Considering Asbjorn 'trained' that horse, it's almost certain that horse was beaten all the time while the beater kept reciting that speech.
Reminds me of the death of Basil II under similarly mysterious circumstances with a similarly muddled inheritance situation. I expect to see Persian Nikephoros insisting on his inheritance rights, even if Gabriel doesn't.
Romans+Mongols vs. the Mark. This is extremely difficult for me to say, as you understand, but Go Rohan!
He already has an ace up his sleeve with the Mongols (which Mongol sucessor state did he represent?)
Hmm, two of the coolest peoples in worldhistory vs once mighty vikings, now degenerated to the point being represented by Rohan?
End those pathetic Danish wannabe's. Please, I cry everytime I see a viking on horseback.
4th Dimension said:I cry every time seeing them polluting Russian steps with their Catholicism.
because this is getting really intense.
And thus dies Seyf-u-Allah, the Moorish Emperor. Now I want Gabriel back. And Nikephoros the Persian.
May I assume Andronikos is the disastrous 1300's emperor alluded to so long ago? An 11 year old and a religious nut cannot run an empire as massive as Romanion.
Gabriel the Lion of Persia will roar, and his cubs will reach for the Imperial throne... but Byzantium is a gigantic snake pit, where venomous beasts and man eating pythons lurk in the dark. Now that the light has been snuffed out, the snakes are going to slither out of their snake pit and they will find the lions mighty tasty.
So Nikephoros has taken been thrown by a horse sent as a gift by the Danes and Segeo Komnenos--the infamous cargo on the Kronan. Was it trained to throw him? Or was it so unsteady a mount that Gottfried et al knew it was bound to happen? Between the Empire and chaos lays Albrecht, Patriarch Thomas and his unwitting Metropolitan. Meanwhile to the east, Thomas (calling himself IV) last update said he’s raising an army, and Nikephoros’ incapacity means that Thomas III is, temporarily at least, senior emperor in Konstantinopolis. Will news of Nikephoros’ injuries finally spur his namesake in the East to move? Will crowning Andronikos be enough o hold the gap? What chaos will Thomas III cause while he is legally on top? And what is on that first parchment that Nikephoros the Spaniard opposed so long ago? Chaos, confusion, and yet more civil war loom on Rome AARisen!
AlexanderPrimus - Except I don't see Albrecht parting the Marmara to allow the Byzantine state to flee a Persian horde...