Lord Philip and Captain Maxim

[LithiumSedai 4837]

By Sister Calliope Renata (Blessed Calliope of Merryweather), 1910

Published posthumously by the House of Alstreim in 1958

 

 

Memorial to the Fallen Nauzicans and the Hero-City of Haverlock, c. 1910, Almaris

 

 

The Siege of Haverlock was the penultimate battle of the Sinners’ War, a conflict which embroiled almost the entirety of the Realm of Almaris in the latter half of the nineteenth century. In 1860, an Imperial force of roughly fifteen thousand men, led by the schismatic Emperor Philip III “Fratricida” Novellen and his Marshal, Hugo van Aert, encircled and besieged to ultimate success a garrison of some thirteen thousand soldiers of the Tripartite Accord, an anti-Imperial coalition forged by Haense and Urguan and consisting of numerous other nations and factions.

 

Among these was the Nauzican Brigade, an insurrectionist force numbering a thousand trained knights at its peak, dedicated to overthrowing Philip III on the behalf of Prince Leopold John Alstion, the most notable rival claimant to the Imperial throne. A reversal of wartime luck which led to the Siege of Haverlock prevented the Brigade from fomenting a full-scale uprising against Philip III; all of its members perished in a last stand at Haverlock. The most notable among them was Maxim of Attenlund, an Alstion loyalist from Haense - the Brigade’s commander. The fallen Nauzicans also numbered Lord William Corwin of Alba, the brother of Prince Leopold; and Prince Ulrich Lothar of Alstreim, the Grand Knight of Savoy and the author’s father. Though Philip III had ordered the city to be burned and his forces to abandon the fallen Nauzicans to the carrion crows, a group of clergymen sent by the Canonist Church retrieved, identified, and buried the bodies with proper rites afforded soon after the battle.

 

The legend of the Nauzican martyrs and the so-called “Hero-City of Haverlock” featured greatly in the Alstion restoration in the Heartlands and the founding myth of the Kingdom of Aaun. In 1892, the author of this poem raised a memorial to the fallen Nauzicans by the ruins of Haverlock.

 

 

There at the bloody Siege of Haverlock

Did Lord Philip breach the city ramparts;

Into the very heart of the township

He led a host of twenty thousand men.

And in the city square before him stood

A man clad head to toe in jet-black plate

And his name was Maxim of Attenlund:

He commanded the Nauzican Brigade.

Facing Philip, he went forth with a blade,

And behind him followed four hundred knights;

High they raised the Banner of the Dragon.

 

Thus spoke Philip, and with Maxim pleaded:
“O great Maxim, Hero of the Southbridge,

Before you stands Philip, chosen by chance

To lead Oren by the will of her folk;

And the might that I command was given

For I rule through wisdom and devotion

So have I earned the loyalty of all.
Cast, thus, your blade before me, o Maxim,

And bid your men to bend the knee at once;

When from the north we drive the Haeseni

Your House will govern their lands in my name.”

 

Then replied Maxim, brave and defiant:

“O foul Philip, accursed kinslayer,

I am Maxim, Captain of the Brigade

And to no enemy my hand shall yield.

Though you have breached these walls of Haverlock

And slain the heroes of Haense and Sedan,

The Nauzica shall never bend the knee

Nor shall I cast my blade before your feet;

Above you and the loyalty you ask

Ranks the resolve of a Nauzican knight

And my vow to the men of the Brigade.”

 

To that cried Philip, of him requesting:
“O good Maxim, Captain of the Brigade,

Before you stands Philip, ordained by fate

To lead Oren by right of his bloodline;

And the might that I command was acquired

For the House of Novellen rules by right

So have I earned the lordship over Man.
Cast, thus, your blade before me, o Maxim,

And bid your men to bend the knee at once;

In my grand mercy your lives shall be spared

And with your banners and arms you shall leave.”

 

Then replied Maxim, brave and defiant:

“O vain Philip, usurper of Oren,

I am Maxim, Captain of the Brigade

And to no enemy my hand shall yield.

Though you have breached these walls of Haverlock

And slain the heroes of Haense and Sedan,

The Nauzica shall never bend the knee

Nor shall I cast my blade before your feet;

Above you and all the honors you ask

Ranks my fealty to the Alstion cause 

And my vow to the rightful Emperor.”

 

To that sneered Philip, of him demanding:

“O vile Maxim, worm in service of Alstion,

Before you stands Philip, God above Man,

Who leads Oren as Aurelius did;
And the might that I command is mine

For my blood is of His Divine conquest:

Hear, I will stamp Terra beneath my boot.

Cast, thus, your blade before me, o Maxim,

And bid your men to bend the knee at once;

As slaves you shall be cast in iron chains

To grovel before Pertinax Reborn.”

 

Then replied Maxim, brave and defiant:

“O schismatic Philip, spawn of Iblees,

I am Maxim, Captain of the Brigade

And to no enemy my hand shall yield.

Though you have breached these walls of Haverlock

And slain the heroes of Haense and Sedan,

The Nauzica shall never bend the knee

Nor shall I cast my blade before your feet;

Above you and the worship you demand

Ranks my devotion to the Mother Church

And my love for the Creator, our Lord!”

 

 

 

[valecu 2017]

Eleanor, the most fervent and earliest of the Alstion Restorationists, reminiscences of the times lost. Many summers ago when she had sworn herself to this great and glorious cause of returning the Johannian inheritance. Her eyes filled with tears and memories engulfed her mind, as she and her love, Charles, dotted upon their successors from above, the Seven Skies. Had they secured the future of the Johannians and Alstions alike, this worried her deeply, knowing that the wheel of humanity was not kind to any. @seannie