Vege

1 minute ago, Pyro™ said:

The Emperor sends men to garrison Lorraine.

Tobias sends out men to battle the Emperor's reinforcements.

TO ALL HONEST MEN

A missive is delivered across all cities, towns, villages and fiefdoms of the Empire. It is pressed into the palms of advisors close to every noble-man. It promises amnesty and independence to all those who have now seen the faults of the Empire.

Courlandic forces return from the Battle of the Gorge, dated 9th of the Grand Harvest, 1593

TO ALL MEN OF THE EMPIRE:

Not since time immemorial have the forces of our once exalted Empire been vanquished upon the open field. Even under the Emperor Johannes I in the War of Eighteen Years the Empire reigned triumphant upon the field in all of their encounters. This boy who plays at being Emperor - this tyrant who inhabits the halls of his ancestors and disgraces their name - he has failed them.

His flagrant disrespect for the name of GOD and His will has resulted in this victory; the Lord is on the side of good, justice, and honest men; and those men have triumphed this day. Yet, it is the Lord’s teaching that we be merciful to our enemies or opponents, magnanimous and gracious in victory.

Thus do we extend this offer to all whom have now seen the weakness and flaws of this crowned ruffian exposed, for above all we do desire peace and justice: join us now and be embraced by the side of righteous men. To all who have been deceived until now and find themselves open to the truth: we do not seek to punish, but help you. There shall be no punishment for those who have opened their eyes.

Embrace the cause of GOD and you shall retain your lands - free from the tyrannical yoke of this Emperor and the noose that he tightens daily about the necks of good men who seek to live without fear. Embrace the cause of justice and you shall be rewarded a place in the long hall of history devoted to those men who put a greater cause above themselves. Embrace the cause of righteous men and you shall emerge victorious.

We do not seek to harm, but to aid. We will not abuse, but free. We come with open arms, and only hope that you embrace us likewise.

FERDINAND OF ALDERSPORT,

Scribe to the King of Courland

"Sometimes, the Lion needs to show the Jackals who he is." - Aleksander Staunton before the battle of 1593.

THE FIRST PHILIPPIC

The Philippic Court, dated 14th of The Grand Harvest, 1591 | Benedict Charlefils

The Empire of Man has been seized by sheer misfortune in the events of this last tyrant; it is ill-luck that a line of such noble and competent men should be inherited by a young braggart who ruins his inheritance and blackens the name of all honest folk across this holy realm. Up until then the realms of our forefathers have attempted, in all their dealings, to be honest and upstanding - respectful to GOD. Are we then to presume that this is not punishment but instead a test of our integrity from the Lord, to judge how we respond to an ignoble man disgracing his titles?

The gross incompetence displayed by Philip Frederick can go unnoticed for any longer; his dealings with all of his subjects have been motivated by the unhinged tickings of a mind that is unused to any skillful governance, not by the careful reasoning and common sense that we have the right to expect of our sovereign. His endless persecution of his subjects out of a paranoid fear that one day they might bear arms against his tyrannical regime seems to know no bounds.

He, for I do not desire to further poison this piece with his disturbed name, has repeatedly spat upon the rights of a once proudly independent church, meddling in the affairs of its august body in the worst manner since the King Guy. No more can we even claim to have upheld the independence of the Vicar of GOD, whose power was once sanctified and so great to bring evil men toppling to the floor, given how we have stood aside and allowed him to trample over the noble institution; acting as if he were a child who, denied a prize, throws curses and spittle about a room.

Never before has a man ruled with such impunity in his desire to see government bound beneath a single man. Never before have the rights of the aristocracy, once upheld proudly as a sign of a man’s adherence to our race’s customs, been trampled upon so thoroughly. Never before have we seen such an autocrat who defies the traditions of our nation with such desire for personal power.

This power is not even used wisely or well - instead it is devoted to the promotion of incompetent bureaucrats and minor nobles whose overwhelming trait is a mindless devotion to the tyrant - not even the institution of the Empire comes first. This corruption pervades through the system of our government like a foul stench, spreading uncontrollably, blatantly obvious to even the passing observer. Once Emperors would reform such structures, appointing able men to revolutionise the running of archaic systems. Instead this imposter removes those who prove themselves able out of fear, swaddling himself further in the protection of those sycophants who do naught but nod to all of his queries, and exiling men who should be at the greatest levels of this realm to far-flung corners.

Never before has a man so thoroughly spat upon the good name built up for him by his ancestors and done so much work to ruin it. Not in human history has a ruler ruined his inheritance so thoroughly - it is shame heaped upon shame that our true Emperor now languishes in the Seven Skies, unable to act as his younger brother lays ruin to a once incandescent empire.

Clearly the practise of wedding cousin to cousin has not fared well for this line given the results we see before us of a man who is, in truth, no good man. It is a dishonest man, a man who is greedy with a heart gripped by the clutches of avarice. A man who is incompetent and paranoid, unable to control the power of the state out of fear that he may be betrayed. A man whose most prominent traits are his pride and cruelty, so much that he slaughters without compunction.

Let us not forget the slaughter that was visited upon the men of Savoy for their piety, and the murderous intent with which he persecuted them. Let us not forget the blood debt owed by this Empire for the butchery of Courlanders. Let us not forget that the man who rules now is a shadow of his predecessors, a puppet to his own impotence and fear.

Thus do I condemn Philip Frederick.

FERDINAND OF ALDERSPORT

THE BATTLE FOR METZ

The Slaughter at Westmark , dated 7th of Sun’s Smile, 1563 | Ferdinand of Aldersport

“Our cause is that of the freedom of man, the eternal battle for liberty, the long arc of justice that winds its way from oppression towards a land of the emancipated; a land where our traditions are held in the hands of good and honest men, installed there by the hand of the Lord. This is the cause of not only our battle but the cause of all of man; the cause that turns the hearts of men to fire in a righteous fury to see once again the lands of the forefathers returned unto them.

It is a truth now, though it has not always been so, that those men who see themselves as born to rule without oversight, and for others to obey without question, have grown lazy and avaricious in their pursuit of greater power. Their minds have been poisoned by their own self-aggrandizement and rendered unfit for any measure of sane governance in the eyes of all men that they demand serve them.

Indeed we can observe that the men who seize for themselves self-governance prove by the collective strength of their arms to be far more suited to the rigours of governance than the great-grandsons of such men who reign, polluted by their heightened opinion of their own lineage, in great ruin and brings the homeland of all honest men into great disrepute in the eyes of GOD through evil acts.

Of more worth to the cause of man and GOD, entwined in this blessed endeavour to return the land of man to honest rule, is a single man who raises arms in provoked anger at the damage done to our race, than of all the retinue who serve such a villain who dares to invoke the name of his most glorious ancestors by his own. Our own eyes teach us the lesson now that we have failed to learn for so many years that virtue is not inherent in blood, but rather in a man’s ability to do well by his memory of such ancestors.

The sun, a system now banished from our realms as imagery, but once associated with a noble King that brought glory to the name of all men, has never smiled upon an endeavour of more import to the continuance of man than this. If we are truly to redeem our name after the horrors and abuses made by this boy who disgraces the line of Horen then such a battle rests in our cause and none other.

Our fight is not to replace one masked tyranny with another, nor to enslave man once again to a nameless horror. Our fight is not to rip apart the sinews of a nation and upend the lives of all honest folk in a mindless desire to see suffering. Our fight is not motivated by avarice or desire for the trappings of power. Our fight is to free a nation in bondage to a power that disgraces the name of GOD and once again see rule cast into the hands of righteous men who rule with common sense.

Inherent in our struggle, though, is a baser conflict - one that to hide and put aside would be base and dishonest. We fight to spill the blood of an oppressor who has similarly spilt the blood of our kin; our desire has contained within it the urge to see the fathers of any and every man who has stood against tyranny and injustice, whatever form it should take, avenged. Our battle, the struggle of all honest men, is of vengeance for the fallen; emancipation for the downtrodden; the resumption of rule by good men.”

The small force was not one easily inspired by words. The men hailed from all corners of a land that had ceased to know an easy living: scarred warriors worn by years of hard graft and struggle, farmers and craftsmen whose calloused hands betrayed an experience with the blade that they did not feel, young boys who felt a deep desire for vengeance that burned within them where nothing had burned before. They knew true hardship that nobles did not, the struggle to feed a mewling babe that cries out by the cold hearth; the battle with nature to do well by your family against all odds.

Yet these words were not any words, the type that is common currency in the street, they wore words fuelled by a deep desire to see good done: words that seemed to leave a trail in the wake that dared men to speak against them - dared them to challenge such truths that should be accepted universally. They were words that roused deep emotions. The host roared their approval to the grinning soldier who stood above them, his arms lofted daringly in the air, seeming to hold up the sight behind him.

Above them stood the lands of Metz.

WARCLAIM

Tier: 1

Type of Battle: Skirmish

Date / Time: 14/1/17, 2PM EST

Sides:

A: House Staunton and Allies

B: Holy Orenian Empire and Allies

LOCATION

Direct Area: https://gyazo.com/59e96c81f690e4d4670db2c19cb283e7

Wider Area: https://gyazo.com/1778848b136b0d3996b12822b1febc42

TERMS OF VICTORY

For Attackers-

If the defenders are killed, driven from the field, fail to attend.

For Defenders-

If the attackers are killed, driven from the field, fail to attend.

AFTER VICTORY

For Side A-

The House of Staunton takes control of the Duchy of Lorraine

For Side B-

A counter-attacked can be declared. The House Staunton forces cannot launch another offensive campaign on Metz for two weeks.

RULES

- No status switching,

- No golden apples,

- If the defenders do not attend, they implicitly forfeit and attackers win,

- No modifications can be made to the castle from time of this post,

- No TNT