Taznikanze sagas

Sagas were epic-length poems that comprised the oral history of the Taznikanze (and therefore Tasnican) people. As many have been lost by the time of Proper the exact number is not known, but believed to be over a hundred if one excludes short works. (A dirty limerick about the founding of Taznikaport, only a few lines long, does not qualify as a "saga").

Most Taznikanze would be familiar with the general gist of most of the better-known sagas. A skald would be expected to know important sagas word for word, as well as more obscure sagas, and many skalds also tried their hand at writing their own. Since none of the sagas were written down before the founding of the Republic, wide variation and improvisation was common.

Historians and anthropologists focus on the value of the sagas in transmitting the history of the Taznikanze people, but to the Taznikanze themselves, they were an important mode of entertainment. It was also something to aspire to; many Taznikanze dreamed someday of being the start in their own saga.

Some Notable Taznikanze Sagas

• Mythic
  • Hammer of Sebedor, the story of the forging of the Hammer (with extensive descriptions of the Reklar
  • Strigard gets a saga. Despite the story's cautionary overtones, it's essentially a comedy.
  • King of the Ojean tells the story of a revolt of Zahd's powerful servants.
• Cities
  • Taznikaport had a saga about its founding, but the limerick was much more popular
  • Harschkust had a fairly popular saga, documenting first contact with the todos
  • Centwerp Saga was extremely contraversial, as both Taznikanze and Ingrish claim to have actually founded Centwerp
• Valkyries
  • Saga of Roxanne was believed lost, until recent work by Professor Zodsdottir at the University of Albrook restored it. (Wow, a story about a Valkyrie restored by a professor whose last name was Taznikanze for "Daughter of Zahd". What're the odds?)
  • Isgird One-Hand was a Valkyrie who challenged Zahd for the title of God of War; it ended badly for her.
  • Ariela's Adventures are perhaps the earliest known work of pornography.
• Warlords
  • The Taznikanze Creation Cycle is believed to be entirely mythic, although it contains certain events that have been verified. (The fate of the Guften and their empire, for example.)
  • Kedir the Black, the story of the Taznikanze warlord whose Totensoldaten ("Death Soldiers") defeated all other armies existing in the Web
  • Hauscarl the Lionheart, another warlord, who conquered significant territory and declared himself "Master of All". Although earlier references to the "commandment of our ancestors to unite all in creation" exist, as a myth it takes center stage, here.
  • Harsdrubal the Hammer, yet another warlord, has his own saga (of course!) though somewhat more elegiac in tone (because he eventually loses to Daval Habar.)
  • Belgememnon the Unforgettable is arguably included in this category; it is often regarded as the last true Taznikanze saga, though certainly numerous later compositions would follow the form.