Mendu

Mendu used to be a small city in Hongmark, until a great flood four hundred years ago rendered it a ghost town. The event, while tragic in itself, was one of great geopolitical significance and marked a huge change in the country’s history.   A major river’s path was diverted in the neighbouring country of Rupendu, which caused it to enter Hongmark in a different place, right next to Mendu. No warning was given by their neighbour and the landscape was unsuitable for a major river, which at its closest proximity flowed only a couple of feet away from the outskirting buildings.   The townspeople embarked on a project to widen the riverbed on the further side, to lessen the risk of flooding, but since the diverted river had claimed most of their farmland, their efforts were divided between the different problems needing addressing. Within days of starting the project, the whole region was hit with the worst storm on record. Torrential rain, both in the Mendu area and further upstream in Rupendu, caused the river to swell and the entire settlement was flooded.   The storm began upriver and worked its way south, so by the time the people of Mendu realised there was a storm coming, the town was already only hours away from disaster. The men set about creating barriers and digging trenches leading away from the town, but the scale of the flood was unpredictable. The need to evacuate was realised far too late for one to be successful. Those in their homes were trapped inside in the upper storeys; those outside were all washed away. By the time anybody from outside Mendu realised the problem, it was too late to send help.   At its height, the town was under two and a half storeys of water. Most of the outskirting buildings were completely under, their inhabitants drowned. Mendu had been a very wealthy town, with over half its buildings being three or four storeys, so the majority of the women and children died slower, trapped in their homes. The storm battered the area for eleven days straight, and by the time the water level had fallen almost to ground level, weeks had passed, and the entire town was dead. The men who had been working outside were buried under feet of mud miles and miles downstream from the settlement.   At the time of the flood, the town had been hosting the teenage Prince and Princess of Hongmark, whose bodies were found in the top floor of Mendu City Hall. The King of Hongmark, who had been locked in a major diplomatic dispute with the King of Rupendu, accused him of having the river diverted for the purpose of destroying Mendu, which aside from hosting King Korin’s children, had also been one of the kingdom’s major trade assets. King Rildu denied the accusation and his offence almost led to war between the two kingdoms. It probably would have done, if King Korin had not died only days later. He had no heir left to take over, and his next of kin was deemed unfit to rule.   On his deathbed, he signed his kingdom over to the Keizon Empire, Rupendu’s biggest enemy; Hongmark ceased to be an independent kingdom, instead becoming a territory of the Empire ruled by a Keizornan State Governor. After the tragic events, the people of Hongmark grieved their royal family and welcomed the Empire’s ‘saving’ their country from the inevitable instability which would otherwise have followed. To this day, the people of Hongmark are some of the most loyal in their hearts to the Empire, and hate Rupendu with a fiery passion, despite Rupendu’s long denial of intentionally causing the disaster.   The Prince and Princess’ bodies were retrieved from the wreckage and given proper death rites alongside their father, the last King of Hongmark. Given the leadership crisis gripping the country at the time, there were no resources to retrieve the others. The entire town became a mass tomb, and nobody went near it for decades; ghostly tales about the ruins swept through Hongmark and still persist today.   Most of the buildings still stand as shells; evidence of the water level is still very much evident on the stone. Over time, it became a site of archaeological interest, and the actual events of the flood were pieced together from the evidence. The victims’ skeletons, after keen forensic examination, are now laid to rest in a nearby mass grave.