You reference "Franken", yet in Post 736, you wrote that they were called Vonfraken in Baltic.
Homelands: Tales of the Anglo-Prussians
- Thread starter Mr. Capiatlist
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Only for the first half, but I still don't see what is so wrong...
Oh, it is okay now. It was bad before.
I have another one in the works, but you guys have made me so paranoid I've been writing it very, very slowly and very, very carefully.
I didn't even notice! Just give me some blood/intrigue/wars/murders/family feuds and you shall have me as distracted as possible.
Don't mind them Mr. C.
Grammar is a man-made convention and you don't conform to conventions.
For you are a God among men
Grammar is a man-made convention and you don't conform to conventions.
For you are a God among men
A God? My ego... it grows.Don't mind them Mr. C.
Grammar is a man-made convention and you don't conform to conventions.
For you are a God among men
Bwuhahaha!
Thanks for the compliments guys!
o
Hey guys, getting ready to update, but to be fair I need to announce:
The following update is intended for mature audiences. It contains scenes of graphic violence that, though probably okay for a PG-13 rating these days, I would like to prepare people before they read it.
You have been warned.
The following update is intended for mature audiences. It contains scenes of graphic violence that, though probably okay for a PG-13 rating these days, I would like to prepare people before they read it.
You have been warned.
Homelands
Chapter Twenty Three: Asses to Ashes
Part 2
Prelude:
Religion, under Meinekinus the Pious, had entered a new age of intolerance and alliances. Resistance to conversion in Catholic provinces died down in Poland and Bohemia, but in Hungary Catholicism resisted to a higher degree with support from the Pope. Due to the heavy expansion of Orthodoxy under continued under the last three Prussian Kings, Prussia itself didn't experience these instabilities, rather putting King Dzintis into the forefront of the issue. His biggest rival for stability in Bohemia-Hungary was the Pope in the Carpathian Fortress. Papal authority in 1223 was at its lowest in its entire history. Even after having re-exerted itself into Italy, Papal rule waned in France, England and the Lowlands. The fiery practices of Revision took Europe by storm, its decentralized and easily modified theory made it popular amongst the lower classes as well as nobility who used it to spread their own influence. More than that, its preaching of war and suffering to infidels made it popular in region frequently raided or invaded by Muslims. Many suggest that Prussia's eventual ease at annexing Bohemia and Hungary was due to those region's lack of major Revisionist movements. People in the region wanting to stay with Catholicism could advert persecution by switching to the Unionist Church.
Religion in Europe. Orthodoxy in Brown; Roman Catholicism in Blue; Sunni Islam in Green; Shiite Islam in Bright Green; Revisionism in Cyan; Norse Rite in Sky Blue; Prussian Unionism in Purple; Pagan in Grey; Edessan Christianity in Orange.
April 21st, 1223
The Hungarians were starting to get restless under Dzintis's inquisition. Orthodoxy was beginning to seep in from Poland. The Pope was ordering his people to resist in any way they could, forcing Dzintis to keep constant military patrols and illegalize ownership of weapons for Catholics. From Prague he over saw the subjugation of an entire people, earning him the hatred of his neighbors. Under his palace the dungeons filled at an alarming rate, and it was soon evident to the Bohemians and Hungarians that Dzintis was a major issue. Lucas of Banat, the man who had helped secure Karnak's inheritance in Hungary and Meinekinus's biggest ally, was currently locked away deep in the bowels of the dungeon. His only crime was that of loyalty to his liege. So as he hung from the wall he wept quietly, his body covered only by a few scraps of cloth and the filth and grime of the walls. He eyes had become accustom to the pitch black void that surrounded him on all sides, so when the King opened the door to his cell, Lucas let out an audible groan in pain as the light stung his senses.
The cell was no more than three feet deep, five feet across. It gave enough room for the King to stand over his victim and gloat. Lucas's head slummed down on his shoulder. He hadn't eaten in three days and didn't have the strength to look his enemy in the face. He could sense Dzintis pacing in front of him. "Look at me you animal," his voice barked.
"I... c...c...can't..." Lucas sputtered quietly. Dzintis grabbed the bottom half of Lucas's face, puckering his lips as his thumb and index finger pushed into his cheeks. The King violently shook his prisoner's head, enjoying the agony it caused.
"You see, you have been a thorn in my side for some time now and it is starting to really annoy me," Dzintis started, "If it isn't my father it is that damned Pope always causing me trouble and I feel that I've been too nice thus far. I am going to have to start bashing some heads together and I think I am going to start with you." Dzintis let go of Lucas's face and let it sag back down against his chest. Lucas finally thought that sweet release as at hand, salvation from the tyranny of flesh. He knew that even if he died this day, many more would take his place and eventually the rightful King would sit in Pressburg again.
Dzintis looked back at Lucas expecting to see a broken man crying, instead he saw an indifferent man deep in thought and this made the mad King angry. Anger boiled inside his soul and began to appear on the surface. His fists clenched and without reacting reached his arm out and swung it across Lucas's face, but the chains held the frail man's body up defiantly. Dzintis froze while Lucas carefully and deliberately turned his head the best he could and spat a bloody wad of phlegm onto the King's shoes.
"You bloody peasant! I'll kill you for that! I'll tear you to shreds for your attitude in the face of your superiors! Then what?! Then what Lucas? You going to raise again and come get me? You going to haunt my chambers and make sure that I never get a wink of sleep? You are pathetic! I am King of Hungary, I am to be King of Prussia! And when I am, I shall style myself Emperor and there shall be but one power higher than myself and that will be God hims..."
"Kar...nak..." The feeble voice said. Dzintis froze, his blood curdled instantly, leaving his face a pale white. Lucas's face flashed a quick smile before it faded. He was building his strength, powered by some unknown life force. "Karnak," Lucas said again. This time his smile did not fade, it remained in spite of Dzintis's anger and foaming rage. "Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak."
"Stop it you crazed fool!" Dzintis shouted, but the words echoed time and time and time and time and time and time again. Over and over and over. The incessant, insolent, insistent beating of a drum buried deep in his own skull. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Dzintis dropped to his knees and began to pummel Lucas's body with bare fists. Choking him with his left and punching over and over through pain and screams but nothing could stop the words spilling from his lungs.
But the screams were his own, the pain was his own and Lucas's voice rang out over and over and over, the same six words over and over again. But in the King's hands was not Lucas of Banat, but a corpse. Dzintis stood upright, pulling at his hair. Where was it coming from? He must find it! He sprung from the cell and into the hall way and they were all chanting it. Every inmate, every rat, every fly, every stone. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak.
"WHERE?!" Dzintis bellowed. "WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!!!" he ran up from the dungeon past all of his guards, past diplomats and clergymen, past everyone, upwards. Each face he past muttered the same six words, over and over. It drilled itself in. Over and over. The faces followed him. Each one of them was the bloody rump of Lucas. No matter which way the body faced, the face was directly facing the King. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Even his aide was in on it. His guards, the clergy, the Pope, the foreigners, the children, the pigs, the birds. So Dzintis headed upwards, because God was up and God would protect his own.
Into his own private chambers the chanting followed him. The maids looked at him, chanting. Their bodies were nothing but decayed skeletons with a only few motes of flesh hanging from the bones. They wept blood down their bleach-white faces and one pointed an accusing finger at him. "I HAVE DONE NOTHING!" he shouted. He ran over and bit the cursed finger off of its owner's hand. He laughed manically as the blood filled his mouth and spilled over his lips. He spat it back at the skeleton who continued its chant unabated. Dzintis's face scrunched together in his disgust as he turned away from the chanters and ran toward the stairs and ran farther up and up and up and up and up...
The maids were stunned, one now bleeding profusely. She screamed for help, but help was not far behind. Guards poured into the room after Dzintis who now lay some seventy feet below them on the rocks surrounding the castle. There were no stairs that headed up out of his chamber, instead only a balcony. Everyone was stunned. There were no words to explain what they had all seen. The guards, confused to their next move, rochambeaued over who had to fetch the body. The clergymen advocated freeing Lucas so that he might contact Meinekinus and have Karnak sent to Pressburg immediately. This is when, for the people who had watched Dzintis go mad, the story diverges. All agree that when they reached Lucas that he was long dead, beaten to death and missing most of his teeth. But the first guards on the scene swore that in his mouth was the maid's finger. No one else saw it, but they stuck by their story. The carefully picked up his frail body and covered it in a fine linen. Then, after this was done, Dzintis's dungeon was shut down and the innocent were set free. And as for Dzintis, the soldiers fished his body up off the rocks before the peasants saw, and quickly went about burning the remains and having them sent to Mariengrád where they could not menace the Hungarians anymore.
Chapter Twenty Three: Asses to Ashes
Part 2
Prelude:
Religion, under Meinekinus the Pious, had entered a new age of intolerance and alliances. Resistance to conversion in Catholic provinces died down in Poland and Bohemia, but in Hungary Catholicism resisted to a higher degree with support from the Pope. Due to the heavy expansion of Orthodoxy under continued under the last three Prussian Kings, Prussia itself didn't experience these instabilities, rather putting King Dzintis into the forefront of the issue. His biggest rival for stability in Bohemia-Hungary was the Pope in the Carpathian Fortress. Papal authority in 1223 was at its lowest in its entire history. Even after having re-exerted itself into Italy, Papal rule waned in France, England and the Lowlands. The fiery practices of Revision took Europe by storm, its decentralized and easily modified theory made it popular amongst the lower classes as well as nobility who used it to spread their own influence. More than that, its preaching of war and suffering to infidels made it popular in region frequently raided or invaded by Muslims. Many suggest that Prussia's eventual ease at annexing Bohemia and Hungary was due to those region's lack of major Revisionist movements. People in the region wanting to stay with Catholicism could advert persecution by switching to the Unionist Church.
Religion in Europe. Orthodoxy in Brown; Roman Catholicism in Blue; Sunni Islam in Green; Shiite Islam in Bright Green; Revisionism in Cyan; Norse Rite in Sky Blue; Prussian Unionism in Purple; Pagan in Grey; Edessan Christianity in Orange.
April 21st, 1223
The Hungarians were starting to get restless under Dzintis's inquisition. Orthodoxy was beginning to seep in from Poland. The Pope was ordering his people to resist in any way they could, forcing Dzintis to keep constant military patrols and illegalize ownership of weapons for Catholics. From Prague he over saw the subjugation of an entire people, earning him the hatred of his neighbors. Under his palace the dungeons filled at an alarming rate, and it was soon evident to the Bohemians and Hungarians that Dzintis was a major issue. Lucas of Banat, the man who had helped secure Karnak's inheritance in Hungary and Meinekinus's biggest ally, was currently locked away deep in the bowels of the dungeon. His only crime was that of loyalty to his liege. So as he hung from the wall he wept quietly, his body covered only by a few scraps of cloth and the filth and grime of the walls. He eyes had become accustom to the pitch black void that surrounded him on all sides, so when the King opened the door to his cell, Lucas let out an audible groan in pain as the light stung his senses.
The cell was no more than three feet deep, five feet across. It gave enough room for the King to stand over his victim and gloat. Lucas's head slummed down on his shoulder. He hadn't eaten in three days and didn't have the strength to look his enemy in the face. He could sense Dzintis pacing in front of him. "Look at me you animal," his voice barked.
"I... c...c...can't..." Lucas sputtered quietly. Dzintis grabbed the bottom half of Lucas's face, puckering his lips as his thumb and index finger pushed into his cheeks. The King violently shook his prisoner's head, enjoying the agony it caused.
"You see, you have been a thorn in my side for some time now and it is starting to really annoy me," Dzintis started, "If it isn't my father it is that damned Pope always causing me trouble and I feel that I've been too nice thus far. I am going to have to start bashing some heads together and I think I am going to start with you." Dzintis let go of Lucas's face and let it sag back down against his chest. Lucas finally thought that sweet release as at hand, salvation from the tyranny of flesh. He knew that even if he died this day, many more would take his place and eventually the rightful King would sit in Pressburg again.
Dzintis looked back at Lucas expecting to see a broken man crying, instead he saw an indifferent man deep in thought and this made the mad King angry. Anger boiled inside his soul and began to appear on the surface. His fists clenched and without reacting reached his arm out and swung it across Lucas's face, but the chains held the frail man's body up defiantly. Dzintis froze while Lucas carefully and deliberately turned his head the best he could and spat a bloody wad of phlegm onto the King's shoes.
"You bloody peasant! I'll kill you for that! I'll tear you to shreds for your attitude in the face of your superiors! Then what?! Then what Lucas? You going to raise again and come get me? You going to haunt my chambers and make sure that I never get a wink of sleep? You are pathetic! I am King of Hungary, I am to be King of Prussia! And when I am, I shall style myself Emperor and there shall be but one power higher than myself and that will be God hims..."
"Kar...nak..." The feeble voice said. Dzintis froze, his blood curdled instantly, leaving his face a pale white. Lucas's face flashed a quick smile before it faded. He was building his strength, powered by some unknown life force. "Karnak," Lucas said again. This time his smile did not fade, it remained in spite of Dzintis's anger and foaming rage. "Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak."
"Stop it you crazed fool!" Dzintis shouted, but the words echoed time and time and time and time and time and time again. Over and over and over. The incessant, insolent, insistent beating of a drum buried deep in his own skull. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Dzintis dropped to his knees and began to pummel Lucas's body with bare fists. Choking him with his left and punching over and over through pain and screams but nothing could stop the words spilling from his lungs.
But the screams were his own, the pain was his own and Lucas's voice rang out over and over and over, the same six words over and over again. But in the King's hands was not Lucas of Banat, but a corpse. Dzintis stood upright, pulling at his hair. Where was it coming from? He must find it! He sprung from the cell and into the hall way and they were all chanting it. Every inmate, every rat, every fly, every stone. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak.
"WHERE?!" Dzintis bellowed. "WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!!!!" he ran up from the dungeon past all of his guards, past diplomats and clergymen, past everyone, upwards. Each face he past muttered the same six words, over and over. It drilled itself in. Over and over. The faces followed him. Each one of them was the bloody rump of Lucas. No matter which way the body faced, the face was directly facing the King. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Karnak is King. Hail King Karnak. Even his aide was in on it. His guards, the clergy, the Pope, the foreigners, the children, the pigs, the birds. So Dzintis headed upwards, because God was up and God would protect his own.
Into his own private chambers the chanting followed him. The maids looked at him, chanting. Their bodies were nothing but decayed skeletons with a only few motes of flesh hanging from the bones. They wept blood down their bleach-white faces and one pointed an accusing finger at him. "I HAVE DONE NOTHING!" he shouted. He ran over and bit the cursed finger off of its owner's hand. He laughed manically as the blood filled his mouth and spilled over his lips. He spat it back at the skeleton who continued its chant unabated. Dzintis's face scrunched together in his disgust as he turned away from the chanters and ran toward the stairs and ran farther up and up and up and up and up...
The maids were stunned, one now bleeding profusely. She screamed for help, but help was not far behind. Guards poured into the room after Dzintis who now lay some seventy feet below them on the rocks surrounding the castle. There were no stairs that headed up out of his chamber, instead only a balcony. Everyone was stunned. There were no words to explain what they had all seen. The guards, confused to their next move, rochambeaued over who had to fetch the body. The clergymen advocated freeing Lucas so that he might contact Meinekinus and have Karnak sent to Pressburg immediately. This is when, for the people who had watched Dzintis go mad, the story diverges. All agree that when they reached Lucas that he was long dead, beaten to death and missing most of his teeth. But the first guards on the scene swore that in his mouth was the maid's finger. No one else saw it, but they stuck by their story. The carefully picked up his frail body and covered it in a fine linen. Then, after this was done, Dzintis's dungeon was shut down and the innocent were set free. And as for Dzintis, the soldiers fished his body up off the rocks before the peasants saw, and quickly went about burning the remains and having them sent to Mariengrád where they could not menace the Hungarians anymore.
You can't have events in Central Europe without a defenestration... even if the defenestration was self-enacted. Good riddance to Dzintis... Leaping to his own death in a fit of madness was a fitting end in many ways.
Good riddance to Dzintis... Leaping to his own death in a fit of madness was a fitting end in many ways.
You can't have events in Central Europe without a defenestration... even if the defenestration was self-enacted.
I agree. It was a good way to get rid of him.
For those who care, I've added stats to the table of contents if you are interested in the word counts.
Karnak is the Kingemperor of the Prussians!
Hail the King of Kings!
Shahanshah of the North!
Hail the King of Kings!
Shahanshah of the North!
yay! Dizntis doesn't get the throne! all Hail the king-Emperor of Prussia (And the other such nations)! Karnek!