the completion of the work, and continued to travel the country, now without the carnival. The two continued spreading and performing their personal poetry, and acquired sizable holdings in the Kayanid lands, eventually forming their own noble clans. Oяï's clan, the Goro-Goros/Goronids, held on to much of their land until the Yaksa Wars of the 10th century killed off the male line of the family. Agxa created his own clan by marrying into the officer class of the Kingdom, eventually rising to the rank of General. His Arsalanids are considered the source of the male line of the Qingjin clan, which came to national prominence several hundred years later, and his wife Pirani Apranik (later Arsalani) became a popular romantic figure in Valleysian fiction. Φwιτé himself stayed in Muksu and happily continued composing and performing poetry and music until his death in 723. He was survived by his three sons, all of whom became landless bureaucrats.

Legacy

Common themes in Φwιτé's poetry were city strife, the importance of friendship, prowess with the bow, tragic violence, and life at sea. Vivid imagery of Feather Valley and its harsh living were heavily inspired by his own experiences in Uςψδ, and his extensive references to contemporary cultural figures, fashions, and attitudes have been used to paint a surprisingly complete picture of Valleysian life in the Northeast Valleys at the time. The Ten Magpie Volumes, his multi-language magnum opus, was used as a cipher to learn and translate the many languages present in the area of modern Buyo. Φwιτé had a particular fondness for onomatopoeia, often creating his own glyphs and symbols to convey the sounds he desired to be read, many of which are still used as optional characters in the modern Tamun script (in his time, Φwιτé used the dominant Sacam script for works in Tamun). His clan name, Æcæcæ (Valleysian for "magpie"), was likely chosen to mimic the sounds of bows being released in a volley rather than commemorate the bird, although in his later works he often referred to himself directly as the flying black and white bird/tree god Dhacha (Ͻxaнa) of Valleysian mythology, or "Saksahasada" in Tamun. After settling in Muksu, he became close with the members of the contemporary "no brush" lower class movement of Buyonese painting and visual art. The style, which did involve brushes despite the name, used heavy contrasts and deep, layered pigments, a philosophy he incorporated into the dynamic visual elements of his performances.

In Popular Culture

A large amount of his works, including the entirety of his writings in Muksu, have survived to the present. As a result, much of his work and life are still adapted or referenced in modern entertainment media, such as the Buyonese animated series Kemun, or "The Margin" (1999-2001), and the Valleysian historical comedy series The Waterfall (2003-2006), which follows Φwιτé and his brothers during their travels in late 7th century Buyo. The series kick started the career of popular actor Tom Rowan Holly, who played Arsalan. Jeanne Freeman, now the Matriarch of United Valleys, appeared in two episodes as the Chieftess of Alog Island.

Notes

1.^ This claim made by Φwιτé that he was specifically recruited by the wife of a nobleman is likely false and braggadocio, as Jusin noblewomen at the time had no authority for such decisions.

2.^ The name used in Mandarin and Jusin for his ship is typically read as something like "Grand/Impressive Shark," however, Φwιτé refers to the ship multiple times as "小胖子" or "Little Fatty" in his Middle-Shun language play The Waterfall.