Kikkuli

The history of mankind tells a story of ingenuity. It is curiosity, research and experimentation that drives human progress. The chief motivation for all this rigorous mental work is coming up with better ways to kill our fellow human beings. One example of many champions of progress in that area is Kikkuli - the famous master horse trainer who served the Hittite New Kingdom around 1400 BC. Kikkuli is known as the author of the text detailing training methods of chariot horses. The principles recorded by him cover various aspects of endurance conditioning, nutrition and behavioral training. What the mainstream historians never mention (and what I was able to discover in my research) is the later, darker period of Kikkuli's life and work. It was then when he conceived and started developing a superweapon codenamed "DEATHOOF". The training facility created by the master trainer was famous for producing horses that could effectively pull chariots in combat situations. The animals would not panic at the sight and smell of blood, obey directions in the presence of enemies and under fire, even capable of defending themselves to some extent. By expanding his earlier ideas and methods of training horses for combat situations when pulling chariots, Kikkuli aimed at pushing the conditioning further. His goal was to dispose of the chariot and its crew entirely and develop such ferocity, aggression and cruelty in the horse that it would act as a combat unit all by itself. Depicted here is one such horse, being trained in pursuing enemy chariots. Kikkuli and his assistant are seen measuring the time codename DEATHOOF needed to catch the enemy chariot, destroy it, brutally kill and, finally, eat its crew. The purpose of this was not nutrition, but the destruction of the enemy's morale. It was at that time that Kikkuli faced open criticism of his peers. Some even started to question his sanity. He, however claimed that others called madness was in fact pragmatism. At the late stages of training the horse's aggression level was so high it would relish the taste of human blood. It was this extraordinary level of ferocity Kikkuli was able to achieve that ultimately proved to be the training facility's downfall. Codename DEATHOOF decimated the whole institution in one tragic episode of rage, ending Kikkuli's entire career in one day.