Mother of Obukpa

1211 CE, Nsukka Region, Igboland, Nigeria

A young woman was trudging up a hill, carrying all that she owned on her back. She was a hardy woman, her years working on a farm for most of her life. Now she was leading a caravan of discontents from the Nri Kingdom. Men, women, and children were looking hungrily at the cattle pulling the heavy goods. One of the scouts she had sent ahead was running back to her. She was both hopeful and tense for the news her scout would bring. Some of her fears were allayed as her scout bore no wounds.

"Madame Kwome", he panted as he bent down respectfully to her, his Igbo dialect reflecting that he was from a very different region of Igboland than she and the caravan was, " The Ibibio settlement does not lie far and they have granted permission for us to settle below the mountains."

"How good is the land?"

"No rivers my lady, the people in the Ibibio lands however said that wells could be built easily, and there are some already established long ago. But it would make great farmland."

"How large of a territory are the Ibibio granting us?"

As she asked her question, several popular members of the caravan had reached her side. They were all men, young but strong and had all been hunters before their exile. Now they had been selected for the title of Onyishi, a village head, that would become cemented upon securing a home for their portion of the caravan. These four men's' faces would be forgotten to time, but their names would not. Their names were Obpuje, Eha, Nsukka, and Asadu. Like Nimu Kwome, who also went by the name of Obukpa, they had all been exiled by the Eze of the Nri Kingdom, Eze Nri Buife. All five of them had spoken out against Buife for trying to renege on the deal he made with the gods about sharing the bounty of his kingdom with the surrounding neighbors. Hundreds of people decided to follow them, also dissatisfied with Buife's rule. Now they found themselves in a land bereft of their fellow Igbos and filled with the regional Ibibio people. There was were two cities in the Ibibio lands that they could thankfully trade with, the ancient cities of Obong Okon Ita and Ibom.

The issue currently was that their scout was the only one among the caravan that spoke any of the Ibibio language variants, that irked her and would eventually give him a lot of trading power. She personally resolved to learn all the regional languages once she had settled. She turned to the four men at her side.

"Well that is our first good news of the day, I'm sure that you all want to settle your people, but since this is a new land for us, I advise that we get Ani's blessing to make sure the land is bountiful, Anikwe (if Ani permits)."

The men responded in chorus with them also saying Anikwe. They had to get the blessing of the earth goddess. Entering a new land also meant dealing with the local spirits and minor deities who could possibly be hostile to new communities suddenly popping up in their territories.

It took a few hours but they had managed to cobble together a makeshift shrine and they had their dibias stand at the ready. Though they only needed one dibia for this task, it was not unheard of for other deities to join in on the conversation. They presented the dibias with strong hens, whose necks were swiftly snapped and placed at the shrine as an offering.

Within minutes the ground began to shake and the dibias all jerked up, their eyes glowing gold and their skin being engulfed in bright light. Nimu and the others shielded their eyes, and once the blinding light finally receded, they were able to gaze upon the visage of three large ethereal figures emanating from the stiff dibias. At the center was Ani, known to most Igbos as Ala, the earth goddess. To her left was Ekwensu, holding a bag of cowrie shells, and to her right was a young goddess that had begun to grow in popularity and power, Ahia Njoku-the new goddess of yams and of the harvest. Recently she had taken on the domain of cooking fire and the hearth, making her a popular goddess in southern Igboland, but her popularity was not recognized amongst other tribes.

The entire caravan bowed before the trio of deities. Ala smiled warmly at them while the other two patiently waited on her.

"My children, I am so glad that you all made it to this new land. Do you seek my blessing to grant it plenty and safety?"

Nimu raised her head up, "Yes mother Ani, we have petitioned the Ibibios and they have allowed peaceful settlement, now we humbly ask you to let us live here. We promise to respect the land."

Ala walked towards Nimu and gently patted her down on the head.

"You have my blessing for the richness of the land itself, but I no longer bless harvests anymore in this land. That domain now belongs to Ahia who is more than happy to help."

Nimu and the others turned towards Ahia who gave a shy wave while holding yam seeds in her arms. She gave a polite bow to the heads of the caravans and gave them each a bag of yam and cocoyam seeds. Nimu made a mental note to build a shrine to the goddess once they were settled.

Ala made a wave of her hands and hundreds of freshly cut logs, bundles of thatch and blankets appeared in the hands of the entire caravan, eliciting awe and shouts of praise and thanks to the earth goddess.

"That should prevent any possible issues with either Ahobinagu or Leopard for now. Make sure to appease Ahobinagu when you cut down the trees. Leopard will be your hardest challenge for a while, he is not very fond of humans that don't serve him." Ekwensu interjected.

Ekwensu now walked towards the caravans, his expression hidden by the mask he wore, he was tapping his cane to the ground in thought. He then turned to Nimu, looking at her directly.

"Does your camp have any medical supplies with you because I noticed none of your dibias are of the healing arts."

"No my lord, we don't," Nimu said with a hardness in her voice

"Ekwensu don't be so hard on the mortals, their healing dibia just entered my stomach not too long ago." Ala chastised, making Ekwensu back off slightly

"Ok, but that means they have to buy them. The Ibibios or the other tribes in the area might charge them extra. They are a caravan, they don't exactly have a major resource to trade the other areas." Ekwensu argued, "Even if I give them this money the price could be artificially hiked and they wouldn't do anything about it."

Nimu then spoke up, "My lord, I am a warrior and I can offer mercenary services to the locals in exchange for medicine," she said, brandishing a sword at her hip.

Ekwensu stared at her, "You are aware that Ikenga and I forbade Igbo women from warfare for a reason. Yet you openly show your sword to me."

"I wouldn't if the situation wasn't dire my lord. I do this for the caravan and for those that follow me." Nimu was shaking, she was up against a god known for war and she was making a huge gamble.

Ekwensu formed a one-handed sword out of thin air and aimed it at her.

"Since you had the thought of mind to do this. I'll make a wager, last one minute against me or even get one hit in and I will personally negotiate trade on your behalf. If you fail, abandon your blade forever and submit yourself to Amadioha for breaking such a rule."

Nimu looked at the other caravan leaders who nodded, personally she would have liked if one of them would join in, but they weren't warriors, they were nobles who usually ordered others to fight for them.

Ala cleared the arena for them, large rocks raising them high above the ground, allowing others to watch as Ekwensu placed large shackles on his arms and legs to give himself a large handicap to make the fight fair. Nimu could at least appreciate that, though the war God was still twice her height and she was about 5 ft 8. But she didn't have to directly beat him, she just had to last.

A burst of flame spewed forth from Ahia's hand, acting as a signal for the duel to begin.

Ekwensu made the first move, moving at a speed Nimu, even as a practiced fighter, had a hard time following. She only barely deflected the blow with her sword, feeling herself already being pushed closed off of the edge. She stepped back and made two sidesteps to her left, knowing she couldn't meet the momentum. So just blocking blows was not going to work, so maybe a few feints and offenses would work. She thrust her sword towards his stomach, not hard since he was much taller than her. Ekwensu parried it aside lazily, but that was the point, their swords were both pointing away from their bodies. The force of the parry was making Nimu start to tip over, but she raised her right leg up and kicked up towards Ekwensu's lower legs.

Ekwensu grabbed her leg with his free hand, then brought his sword back to strike at the exposed leg. With as much speed as she could muster, she grunted as she was holding back the strike. She was sweating profusely whilst her opponent was making everything look effortless. She let herself fall down, letting the sudden drop free her leg from Ekwensu's grip, rolling away as his sword hit where she once was. She rolled backward, getting up and soon found herself on her knees, feeling the weight of another strike that she was blocking. It was honestly hard for her to keep track of how many seconds this was taking, most sword fights were usually over in a few blows.

She spared a glance at the ground, wondering if she could kick up some dirt into his face, but remembered that he was wearing a mask, so that option was out of the proverbial window. With a yell she let herself slide forward, feeling the burn on her back as it was scraped by the dirt as she passed through Ekwensu's legs. She twirled as fast as she could and tried to strike his back with a thrust of her sword but he lazily stepped out of the way. She then noticed that he was doing all of this with his left hand, his non-dominant hand. In Igbo culture, doing anything with the left hand was considered one of the greatest signs of disrespect, and right now, she didn't care that her opponent was a god, all she cared about was the slight against her.

Yelling she brought her sword high above her and swung down hard repeatedly at him, not caring that he wasn't even moving. She made another thrust but Ekwensu simply grabbed her by the wrist and held her up with one hand, her feet dangling off the ground. She tried to headbutt him but he moved his head back and she used that momentum to swing both of her legs towards him. He dropped her and stepped back. To her astonishment he switched hands, shifting the sword to his right hand and taking a fighting stance.

She swung high and aimed for his neck, but with a swift motion, the sword was sent flying out of her hand. He had her at his mercy and he made a thrust towards her neck. Looking directly at the mask she stared him in the eye as the sword came towards her. She didn't even close her eyes as the tip of her sword stopped a micro-inch from the skin on her neck. She stared up at Ekwensu confused until she saw Ala rise up, the very ground raising her feet.

"A minute has passed Ekwensu, you must hold to your wager," she stated,

Ekwensu nodded and put away his sword, and the arena lowered and sank back into the ground, where she heard the cheers of a clapping caravan. Ekwensu bowed towards her respectfully,

"Not bad, but you could use a lot more instruction. Why don't we go over that after we set up the trade."

1243 CE

Nimu found herself knocked down on her feet, her grey hair spread all over the ground. She gathered herself together and looked up at Ekwensu with fatigue in her eyes.

"You don't need to do this Nimu. Why not have one of the younger warriors in your little village of Obukpa do this instead."

"Not a chance my lord." She said with each breath, struggling to hold the sword that had been a companion of hers for decades, "The other leaders that I once thought my friends have spoiled the land, and we are having trouble even growing what we need. I didn't realize they would betray us like this. We are at their mercy if we need food."

Ekwensu sat down, humming to himself as he was deep in thought.

"You clearly still want to protect the village even though you are no longer the head. I've had to save you from your little habit of taking on entire raider convoys by yourself."

"They were a threat to my people. Not matter how old I get, I'll never stop trying to protect my Obukpans and sparing the innocent."

Ekwensu stood up, looking at the much older woman that was staring with passion in her eyes. In a move that surprised her, he took off his mask.

"I have a solution for you Nimu Kwome. How would you like to be my daughter?"

1251 CE

Nimu Kwome felt herself getting younger, her face losing all wrinkles, the parts of her skin that sagged becoming firm with muscle. Her hair grew longer and she could swear that she was getting taller. Surrounding her was a congregation of her descendants, and the people of Obukpa, as well as the people that founded the other villages that she once thought, were her allies. She saw the blue light emanating from Chukwu himself as he stood over her, while Ekwensu seemed to be molding a little ball with Ala. Ekwensu walked towards Nimu and the ball phased directly into her chest.

She felt a great shock, she found herself suddenly more aware of of...well everything. She realized how big the world was, the planet and the scale of the universe. She felt small and was aware of how tiny her territory was compared to the Empires to the far northern continents, the ancient civilizations that came before her, and even the lifeforms that existed before humanity dropped down from their tree-dwelling ancestors. Once she came back to her senses, she noticed how strong she felt. Ekwensu was holding out a staff to her, and when she held it, she felt power like she never imagined. With tears in her eyes she bowed to all the gods that granted her this gift.

Chukwu then turned to the crowd and in a lilting but yet booming voice he spoke,

"Hear me, before you stands a new Goddess. Nimu Kwome now is a minor goddess of protection, morality, fertility, health, and war. Invoke her wrath at your own risk."

With that Chukwu and Ala disappeared, whilst everyone else knelt before her. Ekwensu put his hand on her shoulder, with a proud squeeze. Smiling she placed her hand on his and with all sincerity she said,

"Thank you, father."

1566 CE

Nimu Kwome froze a bullet in thin air as it stopped mere inches from going through the head of one of the citizens of Obukpa. She turned around and saw more slave-raiders brandishing Portuguese made rifles trying to charge through the village. She rushed forward as she swung her staff, clearing the man's torso from his lower half. To her relief, several of the mortals she trained were pushing the raiders back and even the Portuguese forces that came with them were flummoxed by the sight of this large woman knocking back the forces they had been hired to help.

Several Portuguese were carrying crosses, the symbol of that Nazarite they worshipped. Odd that he preached peace yet some of his followers chose to ignore him. With annoyance, she tapped her staff to the ground and a large forcefield blew out like the curves of an explosion, not affecting the buildings or her people put pushing the invaders out of her village.

She walked towards the Portuguese mercenaries and the men who hired them. She had no ill will towards the Portuguese, they were simply men for hire, but her attention was to the customer that had come with them. Picking him up by the scuff of his clothes, she noted that he was wearing a lot of bronze and copper ornamentation on him.

"You're from the Benin Kingdom aren't you."

The terrified man nodded, though eyes wide that she could speak his language.

"Then take a message back to the Oba of Benin, my people are certainly waiting to trade in other goods, but my people are not for sale. Take your men and leave your guns here, and I will not storm your palace and fight your own gods for this transgression."

The man continued to nod and she tossed him down to the ground, towering above him at her height of 9 feet. The men scrambled on their horses and galloped away. Nimu shook her head, ever since the Portuguese ships had arrived, several of the large kingdoms nearby were trading slaves for the technology and riches of the European empire. She was aware of the European empires exploring the world, but her charge was specifically to protect her village. These guns would certainly be useful to her people, now that they could defend themselves with them. If they could trade with the gods of the Akwa region, large scale manufacture could be possible.

1801 CE

The air was tense between Nimu and Ekwensu, and even the mortal onlookers were cowed as the two deities continued to argue.

"Father I am simply fulfilling my duty as the Obukpan's goddess."

"You are a goddess of protection, not of invasion."

"I am not invading, I am putting the other villages and towns under my protection from raiders and the Europeans."

"By INVADING them. You are more than capable of defending your village against the Europeans. You don't need to try and expand their territories. This is not what you were made to do."

"I don't see you having this conversation with Hachiman, Vaisravana, Ares, Athena or even Aphrodite Areia before she switched before becoming a love goddess, or any other of the other war deities that you made."

"They are not gods of protection Nimu. You are war, yes, but you are also protection first and foremost. If you are so worried about the European powers, then defend your land. Do not attack the other tribes, please, if you do this I cannot defend you against Amadioha."

Nimu folded her arms and stared at her father, "Let him judge me. You can't actually stop me, father."

"No, I can't," he replied mournfully, "All I can do as a parent is let you make your own mistakes, I have tried to reason with you. I hope this doesn't fall back on you hard."

1904 CE

Nimu was marching with her forces towards the town of Ibagawa. The town had been the main opposition to the expansion of Obukpa's Kingdom. Under her leadership, since 1803 her army had enveloped the lands that once belonged to the Ibibios, the Igalas, the Ijaws and many other tribes. Even other Igbo sub-tribes fell to her sway, Okpuje, Nsukka, Asadu, Mgboko, Alor, Uno, Ihoro, Iheakpu, Iheaka, Ovoko, Unadu, Erike, and Nkpukpu all fell before her. Her main frustration was still Ibagawa and its own deity that was protecting it.

Her people prospered, they were rich, the envy of the failing Nri Kingdom. Even though the mighty Arochukwu kingdom had fallen two years earlier to the British she was confident that it was because they were overconfident with the British. She could block bullets and arms fire didn't work against her. Even better she had an ally in another minor war goddess, Nkwumichi-Ome, the founder of the village of Itchi, another of Ekwensu's daughters. They were riding large horse spirits that were leading their large cavalry contingent of united warriors. They were followed by drummers, men with Danish model firearms, bows, swords and spears and they were marching towards their target. Both goddesses were confident and as they crossed the Ibagawa river (after getting permission from the river goddess of course) they came upon the city, but something gave them pause.

They had expected just Ibagawa troops to meet them, but while there was the leader of the city standing there, flanking him were two Europeans. One wearing British colors and the other wearing a Canadian militia uniform. The two goddesses came down from their horses and walked towards the three men.

"Who might you two men be?" Nimu asked, wondering if this was just another mercenary force.

"I am Major H.C Moorhouse of his Majesty Edward VII's army and this is Captain J. Wayling from Canada. We have been requested by the leader of Ibagawa to defend them from you, as you are interrupting the Royal Niger Company's rubber trade."

"Defend from me? I am aware that those of you in your empire do not believe in my existence but your spies should be aware of what I am capable of doing, you have 100 years of fact."

"We are aware, milady, but you are just a pagan goddess. Our faith will bring you down."

Nimu and her forces scoffed and burst into raucous laughter.

"What, you think Chukwu is going to help you. If I recall your scripture says that Chukwu, or Jehovah as you like to call him, helps only those that help themselves."

"We didn't say God was going to help us madame, rather we expect your father's assistance."

"Why would my father-?"

Nimu froze as she saw a dibia walk confidently out of the city doors, he was wearing Ekwensu's mask and holding his staff, and he took them off and handed them over to Moorhouse, who put them on, and she could feel the power fill him.

"How did you get those?" She barked icily,

"You didn't enquire as to how Arochukwu fell? I thought you were a war goddess?"

"Even if you have the staff and mask, you are up against two goddesses."

"That may be, but we consulted your own pantheon through your dibias, and we found out that you had been breaking the rules of your fellows. So the rest of your pantheon including your father will have no choice but to stand aside for this charming fellow to aid us." Moorhouse said, his voice muffled by the mask as the staff of victory was glowing.

The ground burst as Ogbunabali erupted from it, towering over the mortals and simply staring at Nimu Kwome and Nkwumichi and twirling his guns and swords. The two goddesses stared at each other, knowing they were at a point of no return and with a yell charged at Ogbunabali, followed by the rest of her army as they charged the British, Canadian and Ibagawan forces.

Present Day

Nimu Kwome was staring out of her cell at her father, looking so unlike how she had last seen him. Her torture involved reliving her final defeat and watching the history of what happened to her people since her defeat without her to protect her. The British conquest, the Biafran war, terrorist attacks, and so many others, were her unable to do anything about it. Even her shrines had been smashed to pieces but she could see everything. And now she had someone to vent her frustrations against, her estranged father, Ekwensu.

"It's been a long time." She said with an icy smile.