Wednesday, September 12, 2018–Day 252. Here’s a new one entitled, "The Crux of the Matriarchy". The moans of the dying women could be heard from some distance away from the site of their execution, high above the sacred lake. It had began a few years earlier when the old king, a powerful and beloved warrior, had died and unexpectedly named his wife as the new ruler of the clan. A beautiful woman, she had ruled with kindness and mercy and had sought to establish peace with the surrounding tribes who had been bitter rivals for centuries. She had achieved success in this effort and peace and prosperity became the new normal in the region. Yet some of they men grew restless and chaffed under the rule of the queen. It was an insult to their masculinity to be ruled by a woman and, had you asked them, they would have said that the only value a woman had was the treasures between her thighs. They were warriors and again wanted to test their manhood in battle. What could be more glorious than beating a competing clan into bloody submission, plundering their riches, burning their villages, slaughtering their infants, and raping their women and forcing them into lives of involuntary sexual submission? Why work in the fields when one could capture another clan’s riches? And if one died in battle, wasn’t that infinitely better than dying in one's bed--old, toothless, senile and pissing themselves? The men were able to inflame the tribal bloodlust, but one thing stood in the way–the queen. When the time was right, the men acted. Her loyal guards were subdued and the queen, her aged mother and her young daughter were all captured. They were accused of sorcery and sentenced to death. As was the custom, the three were stripped naked. The queen’s beautiful flowing blond hair was crudely hacked off and they were each brutally beaten and savagely raped in all of their orifices. They were then led to the place of execution where 3 crosses awaited them. They were all nailed to the crosses--3 generations of women-- and after a long period of anguished suffering, they each died. And with the queen’s death, her foolish dream of a peaceful realm died, as well. Blood, death and war now reigned...as it had since the beginning of time..."