Chief Terenity had no need of a head, if he thought that a move against his lord's mother was wise. Thank you for the update
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Well, there is a claim to Rome.
Love the roast of the ahistoricity of the term "Byzantine Empire".
And an Orthodox man converts to Orthodoxy. That's hilarious.
And are there 2 Novgorods now?
Love the roast of the ahistoricity of the term "Byzantine Empire".
And an Orthodox man converts to Orthodoxy. That's hilarious.
And are there 2 Novgorods now?
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Often, there will be two different realms of same arising from kingdom, duchy or county. The confusing happens when the two become the same rank.
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Really interesting premise for an ARR. I love you’ve given yourself a deathclock in the form of Byzantine political scheming and nonsense!
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And comfortably weaseling out of it with the "10 Martial" addendum. But seriously, sometimes a Basileus like that saves the empire, like the very first Basileus of the ERE, Heraclius I, and Issac I and Alexios I Komnenos. Res publica indeed. I have to take into account the current situation where Lithuania currently has very limited ability to interfere in Roman internal politics.
Which would change soon once I get to updating...
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Is this AAR based off the myth that Lithuanians descends from Roman refugees led by one of Emperor Nero's relatives? Very interesting and fun premise.
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I have read Augenis' The Silver Knight before starting this AAR, speaking of the myth, but no. I was just ruminating on the failure of the Battle of Varna and thought "What if Poland-Lithuania was Orthodox and started helping the Romans earlier"?
Speaking of which, the Romans are growing strong despite a rapid overturn of Basilii (I have no idea on how Greek turns singular nouns into plural, sorry to any readers who do).
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I’m glad they’re still going strong - every time I play the heirs of Doukas always manage to implode spectacularly
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The War for Novgorod
Empire on Wings
Record XI
The War for Novgorod
Record XI
The War for Novgorod
Kynaz Pukuveras did not really understand his father lengthy and enigmatic final catechism, which included opaque terms such as "Do not make war upon Svjpod if our Military Organization technology is lower than 4". What he did understand was his brother realm in faith was being attacked by infidels, so naturally he decided to make war upon the invading Svjpodians.
(When new reached Vilnius of the war, Novgorod had already lost Novgorod to the Svjpodians.)
While Vinius prepared for war, news so momentous that it echoed all the way from the distant Great Sea to Vilnius made the royal court despair. The infidels have scored another victory over Christians, and whatever the controversy of rites between Rome and New Rome, Catholics were Christians all the same. Orthodox Lithuania did not take the news well, especially when further details trickled in, showing that Muslims won the jihad for Africa... after deposing their own Calipha. Christians failed to triumph against infidels bickering amongst themselves!
An avid Romanophile, Pukuveras kept himself up-to-date on the struggles in New Rome. The Armenian Basileus Vassak Kourkouas was hastily displaced after about 1.5y of reigning, replaced by the Greek Athanasios Argyros. While famous for his hunting exploits, Athanasios was not a hugely problematic ruler like the legendary Justinian II Rhinometos (Slit-Nosed), who ruined the empire he inherited with his madness. Fortunately, Justinian II has been dead for around 3 centuries.
As Novgorod was unable to call for help after the collapse of their messenger system during the conquest of the Novgorod area, Pukuveras chose to invade Svjpod itself to distract the invading infidels. Soon after mobilizing his army, Pukuveras led the Lithuanian host into Svjpod's holdings on the southern Baltic shore, where the two kingdoms meet. There, in the place which would have been called Pomeralia in a different time, Pukuveras learned 2 things. One, Lithuania has not yet reached Military Organization 4. Two, his father had good reason for stopping him from attacking Svjpod because of this.
While not even Vilnius was a stellar place to live in, compared to the sparsely-populated Pomeralian wilds, Lithuania was much less harsh on her children. Which meant soldiers were dying left and right due to various causes within the unfamiliar landscape, forcing Pukuveras into a hasty retreat and into a nasty ambush. Of the 7,000 Lithuanians who marched into Pomeralia, only 4,000 came home.
However, news soon came of the late Kynaz's sainthood decision. With the blessing of the Paraclete, the Patriarchate of Lithuania declared Montvilas a saint, and his hagiology of making war upon evil and the temptations of Satan was one befitting his warrior's life. With his grave further furnished with holy artefacts and his legend brought up everywhere the church bells toll, many were moved by Montvilas' inspiring life and joined Pukuveras' beleaguered host.
(This is what I call getting the buff you need when you most need it)
Alas, two further developments occurred. The war for Novgorod had come to an end, with Novgorod conquered by the infidels. And on the southern front, a distant relative of the Lithua House, Antanas Lithua, has finally led his army within sight of Vilnius, intent on claiming the throne of Lithuania. Pukuveras, in panic mode, separated his forces, resulting in a tragic and humiliating defeat on the northern front. For the first time since its establishment as a kingdom, Lithuania truly lost a war, and had to concede defeat to infidels. War reparations drained the treasury, and it would seem not even the aura of his sainted father could save Pukuveras from the discontent of the tall and mighty.
But where saintly auras fail, a victory could easily suffice. While Antanas made substantial gains, all of it was because Pukuveras had no forces to send against him, and it was a testament to the swiftness of the northern disaster that when Pukuveras set his sight fully on his wayward relative, the host he sent south still had not made contact with Antanas'.
In the battle that would be celebrated as Pukuveras' greatest achievement in war (though the king himself led only a flank), the forces of Vilnius met and routed the claimant host at Zaslawye, turning the tide of war with one battle. With Antanas chased from Vilnius and the field, the claimant war effort soon lost steam, its armies broken and fleeing towards Crimea, and Pukuveras' grasp on power was secured... for now.
I shall not bore the readers with the details of reconquering the claimant-held southern lands while fighting nomad raiders from the distant Bolghar Khaganate among other things. To sum up the most tumultuous period of Pukuveras' reign, Antanas surrendered less than a year after Zaslawye, and lived out his last days in the Castle of Oblivion, forgotten, gaunt, and harmless to the Kynaz.
(If the fate of Pukuveras ever hinged on one battle, it would be Zaslawye)
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May all your foes, retire to the Castle of Oblivion. Thank you for the update
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That's a really cool bloodline I have never seen before! That should be really handy in your wars with the Norse.
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Looking back, I think I just pulled off a reverse Harold: lost Stamford bridge (against Norsemen) but won Hastings (against claimant). Though Harald Hadrada was apparently a claimant of the English throne too?
Thank you. The name "Castle of Oblivion" isn't original though, but taken from an actually existing castle-prison.
There will be a rematch once I feel like it... with one of the prerequisites being I get to a higher military tech than the Norse.
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The 3rd Rebellion of Siemowit
Empire on Wings
Record XII
The 3rd Rebellion of Siemowit
Record XII
The 3rd Rebellion of Siemowit
Winning two of his career's most important wars was not all flowers and cheers for Pukuveras. His eldest daughter Laima's husband, a loyal vassal who served as a commander in the kynaz's army, tragically fell in the chaotic Battle of Zaslawye. For her second husband, Pukuveras unusually chose a Papist - the adolescent Prince Amalrich of Arles, to be exact. It was an acceptable choice: Papists were not heretics, and the Prince was of high enough status to avoid family scandal. Pukuveras also secretly hoped his daughter could convert the faraway kingdom through bedside talk, if possible.
(Until the 14-century Hesychast schism, Catholics and Orthodox Churches technically do not view each other as heretics IRL. Of course, there is a sliding scale of relationships between "brothers in faith" and "HERESY!", and historically the two churches were more often than not closer to the latter end.)
While he settled one family business, another erupted. Many wild guesses surrounded the continued survival of Siemowit "the Usurper", who overthrew his nephew to become the High Chief of Greater Poland, murdered his nephew, and stubbornly refused to convert to Orthodoxy despite the late Montvilas' every effort. A powerful lord and an unrepentant Slavic pagan, Siemowit had constantly served as a rallying figure for the Slavic dissidents of the Lithuanian empire, having led 2 great rebellions against Montvilas alone. Yet despite all his crimes, Montvilas had let him live, going so far as to spare him on a battlefield duel. If the late kynaz had hoped for magnanimity to work where coercion did not, he was sorely mistaken.
Siemowit had launched his 3rd rebellion.
(Siemowit, asides from the Lithua family, also waged war against just about all of his neighbors whom he had an excuse to attack. He lost his eye in one such war. It was the Germanics, IIRC.)
Like all of Siemowit's previous rebellions, the war once again showed the great divide within the kynaz's realm. The southern, pagan, pan-Slavic chunk of Poles, Bohemians, Ruthenians was once again pit against the northern, Orthodox, Lithuanian chunk. A pity that peoples who have so often come to blows must clash again.
A pity that the late Montvilas' investment decisions had already decided the outcome of the war.
(Not shown: Pukuveras' personal levies were larger than the entire rebel host.)
In two quick battles barely worth mentioning, Siemowit's 3rd Rebellion was put down with contemptuous ease by the royal court. An elderly man in body if not in fighting spirit, Siemowit was badly wounded in combat. The cold and damp lower levels of the Castle of Oblivion were obviously unsuitable accommodation if Pukuveras wished to keep the half-dead Siemowit alive, like his magnanimous father.
Which he did, but for very different reasons. As soon as the High Chief's family collected enough gold for his release, Siemowit's residence at the Castle was abruptly cut short, and allowed to live out his last days at home.
The reason, of course, was another war brewing on the horizon. The rebellion, despite lasting less than one-and-a-half years, excited many tribal chiefs who had gone off the grid, unchecked (and untaxed!) by the Vilnius court. Banding their forces together, they called for the "liberation" of Kievan Rus, never mind that Lithuanian soldiers were dying to fight the nomad incursions which crossed the Dnieper protecting their fellow Lithuanian-Ruthenians, while the little snakes hiding beyond the reach of the towns and rivers did some more hiding.
Which naturally explains their pathetic performance when Pukuveras himself decided to campaign in person with his army to make a point to all his vassals and all his armed subjects. A very sharp point, ground between Korosten and Medjybij.
Finally reversing his reputation with a grand total of three successive victories, it appears Pukuveras was finally free to do some not fighting. A pilgrimage wish burned in the heart of the zealous man - the time may had finally come to realize it...
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You can point the chief to the pathway of peace, but you cannot force pacifism on a warrior-prince. Thank you for updating.
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Empire on Wings
Record XIII
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Record XIII
Jerusalem, Jerusalem
Trouble brewed upon Lithuania's borders soon after the pacification of Kievan Rus, with Bulgaria, in a very meddlesome move, converted Lesser Poland to Orthodoxy. Zeal was a trait that defined Pukuveras, and for any other tribal realm, he would not have given distant Bulgaria the chance to convert them. But this was Lesser Poland, a dagger that jabbed right into the heartland of Lithuania, and Pukuveras fully intended to keep it pagan to completely conquer it. High Chief Snowid had in fact came to Vilnius multiple times, asking for a sponsor for conversion, but Pukuveras turned them all down. Yet with the strategy derailed by Siemowit's rebellion, Pukuveras now needed another one. It was plainly intolerable for a pro-Bulgaria realm to sit right next to Lithuania - but still, Pukuveras was currently out of ideas.
To clear up his mind, and to celebrate the prospect of years without wars (nomad raids show no signs of stopping, however), Pukuveras decided to go on a pilgrimage. After waiting a few months to collect his travelling budget, the kynaz set off for the holiest place in all Christianity: Jerusalem.
Setting off along the Dnieper, crossing the Euxine Sea into the Sea of Marmara, then following the Anatolian and Syrian coast, the kynaz boat-hopped all the way to the Palestinian coast like a good Christian. Jerusalem itself was soon reached, and Pukuveras bathed in the holiness of the place, completing his father's and his own wish to see for themselves the various sites mentioned in the Bible.
During his stay in Jerusalem, a monk from the fabled Mount Athos came to visit the kynaz's humble abode in Jerusalem, smoothly explaining the necessity of food,
clothing and shelter for workers constructing the newest expansion of Mt. Athos' fabled monasteries. Pukuveras, being a pious monarch, and lord of a large, prospering realm, donated generously for the peace of his soul.
Prepared to relieve his travel fatigue before returning to the daily rhythm of court life, Pukuveras received alarming news just after arriving in his capital city. Apparently, deciding to support his saintly heritage in whatever way they could, a group of exceptionally pious believers decided to "preach the message of the apostles", but sown chaos across Vilnius instead. It could be said while only the Father knows the Time of Judgement, preaching it ardently and asking people to REPENT! was very counterproductive to keeping the peace. Still, the kynaz himself shared in their zeal, so he provided a set of suitable lodgings and dispatched a minister to guide the way they preach. Their messages began to fall on more ears after they were suitably softened up, and most of Vilnius grew to approve how Pukuveras managed the situation.
At age 48, Pukuveras still seems to have another twenty years of reign ahead of him, if the lives of his predecessors were any indication. Still, a strange exhaustion haunts the king in his prime. He may need to check in with his court physician ... soon ...
(That Greek duke showing up in Pukuveras' grandparents bar is the deposed Constantine VII who died as Dux of Adrianople)
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I see a crab, hopefully that his zodiac sign and not his doctor's opinion. The heir should remain close to the throne. Thank you for the update.