Summary: "Within the heart of her hearts, the grand lion roars." Ethiopia is a nation much overlooked, but over the course of the 20th century, she had her trials too. This is her story.
A/N: First off, in my personal fanon, Ethiopia is a woman, despite what Gakuen Hetalia says. I kinda groaned when I saw she was presented as an Italian territory in the class. So here is what happens (and did happen for real) to Ethiopia in her first encounter with Italy (in which she kicked him out), before WWI, through the end of the Ethio-Italian War during which she was held, not made a colony.
Second, Abyssinia is another, older name for Ethiopia, like what Albion is to England.
Third, forgive me for my horrible grammar and/or spelling. I can't seem to get it quite right in this.
Enjoy.
O! HAIL ABYSSINIA
A History Spanning the Years 1876-1942
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1876
Within the heart of her hearts, the grand lion roars. His pride is being threatened, his honor insulted, and there is only one recourse for this child who comes at her with eyes filled with greed.
His scepter becomes her sword, his crown, her banner, and the war drums beat millions of beats per second (her heart in war) as voices raise in prayers and chants as her children rise dutifully to perform their chore.
She is veiled with colors the aggressor has chosen not to understand. With threads of red, her blood rushes and her muscles strengthen, threads of yellow shine brightly as crosses rise and faith shines bright against the onslaught of those who would dim it. Green thread follows, the promise of an end, and with it her nestela veils her beautiful form as she proudly rushes at him, he who would conquer, and strikes him down with little breath.
He recoils, beaten, retreating with her child sister north of her, and she dismisses him with little worry.
What beaten dog returns to fight a losing war?
1925
The man on whom the sun never sets, Britannia, arrived at a meeting today and spoke with the child who would conquer her, and then began to speak of her.
She grew angry, but remained silent with her face impassive and her bearing regal, but with a fire building in the depths of her brown eyes. She has become almost expecting of this, but never accustomed. That would be too much and would betray herself, her children, and her crown.
They parted promptly, talking of promises and influencing her without her consent, but she would rather be thirsty than have them infringe on her sovereignty. She may not be a Power that many looked towards, but they forget what she has done and who she is.
After all, they have never conquered her before.
1928
He comes to her, the kin of the man who once conquered the world, and apologizes for what he had done with tears in his eyes. She has always been partial to children, being a mother of so many, and she embraces him as their bosses exchange promises.
There is word of no war, a promise by many nations to abandon it, and she laughs, fully and heartily, at the naivety that urges those children to think that human--no, the basic nature of all living things can be changed and the natural cycle can be disturbed on their whims... But she signs it with a steady hand, indulging in the green part of her soul (that thread of her netsela).
She is his friend, afterwards, but the cycle of history does repeat, and she wonders (since nations are so long lived, and an eternity is quite enough time for many things to break) just when this friendship will die.
For she is sure it will.
Early 1935
She warns him with concern.
She warns her Neguse Negest to take up his duty, to take up his God-given right, but Haile does not understand.
She speaks of avarice and gives wisdom taken in from many a year (built upon years and years of life), but he does not listen. She shares memories of a man who rose to power expanding until he was the world, and tells him this child who threatens her is his kin, his legacy to this world. He smiles at the mention of her age, fascinated as many were with her accounts, but it does not penetrate.
Rules are rules, he replies, as he speaks to those watchers who gather to do nothing at all. He speaks in trust, barely hidden worry (which a king of kings should not have!), and with a hope she cannot help but smile kindly at.
He hears their dodging, hesitant replies and waits...and she struggles and roars as she has never done before to her emperor, but he looks at her with those eyes--young, young eyes, and she forgives his naiveté for this moment. Not everyone is as old as her, and he is still her child as long as he walks the earth.
She just hopes that it does not strike them both like Iscariot in the end.
She wraps her netsela tighter about her, and bids him goodnight.
Dehan hider
October 3rd, 1935
She cannot think and cannot breath.
The fumes around her are noxious and have given her brown skin a tinge that is not healthy, and her feet are sore and ugly. She is almost crippled, blinded by that blighted boy who struck quickly and hard, without mercy, at her poor children. She knew this would be, but it does not make the pain, both theirs and hers, easier to bear.
Her limbs scream in agony as the death tolls rise, and many (too many) are struck down by the ever present threats in the skies.
Her Negus is trying, had tried, but too little too late arrived and their faith could not-cannot save them. The threads of her soul are stained with blood, dark blood of sickness and horror, as her strength fades every second, every fallen child... One thought prevails through the haze:
The council that her dear king had pled to has done nothing at all.
She does not abide appeasement, though she gives second chances to those who deserve it, but this is enough. She does not know whether she will be able to forgive them, and she seeks sanctuary with thoughts of those without the cross, as they are her people too, though they turn aside their neighbors, her other children.
The lion's roar is only an echo, so far away it seems now.
Late 1935
They have promised that once friend--they have drawn lines--promised him, her Iscariot of this century, sections of her body, portions of her soul (and of her younger sisters', as well) without comment and question, and her heart burns in fury, in agony, and despair...
And she struggles to breath, as no help is in the coming. Brittania and Gaul...So concerned with their well-being, have gone soft and have forgotten the promises made, with 49 others, to the world.
That gold-haired child across the sea has retreated into his home, but has passed her soft encouragements and has asked forgiveness in a voice almost entirely unlike his own almost every meeting since the day the poison began falling from the skies. He is brave and torn by his people, by his state, she can understand.
He is a child still, but she can see greatness in his form, in his eyes, and nods her head with a grimace as she watches him return to his home barred with bars of solitude and badly hidden worry. She knows he will grow great, but wishes he was great now, just this once, so she could have at least one ally at her side.
She smiles bitterly and imagines tearing up that abolishment of war with the steady hands that had signed it, and turns with old weapons from her armory in her grasp.
There is more fighting to do.
May 1936
Her limbs seized and her heart beat abated for that moment, the moment when her king lost her heart, the flower rooted so deep inside her that she is still delirious from the pain. Tears fell unaided by poison for the first time during this war, and she shrieked and held Haile until he held her, whispering platitudes and apologies. She was sated, until she found his rooms empty and reports of his travel to the sea struck her in a way nothing had before.
This is the first time she wonders whether she will recover, as she sees her treacherous sister walk in stride with the man (a boy can be forgiven as a man cannot) into her house and look at her with smiles on their pale faces (that girl's has been paling for oh so long).
Her struggles end (but never truly completely), and she is named anew.
She whispers her true name regardless.
(Abyssinia, Abyssinia, Abyssinia….)
However, the lion's roar is muted for the first time in centuries, and she finds a despairing white coloring her nestela where yellow, red, and above all, green used to be.
June 1936
Her rebellious children are still fighting for her, and she smiles at the thought (crying in the dark of night when her educated children are killed by the attempts of a few), wincing as her wounds open anew as she bends down to do the laundry by the river outside of her house.
She hears laughter within it, within the walls that should be black with mourning (for those who abide by the cross or speak Amharic and have earned no patience from her invader) and hot with the heat of a burning flame that should consume everyone within it...but she stays her hand as she can feel something will change, that this arrangement is not permanent. The look in the eyes of that traitor are far to familiar, and she has seen better nations fall within the grasp of that glint.
(She is old enough to have seen many nations fall)
A bright laugh escapes her as her heart beats faster and news is traveling through her every pore and vessel. Her Negus has not abandoned her (though Il Duce would say she does not exist), but speaks. He may not do anything at all, but she knows that at least she has her king if nothing else.
The lion roars, if not hoarsely.
After 1936
The boy barred by promises of his people has refused to forget her, as does the man who strides in hand with her old friend, Winter, and she is thankful, for too many of her old allies have forgotten her in their zeal for appeasement.
1940
The boy who lives in her house has now joined an equal force who would slaughter Europe for space and revenge, and the hackles have finally risen, Brittania and Gaul rising, finally, seeing no other way to resolve the threat.
Brittania has promised to help empty her house of invaders and the sisters who have foresaken her, and she stands proudly, knocking the oathbreaker out of her house and onto the street, rushing to the locker that contains her weaponry as she hears heavy footsteps trail her just moments too slow.
She will rise, and he will fall again.
That is the cycle of history as she has seen it.
1941
He is at the end of his rope.
Brittania has cut off his path to the Red Sea, his guns blazing and his flags flying high as he starves the boy's forces just as he had starved her people.
On her land, she fights alongside her people again, filled with a blazing fire that, tempered by her wisdom, will forge the defeat of this beaten dog. The colors on her nestela shine brightly with this understanding. Green most of all.
They drive him into her sister's lands, and he falls mightily as she laughs and cries and celebrates with songs bursting from her lips and filling a soul that feels as if it could lift up on high and go on to praise the lord in his house.
Her people stare in awe, not quite sure who she is, but knowing, deeply within, that she is theirs and they are hers, so they follow without a thought. Drums beat in rhythm with her heart, and shouts and singing rise from every corner.
The Lion in triumph is nothing if not beautiful.
1942
She had made arrangements with Brittania, that man who looks at her with eyes again familiar. She chastises him with only a glance, and his greedy thoughts abandon him at once. They come out again, however, in his need for control, and though he disguises them with words of cooperation and alliance, she knows him for what he is.
On his brow is a shadow growing, and he needs not another concern to darken it.
That child once barred across the sea is shining brighter with every day, and she knows that when one boy rises, a man must fall, so that the cycle can repeat.
But she is not fiery-tempered outside of battle and without insults to her pride (both her children, and her dignity), so she agrees and smiles, bringing well-hidden guilt to his expression as he promises aid in return.
They keep forgetting their place, she muses, wrapping the nestela tighter about her body and exiting the conference room into the world that has changed so much.
She does not know what to think of this, but decides she does not want to know as she limps to her plane, in thought.
She is Abyssinia, and as long as she knows this, all is right.
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A/N: And then she became communist 30 years later. ;) By the by, does anyone else think that there should be a "Boss" or "citizen" option in the character list for Hetalia fanfics?
Definitions/ Explanations:
"Within the heart of her hearts, the grand lion roars": refers to the lion with scepter and crown on one of the variations of flag of Ethiopia. Now, it is just green bar, yellow bar, and red bar with a blue circle over top with a yellow star on the inside. :(
The (however brief friendship) between Italy and Ethiopia: a 1928 friendship treaty that was completely violated in the Ethio-Italian conflict
Talk of her age and children: Ethiopia is literally ancient and one of the oldest remaining in the world, unformed by European powers. And many human fossils like Lucy and the like have been found there, making likely it is or is near the birthplace of humanity.
Religious talk: Now, largely a Christian nation though there are Islam, Judaism, and other manner of faiths; during the war, Christians were associated with Haile, the emperor, and thus treated ill by the occupiers out of suspicion and worry about an uprising. Also, the 10 commandments given to Moses are rumored to be hidden in Ethiopia.
Being given a new name: Italy took it upon himself to rename Ethiopia and surrounding territories it was occupying as the "Africa Orientale Italiana"
Early 1935: It was becoming apparent that Italy was up to something, as there was troop movement and an almost obvious intention to do something to the region. The Emperor, however, tried to handle it legally through the League of Nations. Did not really do much as the appeasement policy was still in place with many too frightened of another devastating war to make a potentially war-causing move.
Neguse Negest: an Ethiopian title meaning "King of kings" and given to the Emperor
Dehan hider: "Good night" to a man
Amharic: Really, the main, common language of Ethiopia
1925: they tried arguing access about a lake in Ethiopia
"abolishment of war": The Kellog-Briand treaty of 1928 said that signatory nations would not start or participate in another war again. A reaction to the horror of World War I.
Council, "49 others": refers to the rather inept League of Nations
Il Duce: Mussolini, the Facist leader of Italy during WWII
"when her king lost her heart, the flower rooted so deep inside her ": refers to her capital city, which was captured, Addis Ababa which means "new flower", a name given to it by King Menelik II's wife.
The rest, I hope, is understandable.