Les Journals d'Artois

Just to let everyone know that this AAR is still very much on my mind. I finish up with all college work on Monday and will be back to writing. I'd been hoping to have something for this weekend but coming down with the flu has wrecked havoc with my schedule. So expect something on Saturday week at the latest.

The news of the Deus Vult expansion has also forced me to do some thinking about this AAR's future. I'm not sure what I had originally intended, I really hadn't thought past a certain point, but I've now a definite story end point in mind. Not to worry though, I still have enough notes to last a few more (in-game!) years.

Hmmm where to start... First of all I owe my readers an apology for continually failing to deliver. Excuses have come and gone but its been over two months since I've produced an update. That is clearly a poor show on my behalf.

However I may have changed the status of this AAR to being "officially" on hold but I do not expect this to last for long. I'm enjoying this story, possibly I'm the only one, and I have every intention of completing it. Clearly this is going to necessitate a change of format. It was poor planning on my part but at, roughly, one update per game month the pacing of this project has been off from the beginning. At this rate it will take forever to complete.

So I'm going to go back to the drawing board and establish exactly where I am going with this story. This time I intend to do it properly with a fixed end point and story arc. To that purpose I'll be deviating from my gameplay notes and compressing five years of events into a single year - I intend to end this AAR in December 1340. That means that you can expect roughly six (and perhaps up to twelve) updates to wrap up the story. I'll probably keep the diary format but will extend their length and greatly accelerate the pace of events.

I know that I've said much of this before but please bear with me. I intend to take a few weeks (perhaps a month) to hammer out most of this story and until then the AAR will remain on hold. In the meantime I invite you to read my current effort in Vicky - a Papal States AAR titled Sins of the Fathers. I have most of that already written so it should not prove to be a distraction.

October 17th, Year of Our Lord 1338

It has not been a good day. News from abroad continues to depress my temper and troubles flock to me like ravens. The metaphor is apt as the current dilemma has arisen from the carrion strewn battlefields of Aquitaine. If my reports are correct, and I have no reason to suspect otherwise, then Jean de Valois's summer of campaigning has been most successful. The remaining English armies in the region have been scattered, reduced to roving bands engaged in banditry, and the armies of the Crown have begun to invest the fortifications at Bordeaux. The city may have already fallen by the time I write this.

I will admit, here in the confidence of myself, that I did not foresee this string of French victories. The lieutenants of Edward Plantagenet are clearly not as able as their master and they have squandered their opportunity for success. Now the initiative lies with the French Crown and the position of the Valois amongst the Frankish lords is greatly strengthened by victories on the battlefield. Bah, I must not wallow in opportunities lost. It is my duty, nominally at least, to look forward to the future and advise the Duke de Dreux of the best course of action.

This is the burden that has soured my mood and my appetite this day. For I know in my heart what avenue I must instruct the Duke to take. It is inevitable that with victory secure in the south the King will turn his attention to the north… and Brittany. I have many issues with Jean de Valois, not least his cur-like personality, but he is not a complete imbecile. He must surely know that he occupies a position of commanding strength and that there is no better time to discipline errant vassals. De Dreux has no choice but to make his peace with Valois and commit to the King's cause. How sickening.

October 25th, Year of Our Lord 1338

The inevitable has occurred and Jean de Valois has officially demanded the active participation of Duke de Dreux in the war against the English. The royal missive was delivered by an imperious herald, some dim-witted youth who I vaguely recall from my time in the royal court, whose arrogant manner when addressing the Duke was appalling. I am not certain as to whether this attitude was the result of the boy's imprudence or a deliberate attempt by Valois to provoke Brittany. Given the contents of the message I suspect the latter. In short, the King of the Franks demands that the Duke of Brittany immediately act to fulfil his feudal obligations by contributing men and currency to the royal campaigns. All in all it is much as expected but the language of the missive is more strident than I had anticipated. That is interesting in itself…

Regardless of the language, the content of the "summons" cannot be ignored - further delays will not be tolerated by the Crown. I have already taken the highly unpleasant step of counselling the Duke to accept these demands and enter the war on the behalf of France. At this stage there is little fighting left, until the spring at least, but the act itself will be highly symbolic. It will also mean abandoning those profitable little ventures with the English, de Ufford will not be pleased to hear of that, but such sacrifices are preferable to waking up to find fifty thousand French soldiers assaulting the keep. Could it have been any different? Bah. C'est la vie.

November 14th, Year of Our Lord 1338

Preparations for war continue apace. This is not the first time in the past two years that Brittany has gone about the motions of mobilisation but, alas, there is now the sense that war is inevitable. Steward Jeanne and the Marshal busy themselves with the details and challenges associated with assembling and supplying thousands of men-at-arms (worryingly these are largely Bretons) but I have little to occupy my mind. Despatches to London have already been sent, with great reluctance, indicating that English soldiers and ships will no longer be granted safe passage or harbour in Brittany. It was with even greater reluctance that I addressed a letter, in the Duke's name of course, to Jean de Valois informing him that the Duchy was willing to submit… commit to his campaigns. Aside from this I have been left behind as the keep occupies itself in a storm of activity and general business related to mobilisation.

Despite the activity, there is precious little appetite amongst the nobility for a campaign against England and neither the Duke nor the Marshal is eager to leave the duchy and assume control of the expedition. Both are presented with a dilemma of no small consequence - leading the Breton contingent in the King's army presents the opportunity for martial glory but at the risk of leaving their rival free hand at home. I suspect that both men will accompany the host, even though such divisions cannot help on the battlefield, and I shall perhaps be left in peace in Nantes. Of course there is no honour in remaining with the women in the castle, but there is also no danger of being stabbed (unless the ever-envious Hélie de Pontchâteau also remains) or dying of dysentery in a ditch. Avoiding either fate would please me greatly.

December 16th, Year of Our Lord 1338

The details have been finalised and the required missives dispatched - the armies of Brittany will mass in late January and march south to join the King's campaign in the first weeks of spring. I still lack word from the Bishop of Cornouaille, his return from pilgrimage in Rome being long overdue, but agreement has been secured from his court to mobilise the nobility of that backward province. This army shall be tasked with guarding the coast in the, unlikely, case of any English incursions or raids. The continuing tensions over the succession make it impossible to entrust this duty to the army of Penthievre… the Marshal would never tolerate Countess Jeanne maintaining the sole military presence in Brittany. I have already received communication from the latter indicating that she will join the host in person and is already en route to Nantes to discuss the campaign in person. Tomorrow the Duke and Marshal ride north to formally greet the fair Countess and escort her into Nantes. That is likely to be an… interesting meeting.

So who thought they'd seen the end of Jacques d'Artois? I've said it before - I'm just too stubborn to leave an AAR unfinished. That said, this update is not the long awaited (*cough*) return of Les Journals. I'm still planning to relaunch the story with a new format and this update largely serves to a) remind you that I'm still here, and b) set the stage for the next series of updates.

Given my atrocious record in keeping to self-imposed deadlines I'll not say when I expect to be finished putting the rest of the story together. However hopefully I'll get most of the writing done over the holidays. So Merry Christmas all!

December 17th, Year of Our Lord 1338

Events are moving far faster than anticipated and I struggle to commit my thoughts to parchment with haste. Yet perhaps the situation will be clearer when placed before me in ink. Indeed if I fail to pick my way through this current dilemma then at least my thoughts will be preserved for posterity. Let me state the problem then - the Duke lies on Death's door and everything hangs in the balance. This truth appears even starker when placed before me but it cannot be avoided. The particulars of this tragedy are not particularly important (of all the fates it was a fall from a horse!) but the ramifications for Brittany are immense. According to the consulted physicians the Duke has but days or weeks before passing from this world. The fall from the saddle has broken many bones and supposedly ruptured some of his internal workings. Already my liege has lapsed into a deep unconsciousness and it will surprise me if Morpheus releases him to any but the Ferryman.

Leaving aside the matter of de Dreux's immortal soul, it is my own mortal body that is of primary concern tonight. The Duke could not have suffered his accident at a more volatile moment with events conspiring to place both contenders for his legacy in Nantes. Perhaps subconsciously I had hoped that should fate strike then one of his heirs would have been in such a position of strength that conflict could be avoided. Alas I am for once left to regret the presence of Jeanne de Dreux… had it not been for her then Marshal Jean would have surely acted to have the Duke slain and the duchy secured before the Countess could react. I would prefer to see the latter assume her birthright but such a rapid resolution of the inheritance does have its attractions. Unfortunately that was not to be and Jeanne's arrival has complicated matters no end. That she was accompanied by several hundred men-at-arms, levied from her lands for the Duke's foreign campaign, only increases the possibility of bloodshed.

And that is the situation as I scribble my last words for now. Two armed camps have assembled outside the Keep where the Duke now rests uneasily. With some luck open conflict can be averted but I have no doubt that both parties will seek to strengthen their claim, and undermine that of their opponent, to the duchy before Jean de Dreux finally passes from this world. This date will surely arrive soon and hopefully both the Countess and the Marshal will realise the wisdom of prudence and refrain from forcing the issue too soon. Obviously Steward Jeanne is distraught by her husband's injury but I will be relying on her assistance to calm both factions of court. Hélie de Pontchâteau is of course of no use to me but Jeanne de Dampierre, wife of Marshal Jean, may see sense in avoiding an immediate confrontation. Her husband's position is probably the stronger but she would do well to wait to secure an alliance with her brother, the Duke of Flanders. For now I will accept any temporary aid in preventing bloodshed… until I can be sure as to which faction will emerge victorious of course.

Excellent... my hiatus has reduced by readers by approximately half. My "shunning" of the mass readership makes this AAR nothing less than high art! If this rate of "progress" continues then I will soon have no readers left. Only then can I answer that age old question, "If an update is posted and no is around to read it, does the author need to bother writing an update at all?"

Anyways, thanks for sticking with this stnylan and RGB (to answer your question - what sort of miserable and dull witted race would inhabit a backwater such as Brittany?). This will be the last update before the grand relaunch and it sets the stage for the next half of the story. I've had to tweak the dates in the previous update around a bit but that shouldn't be a problem.

I feel silly posting this given that half of my readership was responsible for creating it, but I've been Canonized. Credit goes to canonized, obviously, and RGB for actually doing the interview. I was not the easiest of interviewees... so it was a good match

A new reader? Where's the catch...?

Thanks for joining us DerKaiser but don't worry too much about catching up. I plan to do a quick recap of the story so far when I relaunch this AAR (officially: "Soon") after learning some new lessons with Sins. Of course don't let that put you off reading the archives

stnylan: Brittany is certainly entering a very volatile time. Tensions are were simmering while the Duke was alive are sure to rise to the surface. Hopefully Jacques can prevent them from exploding...

Kurt_Steiner: Good to have you back Kurt. I finally got round to bringing Jeanne back into the story, after something of an absence, and you can be sure that she'll begin to play a much more central role from this point on

RGB: Thanks but I'm not sure about the language used. Jacques is supposed to be relatively well educated but I have the feeling that a knowledge of classical Greek gods/legends, amongst the upper classes at least, only appeared a few centuries after our tale. Regardless, its a small anachronism amongst many and one that I won't be losing any sleep over

I've been saying that I was close to resuming this tale for months now but this time I can prove it. Most of the remainder of the story is complete (albeit in its first draft) and I hope to resume updates within the next week or two. Hopefully

In the meantime I've put together a quick trailer for the AAR and I'm looking to write a quick introduction for new readers (I hope to attract one or two). So fingers crossed that this will work... Well I can't embed the video so I'll have to go with: