Know Your Enemy

CSK said:

Anyway, you'll get the character list this weekend, I don't know about an update though.

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Oh, yeah. About that... Hey look, it's a Frenchman! *Ducks, covers and runs out of thread*

...

Still, left this here...

Major Characters:​

Salmó de Barcelona-Urgell: Born 1079 as second son of Ermengol de Barcelona-Urgell. He is the hero of the story. Raised as a Spymaster, he suspects enemies in everybody, making clear just how far paranoia can reach.

Azivelle de Lomagne: Born 1065 she becomes second wife and Steward of Ermengol. As that, she becomes stepmother of three after the earlier wife dies giving birth to Maria. As brilliant diplomat and spy she becomes teacher of Salmó, who takes the title of Spymaster with coming of age. As that however, he also knows her strengths and fears her more than anyone else.

Gausbert: The young man takes the role of marshal after the previous is stripped from his position and belongings. Ambitious, strong and smart he is both all Salmó can wish for, and all Salmó has to fear. After all, what would happen if he kept his eyes not on the Muslims, but on their lands?

Joan de Barcelona-Urgell: Born in 1096 as Salmó’s eldest son, he is the heir of Urgell and later on Barcelona by marriage. His relation towards Salmó seems to be that of hate, but it has yet to be revealed how much of that is only a figment of Salmó’s imagination, and how much of it is true. After all, all sons love their fathers, don’t they?

Shuma: With only one appearance there is not much to say about him. A sneaky, by most hated, little man who believes in nothing but money.

Andrzej of Wagria: As High Chief he lost all his lands to Germans. Now Shuma claims to show him another future, but naturally he is still suspicious if he should trust him or not.

Minor Characters:​

Maria de Barcelona-Urgell: Born 1091 as the youngest of the three children of Ermengol’s first marriage, is in a relationship her father did not endorse. When the time comes, Salmó uses this against the sometimes dumb appealing but in fact very intelligent young woman.

Alfons: Maria’s “husband” and lover. One of Salmó’s longest and best friends. Salmó lets him be beheaded later on to keep his wife’s blood from his own hands.

Sancha de Barcelona: Ermengol’s first wife, died when giving birth to Maria. Her family still blames Azivelle for her death.

Ermengol de Barcelona-Urgell: The old count is father of Salmó. As a prophecy tells him about his own death on his son’s hands he tries to kill him, but fails as Azivelle can convince him, by threatening, to keep him alive. He dies by Salmó’s hands in 1110, shortly before the battle of Molina.

Rogier de Barcelona-Urgell: Salmó’s elder brother and Urgell’s heir. Like his father he is a valorous but dumb man of war, somebody who lives and dies only for this. And like his father later on, he dies by the hands of his brother.

Aurembaix de Barcelona: Salmó’s wife and Joan’s mother, she is the link to power and in some ways the reason for his actions. As that, her death by poison is one of the first signals of his paranoia. On the other hand, her relation as sister of the Duke of Barcelona means Joan would be second in line of inheritance of the Duchy. This may also be a reason she dies on Salmó’s hand, although maybe a not so clear one.

Fernando Jimenez: The Duke of Navarra, hero of Molina, marries Maria after her fiancé’s death. While earlier a good friend of Salmó, they both grew to hate each other and neither really trusts the other.

The Marshal: The marshal gets kicked out of Urgell after his, or Salmó’s, depending on who to ask, treason committed against Ermengol. As that he may or may not have arrived in his motherland of Navarra and may or may not have given Fernando reason to mistrust and hate Salmó.

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Now, that we're done with that. Yes, my avatar is foreshadowing. Yes, I will try to write on. Yes, I have lost all my notes and the savegame, but it isn't based on that and never was, I still have the story in my head and know what will happen. I already wrote a summary of the story now, as well as the character list and I'm halfway at a possible continuation of the story (as in, start of next chapter).

Now, why didn't I write on: Personal problems (if questions arise, which I doubt though, by PM), no time, writers block.

Now, why I decided to continue: I like the story. I think it still has potential and my father pesters me every time we come to talk about writing, which is quite often. Yes, he reads it, and yes, I'll stop now since he does.

JimboIX: It seems my most faithful reader has once again returned. Great to be back, and great to see you still comment as you did before. Now, that's exactly like a comment should be, showing you do something for a good reason. I hoped the character list was interesting, or at least brought back memories and since I can use it myself as well, all the more reasons to do it. Now, I wonder how much my picture, or better my description, of Salmó has changed in the time and will change.

Shuma: As you wish.

Part II: Navarra​

Salmó sighed as the small cavalry waded through the cool waters of the Ebro, he himself was watching a Falcon hunt doves. He felt like a dove that moment, and yet he knew, everything what had been done, and everything what would be done, would eventually lead to this. Some wars were inevitable. While this was far from it, even a break of truce, it also was his only chance. A crown had to be taken, and a lasting one too.

The sun now rose, taking the advantage he had put his hopes on. The safety that the night could offer his men was now gone, but they only were a few metres into enemy territory, and it was not like they would run into spies the moment they crossed the river. It had taken longer to get the army ready than he had hoped. Yet, he still had the element of surprise on his side, should that of numbers not be. He looked back on the following men, young soldiers in their leather armours, with naught more but spears as weapons. They would not bring victory. They would not even harm the Sevillan lines. He looked further back on the now smaller getting mountains and the coast to the east. And to a number of horses without riders.

"You know our plans, marshal." He knew as well as anybody else how irrelevant this question was. Of course he did. "It is vital to our plans that we take and hold a smaller village. Let it be one not even the Moors care about. Just enough to keep us alive. A part of our forces must hold it long enough to bring us the one most important factor. Endurance. We may not be strong, we even may not have the fastest horses, but we will be able to reach the Ebro the time we want to, even when pursued." Gautier said nothing, just sighed and turned, the horse trotting back.

Salmó smirked now. He had said the same words again and again. It even was Gautier's plan. And still he felt more uneasy than he had thought. Like he was not coming back alive. Or anyone else for that matter. Sure, these men were brave. Valorous, yes, zealous even, trusting in God to save them, to be their shield. But the Muslims had their own god as shield. Would that alone be enough? I should burn at the stake for this thought. Then again, I should burn at the stake for many things. He tried to smile, but it would not even be a bitter one.

The same sound of hooves clashing on the still hard ground, sometimes soaking in the muddy, by the rain softened ground, sometimes scrunching on pebbles, followed him the next hours of constant trot. And with that it came to him, what would he have to fear? He would be King. Nothing could stop him from that, not even a Moorish arrow would. He smiled, no, he would not die in this war. None of them would. He now looked back into the faces of the warriors around him, falling back until he was in the end of the caravan, then going into the middle again.

"What do you fear, my friends?" He now even laughed, a dark biting laughter, starting like the scream of a hawk and ending in the biting sound of a wild dog. "Do you fear death? Fear the enemy's men? For what reason? This land will be ours, and this crown mine! And if I have to take it from the devil himself!" He grinned and his face became more the mask of a demon than that of a human. Shooting further in front he shouted. "Listen! These lands have been ours, given to us by our Lord! And now you want to give them up because of fear?"

He always had been a good rhetoric, although in the last years he had only used it for one cause, to weaken his enemies. "No, we will not. May God help us, we will take back what is ours! We will cast off the heathen yoke!" He now was in front of his men, turning the horse towards them to see their faces. "Now, will we cover in fear, like our fathers did? Will we let them take our lands, like they wish to? I say no! No we will not, we will stand and fight. Today, tomorrow and if we have to, till the end of time!"

The men cheered. Of course they did. He had promised them lands, riches, anything to keep them this day. To keep them brave and valiant. Some of them would not return. Some fall in battle, some would start new families, but this day, even if it was just for this short moment, they would be fearless. He wondered if he believed the words he had spoken, or if they were, like so many things in his life, just lies, said for his own purposes. But like many things, you also can start to believe something if you just say it to yourself long enough. And then he did something he had not done for years, he prayed. I may not become known in the times thereafter, as good or nice, but so may the Lord help me, I will become known as the great. It takes a great man to change the course of history, to take up the reins and tame this wild horse, always charging onwards. One, who knows both sides, who stands beyond good and evil. Let me be your rider today. Let me be their demon, and their saint.

When Alfons de Balaguer published Salmó’s story in 1164, the story’s hero, or better anti-hero was already dead. It is, unfortunately for later generations, the only source regarding the life story of the Count de Barcelona-Urgell. Alfons' own sources, respectively the writing of his mentor, Fadrique de Barbastro later Diocese of very same, as well as the memoirs of Salmó himself, are lost to the world after.

This editor’s note in the beginning of the second chapter is necessary, as the political outline of this time is not given within the book. The author had taken it as given, and thus, for later readers, complicated the understanding of the coming events. The following notes shall help grasping the difficult political situation of the time.

When Salmó’s coup succeeded in 1110, both the Kingdoms of Castille y Leon and the Kingdom of Galicia y Portugal were already at war with the Moors, united not more than five years before by the Emir of Sevilla. It is interesting to note that all four of them were based on very shaky foundations.
The King of Castille y Leon, Velasco I Jimenez, who had inherited the throne of Leon very early after his father's death in the battle of Molina, had lost a lot of reputation after it became public that he ordered a successful assassination on his own uncle, Sancho II, as well as the very shaky claim and later annexation of Navarra.
The King of Galicia y Portugal had a lot of trouble with his own nobility, which not only disagreed with his rule, which had been extended over Portugal only after a bloody coup, but also with his centralistic approach to power in the new found Kingdom. As reaction to this he had to promise them huge lands south of the Tejo, lands before in the hands of Sevilla.
Sevilla on the other hand was simply based on greed. The Emirs of Sevilla had from 1066 to 1108 united the Moors in Iberia simply by bloody wars. This, however, had severely crippled the manpower resources of the country. Thus, when war came, the Emir not only had to take loans, but also depend on mercenaries.

From 1100 on the Emirate of Sevilla was in a constant war with first Venice, which had taken the lands south of Catalonia, who had expanded its land over the Ebro to the south, as well as Tangier and the Balears as base, then Castille y Leon and later Galicia y Portugal. It could prove itself victorious against the Venetians, who had to abandon the lands they had taken from 1080 on as they fought a two fronts war, and the Italian holdings, mainly the area around Treviso and Padua, taken between 1090 and 1100, had been endangered by Tuscanese armies under Mathilda of Canossa. However, it still had to fight a two front war with the Christian Iberians, of whom Alfonso even could reach the outskirts of Cordoba before being driven back by Moorish Mercenaries over the Tajo. In the short time from 1108 to 1110 the Christians could even take Toledo and hold it against the Moors in one siege before being forced to abandon the city in April, shortly before Salmó started his own campaign.

It may be noteworthy that in the time period from 1080 to 1098, when the Venetians had to abandon it, cities up to Valencia had been taken by Christians and as that retaken by the Iberians, in opposite to the Muslim Andalusians. Also interesting is the action by the Doge of Venice, who settled Italian peasants in the countryside.

The following maps have been reconstructed in order to make the events easier to understand.

The situation at the beginning of the unification is probably well known to most of the readers, the Moors are divided into various Emirates fighting each other as well as the Christians. By this time the greatest of them are Zaragoza, Badajoz and Toledo.


But this soon will change. In only seven years the Emir of Zaragoza will lose many miles of lands under pressure of Christian expansion, making the border between the Duchy of Catalonia and the Emirate the Ebro. Galicia will meanwhile, in 1074, succeed in a coup against the Duke of Porto, effectively unifying the two Duchies under one.



As one can see the Emirate of Sevilla managed to use flaws and weaknesses in the surrounding states and expand on the cost of mostly Cordoba and Granada. When Toledo crumbled under the heaviness of various attackers, under them also Cordoba, Sevilla decided to stab the very same attackers in the back and take their land. Cordoba, as well as Granada, soon were annexed and the Emirate could expand further in the south.

Badajoz as well as Toledo would further go down under Christian attack and that Sevilla decided to attack them from the south definitely didn't help them. At the same time the expansion of Valencia, which might as well have taken up the rule over the Moors as the Sevillans were close to a fatal overstretch, were at this time unable, distracted by the invading Venetians, who decided to attack the Balears in an attempt to oppose the Genoese rule over the Western Mediterranean. At the very same time, in 1089, the King of France invaded Catalonia and forced the Duke to give up the County of Rosello.



The next ten years saw further dissolution of Emirates as the Sevillans took over more and more. The Castillians could expand over the Tajo and Badajoz was near to complete destruction. The Venetians could take over more land from Valencia and even take Tangier from the Hammadids while finally reaching a border with Sevilla.



A border that would not hold for long. The Emir, who already was in that area, took a minor dispute over the border as excuse for war and invaded the Venetians, who were not able to bring men into their Iberian holdings since they were distracted by quarrels and finally wars in Italy. The Moors were finally forced to unite under one banner, that of Sevilla, when the Emir crushed the Catalan army in Tortosa, making the Ebro the border and bringing an armistice between his realm and that of Castille y Leon, driving them back over the Tajo. However, the truce broke only a few months after, in the spring of 1108 the Christians decided to break it and an alliance between Galicia and Leon crossed the Tajo. However, the Moors were able to hold them off and repel them in late 1109, the time this story starts.



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So, I hope to have given a bit of an outline of the story so far. I do not know how much of a role Alfons de Balaguer will play in the later part or if he even will play any, but it is possible. The character is rather old, but had not the chance to be introduced until now, just as this part.

I'll admit, I had planned to have this posted on Friday instead of the first part of the second chapter, but I hope you can live with it, it's not like the chronology of this very part made a difference and the maps were taking longer than I had thought. So, finally some maps and not just story and even if I'm not all that happy with the bit cartoonish look of it it is definitely sufficient for now. I would have prefered some older map but my skills would not do that justice and without printer or scanner creating ten different maps (I have some others as well) by printing it, colouring by hand and then scanning it in, as I had planned to, isn't really possible.

Kudos to CrackdToothGrin for his tutorial and my father for scanning in and sending me the blank maps this is based on. Now to the comment.

Jimbo: Salmó's stance towards religion is something I still wonder about myself. While he does not really seem all too religious, I doubt he really is a sceptic or even non-religious. However, until now he still sees himself absolutely justified, and if it is fate for him to be King, it must be Gods will, no? I wonder if he will get any kind of attention, or, who will eventually hear it, but personally I doubt I really have an answer at this time. As I said, I have summarised and an outline of the story, but not exactly how the different characters will react.

Ah yes it is. But it also can be a good factor of stability in a game that is mostly random, a thing that helps a lot if you base a story on it without having the actual gameplay. As you can see, only the first two and a half (the third is mostly made up, but the developments in the region were already to see, the Venetians for example were thrown at me by the game) maps were based on the actual happenings, everything after that is mostly imagination.

Thanks about the maps. I'm myself, as I said, not all too happy with them but it's still the best I can do with limited resources. Excuse me, now I'm going to punch myself for painting all that islands in. In this one the Balearic and in the other the Adriatic.

I'm going to use that excuse from now on. "I know right from wrong, I'm just always right." You made me smile with that.

Let's talk about the update schedule. I already have three more updates of the story written* and there's also the maps of Italy coming in, so I have quite some bit to post now. That means I could speed things up or get a regular update schedule. If it's only Jimbo, who seems to be quite often on, I can speed things up knowing nobody's left behind. I thought about M-W-F from next week on, but I could do Wednesday and Saturday too. Let me know about it. This week, however, I think the coming will be the last update.

*Two from now on but only because I managed to accidentally overwrite the fourth with the fifth when writing in Word. Bah, stupid word and stupid nervously saving.