CK2: Broken Kingdoms - Shattered World

I thought I'd take a look at the rest of the world and see how the rest of the world is consolidating.

Duchess Aurora has the larget realm in Greece and Asia Minor with three counties so far, a good start. The count of Byzantion has assumed the title of Emperor because holding the city is enough in Ck2+ but he has, so far, no other counties to his name.,

Looking south we have a bit of a surprise. What do you get when a Greek count marries a Nubian countess? A Duchess of Crete who is halfway to becoming Queen of Nubia. On the other side of the Red Sea the descendants of Mohammed have established the Hashimid Emirate around Medina and they will probably be the second major power in the region.



In south Italy Count Weeabohemond rules four counties but has not yet established a duchy so if he dies prematurely his heirs will just divide it all again. In North Africa we have the Waheedid Emirate in Cyrenaica.



At the western end of the world the Almoravids have a large emirate around Marrakech and the oldest son and heir is already Emir of Fes. The only question is whether they will expand north or south.



In the British Isles we have two duchies and they're both allied. The Duchess of Connacht is married to the Duke of Northumberland. No heirs yet, but if they come they'll have the start of a kingdom.

Episode 7: You killed my father.

After the festivities end Duchess Aurora has to decide her next objective. Her father had a vision and she intends to follow it, but how? A visitor from up north helps her figure it out. Hunty Dungsroman, second son of count Bill Dungsroman, has no lands to his name. His eldest brother Dave is as dumb as he is handsome but he sits in the count's seat while Hunty has nothing to do but hunt and party. Aurora takes a liking to him and starts thinking of ways to unseat Dave and make Hunty a count. Hunty graciously accepts an offer to join her court but despite her affection for him Aurora is not fool enough to raise her armies unless she can benefit from the situation. And then it hits her. With her brother ruling Serdica she only needs one more county to form the Duchy of Turnovo.

The count of Dorostum is one of those smelly Bulgarians, we can unseat him, form the Duchy, and then the counties of Nikopolis and Tyrnovo become natural vassals and both Count Dungsroman and Countess Angie will have to bend knee. The plan is perfect. It harms the Bulgarians, lets Aurora unite her people under her, and daddy would approve!





Baron Ely is sent to Dorostum to fabricate a claim. In the meantime we'll see about improving the lot of our villagers in Adrianopolis. Healthy and wealthy villagers is an investment that yields bigger taxes.


With Baron Ely out travelling we can also take care of another piece of business. Our mother. She is vile and evil and she needs to die. And when she does we will take her lands and banish those demonspawn bastards she calls children in that castle of hers. A few well-placed bribes at mother's court sets the plot in motion, and with a bit of prodding mother's spymaster discovers she has a suitor from Philippopolis. She'll move to my court to be with him, naturally. Baron Ely wouldn't approve, so we haven't told him.


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This means I'm going to have to get all my dresses altered, doesn't it?



It's a boy! I'm going to name him Lum. May the Fatbird watch over him.

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Is it worse to lose a father or a child? Is it worse to have your right hand cut off or your left? There is no joy in this world, only horror and grief.

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Episode 8: Murder she wrote

While still in mourning over the death of her son the duchess was near beside herself with grief when she learned that Baron Elyscape had been murdered while travelling in Dorostum to promote her claim among the local lords.



All good things in life were taken from her, one by one, so when word came from Ephesos that her conspirators were ready to strike all the kindness in her heart was gone. Her mother needed to die. That was justice. Harsh, but it was the only justice she was ever going to receive. You had to be strong to be just, and she would be strong.




With her mother dead and the lords placated by the tale of a lone assassin she now had to decide what to do with her "family". The bastards sired by her mother's new husband Alexios, as well as the man himself. The dungeons and torture figured in her fantasies but ultimately it was Constance who decided for her. She fell in love with Alexios and the two of them got married in secret. And that was that. Aurora would provide for her bastard siblings, they would be fed and clothed but nothing more. And if they ever pressed mother's claim against her they would die.

Mother's holding's were rich, and mother's coffers were filled with ducats, so justice paid after all. With this much success she felt emboldened to try a new scheme against her husband's sisters. Should they die then David would inherit the county of Coloneia. He didn't have to know, but then he never interfered with her plans. He was brave and humble and much more at home in the barracks or out riding than at court. She would have to keep him safe, if this world was ever safe for anyone.

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A second child was born, named Elyscape after the man his mother loved as a father. May god watch over him.

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Count Lum of Serdica, Aurora's brother, was young and brash and he had gathered the young hotheads at court around him. He was loyal but the faction of his could spell trouble. Lum craved the Chancellorship but Aurora dared not give it to him. She still needed a claim on Dorostotum and Lum was not a good enough diplomat, nor was he expendable should another murderer strike. Instead she tried to placate her brother with feasts and gifts.

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The feast was a success, even if Baron Elyscape the younger got drunk and made wildly inappropriate claims about his father. He is still young and he can be forgiven.

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A daughter. Aurora's joy is mixed with fear that her realm will be broken up. She resolves to look into the laws of succession.

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Mayor Nutsak hasn't disappointed. It took a few years but we have a claim on Dorostotum.



No sooner has he returned before Aurora sends him off to Smyrna to make another claim so she can consolidate her mother's holdings into another duchy.

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The war was brief and one-sided. Aurora led her men in combat herself, wanting to see battle with her own eyes. It could have ended in disaster had the contest been more even. As it was the count of Dorostotum had barely 400 men against Aurora's 1800. Bribing her way to the claim had taken most of Aurora's treasury so it would be a couple of years before she could create the Duchy of Turnovo and bring the Dungsromans and von Hatofuls under her protection but she could be patient when she needed to.

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With Mayor Nutsak dead of fever in Smyrna Duchess Aurora saw no way to deny her brother the post of Chancellor. His faction was getting unruly and giving him a post on the council would placate them. However, before she sent off her brother on dangerous diplomatic missions she would make sure he was properly married. She was the head of the dynasty and her brother had to do his part for the family, whether he wanted to or not.

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It seems that David's sister had a tragic carriage accident. How unfortunate.



That leaves one sister to deal with and her liege's spymaster hates her. A small bribe was enough to get him to aid me.

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Another child



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That bitch! Well, she'll bend knee as soon as Aurora is duchess.



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Finally the claim that will let me subjugate that bitch Angie and that idiot Dungsroman. But first there's the matter of inheritance. To keep the realm from getting broken up we intend to get our vassals to grant us primogeniture succession. In this case young Elyscape would inherit everything. But to do that all vassals need to agree, and thanks to Angie's petition to the patriarch we have two bishops who are unlikely to ever grant us what we desire.

The solution is simple, but painful. The discontent bishoprics will be given to one of our other vassals. This will deny us taxes but it is necessary to keep the realm together, and to keep the children from fighting amongs themselves.

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Giving out bishoprics wasn't enough to keep both the Court faction and the Religious faction from voicing outright rebellion. I can only hope they will calm down in time. In the meantime we will take Tyrnovo. We will let countess Angie live and continue ruling her county only so that she can feel our yoke on her neck

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The scheming of Aeon of Pie has seen the dynasty driven out of Naissus after he murdered his sister to claim the county himself. Her sisters children are not Broken but raised as Greeks. Though Aeon is a despicable man we still feel the need to protect our people and we will reclaim Naissus for the Broken.

The Duchess of Vidin tried to interfere but we crushed her army and won a handsome peace settlement from her.

We grant the county not to the Pies but to the Dramallamas of Serdica. Aeon of Pie cannot be trusted to rule, that much is clear. The Dramallamas are an honarable family.

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The Dungsromanian holdings in Nikopolis are next. Dave Dungsroman has moved his court to Poland after his mother died and left him the county of Sandomierz so we cannot press a subjugation claim. Oh well, we'll just take his county outright. Our dynasty shall rule all Broken people and if the Dungsromans wish to rule abroad then let them.

Troy of Pie is given the lands of Nikopolis.

Now all Broken lands are under our rule save one, Strymon is still held by the old count Quatoria Ircer. With no obvious claim on the province we can probably leave him be, for now. As long as the ruler is Broken our people will be safe.

Episode 9: Unreliable Chronicles

While we have good first-hand records of Aurora's early life until approximately 1105 AD the historical records of how Queen Aurora united the Broken into a kingdom have been lost to us but a fragmented chronicle from the 13th century gives us a few details.

We know that she created the Duchy of Samos around her mother's old holdings in Ephesos, conquering the Island of Samos as well as the wealthy port town of Smyrna, and uprooted the local Greek aristocracy and replaced them with Broken noble families




Roughly around 1110 AD she betrothed her son and heir Elyscape to a princess of Byzantion. The title of Princess was, at this time, clearly an exaggeration of status as thje rulers of Byzantion only held a limited area of Thrace but Byzantion was the largest and some say richest city in the
world at this time so the princess must have made for a valuable alliance.



Count David of Birlad, her husband, died sometime between 1120AD and 1126 AD. The chronicle of 1126AD speaks of a Duke Ioannes but he has not left any other mark on history and since Aurora was in her 50's when she married him it is unlikely that he fathered any children by her.
Count David left his holdings in Birlad and Galaz, on the border of Wallachia and Moldavia, to be divided between Auroras two eldest children, Elyscape and Sparky. This seems to have been a turbulent time as we know from archeological finds that there are several major battlefields that date back to this time and the Broken seem to have been involved in vicious fighting on their northern frontier with the remnants of the Bulgarian tribes they displaced as well as the Vlach tribes in Wallachia. It seems reasonable to speculate that Duchess Aurora went to war to aid her children but we do not know whether it was part of wars of aggression or simply defending their lands. Quite possibly it was a little of both.

In the northwest the independent duchy of Vidin had been ruled by the Pie family since Aurora helped put them on the throne sometime in 1107AD. The duchy was an independent entity but it is clear that Aurora fought several wars to protect the interests of the Pies. What she gained is unclear but the most likely possibility is that it was done out of tribal loyalty.



While we're short on a lot of information we do have a firm date for Aurora's coronation as Queen. It was done on Christmas eve in 1131 AD. Queen Aurora was 60 years old at the time. On her ascension she immediately established the crown laws of the Broken that would serve as example for Broken rulers for over 300 years. Duke Cubit II of Vidin swore fealty to her as did the Ircers of Strymon. This was by all accounts a completely peaceful secession of power by these formerly independent rulers so clearly her power and authority over the tribes of the Broken was more or less absolute at this point.

The Broken were now all united in a single kingdom.



In less than a year Aurora helped the Duke of Vidin take Wallachia, conquered Attaleia, and reunited her children's lands by the Moldavian border with the Broken Kingdom. And just as she was at the height of her power she died.

Off topic a bit, I know, but The Kingdom of the Broken sounds like the sort of place children in fantasy novels get sent to find something needed for their journey home.

Episode 10: Hail to the King

King Elyscape the Chaste had a lot to live up to. His time in Birlad had not prepared him for the intrigue he immediately had to deal with upon ascending to the throne.



One of his first acts as king was to attempt to harness the nobility. He did so by granting duchies to trusted lords and making distrusted counts vassals of these duchies. Those he raised up were tied closer to him while those who were not now had a new overlord who could keep a closer eye on their schemes.

This was a break from older Broken traditions where every lord had equal position but it served to stabilise the realm as well as centralise power and it was one of the main reasons why King Elyscape could campaign against the Crimean chiefdom of Stalin in the summer of 1135 when they invaded the principality of Kiev. This was not an offensive action but King Elyscape did win a lot of prestige from his defeat of the infidels which further cemented his hold on power. In 1138AD he led a short campaign against the port of Constantia in present-day Romania and with victory there the Broken now controlled the entire western coastline of the Black Sea.

In the summer of 1139AD the Byzantine Emperor died while campaigning against Bogomilist heretics in Paphlagonia. Emperor Hektorios was succeeded by Konstantinos, then seven years old. King Elyscape was the Emperor's brother-in-law and clearly saw the opportunity here. By putting his wife on the throne he could unite his dynasty with that of the Empire.

Princess Sjofn, the King's younger sister, defeated the Emperor's forces at the battle of Chalcedon and crushed the stragglers as they tried to flee back over the straits into the city of Byzantion. In May 1140 Empress Konstantine was crowned, led to the throne by her husband. Princess Sjofn would continue to lead the Kingdom's armies in the Trebizond crusade as well as the crushing of the Thessalonician heretics, following the example of the Emperor Hektorios and winning new territories for the Kingdom.

The Nikean rebellion of 1148-1149 saw Doux Konstantinos of the Byzantine Empire try to turn the tables on his sister but despite a lengthy siege of Byzantion itself Konstantinos' rebellion fell apart after he was assassinated as a Kievan army relieved the city. Empress Konstantine died in 1152AD, succeeded by the first Broken ruler of Byzantion, Emperor Iain the First.

It was at some point between 1145-1150 that King Elyscape established the first of what was to become the Kataphraktoi order. An elite unit of heavy knights pof the nobility, heavily armed and armored, that served the King as bodyguards. King Elyscape took his inspiration from the Companion Cavalry of Alexander the Great, a fitting portent of the future of the kingdom.



The Legend of King Elyscape says he designed the world's first flying machine and then flew it off the highest tower in Philippoppolis. Whatever the truth of the matter no record of the machine's design has survived.



King Elyscape died shortly after his rumored flight, uniting the Empire and the Kingdom under one ruler. Emperor Iain.

Episode 11: Empire is a dirty business

It was only after Emperor Iain inherited the Kingdom of the Broken that he had the powerbase to reform the Empire. One of his first acts was to banish his cousin, the Doux of Thrace, who had been imprisoned since the failed rebellion of 1149. Now the richest lands in the Empire were in the hands of the emperor but many called him tyrant and the mood at court was rebellious. In an effort to placate the Eastern nobles the Emperor harmonised the inheritance laws of the Empire and the Kingdom, effectively disowning his daughter Gertrude.

The court was further divided when the Emperor announced that he intended to divorce his wife Kristyna, a lesser noblewoman of Czech origin, and marry his steward Sekhet. Sekhet was an Egyptian emigre who had risen up through the ranks of the court by her wits, a remarkable woman by all accounts and the emperor was a learned man who truly seemed to love her. The divorce itself, while inappropriate, was not nearly as big an issue as the fact that the Emperor's chosen wife did not secure any political alliances. The emperor was either love-struck or supremely confidant in his ability to control his court, but we know that the Emperor expanded the the Kataphraktoi bodyguard cavalry that served his father.

In an effort to bolster his prestige and secure the support of the church Emperor Iain joined the Holy war in the defense of Armenia. The war was a near-fatal miscalculation however as Sanya, the Duchess of Vidin and Wallachia, seized the moment when the Empire's armies were committed to the eastern frontier to demand autonomy from the empire. The Emperor balked at her demands and as a result the Kingdom of the Broken was torn apart in civil war.


The rebellion, though well-timed, fell apart as the Emperor could bring his armies back from the east nearly unscathed. The Emirate's forces had already been broken by the time the Imperial army arrived in Armenia and they were simply marched back to Trebizond and shipped home to the capital. The Imperial army swiftly retook Adrianopolis and marched on Nikopolis where they crushed the Duchess' army and broke the siege of the city.

With the rebels in chains Emperor Iain's position was suddenly unassailable, victory had been swift and the most vocal and powerful critics of his rule were now in chains. In the aftermath the Emperor's step-brother Hektorios, count of Thrake, had his estates seized and was blinded for his role in the rebellion. It might sound cruel but this was the Emperor showing mercy. Hektorios was a possible contender for the throne and since he had openly revolted the Emperor had to make an example of him. A blind man could not rule, and this way the Emperor spared Hektorios' life.The rest of the revolters got off remarkably lightly. Most forfeited lands to the crown but were otherwise punished by house arrest.

With the throne now secure the Emperor embarked on an ambitious program of public reform, coupled with frequent wars. The next ten years saw the Empire defend Armenia against further incursions by the Muslim Emirates, fight a holy war against the Bogomilist heretics of Armeniacon, and the conquest of Epieros and Abydos. Plunder and glory augmented the Emperor's political standing further and he was able to centralise the administration as well as change the Empire's laws of succession to Primogeniture, bringing the Broken custom into the Empire.

The Emperor's death in 1166 left his then-five-years old son Lum to assume the mantle of Emperor, suddenly the Empire was on the brink of rebellion once again.

All these natural deaths are seriously unnatural ;d

Episode 12: Crippled

When Emperor Lum the First took the throne in 1166 it marked a hundred years since his namesake and ancestor had led the tribed of the Broken to Greece. The boy Emperor was born a with a crooked back, a poor omen that the Empress spent considerable effort on denying, but by the time the boy succeeded Emperor Iain it was common knowledge among his vassals and it was only thanks to the skill of the dowager Empress Sekhmet that the realm did not collapse. Under her regency she created the Kingdom of Epirus and granted the title to the Ircers of Dyrrhachion. Generous gifts were showered on faction leaders and old border disputes were resolved in their favour.

It was, therefore, a severe blow when the Empress was outmaneuvred by the court faction who demanded a man be put in charge as regent. The regent, a Gevorg Varajnuni, was an Armenian minor noble who cared little for the empire except as a means to enrich himself. When the Emperor was 14 years old violence finally broke out and just as in the time of his father it was started in the duchy of Vidin. Duke Belgerog was barely grown into manhood when he was seized upon by the separatist faction of the Kingdom of the Broken who wished to see the Broken leave the Empire to the Greeks. The separatists never went beyond talk until the regent revoked the duchy of Vidin. The duke refused to comply and instead the Kingdom of the Broken shattered in civil war in the spring of 1173AD. The resources of the Empire far outstripped those of two rebel Broken Dukes and the rebellion was swiftly put down. The Emperor revoked the rebel duchies and the Dukes were wracked in the Imperial dungeons.






Despite these measures the Empire remained troubled by unrest for several years as Bogomilists rose up on the Black Sea coast and the poor citizens of Constantinople rioted and had to be put down by force. Emperor Lum was clearly troubled by these events, the peasant riots alone took five years before they ended and frequently made the streets of the capital unsafe for dignitaries, but it did not put a dent in his ambitions. When he finally grasped the reins of Empire his achievements would surpass Queen Aurora and he would be known as Lum the Great.



(Emperor Lum in the prime of his life)

With the rebels in check the Emperor's first priority was the Greek Counts and Dukes of Asia Minor. Despite having frequently come to their aid against their religious enemies Emperor Iain had never been able to make them submit to Imperial rule as Greek heads refused to bow to a Broken overlord. Emperor Lum was well aware of this history and when the Muslims launched a new campaign, this time against Armenia Minor on the Mediterranean coast, Emperor Lum pledged his support to the cause but only sent token forces to the region. The battered Greek counts were forced to surrender only to see Lum declare war the year after, conquering Armenia Minor and replacing the Greek nobility with Broken nobles. In the end all of Asia Minor was to be Broken, but that was still years in the future.

Episode 13: Look East

The following years saw near-constant warfare as the Empire's borders expanded on all fronts. Lum's ambitions were two-fold. First, unite the Greeks under their ancient Empire under Broken overlordship, second, take war to the heretics and heathens and restore the ancient church.

In 1198 Emperor Lum invaded the independent duchy of Armenia under the auspice of protecting it against muslim aggression. The Imperial army, led by Marged of Phillippi, took the fortress of Karin and defeated the Armenians in the Battle of Midnabjerd before accepting the surrender of the Duke. The campagin was followed by the subjugation of Charsianon and the annexation Ancyra in 1199.



1199 also saw the Kingdom of Hellas fall apart in the revolt of the Thessalian League. The Emperor's second wife Theodora asked her husband for aid but she had not counted on Lum's avarice. Instead of coming to the aid of the rebels Imperial troops invaded Thessalia and Crete and deposed the ruling nobles and then, satisfied with their gains, left the remainder of Hellas to fight out the rebellion. After eight years of bloody civil war the Queen of Hellas, a catholic convert, won the war with support from Naples and Barcelona, and as revenge for the Imperial landgrabs she purged the Broken nobility from Hellas, including land held by the Emperor's sons. The Emperor immediately answered by declaring himself King of Hellas and spent two years fighting the war in Greece. The Queen was eventually captured in her stronghold in Euboia and brought before the Emperor who had her recant her catholic heresy before executing her and exiling her family.

The Wars in Greece are also the subject of an epic ballad, the Lumiad, supposdely written by the Emperor himself.





But while the Greek rebellions went on the Empire did not sit idle. In 1200AD Emperor Lum turned his gaze north, to the Moldavian border and the rich province of Belgorod with the intent of establishing a border kingdom to defend against the pagan steppe peoples. The county of Belgerod was annexed in 1201 and 15 years later the Empire annexed the entire Duchy of Moldau. Stalinist raiders would cross the border at times but the Imperial defenses were sufficiently impressive that the Crimean raiders would skirt the edges of the Empire and instead strike north and north-west into Rus lands.

1201AD also saw a revolt in the Waheedid Sultanate that prompted the Emperor to launch a holy war to liberate the orthodox patriarchy of Alexandria. 1203-1205 saw the conquest of the last independent Greek Dukes in Asia minor and by 1215 all Greeks in the East were Imperial subjects.

A common problem facing the Emperor in his wars of expansion was how to rule the conquered provinces. The Emperor was a firm believer in Broken supremacy over the weak and divided peoples he conquered but he was also only too wary of the danger of placing too much power in the hands of the old noble families. Instead he promoted ambitious lower nobility and priests, his court was wide open to men of skill an ambition, provided they were Broken. As a result the old Greek families started to emulate Broken ways and married into Broken families because it was the only way for them to gain the highest posts in the Empire. Three decades into the Emperor's reign the capital was thoroughly Broken in culture as a result.



With the Greeks of the East under his rule and his most immediate goals satisfied Emperor Lum's next major project was the reinvention of the Imperial constitution into an electoral Empire. In the 1217 Convention of Succession in Nikaea the Emperor got the nobility to agree to an Electoral Monarchy as well as a centralisation of powers in Constantinople.

With his succession safe the Emperor embarked on another series of holy wars in the East, conquering Tripoli in 1219. The Patriarch of Rome tried to get catholic support for a so-called crusade against Jerusalem at the same time but the warriors from the west knew little of the ways of war in Asia and were slaughtered to a man.

In 1220 a nomadic scourge from the east appeared in the borders of Persia.



The Imperial response is to do nothing. If they want to conquer muslims then let the heathens kill other heathens. A few traders crossing the Caspian Sea tell of the size of their armies but clearly they must be exaggerating.



Court gossip claims that the Emperor was so smitten by his granddaughter that he took her as his lover.

The last campaign of Emperor Lum is fought in Crimea. The Stalinist tribesmen are striking at Russian holds in the Kiev region. Armies are mustered to strike at the ports of Cherson, ancient Greek cities that would welcome the Empire as liberators. The Emperors' desire to unite all Greeks into the Empire is as strong as ever.

A few preliminary skirmishes are fought and the ports are under siege when the Emperor dies after a short illness back in Constantinople.



With no one to contest the election Eduardo I ascends to the throne.

This should satisfy any cravings I have for drama, politics and intrigue. Good grief!

WHAT

Also I would like to express good humor at the whole stoically and yet strangely funny to me, "I'm a poet" throwaway line. Xd

You can't have feudalism without inbreeding.

Episode 14: This seems like trouble

The new Emperor, Eduardo the First, has barely had time to get used to the throne before a ship comes back from the Crimea with word of a major disaster. The Imperial armies had been defeated in detail by Stalinist hordes and suddenly the entire northern frontier was undefended. Thankfully for the Empire the Stalinists did not follow up their success with an invasion of the Empire, instead they returned north to subdue the Kievan Rus.

The Emperor managed to scrape together another field army by mustering every remaining soldier in the realm and shipped them all to Moldavia. Egyptians, Sicilians, Armenians and Georgians, they came reluctantly but they came and the resources of the Empire were still larger by far than the hordes of the east and when they defeated the Stalinists at the battle of Bakhchisaray they captured the Stalinist Khan. The greek cities of Crimea were returned to the Empire but the Stalinists remained a threat on the border and with Kiev in their hands they were stronger than ever.



In order to muster the troops for the Crimean campaign the new Emperor had to make some major political concessions. The Imperial chancellor Marcus was granted the kingdom of Wallachia and the title protector of the North while Duke Thomas of Partridge was given the kingdom of Armenia to rule. Besides establishing political allies at the highest levels of the Empire this also meant the Emperor could hand off a bunch of unruly vassals including the Wallachian branch of de Brokens. Duke UC the Second of Wallachia was a direct descendant of Lum the Mad himself and if he was not kept in check he could very well launch a civil war.

There was also other matters to consider. Emperor Eduardo was betrothed to a Neapolitan Princess. The Kingdom of Naples was at this point the greatest power in Italy, with a few holdings in Hungary as well, and the Empire needed the western alliance.



But the Emperor wasn't about to stay chaste for his young bride.



Vivi de Broken. Heir to the Kingdom of Brittany, grandchild of and rumoured lover to Emperor Lum, and now official mistress, chancellor, and chosen heir of Emperor Eduardo. She is brilliant, quick-witted, utterly capable and every bit the equal of the Emperor. Which doesn't stop the court from gossiping, of course.

But the court will have other things to worry about.



The Empire is starting to feel the pressure now as the eastern hordes are almost at the borders of Armenia and now more of them are coming from the north.