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The unfortunate reality about Rome is that most European empires are at least partially Rome.
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Jul 21, 2023 19:19
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Viola the Mad posted:Aw man, I was hoping we'd convert back to Judaism. i have a sneaky (narrative) plan regarding that (og gerbaal being a false convert, gives crimea to his jewish relatives) but we'll see how things go with this crusade for now
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Jul 22, 2023 03:29
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 Part 14 — The Crusade — 1028 to 1066 King and lord, knight and peasant, great and low, rich and poor, they all tramp down and along the winding roads that lead to Trebizond, every step an echo of that walk from Gethsemane to Golgotha.  They come from Sardis and Phrygia and Atillaia, and Galatia the Great and Pontus the Pristine, and the Propontis and the Marmaras, and distant Taurica, and even Gothia across the sea whose king had so recently sworn obeisance to the Pope-in-Byzantion. And from the seat of the Elissid Crown, these crusaders descend the royal road and reach Melitene fords on the river Euphrates. There they tarry for a few days, and then cross over to the lands of the Caliphate.  The year is 1028, and the Crusade has begun.  But back in Trebizond, the newly-crowned king of Pontus and Sardis, protector of Phrygia and Phasis and Hatti and Atillaia, sword-and-shield of Christendom, and over-king of the Elissid Crowns… does not join them.   Though he dispatched a sizeable force under the command of his nephew, Archilochus, King Eshmounhilles does not take the cross himself. He has no interest in going to the Holy Land (such a long walk would surely blister his feet), nor of spending his money on firearms and mercenaries (and give up his fur and ermine?), or taking the fight to the infidel (swords are really quite heavy). That did not stop the lesser lords of the Elissid Crowns from pledging their own moneys and troops, however, and they did just that, raising their levies to march alongside Archilochus.    The first action of the Crusade was a Christian victory, with Archilochus defeating the local Cilician levy at Masyaf in 1031, before moving south and laying siege to the mighty fortress of Antioch —  The crusaders expected a lengthy siege, but Christians within the city betrayed the garrison and opened a postern gate, and Antioch was taken within a few days — a clear sign that God favoured the crusaders.   By late 1032, the crusaders reached Tyros, the homeland of the Phoenicians and the site of Elissa’s defeat a century prior. The city only put up a token defense before capitulating.  From there they struck inland, and as Christmas day approached, the walls of Holy Jerusalem came into sight… This place would not surrender quite so meekly, however.   The siege was a long and gruelling affair, with relentless bombards and bloody assaults and fires eating through half the city whilst crusaders rampaged across the other half, there were stormings and sorties and desperate last stands, great lords were captured and captains were hung from the ramparts and the common were slaughtered like cattle everywhere.  And half a year later, Jerusalem was Christian again.  It didn’t take long for the jubilant news to snake up roads and cross bridges, sending Trebizond into a springtime of ecstasy and celebration. Even Eshmounhilles was delighted, using the victories as an excuse for more feasts and tourneys.  But the Caliph was not yet beaten. Instead, he spent a year in Damascus gathering all the might of his empire to him, thousands of levies and mercenaries and contingents of Mamluks and Egyptians as well, so that when the campaigning season of 1035 began, he marched at the head of 60,000 troops.  The counter-offensive that followed was sweeping and unstoppable. Catching the crusaders by surprise, the warriors of Islam fell on Acre and Tyros and Beirut, one after the other, leaving Jerusalem a lonely holdout in a sea of swords…  And already weakened by the previous siege, the Holy City could not withstand them for long.   1031 was blighted by further calamity — whilst besieging Tripoli, the entirety of the crusader army was caught between relief and sortie and dealt a crushing defeat, with Archilochus counted amongst the 7000 casualties.    Eshmounhilles, predictably, could not care less. He hosted a feast to honour the conquest of Jerusalem, and another mourn the losses at Tripoli, and then a third to celebrate the birth of his grandson, and a fourth and fifth because he felt like it.   So surely it was no surprise when he found himself gout-ridden, and so severely that his court physicians could do little to stymie the condition.   As the king was slowly rotting in gluttony and greed, the Crusade was suffering setback after setback —    Not only had the Caliph reversed all the victories and seizures of the Crusade thus far, but he even launched into an audacious invasion of the Elissid Crowns in the year 1036.  The crusaders set an ambush for him in the harsh mountainous country of Tarawn, falling on him from multiple directions with superior numbers…    …but with a vanguard comprising of his elite firearm knights, the Caliph somehow managed to drive back and defeat every force he faced.  A campaign into Anatolia followed, with the Caliph burning and sacking and slaughtering wherever he went —    It seemed as though the forces of Islamdom would have to bombard the very walls of Trebizond for Eshmounhilles to take any notice — and perhaps they might have, had the king not perished a few months later, closing the year of 1036.  Smertomara, his son and heir, promised to be a very different man and king.   Cruel, ambitious, and already attainted for having murdered his cousin (and possibly his own father?), Smertomara began his reign thus: he gathered his vassals in Trebizond, and with one hand on his sword and the other on a Bible, he swore an eternal feud against the house of Umayya.   The reasons behind this are clear enough; the atrocities done to his ancestors in Phoenicia, the slaughter of his cousins, the ravaging and despoiling of Elissid country. Taking personal charge of the paltry men remaining to him — perhaps 12,000 in all — Smertomara launched an immediate campaign against the Caliphate forces besieging Edessa, the gateway into Anatolia and Pontus.  A series of marches and counter-marches followed, but by the end of 1044, Smertomara managed to lure the Muslim armies into unfavourable terrain, and there…  …there, he overcame their numbers and seized a long-awaited, much-needed victory, slaughtering and capturing almost 18,000 Muslims.  Falling back in disarray, the Caliph managed to regroup in Cilicia — but Smertomara was hot on his heels, and the crusaders were victorious again in battles at Zermion and Samosata, driving the Muslims into Hunnia and Syria   They reached as far as Tellamid before finally being checked, with Smertomara forced to halt his advance and reconsider.   On the other side of the plains of Cilicia, the Caliph did the same — and with that, the great conflict between Islam and Christianity entered a lull. Both sides needed to replenish their armies and recover their strength, with Smertomara using his hard-won time to expand barracks and drill troops, and plan out the details of the upcoming campaign. There were even a few years of frayed peace between the Elissids and Umayyads, a peace that was pockmarked by raids and assassinations and other underhanded incursions, but a peace nonetheless.    It was not until 1056 that the Crusade flared into life again, for that was when another mamluk rebellion erupted in Mesopotamia. Smertomara sought to take advantage of this distraction, preparing a swift march to seize Damascus and so sever the Caliph’s lines of supply and communication… But the king would not live to see his plans made action — whilst inspecting his troops in the days before the outset of this campaign, Smertomara fell off his horse and was crushed beneath the bulk of the beast. He succumbed to his injuries a few days after the dreadful accident.    Despite his unfortunate end, there is no denying that Smertomara had played a vital role in the Crusade, stabilising the front and even gaining some ground against the Caliphate. That would not be his greatest legacy, however — rather, Smertomara’s legacy would rest with his son and heir, Olorix.   Who had only just come of age…   Raised with a burning hatred of the Umayyads, trained in the brightest schools of tactics and warmaking, and inheriting an army of battle-hardened crusaders, Olorix was destined for great things — and the youngster believed that as well. Even as a child, he knew in his heart that he was a once-in-a-millennium man — an Alexander, Hiram, Atilla — and he was determined to impress that on the rest of the world. That was how he was raised. It would take blood, and conquest, and triumphs unmatched, but Olorix was determined to carve his name into the very bedrock of the Holy Land.     So when he was finally crowned, the young king wasted no time in exchanging his sceptre for a sword. He began by raising his army — and thanks to the efforts of his father, Olorix managed to raise a formidable host, 40,000-strong.  The crusader horde that descended on the holy land kicked dust into sandstorms, and that was not the end of it. As word of their renewed crusade spread, the army attracted hundreds and then thousands of peasants and mercenaries, adventurers and hopefuls, ambitious lords and zealous princes, all bringing their strength with them. Olorix crossed into Caliphate territory with 40,000 men, but when he reached his first obstacle in the fortress of Beirut, those numbers had swelled to over 100,000…  The king knew that such an immense host could not be supported for very long, and so he had to act quickly and decisively. Therefore, rather than conform to the traditional tactics of the day (i.e. avoiding large-scale pitched battles wherever possible), Olorix opted for a far more reckless strategy (namely, marching in force against the enemy without giving time to delay or decide, and so defeat them in detail).  This gamble, together with an excellent command of battlefield ploys and plots, led to Olorix scoring a string of one-sided victories at Birra, Edessa, Tripoli and Antiocheia.    And these victories would be essential in thinning the Caliphate numbers before that inevitable climactic clash, the battle that would decide the campaign — a battle that finally arrived in the winter of 1064, in the open plains of Paneas…  …where a small-scale skirmish quickly spiralled out of control, with hundreds and then thousands and then tens of thousands of reinforcements pouring onto the battlefield from north and south, 100,000 crusaders battling 100,000 muslims…  …and there, after twelve days of bitterly close fighting, Olorix broke the back of the Caliph’s army and turned his flanks over and out.  The battle turned into a rout, and no less than 35,000 Muslims were killed, maimed, or chained in the hours that followed. The crushing victory was followed by another at Hebron and a third in the outskirts of Jerusalem, with the Caliphate suffering tens of thousands of casualties in the brutal slaughters.   A few weeks later, Jerusalem itself — despoiled, devastated, depopulated, but holy Jerusalem still — opened her battered gates to Olorix’s conquering army.   And with the beginning of 1066, the bankrupt and exhausted Caliph had only option remaining to him:  Triumph. The war for Holy Jerusalem had stretched across half a century and comprised a dozen campaigns — with traditional historiography even dividing the long struggle into several crusades, the First, the Second, and the Third — but at long last, Christendom was triumphant, Pontus was triumphant, the house of Elissa was triumphant. And this was not a temporary victory, not a mere reprieve, not another lull in the war. Treaties were signed, castles were surrendered, swords were set down. After three generations of fighting, the Crusade was at an end.   But for Olorix, still so young and more ambitious than ever, this was only the beginning. Having already proven himself a martial and tactical genius, Olorix looks to the squabbling Armenians and Goths on his borders, he looks to the broken Caliphate and the factious Mamluks, he looks to the wayward Antiochene Christians and heretical Christo-Buddhists, he looks everywhere and way, head heady with dreams of greatness and conquest. hashashash fucked around with this message at 17:29 on Nov 10, 2023 |
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Jul 24, 2023 19:08
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 Vote!The Crusade has been won, and with a military genius at the helm, the ascendancy of house Elissid is all but assured (assuming a stray arrow doesn’t take him). Even so, there is a decision to be made —  Who do we continue as? A — Elissid Crowns, with the ambitious and wildly talented Olorix aiming to match the greatest conquerors of antiquity — we continue as Elissid Crowns, with Olorix looking hungrily to surrounding realms… B — Holy Jerusalem, with the main objective being the defeat of Islamdom and destruction of the Umayyads — we continue as Jerusalem, stabilising the realm and continuing the Umayyad feud and then the crusades… C — Taurica, the crimean peninsula that has attained a strong heretical population and local Elissid lords who increasingly look the the Steppe — we continue as Taurica, where the steppes are calling to us… Vote!
hashashash fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Jul 24, 2023 |
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Jul 24, 2023 19:10
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Let us go C those steppes!
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Jul 24, 2023 20:10
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C. Taurica, lets get heretical in here.
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Jul 24, 2023 20:12
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C time baby. Let's go create some other religion!
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Jul 24, 2023 20:24
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A how could we switch off right before we reach the pinnacle of our greatness??
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Jul 24, 2023 20:26
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We shouldn't turn our Backs on the Caliph just yet, that's just asking for a resurgence
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Jul 24, 2023 20:30
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C.
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Jul 24, 2023 20:35
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C
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Jul 24, 2023 20:43
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A
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Jul 24, 2023 20:47
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I vote we take a steppe across the C.
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Jul 24, 2023 22:34
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B. If we don't stamp em down, the caliphate will be back in a generation.
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Jul 24, 2023 23:04
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Voting for A
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Jul 24, 2023 23:16
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We should answer the Call of the steppes!
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Jul 24, 2023 23:23
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B to make sure the Caliphate blob is permanently compromised (and it seems like the option that also least helps with the formation of a giant quasi-byzantine blob to our north).
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Jul 24, 2023 23:28
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A, then switch once Olorix dies
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Jul 24, 2023 23:30
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C Taurica
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Jul 24, 2023 23:49
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Raserys posted:A, then switch once Olorix dies
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Jul 24, 2023 23:49
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Raserys posted:A, then switch once Olorix dies Let him blaze bright or burn out.
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Jul 25, 2023 03:08
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B. because i want to see what Jerusalem can become
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Jul 25, 2023 03:42
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C to see the steppes.
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Jul 25, 2023 05:09
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Voting for A, there really is no reason for us to change.
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Jul 25, 2023 06:04
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B Yet, Jerusalem prevails!
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Jul 25, 2023 09:25
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A are we to leave our Alexander after his victory? Shall we be as those troops at the Indus? Nay! Let us see Olorix through, not only to build an Empire but to exceed Alexander and build one that lasts!
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Jul 25, 2023 10:58
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A
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Jul 25, 2023 11:30
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B
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Jul 25, 2023 12:10
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C
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Jul 25, 2023 13:14
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Raserys posted:A, then switch once Olorix dies switch to what though?
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Jul 25, 2023 13:28
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presumably the world situation will be really different by the time that comes up, or if not then just default to what the runner up is
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Jul 25, 2023 13:35
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C!
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Jul 25, 2023 18:06
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C
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Jul 25, 2023 18:34
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Vote Tally A — Elissid Crowns — 6 — ThatBasqueGuy, Lord Cyrahzax, wedgekree, Rody One Half, Rejected Fate, GunnerJ Aish — Olorix, and then Re-covene (counting as part of A for now) — 3 — Raserys, Sherbert Hoover, AJ_Impy B — Holy Jerusalem — 6 — Yuiiut, NewMars, Mirdini, QuoProQuid, Pacho, Kangxi C — Taurica — 12 — Technowolf, BraveLittleToaster, L.U.I.G.I, meatbag, mcclay, Ralepozozaxe, Bloody Pom, jakethecap, Admiral Joeslop, SirPhoebos, habeasdorkus, Dance Officer
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Jul 25, 2023 19:13
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Wait a-ish is a valid vote? That seems the obvious to me lmao
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Jul 25, 2023 19:23
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B to keep the blob down.
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Jul 25, 2023 19:33
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B
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Jul 25, 2023 20:41
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C.
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Jul 25, 2023 20:48
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ThatBasqueGuy posted:Wait a-ish is a valid vote? That seems the obvious to me lmao sure, I don't mind if enough people want it, but obviously in the next vote Elissid Crowns would be off the table
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Jul 25, 2023 20:50
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Rejected Fate posted:A are we to leave our Alexander after his victory? Shall we be as those troops at the Indus? A!-ish
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Jul 25, 2023 21:46
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