In the Shadow of Certain, Painful Doom: Abyssinia
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I appear to be doing alright in my current game. I'm even playing as Axum, rather than Abyssinia! Two rapid-fire assassinations of Caliphs, about a year into the game, sent the Caliphate into a tailspin it has yet to recover from - 50 years of constant rebellions, civil wars, and succession crises. Hormuz managed to gobble up Oman and Sanaa and is currently a bigger threat than the Caliphate. Abyssinia has lost two wars over Sanaa (we owned it briefly - and I say we because I swore fealty when my ruler married the current Queen's sister - the better to ally with the new Duke of Harer and press my wife's claim to the throne... soon, oh so soon. Harer is part of the kingdom, fully converted and its duke is married to my half-sister and adores me... )
I really don't know that it can be done without assassinations. If the Caliphate isn't destabilized, there's no way to stop it. I'm not even sure successful assassinations are a sure-fire thing... I think I was pretty lucky that both Damascus (the whole region, not just the county) and all of Arabia Felix tried to secede. The Caliphate no more than put those wars to rest and Alexandria and Aswan rebelled, it got those under control and Damascus rose again... rinse, repeat. If things ever do calm down in the Shia world, I still think I'm toast... even if I do manage to rule the whole kingdom in the next generation.
I can't imagine trying to salvage anything after being reduced to just Sennar, but you do make your tribulations highly entertaining!
LOL. Thanks! Maybe I should have highlighted it, but I wanted it to sneak up on people.
And get him murdered, too?
That's a great book. Something like the Sherlock Holmes of the Middle Ages is indeed what Sennar needs right now. Tesfaye is a little out of his league. (But when is that not the case?)Thank you for your post, that helps confirm the assassination strategy nicely. Your being Axum and swearing fealty to Abyssinia is also helpful, because the two of you team up now and support each other as a stronger unit rather then fight each other or fight enemies alone.
I have noticed in my game the the caliphs seem to live to a ripe old age, which of course solidifies their control over their vassals. By assassinating them you take away this bonus, and it is nice to see that they have vassals that yearn to be free. I wonder if sending your chancellor to sow dissent on some of them would be helpful, too. I even recall reading from a developer diary that the Muslim succession laws "Turkish Succession" are ripe for bloddy succession crises.
Good job!
Chapter 32
I set out with my three-guard escort to talk to all the first generation Greeks about the bronze cross. If Demissie thought it was important, perhaps one of the Greeks will be able to tell me something useful about it.
The widow of my dead son, Sibylla, doesn’t know anything more than I did: that it is a Byzantine Orthodox bronze cross. She tries to change the subject to one more interesting to her: she suggests that she could help Sennar better if she were married to a Doux somewhere in Byzantium proper. She wonders if her Monophysite religion would bother Greek nobles. Personally, I really don’t care if Sibylla leaves or stays, but she is definitely stuck here until Tesfaye III is an adult so that I can be an influence on his prospects, so vital to the dynasty.
When I arrive at Marshal Nikephoros’ office, I find him nervously burning some papers. He claims he is just tidying up. When I show him the cross, he guesses that it comes from the Western Greece region, but he can’t be sure. He says he doesn’t really know anything more about it.
I have a laugh at Steward Anatolios’ office. The poor man has obviously been affected by the tenseness in the air. At the sight of me with three guards he goes pale and becomes agitated. Since the deaths of my son and Eudokia, he is the only Orthodox adult in Sennar. Especially given his zealousness and hatred for the Monophysite religion, his isolation must be hitting him hard. Plus he is paranoid.
Anatolios says has never seen the cross before. Then he confides in me that he suspects Nikephorus had been conspiring with Nikodemos to seize power in Sennar, for he got snippets of their whispers on occasion. I am amazed at this revelation. Anatolios then says he suspects Nikephorus is the killer, covering his tracks after something went bad with Nikodemos. “I would have come to you sooner,” he says, “but I had mostly bits and pieces of evidence, and plus I was afraid for my own life.” After I tell him I will have to go back to my quarters to think through these surprises, he nods and says, "You have a lot to think about. Since you haven’t checked with Rosa about the cross yet, why don't you leave it with me. I'll show it to my wife and then report back to you.” It seems to me that this would certainly be easier. Also I find questioning people uncomfortable, being shy. I agree and leave him the cross, returning to my quarters.
It is only several hours later while I am thinking in my quarters that it occurs to me. I had said to Anatolios only that I was talking with each of the Greeks about the cross—how did he know I had not yet talked to Rosa about it?
I set out with my three-guard escort to talk to all the first generation Greeks about the bronze cross. If Demissie thought it was important, perhaps one of the Greeks will be able to tell me something useful about it.
The widow of my dead son, Sibylla, doesn’t know anything more than I did: that it is a Byzantine Orthodox bronze cross. She tries to change the subject to one more interesting to her: she suggests that she could help Sennar better if she were married to a Doux somewhere in Byzantium proper. She wonders if her Monophysite religion would bother Greek nobles. Personally, I really don’t care if Sibylla leaves or stays, but she is definitely stuck here until Tesfaye III is an adult so that I can be an influence on his prospects, so vital to the dynasty.
When I arrive at Marshal Nikephoros’ office, I find him nervously burning some papers. He claims he is just tidying up. When I show him the cross, he guesses that it comes from the Western Greece region, but he can’t be sure. He says he doesn’t really know anything more about it.
I have a laugh at Steward Anatolios’ office. The poor man has obviously been affected by the tenseness in the air. At the sight of me with three guards he goes pale and becomes agitated. Since the deaths of my son and Eudokia, he is the only Orthodox adult in Sennar. Especially given his zealousness and hatred for the Monophysite religion, his isolation must be hitting him hard. Plus he is paranoid.
Anatolios says has never seen the cross before. Then he confides in me that he suspects Nikephorus had been conspiring with Nikodemos to seize power in Sennar, for he got snippets of their whispers on occasion. I am amazed at this revelation. Anatolios then says he suspects Nikephorus is the killer, covering his tracks after something went bad with Nikodemos. “I would have come to you sooner,” he says, “but I had mostly bits and pieces of evidence, and plus I was afraid for my own life.” After I tell him I will have to go back to my quarters to think through these surprises, he nods and says, "You have a lot to think about. Since you haven’t checked with Rosa about the cross yet, why don't you leave it with me. I'll show it to my wife and then report back to you.” It seems to me that this would certainly be easier. Also I find questioning people uncomfortable, being shy. I agree and leave him the cross, returning to my quarters.
It is only several hours later while I am thinking in my quarters that it occurs to me. I had said to Anatolios only that I was talking with each of the Greeks about the cross—how did he know I had not yet talked to Rosa about it?
The Greeks are plotting to take over Sennar...and killing all the spymasters to prevent our idiot count from figuring it out?
Devious, and dangerous...I like it!
Devious, and dangerous...I like it!
Well, since Kaleb hasn't been murdered yet, my guess is that he is plain stupid. (Since apparently the Sennarian mark of success is assassination...) Poor Genat, too, I have a feeling Tesfaye must have somehow misled her... But this is getting curiouser and curiouser. Can I just blame everyone, like in Murder on the Orient Express?
For someone who must have dreams of choking the air out of your heretic lungs, Anatolios was curiously helpful...
This has been a very enjoyable read so far. I started a couple of days ago, saw that you were up to page 10, and figured that your dynasty must have perished by then. Well done, and I look forward to seeing how the rest of the story unfolds.
This AAR is great fun to read! Where else can you find such a tale of tragedy, struggle, despair, and lost glory?
It helps that two assassinations gets you to a Caliph who is a minor with bad traits and that at the start of the game there's plenty of willing conspirators in the Caliphate.
Starting as Axum helps not because you can swear fealty to Abyssinia. I did, but I wasn't planning on doing so, and didn't for 30 years... opportunity came up where it wouldn't hurt so I took it. No, the real benefit of starting as Axum is that you can keep the Caliphate from seizing those provinces. Combined with the southernmost part of Nubia, which is de jure part of Axum, that's five provinces that the Caliph can't help but take if you play as Abyssinia. However and whenever you end up with the throne, then, the kingdom is MUCH stronger than it otherwise would be. But in the opening the Caliphate can still squash you like a bug if they don't break up into internal conflict.
Oddly enough, I've yet to have a game with a rash of assassinations... certainly nothing like you've had. Interested to see where the story goes next!
The Greeks are plotting to take over Sennar...and killing all the spymasters to prevent our idiot count from figuring it out?
Devious, and dangerous...I like it!
Thanks!
LOL. I like it--the murderer only kills the good spymasters. Maybe Kaleb knows that he's incompetent and so safe, so that's why he isn't nervous.
Very curious indeed...
No, instead of dying the dynasty just went on perpetual life support.
Thank you!
I'm glad you like it! Thanks!
Thanks!
Chapter 33
Taking my three guards, I go looking for Steward Antolios and find him at the edge of town, covered in dust. He claims he was robbed by an Ethiopian peasant and everything he had was taken, including the bronze cross. This is terrible luck—that was our only piece of important evidence from one of the murders. Since Anatolios was just robbed, I reassure him by sending the three guards with him to the captain of the guards to report the incident. I realize after he leaves that he hadn’t told me what Rosa had said about the cross, so I go to find her myself to save time.
I find Rosa at her and Antolios' house, and I ask her if she is familiar with an Orthodox bronze cross, probably from Western Greece. She says she can’t know if it is the same one without seeing it, but Antolios had a cross like that, a family heirloom of sorts. It had disappeared a few months ago. It also comes out during our conversation that Rosa believes Antolios is having an affair with someone. “Not that I much care,” she adds, matter of factly.
Aha! Short-term Spymaster Demissie had said the cross was found on Eudokia. Antolios must have lied about the bronze cross because he knew it would connect him to Eudokia, with whom he was evidently having an affair. He then managed to get it from me, which was important for him because otherwise I would have proof that he lied once I talked with Rosa. I suppose he wants to avoid it coming out that he was having an affair. And especially with the murder investigation going on, he would have additional reasons for not wanting to be connected to her: he doesn’t want to look like he killed her. And that’s why he was so frightened when I appeared with guards—he thought I was there to arrest him.
Suddenly it occurs to me that maybe he really is the killer. Our theory has been all along that the murderer is killing Greeks and later spymasters to cover their tracks. But with the exception of Eudokia, all of the Greeks killed were also Monophysite. Maybe the killer was really killing Monophysites? And I get a chill down my spine as I recall that Eudokia’s break from her fever prompted her to start converting to Monophysiticism as well. The two of them—Eudokia and Antolios—had started their affair as two Orthodox believers surrounded by heretics, including their own spouse and children. It would have been a devastating blow to Antolios when his last friend was breaking faith with the true religion and breaking up with him. He had already become unstable with his excessive drinking and his paranoia. Perhaps in a rage he had killed her. And if he had killed her, once he had blood on his hands, could that have prompted him to keep killing the hated Monophysites? And then later focusing on spymasters who begin sniffing around his tracks?
But this is all conjecture. How to prove any of it? I try to remember the approximate days and times of the deaths, and I ask Rosa about where Antolios was at those times. Her memory is fuzzy, but it seems to her he was not at home at those approximate times. Looking a little confused at the request, she agrees to let me look around his office, and leaves me in a small, tidy room with a desk. A careful—and excellent, to be sure—steward like him habitually records every little detail in his job. Perhaps this spills over into his regular life, although it would seem improbable that he would be meticulous in recording murders.
I've got you now, you ugly little toad.
But then I find it. Hidden under some accounting papyrus underneath his desk is a vellum paper journal book that is his diary. The man records all sorts of mundane facts, such as the weather for each day, town visitors, what he had for breakfast, and so on. But he also records his inner emotional life, and I excitedly read his angry writing about all the vile heretics encircling and then infiltrating his family. Quickly, I page to the days of the murders. Damned if he didn’t account in almost ledger form who he killed and how, as well as the weather at the time of death and what he ate later that day.
Starting with the latest death, I go back over the three spymasters. Each carefully recorded. With shaking hands I start to look for Nikodemos. But then, while my three guards are now probably out drinking tej somewhere, I hear the voice of the man who has murdered five people enter the house, talk to his wife, and then walk towards the only door to his small, tidy study.
Taking my three guards, I go looking for Steward Antolios and find him at the edge of town, covered in dust. He claims he was robbed by an Ethiopian peasant and everything he had was taken, including the bronze cross. This is terrible luck—that was our only piece of important evidence from one of the murders. Since Anatolios was just robbed, I reassure him by sending the three guards with him to the captain of the guards to report the incident. I realize after he leaves that he hadn’t told me what Rosa had said about the cross, so I go to find her myself to save time.
I find Rosa at her and Antolios' house, and I ask her if she is familiar with an Orthodox bronze cross, probably from Western Greece. She says she can’t know if it is the same one without seeing it, but Antolios had a cross like that, a family heirloom of sorts. It had disappeared a few months ago. It also comes out during our conversation that Rosa believes Antolios is having an affair with someone. “Not that I much care,” she adds, matter of factly.
Aha! Short-term Spymaster Demissie had said the cross was found on Eudokia. Antolios must have lied about the bronze cross because he knew it would connect him to Eudokia, with whom he was evidently having an affair. He then managed to get it from me, which was important for him because otherwise I would have proof that he lied once I talked with Rosa. I suppose he wants to avoid it coming out that he was having an affair. And especially with the murder investigation going on, he would have additional reasons for not wanting to be connected to her: he doesn’t want to look like he killed her. And that’s why he was so frightened when I appeared with guards—he thought I was there to arrest him.
Suddenly it occurs to me that maybe he really is the killer. Our theory has been all along that the murderer is killing Greeks and later spymasters to cover their tracks. But with the exception of Eudokia, all of the Greeks killed were also Monophysite. Maybe the killer was really killing Monophysites? And I get a chill down my spine as I recall that Eudokia’s break from her fever prompted her to start converting to Monophysiticism as well. The two of them—Eudokia and Antolios—had started their affair as two Orthodox believers surrounded by heretics, including their own spouse and children. It would have been a devastating blow to Antolios when his last friend was breaking faith with the true religion and breaking up with him. He had already become unstable with his excessive drinking and his paranoia. Perhaps in a rage he had killed her. And if he had killed her, once he had blood on his hands, could that have prompted him to keep killing the hated Monophysites? And then later focusing on spymasters who begin sniffing around his tracks?
But this is all conjecture. How to prove any of it? I try to remember the approximate days and times of the deaths, and I ask Rosa about where Antolios was at those times. Her memory is fuzzy, but it seems to her he was not at home at those approximate times. Looking a little confused at the request, she agrees to let me look around his office, and leaves me in a small, tidy room with a desk. A careful—and excellent, to be sure—steward like him habitually records every little detail in his job. Perhaps this spills over into his regular life, although it would seem improbable that he would be meticulous in recording murders.
I've got you now, you ugly little toad.
But then I find it. Hidden under some accounting papyrus underneath his desk is a vellum paper journal book that is his diary. The man records all sorts of mundane facts, such as the weather for each day, town visitors, what he had for breakfast, and so on. But he also records his inner emotional life, and I excitedly read his angry writing about all the vile heretics encircling and then infiltrating his family. Quickly, I page to the days of the murders. Damned if he didn’t account in almost ledger form who he killed and how, as well as the weather at the time of death and what he ate later that day.
Starting with the latest death, I go back over the three spymasters. Each carefully recorded. With shaking hands I start to look for Nikodemos. But then, while my three guards are now probably out drinking tej somewhere, I hear the voice of the man who has murdered five people enter the house, talk to his wife, and then walk towards the only door to his small, tidy study.
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Hmmmm Was this entire Investigation just an attempt to put something interesting into a period where nothing actually happened.
Find out next time on Sennar Ball Z!could the story be coming to an end?
Yes, but as you'll see Tesfaye will have to be just a little creative to get closure.
Actuality the opposite is true--some big changes are coming to the Zagwe Dynasty (relative to their past prospects, of course), and I've been chafing to get to them. But when the third spymaster was killed in a row, by someone like Steward Antolios with all his hatred of Monophysiticism, I couldn't resist playing it out a bit more than usual. Don't worry--by tomorrow we'll be right back on track.
That's right. It's the evil fez.
Could the story be coming to an end?
Don't worry--It takes more than a religiously-intolerant Byzantine Greek serial killer to end the Zagwe Dynasty.
Chapter 34
With Antolios approaching the room, I quickly hide his journal as closely to how I found it as I can, and then turn and try to appear natural as I sit in his chair. Whereas most of the time recently he has appeared agitated, now he is cool and calm. This worries me. I tell him that I came to ask Rosa about the bronze cross, but she wasn’t very helpful, and I stayed because I wanted to talk with Antolios about Nikephorus’ plotting. He nods and relaxes slightly, and I notice his eyes flicker towards the hiding place of his journal. He then starts to describe what he claims he heard Nikephorus and Nikodemos whispering about. I listen to this as long as I need to so it looks convincing, and then I excuse myself and leave. I go immediately to the Captain of the Guards.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any conclusive proof to arrest Anatolios. Additionally, my impiety is so infamous that nobody will take me on my word. I can’t have the man who I know is the murderer arrested.
So I will conspire to murder him myself. The idea of it terrifies me, but not as much as doing nothing and eventually being myself murdered. I begin drawing up a list of potential plotters to kill Anatolios.
You would think the wife of the plot target would contribute more than 2%.
The moral people tend to not like plotting. Most everyone at least still dislikes me, making them that much less likely to plot with me, so I need to stay with the immoral people to have my best chance at recruiting some people. That rules out both my wife and Stephanos, who are both much too moral to plot with me. I approach Spymaster Kaleb (an obvious choice), Ioulia (who wants to avenge her father’s murder), Chaplain Eremias and Bishop Afework (both surprisingly amenable), and finally Rosa, Anatolio’s wife (in addition to helping the plot, she adds some legitimacy to it—the guy must really be evil if his own wife is conspiring to kill him).
You’re not really well liked if this many people jump at the chance to kill you.
After I assemble this group of plotters, we still are lacking. We have enough to have a good chance of killing him, but I want this to be foolproof. After three spymasters have been killed in rapid succession, my coalition is liable to shrink very soon, making subsequent plots more difficult. I approach someone on the fence: Zena.
Zena hates Anatolios, but she also hates me. Plus plotting takes some effort. So I bribe her. It is a year and a half of Sennar’s taxable income, but I can’t think of a better use of the revenue. This “gift” takes the edge off her hatred for me, and she is now willing to join the plot. It is time to execute.
I will not dwell too much on the details of the plot. Basically it involved leveraging his weakness for drink. We hold a tej party on a rocky hill overlooking the castle. Near a cliff. Only the plotters and Antolios were invited. (It helped that his own wife was “invited” as well.) After we had all drunk a lot of tej, I give the signal by telling all the servents to go get more tej. Ioulia then says she sees something at the bottom of the cliff. Except for myself, they all go and lean over the edge to see, including Antolios. Then I push him over the cliff. Craven as I am, I’m surprised I was able to do it. The tej helped, I suppose.
Muahahaha.
We have lifted the scourge from Sennar. It can go back to being the unhappy but non-murderous place we all know and love. Now I can concentrate on advancing my dynasty with my grandson and sister without fear of being murdered while I sleep.
As if to celebrate the lack of a public murderer, Selasse (my sometime general that fought against the rebels), Princess Mencía, and Bishop Afework all die non-murderous deaths within a couple of weeks. (Natural causes at age 72, illness, and syphilis, respectively.)
With Antolios approaching the room, I quickly hide his journal as closely to how I found it as I can, and then turn and try to appear natural as I sit in his chair. Whereas most of the time recently he has appeared agitated, now he is cool and calm. This worries me. I tell him that I came to ask Rosa about the bronze cross, but she wasn’t very helpful, and I stayed because I wanted to talk with Antolios about Nikephorus’ plotting. He nods and relaxes slightly, and I notice his eyes flicker towards the hiding place of his journal. He then starts to describe what he claims he heard Nikephorus and Nikodemos whispering about. I listen to this as long as I need to so it looks convincing, and then I excuse myself and leave. I go immediately to the Captain of the Guards.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any conclusive proof to arrest Anatolios. Additionally, my impiety is so infamous that nobody will take me on my word. I can’t have the man who I know is the murderer arrested.
So I will conspire to murder him myself. The idea of it terrifies me, but not as much as doing nothing and eventually being myself murdered. I begin drawing up a list of potential plotters to kill Anatolios.
You would think the wife of the plot target would contribute more than 2%.
The moral people tend to not like plotting. Most everyone at least still dislikes me, making them that much less likely to plot with me, so I need to stay with the immoral people to have my best chance at recruiting some people. That rules out both my wife and Stephanos, who are both much too moral to plot with me. I approach Spymaster Kaleb (an obvious choice), Ioulia (who wants to avenge her father’s murder), Chaplain Eremias and Bishop Afework (both surprisingly amenable), and finally Rosa, Anatolio’s wife (in addition to helping the plot, she adds some legitimacy to it—the guy must really be evil if his own wife is conspiring to kill him).
You’re not really well liked if this many people jump at the chance to kill you.
After I assemble this group of plotters, we still are lacking. We have enough to have a good chance of killing him, but I want this to be foolproof. After three spymasters have been killed in rapid succession, my coalition is liable to shrink very soon, making subsequent plots more difficult. I approach someone on the fence: Zena.
Zena hates Anatolios, but she also hates me. Plus plotting takes some effort. So I bribe her. It is a year and a half of Sennar’s taxable income, but I can’t think of a better use of the revenue. This “gift” takes the edge off her hatred for me, and she is now willing to join the plot. It is time to execute.
I will not dwell too much on the details of the plot. Basically it involved leveraging his weakness for drink. We hold a tej party on a rocky hill overlooking the castle. Near a cliff. Only the plotters and Antolios were invited. (It helped that his own wife was “invited” as well.) After we had all drunk a lot of tej, I give the signal by telling all the servents to go get more tej. Ioulia then says she sees something at the bottom of the cliff. Except for myself, they all go and lean over the edge to see, including Antolios. Then I push him over the cliff. Craven as I am, I’m surprised I was able to do it. The tej helped, I suppose.
Muahahaha.
We have lifted the scourge from Sennar. It can go back to being the unhappy but non-murderous place we all know and love. Now I can concentrate on advancing my dynasty with my grandson and sister without fear of being murdered while I sleep.
As if to celebrate the lack of a public murderer, Selasse (my sometime general that fought against the rebels), Princess Mencía, and Bishop Afework all die non-murderous deaths within a couple of weeks. (Natural causes at age 72, illness, and syphilis, respectively.)
*Gasp!* The Fez, It still lives! Ahem, Anyways, I wonder what will happen next. A War perhaps?
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