Diary of Jules Nepos
The Rightful Roman Emperor
The Prologue
The Rightful Roman Emperor
The Prologue
My name is Jules Nepos, or at least that's the name you are familiar with. I am writing this diary in hope that one day I will have a son whom I will be able to bestow with wealth and influence I have accrued during my calamitous life. At the day I write these words, it is the Feast of Nativity Anno Domini 1066, and I have only recently been bestowed with the position in the court of the duke of Aquitaine, acquiring another position for my wife and your mother, Catarina de Caumont. If you are reading this, you are most probably my first born son and I have just died. In these circumstances, you must know one thing first and foremost.
My name was never Jules Nepos. I was born under the name of Eberhard Möller, son of Matthias, a poor miller living near castle Habichtsburg in the lands of Holy Roman Empire. Since my earliest years, I hated the life there and thoroughly despised the job I was taught, as well as my abusive, heavily drinking father. I always knew my wit and intelligence are being wasted on this trivial life, and one day, barely 14, left my home and with a friendly messenger who was passing with a cart nearby, I left to find a new life, one better suiting my natural assets. This is how I left the Holy Roman Empire and ended up a beggar on the streets of Ragusa.
Using all my wits to survive, I lived to the age of 20, barely avoiding leaving an army of bastards in my wake, and met your mother, a stewardess in the court of a minor, local noble. The young unwed woman was charmed with my personality and body, and introduced me to her lord as an old acquaintance. The noble bequeathed me with a task of managing the security of his household from any rivalling families, and indeed, I did my work there well. Although one thing I learned in my previous life lost me there: my tendency to 'reassign the wealth'. Accused of robbing my patron, I was exiled along with my beautiful friend and time was rough. But then fortune smiled on us again.
The same noble whose servants we were once, fell off a cliff with his cart, dying horribly. However I despise the act I did then, I had to do it, my son, in order to survive. We both stolen any goods the old, fat noble had with him and quickly left Ragusa on a ship of unknown destination. This was the first time I called myself Jules Nepos, taking on a name of a long-gone Emperor of the West, whose fortune threw him to Ragusa as well as me, and who lost everything he ever had in that place. As I began a brand new life in the very same place, I felt it only appropriate to take on his name. On that day, Eberhard Möller ceased to exist and Jules Nepos, the descendant of Julius Nepos, the Rightful Roman Emperor, was born.
After searching courts of all Iberian kingdoms, no one there wanted to acknowledge our claims and let us settle in his court. Only when we crossed the Pyrenees and entered the domain of the Duke of Aquitaine that we were welcomed with open arms, as only His Majesty Guillame d'Aquitaine recognised our skills and bestowed his court positions on us, believing the claims and documents my sweet Catarina had forged before we entered Iberia. Few days later, on 6th of December of this year, we entered officially into a holy matrimony and started our efforts to start a family and a life in Aquitaine.
Portraits of me and my beloved wife, on the day of our admission to the Aquitaine's court
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So, to explain what's going on. It's my first AAR on here, but certainly not my first ever try at an AAR. I've tried before and failed, because I haven't managed to keep up with a schedule of updates. However, I like to think I grew up a bit since and will manage to do it this time, at least for a while.
The guys above are Jules Nepos and his wife, Catarina de Caumont. Both are really of peasant origin, but through their extraordinary wit managed to fake nobility and a claim on imperial title (which no one respects, and isn't an actual in-game claim). What Jules will try to do, is work for the betterment of his liege (officially my character is the duke of Aquitaine) and try to either lead him and his descendants to the crown of France (hoping in getting Aquitaine in return for that); or to unite all Occitanian lands and claim a new kingdom on those lands. Yes, both characters are added by me and yes, they have insane stats - they're supposed to be extraordinary conmen of medieval Europe.
The main aim for the future generations? Getting "emperor" trait and reclaiming lands of the former Roman Empire. Like that's gonna be easy!
The style is going to be a diary in which Jules (and his descendants) comment on the action going on the screenshots. He sounds very polite and cool in the prologue, but only because nothing really happened yet. He's a spymaster, so he has to deal with the feudal beauracracy every day, and sometimes... just wants to vent the frustration somewhere (i.e. this diary). So he will be sometimes sarcastic, witty, and just plain very open about what he thinks of people, including silly nicknames he gives them. Yes, he will be comedic at times - but comedy is not my prime objective.
Here comes me hoping I'll be able to keep up with some kind of schedule and some at least slighly likeable quality. So, this is it for now, first update coming soon (as soon as I get done with the screenshot mess).
