Tiro the Proeliator Pt. 01

SECTION ONE

TIRO OF THE OPTIMATES

The Optimates Ordinatius were a gypsy-like elfin band that weren't welcome in the towns and other places where humans dwelled.

But that was OK.

They didn't care to associate with humans, either. It wasn't that they had any animosity toward the humans it was simply a matter of them finding the human race as a whole, too course and too often, rude and crass.

They had a permanent settlement in the Scottish highlands near the place of their origin, the Clay Pits of Consummo, but whenever evil surfaced and began to intimidate the existence of man, the Optimates loaded their small wagons and a caravan was off to locate and eradicate the source of the evil energy.

The humans thought the elfin people were too different to feel comfortable around.

Fear of the unknown had most humans feeling the elfin peoples were bent on some heinous activity or another. They approached the elves as if they were evil sorcerers or witch doctors rather than the meek ordered people they were.

You would think the elves were about to cast an evil spell from the way humans reacted to their presence. They even referred to them as spell-casters.

Yet no more harmless people had ever existed.

Harmless, at least, unless you were a servant of evil.

Their purpose was to thwart evil in ways the supreme powers were restrained from using. They fought these forces of evil 'in the trenches', serving both man and the Creator, or Conditor in their language, to prevent the evil deeds of those who served the Prince of Darkness.

They were limited in what they could do, for nothing was to interfere with the free-agency man had been created with. The Conditor had made this clear in the mandates the Optimates worked within.

Their battles could only involve the evil hoards and man must, never, ever be involved. That was the mandate they were required to operate under, or at least the interpretation of it provided by the ancient scholars of their order.

It was all contained in a set of ordinances, entitled the Scitus of Numen they had been given in the beginning when their order was established. As a result of these mandates and ordinances, life in the Optimates order was rather rigidly structured, with training directed toward teaching young elves how to make decisions quickly and with decisiveness. And how to temper decisions that turned out to be in error with supplemental actions to achieve the outcome the original decision had been intended to produce.

CHAPTER TWO

Profuturus Pronepus of the Optimates Ordinatius people felt a cold chill descend on his shoulders as he sat at his fire pit in the camp of his people. The chill and other feelings he was experiencing tonight were greater than any he had ever felt in all his years, and had nothing to do with the Scottish weather.

The sense of growing evil in this region had forced a council with the Causidicus and the Majores Natu, and the decision had been made to move closer to the source of the evil energy.

Now they were apparently only a few leagues away from the source. When the tribe had passed through the small dell the tribe's wagons now formed an encampment in, Profuturus had felt the close proximity. Yet the feelings he was getting tonight were so much stronger than any he had felt before.

Even as a young proeliator when he had fought the forces of evil up close and personal, he hadn't felt anything as intense. No other Optimate appeared to have his sense of the evil presence except for Tiro Prospera of Casus and Cuius. That lad seemed to have great skill at discerning the evil energy.

Yet, he was young and showed no restraint. His ability to weigh the circumstances and act according to the mandates of the Scitus had not yet been developed. Or so it would seem from the actions of the lad.

Profuturus was old and wise, well beyond the age the Optimates called sapientia. If accurate records had been kept his age would easily have been shown to be approaching his fifth century.

He was the Praesagium of the tribe, a kind of Holy Man, noted for his animadverto, or the ability to see things as yet unrevealed to the cognitive senses. A feeling the hmans word refer to as psychic ability.

He could feel the evil planning that was taking place in the dark places of the earth. He summoned the young men of the tribe to him, the group known as the proeliators.

"There is a move about to release the dark forces and create 'Tempus Temporis Seditio', the time of great chaos. You must scout the countryside and see what you can discover.

Remember the mandates of the elders and only observe. Do not interfere. Report back to me in a feowertyne niht, the results of the triburo."

The young men quickly dispersed and gathered their ornamentum and set off for their duties.

They didn't need to ask for an explanation or what their duties would and wouldn't allow them to do. The Scitus they operated under were a part of their culture and had been taught them since birth.

They knew they could not actively interfere with what man was doing or attempting to do. Even if that meant man was placing himself in danger. Even in times of immeneo perclitus serius or imminewnt dire danger, under the mandates of the Iuvensco Scitus they were restrained to allow man to endure his own undoing.

Casus Prospera knew these directions well. He had served the Optimates 'battle in the trenches' for two centuries. He didn't like being restrained in his duties, but he knew his actions and inactions were governed by a code as old as time itself. His dedication and skill had seen him rise to third in the ascendancy of the Proeliators.

He was also a gifted orator, prized when someone needed an advocate for a cause or tribunal. He could break an argument or discussion down to succinct salient points making it easy for even the simplest mind to get around and assimilate to conclusion.

CHAPTER THREE

Tiro the son of Casus would accompany him on this triburo. Casus was proud of his son and knew he would be a great proeliator of the Optimates once he matured. He could even be the Praesagium or the Causidicus, if he learned the Scitus and devoted himself to the calx of the Ordinatius.

Casus uxor was of the Regius Legio so Tiro was eligible to be Praesagium or even Causidicus, or if he chose to remain single or his chosen uxor were to die, a member of the Majores Natu.

Like any father, Casus wanted great things for his progagus. He helped the lad put together his first ornamentum. Once assembled these packs were maintained at the ready so the proeliator could immediately go to their task as directed by the Praesagium or the Causidicus, only needing to replenish the food, alo and cuppedia, in the packs.

Tiro was excited. He had completed the studies required of a young man before he could go on the triburo, but had not been allowed to accompany his father until now. Only allowed to perform as a cautor, a necessary stepping-stone for all young men. Participating in his first triburo meant Tiro now would start the final course of instruction to become a proeliator.

Tiro longed to be a great proeliator.

The cautor weren't allowed to leave the encampment, and were a guard force of sorts. They gained no special privilege in the tribe. In fact, they weren't allowed to marry out of the cautor caste unless a proeliator uxor was viduata. Then it was a great honor to marry and perhaps elevate ones position in the Ordinatius.

His wife's exalted position, as a widow of a deceased proeliator, or vidyata in their language, could elevate the man from cautor, to posthabeo and perhaps proeliator if he had the requisite instruction and demonstrated the necessary skills. If he remained a cautor and took an uxor from the class of cautor children, his children could only rise to cautor.

Otherwise they could only marry the progagus of other cautor. This usually meant Cautor didn’t marry, as by design, the Optimates tended toward a heavy percentage of male children.

Warriors were what the Conditor needed when he created the Optimates and so he had designed their bodies to produce more male than female offspring. The ratio was roughly 2 to 1. This meant half the cautors would likely never marry unless they caught the fancy of an uxor who was viduata. Actually the number was higher than half, because proeliators were allowed to marry outside their caste and could select Cautor children for the liberalis courtship that led to cubile or marriage. This left slim pickings for those confined to the ranks of cautor.

Cautor class Optimates were in short supply, so all Proeliators went through a period, as young men, of Cautor. Besides there were skills they could gain while serving as Cautor, which would aid in their instruction when they became posthabeo, a position of Proeliator-in-training.

CHAPTER FOUR

No woman held a higher position in the tribe than uxor whose husband had died in battle and who had become a widow or viduata. Even the proeliator, who decided who they would marry, were not held in as high regard.

Throughout the society of the Optimates, a couple, with the proeliator skills of the man combined with the effeminatus of his uxor, was considered a formidable team and well rounded in any of the challenges life might present.

The uxor provided the grounding necessary for the proeliators aggressiveness and intellect.

The women weren't considered mindless anchors either. The effeminatus, which was so prized by their society, after all was an intellectual part of a woman's persona. So the intellectualism of the effeminatus was a key ingredient to the rounding a couple displayed.

In reality this put a lot of pressure on the uxors, for if their maritus did something unsavory in tribal opinion, the uxor usually ‘took a lot of the heat' with society feeling she had failed in some way to motivate the man. A smart uxor did what she could to assume a rather integral part in a newly created cubile relationship, for young men were known for letting their bravado get in the way of common sense.

This was a good thing in some ways, for it created a deep bond between an uxor and her maritus if successful. With dissolution of the cubile all but impossible in Optimate society, creating a comfortable strong bond with one's marital partner became essential to long-term happiness in life.

CHAPTER FIVE

Tiro was ready to advance to proeliator.

He had stumbled a bit as a cautor and had been held back briefly. The Majores Natu had decided, Tiro was a good potential proeliator, in their last council, and the Causidicus really had no option other than to release the restrictions to advancement he had imposed on the boy. The Praesagium acting as his Altor at the appeal council before the Majores Natu had been all the weight the Natu had needed to override the judgment of the Causidicus.

Then Tiro had continued to serve as a cautor awaiting the next triburo.

Now it was here and once he had gone on this first triburo, he no longer had to serve as a cautor and would spend his days in training learning the wily ways of the proeliator. He could also start to consider a wife. He wouldn't be allowed to marry until the next aula, and then only if he went through monstro and won his medius of the legio proeliatorum, that designated him a worthy warrior of the tribe, a full-fledged proeliator with all the rights and privileges accorded that title, and an adult male.

Yet, he would be allowed to visit his sweetheart in a courting like ritual, called liberalis. This established his priority with the young woman he selected, while he awaited his monstro.

Tiro just knew, he would do well in his training, and this triburo would seal his fate to gain the award at the next aula. He had been on pens and needles that the puella he desired would still be available with a fresh crop of proeliators achieving monstro and gaining their medius of the legio at the last aula. She had been passed by all though and Tiro still had a chance to make her his uxor.

Tiro knew from his animadverto he would get through the setback as a cautor ok, and be allowed to become a proeliator, but he couldn't see through his animadverto if he would get to live in cubile with his beloved puella. The subject was too close and emotional to be seen clearly.

Her name was Vegrandus and she was by far the most attractive puella in the tribe, at least to Tiro anyway. It would have broken both their hearts if one of the newer proeliator that had gone through monstro had chosen her. It would have been difficult for her to turn down the gesture without loosing position in the tribe.

She was a diminutive girl, small and petite even by Optimate norms. Her hair hung in shimmering waves about her face and shoulders and Tiro just loved to see it fly in the wind as they played together as progagus.

The burden of the mistake he had made as a cautor weighed heavy on Tiro's mind, for if Vegrandus was chosen by another to become their uxor, Tiro couldn't even make Vegrandus his uxor if she became a viduata.

It was considered a disgrace for a proeliator to marry the uxor of another proeliator after his death.

In Optimates society, that was considered de facto evidence you had coveted, concupisco, another's uxor, a grave sin in the complex society of the Optimates.

Besides the proeliator didn't have the choice in this matter, the choice went to the viduata. She too couldn't allow the disgrace of choosing a proeliator, for that was considered de facto evidence she had not been devoted to her maritus, again concupisco, and another grave sin in the Optimates culture. It even got more complicated than that.

If a bachelor proeliator were selected by a viduata, and accepted he would be disgraced further because the bachelor proeliators were apparently awaiting their sapientia and were hopeful of appointment to the Majores Natu. To accept the favor of a viduata would show a vacillation or wavering of purpose and that was never condoned in their society.

Tiro had little fear the older unmarried proeliator would suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to marry, though that was a possibility.

Usually when a young man went through monstro and received his medius of the legio, he immediately took an uxor. For to delay meant it could potentially be years before you could again gain prominence in the tribe. If you were an unmarried proeliator and attained the age of sapientia, you again gained a position that made you eligible to petition to become one of the Majores Natu.

The problems were two-fold though. First attainment of sapientia, or when one attained the age wisdom, was subjective, and second, there had to be vacancies arise in the Majores Natu. The second issue wasn’t a major concern, as there was no set size on the Majores council.

To remain unmarried more than a few months after your monstro meant you aspired to the Natu and if you married later it was at great loss of prestige, as it appeared you accepted you could never be a Majore, or worse yet you were unable to make a decision. The Majores Natu, though not a governing body, were a council of the old wise men of the tribe, the elders, whose wisdom was always sought on the weightier matters of significance to the Optimates, for they, along with the Praesagium, were considered the experts on the subject of the Scitus of Numen.

Though there were older bachelor proeliators who chose to defer taking an uxor, opting instead to study the craft of proeliator further before committing to a cubile.

Though not as desirable a pursuit as taking an uxor at monstro, it was an acceptable course in Optimate society. If this was what you decided to do you declared your status as philologus. Then after you completed whatever course of study you desired, you could take an uxor without loosing face in the tribe. Fortunately for Tiro and Vegrandus, there were no philologus-declared proeliators, at present.

CHAPTER SIX

The Causidicus, who was the overall leader of the tribe, always sought the Natu’s council and concurrence. To do otherwise could result in postulo and removal from the position of leadership in the tribe. The Optimates though stressing quick decisive decisions and positions on matters, when it came to tribal safety, embraced the idea 'two heads were better than one'.

Once thoroughly explored, then a decision could and should be made, decisively.

The decision was then the sole prerogative of the Causidicus. However, if the decision turned out to be the wrong one, the fact he sought the council of the elders before proceeding, granted him de facto immunity from postulo, with concession granted for his having the wisdom to explore alternative points of view.

It didn’t preclude postulo, but helped to fend it off.

This was almost a contradiction to the ideals they sought for individual endeavors and decisions in life, but it was considered the best course of action for the overall well being of the tribe.

In the long and fabled history of the Optimates, it had proven an effective means for balancing the power structures that existed within the tribe.

There was only one leader and he had absolute power in all matters relating to tribal security, movement, and day-to-day matters. He in actual function was more like a magistrate than a chief, yet he was under a restraint of obligation to seek the wisdom of the elders, though not obligated to follow their direction. He must be married and as with most positions in their society, had to be from the ranks of the proeliators. Usually, he was appointed from the top of the order of ascension of the proeliators.

This included the ruling body of the Proeliators, their concilium, and the top five men on the list of ascension.

In all the time of their existence, the line of Causidicus leaders had been great and worthy Optimates, though as is true in all of life, some were better leaders than others.

This methodology of approach to weighty matters was effective, for no greater disgrace could exist than to rise to greatness as the Causidicus or other position and then face postulo for a decision gone wrong.

The rigidity in which life existed in the Optimates Ordinatius had purpose. It was designed to teach you to make decisions quickly and commit to a course of action and stick to it. These were attributes that were considered important to the Optimates. As an order of divinely directed elves, their powers of reason and deduction were extraordinary, and it showed weakness of mind and purpose in life if you vacillated from one

decision to another tact or course of action. The Postpono Scitus spoke directly to 'making worthy decisions quickly', then following a course of action to see the result of the decision manifested in the best possible way. This Scitus appeared to indicate your first choice of actions was usually the best and need only be tempered with supplemental actions if the first choice started to go awry.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Trio felt certain he was destined for greatness, and once the triburo was behind him he could start to make progress in that regard. As he and Casus prepared his ornamentum, he spoke of his excitement to his father

"Sator is life in the extrinsecus, as bold and exciting as the fabulo say." Tiro was bursting with his enthusiasm. Not only was this his first Triburo and the start of the journey that would take him to manhood, officially, and allow him the have his beloved Vegrandus as his uxor, it was also the first time he was allowed to talk of the things beyond the small Optimates encampment other than in fables and stories. Only Proeliators were allowed to discuss among themselves the things they witnessed beyond the camp.

The only exception to this rule was a proeliator could discuss, and in fact was encouraged to discuss, anything and everything with his uxor.