Josiah of the Bluegrass ~ An After The End Biography

[Pigeontactics]

"Ex Minimo- AD 2675"

"Twixt North and South There lies a land,
Where Horse and Rider roam.

Tis there House Earle Sits in command,
Tis there I make my home"

(Kentuckian Rhyme, 27th Century)
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Joanna Commodore pulled her hood tightly about herself. I wish we could furnish some more pomp, she thought. Kentuckians were notorious among the Christian Southerners for their informality. It seemed as if their rejection of the Evangelical Council of Bishops often bled over into the rejection of other Southron Imperial customs, the respect due to authority foremost among them.

A coronation in Dixie, Tidewater, or Carolina would be a grand affair; supported by orchestras, tables of sweets, sporting events, and a mansion decked out in jewels and gleaming metal. If the expense could be put in, the participation of one of the Council Bishops was a must. The guest list would be a who's who of neighboring nobles, relatives, and knights representing anyone of significance. The people would line the streets to watch the parade of Southern Chivalry. But Here in the Bluegrass?

A group of 14 courtiers and local nobles were locked in an old, undecorated hall, shivering with cold despite the efforts of a sputtering fireplace, and listening to the wind tear at the walls outside while a monotone priest droned on and on.

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart."

Of course such language was even more indecipherable in the 27th century than it had been in the 21st, so no one present could understand what the priest was saying. Most of those present kept a smile on their faces as they listened, but Joanna let her mind wander. I wish Stephan would have let me decorate the castle, at least, when he was alive. Her heart quivered, briefly, at the remembrance of the man she'd been married to a decade prior: The late Grand Duke of the Bluegrass.

She'd been twenty-two when her father had sent her off to be Stephan's wife. She was to be a seal of contract between the two men: Lord Proprietor Beauregard, her father, had wanted to extend his commercial ventures into the west, Grand Duke Stephan, a shrewd businessman himself, had wanted legitimacy in the eyes of the South. And legitimacy Joanna could give him.

She was a belle of the Chesapeake, a product of gentility and good breeding. White oaks and velvet lawns had been the setting of her maidenhood, and though many of the Kentuckian Horse Breeders had tried to mimic their feel, Joanna was native to the real thing. The Chesapeake! That gleaming bay and fruitful land was the first place the English settled. Though she did not know it, Joanna possessed in her genes the greatest history and legitimacy that Stephan could have sought.

She thought of her late husband now, and almost saw his cavalier beard and deep blue eyes. His great bow hung affixed above the mantle, and it was the sole decoration put up in the hall. His simple golden circlet lay now on a pedestal beside the priest, waiting to be lowered onto the still too small head of his son, Josiah, who knelt there before it. Oh, Stephan, Joanna lamented, If only you'd let me do more.

There had been times when she thought he'd loved her, but most of the time she hadn't been sure she'd been wanted. He was fifty-eight when they'd wed, and she was his first wife. He only ever... approached her rarely, and spent most of his time buried in his account books or on campaign. We were happiest in the time just before Josiah was born, Joanna remembered. Stephan stayed by her side constantly then, when she was pregnant. He'd been charming, gracious, and kind. She had felt a genuine connection with him that only faltered months later when she realized he was exactly the same every time they spoke. He returned to the same jokes, the same stories, and the same lighthearted laughter. She discovered that he had been affecting a persona, playing the part of loving husband for her sake. It was not long after Josiah was born that he disappeared again into his wars and his trade deals.

In the last years of their marriage, Stephan had taken increasingly drastic moves to generate resources for the Bluegrass, and he had tried to juggle relationships with all his neighbors and the Southern Emperor. Joanna could tell that it took a toll on his health, and tried her best to get him to focus on other things. She thought again, for a while, that she could make him truly love her: but the only tangible result of her efforts was her second child, a one year old daughter named Spirea. Stephan continued to focus on managing his realm until it killed him.

"The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth."

So they were here to crown Stephan's successor.

"The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming."

The priest reached a particularly forceful point in his monotony. Joanna, despite herself, felt a small swell of smug pleasure. At least I got that part done right, she thought. This priest, a man named Collier, was probably the equal of any preacher on the more "civilized" side of the Appalachians. He was a scholar, and more in line with the Evangelical priesthood than the Charismatics he was officially aligned with. On top of that, he read from one of the only twelve copies of the King James Version to have escaped the Event. Anyone was bound to want to hear him, and had the ceremony taken place in Chesapeake Joanna was sure he would have drawn a crowd. In Kentucky however...

Christians were hard to come by. Most common folk, having rejected the authority of the Evangelical Council, were left out of the codification of doctrine that organized the post-event faithful in the rest of the South. Bibles, which were produced by the Evangelical Southerners and the Catholics West of the Mississippi, did not find their way back into Kentucky for many generations. The nobles, who found themselves possessed of greater wealth, usually found a way to acquire a copy for their family, and so stayed Christian. The common folk had no such method, and had to make due with half remembered tales and methods of ancestral worship. These degraded into Revelationism, a distorted faith system that places great importance on miracles and the supernatural while missing the message, purpose, and meaning of the gospel. The Bluegrass nobility who managed to stay Christian nevertheless found themselves influenced by their people and accordingly their faith places great importance on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or Charismata. It is difficult sometimes for Evangelical scholars to draw the line between these Charismatics and outright Revelationist pagans, as both loose faiths share many similarities. As it is, about eighty percent of people ruled by the Charismatic Grand Duke of the Bluegrass are pagans.

Nevertheless, it was not for these people that Joanna brought in the priest. It was in order to impress her guests. Two guests in particular. Her parents. Lord Proprietor Beauregard Commodore and his wife Carolina sat beside each other, both drastically different. He was rotund and lounged in his chair. She was a stick, and sat straight. But both had this in common: They were the best dressed in the room. The Lord Commodore wore a red gem studded shirt, with a patterned felt hat adorning his hair. The Lady wore a fine dress, and pearls laced her neck and decked her hair. They were Southron Chivalry in the form of august old age. Joanna wanted desperately to show them that she could replicate their abundance in her own home.

"Wait on the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land: when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it."

Joanna paused in her thinking to notice a red bearded man sitting next to her father. Martial Gregor, she thought. I suppose my son's regent, now. He's waiting to talk about our alliance. He'll want to go off to war soon.

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Hello! Welcome to the world of After The End. For those who don't know, this mod is set in a post-apocalyptic North America. (Hence the 27th century start date). I'll be playing as the Dukes of the Bluegrass, in what is modern day Kentucky. You might ask, 'Why there?' Well, because it's an interesting position. Let me explain: We're a relatively weak house, surrounded by pagans. On top of that, we follow the Charismatic Church, an Evangelical Heresy. That means even Christian houses have open season on us. Which is a bad thing- because we rely on the help of the Emperor of the Holy Columbian Confederacy to save our skins. He happens to be Evangelical. But There's more! Wer're not starting in 2666, the normal start date for this mod. I've played just a bit longer, until 2675. You see, the Duke of the Bluegrass is an old man when the mod begins. This guarantees that he'll die quickly, and we'll be left with a child. This is perfect for a narrative biography, where I'll follow the life of this one character at a slow pace until he/she dies. At that point, the AAR will end, unless folk want to see what happens in the reign of the successor. If so, I'll likely start a new thread named after that person.

I've tried to do this once before, but ran into a bug that made war + succession impossible only a few years into the game. This time, I'm using the fan fork for After the End, which hopefully won't have any problems. I've rolled back to 2.8.3.4 just in case. We'll see if the apocalypse happens again.

It's a shame to lose my previous narrative, Ellen of the Bluegrass, because there were some great characters emerging there. Oligarch Jane "the Dragon" was a great villain. Ellen herself gained the trait combo ambitious + kind, which is the most luck a protagonist could receive. I don't think I'll manage to repeat that anytime soon. However, I could not continue that game, functionally, at all. So here's take two:

A few things about this map: We're the region marked "Bluegrass." I'm doing a bit better than I did in the Ellen run, as I've picked up the counties of Covington and Transylvania, and I've held on to Owensboro. Tenesi and Transallegheny aren't quite as scary big, and no one has united the Rust Cultists yet. Our grandfather's realm, the Republic of Chesapeake, is that indigo county off to the right. To the South, of course, lies the Holy Columbian Confederacy, that self styled savior of civilization and successor to America. For those familiar with the mod, you might be curious why their capital is in Atlanta instead of Charleston. We'll see in a moment. Also on this map: In the top right you can just see the blue kingdom of Gotham. That is now the home of Consumerism, and all those who worship the almighty dollar. But for now, those troubles are far away. Let's zoom in a bit.

So here's Grand Duke Josiah. He may not look like much now, but I guarantee we'll make something of him together. His guardian is a scarred warrior named Leon, who generally leads the Bluegrass's army. His grandparents have briefly been described in narrative, but we'll take a closer look at them. His mother, Joanna, had the privilege of opening our story. His sister, Spirea, is as much a blank slate as he is, though I hope she'll play a starring role one day. Josiah is betrothed -you may have noticed- to a Tuskegean girl named Eloise Gee. Let's look at her:

Did I mention she's a princess? Somehow, the Gee dynasty usurped the Confederacy from Algernon Littlepage. The title history says her father, Julius Gee, was elected to the throne, but Algernon is still living. I guess that means faction installation, right? Anyhow, I guess the bottom rail's on top now! I wonder what color our children will take... Eloise will be a good catch, though, with that quick trait. And an interesting character, of course. I might have to follow both her and Josiah's childhood. Her mother died due to complications with her birth, so there's your tragic backstory right there! (half sarcastic/half sincere). Her father agreed to her betrothal to Josiah, so now I'm just waiting for our relations to improve to hopefully get that alliance that will be integral to shielding us until we can get strong enough to stand on our own. Which leads me to think: When I was Ellen, the only way I could betroth myself to the HCC was patrilineally, which set up an interesting challenge for later on: succession. That which was integral to me early on would become deadly later. I'm truthfully finding it much easier being a young Duke than a young Duchess. On the topic of female challenges:

Here's the Duke's mother. Misguided warrior, proud, envious, arbitrary, paranoid. No trait above 8, truly not much use. I'll be honest: Stephan married her for the alliance. It actually made me sad, when I was writing her relationship with her husband in the narrative. I went back and looked at how their opinion modifiers had changed over my saves and while Joanna's opinion of Stephan fluctuates from +18 to +53, Stephan's opinion of Joanna stays at flat 0 the whole time. (Excepting pregnancy). He really was just indifferent to her the whole time.

Speaking of, here's our Stephan for this time. Midas Touched, he always seemed able to create money from nothing. No, don't inspect those recent coins he issued. All things are good here. Gregarious and chaste, he knew how to charm his wife but felt no urge to be with her. He began as a humble and honest warrior, who fought ably against his foes. That's when I got the event about him being the best archer in the land. But Stephan eventually started feeling the pressure from those hostile nations around him, and turned to less and less scrupulous means to sustain his Grand Duchy. He gained proud and deceitful, and for a while became greedy too before relaxing and becoming charitable shortly before he died. What he did, he did for the realm, and hopefully left Josiah enough to sustain himself.

I've shared the religious map as well, just to point out how few we Charismatics are. That light blue county in the middle and those provinces around the mountains? That's it. The faith is doing a bit better than it was in Ellen's universe, as only two of the Charismatic factions have been eliminated. (Cincinnati + Cumberland) There are still four others on the map: (Clinch, Watauga, Blue Ridge, and East Tennessee) East Tennessee is about to be conquered by the Snowbirds, however, so preemptive RIP from me. Damnyankees. Back to family:

Here's Grandpa. The Head of a Merchant Republic! How grand! Wait. Look closer. He has poor credit and he defaulted on a loan. I imagine he's holding on to his alliance with the Bluegrass as a last desperate attempt to make a fortune. Also, his county has a Consumption outbreak. My narrative is that he and the missus decided to spend the winter with their daughter in order to avoid the disease, but then Stephan died, so they were there for the winter coronation of young Josiah. Also, notice how Lord Proprietor Beauregard has a nasty habit of laying with his sons' wives- not cool man.

She does seem like a grim woman...

Final image: Bishop Collier. He looks like a man whose skin is pulled taut over his skull, the fact he is completely bald with only a mustache leads me to think he might be a robot. A true Mastermind Theologian, he nevertheless cynically doubts the existence of God. Perhaps he tries to make up for this with hard work- which he performs with diligence and patience. Yet it seems this does not fulfill him, and only leaves him stressed. He is a coward, and fears an eternal judgement even as he cannot bring himself to affirm the power of God. Imagine a poor soul who is told all his life that God's word contains the truth, and who devotes his life to studying it and finds that it provokes more questions than it answers. So he flung himself into further study, hoping to one day be able to understand. He even got a hold of a genuine pre-Event bible, learning a long dead language just to be able to read it. And he found it just as dissatisfying as he had before. Yet he's in too deep now, and must keep up the lie: for the masses. CK2: what stories can you tell based solely off combinations of different traits? I, the writer, want badly to check in with Collier one day and see that he is no longer cynical.

Anyway, you may notice the capital is at Frankfort, in Old Bourbon. In the mod, it starts in Louisville. I moved it because raiders sacked all of Louisville and carried off Joanna while Stephan was at war. Maybe I'll write that story as something extra one day. But since I can't have that happen again, I moved the capital inland. After they moved in Stephan wouldn't let his wife decorate their hall and he never bothered. That's why it's so bleak in the narrative. Also, guess what? It turns out that Franfort is Kentucky's capital in real life. Pretty good, huh?

See Y'all as soon as I can~ Farewell!

Bonus Image:

Hey!!! It's Algernon!! In my court! I took pity on him after the Gees through him out, so I invited him to the Bluegrass. What should I do with him? Also, here's the culture map. Josiah's a Riverlander through and through. One final thing: I'm at a 5/2 domain limit. Josiah's master steward of a father died and the kid has like 3 stewardship.

Also, I'm using Charlemagne, Legacy of Rome, Sons of Abraham, The Republic, Way of Life, and many portraits. That's all, because money is a limited resource, ya know. Anywho, see y'all next time!

I'm excited to retry this.