PROLOGUE:
I. The Birth of the Cosmic Power
Before empires learned to march,
before gods learned to be worshipped,
before time learned to move forward—
there was a fracture.
The universe, vast and layered, was never singular. Realms existed side by side, separated not by distance, but by law. Some were ruled by death, some by eternity, some by chaos, some by memory itself.
At the center of these realms, something went wrong.
A convergence of collapsing realities tore open a wound in existence—a cosmic power, raw and unfinished, neither god nor matter. It demanded balance, not control. To contain it, the universe did what it has always done when faced with annihilation:
It hid the wound.
That wound became a portal—
not meant to be opened,
only guarded.
The place chosen was a land where time folded gently, where belief did not demand uniformity, where civilizations rose without erasing what came before.
That land was Bharat.
The portal was sealed beneath stone, ocean, mountain, and temple—not by gods alone, but by mortals who understood one truth:
Power survives only where restraint exists.
Thus began the longest silence in creation.
II. The Hunger of Empires
Silence, however, is never eternal.
Across the world, empires rose—not evil, not righteous—only hungry.
And hunger listens.
The Greek Empire
Philosophers and conquerors alike sensed echoes of something beyond Olympus. They believed the portal to be the next step of divinity—a way for man to become god without worship.
The Mongol Empire
They did not care for gods. They cared for endlessness. A realm without borders, without winter, without death—an empire that could never fall.
The Ottoman Empire
Scholars and seers whispered of a final dominion, foretold in fragmented prophecy. They believed the portal was not temptation, but destiny—the key to unifying the world under one eternal order.
Others followed. Smaller kingdoms. Hidden cult-empires. Wanderers from broken realms who could no longer die.
All roads pointed east.
All dreams ended in one name.
Bharat.
They did not seek to conquer a land.
They sought to claim reality.
III. The Protectors of Bharat
But Bharat was never defenseless.
It was prepared.
The Mughal Empire – The Northern Sentinel
Guardians of the mountains, skies, and ancient knowledge. Their scholars mapped stars not for navigation, but for warning. They understood that some wars are fought before the enemy arrives.
The Southern Empires – The Ancient Lock
Chera guarded the seas, where other realms tried to arrive unseen.
Chola built temples that were also machines—structures designed to resist time itself.
Pandya carried prophecies written not in ink, but in blood and memory.
Together, they maintained the seal from below.
The Maratha Empire – The Living Blade
They did not guard the portal.
They guarded Bharat.
Their forts sat on veins of power. Their warriors moved like thought itself. They believed no force—foreign, divine, or immortal—had the right to rule humanity.
Where others sealed,
the Marathas resisted.
Empires debated.
Marathas acted.
Because some threats must never be studied—
only stopped.
IV. The Man Who Was Not Meant to Matter
And far from portals, prophecies, and thrones—
there lived a man who mattered to no one.
He was Muslim.
He was ordinary.
He belonged to no legend.
He knew the weight of prayer, the ache of hunger, the fear of soldiers passing through towns that history barely remembered. He had no desire to rule, to conquer, or to be remembered.
His world was small.
And that was why it was purely human.