JoanOfArc

Helen Basrid went through the endless paper work that there was for the Inquisition. But then she can across one particular inquiry. An inquiry regarding (or perhaps from) the Barony of Acre. She, particularly, noticed one inquiry regarding the Barony of Acre that had both the Lord Inquisitor's and her eye on and would monitor as events unfolded...

Helen Athna felt a chill go over her spine. The Paladin was unable to even sleep with the darkness that filled her head with dread. But most importantly, HE was he. She began to quickly scribble a letter to the chaptermasters of the Paladin Order. Once she was done with her report, however, she heard the laughter. She was too late. A minute later, there was silence. There was no Helen. No paper. And no peace.

>1 month @Werew0lf

Justinian Nafis sent a letter to the esteemed cousin of Malik with a request of spring water. He could really go for some in this summer heat.

Justinian Basrid sent a map and letter to the King of Hanseti-Ruska detailing a historically """"accurate"""" route to the """"continent""" of Aeldin. There was some details off to the side explaining how none of the nations have any information about them except for weird a Horen-Marna cadet branch like the one from Arkent. The letter, written in paragraphs and edited by Adolphus Gloriana, is excerpted below: "[..]Furthermore, while the Aeldinic Empire does not exist, despite as some within the scholastic field would suggest, they also loop in the nation of Oyashima to the continent. The Shogunate of Oyashima, however, is real. I recommend going through the nation of Cathant and being smuggled across the border. There are a lot of words to describe the Oyashiman people, and tolerant is not one of them. And consider visiting my family's homeland of Akritios not attached to this fantasy continent[...]" The letter continues on for many more words.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HOLY ORENIAN EMPIRE: Volume II; The Fall of the Pertinaxi Written by Justinian Nafis, heir to the County of Susa and Adolphus Gloriana, Earl of Suffolk, Prince of Sutica The Fall of the Pertinaxi “A sea of flames engulfs the Empire. It will be the ruin for many, but for us it shall be our fortune. We ride for Ves at dawn. Our new kingdom awaits.” - King Adrian I of Kaedrin to the Caer Bann Company Despite their victory in the War of the Two Emperors, the Pertinaxi Dynasty would not live for much longer. Led by two boy-Emperors, serving as mere puppets, the Empire from 1721-1725 experienced a quick and severe breakdown of Imperial authority, giving room for several ambitious actors to stake their own claim within the fracturing Empire. The power struggles that emerged between the central Imperial government and its subjects would further divide humanity, inviting in schemes, plots, and betrayals at nearly every corner. By the time of Emperor John VII’s downfall (and likely death) in 1725, the Empire had been pushed to the brink of civil war, having seemingly learned nothing from the bloodshed of the cataclysmic War of the Two Emperors that had ended only four years earlier. The Empire of Godfrey II was the undisputed power of Arcas in the aftermath of the War of the Two Emperors. Although no corner of the human realms was left untouched, either directly or indirectly, by the war, the defeated parties undoubtedly suffered the worst. Ves had undergone a government overhaul; Leuven, Guise, and other smaller rebel holdings had been laid to waste, Haense had seen its countryside burned; and Curon’s power had broken at the Great Siege of Helena. Despite the Empire’s relatively weak status, no competition remained. The Emperor’s regency council would have to meet the task of restoring the Empire to its position of prominence and ensure that the roving Marnan bands still plaguing the roads were put down. Before any action could be taken, the council was dealt a serious blow with the departure of Edvard Edvardsson, who had reigned as King of Norland in the aftermath of the deaths of King Alvar I and his son. Dissolving the Kingdom of Norland, Edvard departed from the Empire, setting out north. His departure was soon followed by that of the Sohaer, Dimaethor Visaj, who had a realm of his own to care for now that the war had ended. For similar reasons, Pierce Devereaux, who had ascended to the Curonian throne as Peter I in 1720 after the deposition of his cousin, Alfred II, also left. With the regency council disbanded, the Emperor’s father, Romulus, Duke of Cascadia, was invested with the sole regency of the Empire. According to rumors obtained by Sasha of Helena, who miraculously survived the Great Siege of Helena by hiding in a bathtub, the regency of the Duke of Cascadia was marked by extreme vice and extravagance, with the regent exercising his full powers to enrich his own coffers and entertain his personal wants. However, archives from the period suggest that he played an active role in the reconstruction and restoration of Helena and the surrounding Crownlands, and that he oversaw the restoration of the Canonist Church, which had split down factional lines during the war. In an acolyte’s report, the regent frequently visited the Pontifical Council of Ves as they discussed the terms of the church’s reunification. Eventually, a candidate believed to appeal to both the Pertinaxi and Marnan factions within the church was raised, Guy Haas, a local Vesian priest who was well-respected throughout the Empire. Taking the name Daniel VI, the new Pontiff set about repairing the church's fractures while also laying the groundwork for a series of radical reforms aimed at modernizing the church. Despite the regent’s diligence, or perhaps due to his lack thereof, the sources vary wildly, the Empire’s instability only grew. In 1723, bread riots in Ves broke out, eventually leading to an attempt to overthrow the city government, forcing the Pertinaxi-backed Prince Ide Haraccus to flee the city. In the power vacuum left behind, Prince-Procurator Helton Helvets and Richard de Reden, captain of the Caer Bann company, seized control of the city. While both men had been staunch Marnans, they assured the Imperial regent that they had no grievance against the Empire and wished to serve as leal subjects. Sufficiently placated, the Duke of Cascadia approved of the elections that made Helton Helvets the Prince of Ves. In the summer of 1723, two clerics, Msgr. Simon Basrid and Sinjin, Cardinal St.-John, appeared at the Imperial court, offering their services to the regent. Both men had been active in the local politics of Ves, and enjoyed a healthy reputation within the city. In dire need of officials at almost every level of government, the regent readily accepted their services. Basrid moved up the ranks swiftly, with a variety of sources remarking on his wisdom, foresight, diligence, humility, and patience. However, other sources contend with this assertion, chief among them Stepan de Rosieres, author of The Truth of the Devil from the Sands: The Life of the Wretched Villain Simon Basrid. De Rosieres writes: "His ugly scowl frightened the court children, for it was said that even a devil would fear to look upon his face. His tongue forked, his eyes were more snake than human, and he flaunted his dark magics wantonly, often protruding flames from his eyes and allowing dark wisps to coil about his arms like a viper." Whatever the case, Simon Basrid’s ascent would only continue, though for his idolized status today, he must first thank his initial posting in the Cascadia Regency. Also emerging to the forefront of Imperial politics was the young Adrian de Sarkozy, the future Lord Protector of the Empire, and ancestor of the Novellen Dynasty. However, during the reign of Emperor Godfrey II, he was merely a minor noble under the watchful eye of the Imperial government. Born a bastard son of Josip ‘the Mad’, Duke of Adria in 1693, Adrian is first recorded in history as a bannerman and minor commander under the Marnan cause during the War of the Two Emperors. He had been captured during a skirmish outside of Leuven and subsequently had his hand removed (some sources report that he had taken the name ‘Beren de Renzfeld’ as a way to avoid death if he were captured). As part of the terms of his release, he agreed to not raise arms against the Pertinaxi again. While he had been an enemy of the Empire mere years before, by 1721 there was a dire need for competent, able lords, as many had been killed during the war. Adrian de Sarkozy was given a plot of land to an Imperial colony far to the northeast, named Temesch, where he and his retinue established a fort. However, after a series of devastating skirmishes with tribal elves in the area, Sarkozy requested lands in a more inhabitable locationarea. His request was granted, and in 1722 he was rewardedgranted the Barony of Renzfeld, a small tract of land just outside of Helena. Crucial to many of Sarkozy’s initial successes was his connections with former veterans of the Marnan cause. These veterans were drawn mostly from the gentry, peasantry, and minor nobility, and due to their low status, they had mostly avoided reprisal after the end of the war, and now, with much of the core of the Imperial nobility having been killed, there was plenty of room for upwards mobility for ambitious young men and women. Among his supporters was the de Ruyter family, a gentry house that enjoyed some renown for the knights it produced. It was this crowd of hedge knights, minor courtiers, bureaucratic middlemen, and wealthy peasants that flooded into his settlement at Renzfeld, eager for opportunities that could not be found in the major cities of Ves, Reza, and Helena. Soon, the city of Renzfeld was growing at a rapid rate, and many in the Imperial capital feared it would soon rival Helena itself. The city of Renzfeld, in the year of 1723, began the custom of holding the festival of "Tischgesellschaft''. Translated from Waldenian, the meaning of the name is "Dinner Party'' which already shows the euphoric nature of the practice. Strange to even the Pertinaxi of the time, Renzfeld incorporated many foreign neo-Waldenian and even elven rituals within this festival. While parts of the festival are lost to us, the druidic historian, poet, and playwright Kaia Faust (a disowned Basrid of great renown) attempted to organize a chronological order of events and details pertaining to them therein. When the festival started, the men would go around the city with whips to find women, both married and unmarried, and whip them to increase their fertility. Despite the rather aggressive nature of the practice, Faust notes that the women of Renzfeld heavily endorsed the fertility ritual and were ostracized by the nobility of the capital for such barbaric acts. After the fertility ritual was finished, nobles of all statuses partook in a great tournament with jousting and melee beneath statues of a wolf and a boar. According to Faust, she believes a connection to the Ithelanens and Renzfeld was made dutifully obvious by these statue depictions being clearly the wolf and boar mani respectively. Though no other historians have noted an equivalence, King Kairn Ithelanen remarked that Adrian’s mother "was a woman of his own breed". The true meaning of the statement is as open to debate as most took the statements as literal at the time of the quote. No retractions from the king were ever made either. We may never know if Adrian's mother was an Ithelanen or if the statues were mani, but we do know that King Kairn was present at the first Tischgesellschaft. After the day of the joust was completed, a week-long banquet was held in which every food and pleasure was endorsed. Nothing taboo was declared, and women of the night were frequently seen in the halls and dinner tables. There was a clear lack of information purposefully provided by on-goers. One dubious source mentioned by Faust is that there was an affair between a Helvetii woman and Adrian at the first Tischgesellschaft, while another more reliable source mentions that Adrian publicly rebuked any attempts by the Helvetii woman and other women of the night. The latter was more likely to be true. An artist depiction of the only recorded joust of the first Tischgesellschaft, between Andrik III and Adrian de Sarkozy. The first Tischgesellschaft of 1723 was by far the greatest of them all. Faust notes that almost every person of renown attended the great tournament of the day: Emperor Godfrey II, High Pontiff Daniel VI, King Andrik III of Haense, King Peter I of Curon, King Kairn Ithelanen, Shōgun Genjiro of the Ishikawa, and Sohaer Dimaethor Visaj, among many other figures. It was a sight to truly behold, and all wanted to partake in such a magnificent event. While sources are rather light on details regarding the tournament, one of the duels is recorded in The Truth of the Devil from the Sands: The Life of the Wretched Villain Simon Basrid. De Rosieres remarks about the renowned samurai of the Shōgun, Goro of the Hirano, who was ranked against Simon Basrid in melee. Simon Basrid reportedly snuck poison into Goro’s drink before the tournament to kill the man, and then bribed a servant to give the samurai a frail, broken sword instead of a real one. During the melee, Goro discovered the betrayal and threw the broken sword to the side, much to the shock of everyone present, especially Simon Basrid. Goro of the Hirano then proceeded to feel the true pain of the poison and fell on his knees. Simon Basrid, seeing his opening, proceeded to charge forth and attempt to stab Goro in the chest. While none could have expected it at the time, Goro managed to gain the upper hand by rolling and then toppling Simon to the floor. Here, he proceeded to disarm Simon and hold the sword to his throat. Adrian, who was overseeing the duel at the time, declared a win on Goro’s part and investigated the servant who provided the sword. However, Simon Basrid had killed the servant beforehand to avoid being implicated. Another duel, as recorded by Kaia Faust once more, was between Baron Adrian de Sarkozy and a Irongrinder dwarf, versus King Peter I of Curonia and a Curonian woman dressed as a man. Unlike the duel between Simon Basrid and Goro of the Hirano, this duel was less elaborate. What we do know, however, is that the teamwork on display was phenomenal between Adrian and the Frostbeard. While some note this in passing as an irrelevant fact, during the future war, Adrian de Sarkozy and the dwarves would ally against the Kingdom of Curonia and win. And like in the war as well, Adrian de Sarkozy and the Frostbeard won the duel. King Peter I was rumored to have cried over his humiliating defeat and fled back to the safety of the Kingdom of Curonia, though these rumors were likely overexaggerated. Once the duel was completed, though, the weeklong banquet occurred. The final peace before the storm unveiled itself once more. By 1724, the Cascadia Regency’s grasp upon the Empire had begun to slip. The King of Haense, Andrik III, had come of age. Even in his youth, King Andrik was said to be a fearless, energetic youth that took easily to the arts of war. Now, as his regency had ended, he set to work restoring and reforming the Haenseti military, a clear violation of the Treaty of Reza. In the south, Prince Helton of Ves had consolidated his hold on the Golden City and began to staff key government posts with his own supporters. Just outside of Helena, the Baron of Renzfeld began to raise a levy of his own, which soon swelled to number four thousand men, a count that seems impossible, given the young age of the settlement, but is generally attested to in most available sources. Conversely, the Renatian Legion’s ranks began to plummet as officers retired to collect their war pensions and new recruits became difficult to find, as most able-bodied men in the Crownlands had either joined the Baron of Renzfeld’s levy or had enlisted with their own local lords. Even within the court at Helena, an influx of clergy, a movement spearheaded by Simon Basrid and Cardinal St-John, alleged to be at the express wishes of the High Pontiff, had eroded the Duke of Cascadia’s influence among the palace courtiers. Another great blow was struck to the Empire later that year with the disappearance of Emperor Godfrey II. Once again, the popular narrative has the young Emperor abdicating the throne to his brother, departing from his realm, and traveling to Aeldin. As is the case with all previous disappearances being attributed to a flight to Aeldin, this can safely be assumed to be the work of mythical, fantastical creations. In truth, it is almost certain that Emperor Godfrey was killed by his own father, the Duke of Cascadia, in order to extend his regency, as the boy had just reached the age of majority. It must be noted, though, that while this rumor is the predominant theory, many of the sources come from the same courtiers who were being flipped to the cause of Simon Basrid and the High Pontiff. Nevertheless, by the end of 1724, the younger brother of Godfrey II, Achilius, ascended to the throne as Emperor John VII at the tender age of ten. The coming civil disruption within the Empire, and the myriad of follies leading up to it, have been placed solely on the shoulders of Emperor John VII, who has been given the scathing epithets of "The Unable" and "The Weak-Minded". Although the boy was alleged to be rather timid and dull, displaying few of the traits demonstrating an aptitude for rulership, the true power in the Empire at that point was divided between the hands of the High Pontiff, the Simon Basrid-led Imperial court, the vassal realms of Haense, Ves, and Renzfeld, and the Cascadia Regency. In this tumultuous time, blame cannot be laid at the feet of a boy-Emperor who, by all accounts, had virtually no say in the events of the coming year. During the reign of Emperor John VII, two additional figures came into prominence within the Cascadia Regency. The first was Adeline Alstion, the Empress-dowager and wife of the late Godfrey II. Although quite young herself, being only fifteen years of age, her reputation had soared to unprecedented heights during the War of the Two Emperors, where her prowess and fortitude were put on display as she vigorously defended the Pertinaxi cause. A zealous, unwavering, and ruthless Empress, Adeline had personally ordered and overseen the executions of several Marnans, and had frequently clashed with her brother-in-law, believing him to be weak and an unsuitable heir for her husband. After the end of the war, Empress Adeline played an active role in the restoration of the church, often constructing new temples and encouraging young women to join nunneries. Although her husband’s death brought grief to her heart, for she loved him greatly, the now-former Empress was never an idle woman, and vigorously sought to gain control of the Regency so that she could restore her beloved country and reverse the failings of the past few years. The second figure was William Jrent, a cousin of the former Empress. Although he was of poor relation to the Pertinaxi, he was a brilliant penman and architect. It was he who was called upon to write official government responses to Joseph Marna during the War of the Two Emperors, and the defenses at the Great Siege of Helena were primarily designed by him. After the war, he quickly ascended the ranks, no doubt due to his friendship with the Empress Adeline, eventually rising to become the Lord Justicar of the Empire. From here, he entered into the close confidence of the Imperial Regent, who believed that he had the full loyalties of Jrent. However, correspondence between Jrent and the former Empress Adeline has recently been found by the preeminent scholar Peter Reeves. These letters, written from 1724-1725, reveal a plot between the two to place Adeline atop the Imperial throne to reign as Empress-regnant, replacing both the ineffectual Emperor John and the Cascadian Regency that ruled him. With tensions between the Empress-dowager and the Duke of Cascadia further threatening the stability of the Empire, William Jrent played the role of dealmaker, and thus brokered an agreement to have the powers of the regency split between the three of them. While scholars dispute the veracity of these letters, with some claiming that Reeves simply wrote them himself and soaked the parchment in tea to give it an aged look, the actions of the Cascadia Regency suggest either deliberate undermining or incompetence. On the 28th of the Sun’s Smile, 1725, the dwarves of Urguan, perhaps the only race with the strength to contest the Empire, given their neutrality in the War of the Two Emperors, grew emboldened by the state of affairs inside the realm of their longstanding enemy. Underking Atandt Irongrinder, claiming that illegal human settlements were being constructed inside their borders (a baseless accusation with no evidence), demanded that the Empire prevent migrants from flocking into dwarven territory. While the Duke of Cascadia wished to send his personal household guard to fulfill the demands of the Underking, the Empress-dowager and the Lord Justicar overruled him, and issued a declaration of war against the Underrealm of Urguan on the 5th of Sigismund’s End, 1725. Overall command of the war effort was given to Sir Donald Horen, the esteemed veteran commander of the War of the Two Emperors, and orders were sent to the vassals of the Empire to call upon them to field their armies in support of their liege. This was a grave mistake, as news of the war was met with universal outrage throughout all of the Empire, and the powerful vassals realms of Renzfeld, Curon, Ves, and Haense met these commands with silence. Only a handful of lords near the Urguani border sent soldiers to reinforce the local garrisons, but their contributions were far from sufficient to hold the incoming horde at bay. Even less luck was had with the Imperial Legion, for upon being ordered to the front by Sir Donald, the soldiers began to desert in droves. No evidence has emerged to suggest that this was a coordinated action, though this has not stopped amateur historians from making their speculations. Sir Donald Horen, unable to field an army, rode with a small band of loyal soldiers in order to support the undermanned defenses at the Urguani border. However, when he arrived, he found that the territories had been overrun by the dwarven hordes, and the few garrisons that had not fled or been massacred were now put under siege. Sir Donald attempted to ride back to Helena in order to attempt to organize another relief army, but was intercepted by a dwarven scouting party and killed in the skirmish. When his head was presented to the few remaining garrisons still holding out, they promptly surrendered to the Urguani invaders. The following events are perhaps the most hotly-debated in the entire field of study of the Pertinaxi Dynasty, and there are three main theories for the disappearance of Emperor John VII, all of which shall be explained in detail here. What facts are undisputed are that on the 15th of Horen’s Calling, 1725, an edict was published in the name of Emperor John VII, declaring his abdication, the dissolution of the Empire, and the creation of a democracy in Oren to replace it. The first theory is, once again, tainted by popular myth, yet is unfortunately commonly accepted. It alleges that Emperor John VII went mad upon hearing of his army’s defeat along the Urguani border, personally drafted and published the edict, and then fled to Aeldin. It is said that he then returned to the Empire twenty five years later, in 1750, and lived the rest of his life as a palace courtier during the reign of Emperor Peter III before going missing in 1752. Once again, tales such as these are mythical at best. He was only eleven when he first disappeared: for a boy of that age, especially a dull one, to reconstitute Oren as a democracy, abdicate, then flee undetected to a false continent, is utterly impossible and cannot be considered a serious theory. The second, a theory mostly derived from sources from within the Imperial court, is that it was the Duke of Cascadia who killed his younger son in the same manner he did his elder son. They allege that, not wishing to be removed from the regency council by the Empress-dowager and the Lord Jusitcar, he orchestrated the assassination of his son and authored the infamous edict himself in order to provide the necessary space for him to claim the Imperial throne. The third and final theory, given to us by Stepan de Rosieres, states that it was Simon Basrid who orchestrated the death of the Emperor. De Rosieres claims that Basrid loathed both the monarchy and the Horen Dynasty, wishing to replace both with a democracy that he could sit atop of himself. The edict announcing the establishment of the democracy, written by Basrid himself, was not the work of a mad boy-Emperor, but instead the cunning authorship of a genuine believer in an institution as wretched as democracy. The day after the disappearance (i.e., death) of Emperor John VII was no less disastrous for the state of the Empire. Numerous candidates laid their claim to the Imperial through, though the authors of this history shall only cover the most prominent of these. The first recorded claimant, although contemporary sources are sharply divided, was the Duke of Cascadia himself. He asserted that, as the father of the previous two Emperors, it was his right to the throne. By the accounts of some citizens of Helena (though, importantly, none of them were firsthand witnesses to this event), he is said to have walked into the throne room during an emergency session of court to press his claim. Against his predictions, none in the room supported him, for they believed the catastrophes of both the war and the past few years had been caused by his misrule and negligence just as much as the weak character of the late Emperor. Then the Empress-dowager Adeline strode up to her stunned, speechless father-in-law, driving a dagger into his heart and leaving him to die (the sources that contest this claim say that the Empress-dowager killed her father-in-law unprompted, and that he had no intentions of pressing his claim upon the throne at all). While, again, the popular account alleges that the Empress-dowager immediately departed to Aeldin, the authors of this paper shall not even give this crackpot work of fiction the dignity of being further discussed. The truth, as attested to by all sources during the time, is that despite their alleged plan to raise the Empress-dowager to the Imperial throne in her own right, the two remaining regents dithered. In this moment of indecisiveness, a great debate broke out among the palace courtiers, though it must be noted that the Simon Basrid-aligned faction stayed mostly silent. A number of candidates were named as possible successors, but, after hours of debate, the Empress-dowager silenced the crowd and announced her decision to name her elder brother, Charles Edward Alstion, as the rightful Holy Orenian Emperor, and raised him to the throne as Emperor Charles I. While the Basrid camp’s disagreement with the decision is attested to by all sources, there is no consensus as to whether they departed to Renzfeld or remained within Helena. What is known, though, is that while the debate about who would next lead the Empire raged throughout the Imperial court, the elite Imperial Dragon Knights had already pledged their fealty to another claimant an hour earlier: Tiberius Horen. The two claimants, Tiberius Horen and Charles Alstion, were odd choices in retrospect. Both men were young (around the age of twenty), distant cousins of the late Emperor. Neither enjoyed any substantial position in court nor in the government, though Tiberius was a promising young officer in the Imperial Legion and Charles was known for his temperate demeanor. The two men are often depicted as pawns of more competent players: with Tiberius being thrust into his role by the Dragon Knights and Charles being a puppet of his sister. However, the two men were, if not extraordinarily capable, at least not incompetent, and were it not for the utter state of ruin that both the Imperial Legion and the city of Helena found themselves in, not to mention the machinations of the Imperial vassals, then it can be assumed that both had an equal chance of obtaining the throne. History would not see it that way. Marching to the Imperial palace, Tiberius Horen demanded that Charles surrender himself and allow the former to take his place as Emperor. Charles, though not backed by the Dragon Knights, still had some palace guards at his disposal. Additionally, a company of the Imperial Legion that had yet to desert was stationed just outside the city, so when the respective forces of Charles and Tiberius came to blows, they were able to decisively assist the former. The fight between the two was brief, but bloody, and saw Tiberius’s force, outnumbered almost two to one, pushed out of the city. Despite his victory over Tiberius, Charles had not escaped disaster. Among the dead in the palace court was his own sister, the Empress-dowager Adeline, who had taken a morning star to the head. Lacking his sister’s charisma, Charles Alstion would find himself unable to hold his cause together, and over the coming months he would suffer desertions both among the Legion and his court. William Jrent would be one of these figures, retiring to his country estate to live the rest of his life in seclusion. Watching these events unfold from just outside the city was the Baron of Renzfeld himself. Although he saw smoke rising from the city, and could hear the church bells clanging, Adrian de Sarkozy was reluctant to march his army of four thousand into the capital. It was not until that evening, when refugees escaping the chaos arrived at Renzfeld (with Simon Basrid and his followers possibly being among them), that he learned of the events that transpired. Despite his clear military superiority, Helena could withstand a siege, even poorly-manned, for months. Haense, Curon, and Ves all boasted armies far more powerful than his own, and if he made his push for the throne too prematurely, it could end up backfiring. Instead, the Baron of Renzfeld opted to send emissaries to the major vassals of the Empire in order to ascertain what his next move should be. Even had these letters reached their intended recipients before de Sarkozy changed his mind merely a week later, there is likely little that would have changed, for as word of the events in Helena reached the provinces, unrest gripped each of them. In Ves, Prince Helton Helvets used this opportunity to dissolve the republican city government and name himself Duke of Cathalon, declaring Ves and its surrounding lands his feudal fiefs. An uprising broke out immediately, and Richard de Reden and the Caer Bann company had to be called in to quell the protests. In Curon, though King Peter I would have almost certainly contested the actions of his rival in Renzfeld, a series of bread riots had broken out across the Kingdom, forcing him to address the situation before he could coordinate a response against the Baron of Renzfeld. In Haense, King Andrik III, who, according to a court clerk named Artur von Steuben, demanded that his letters be translated to him in the Raev tongue, was given a hastily-made and poorly-transcribed copy. Believing the entirety of the Empire was marching on his kingdom, Andrik III immediately called for his vassals to brace themselves for an invasion and began to prepare Reza for a siege. During this confused time, it is reported, also by Artur von Steuben, that a peasant by the name of Stanimar tried to press his own claim upon the Empire. To an anxious, worried crowd of hundreds, the man’s speech is recorded as such: "Can you believe they call it the Holy Orenian Empire? I tell ye’ all, our human realm is neither Holy, nor Orenian, nor an Empire. We follow a false, liberal Pontiff who’s changing everything good about the church. I saw an elf walking freely in Reza the other day- NOT ORENIAN. And, finally, we only have FOUR vassal kingdoms, when five is a far more suitable number. It is because of this, that I- '' It was at this point that he was hit by a stray oxen that had gotten loose and was promptly trampled to death. "The Change of Letters in the Hands of Fate: the Emperor Adrian's March." By the Princess Imperial, Duchess Catherine Anastasia of Westmarch As mentioned above, only a week after he had dispatched his letters, Adrian de Sarkozy’s mind was changed. While some historians attribute this to his natural ambition and rather erratic decision making, others say that his decision to lay his claim to the Empire was reasoned and only done after a careful calculation of the capital’s defenses. Stepan de Rosieres claims that it was Simon Basrid who influenced the Baron of Renzfeld to lay claim to the Empire, wishing to exact his revenge after his plot to install a democracy crafted in the image of Iblees had been foiled. No matter the cause, on the 2nd of Owyn’s Flame, 1725, Adrian de Sarkozy declared himself the rightful Holy Orenian Empire (not Emperor, as most would think. Either he misspoke, or was intentionally implying something more), styling himself Adrian I. Despite having virtually no claim to the throne, citing some distant lineage to the Carrions, Sarkozy found a great deal of support among the vassals of the Crownlands. Wasting no time, he sent his close advisor Ludolf de Ruyter to negotiate a ceasefire and alliance with the Underrealm of Urguan. A few weeks later, Underking Irongrinder and Adrian de Sarkozy signed a formal alliance, with the Urguani horde recognizing Adrian as Holy Orenian Emperor and pledging their support to his cause as he marched against Charles Alstion in Helena. Only King Peter I of Curonia directly stood against Adrian’s claim, believing that the next Emperor must be chosen via an assembled council of the vassal lords of the Empire. For this insult, and perhaps due to their contentious rivalry, Adrian and his dwarven allies declared war on Curonia as well. Knowing that it was imperative to take Helena before the other vassals either joined King Peter or staked their own claims, Adrian wasted no time preparing for a siege. The Imperial Legion was effectively defunct, Charles Alstion’s hold on the capital was weakening by the day, and soon reinforcements from the dwarves would arrive to bolster his army. Adrian presumed that the siege would take a few weeks at most, but he was wrong. Charles had not been idle since his coronation, and he immediately set to work bolstering the city’s defenses. Furthermore, while the garrison in the city was severely undermanned, he still had enough soldiers in his service to make any incoming siege difficult. With Tiberius Horen and his Dragon Knights also scouring the roads, supplies and foraging would be difficult. Finally, it was nearing winter, which would force Adrian and his army to either brave through it and suffer heavy casualties, or pull back to their winter quarters and give Charles time to bolster his position. Over in the city of Ves, which was now officially the capital of the Duchy of Cathalon, ruled by Helton Helvets, High Pontiff Daniel VI looked upon the coming civil war with great concern. The Empire could ill-afford to be embroiled in another internal conflict, but it was clear that neither Adrian nor Charles would cede the throne to the other, and that Tiberius Horen had no interest in renouncing his claim for anyone. However, the High Pontiff had an ace up his sleeve: Alexander Stephan de Joannes. Alexander Stephan was born the son of Alexander Frederick Horen and Cesarina Louise Marna, sister of the late Emperor Joseph I, in 1711, making him the uncle of Charles Alstion, though he was actually six years younger. According to correspondence between Daniel VI and Simon Basrid, the boy was born in seclusion within Ves and given to the church at the age of five. Sinjin, Cardinal St.-John and Simon Basrid oversaw his education and upbringing. The boy was both pious and bright, but, mostly confined to the grounds of Varoche Palace, he was lonely and far from sociable. When he finally reached the age of majority, he took his place in the personal court of Daniel VI, where he served in obscurity. While the letters exchanged between Basrid and the High Pontiff would have one believe that they simply saw Alexander Stephan as a promising young cleric, the amount of time and resources they invested in his upbringing suggests that they had Imperial ambitions for the boy from an early age. Believing Alexander was an ideal candidate for compromise, the High Pontiff called for peace and invited all of the claimants to Varoche Palace in order to negotiate peace and avoid war. Only Adrian and Charles agreed, albeit reluctantly, and the two ventured to Ves together, though their interactions were understandably frigid. When they arrived, the High Pontiff revealed the young Alexander Stepan. As this meeting was behind closed doors, it is unknown what exactly was said among the four. However, it is said that Damien de Ruyter, a close confidant and household knight of Adrian de Sarkozy, had a dream of the conversation, which he relayed to a ‘lady of the night’ working under Sasha of Helena, who took advantage of the fluctuating value of the Imperial mark in order to purchase almost half of the taverns, theaters, and brothels in Helena. Damien de Ruyter claimed that, in his dream, he saw the High Pontiff convincing the two claimants that if they did not lay their arms aside, they would destroy each other. A fair compromise, he said, was to allow Alexander Stepan to ascend to the throne and unite the rest of the Empire. In return for their humility, goodwill, and cooperation, Adrian and Charles would be named the Duke of Adria and the Prince of Alstion, respectively. After much thought, the two claimants, wishing neither to bring down themselves nor the Empire, agreed to the terms. Charles Alstion returned to the capital in order to ensure the gates were opened for Alexander, and Adrian de Sarkozy joined the Pontifical retinue in their procession to Helena. When the procession arrived, they found that the gates had not been opened, but this was no treachery from Charles Alstion. Tiberius Horen, not to be denied his rightful claim, he had surrounded the city with his Dragon Knights and hired mercenaries from the Phoenix Company, who had previously been under contract with the horde of Urguan. Although the Pontifical retinue, now joined with the army of Adrian de Sarkozy, greatly outnumbered Tiberius’s forces, the fearsome reputation of the Dragon Knights and the Phoenix Company forced the High Pontiff to handle the situation cautiously. He sent a delegate forth to meet with Tiberius, but the negotiations went nowhere. The two sides prepared to do battle, but as Tiberius gave a speech before his men, a great crowd of peasants was drawn to him. As he spoke, the crowd grew larger, and larger, and larger, but this gathering was far from supportive of his fiery, violent words. Helena had seen war and bloodshed for years, and the city’s denizens were repulsed at the thought of another war breaking out, a war that would inevitably ruin the city once again. In the middle of Tiberius’s speech, the increasingly-enraged mob reached a boiling point. They rushed the stage, grabbing the claimant and ripping him limb from limb. The Phoenix Band and the Dragon Knights, far too outnumbered, did not run to their liege’s screams. Instead, they attempted to retreat south, towards Urguani territory, but in their haste to escape, they were ambushed by a sortie led by Charles Alstion and subsequently massacred. Many rumors exist today that Tiberius was not killed, and that he escaped to a secluded island off the coast of Arcas, where he found a fountain that granted him immortal life. From here, he was supposedly propped up throughout the ages, and a number of figures are alleged to actually be Tiberius Horen, still plotting to make himself Emperor. These rumors seem to be borrowed from a children’s legend dating back to 1549, but it has not stopped certain ambitious scholars from trying to link Tiberius Horen to other men throughout history, insisting that he lives on. Well and truly dead, though, no matter what fantasies may be believed, the last opposition to Alexander Stepan’s claim had been dealt with, and the boy faced no further opposition in his ascent to the throne. On the 9th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1725, Alexander Stepan was raised to the Imperial throne as Alexander II before the assembled vassals of the Empire. His ascension was greeted with thunderous applause, and the ensuing festivities were legendary, as, even more importantly than their splendor (paid for from the Pontifical coffers), they represented an end to the threat of civil war. In minor ceremonies that same day, Adrian de Sarkozy and Charles Edward Alstion were granted the respective titles of Duke of Adria and Prince of Alstion. It is even said that the two men put aside their grievances and reveled in the day’s festivities together as loyal brother-vassals of the Empire. Peace, goodwill, and fraternity had won the day, and it was assumed by all that the coming years would bring sorely-needed stability to the Empire, which it could then use to strengthen itself and return humanity to its undisputed prominence on the world stage. In just a year, all those hopes would be dashed, and the Empire would enter the now-infamous ‘Time of Troubles’. The much-maligned end of the Pertinaxi Dynasty cannot truly be blamed on any perceived incompetency of Emperor Godfrey II or Emperor John VII. Both were boys, whose rule was entirely nominal. Factional disputes between partisan actors prevented any sort of reconciliation and internal strengthening of the Empire. While the Duke of Cascadia can certainly be blamed for his many blunders during the end of the Pertinaxi, the Cascadia Regency as a whole was undermined by individuals with their own agendas- Simon Basrid, Empress-dowager Adeline, High Pontiff Daniel VI, Helton Helvets, King Andrik III, and Adrian de Sarkozy. In an attempt to address the various plots of these powerful players, the Cascadia Regency ended up attempting to balance the power of the Empire. Titles were given to former enemies, powers were ceded to disloyal vassals, duties were given to ambitious, treacherous courtiers, and the attempts by the Duke of Cascadia to expand the powers of the central Imperial government typically resulted in the death of the Emperor and the further erosion of his authority. Had the focus of the Imperial court, the Imperial vassals, and the Church been focused on strengthening the Empire by backing the Cascadia Regency and the boy-Emperors it governed for, then perhaps the Time of Troubles could have been avoided. If the Cascadia Regency had the ability to adequately deal with the myriad of genuine problems facing the Empire at the time, chief among them the deterioration of the Legion and the death of Emperor Godfrey II, then perhaps the Pertinaxi Dynasty may have been able to keep its hold on the throne. However, neither was the case, and the Empire was plunged into another twelve years of uncertainty. Vale, Godfrey II ‘the Gambler’ 11th of Sigismund’s End, 1709-14th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1724) (r. 4th of Horen’s Calling, 1715-14th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1724 Vale, John VII ‘the Feeble’ 13th of Owyn’s Flame, 1714-15th of Horen’s Calling, 1725 (r. 14th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1724-15th of Horen’s Calling, 1725) 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 Times of Troubles shall be covered in our next volume of The Decline and Fall of the Holy Orenian Empire.

THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE HOLY ORENIAN EMPIRE: Volume I; Introduction and the New Age Written by Justinian Nafis, heir to the County of Susa and Adolphus Gloriana, Earl of Suffolk, Prince of Sutica Introduction “As I will it, it shall be: Novellen. I die a pauper of spirit, yet to them I can bequeath an Empire.” - Lord Protector Adrian de Sarkozy on his deathbed The Novellen Dynasty has produced a cast of monarchs whose impact upon history has been felt greater than any other, save perhaps the Pertinaxi and the Johannians. Long-living, innovative, and storied, the Novellens are as much a product of the relatively liberal environment our world knows today as they are the architects of it. However, to mistake liberality for passiveness would do any study of the dynasty a great disservice. Descending from the unified lines of Sarkozy and Pertinaxi, the Novellens boast soldiers, statesmen, priests, reformers, reactionaries, peacemakers and conquerors in the same mold as their predecessors. The Empire that sprung from their statecraft rivaled all that came before them where breadth, scale, prestige, and power are to be considered. The story of the ruin of the Novellen Empire is simple and obvious; and, instead of inquiring why the Novellen empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long. The Imperial State Army, despite enjoying some victories throughout its long history, paled in comparison to the legions of the Johannians, Pertinaxi, and Chivays. Its institutions, while innovative and unparalleled when first introduced, were showing signs of needing reform even during the sole reign of Joseph II; by the time of Philip II, the entire administrative apparatus of the Empire had found itself in decline. Isolated throughout most of its existence, the Empire frequently saw itself against coalitions compromising most of the continent. Yet, despite the many calamities that threatened to tear the Novellen Empire asunder from the moment of its birth to its death, none slew the home of man. It could not even be said that the empire was slain at all, for had its further existence been willed by those powers that ordered its end, then it would have lived through our modern day. However, upon closer examination, one will find that it was not the empire that fell victim to the many threats within and without, but the imperial civic virtue that laid the foundation of its society. Although most of the regnants of the Petrine Empire, save perhaps Philip II, displayed exemplary conduct, virtue, and honor, such values were not forcibly instilled in the rest of the Imperial population, perhaps owing to the liberal sentiments that guided them. In their general deference to what was deemed the general will, the general good was left ignored. Still, the Petrine Empire not only persevered, but ascended during its long life, surpassing all previous iterations. The story weaved from the reign of Joseph I to the final days of Philip III tells of a series of passionate thinkers undertaking the most ambitious experiment the known world has seen. To the amateur and professional historian alike, the story of the Novellens and the wider Petrine Empire leaves one with a profound sense of awe, for it is a reflection of the good of the human spirit, and the heights that may be reached should a common vision drive all diligent actors to utilize their arts for the highest good. The New Age “These are the sins of the Pertinaxi, whose chains bind the subjects of the Empire. Cast them off- so I call! Let a new era be born, for we must depart from tyranny lest we be consumed by it.” - Emperor Joseph I to a crowd in Reza While there are few within the current scholastic communities that claim the start of the Decline of the Holy Orenian Empire began with Emperor Joseph I, and while this is a consensus among the more elven scholars, this is disagreed upon by these writers. However, the story will begin with the death of the Marna Empire, where the principles that gave rise to the ‘Novellen philosophy’ were first laid. The War of the Two Emperors was the defining, cataclysmic event that engulfed nearly the entirety of Arcas. The jingoistic Pertinaxi Empire, while still the preeminent military power on the continent, had faced a period of sharp military decline since the reign of Emperor Aurelius. The Empire, now led by Emperor Antonius, a man considered by many to be mad, found itself splitting at the seams. He was considered by many to be a brutal tyrant, loving wanton bloodshed wherever it could be found. Whispers even emerged that he had slain his own father to obtain the throne. With no greater enjoyment than pillaging and raiding the fiefs of his own vassals, Antonius drove his disgruntled subjects to form an alliance known as the Nenzing Conspiracy, named after the castle where they first met. The conspirators, led by King Marius II of Haense, King Alfred II of Curonia, Alfred Myre, the Prince of Ves, and Conrad de Falstaff, the Count of Leuven, plotted the overthrow of the Pertinaxi Dynasty, believing it to be the embodiment of tyranny and oppression against the liberties of the subjects of the Empire. Needing a suitable candidate to contest the claim of the Pertinaxi, the Count of Leuven proposed the middle-aged Joseph Leopold, a descendent of the scion of the Marnan branch of the Horens. While it has been claimed that Joseph Leopold lived his whole life in Aeldin, the authors of this work thoroughly reject this theory. It is well-known that in events where the birth and upbringing of an individual are unknown, either they or later historians will claim lineage from ‘Aeldin’ - a mythical continent without geographical, historical, or literary evidence. From the verbal account of Joseph Leopold’s barber, recorded by a Reiver mercenary during the march to Helena in 1716, the future Emperor was born in a country estate outside of Senntisten in 1668 to John Marna and Margarita de Falstaff, two minor nobles whose prestigious lineages were too distant to be considered significant. Little is known of Joseph Leopold’s upbringing, but it may be assumed that he served as a court functionary during the reigns of Aurelius and Augustus, and was possibly even a page. With few other options, the Nenzing conspirators agreed to put forth Joseph Leopold as their candidate. Although inexperienced in matters of warfare and statecraft, the man was bright and charismatic with a penchant for authorship (his poems during the War of the Two Emperors were widely-read, even among the Pertinaxi loyalists). Furthermore, being of middling age, the man did not possess the erratic, energetic disposition of a youth, ensuring that he would not be prone to rash decision-making. However, this lack of spiritedness frequently gave way to lethargy and apathy, and Joseph’s ill-advised attention to his poetry and arts over the practical matters of managing a realm and war, would spell his later downfall. However, during the autumn of 1714, all looked well for the Nenzing conspirators. The men moved with great haste, eager to spark their rebellion within the coming months. They first signed an alliance with Grand Prince Aelthir Tundrak of Fenn, a longstanding enemy of the Pertinaxi and a respected figure among the elven realms, bringing to their side the vaunted snow elven cavalry. Immediately after, they hired the services of the feared Reiver mercenaries, a band who found themselves in a state of constant war with the Pertinaxi. Dozens of other smaller vassals were brought into the conspiracy, though none so noteworthy as to be named here. Unfortunately for the Nenzing conspirators, their attempts to recruit the King Alvar I of Norland were foiled by the Count of Leuven’s cousin, Arthur de Falstaff, who, as the future general of the Marnan army, refused to fight by the side of the Norlanders. This would prove to be a crucial blunder for the Nenzing conspirators, as the Norlandic forces would have bolstered the Marnan army decisively. By the winter of 1714, the lines had been drawn. In Reza, before a crowd numbering in the tens of thousands, Joseph Leopold Marna was crowned as Joseph I, Holy Orenian Emperor. Having rallied the banners of most of the Empire to his cause, Emperor Joseph began a slow, steady march to the Imperial capital of Helena. First, he stopped by Ves, where, after giving a speech to the assembled crowd, the boy-King Alfred II of Curon, one of the conspirators, swore fealty along with five thousand of his bannermen. The display, which, according to the former King of Curon, Wilhelm I, was planned beforehand, became a symbol of the Marnan cause. Emperor Antonius, hearing of the rebellion, immediately called on his remaining vassals and allies to defend the capital. However, most of his vassals, save those in the Crownlands and Norland, had defected to the Marnan cause, and his allies in Krugmar and Haelun’or would not be able to arrive in time to meet the approaching army. Mere weeks before the Marnan army arrived in the Imperial Crownlands, Emperor Antonius had disappeared, never to be heard from again. The disappearance of Emperor Antonius is a controversial topic among scholars of the late Pertinaxi period. The traditional narrative is that, upon hearing of Joseph Marna’s approach, Antonius boarded a ship and fled to Aeldin, fearing what would become of him if he were captured by the Marnan forces. However, this can safely be discredited as fiction. The truth, as reported by a number of palace courtiers after the war, is that a coup, led by the Emperor’s brother Romulus, the Duke of Cascadia, deposed and executed him. Then, the Duke of Cascadia’s young son, Remus Godfrey, was raised to the throne as Emperor Godfrey II. Why the Duke of Cascadia himself did not name himself Emperor is unknown, but it is alleged, in the diary of Sasha of Helena, a local ‘woman of the night’ oft-frequented by Imperial councilors and officials, that the Emperor’s council deemed the Duke of Cascadia too unreliable to lead the defense of the Empire. The handling of the war would be left to Emperor Godfrey’s regency council, led primarily by Edvard Edvardsson, future King of Norland, Pierce Devereux, future King of Curonia, and Dimaethor Visaj, the Sohaer of Haelun’or. Immediately, the regency council scrambled to assemble an army to defend Helena, a task they gave to the capable general Martinus Horen. The two armies first met on the outskirts of Helena on the 30th of Horen’s Calling, 1715, at the town of Rodenberg. The Marnan army, led in person by Emperor Joseph (though this was only nominal; Arthur de Falstaff held actual command), decisively outmatched the hastily-assembled Pertinaxi forces, which numbered only half their size. At a decisive point in the battle, General Martinus, leading a cavalry charge against the right of the Marnan line, was unhorsed and captured, demoralizing his troops and leading to a general rout. However, logistical issues within the Marnan army forced its retreat back to Reza, thereby sparing Helena from assured conquest. In the immediate aftermath of this victory, Emperor Joseph published the Nenzig Proclamation, a radical document that denounced Emperor Antonius and the Pertinaxi Dynasty and, even more importantly to the later Petrine Empire, enumerated the ‘Rights of Man’. The ‘Rights of Man’, consisting of the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to trial, was an unprecedented document that asserted that these rights, derived from God himself, could not be infringed upon, even by the Emperor himself. This departure from the commonly-accepted doctrine of Horenic, i.e Imperial, supremacy over its subjects, if not all of humanity itself, is significant. A depiction of the trial of Martinus Horen. The first test of these principles came with the now-controversial trial of Martinus Horen. Given a right to trial before Emperor Joseph, General Martinus and his defense counsel argued that his service to Emperor Godfrey was legal, and that he should not be executed for treason on those grounds. In a decision much-maligned by later legal scholars, Emperor Joseph declared General Martinus innocent and allowed him to depart from Reza a free man. Although the trial of Martinus Horen proved Emperor Joseph’s unwavering commitment to the Rights of Man, his decision to free Martinus due to those principles would come back to haunt him. For the next year, a number of smaller skirmishes and engagements were fought between the Pertinaxi and Marnan armies. While the regular Marnan levies, under the command of their local lords and appointed generals, were frequently bested by their Pertinaxi counterparts, the Reiver mercenaries fared far better. However, overall command of the Marnan army was never given to the talented Lucius Daemyr, as the esteemed vassals of Emperor Joseph scoffed at the notion of serving under the command of a general who was not one of their own. Thus, Arthur de Falstaff, an extremely popular man among the nobility, who by all accounts was a mediocre field commander, faced neither replacement nor reprisal for his failures. None of the setbacks faced by the Marnan army were serious enough to stop their eventual resumed advance towards Helena. At the head of the largest army seen on Arcas at the time (accounts number it to be around twenty five thousand men), Emperor Joseph promised his loyal followers that soon the Empire would be theirs and the Rights of Man could truly be guaranteed to all subjects of the Empire. That being said, all was not well for the Marnan army. The army, burdened by a large supply train and a swarm of camp followers, moved at a snail’s pace. Having departed from Reza in the spring of 1716, it was not until late fall that they arrived at Helena. Despite having the previous year to stockpile supplies (including the death of a commander, Baron de Guise and his peasants by dogs used by the Pertinaxi in the ‘Spring Incident"), Arthur de Falstaff knew that winter would wreak havoc on the army. He immediately invested in the city, putting it under siege. The Pertinaxi had used the time leading up to the siege well, and General Martinus had transformed the capital into a fortress of now-infamous lethality. Furthermore, reinforcements from Haelun’or and Krugmar had bolstered the Pertinaxi army, which now numbered around seventeen thousand. By the time the Marnan trebuchets began to pound the city, the Pertinaxi army within Helena was well-supplied, well-armed, and well-prepared. The siege drew on for two weeks, with no major attempts from either side to storm the city or sally out. However, by the 14th of Tobias’s Bounty, Arthur de Falstaff reported to Emperor Joseph’s war council that if the city was not stormed within the next two weeks, the Marnan army would be forced to lift the siege and retreat back to Reza. Not wishing to repeat the events of the previous year, Emperor Joseph approved a plan put forth by his war council to storm the city on the 23rd of Tobias’s Bounty. All the remaining artillery was to be used to create breaches in the walls and smash the defenses while the Reiver mercenaries scaled the walls in order to drive the defenders into the middle of the city and into the oncoming trebuchet shots. When the Pertinaxi forces were deemed battered enough, the main Marnan army would advance into the city, slaughtering the remaining defenders. On the night of the 22nd of Tobias’s Bounty, all of the subordinate commanders of the Marnan army were informed of the plan. The attack would begin at dawn the next day. In the morning of the 23rd of Tobias’s Bounty, 1716, the opening artillery volleys were launched upon Helena to great effect. Over the course of the day, the city was reduced nearly to rubble as the trebuchets, led by the Reiver captain Albatross Volaren and Crown Prince Aelthos Tundrak of Fenn, struck with deadly accuracy on nearly every shot. The Reiver mercenaries sent forth to skirmish within the city also succeeded at their task, pushing back the defenders into the main palace, where the whole of the Pertinaxi army made their stand to defend Emperor Godfrey. However, despite the successes of his artillery and skirmishers, Arthur de Falstaff had grown impatient. Dusk was approaching, and with nightfall, the defenders of the city would have the time to emerge from the main palace and repair their defenses. Captain Volaren and the Crown Prince of Fenn urged de Falstaff to wait until the last of the artillery had been expended, as they had a clear line of fire into the palace itself. These pleas fell on deaf ears, and within minutes, de Falstaff ordered the general advance of the Marnan army. Believing the Pertinaxi army to be on the verge of collapse, all organization within Emperor Joseph’s army broke down as they swarmed into the city. They were fatefully wrong. Although much of the city had been reduced to ruins, the body of the Pertinaxi army had remained intact. The moment the disorganized Marnan mob entered the city, General Martinus led a swift counterattack to meet them. A great, swirling battle was fought in the middle of the city, with indiscriminate slaughter being perpetuated by both sides. It is at this point in the battle that Martinus Horen met his end, though the circumstances are unclear. Although nearly every primary written and verbal source from the Marnan side during the Great Siege of Helena claims that they were the ones who slew General Martinus, consulting the pro-Pertinaxi sources divulges more accurate information. A butcher who had been pressed into the Pertinaxi cause later reported that General Martinus had gone down fighting as he was surrounded by five bannermen from Haense. Another source, from a private in the Pertinaxi Legion, asserts that Martinus engaged in a duel with Arthur de Falstaff, but fell from his horse and was stampeded by the mass of soldiers fighting. Yet another source relays an account that it was a stray arrow from a Reiver crossbowman that ended the esteemed general’s life. Whatever his end may have been, General Martinus’s death did not turn the tide of the battle, as in the confusion his demise went unnoticed until his body was found the next day. An artist depiction of the Siege of Helena. Having met stiffer resistance than they were prepared for, facing the well-organized Pertinaxi charge as an incoherent mass, the larger Marnan army began to buckle, then break, then disintegrate into a general rout. From atop a hill overlooking Helena, Emperor Joseph is reported to have fainted atop his horse, needing to be carried away by his retainers. Subordinate commanders and vassal lords quickly rounded up the remnants that they could and led an orderly retreat from the city. The Pertinaxi forces, too exhausted and bloodied to pursue, merely set to work constructing field hospitals for the wounded. While later Pertinaxi mythos relays that only four hundred men remained standing at the end of the battle, this is merely legend. In truth, around five thousand Pertinaxi escaped death or serious injury during the fight. The Marnan losses were similarly catastrophic, with only four thousand escaping the city. The rest were either killed or taken prisoner after the battle. It was a victory for the Pertinaxi cause, to be sure, but its decisiveness was not known in the moment. In the months after the loss at Helena, the political situation still could have been salvageable, as Emperor Joseph still enjoyed substantial support among the Empire and the siege had been equally devastating to both sides. However, instead of decisive action, the Emperor became inconsolable. The diary of his wife, Annunziata of Marna, claims that he was shut in his room for days at a time, only emerging to take the occasional bread and wine. Verses from various poems were etched upon the walls, some in a strange tongue that she had never seen before. Frequently he could be heard howling from his balcony at night, "Arthur, Arthur, give me back my legions!" Due to the known infidelities committed by Emperor Joseph, he and his wife were estranged, leading some historians to doubt the authenticity of Annunziata’s accounts. Regardless, his inaction in the aftermath is well-attested to by most sources around the time, and it was during this crucial period that the Marnan cause fell. Arthur de Falstaff, disgraced after his defeat at Helena, similarly vanishes around this time, though his case is far more of an open question than his liege’s. He fought a few more losing battles during the winter of 1716, though these were mostly minor rearguard actions. Despite the relative insignificance of these defeats, it appears that the Marnan cause was fed up with their failures; Arthur de Falstaff vanishes from contemporary sources. An account from a disgruntled Vesian town guardsman says that de Falstaff was killed by a mutiny of his own soldiers. Members of Emperor Joseph’s court contest this, with their own versions of the story being that it was a conspiracy among the nobility that removed him from power and either killed him or sent him into exile. Popular belief is that he simply deserted the army, humiliated by his failures, to live the life of a shepherd within neutral Urguani territory. No matter the cause, by 1717 Arthur de Falstaff had been removed from his command, which soon devolved into a decentralized structure built around local lords and their levies. Exploiting the broken command structure within the Marnan ranks, the Pertinaxi army, now led by Sir Donald Horen (1. incorrect accounts, likely jokes from historian’s assistants, relay his surname as ‘Dabber’ 2. It is falsely believed that General Martinus Horen was alive and in command of the army. This is similarly untrue, as almost all credible sources date his death at the Great Siege of Helena), began to advance upon Reza, swiftly conquering Leuven along the way. With Emperor Joseph unable to contain the political situation due to his absence, the Kingdom of Curonia defected to the Renatian cause after an army under the Sohaer of Haelun’or overran its border defenses. Similarly, assassins sent to the Golden City of Ves joined with local dissidents to slay Prince Alfred Myre, replacing him with a pro-Pertinaxi prince who immediately declared neutrality. With his allies abandoning him and his army falling to ruin, Emperor Joseph became governed by the depression that gripped him. By the time word came to him that Leuven had fallen, the Emperor had effectively abdicated, and reportedly fled the continent. Once again, these accounts must fall into question. At this time, it was widely believed that Emperor Joseph was a prisoner in all but name within Reza, and for him to escape the city unnoticed is utterly unbelievable. While many historians hold faith in the allegations that Emperor Joseph fled Reza to an unknown place abroad, citing a poem, titled Miss You, supposedly published by him in 1725, the true answer to his fate lay in the verbal account of his mistress, Marguerite de Poncy, the daughter of one of his household knights, which was relayed to and recorded by Gretchen of Reza, a local tavernkeep’s wife. The tale from the distraught de Poncy alleges that Emperor Joseph was killed by agents of King Marius II of Haense, who had grown tired of his liege’s inaction and desired to take charge of the war effort himself, as by this point, the fight was not to establish a new Empire, but to ensure Haense’s survival. King Marius, whether he ordered his liege’s death or not, would not be able to enjoy his newfound freedom for long, as only a year later, in the summer of 1719, he too was killed by pro-Pertinaxi assassins while walking in his palace gardens. As his son, Andrik, was only ten years old by the time of his death, the leadership of Haense, and the rebel cause as a whole (by 1718, around the disappearance of Emperor Joseph I, historians ceased to call the rebellion against the Pertinaxi the ‘Marnan’ cause anymore, instead designating the distinction as being between the rebels and the Empire), fell to the Lord Palatine, Prince Georg Stanimar of Alimar. Prince Georg, young and defiant, promised to fight the Empire to the last Haenseman. He led several delaying actions against the advancing Imperial Legion, hoping to buy enough time for the defenses at Reza to be refortified. The rebels were utterly outmanned and outsupplied in each of these engagements, with reports of unarmed peasant mobs desperately flinging themselves at Imperial soldiers during the battles of 1719-1720. However, at the Battle of the Koengswald on the 2nd of Tobias’s Bounty, 1720, the last field army the rebel cause could muster was completely shattered. To pour salt on the wound, Prince Georg was taken captive during the battle and later executed in Helena. Now, there was no force to oppose the Empire. The Reiver mercenaries, having taken the brunt of the fighting since 1718, were reduced to only a tenth of their former numbers. The snow elven army had pulled back to Fenn to prepare their own defenses. The remaining rebel lords, among them the Count of Leuven, had seen their lands conquered by the Imperial army. The Haenseti army, having fought and lost in countless battles, was now rendered inoperable, as no new recruits could be found from the devastated countryside. Victory was assured, and on the 13th of Tobias’s Bounty, 1721, the Treaty of Reza was signed. The Kingdom of Haense surrendered and was brought back into the Imperial fold. Emperor Joseph I was a visionary by all accounts, something even his greatest enemies must admit to. His enumeration of the Rights of Man would serve as the foundation for the legal code and governing philosophy of the later Petrine Empire under Peter III and his successors, and the notion of absolute power being held in the sovereign, with little of it delegated to the people of the Empire at large, would come under question in later years. From this was born the Imperial Diet, an institution which sought to extend the powers of governing and legislating the realm to the subjects of the Empire, and thereby give them a voice in the instruments of the state. This radical change in government, departing from the traditional style of a monarch governing his dominion through the use of vassals, who themselves obtained exclusive privileges according to their noble status, can be directly traced back to the writings and principles of Emperor Joseph I. The prominent Josephite Party based its entire political philosophy off of his writings, and was met with immense popular support even when just mentioning the revered figure. However, his performance as the Emperor leaves much to be desired. While idealistic and bright, his personal inexperience in governing a realm and managing a war proved disastrous for his cause. Without a central base of power to rely upon, Emperor Joseph frequently played the part of mediator in order to settle the factional disputes within his cause. Rarely did he think to order his vassals to comply with certain directives from his war council, rarer still did he take charge himself, opting to delegate his imperial authority, yet still he typically did not empower one person to make decisions in his stead. This was at its most detrimental in the aftermath of the Great Siege of Helena, where decisive political and military action may have allowed the Marnan cause to survive, but his frequent absence and reneging on his duties doomed his rebellion. Additionally, although he rallied a large army to his cause, his reliance on the inexperienced Arthur de Falstaff and other local nobles as commanders, instead of the more battle-hardened Reiver mercenaries (who had fought against the Pertinaxi for years and were familiar with their style of warfare), meant that his army was comparatively poorly-led when matched against the Pertinaxi legions, which were led by vaunted generals Martinus Horen and Sir Donald Horen. Still, the Great Siege of Helena was, in Emperor Joseph’s own words, "a series of flipping coins until the very end." A Pertinaxi nobleman concurs, writing: "We could only rest the moment we saw the last banner of the Marnan army disappear in the distance." While not a victor, the impact and legacy of Joseph I cannot be understated. He ranked among the most beloved Emperors among the citizens of the Petrine Empire, and his works were some of the most widely-circulated and cited documents up until the reign of Emperor John VIII. While he may have lost the War of the Two Emperors, the world created in its aftermath was undoubtedly molded in the vision that he first laid out before eager crowds ready to die for the cause he championed. Vale, Joseph I ‘the Fiddler’ 5th of Sigismund’s End, 1668-30th of the Sun’s Smile, 1718 (r. 6th of Harren’s Folly, 1715-30th of the Sun’s Smile, 1718) 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 aftermath of the War of the Two Emperors shall be covered in our next volume of The Decline and Fall of the Holy Orenian Empire.

Hi

LECTOR FR. IOANNES ALEXIOS 1824 - 1876 Depiction of the demonic encounter in hell by Father Ioannes about thirty years before his death. Father Ioannes went into a daze after the events that had transpired over the past few days. Over some transgressions and the lost of his childhood friend, his melancholy slept into him as he chose to stop getting out of bed. As he lay on his bed, he considered the life he lived. It was a peaceful one, for all intents and purposes, and one he enjoyed. He appreciated his friends, children, his brother, and most importantly, his wife. But he decided to give into relaxation after a long life of labor. As his vision began to fade, he ascended into the Seven Skies shortly after for eternal rest. He left a will stating inheritance to Paco, Stor, and Julia. Each receiving their own items with the caption at the end of the will, “As I ascend into paradise, let my memory be one who was a good priest.” -Father Ioannes, servant of God.

Father Ioannes had waited on the cold edges of this frozen kingdom as he waited to see Theodosia. They had agreed to meet to discuss a topic that Ioannes had discovered at the behest of Aelia and his wife. Was it the urging of Sister Aelia, or perhaps his wife- to speak to Theodosia about the topic? No, deep down in his depraved heart, he knew what he wanted. They would escape to the edges of the world, leaving behind their past life. No more county, no more Lectorate. His dream would be revived, his childhood relived. He was too much of a coward to admit it at this point, so he pushed it to the back of his mind. He was doing this for Aelia, for his wife, for Theodosia's and his friendship. "Where is she?" He panted, cold breaths, waiting. He waited. Then waited. And waited. He spent hours, waiting. He huffed, giving up. That woman always had some nerve, and he could not stand it anymore. He gave up. "She can die for all I care." he bitterly mentioned as he went home. Again, he was let down by her. When he heard the news a few days later at his farmstead, his words came true. The priest lost another friend, and the only reminder of his childhood. But the priest did not weep, nor did he stand aghast. The priest merely laughed.

Father Ioannes, while never directly speaking to the High Pontiff more than handful of times, offered some silent prayers at his prayer corner for the High Pontiff. He asked for intercession from the zealous man, knowing him to be a true Blessed. When he left his prayer corner, he felt a sense of relief. Even in death, the High Pontiff still carried the sins of all of Mankind on his shoulders. "If only my soul was as pure." The melancholic priest mentioned in passing to his wife in regards to the High Pontiff's death later that night.

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i appreciate the grandfather for my lector alty. amazing lore.

Father Ioannes patted his boy on his head. "Viva La Hyspia," the priest remarked as he watched for daily updates on the conflict.

Ioannes wept for his mother from the halls of the Lectorate. He already missed her, having planned on seeing her for the first time in months this weekend. Whenever it seemed like life was about to take a good turn, he lost. He always did.

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Father Temesch intended on bringing his hyspian wife and his half-hyspian kids to such a regale and refined Hyspian establishment. He even sends a notice to the Emperor and his brother to inform them that he should visit with his Temeschian family. "God bless Hyspian food."

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wow such amazing lore definitely the best truly. please grandfather me in

Aki of the Fujiwara recalled her own tragedy as she wandered the streets of Providence, thinking as to the sudden death of her mother when she was rather young. Though the pain haunted her throughout the day and even to when she left the city, she noticed the sunset in the distance over the vast eastern ocean. The beautiful reddish sun rays cast throughout the skies. She held onto a necklace given to her by Matteo some years ago when the first met. There is much darkness in this world, but the beautiful light shines through it all. she thought as she closed her eyes.

Father Temesch of the Lectorate was never particularly fond of other priests - but meeting the good Cardinal and speaking with him some oft times proved the Cardinal to be a child of God. He prayed for the Cardinal's salvation, though he did not expect he needed to try hard. Father Temesch knew he would meet the man past the Moon in the Skies. "Another holy man taken by you, Lord. Must I be the last priest in this world and teach others like the good Cardinal did?" Father Temesch quiered.