Chaos, chaos is what makes things difficult, troublesome; it sometimes may be never ending. It is a type of disorder which, most of the time, is hard to fix. It is what, sometimes, make people to kill each other, rule upon each other and hate each other when we all are supposed to be loving and happy together.
Once, a long time ago, Ethiopia was a peaceful country, where the citizens loved each other and care for each other. That’s until chaos broke. There was a power struggle in Gonder between groups of Wollo and Quara political faction. Wollo was represented by Wabi, the wife Joshua II and mother of Young Monarch Iyoas, while Quara was represented by Wabi’s mother in law, Empress Mentewab, who then controlled state power in the name of her grandson, Iyoas.
This rivalry took place following the death of Ras Beteweded Welde Leul. Empress Mentewab had given power base to the Wollo by arranging political marriage between her son Joshua II and Wabi from Wollo. Her intention was to secure their Military support in order to consolidate her own power in Gonderian state.
Also every Regional lord wanted power for themselves; they wanted the title Ras Beteweded that is the advisor of the Empress but unfortunately, the one with that power died which lead for more power hunger.
The Empress was weak; didn’t have power like she was supposed to. The Regional lords had more power than the Empress. Also, there was no Emperor nor Ras Beteweded, which made the central government weak and the Regional lords have more power that the Empress.
Rebel rose everywhere making her weaker and she had to do something, something that will make the Regional lords stay peacefully, and that option was to call Ras Michael Sehul of Tigray. He was the most powerful candidate at the time. He had both big army and modern firearms due to his access to forign trade through Red Sea. Like the Empress’s wish, he stabilized the country.
The Empress was very pleased, so she rewarded him the title ‘Ras Beteweded’, meaning that now he has the power that the Regional lords wanted for a long time. When King Iyoas ordered him to go back to Tigray, Michael felt strong and refused to obey the order of the King so he assassinated King Iyoas and this event marked the beginning of a new era in which powerful Regional Warlords undermined the power of Monarchy. This era is known as “The Era of Warlords”. It is known for its endless war.
Ras Betewded Michael became the ‘King maker’ soon after. However, he was soon opposed by the Regional Warlords Ras Zemede of Gojjam, Ras Yesuf of Wollo and Ras Teshome of Lasta organized a common alliance against him.
Wolde Samuel, son and successor of Ras Micheal tried to take him back to Tigray knowing that it was a bad idea but Ras Micheal refused his son’s offer and continued to be the King Maker. Wolde Samuel, on his way back to Tigray, a group of people stopped them. He was in his chariot letting his guards deal with them until he start to hear yelling and shouting.
Getting annoyed than he was because of his father, he tried to get out of his chariot and talk to them but one of his guard stopped him from getting out saying “They are dangerous and he should stay in the chariot. It will make things easier to protecting him”. Wolde Samuel did like he was told and stayed inside frustrated that he can’t do anything about anything. He felt useless.
He was so caught up with his thought that he didn’t realize the chariot was moving until it hit a tiny rock and stumble. He looked through the window and saw that no one was there; his guards were dead along with the people who stopped them except for one person from the other side and he was chasing his way.
He also didn’t notice that one of the chariot’s legs was ruined because of the little rock accident. Immediately, he started to move forward to reach the horse and separated the horse from the chariot. When he finally reached the horse, an arrow was thrown his way and he was shot on his shoulder but the other man was aiming for his heart. Wolde Samuel was lucky that he was shot on the shoulder. Quickly pulling the arrow out of his shoulder with a grunt from the pain, he urged the horse to go faster that it was going which it did.
The chasing continued for a while, arrows being thrown here and there and successfully Wolde Samuel avoided the all. ‘The horse is starting to get tired and I’m losing blood too much. I can’t stay long. I need to find a place to hide.’ He thought to himself and he started to look around also keeping the other man on check to not get shot and lose blood more and het caught.
Not so far away from where they are, he saw a village and some territorial walls. He immediately hide by one of them and got off of this horse and made the horse to sit down hoping that the horse won’t make voice and got down with his horse.
Behind the wall, he could hear the other man approaching to where they are. Holding his breath, he stayed where he was. Gladly, his horse didn’t make any kind of voice. He then waited the man to leave which he did thinking he went to the other way.
Blowing a relived breath, he tried to stand up and get out of here because the people will think he is a killer since he is an outsider for them but he couldn’t stand since he lost a lot blood. He looked everywhere feeling helpless and he could see people approaching to where he is at with an arrow and sword.
Before he could force himself to stand up and run for his life, his legs gave out and he fell. He was finding it hard to breathe and keep his eyes open. Finally, he gave up and let the darkness enveloped him.
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