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E. Caliph Sanyo seems like a cool dude, and he needs allies to his northeast.
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Apr 23, 2016 17:38
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A Blood Gods for Blood
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Apr 23, 2016 17:48
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C, being last bastion of Orthodoxy sounds like a good way to play in these twilight days.
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Apr 23, 2016 17:51
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D!
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Apr 23, 2016 18:40
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A! Cut out their hearts and set them on fire! Also, observe Aztec religious practices on occasion.
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Apr 23, 2016 18:43
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E! Let's send the Aztecs back across the sea.
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Apr 23, 2016 19:23
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E! So may good choices, A and D are especially tempting, but I want to see E make it.
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Apr 23, 2016 20:05
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B. Let's gently caress over our liege.
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Apr 23, 2016 20:18
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ZearothK posted:D, the Queen of Nubia seems the most interesting one and I want the film updates from northeast Africa. Voting D with the movie bloc
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Apr 23, 2016 23:25
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GunnerJ posted:I have no idea what just happened. I made the plague way less dangerous by the time Toste came around. That's pretty much it.
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Apr 24, 2016 08:47
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D sounds like the best option.
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Apr 24, 2016 15:18
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JesterOfAmerica posted:A Wait, how many more blood gods do you guys need?
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Apr 25, 2016 04:16
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Kayten posted:Wait, how many more blood gods do you guys need? All of them?
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Apr 25, 2016 10:43
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F High Chief of Zemaitija I would have gone with muslim occitans but I felt that would' undermine the Cathars and I really want Catharism to be the predominant christian faith
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Apr 26, 2016 00:32
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G You will review Bollywood or I will make you, Kayten.
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Apr 27, 2016 00:00
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Mr.Morgenstern posted:G This is a Good enough reason for me.
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Apr 27, 2016 00:57
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Croatia seems like a fun place.
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Apr 27, 2016 02:30
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Sorry, guys, I was busy with work for a while. Expect a film update Monday-ish. Also, Nubia won, so now I have to find out what I can about East African film. So there's that. (Podcast coming next week, I swear)
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May 8, 2016 08:26
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Oh poo poo Stellaris came out.
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May 10, 2016 09:59
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For every week an update does not get posted, I will destroy a beloved empire.  (working on this century, sorry, real life kinda ate me up for a while)
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Jun 6, 2016 07:04
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It's okay, Kayten;Kayten posted:Oh poo poo Stellaris came out. You've been too busy playing it to write posts; I've been too busy playing it to read threads, so it all balances out.
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Jun 6, 2016 10:09
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DivineCoffeeBinge posted:It's okay, Kayten; Hey now, I haven't been playing Stellaris for at least three weeks now.
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Jun 6, 2016 11:51
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 Our experiments with perfectly legitimate governments ruled by wonderful people continue!
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Jun 7, 2016 03:22
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Pfft. Just a kingdom?
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Jun 8, 2016 00:05
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Game Update 29 - The Kind Old Lady Back at the frozen lake in Bjarmia, the Caravan scatters. Without a single leader to unite them, to give them purpose, the dead wander to the nearby forests and swamps, ready to haunt the odd traveler for the rest of time.  : That's no fun.The ground shakes once. Twice. With a deafening roar, the earth bursts open, revealing the flames underneath. Dozens of dust devils swirl around, catching fire, throwing it to the skies. The dead run back to the lake, the only safe place left. Through the flames, the members of the Caravan see a tall woman. She glides a few feet above the ground, the flames parting to let her pass. She wears an elaborate crown of peacock feathers and sapphires and light blue robes. A large scar covers her right eye. She is old, and life has not been kind to her. She waves to the crowd gathered before her. : Hi there! I'm Nouddl! Queen of Sheeba reborn, the Dread Empress, Harbinger of Hell, all that good stuff.Some of the dead cautiously wave back. Nouddl throws her head back and laughs. Her laugh rings in the air, like wind chimes. : You're all very lucky. You get to listen to my story. : My homeland changed very much recently, you see. We used to be a small kingdom, squeezed between the Abyssinians and the Shia Caliphate.: We were weak. But not for long! : We weren't the only ones, either. The Greeks, eager for someone, anyone, to help them in Anatolia, sold their Empress to the Mongols of all people.: Three emperors in one! : The kingdom was ruled by my mother, Rahimah, God rest her soul. Well, her, and a tiny, insignificant, negligible group of ASSHOLES!The flames roar with her. A young man stands too close to the pillars, and his robe catches fire. Within seconds, he is ablaze, feeling his skin warp under the flames, unable to die. He screams and screams and screams. Nouddl snaps her head to look at him. The earth splits, and the screaming man falls into the abyss. : DON'T INTERRUPT ME!The ground closes over the poor man, and his screams go silent. Nouddl takes a deep breath.  : I'm sorry, that was rude. I just reeeally don't like being interrupted. Where was I? Oh yes.: The Council of Nubia worked as a check on monarch power. After the Great Pox ravaged the world, the counts decided their opinions suddenly matter. A few civil wars later, and the kings grudgingly accepted the new order. : Of course, there were ways around it. A few coins here, a dagger there, and a good ruler could get the council to approve whatever she wanted. : And my mother was a good ruler. : And a good woman!  : So she knew how to keep those around her in check. : That didn't stop people from calling her wicked, though. It was nonsense. She wasn't wicked. : I was wicked. : I had this nanny when I was really young. A French girl named Jeanne. She loved me like no one else could. : She showed me my baby brother when he was born. So small, so... fragile. : Mother talked to us both in the evenings, telling little Pani about affairs of state. : She would show him pretty maps, telling him about the great wars happening in world. : She even brought Glitterhoof to visit him once. The greatest horse there ever was, and, honestly, one of the more useful chancellors we've had over the years. : The little poo poo appreciated none of it. So I killed him. : You know, I miss Jeanne sometimes. One day I told her, "Jeanne, red is such a pretty colour. Be red for me". And she was! : After she died, Mother insisted I get taught by the Council. The nobles needed to learn their place, and I needed access to their archives. : Because, by God, they always wanted to start something they couldn't finish. : I remember how mad Mother was that night. "His head on a pike!" she screamed.: It was such a delightful image. I couldn't help but laugh. : I would sit in at Council sessions. Sometimes on Glitterhoof, sometimes on the floor.: One day, Mother's spymaster brought great news! There was a great civil war to the south, and the Abyssinians were weak. : She suggested to the Council that we take Kassala back, while the Abyssinians were busy.: But none backed her. Not even Glitterhoof! She looked straight at him, and he looked away! Traded Mother for an apple! Bad horse!: My mother then took me by the hand and walked out. The guards insisted the Council stay and reconsider their decisions. : For some reason, the Abyssinians thought us a bigger threat than the army marching on their capital. They attacked us as soon as they could.: Over a river. Idiots. : Mother took the city itself quickly. Well, her commanders did. She wasn't much for war. : No, she stayed at home. Dealt with peasants and craftsmen and other ants. : But she sent orders. She demanded we make the rebels as weak as the Abyssinians. Neither should win their war. : She demanded Glitterhoof train me in the art of diplomacy. I stayed in the castle library and read books on etiquette. : I also rode the bastard through city streets. Somehow, men were willing to side with the old horse. I was never really sure how. : The ants crawled back. They always do. They were scared of their queen. As they should be. : Mother's strategy worked, and the civil war fizzled out. Ruled out of Damot in the south, the second Abyssinia kept the bastards weak, and ready for conquering. : And so, Kassala returned to us, after spending so much time in Abyssinian hands. More ants, more men, more gold. More power. : The new kingdom didn't wait very long to start bothering us.  : Of course, they weren't the only ones. A minor Sheikh from the Shia Caliphate thought we couldn't beat two armies at once. : He was wrong. : His men screamed as they were butchered. It was wonderful! : By then, Mother started showing signs she may not be as well put together as I thought. : I was no longer a child, you see. I was the future of Nubia. : In those days, great men wanted my hand. Kings, Khans, emperors. Triple emperors. : The new Mongol Emperor was a true triple Emperor. After his mother died, he took over the Empire of the Greeks. : After his father had an unfortunate accident, he ruled men from Normandy to the Caspian. : But Mother chose none of them. She needed my children to be her kin, not some stranger's property.: So I married a cousin of the Yerneslu Khan. He was a nobody, so our children would bear my name, not his.: We got married as our armies crushed what remained of the Damot forces. I wore the prettiest gown! : I was sent as an emissary to the Damot king. You should have seen the fear in his eyes. It was intoxicating. : The emir of bumfuck nowhere surrendered just as quickly. : Fresh off our victories, the Council demanded more power. : Mother responded in a way that only Mother could. : It was unacceptable. The Council, nest of vipers that it was, served a purpose. : Mother grew too old to be useful. : I was crowned before she was even buried. I vowed to find her killers. : Soon enough, the archer was found dead in his sleep. Adults have much more interesting fears than babies do, you know.  : The kingdom was finally mine. Soon, all would tremble before my might!Nouddl starts laughing and cannot stop. ... In a hallway bathed with a green light, Ulfr dodges an axe blow. Baldr swings at him wildly, trying to hit the old man, but the viking is too fast. Another miss, and Ulfr jabs him in the throat. The seer stumbles back, gasping for air, and loses his grip on the axe. Ulfr twists it, and rips it out of his hands.  : No, like this.Ulfr's blows find their mark. Baldr's right arm falls to the ground, and the seer screams. One more swing, and he collapses, shorter than he was moments ago. His head rolls a few feet over, joining Hrani's and Refr's. Ulfr continues hacking at the body, until there is a pile of limbs in the middle of the hallway. The arms try to crawl towards the light, but Ulfr steps on them, breaking their fingers. The heads continue screaming until Ulfr stuffs rags in their mouths. He ties them together and hangs them off his belt. Then, he collects the arms in a sack and throws it over his shoulder. He takes one last look at door in the distance. : I'll come back, old friend.He leaves the dungeon and heads to the pier. There is a boat there, and the dumps the sack inside. Ulfr unties the boat and sails west. ... Every few hours, he stops rowing, takes out a head or an arm, still biting and clawing at him, and tosses it overboard. Soon, there are none left. He lets the sail out, and heads west.
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Jun 8, 2016 09:47
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Kayten posted:
I was going to say, she's pregnant at 79 and that's pretty damned disturbingly unnatural, and then. Uh. 
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Jun 8, 2016 14:52
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Intriguing. Looking forward to the ongoing adventures of the Dread Queen Noodle.
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Jun 8, 2016 15:18
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Well, that sure is an interesting beginning. Can't wait to see what happens to Nubia.
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Jun 8, 2016 15:49
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Well. Now to see just how (as in, the specifics, beyond "demon ruler") this becomes the kingdom of terror! Also, yeah, how did the old lady have 2 different kids at that age? If it was just the demon child then it could be excused, but she had what seemed like a normal son after that so....
I can have moments of... eccentricity and sometimes be quite curious about things. Please forgive me if I do something foolish or rude. Stephen9001 fucked around with this message at 15:58 on Jun 8, 2016 |
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Jun 8, 2016 15:56
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I like where this is going.
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Jun 9, 2016 02:01
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CK2 was really firing on all cylinders for this update, huh?
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Jun 9, 2016 02:02
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Film Update 28 - Danse Macabre Film, by its nature, is a collaborative art form. There are simply too many people doing too many artistic things at once for a single person to control everything. Actors want to read their lines differently, the DOP has to deal with the last two working lights, the weather refuses to cooperate, and you have a window of five minutes in which to get everything. It's a hectic environment. Directors approach this chaos in different ways. Some give their actors more breathing room, letting them ad-lib a few lines here and there. We're not going to talk about them. We're gonna talk about the other guys. I mentioned the auteur theory back when we talked about the French New Wave. As a reminder, this lens of film criticism states that despite studio interference and the other creatives present, the director is the "author" of the final art piece, with his or her vision being strong enough to be visible. While it started in France (with Cahiers du Cinema in general, and Truffault specifically), the approach really picked up steam in the US with Andrew Sarris, an American critic writing in the sixties. Eventually, especially in non-film-crit circles, the word "auteur" became associated with the directors that fight for their vision down to minute details.  Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrence in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980). This scene took 127 takes, because Kubrick wanted her breakdown to look more natural. Also, because he was a crazy person. Not every director is an auteur, many don't even try to be. Auteurs are notoriously difficult to work with: they're perfectionists of the worst kind, demanding take after take after take (remember Bresson's 10-50 takes per shot in Au Hasard, Balthasar (1966), which we covered here), until everything matches their vision. They blow past budgets, deadlines, cast and crew. The end result isn't even necessarily better than the alternative. But holy poo poo sometimes it is. Sometimes all the bullshit is worth it, and you get art. This is what drove people like Stanley Kubrick (2001: A Space Oddysey (1968)), Andrei Tarkovsky (The Mirror (1975)) and the subject of today's write-up, Ingmar Bergman (Persona (1966)).  Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007), easily the most influential Swedish director. To steal a quote from Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless (1960)), Bergman is Swedish cinema, like Dostoyevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music. Godard was talking about Bresson, but it's too good a quote to let go. With a career spanning forty years in film and another twenty in theatre, he molded Swedish film, and eventually, film in general as a medium. Here's a short list of directors who name him to be their favourite: Woody Allen (Annie Hall (1977)), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain (2005)), Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now (1977)), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth (2005)) and Satayajit Ray (Pather Pachali (1955)). So let's see what he's got.  Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) (1957) theatrical release poster. Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal (1957) follows Antonius Block (Max von Sydow, currently playing the Three-Eyed Raven on Game of Thrones), a Swedish knight returning from a crusade. On his way back, he comes across Death, who lets him know his time has come. In order to stall his demise, Antonius challenges Death to a game of chess. Death, a big fan of human games (and well-known smug rear end in a top hat), gleefully accepts. Antonius is undergoing a crisis of faith: God refuses to show himself to him, no matter what he does, and so, he simply cannot believe, no matter how much he wants to. He tries finding some sort of purpose, just one meaningful act to give his life purpose. His squire, Jons, sees no meaning in life either, but just accepts the whole thing as one big joke.  Antonius and Death begin their game. Antonius and Jons travel across plague-ridden Sweden to Antonius' castle, where there might be some respite from it all. It's a bad time to be living in a Swedish village: the plague wiped out whole towns, and the people are not taking it well. No one escapes Death, and that scares folks. Some take to whipping themselves to show submission before God, others hunt down 'witches' to burn, others still turn to their baser instincts. Death visits all of them. Throughout, Antonius understands that he cannot win his game, and resorts to stalling, while he looks for that one meaningful act to make his life worth it.  The dance of Death, as he leads the merry company to beyond. This is an excellent film. Bergman had a tendency of working with the same troupe of actors (including von Sydow and Ekerot, the leads), and he was able to get exactly what he wanted from them. The actors themselves are wonderful, with great performances by leads and the ensemble. More importantly though, the film just straight up asks "Is God even listening?", and lets the characters squirm as they try to figure out their own answers. Everyone is just so desperate to convince themselves that there is something else, something beside Death patiently waiting to pick them up whenever he wants. It's great. On top of that, it's just top-notch filmmaking. It's a beautiful movie, covering an uncomfortable subject, approaching it completely devoid of irony. Thing is, chances are you've seen bits and pieces of it already. If you've seen a sitcom episode where someone plays for their life against Death, you now know where it comes from. (I'm looking at you, Pete Hewitt's Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey (1991)). Hell, even Death's costume became somewhat of a cultural milestone that later productions keep aping. But check out the original. See what the fuss is about.
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Jun 17, 2016 11:15
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Game Update 30 - Serial Monogamy The whirlwinds of flame slowly die down, until nothing but embers remain. The Dread Empress settles on a comfortable rock, and smiles at the Caravan. : Come closer, sweeties. I don't bite.A Lombard woman approaches carefully, making sure to avoid the burnt ground. She shuffles her skirts around, and settles in front of Nouddl. One by one, the Dead move closer and sit, waiting for Nouddl to get bored of them.  : See, to be a good ruler, you need to surround yourself with the right advisors. I was lucky, my Lord was eager to speak to me through his messengers. : He spoke through signs and omens and first. A star, burning through the night sky, falling to the north. : As a child, I learned to translate these. This time, they told me that the Caliph had no money to pay his troops with, and many enemies.: So I took a few thousand of my closest friends, and decided to walk the length of the Nile! : I've heard women complain about riding on horses while pregnant. Hah! I gave birth to my eldest daughter on horseback, as we were charging the infidel!: She distracted me from matters of state, so I named her after my mother. : The Caliph sent a token force against us while dealing with the Tetouan in the west. It didn't go very well for them. : As I rode back to Taiwi, I received some news. A crazy woman wanted a say in who gets my throne after I die.: So I went to pay her a visit. : She wasn't stupid, though. She had men in my retinue send her messages. She knew where I was.: As I seiged her castles, she took the capital. : She took my babies!She grabs the Lombard woman by the throat and starts screaming in her face. : Do you know what it feels like?! To have your children taken from you by some crazy bitch?!Patches of fur pop up on Nouddl's outstretched arm. Her nails grow, digging into the poor woman's neck.  : It feels! Like! THIS!With a sickening CRUNCH!, the woman's neck snaps, and she goes limp. The Dread Empress tosses the body aside in disgust. The Dead move a few feet back as slowly as they can, trying to avoid her gaze. Nouddl closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. After a few moments, she is calm again.  : Thankfully, my Lord heard of my struggles. He sent men upon men, lead by great women to my aid.She looks at the Lombard woman. : Oh, don't give me that. You're already dead, what did you have to lose? : Anyway, the women brought me tomes on war from ages past, from Alexander to Hannibal, from Sun Tzu to Julius Caesar. : As her lands burned, the Duchess of Alodia sent flattering letters, claiming that this war was a misunderstanding.: I kept her in a cell for a few years. I would bring her out to the Taiwi keep every few months so she could watch me hang another one of her children.: I had a real process going by the third one. Turns out, if you release the rope at juuuuuust the right moment, you can keep a hanging going for hours!The Dread Empress smiles, lost in nostalgia. : You know, very few things feel as good as seeing your enemies suffer. I mean, sex, sure, but even then, just the good sex, I guess?: So most sex. Making your enemies suffer feels better than most sex. : With the civil war over, the Council returned to their usual bickering. It turns out my Patriarch found enough dirt on half my Council to think he could make decisions in my kingdom. : I set out to prove him wrong. : To distract myself from the nest of vipers Taiwi was becoming, I turned to Damot yet again. : Unfortunately, eventually the Duchess of Alodia ran out of kids, and conveniently died of nightmares.: Most of them were about her kids, isn't that ironic? Either way, I think it's ironic. : So, as I marched on Damot, my witches were working back home. : They told me something about a brew that turned the Patriarch's insides liquid. Felt rather impersonal to me, but I didn't need my name attached to this particular death, so I let it go. : With a Council spot open, I sent instructions to Morgana. She proposed deferring to the Queen in military matters, to make war easier to conduct.: For a while, the idiots bought it. : She sent news of her success, along with a few extra donations from the new Council members. : And yet, the witch started seeing herself as irreplaceable. She wanted to settle down, and let her dynasty watch over some of the crown land.: Thankless rear end in a top hat. : Her disloyalty bothered me, but my Lord took my mind off it with another blessing. Such power!She extends her claws, growing fur for a few seconds, only to bring herself back after a few seconds. : It took me ages to learn to control it. My Lord's gifts are tricky like that. : This is around the time the travels of the Bavarian Merchant reached us, Markus Something-or-Other, with incredible tales of the East. : He travelled through Zunist lands, but far further east than we encountered them. : He claims that their rule spread east, past the Indus, almost to the Ganga itself.: Nonsense, of course. Sun worshippers on the Ganga, indeed.  : But why bother with the mythical East, when I could deal with the weak North? The new Caliph managed to trap himself in a war with the Abyssinians.: So I decided to intervene. : The poor bastard beat back the Abyssinian hordes. My troops would not fall so easily. : Dumbass barely put up a fight. : But with Aswan, I inherited the Caliph's problems. My men were tired, and couldn't even control the locals. The Zunists had some very strong opinions about praising the sun. : With most of my army resting at home, and the north burning, the council decided their opinions mattered again.: I just didn't have the men to make them reconsider. : I got back at them, of course. Let's see those fucks fund a war without gold. : The church wasn't too pleased about my spending spree. Priests left and right started whispering about "cleansing" my soul of the devil's taint.She throws her head back and laughs. : The devil's taint, really! Ridiculous! Sataniel was no devil.She sighs. : Sometimes I wish he really was the devil. It would've made life much less... complicated. : Speaking of devils, this is when my Lord sent me news of the Nesters. Nesters! In Abyssinia! : The camel pirates sacket Damot over some nonsense about trade rights. It was an excellent time to war with Damot. : It was a short war. On my return, my son has organized a triumph, in a Greek style, complete with a golden statue of me, dressed as the Queen of Sheeba.: I've never been more proud. : It took a while to adjust to my Lord's gifts. There were... accidents. : I tried solving one problem with another, and married into the church. : It didn't work. : I started running out of marriage options. The latest one was particularly hated by the court. I had to send him away. : He was about as welcome in Nubia as the Aztecs. : With the latest husband away, I listened to my Lord's messengers and simply gorged myself! : But that didn't distract me enough. The Caliph was dealing with some revolt or another, so I decided to finally return Alexandria to Christian hands. : The Council was getting unbearable. I think they caught on to how I felt about them. : Eventually, I got sick of being denied my husband, so I sent for him back.: He died soon after in an 'accident'. I didn't even have to arrange this one. : It wasn't a very good time in my life. : And as always, in these dark times, my Lord brought me salvation. : He, in his infinite glory, brought me to Mikael and the true Word. : And Mikael rewards his followers. : With His strength, entire nations fall. : I was unstoppable.... The sea turns into a river. Ulfr sails in his rickety boat, until he finally comes to his first destination. A massive pyramid stands in the middle of a forest, it's black walls glistening in the moonlight. The top stands as unfinished as it was centuries ago. It is strange that all the stones remain, that the city so close to it took nothing for its buildings. The locals say the place is haunted, that a troubled spirit roams these walls. They are right. Ulfr lights a torch and enters the tomb. Mosaics of a great beast line the walls, a dog larger than any other throwing itself against boar and bear. A voice speaks to him.  : Begone, Viking! This land killed many of your kind, and will kill many more!: Already dead. Asking a favour.An old man appears in front of him. A wolf-king, covered in fur, with a menacing crown encircling his lupine head. He growls at the Viking. : I do no favours for Northener scum.: Friend of Sophie. de Beaumont.: Sophie? My darling Sophie, is she here?: No. Better place. Brittany.The ghost is no longer a wolf, but an old man. Taller than you'd think, with a thin goatee barely covering his chin. The crown fits him poorly, clearly made for another man. : It is a shame. I've watched what Sophie did for me. For France. I would have liked to speak with her one more time.: So what can the greatest King of France do for you, Northener?: Killing a god. Want in?
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Jun 23, 2016 07:24
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Hail Satan.
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Jun 23, 2016 08:54
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I am down for this Swede/Norman vs Cthulhu fanfiction.
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Jun 23, 2016 08:54
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Rodyle posted:I am down for this Swede/Norman vs Cthulhu fanfiction. *pushing glasses up nose* well, actually, Norman culture never formed, and Ulfr died before Norse culture diverged, and it's not Cthulhu, it's Hastur, and furthermore ...
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Jun 24, 2016 02:02
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I once got the "kill cthulhu" event, the one that gives the Godkiller modifier, as Ragnar Lodbrok. The legends about him must have been pretty cool in that timeline.
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Jun 24, 2016 02:15
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As a Beggar Knight once said, "Should you meet with God on the roadside..." "...Kill Him."
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Jun 24, 2016 16:27
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Next time, on OldMenLP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZcUAPRRac
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Jun 25, 2016 10:59
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Update 31 - Spreading the Word The younger man stands up and approaches the Dread Empress.  : Your Royal Majesty, I have a theological question, if you will.: And who might you be?: Paulius of Vilnus, your Royal Majesty. I had known many holy men in life, and many more in death. I served as an advisor to kings in France, Lombardy and Croatia.: A fine addition to my court! So, Paulius, what is it you want to ask?: I am unclear on the nature of your relationship with Mikael, your Majesty.: Oh, that's simple. : I was his sword. : That's not all I was, of course. But it was enough to silence dissent in my council, for a time. : One after another, the infidels at our borders fell. : It was a bad time to be an infidel the world over, I'm told. : But not all of my problems came from false believers. Sometimes they came from blood. : We can't always keep our gaze facing inward, you know. Not when there are foreigners to kill. : Sometimes, you just need to clear the air with your vassals, and it'll all work out. : This was not one of those times. : This was a time to divert troops from the front and deal with the scheming little shits instead. : And I've gotten very good at dealing with scheming little shits. : The Duke's retinue was a disorganized mess. None of them survived our assault. : He would never see Nobatia again. : With the Nobatia problem solved, we marched north yet again. We spread Mikael's light. : The fractured Shia could not stand against the might of our armies. : But just as Mikael gives, Sataniel takes away.She sighs and lowers her head. : We are never given time enough to grieve. My son was dead, and yet there was work to be done. : There were new titles to grant. : Seats to fill. : Allies to make. : And coffers to fill. Wars cost money, dearie. Whoever has the most, usually wins.The Queen of Sheba reborn stares ahead, lost in memory.  : I was... angry back then. I did things I'm not proud of.  : But I did what I needed to do. For Nubia. And for Mikael. : I did it as my children died all around me. The plague ravaged the country. : I realy thought this would be the end. I would join the uncountable thousands lost to the Aztec disease. : But Sataniel had other plans for me. : I wasn't done putting the fear of God into people. : And so, we marched on Gondar. We had to free its people from the heretics' lies. : But something happened. For the first time in fifty years, the kings at Damot and Gondar united against a common enemy. : Against us. : Of course, this is when the Zunists marched on Egypt. : During an emergency council session, my allies suggested the dukes provide more troops, what with the wars and everything. : Luckily for us, the Sayans themselves were otherwise occupied, and we faced a viper's nest instead of a united army. : It took us six years of hanging every noble we came across, but it paid off. We knew where the Abyssinian queen was hiding. The war was over. : But I no longer felt Mikael's grace when I swung my sword. I do not know if it was my methods, or my target, but it was just me and Sataniel left. : And Sataniel was not very good at helping me speak to people. : As I wrestled with my speech, the sun worshippers burned my land. : I had no choice. I gathered what forces I had left after the Abyssinian war, and marched on the invaders. : We gathered our forces at Abu Ghusun and waited for the Zunists. : Even without Mikael's sweet voice, even with Sataniel twisting my tongue, I led my people.: And we prevailed. : As we broke through the Zunist ranks, my daughters became queens. : As the Knights of Zun turned and ran, our cathedrals in Gizeh grew. : We taught the Zunists an important lesson in that war: : Faith alone was not enough. : We had more gold. : We had more men. : And our God was an awesome God. : It took me ten years, but I pushed the sun worshippers out.  : And just like that, Mikael's blessing returned to us. : More and more faithful flocked to our banner. : And the infidel was breaking. : But as always, there were those who dared question my leadership. : They did not last long. : I used her dynasty to prove a point to my dukes: I was the only one worth following. : After all, I was the only one who saw the world for what it truly was.... Another day, another river. As the Dnieper twists and turns, Ulfr's boat carries on. The old viking adjusts his sail and scans the horizon. The city around him was full of life, once. Now, the shores stand silent. Nothing but the wind travels through the ruins of Kyiv. Suddenly, movement. A familiar shape stands out from the burnt remains of the city: an old man, following Ulfr's boat. A moment passes, and the man is sitting in Ulfr's boat. His face is covered with shadow, but the old viking recognizes the voice.  : This will not help. A thousand dead Frenchmen will not free your friend.Ulfr refuses to look him in the eyes. : No. But their God might.The trader throws his head back and laughs. : Where was their God when the children of the hummingbird burned their lands? When the Great Pox killed two in three men? When your people pillaged across Frisia?The laughter stops. : You are no hero, Ulfr of Perm. You do not get a hero's ending.He stands up. : And you are not the only one who can make allies.With that, Amir's shadow dissipates, and Ulfr remains alone on his boat. : Be safe, old friend.He adjusts the sail once more, and heads to the horizon. The Black Sea awaits.
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Jul 28, 2016 10:22
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