The Ring Culture of Nanah’d

Proof is a strange concept. Evidence can be lost. The senses can be deceiving and unreliable, even among groups of dissimilar individuals, each witnessing the same event. Ultimately, proof is individualistic. It requires nothing of the individual who experiences it, and provides nothing in return.

Aside from hypothetical conjecture, every human has experienced an intimate knowledge of something that is very real for them, that they in turn are being challenged to explain to others, to convince them or convert them, of that something’s reality. Why is this important? Because I intend to relay my own personal experience- something very real for me, because it occurred to me. It happened at me. But, I will begin at the beginning, before I entered the picture.

There once was a key that opened a box. This key and this box may still currently exist, but if so, they are lost so far as tangible proof is concerned. I am of the opinion that they must at least have existed at one point in time, because of the story and it’s relation to my experience. The story involves a ring. I saw the ring, therefore, I believe in the ring. Subsequently, I also now believe in the story of the ring.

The story of the ring is, in my mind, more comparable to the Greek myths than the fables of the Brothers Grimm, in that there is only one variation of the story that remains. There is also a certain honesty derived from the tale’s simplicity, although to be fair, much can be said about the veracity of any story with an abundance of detail, the minutiae locking itself more firmly in the land of reality than in the simplistic dimension of fairy tales. But that debate is for another time and irrelevant here.

The story is very short and goes exactly this way:

“There once was a key that opened a box. Inside the box, there was a ring. The ring was no ordinary ring.”

That is the entirety. The story itself is beautiful in that it follows no successful structure. It has no beginning, no middle, and no end. No protagonist, no climax, no struggle. One may make the argument that it is entirely symbolic or metaphorical in nature, and yet having nothing in the story for juxtaposition, and no insight into historical context, this is a rather weak argument. Upon analyzing for a deeper meaning than mere structure, one discovers that the mystery of the story lies not in the existence or nonexistence of the box or ring, but in what makes the ring “no ordinary ring”. It is my firm opinion that, despite what scholars may posit, this vague mystery is the true reason the story has been passed through the generations, and not the beautiful simplicity of the story’s structure. It feeds the imagination with it’s lack of detail. It truly is a story in which anything is possible.

Hypothetical debates aside, there are also tales of those who have experienced the ring’s physical presence and tangible effects. However, there has been no conclusive, public proof so as to belie the true characteristics or powers of the ring. I am among the quantum of living men who have experienced the effects of the ring firsthand, but I must say, I am more concerned with, indeed fascinated by, the cultural history that once surrounded the ring than I am the actual ring itself.

The ring grants its wearer immortality. That fact is typically where most contemporary men who discover the ring cease their investigation. But I must contend that, being a wonderful distraction, this power (and the means of its function) is not nearly as intriguing to me as the effects of this power, and the resulting properties of everlasting life as the center-point of the culture of Nanah’d.

Having access to everlasting life, I have been able to gather, if I may say so, an impressive amount of data over the years. But even with my extensive knowledge, and the combined efforts of my colleagues, it was never ascertained as to whether Nanah’d is the actual “birthplace” of the ring itself, or merely the one place in history the ring and its power birthed an entire culture; spawning traditions, rituals, and other such common cultural phenomena from such an uncommon source.

This dearth of knowledge is due mostly to the inception of Nanah’d's record-keeping roughly two hundred and forty-three years after the discovery of the ring, which was simply referred to as the “Ring of Nanah’d”. No other proper name appears to ever have been bestowed upon the ring. Since the town’s destruction, it has come to be known even more simply as “the ring” or “the ring of the story”. The details of Nanah’d's destruction are also unclear, mostly due to the lack of record keeping that tends to occur when one’s civilization is wiped from the face of the earth. It appears through most second-hand accounts to have been a rather quick natural disaster of some kind; a flood, volcanic eruption, earthquake, or the like. Aside from these two rather important gaps, the historians of Nanah’d kept very detailed books of the several hundred years the ring was the heart of Nanah’d's culture, many of which, I’ve been fortunate enough to uncover.

The ring, being but a fantastic article of jewelry, was limited in its applications. It follows then, that Nanah’d was ruled as a monarchy. Again, whether this was the culture in Nanah’d before the ring’s introduction, or after the ring offered no conceivable alternative, is of course, both speculation and irrelevant. In one of the early books, specifically Nanah’d Ahu Guanta (roughly translated as “Nanah’d, The Birth”), historians record only in that there was much bloodshed in the first struggle to obtain the ring’s power. However, it is noted that this violence finally subsided, as no harm could come to the ring’s wearer. Fighting for the ring, then, was ultimately of no use. Knowing this, what I find remarkable is that this ring which granted immortality still passed from one owner to the next, and with it, the leadership of Nanah’d. I first conjectured that the ring might perhaps have (in some instances) been removed peacefully, but without the owner’s consent; say, during sleep. After all, a single ring cannot change size and shape to fit each owner’s hand accordingly, so by simple mathematical probability, the ring must have fit a bit too loosely on at least a few of the rulers of Nanah’d, making the ring fairly easy to remove. The next work I found however, put this notion to rest. Bruc Nanah’d Mehai Jedorn (roughly translated as “Nanah’d, Big Day Stories”), specifically recounts how the ring was willingly passed each and every time from the old ruler to the new ruler. A tradition,which would only become reinforced and engendered as time marched on. This tradition is spectacular for two specific reasons; one: the reigns of leadership fluctuate wildly in their durations; and two: this tradition was the single most important aspect in shaping the culture of Nanah’d .

No tradition was ever put in place for a minimum or maximum length of a particular monarchy. This again points to the purity of the system and lends itself to a few interesting cases. The first I can recall is a husband and wife who ruled simultaneously (informally, of course), by trading the ring between each other and thus playing to their differing strengths as natural leaders for any given situation. This union was the only time in Nanah’d's recorded history an informal partnership was observed, and though it was seemingly successful, its rarity in success should be remembered as mirrored in the infancy of the United States of America, when it was highly likely for the president and the vice-president to come from different political parties.

There are also a few cases of the frailty of humanity as the cause for transferral. One of the rulers gave the ring to his mother in desperation, after learned she had passed away suddenly a few hours before. Controversial as this decision was, it was allowed by the society of Nanah’d. The mother reportedly “ruled” from her bed for less than a week’s time before leadership was transferred back to the son through somewhat ambiguous means. There is also the case of a man who teased the promise of a few hours with the ring to whomsoever would bed him. This famously ended when one of the women, Mi’rst Klobs’b, refused to give the ring back, instead going on to become one of the most wise and successful rulers of Nanah’d's entire history.

That the records show the ring was passed as often to successors unrelated by blood as to family, is the key to the most important aspect of the unique culture of Nanah’d. This fact is but a symptom of the much larger and more remarkable feature: unadulterated positive incentive and reinforcement. This pure incentive to become a model citizen in order that one might obtain the positive tangible reward of the ring, is in stark contrast to all other civilization’s intangible religious negative reinforcement of hades/hell/etc as the underlying motivation for good behaviour and social pacification.

Another detail of note, regarding the purity of the system, is that age was of no consequence. Even the very eldest and physically feeblest were on occasion given the chance to rule, the ring rendering their proximity to death inconsequential. Younger citizens were more rarely offered the opportunity, but there is one account of a ruler passing his throne to an eight-year old child for the child’s “lack of corruption” and “ineffable curiosity”. This is not the first time in history a child has ruled. The Dalai Llama and Tutankhamen both come readily to mind as examples, although their success as leaders is still openly debated. By contrast, the ruler-ship of this child, Brug A’ly’aff by name, was unanimously recorded among the books as a very prosperous and artistically inventive period of time for Nanah’d. It is also of note that Brug A’ly’aff held one of the longest periods of leadership before giving up the throne to live modestly on the outskirts of the town so “his body could finally catch up with the maturity his mind had reached over a century before.”

From birth to death, anyone was eligible to rule over Nanah’d, provided they showed great enough potential to the current leader. The power of such an idea put into practice! Every citizen modeling themselves to the society’s communal ideal of perfection. I feel it prudent to point out that it is surely one thing to debate the pros/cons and appeal of immortality hypothetically, but it is quite another to avoid such a desire once it is an actual opportunity within your very grasp. And to exacerbate that desire, the means to obtain everlasting life are as simple as being an ethical and moral person? Well then!

That is not to say that there weren’t dissenters, as there always are, who considered the rulership an arbitrary and imperfect lottery, dependent on one person’s personal opinion and range of knowledge. Much of this can perhaps be attributed to the inherent paranoia that some accounts state as nearly unbearable. The king of Nanah’d, in order to collect opinions and information in an unbiased manner as possible, employed a rather large network of informants (reportedly numbering well into the thousands). This number was constantly growing; all on a volunteer basis, as the act of volunteering to report good deeds was seen in and of itself, a good deed.

At this point, I must settle a matter of personal contention- over the years, I have been party to numerous discussions as to the definition of “pure incentive” for to a tangible reward or what’s been called “being good for goodness’s sake.” These discussions, if handled correctly, are very quickly thrown out as it can be demonstrated soundly and empirically that no one in his/her right mind will choose an intangible reward over a tangible reward if they are exactly comparable. Indeed, this is arguably the reason the ring supplanted any form of religion whatsoever in Nanah’. The greatest intangible incentive religion had/has to offer, everlasting life, was at this point in history a tangible opportunity available to every citizen, provided they followed their naturally-inherent morality.

I’m sure that relaying my findings and thoughts to you will in no way provide the verisimilitude of experiencing the ring itself, but perhaps I have increased your understanding or sparked in you a small curiosity to do so; and curiosity is the first step on the path to empirical, individualistic truth.