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THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HOLY ORENIAN EMPIRE: Volume V; The Petrine Empire


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THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HOLY ORENIAN EMPIRE: Volume V;

The Petrine Empire

Written by Justinian Nafis, heir to the County of Susa

 

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and

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Adolphus Gloriana, Earl of Suffolk, Prince of Sutica

 


The Petrine Empire

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“May God imprint an image by which to draw onto the canvas that is our rotten Empire. I’ve half a mind to rip the whole thing apart just looking at it.”

- Emperor Peter III to Simon Basird

 

Now comes the resulting reign of Peter III, which, due to its great length (at forty-seven years, he is the longest-reigning Emperor by far), required these authors to split their initial draft into two parts. With the great war of the Emperor having concluded, we now come to the time of peace (spare the Sutican War near the end). While we praised Peter III for his conduct during the Rubern War, the amateur scholar would do well to observe his actions during peace. It is here that he had the free reins to conduct his plan of centralization- a vision that would be completed by his successors. While many are opposed to even the mere notion of a centralized, absolutist state, his ability to deftly maneuver the political challenges facing him and consolidate the realms and vassals of the Novellens must be recognized. Possibly for a future ambitious ruler, it may serve as something of a template.

With peace now secured after nearly twenty-nine years of constant war, the Emperor and his Council of State were now free to focus on continuing, and perfecting, the general reforms that had been made during the war. Although the Imperial Senate’s authority technically included the entirety of the Empire, the war had made it difficult for its legislation to be enforced much beyond the capital and Western Crownlands. Additionally, though the Senate was wholly in support of the Basrid Ministry and the war effort, any legislation deemed of possible detriment to the Empire was forcibly tabled and vetoed. While the early days of the Senate consisted of the Empire’s brightest, best minds, mainly those of the highly educated classes, such as lawyers, doctors, priests, and the like, their own whims and ambitions drove them to create farcical, damaging legislation. One of these men was Charles Napier, who, if The Truth of the Devil from the Sands: The Life of the Wretched Villain Simon Basrid by Stepan de Rosieres, is to be believed, worked closely with Simon Basrid in order to try and supplant the Orenian monarchy and put in its place a democratic government which would allow for every possible vice and sin. While the excesses of this mode of thought would take some time to materialize, it first began with the Napiers.

In large part due to the many troubles sparked by rebellious vassals during the Time of Troubles and the Rubern War, the Imperial government undertook a process of centralization and defeudalization, by far one of the largest-reaching, momentous projects undertaken by an Emperor to date. Looking to Haense as an example, where a grand process of defeudalization and the centralization of both the government and military, which had been completed by the reign of King Andrik IV, had effectively removed the last possible vestiges of opposition to the Haeseni Crown. Now, they wished to implement a similar program across the Empire as a whole. The process had truly begun back during the creation of the Senate and the subsequent outlawing of private fortifications and military companies in the Crownlands, but now steps could be taken on an Empire-wide scale. The Imperial Diet swiftly ensured their ban on fortifications and levies was quickly implemented in the Eastern Crownlands, where previously-occupied land was only just being returned to their owners. With this done, they and the Emperor both set their sights on Curonia.

Although Emperor Peter III was mildly sympathetic to the liberal institutions that his Archchancellor, Simon Basrid, had concocted, he found them to be simply institutions to rubber-stamp his own authority. He supported their programs of centralization, but not out of innate disdain for the old feudal structure of the Empire or any great visions of democracy or the expansion of democratic institutions within Haense. His own view was far more pragmatic: with the imperial expenditures during the Rubern War and the great loss of men suffered by both the ISA and Imperial Crownlands, the Imperial Crown was in desperate need of new sources of income and more extensive pools of manpower.

Curonia was one such place, where the death of the beloved Queen Ester in 1745 had left a power vacuum. John d’Arkent, the disgraced former Archchancellor and Spymaster, had attempted to fill this himself, and, as one of Queen Ester’s trusted councilors, had seized power in 1743. Attempting to turn Curonia into a private fief of the d’Arkent family and a personal source of revenue to pay for his lavish expenditures, including a grand palace in 1752. Naturally, this had meant that the affairs of Curonia were mismanaged to a criminal degree, and during the war it was constantly teetering on collapse despite rarely being subject to attacks from the AIS. According to accounts from an official Imperial commission sent to visit Curonia throughout the spring of 1762, street cobbles were taken to be broken into chips and added to gruel for flavor; the Curonian military had functionally ceased to exist, the province was teetering on the brink of rebellion, and the treasury was being used to fund the construction of a palace in the Duke of Sunholdt’s holding of Selm. The commission recommended an immediate seizure of Curonia by the government on grounds of neglect and mismanagement. 

With this report in hand, the Imperial Senate urged the Emperor to assume the Curonian crown for himself and restore order to the kingdom. Simon Basrid and his ministers went a step further and endorsed a plan to forcibly relocate the Curonian population to the Crownlands, formally dissolve the Kingdom of Curonia, and raze its lands so it could be turned into a regional ISA headquarters; a plan almost identical to what had been done in Suffonia. Peter III, approving of both motions, assumed the Crown of Curonia on the 10th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1763. Marching at the head of an army, the Emperor removed the Duke of Sunholdt from power and told the citizens of Curonia that they had two weeks to pack their belongings and move to Helena and the surrounding Crownlands before the city was raised. Stunned, angered, yet unable to stand against this, the populace reluctantly agreed and soon began to depart the city in great numbers. The Emperor, true to his word, ordered the destruction of Curonia two weeks later and instructed General DeNurem to construct a great star fort in its place. Although a seemingly cruel and heavy-handed measure, the treasures looted from Curonia aided greatly in restoring the Imperial coffers, and the former population assimilated well to life in the Imperial heartlands, where they soon became an important part of life and culture in Helena.

 

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The destruction of Curonia at the hands of Emperor Peter III, c. 1762

 

A similar, though far less drastic, process followed over in Kaedrin. As the kingdom had fallen into a state of interregnum since King Adrian I’s death in 1750, the country had been ruled by a council headed by Governor-General Robert Castor Helvets. Seeking the Kaedreni Crown for itself, along with the great properties and wheat harvests that would come with it, the Emperor entered into negotiations with the Governor-General and the electors of Kaedrin to ensure that he was elected as the next King of Kaedrin. After a few months of discussion, a deal had finally been reached. While the Emperor’s eldest daughter and heir, the Princess Imperial Anne Augusta, had been wed to the Duke of Adria, Joseph Clement de Sarkozy, the eldest son of the late Lord Protector Adrian, his younger daughter, Lorena Antonia, was unmarried. Furthermore, the young son, and future heir, of the Princess Imperial and the Duke of Adria, John Charles (later Emperor John VIII), was unbetrothed. Peter III and Governor-General Robert Castor agreed to have Princess Lorena wed to Robert’s younger brother, Richard Victor, and have Prince John Charles betrothed to Robert’s own daughter, Wilhelmina Beatrix. With a future Empress, and a match with the current Emperor’s daughter, the Governor-General convinced the rest of the electors to nominate Emperor Peter III to the Kaedreni throne, which they did on the 23rd of the Sun’s Smile, 1768. No great mass-deportation occurred in Kaedrin as had happened in Curonia, for it was important to keep the local populace in the region, as it was bountiful and produced the vital harvests for the rest of the Empire, and Kaedrin had a flourishing system of democratic local governance mixed with stable provincial oversight that perfectly complemented the wishes of the Imperial government. Thus, Kaedrin stayed intact, though its relevance soon faded, and while it brought in crops and revenues for the Empire, the once-bustling city of Owynsburg faded, and its local politics soon became dominated by ambitious, sometimes criminal, local families.

Next, the Imperial government returned to Rubern, where whispers of another rebellion were reaching the ears of the Imperial government. After a thorough study conducted by the Adunian historian Amos ‘the Famous’ of Redenford, it can be reasonably concluded that these rumors were entirely false. In his work, Why I Stopped Trusting the Government: The Great Plot to Slay Rubern, Amos alleges that any word of discontent within Rubern begins with the Imperial Senator Charles Napier, who appears to have been acting on orders from the Archchancellor. Amos further points out that Rubern had been thoroughly ruined by the previous war and had struggled to recover: it fielded no soldiers, produced only a meager income, and saw its population decline yearly as many departed for greener pastures in Helena, Haense, and Kaedrin. While no clear link is made to Peter III, it is Amos’s belief that while he did not actively participate in the plot, he still knew that no rebellion was being fomented in Rubern and desired to remove the last remnants of the Stibor Dynasty that had been a thorn in the side of the Empire for years. On the 19th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1768, Prince Marius I of Rubern, the same man who had fought so effectively against the Empire for years during the Rubern War, and at times matched King Godric in battlefield prowess and political instinct, died of cholera. His daughter, the sixteen-year-old Helene Stibor, claimed rightful ascension to the throne of Rubern and had herself crowned as Princess Helene I. This played right into the hands of the Imperial Senate, which immediately contested Princess Helene’s ascension, claiming that it was required that she gain the permission and confirmation of the Senate. They accused her of fomenting rebellion within Rubern and inviting foreign mercenaries in preparation for a renewed bid for independence. The Imperial Senate implored the Emperor to respond to this defiance of the Empire’s law and authority, which Peter III did not hesitate to accept. On the 30th of Sigismund’s End, 1769, the Emperor issued the Leuven Doctrine, which claimed that Rubern was an illegitimate entity occupying lands that rightfully belonged to the County of Leuven, that domain which was ruled by Conrad de Falstaff back during the War of the Two Emperors. The Emperor further listed ninety-nine crimes committed by Rubern and its people before finally declaring Rubern a rebellious, invasive entity occupying Imperial land. Finally, he ordered an ISA detachment to surround the city, which was soon joined by a Haeseni contingent sent by King Sigismund II.

One of the Imperial siege groups, led by former General Darius Sabari, now demoted to captain, attempted to provoke the Princess into a sortie by shooting arrows into passerbys. The events afterward seem rather scattered. In the Rubern’s Gastronomy and Foods Pertaining to our Principality, by Beowulf Eiriksson, Beowulf claims, in a footnote, that there was a dish of an obscure fish served in 1768 to Darius Sabari’s regiment at a dinner parley hosted by the Princess that poisoned the whole table barring Darius Sabari, who puked out the attempted assassination. However, in A Exhortation and History of the Holy Canonist Faith by Father Paul of Savoy, Father Paul remarks that the regiment under Darius Sabari’s command attempted to kill the Princess in the safety of the Ruberni Cathedral, but seeing through these tricks, the Princess stopped the men short of the Cathedral steps and shot dead all men besides Darius Sabari.

Depending on the source, what comes next is clear. The Princess Helene drove out the men, with their commander marching back to the capital of Helena. He was greeted by Simon Basrid, who offered him his position as general again for his ‘successful campaign’ against the Ruberni folks. Princess Helene, on the other hand, began to consolidate power. She mustered a larger militia in an effort to get ready for a more coordinated attack to be sent to dispatch her from the position of Princess. After signing an agreement to have Lucien de Bar, a famous general in the east, dispatch his army to assure the security of Rubern, the Princess fell ill. 

Sources, again, disagree as to what happened next. Some point to her sending a first letter to the Kingdom of Norland to yield her principality to them. However, this is a highly contested point, as none of the Norlanders after Godric could read, let alone figure out which end of a pen to use to send a letter back. These authors are stunned at this conclusion even being raised. A lost will, recently recovered, suggests that she wished to cede the lands of Rubern to the Haeseni, though this is difficult to confirm. All that can be attested to from records at the time is that some skirmishing occurred between the De Bar mercenaries and the ISA contingents, though these were infrequent and indecisive.

Princess Helene, herself a pious, reasonable soul, appealed to the High Pontiff, James II. James II, made High Pontiff in 1753, was known to be a good-hearted, reasonable, and just man who stuck to his principles and attempted to serve as a unifier and mediator among the human realms. Incorruptible and brilliant, it seemed that he would support Princess Helene’s cause and attempt to broker a diplomatic settlement. However, in a shocking twist, Princess Helene’s words fell on deaf ears, and the High Pontiff ordered that, as penance, she would submit to the Emperor and return to him the lands she occupied so that Leuven might be restored. Scholars are divided on how to interpret this act by James II, as some note that he was very much a follower of Daniel VI and believed in the general unification of man under more liberal, partially-democratic reforms. However, he was also very hesitant to involve himself in politics, and avoided using his position for much more than mediation. Because of this, other scholars contest that the High Pontiff truly believed that Rubern was attempting some sort of rebellion and aiming to topple the Fidei Defensor, as had been their plan up until the end of the Rubern War eight years ago. Regardless, Princess Helene’s appeal to the High Pontiff would be her last attempt to save Rubern, and on the 3rd of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1769, she surrendered Rubern to the ISA-Haeseni army. After forty five years, a short, yet eventful time marked by wars, defiances, and plots, the Principality of Rubern was dissolved. What followed was a series of reorganizations and agreements, where the County of Leuven was reorganized in 1772 and given to Armande de Falstaff, the son of the late Conrad de Falstaff. As an act of mercy by the Emperor, Helene Stibor was allowed to retire to a small estate in Kaedrin, where she would perish in 1771 after contracting scarlet fever. 

With Curonia razed and its people relocated, Kaedrin firmly in the grasp of pro-Imperial authorities, and Rubern being dismantled and its lands given to one of Peter III’s staunch supporters, the program of centralization had, so far, been a resounding success. Around this time as well, the Pale of Aldemar, a home for all Imperial elves, was founded, with the famed Kairn Ithelanen being named its governor. Joining Kairn were the Sons of Malin, a formidable mercenary company of elves that had supported the Empire during the Rubern War. This new elven settlement provided the Empire with a source of scholarship and magic that had previously been more difficult to obtain with a human populace, and showed the rest of the world the ambitions of the new ‘Petrine Empire’, a name that had been given by recent historians, owing to the Petra River that the current city of Vienne lay upon, despite Peter III, Anne, and Joseph II having spent some or all of their reigns on Arcas. All eyes in the Empire lay on Haense, the final realm that had not been brought into the possession of the Imperial family.

The debate over whether Peter III and his government truly had designs on subjugating the Haeseni is riddled with nationalistic propaganda. Haeseni scholars point to some correspondence dating either from the late rule of Lord Protector Adrian Sarkozy or the early reign of Peter III that involved a few lower-level ministers expressing their frustrations at Haeseni's failures during the war. Imperial scholars dismiss this as merely the product of frustrations, and instead assert that in Curonia, the government had entirely fallen apart, and that the Kaedreni had always shared close ties to the central Imperial government. From government documents and correspondence dating from Peter III’s reign, it is safe to conclude that while the government may have wished to bring Haense further into a centralized administration, namely through the Imperial Legislature, a unified tax code, and a universal legal system, any notions of grand plans to fully annex Haense are unfounded.

This did not stop King Sigismund II, now ruling in his own right, from taking advantage of these worries. On the 29th of Owyn’s Flame, 1764, a number of reforms were made to the Imperial Legislature. The Imperial Senate was split into two branches: the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and two political parties to occupy them, the Josephites and the Everardines, were formed. Haeseni citizens and politicians were urged by members of their government to support the Josephites, who were an openly liberal, secular, and constitution-supporting faction, as they held firm to the belief of self-rule in the provinces and vassals of the Empire. Those Haeseni that supported the Everardines, a more traditional, religious, and absolutist faction, were often seen adorned in plate armor, no matter the setting, and attempting to pick fights. King Sigismund openly questioned the utility of the Imperial Diet, believing that it was simply a ploy for the central Imperial government to undermine Haense’s right to self-rule. He decried any attempts at centralization, calling them a marker of despotism, regression, and weakness, despite himself ruling a highly-centralized kingdom. 

While King Sigismund II’s allegations were simply acts of provocation, his contempt for the Emperor was not completely unfounded. In 1762, during a visit to Haesne from the Emperor, the Queen-Mother, Maya of Muldav, who had gained a fearsome reputation during the Rubern War for her ruthless, unbending style of ruling, was killed by unknown assailants. In his grief (it was an open secret that the Emperor held one-sided affections for the Queen-Mother), Peter III burned a large section of the Royal Palace, which required extensive repairs and gave him the reputation as a madman among the Haeseni. By 1770, this mistrust, in part due to the failure of the Basrid Administration to properly articulate Haense’s place in this rapidly-changing Empire, and in part due to Sigismund II’s own ambitious stoking of the flames, led to a boiling point, which came just in time for events in the far south to threaten war across the continent once again.

To explain the causes and course of the Sutican War, spanning from 1775 to 1780, we must go back to 1762, where we return to the character of Corwin von Alstreim, who, at the exhortation of the late High Pontiff Daniel VI, had spent well over two decades preparing for a great crusade against the worldly demesnes of Iblees. With the Rubern War raging, few cared to join him, and those that wished to could not, as their bonds of vassalage required them to fight. However, with the war’s end, a number of now-unemployed mercenaries, Ruberni and Suffonian refugees, and deserters flocked to Corwin’s banner. By the winter of 1761, he had under his command an army of two-thousand experienced, well-armed men with few other prospects for glory and income. He announced that their destination was the Free City of Sutica, a horrific country that openly supported the worship of the dark arts, the use of necromancy and other taboo magics, and the procreation between different races, even those of a beastial nature. It existed as a blight upon the world, a gateway for Iblees and his legions to emerge onto the mortal plane from, and it was Corwin von Alstreim who promised to eradicate it. As the men marched out, a quote from the Queen Johanna of Sutica’s, Corvinus, has an excerpt of the speech said at the departure:

"Let no man, whether of humble birth or of patrician birth, be without knowledge of the evils committed in the City-State of Sutica. Sinners reside there, festering and practicing occult dark arts in an effort to summon the Deceiver. We must mourn for them. Their souls are protected by a dark embrace. We weep today, on this military expedition. For God weeps at the loss of his children to sin." 

 

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“King Corwin”

By the Princess Imperial, Duchess Catherine Anastasia of Westmarch.

   A depiction of King Corwin of Sutica holding a boulder in his hands.

In the spring of 1762, with their preparations made, Corwin and his followers marched south. When they reached the gates of Sutica, ten thousand of the most powerful Sutican necromancers, warlocks, and witches stood arrayed in front of their city, reading hymns from a grimoire. Corwin alone marched forth, demanding that the city surrender to him, turn to God, and purge from themselves the black arts that they had so sinfully accepted. The hellish mages of Sutica jeered and together cast a great spell, which launched a serpent wreathed in brimstone and blue fire at Corwin. The great crusader simply knelt and uttered a prayer, upon which the clouds broke, and from the heavens a great beam of light shot down and struck the serpent, slaying it instantly. Corwin then drew his sword, charged forth, and cut down the dark servants of Iblees to a man. But unlike those who use mortal weapons, King Corwin never hurt anyone he took the life of. They all passed like in a dreamless state to the Seven Skies. The retinue proceeded to storm the city, sack it, and put all of its unholy denizens to death, save a few who exploited Corwin’s famous mercy and claimed that they were simply innocent prisoners like Mika Uialben. In perhaps the greatest mistake of his life, to historians, the Alstreim agreed to let them live. But when looking deeper into the King’s life, we realize he foreknew their betrayal. Even then, the King still forgave them and offered them mercy so that they might see their wives and children once more.

After Sutica had been liberated and purified, Corwin was then crowned by High Pontiff James II as King Corwin I of Sutica. The new King of Sutica immediately set to work rebuilding his realm. The capital underwent a grand reconstruction, the government was reformed entirely, and he paid many of his crusaders to stay in Sutica and form a small but professional army. This occupied the greater part of the 1760s for Corwin, but in 1771, disaster struck.

By the late 1760s, with much of the empire consolidated into the hands of the central government and with the realm stable, Simon Basrid, according to legend, began to implement the next phase of his plan to make Oren a democratic state sworn to the false gods of the necromancers and warlocks of the world. Seeing a prime opportunity to have Oren embroiled in another global war, the Archchancellor concocted a plot to pit the Canonist realms against each other.

Back in 1758, Henrietta Karenina, the Princess of Alstion and daughter of Charles Alstion, was assassinated near Sutica. Although it is unknown who officially slew the woman, agents linked back to John d’Arkent began to spread rumors to her son, Peter Amadeus de Sarkozy, that Corwin von Alstreim was her killer. In the diaries, provided to us by Stepan de Rosieres, of the young Peter Amadeus, who was only sixteen when he perished, he also claims that he met personally with the Archchancellor. During this meeting, he claimed that Simon Basrid urged him to duel the King of Sutica to avenge his mother, which inspired the boy enough to agree. In 1771, he went to Sutica, where he challenged King Corwin to single combat. In fractured correspondence from Sutican crusaders and clergy, it is said that King Corwin gave a chance for the boy to set aside his arms and grievances, and insisted upon his innocence, but Peter Amadeus, gripped by fury, still proceeded to attack him anyway. After a brief bout, the boy’s youth and inexperience failed him, and he was swiftly killed by the king with a cut to the head. However, according to the historian Stepan de Rosieres, using an eyewitness account from a visiting merchant in Sutica, Peter Amadeus agreed to lay aside his sword and forgive the king, but then Simon Basrid, from his offices in Helena, utilized his black magic to possess the young Sarkozy and force him to duel King Corwin, leading to his death. When questioned about the incident, King Corwin of Sutica replied in tears, "In regards to the daughter, I did not slay. In regards to the son, I did slay. May the Lord have mercy on me for committing such a barbaric act."

While the circumstances do not matter so much, the outcome was momentous. Peter Amadeus de Sarkozy was the son of George Casimir, the Count of Pompourelia, who happened to be the brother of Joseph Clement, the Duke of Adria and heir to the Empire. The boy’s murder was a slight against the Imperial family that could not be remedied with a simple apology. The Basrid Ministry, after promoting John d’Arkent to the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, urged the Emperor to declare war. After details of Peter Amadeus’s death were officially released to the public, the calls for war grew more numerous. All in the Empire decried King Corwin and Sutica, calling them nothing more than bandit states that needed to be eradicated. However, there was one man who opposed war with Sutica: Franz Nikolai de Sarkozy. 

While Franz de Sarkozy shall be mentioned in greater detail in Volumes Four and Five, his prophetic foresight here must be noted. A prominent Josephite staffer and former Member of the House of Commons, Franz de Sarkozy often frequented both Josephite and Everardine clubs in Helena and Owynsburg, the new capital of Kaedrin, and was dismayed to find both echoed the calls for war. When he took to the stand to urge peace, pointing out that King Sigismund of Haense was an unreliable vassals, a coalition would certainly intervene to protect Sutica, and the Imperial State Army was woefully underprepared for war, he was forced off with jeers and boos. For his opposition to the war effort, he became a social outcast in the Empire, so he returned to his country home in Kaedrin for the duration of the war, not to emerge until 1784.

Despite his own relative reluctance to break the peace with Arcas, Emperor Peter III finally relented to the pressure of his populace and government. High Pontiff James II attempted to intervene to reach a diplomatic resolution, and throughout 1771 a number of envoys were sent between Sutica and the Empire, but no compromise could be reached. King Corwin had a few members of his government walk out for their imperial sympathies (orchestrated to be looked upon as a sacking by imperial propagandists under the orders of Simon Basrid). The matter had been decided. On the 12th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1772, the Emperor issued the missive entitled "A Cry for Help from Sutica; The Alstreim Question." In it, he accused King Corwin of being little more than a murderer and demanded that he surrender himself to the Imperial authorities to be tried for his crimes. Silence fell, and for the next few years, both sides prepared for war.

In the fall of 1773, a pro-Imperial coup attempt against King Corwin was launched, but it failed when Mika Uialben shouted out the plans to the whole city for discernable reason. The conspirators were arranged to be hanged by lower ranking staff almost instantly. King Corwin, however, interceded and offered clemency to the group again, including Mika Uialben. In 1774, at a meeting between the Kingdom of Sutica, the Kingdom of Norland, and the Kingdom of Urguan, an alliance was formed known as the Begrudged Alliance. Immediately after, they signed a contract with a mercenary company known as the Hangmen, who were based out of a small castle to the west of Helena, bordering upon the Western Crownlands of the Empire. The Empire, meanwhile, simply mobilized its own forces, and on the 4th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1775, Emperor Peter III officially declared war by announcing the commencement of Operation Enduring Freedom. The operation, designed by General Alren DeNurem, hero of the Rubern War, called for a push against Sutica through the Whispering Woods and, hopefully, a quick end to the war. As they would find over the next five years, such predictions would be folly.

A number of challenges faced the Empire as it began its war against Sutica. The first was that the ISA and its officers, while having performed competently in the later years of the Rubern War, where the fighting was dominated by infrequent skirmishes, sieges, and logistical warfare, they were woefully unprepared for a quick offensive. General DeNurem himself had a sound mind for the slow, methodical style of warfare that had led to his rise, but when planning campaigns to take place over great distances, requiring forceful, decisive victories in a strong, coordinated push, he was simply out of his element.

Compounding these difficulties was King Sigismund II’s refusal to join the war. When it began, he ordered all Haeseni forces to remain within the kingdom’s borders. He claimed that Haense had no reason to be in the war, and that it did not pertain to their interests. When the Emperor retorted, saying that it was their duty as a vassal of the Empire to support their liege, and that the Empire as a whole had defended and saved Haense during the Rubern War only years earlier, he was met with silence. When correspondence between King Sigismund and the Begrudged Alliance was uncovered, Prince Nikolas Barbanov, the king’s brother and a staunch supporter of the Empire, took charge, declaring that Haense was to fulfill its vassal obligations and join in the war effort against Sutica. Sigismund II, undercut by his brother, committed suicide on the 6th of the Grand Harvest, 1776, and the Haeseni throne passed to his seven-year-old son, Josef Sigismund.

While Haense finally did join the war effort under Prince Nikolas’s leadership in 1776, the ISA was already facing a number of issues. Having failed to take Hangman's Keep in 1775, General DeNurem decided to ignore the mercenaries and instead commence the march down to Sutica. This would prove to be a mistake, as the Imperial columns were assaulted by Hangmen skirmishes, which slowed their march to a crawl. Even when the Haeseni army joined them, the attacks did not cease. Before they could even reach the southern border of the Empire, General DeNurem was forced to recall his soldiers. For the next two years, no great offenses were made, as General DeNurem issued an order to never give battle to the enemy. It was during this time that the Hangmen raiders scoured the roads, towns, and farms of Kaedrin, Leuven, and the Crownlands, killing many and damaging hundreds of buildings. It was evident that this was not a viable strategy to win the war, and in 1778, the Emperor ordered General DeNurem to march on Sutica and not turn back until it had been taken.

On the 14th of the Sun’s Smile, 1778, the combined ISA-Haeseni army set south again to march against Sutica. For most of their trek through the Empire, they met surprisingly little resistance, which caused the high command to believe that the Begrudged Alliance had reached a breaking point. However, when they finally entered the Whispering Woods, which lay just to the north of Sutica, they were met by a full offensive of the forces of the Begrudged Alliance, led in person by King Corwin. 

In accounts from imperial soldiers, it is reported that King Corwin met them on the edges of the border. King Corwin was distressed that he was forced to slay fellow Canonists, King Corwin yielded to fate and remarked the most famous line in all of his reign. As recorded by Queen Johanna of Sutica, it is as follows:

"We have done nothing to warrant offense to the great Crown of Oren, nor do we spit on its very name. I fight for the Lord, you fight for the Lord. I am human, you are human. We both breathe, we both sing, we both love, we both fear, we both pray, and we both worship. Is serenity not worth more than gold? I tell you!  Is life worth not more than war? Is life not the time you spend your wives and children over the hills and roaring plains. Does life matter not to Oren!"

A silence was had, with no response. The King, a frown ever present on his face, replied further.

"Let no man or woman step into this Holy Kingdom of Sutica without knowing the consequences of doing so. Lord, forgive them." 

King Corwin began the battle once the imperial soldiers marched into Sutican land. After each battle, the King of Sutica spent hours praying to the Lord to save the souls of the Imperial men he had killed and send them to heaven. According to accounts housed in the Alstreim family archives, King Corwin single-handedly delivered thirty thousand Imperial and Haeseni souls to God. It is also said that he bloodied his blade when he struck a man too close, and wept for the rest of his life for this offense. He is reported to have said the man’s name in his prayers each time he prayed to God afterwards.

 

 

oBkIzpEWuTXXUnJvWS8-qqbn9feBWfj6F4SY0MgiuBBXOrkqx18ie0_1Hzq9a4L6fPrIG0pflI1a9PtDK0H5ZJaNcDpASQcf-y-g8uXKSKQedO44sVquDeKOBk7fP1TbRoocQGCWIfEgW8nmfq9D08U

King Corwin I of Sutica (depicted left) marching out to face an ISA detachment alone, c. 1780

 

Even though the Imperial dead were mounting by the day, by the summer of 1779, their sheer numbers had allowed them to push to Sutica, where they were able to face Corwin’s army on an open field before the city. With twenty thousand Imperial-Haeseni soldiers facing only ten thousand from the Begrudged Alliance, it seemed that victory was at hand. However, it was not to be for the Empire. King Corwin led his men in singing a hymn, which even the pagans of Urguan and Norland joined. Twice, the Imperial commanders gave out the call to charge, but the legs of their men were petrified, unable to step forward. It was then that the King of Sutica prayed to the Lord, and, with fear in their hearts for the retaliation they would face for opposing one of God’s foremost agents in this world, both Orenian and Haeseni alike lost heart and fled. The Emperor and General DeNurem were aghast at the sight of their men fleeing, but they were forced to follow them all the way back to the borders of the Empire.

Knowing that any offensive would be met with failure, the Imperial high command agreed that it was time to sue for peace. A ceasefire was signed in the winter of 1779, and after a few months of diplomatic negotiations, arbitrated by the High Pontiff, a peace was finally reached in 1780. The resulting Peace of Merryweather is perhaps the greatest example of King Corwin’s magnanimity. Demanding few concessions besides defeat, the King of Sutica allowed for regular diplomatic and economic relations between the Empire and Sutica to resume. While this was met with great acclaim across both realms, there were some parties that despised the treaty. First among these were the other member states of the Begrudged Alliance, who wished to march against Oren itself, topple the Empire, and introduce their false gods. The second of these was Simon Basrid and John d’Arkent, the Duke of Sunholdt, whose plot to have the Empire lose disastrously, and give themselves an opening to establish a democracy in Oren, was foiled. It is said that when the lenient terms of the Peace of Merryweather were read aloud to him, the Archchancellor suffered a heart attack. While John d’Arkent had died a year prior, it is alleged that he suffered a breakdown after hearing that a ceasefire had been called and threw himself out a window.

For the final four years of Peter III’s reign, peace was had across the Empire. The ISA underwent a great restoration in the aftermath of the Sutican War, returning its ranks to its pre-war numbers. The Council of State continued to administer the realm ably, and provided repairs and reparations to those that had lost property during the war. The Archchancellor, Simon Basrid, having been foiled in his supposed final plot, informed the Emperor that he would tender his resignation in 1783 to retire to his country estate. As a reward for his services, he was given the County of Susa. When the time came, elections were held to determine the next Archchancellor, which were won by an Adunian, Jonah Stahl-Elendil, the presiding Vice Chancellor of the Empire and leader of the Josephite Party. Regarded as a stable, trustworthy, and friendly man, his disposition and favor towards strengthening Oren’s democratic culture showed that the direction most in the Empire desired was expansion and growth brought about in times of peace, not times of war. As his Vice Chancellor, he nominated Franz Nikolai de Sarkozy, who, as a good friend of Stahl-Elendil, and regarded as one of the brightest minds in the Empire, was recalled from retirement.

With the year 1783 came the end of the second great enemy of Emperor Peter III, the first having been King Godric of Norland. While the end of the war had also brought peace and recovery to the Kingdom of Sutica, the many mercenaries and crusaders that had once filled King Corwin’s ranks began to leave his realm, seeking coin and glory elsewhere. Soon, many of the Canonists in Sutica also began to migrate elsewhere, choosing an easy life to be found in Helena or Reza over hard work to transform Sutica into a city comparable to them. For all his virtue, prowess in battle, and genius, King Corwin was burdened by ineffective, treasonous ministers, most of them coming from the pre-crusade Sutican population that he had spared. When a sufficient number of Canonists had left, these Sutican, Iblees-worshiping ministers made their move. Knowing that, even with their dark magic, they had no chance of defeating him in a head-on fight, these agents of the underworld instead resorted to intrigue.

Taking advantage of King Corwin’s righteousness and incorruptibility and the image of him that had been cultivated as a result of these virtues, the conspirators sought to ruin his reputation among the populace of the kingdom. The fabricated documents allege that he embezzled state funds and disseminated them throughout the streets. A great mob, one whose pockets were rumored to be lined with coins, led by Mika Uialben took to the city and began to riot in front of Corwin’s palace. They demanded his abdication and self-exile from the city for his crimes, which, not wishing to inflict violence upon the people he loved, King Corwin accepted. Queen Johanna of Sutica recounts the final words of Corwin as King of Sutica:

“The accounts levied against me are true. I am prideful, greedy, ruinous, and evil. My heart is wretched as it was the day sin entered Terra. Let none who love me consider me a good king, but as one after the Lord’s own heart. If you wish me to no longer be your king, then you may bid me farewell. I pray for you, daughter Sutica, for you are beautiful and more glorious than all of the kingdoms. I love you dearly, and will cherish you until the end of days.”

On the 8th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1783, King Corwin von Alstreim abdicated the Sutican throne and, if rumors are true, took a boat to find an undiscovered continent (later known as Almaris) where he could preach God’s message to the unknowing. In his wake, Sutica would crumble again, though the consequences of the hellspawn’s actions cannot be touched upon until later.

1783 would also prove to be the final full year of Peter III’s long reign. Having ascended to the Imperial throne at the age of thirty-three, the old Emperor was by now seventy-nine years old. His once-plentiful public appearances had been dwindling for years, but by now they had ceased. A few edicts were issued, and the Imperial Diet became the primary authority for the legislation of the Realm. It was understood by all that the Emperor’s long, illustrious life was soon to draw to a close. The winter of 1783 had taken a toll on the aging Peter III, and soon after, a sickness crept into him, which turned into the whooping cough. He had not abated by the following spring, which informed his doctors and family that he had little time left. During the week leading up to his death, no one was allowed into his quarters save doctors, priests, and family. His death came on the 14th of Sun’s Smile, 1784. The last rites were performed for him, and after uttering a few words to his daughter, now lost to time, the Emperor requested his pillow be shifted. He ascended to the Seven Skies three minutes later.

A period of mourning was proclaimed throughout the Empire, and tens of thousands of spectators (notably, a few of them were Haeseni), watched as the coffin of the late Peter III was paraded to Kaedrin to be entombed in his homeland. It was not until  a year later, on the 12th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1785, when a coronation was held for Anne Augusta and Joseph Clement, now co-ruling as Empress Anne and Emperor Joseph II. Both were well-regarded, intelligent, and aged: the subjects of the Empire took delight in their ascension to the throne and held high hopes for the new rulers of the Empire. However, despite their promise and high expectations, the tensions between the Crownlands and Haense had not yet subsided, and early in their reign they would be faced with the ramifications of past failures to address the Haeseni problem.

If it were possible to return to the past and tell the young Peter Sigismundic that he would one day become master over all the known world, the longest-reigning Emperor in history, his response would likely be an incredulous one. An unambitious, content young noble and minor civil official, any aspirations for a greater office, never mind the Imperial throne, would have been unthinkable for the man, even despite his prestigious lineage. However, seeing within him a dormant talent, the political forces of Kaedrin ensured his rise to the throne, and from then on, the world was irreversibly changed. Through war, peace, reform, stagnation, liberality, and iron-fistedness, Peter III forged a new Empire from the fires of the Time of Troubles, finally bringing to Oren the stability and innovation that had been long-opinionated for. Although his mistakes cannot be denied, namely with the Sutican War, his allowance of accursed democratic, liberal institutions, and his unwillingness to resolve the tension between him and Haense before his death, they are far outweighed by his achievements. A victor of the Rubern War, a reformer of the instruments of government, and a visionary whose dreams would continue to guide the Novellen dynasty for generations after his death, Peter III is, undeniably, a unique character in the course of history, one whose legacy shines bolder, and perhaps brighter, than most others.

 

Vale, Peter III ‘the Old’

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5th of Owyn’s Flame, 1704-14th of Sun’s Smile, 1784)

(r. 12th of Harren’s Folly, 1737-14th of Sun’s Smile, 1784)

 


O Ágioi Kristoff, Jude kai Pius. Dóste mas gnósi ópos sas ékane o Theós. Poté min afísoume na doúme to skotádi, allá as doúme móno to fos tis sofías kai tis alítheias. O Theós na se evlogeí.


The co-rule of Empress Anne and Emperor Joseph II shall be covered in our next volume of The Decline and Fall of the Holy Orenian Empire.

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"Ah, yes, more false and inaccurate revisionist history." said the decrepit Charles Galbraith from his bed after being administered his daily dose of laudanum

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A familiar face of the late eighteenth-century, Johanna Pruvia-Albarosa, née Galbraith, was searching for her plans of the Galbraith Estate in the Seven Skies. Such a monstrosity of a building's plans were lost on her ascension to the skies. 

 

"Well, at least it's gone. Figurately and literally." She'd recall the destruction of such an estate.

 

"I am glad that never saw the face of seventeen-eighty..." Johanna remarked on her atrocious design of such an era.

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Derfey, avid geopolitical historian, and #1 fan of the Earl of Suffolk attaches a letter to his pen pal.

 

"The disappearance of Franz Nikolai de Sarkozy following the onslaught of the Sutican war is often a matter for great debate; the matter itself being highly contested in historical analyses of the rise of the Sarkozy Ministry. While this piece assumes that the Sarkozy retired to his home in Kaedrin, there are a few aspects that may prove otherwise. It was widely known that the Sarkozy was an initiate into the Imperial State Army, and largely renowned as a patriotic man. While most dissidents of the war advocated against the conflict by all means, reports show that they ended up participating with the Orenian front at the final charge, regardless. It would not have made sense for Mr. Franz to sit out.

 

Nonetheless, it is the author's opinion that Mr. Franz showed his patriotism in other ways. During the Tanith Vursur scandal, a Ministry of Justice audit into George Galbraith and Franz de Sarkozy's private letters proved that Mr. Franz did profess himself taking on many different personalities. Whether this was due to an inherent problem of his brain, or rather the political stress of the time -- a reocurring personality that Mr. Franz often took was a character by the name of 'Fent Biceps'. Correspondence with Mr. Armas, Minister of Intellegence at the time, revealed that this personality was spotted on the Sutican defensive, in many skirmishes with the Hangmen.

 

Despite how egregious this may sound, the rationale makes perfect sense. Mr. Franz, in adorning the personality of Fent Biceps, only served for his eventual political rise. Should Corwin have won, the eventual surrender of the Empire in full military offensive would have led to the expulsion of Simon Basrid as Archchancellor, sooner allowing for Mr. Franz to elevate through the Diet and initiate his candidacy for the Chancellery, and ultimately Lord Protector (following his eventual planned murder of Philip Augustus, a.k.a, Philip II). Should Mr. Franz, or rather, Fent Biceps, aided Corwin in winning the war against Peter III, it would have cemented his spot in an eventual Josephite-sponsored political coup of the Basrid Ministry."

 

 

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On 8/10/2022 at 5:20 PM, sergisala said:

"Ah, yes, more false and inaccurate revisionist history." said the decrepit Charles Galbraith from his bed after being administered his daily dose of laudanum



The strange substance vanished from Charles Galbraith, it seemed that it was only him that preached falsehoods and inaccuracies with things that bent past reality.

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