THE WINTER CROWS: Volume VIII; Otto III - The Short

[Nectorist 12869]

THE WINTER CROWS: Volume VIII; Otto III - The Short

Written by Demetrius Barrow

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Otto III - The Short

"It is a good thing our minds have blossomed, for it seems our bodies have failed us.” - Prince Robert of Bihar upon hearing news of the army’s defeat in the field against the armies of Renatus, c. 1654
 

The streets of Markev, lively, bustling, and filled with over 30,000 souls, far more than any other city, were the envy of the princes of Atlas, and not just those of Canondom. Fine brick, imported from the Heartlands, was the foundation of each home, even those in the poorer sections of the city. A cold wind whipped through the air- all Haeseni wore heavy cloaks and skins except for a few good weeks in summer- but taverns, libraries, and shops had warm hearths sustained by the endless forests that sprawled outside of the city’s walls. Colder than the spring breeze were the coins that passed from hand to hand, themselves providing an energy that was just as necessary. If commerce boomed, which was almost certain to happen along the great, busy Czena River, all that the home of House Barbanov needed to survive could be obtained.

 

From the Krepost, the dark but calm and inviting palace that championed the city and stood over it as its protector, King Otto III lifted his well-focused gaze for a moment to glimpse at his subjects. Those who had accompanied him to the balcony where he liked to work, which was the highest point in all of Haense, often remarked that the people below looked like mere ants. Otto III had at one time been inclined to disagree, that to he, the King of Hanseti-Ruska, everyone from the peasants to the aristocrats were his to love and cherish, but time on the throne had eroded those early fancies. They were not ants, for the stock of the Hanseti and the Raev were greater than that, but to him they were another species entirely. They were certainly not the King of Haense.

 

Born on the 22nd of Horen’s Calling, 1621, Prince Otto Stefan was the first of what was to be a new era for Haense. The Barbanovs that had come before him had generally lived under three premises that had stood true for all, or they had been born within immediate memory of this time:

 

I) The home of House Barbanov, and the seat of Haense, was St. Karlsburg.

 

II) House Barbanov was but one house among many in the great Empire of Johannia.

 

III) Their obligations as the lieges of the Hanseti and the Ruskans were wholly feudal, and partially reciprocal, in nature: the strength of Haense was built off of its vassals.

 

Otto Stefan, the son of Prince Otto Georg and Princess Eleanor of Lotharingia, knew none of these ‘truths’ of his dynasty. King Stefan I, his cousin, ruled from Alban. St. Karlsburg had been burned many years ago. The Johannian Empire had fallen and was now replaced by the Mardon Empire, far less formidable, yet doomed to a similar fate. The Kings of Haense certainly had to contend with powerful lords, but House Kovachev, their second, had all but fallen, and House Ruthern was yet to truly rise. The power of the Highlands was concentrated in the hands of the monarchy.

 

Growing up in Alban was difficult for Prince Otto. His mother and father were good to him and present, but by the age of three they had suddenly vanished, save for breakfast in the mornings and sometimes late at night, before he went to sleep. His father had taken the crown of Haense to become Otto II, but that meant little to Prince Otto at the time, nor the fact that he was now the heir to the kingdom. Tutors, priests, officers, nobleman, and a confusing haze of other men and women followed him around with every step, but they could not replace the presence of his parents. Each night he cried for them, but they came to quiet him only one night in every ten.

 

The climate of Alban was similarly difficult. Not nearly as robust as his father or grandfather, the younger Prince Otto had at least three serious scares during the frigid winters, where the filthy streets of the Haeseni capital allowed odorous miasmas to climb through his window and infect his lungs. His survival was extraordinary, but it meant that while other children his age played, he was in his bed, covered by four or five blankets, gazing longingly out the frosting window. 

 

"I had been most excited to see my cousin, Otto, but for all the time that we were in the Esenstadt, we were told that we could not see him. A deadly fever had overcome him, and visitors might overwhelm his fragile constitution.” The words of Prince Philippe d’Amaury, a nephew of the now-Queen Eleanor of Haense, provided a stark picture of what the heir to Haense was. His father had been “that little rascal”: a good-natured troublemaker who could bring a smile or a stern look from anyone in the realm. The son was nowhere to be seen.

 

It was in this environment of ill-health, bad weather, and relative isolation that Prince Otto developed his love for books. His physician, Ser Janus Dromph, recorded his first words being spoken at the age of four, but that, a year earlier, he could recognize letters and the words that they made. He wrote that by the time that Prince Otto was six, the royal library “had become a refuge for him, away from his damp and sullen bedroom.” It was said that by the time he was ten, the young prince had read nearly every book in the library, though this is almost certainly an exaggeration. 

 

Prince Otto had a brilliant mind, that much was noted by nearly all of his teachers, but he was dreadfully shy, to the point of almost refusing to speak unless in a private setting. He excelled at history, philosophy, literature, and geography, and was well-read in mathematics and geology. Sword fighting, dancing, poetry, rhetoric, and riding came far less naturally to him. Otto was no slouch, and he applied himself at these things as best as he could, but he would never come to be so much as skilled in any of them. Even worse was the relationships, or lack thereof, that he developed with his peers. Forming close bonds as a prince was difficult enough, but a shy prince meant that those he spoke with were far older than he. This meant that he often spoke with the inflection and mannerisms of someone far beyond his years, which was a humorous touch to a child that was known to never laugh, though the joke was lost upon him.

 

By no means a recluse, Otto Stefan was present at most official ceremonies and court functions, as was his charge as the heir to the throne. Queen Eleanor, a fervent promoter of courtly life, pushed her son to involve himself where he could. When she found him reading a book during a ball, she snatched it away, threw it into a nearby fire, and forced him to dance with one of the daughters of the Margrave of Vasiland. Friction resulted from this, but it never exploded beyond mild, recoverable spats that did not damage a strong bond between mother and son. Willing or otherwise, Otto did as he was told, even if it was infrequently to the satisfaction of the court.

 

Otto Stefan (pic, back, center, left), was briefly thought to be stunted or incapable, given his disappearance from court life, and the events he did attend did not always prove these concerns wrong. However, by the age of fourteen, he was at least comfortable enough to go through the trappings of ritual and ceremony at his mother’s court.

 

Youth and station shielded Prince Otto from the calamities that struck Oren and Haense at that time. The War of the Beards, beginning in 1631, and the ensuing economic trouble and famines, did not personally affect him, though he worried for his father and for the future of the realm. His personal diary, which has only been partially recovered, gives us insight into how he viewed Haense and his place in it during these difficult times.

 

"20, O, 1634 - Defeat! Defeat! It reached mine ears this eve, as mother, brother, sister, and I all took supper together. Hark! Cried the courier, riding to our home with his wings catching the draft of the humors manifested into an odious vapor. At Jornheim we had broke! At Jornheim we had fled! Prithee thee, Lord, that my good King is not dead. He is not, so spake the courier, and thus my pleas to Your Almighty Temple, at whose foot I submit to Your Design, went answered, for it had reckoned in my heart, shaped by diligent and prayerful ponderance, that I do not wish to be a king.”

 

Otto knew best of all that he had lived a sheltered life thus far, one that was protected from the troubles of the war. Thousands of Haeseni fled south or starved, Emperor Peter II’s army was destroyed in the north, and the lands of House Vanir had been overrun by the dwarves and their allies. Boys and girls his age served as squires on the field of battle, while he attended his mother’s dances and salons. The feeling of uselessness ate at him, so he made a rare request: he asked to join his father and his army. Small, thin, suffering from poor health, and still unprepared for war, his parents denied him several times. He would not get his opportunity to march with the army until he was nineteen.

 

Despite his misgivings about his inaction during the war, Prince Otto was building important foundations for his life. His mother’s homeland of Lotharingia had experienced serious decline, and then collapse, in the 1620s. Hundreds of artists, authors, designers, and others with a keen eye for beauty flocked to Queen Eleanor’s court, where they would be embraced and patronized. Otto came into contact with many of these figures, and for the first time in his life he was able to overcome his shyness. Haense had never had a great appreciation for the arts, but the young Otto was fascinated by them. He privately met with over forty three of these Lotharingian virtuosos, engaging them for hours in conversation. With his allowance, he even personally sponsored several, bringing poems, paintings, and pottery to a capital that had seen only darkness in the past few years.

 

1640 was a very important year in Otto Stefan’s life. With Haense caught in yet another war, joined with the successors of the fallen Mardon Empire in a crusade against the Kingdom of Norland and its allies, Queen Eleanor took the opportunity to arrange important marriage ties for her children. Otto’s younger sister, Princess Henrietta, was married to King Frederick of Mardon, while Otto himself and Ingrid de Sarkozy, the heiress to the Prince of Ulgaard, a nobleman with no real principality, but plenty of wealth, were married in absentia. It would not be until 1642 that Ingrid traveled to Haense and met her husband.

 

Of equal importance was the first action that Otto saw in his life. His pleas to join his father’s army were finally approved, as the religious nature of the crusade compelled his parents to allow him to participate. King Otto had already defeated King Javier of Norland at the Battle of Rochdale a year earlier, so the coming campaign, centered around the siege of the Norlandic capital of Vjorhelm, was predicted to be far less perilous. In the winter of 1640, Otto had joined his father in Adelburg, the capital of King Aurelius of Renatus, who had overthrown the Mardon Empire and claimed most of the Heartlands for himself. In the spring, the two Ottos set out together, riding at the head of the crusader army, against Vjorhelm.

 

As they had not spent much time together, the father and son tried to make the most of the time they had on crusade. Unfortunately, their natural interests did not align. Otto the Elder was interested in drinking, fighting, and boasting. Otto the Younger was a teetotaler, had hardly ever used a sword, and retired to his quarters to sketch or read when the night grew late. King Otto’s appreciation for the arts was limited, while Prince Otto’s interest in war was merely as a peculiarity. However, the two of them got along well, and Otto Stefan was taught many things about rulership and the nature of the Haeseni government from his father. It was practical knowledge that could hardly be obtained from a book, so like all his life, Otto Stefan was a curious, inquisitive student who sought to know all that he could.

 

The Siege of Vjorhelm, which lasted from the 15th of Harren’s Folly to the 12th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1641, was a relatively pleasant experience for the crusading army, as far as sieges went. As his father had tried to drill into his head, Prince Otto saw that effective logistics kept their army fed, healthy, and warm. The prince did not participate in any of the fighting himself, and he hardly strayed far from the royal pavilion. He observed his father lead an assault against the walls of the city on the 10th, which was barely repulsed, as well as the general assault that captured the city and ended the crusader with a victory for Canondom. The next day, Otto and a small retinue rode to Adelburg, then to Alban, as the official bearers of the news of victory.

 

As is known to history, a great calamity struck the lands of Axios in 1642, requiring all of its inhabitants to flee to a new land called Atlas. It was at this time that Otto finally met his wife, Ingrid of Ulgaard, the woman to be his queen.

 

Ingrid of Ulgaard is one of the least-known Queens of Haense, a quality she shares with her husband, but seems to have enjoyed some popularity in life. Whether in spite or out of genuine concern for Otto’s lack of geniality, she made an effort to be present in the courts and streets of Haense, earning the respect of several of her contemporaries. She was not particularly charismatic, learned, or politically astute, but no scandals arose during her marriage with Otto, suggesting an impeccable conduct. The marriage itself was cold as arranged marriages usually are: the evidence of any affection between the two is nonexistent, nor does she seem to have been a close confidant of the king. Far from the example that Otto II and Queen Eleanor likely hoped to provide, the division of duty between husband and wife, king and queen, and man and woman, was made apparent.

 

Prince Otto also had a hand in the construction of Markev, showing a greater assertion in royal policy than he ever had. Both St. Karlsburg and Alban had lacked any universities, forcing young noblemen and women to either go to the Heartlands for schooling or hire tutors from there. With a defiance and a resoluteness that he had lacked before, he pressed his father for weeks to permit the construction of a university, which the king finally assented to. The University of Markev became the first of its kind in Haense, greatly improving the education of the aristocracy. Additionally, although not intended by Otto III, several smaller schools soon opened, staffed by professional lecturers who had been educated at the University of Markev, to educate the sons and daughters of the lower nobles, gentry, and rich commoners.

 

With the exception of Belvitz, no one nation had a higher literacy rate than Haense from 1640-1740. While Haense was more a land of skalds than of poets at the time, Otto III’s investment in education produced an upper and middle class that were capable, literate, and well-educated.

 

Otto II died on the 9th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1644, bringing Otto Stefan to the throne as Otto III. He did not speak at his father’s funeral, probably due to another illness, but was present at a canopy built half a mile away to observe it. His silence during the time brought critique, but these murmurings remained just that- murmurings. Few believed he was made of the same material as his father, but to most of the kingdom and beyond he was a complete enigma. Was the calm, calculated face that saw his father lowered into the ground hiding fear and trepidation, or was it a stern determination?

 

It is difficult to look into the mind of Otto III during this time. His diary entries were brief and to the point. On the 12th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1644, he wrote “Spoke with Bihar about new taxes.” He had been prepared extensively enough for the throne, having received as good an education as any could have, and his father had invited his participation in the government after the flight to Atlas. Even if he almost never spoke during council meetings, he had at least been there to absorb the information and comprehend the pressing issues of the day.

 

What ought to have assuaged any fears was the adroit government his father had left behind. In 1642, Prince Robert of Bihar, the son of the great military reformer Prince Heinrik, was appointed as Lord Palatine. Unlike his father, Prince Robert preferred peaceful diplomacy to war, and he, unlike the king, was an elegant, charismatic speaker. It had been Prince Robert who had spoken first at Otto II’s funeral, to great commendation, and in his two brief years as Palatine, it had been he above anyone else who earned the new Otto’s trust. Duke Viktor of Carnatia, although in his elder years, had also remained as Lord Marshal and was an experienced figure to lead the military.

 

To round out the year, Otto and Ingrid’s first child, a healthy boy named Otto Josef, was born on the 12th of Godfrey’s Triumph. A week of celebration was held, which the queen arranged and presided over, as the throne was secured yet again. The king, who attended for a few hours on the final day, noted that he “Enjoyed the festivities of the day.”

 

The next year brought the king’s coronation on the 5th of Sun’s Smile. He conducted himself well, even going on to give a brief speech which, although thought to be “stilted and over-rehearsed” according to one Haeseni newspaper (it is a testament to the free expression that King Otto nurtured that papers at the times could say such things), was generally successful at confirming his royal authority. Letters of congratulations were sent from across the Canonist world, save from Renatus, where posters mocking the Haeseni king’s short stature were disseminated throughout King Aurelius’s realm.

 

Otto led a far quieter reign than his father for its first eight years. With a strong government, nobility, and capital, three things Haense lacked in 1624, he had no immediate need to take to the city streets to personally meet with his people, or to manage nearly every aspect of the government. Prince Robert continued most of Otto II’s policies of rapid land acquisition then redistribution to the nobility, built several small trading ports along the Czena River, and lowered taxes on merchants and artisans moving into Markev for the first five years. Otto III remained informed, but his gaze continued to be on his patronage: from 1644-1652, three more universities were established across the realm and government funding was set aside to sponsor Haeseni-born artists.

 

The prosperity that had begun during the end of Otto II’s reign continued, and while Otto III was not beloved, he was respected by most of his subjects. Those in the government were pleased that he did not interfere in matters that were not his expertise, but was willing to give a firm ruling where he felt confident. He remained mostly out of the public view, only occasionally emerging during important festivals, but within his council he felt comfortable to speak, and usually did so in an intelligent, curious manner. In these times of peace and abundance, this style worked well, though not all was well.

 

First was the decay of the army. The Duke of Carnatia retired from the marshalcy in 1647 because of his advanced age. Ser Geralt Rauen, a well-liked commander from a petty noble family, was chosen to replace him. To a king and a Lord Palatine not used to the nuances of running an army, the decision to elevate Ser Geralt, which was popular at the time, seemed the correct one: he did not come from a large family, thus would not be in the clutches of another faction in Haense, and he had the loyalty of his men. However, while Ser Geralt was a fine knight and battlefield commander, he did not grasp the administration and management needed to turn the army into the fighting force he desired. Despite plenty of funds being allocated to the army, payments routinely came late, supplies were misallocated, and officers did not appear at trainings. Recruitment plateaued and discipline fell, but for the moment the situation was not catastrophic.

 

Second was the loose grip that Otto III had over the nobility. While only Stefan I had truly achieved a strong central government, the other kings had at least cared to reign in the influence of their vassals. After experiencing the disasters of Otto II’s early reign, where a gap in the aristocracy had deprived him of needed officers, bureaucrats, advisors, and landowners, Prince Robert had decided to swing royal policy in the opposite direction. At every turn, the nobility was favored over the gentry and commoner landowners when it came to property disputes, toll rights, and resources rights. The empowered nobility soon forgot their ties to their liege, even if they sung his praises with the rest, and slipped away from his control over time, continually neglecting their duties to the crown.

 

Otto’s next two children, Princess Amalie Natalyia and Prince Karl Marus, were born in 1646 and 1648 respectively. These two births were celebrated as Prince Otto Josef’s had been, but they did nothing to change the state of the royal family. King Otto and Queen Ingrid were not brought any closer by their three children. Both remained distant and cold to each other and their children, and the family was only brought together for formal events that required their complete presence. Popular rumors in the court said that Otto’s children were not his own, and were instead those of one of the knights of his retinue, but these salacious accusations, which only surfaced after his reign, can be credibly disproven.

 

Otto III was never as personally invested in foreign politics as his father and Stefan I were, but events in the Heartlands would force him to return Haense to the global arena. In 1652, King Aurelius received the crown of Marna from Frederick I, who swore beneath him as a simple knight. With the crowns of Renatus and Marna unified under the Pertinaxi, this new realm swelled and grew to encompass nearly all of the Heartlands. Aurelius’s brutal conquest of the Sixth Empire just thirteen years ago had not been forgotten. Thousands had died because of his ambitions, and his armies had only grown more powerful in the past year. A pursuit of conquest radiated from the Pertinaxi warlord, who clearly would not rest until he had restored the Empire under his unforgiving iron fist. It was in light of the danger he posed that the remaining Canonist states resolved to join in an alliance.

 

The Duchy of Curon, the successor of Courland ruled by House Devereux, the successors of the Stauntons, was situated northeast of Haense and was an important trading partner along the Czena River. Further north of them was Santegia, far weaker than it had been at Axios’s end. Both turned to Haense, the most powerful of the three, as a bulwark against Renatus. King Otto, acting with a rare vigor, threw himself into the process. Some of the final advice that his father had given him was a warning against Aurelius, and it was a message that he took to heart. With Prince Robert handling the negotiations, Otto worked to arrange a new alliance against the rising Pertinaxi. On the 13th of Tobias's Bounty, 1653, the Czena Confederation, an alliance between Haense, Curon, and Santegia against Renatus-Marna, was formalized.

 

The Czena Conflict is a difficult one to parse through. It was a brief, indecisive war that only preluded the larger Atlas Coalition Wars, but where it may have lacked great battles, it was rich in diplomatic movement. The Czena Confederation did not have a hope of standing against Aurelius, that much Otto III seemed acutely aware of, but victory on the battlefield did not seem to be the point. From 1653-1655, King Otto organized fifteen different diplomatic missions to Curon, Santegia, Haelun’or, Reiver mercenaries, and Norland, the last of these was nominally a Pertinaxi vassal but had slipped from their grasp ever since the flight to Atlas. If the Czena Confederation could stand up against Renatus-Marna for long enough, perhaps the rest of the world would see that the unstoppable Aurelius was, in fact, mortal.

 

The first test of the Czena Confederation came quickly after its formation. On the 27th and the 30th of Tobias’s Bounty, raiding parties from Renatus's southern marcher lords struck at Markev and Cyrilsburg, the capital of Curon, respectively. At Markev, Otto III observed the battle from atop the city’s walls, bravely subjecting himself to arrow fire and inspiring the men who fought to keep the city from being looted. The Haeseni army, around 3,000 strong under Ser Geralt Rauen, put the 1,700 Renatians to flight, only losing 200 soldiers in the battle and keeping most of the city, with the exception of a few homes outside of its walls, intact. Cyrilsburg fared far worse: its city guard was overrun in an hour, and the Renatian raiders looted and burned over half of the city before reinforcements arrived to drive them back.

 

These small-scale, relatively low-casualty raids defined the Czena Conflict. Dozens of towns, farms, and small keeps were sacked and looted across both sides of the border, though the brunt fell heaviest on Curon, whose armies simply could not match the Renatians. Haense suffered as well, but Otto had used his booming treasury to raise and outfit a light cavalry unit that could quickly respond to threats from raids. At the same time, Prince Robert ordered the construction of seven “reserve hamlets”, which were small, well-defended communities located five miles from the border that could house vulnerable populations for the duration of the war. The economic damage that resulted from the war, especially from the expenses to maintain it, were serious, but its worst effects were mitigated.

 

Another Renatian army attacked Markev on the 5th of Horen’s Calling, 1654. This time the Renatians, bringing a larger host of 2,500 to bear, defeated Ser Geralt and his 3,500-strong army out in front of the walls of the city. King Otto, again watching from the walls, had reluctantly agreed to let Ser Geralt give battle to the Renatians outside the walls, but he had failed to deploy his household guard when the battle was turning for the worse. Relentless after their victory, the Renatians were able to advance inside when the retreating Haeseni forgot to close the gates. Nearly all of the city was ransacked and set ablaze, and the king and his family were nearly captured, but an uprising from the city’s peasantry was able to throw back the Renatians at the last moment. Great sums of coin were spent repairing the city and strengthening its defenses, but the raid on Markev had, for the first time, brought some of the war’s most devastating consequences to those in the capital. Little did they know that the events of 1655 would make 1654 seem desirable by comparison.

 

The year already began inauspiciously when Cyrilsburg was sacked yet again on the 2nd of Sigismund’s End and two of Haense’s reserve hamlets were destroyed in raids, sending several hundred refugees fleeing into Markev. Oral legend tells that, during the night that one of these hamlets was attacked, a black star with the face of a red goat could be seen in the night sky, bestowing an ill-omen. Other tales say that, as the refugees moved south to the capital, summer rains caused a series of mudslides, which trapped them and filled their lungs, bringing poor humors onto the survivors. Still more say that the Renatians had a man who was deathly ill with a plague among their ranks and sent him with the retreating Haeseni to infect them. 

 

Whatever the true story was, what came of this crisis was another one: the Great Plague of 1655. It first took during the summer, primarily those whose homes had been burned during the prior year’s raid, as they lived in “shanty towns” that had been hastily-constructed within the walls in the aftermath. Like a torrential wildfire, the plague spread quickly throughout the poorer districts, but it was not contained there for long. The expansion of the Great Plague could be marked by the bodies that lined the streets, for the disease took and killed quickly. Ser Symeon Shirver, one of King Otto’s physicians sent to study the outbreak, described the symptoms:

 

"[The plague] was not detected until it was too late for the victim. Swelling around the throat and most joints was the first sign of its presence. Two to three days after that, they would refuse food and water, displaying a clear and evident fear of both. Most victims would perish from thirst or starvation, rather than the disease itself, but those who lived long enough to fall into a coma, and be fed from there, would develop boils and lesions across the body three days after. It would only be another ten to twelve hours from there that they lived.”

 

Domestic collapse was the last thing that Otto needed. His allies in Curon and Santegia had already been dithering: the war had gone poorly since 1653 and Aurelius had begun floating offers to the two to switch their allegiance to him. Frantically, Prince Robert sent more envoys to the two, desperate to keep them in the fight, as well as to Norland, urging them to finally rebel. Duke Alfred of Curon entertained the idea, as he was a stauncher ally to Haense than King Leo of Santegia, but the Great Plague that year brought a close to all ports along the Czena River. Duke Alfred withdrew his armies and closed his cities, effectively withdrawing from the war and avoiding the plague. The King of Santegia, who had hardly been willing to send his armies beyond his borders, agreed to a truce with Aurelius and allowed his conscripted men to return to their fields.

 

While Otto III would pioneer the building of coalitions to face the Pertinaxi Empire- five coalitions would follow the Czena Confederation over the next fifty years- he made crucial oversights from the very beginning that made it far too weak to seriously confront Renatus. Firstly, he had critically misjudged just how unprepared his allies were for a war. Curon’s army was poorly-equipped, forcing Haense to send massive amounts of war material and money to keep them outfitting. Santegia’s army was no greater than a thousand. Haelun’or and Norland simply lacked the will to go to war, so they did not. Secondly, neither he, nor Prince Robert, nor the Lord Marshal, had developed a central strategy or objective to rally their coalition around. The greatest of Renatus’s crimes at that point had been border transgressions, so what resulted was a border war, which Aurelius’s forces were best-equipped to win.

 

The war would not officially end until the following year, but by 1655 it was effectively over. Haense had sustained moderate damage, especially along its northern border, but it would be disease, not war, that plunged the realm into the “Dark Decades”. Trade slowed to a halt, the court of the Krepost came to a stop under the command of Queen Ingrid, and thousands fled the city while thousands more died. Modern studies put Markev’s 1651 population at 52,000, but in 1656 it had fallen to 16,000. The promised golden age, a path that the realm had undoubtedly been set upon by Otto II, was coming to a rapid and deadly close.

 

King Otto attempted to organize relief efforts as the plague spread across nearly every corner of Haense, even reaching neighboring realms such as Renatus-Marna, Curon, Ostmark, and Rivia, which saw outbreaks themselves. Unfortunately, with revenues from tariff and taxes falling, and the nobility refusing to venture to Markev, instead preferring their distant estates where safety could be found, the money for it simply was not there. The king tried to utilize the army to build ‘plague homes’ to quarantine the infected population, but when Ser Geralt Rauen died of the plague on the 21st of Harren’s Folly, 1655, order in the ranks of the soldiery collapsed. Most deserted and fled to defend their own lands from Renatian raids and disease, others looted the abandoned homes of Markev and other towns across Haense. Local magistrates and nobles begged the Crown for aid from these bandits and marauders, but with the army’s numbers having fallen to (officially) 1,300 soldiers, and no peace in hand, Prince Robert could only advise the conscription of local commoners for city defense.

 

The Great Plague of 1655 remains one of history’s deadliest. Reliable estimates are hard to come by, but modern historians believe that around one million perished from the disease, mostly in Haense, Ostmark, Rivia, southern Marna, and Curon. The mortality rate is thought to have been upwards of ninety five percent.

 

Ser Geralt was not the only one to die that year. Queen Ingrid fell to the plague three weeks after him, on the 11th of Sigismund’s End. There were not enough servants nor funds to hold an elaborate funeral for her, and the raging plague made any ceremony unsafe, so a private service was held within the Krepost for her family. Ingrid of Ulgaard was either twenty six or twenty nine at the time, but even her early death did not relieve her husband from his duties so he could mourn, for his collapsing realm demanded every moment of his attention, even if by now there was little that he could do. In his own words, said a few days after the queen’s funeral, “only God may place us in the grace of Fortune now.”

 

Even if he had tried to grieve for his late wife, tragedy would strike too soon again for the king. Two weeks after, on the 20th of Sigismund’s End, Prince Otto Stefan, heir to the realm, was also dead by the plague. Little is known about Prince Otto to history, but oral tradition from the southern mountain clans tells a tale of the prince departing the realm to marry a ‘Princess of the Seals’ whom he had fallen in love with. While considered one of the most beautiful tales in Haeseni oral history, Princess of the Seals was likely a rationalization of the traumatic events of the time, a small, bright point of hope in what many thought was the end of Haense entirely.

 

The final blow dealt to the realm that year was the death of Otto III. His symptoms first developed on the 24th of Owyn’s Flame, 1655, but by then he was already a dead man. Most of the doctors and nurses that attended to him died of the plague themselves, leaving behind lost and unrecovered notes. Only Father Martin of Belvitz, who was the king’s confessor, lived to remark anything about his state at the time, but his notes “pale” and “gasping for life” do not paint a complete picture. Even King Otto’s last words are lost to time. We know that he died just before midnight on the 29th of Owyn’s Flame, 1655, “choking up bile before suffocating on it”. It was a grisly death, one that haunted those who were present for it, and was a harrowing symbol of the infection that had set in in Haense.

 

A private funeral was just barely permissible for Queen Ingrid, but, no matter the circumstances, custom could not be violated for the king. Most of the survivors of Markev feared to attend, so fewer than 1,000 witnessed the somber, bleak affair that was Otto III’s funeral. To a trembling, spare crowd, Prince Robert’s oration began touchingly, but soon it descended into disaster.

 

"Our country, made in the scourge of war in the Highlands, has not yet fallen and it never shall. Our bold Otto, who stood bravely against the might of Renatus as his father did before, must be avenged. May we not forget the fires of our northern forests, our brothers and sisters cast from their homes, or the dark miasma that fills our streets. For the sake of His Majesty, we must, we will, overcome the evils that have unjustly been wrought upon us by the forces of-” It was at this point that the Lord Palatine began to cough furiously, a fit which did not abate after five minutes. He then slumped over at the stage and had to be carried off by attendants. Prince Robert, too, had contracted the plague. Miraculously, he did not die, but for three months he battled the illness within him, and while he emerged alive, he was severely weakened. For the sake of his health, he was forced to resign from his position.

 

For the young Karl Marus, a seven year old boy who was now called King Karl II, a kingdom without a Palatine was a crow without its wings. 

 

Dravi, Otto III ‘The Short’

22nd of Horen’s Calling, 1621-29th of Owyn’s Flame, 1655

(r. 9th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1644-29th of Owyn’s Flame, 1655)

 

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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.

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The reign of Karl II shall be covered in the next volume of The Winter Crows.