Choices are difficult for this little girl. Are the Aztecs busy with other wars or are they at peace? Either way, I agree that finding another foothold on the continent away from the Aztecs seemed to be the priority.
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Surviving Past Sunset
- Thread starter Dunaden
- Start date
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Run? To where? Only things these heathens will understand is cold steel. Can an alliance be forged? HRE would surely come to your aid. Maybe a marriage pact? I'm presuming that man for man they are no match for your troops but just overwhelm with sheer numbers?
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The Aztecs believed blood is precious water. Just get the hell away from them.
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maybe marry into HRE would be the only viable choice as others have also said,,,I must admit that your story is very unique and I felt moved about the poor girl 
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Alliances will be tough to get in near future, Elspeth is an only child who will need a matrilinear marriage to keep things in the family. The Aztecs and HRE haven't fought at this point.
Will need to travel far to find someone I can take.
Golden Horde actually just converted to Nestorian.
Oh yeah, I see them where Novgorod used to be. Not good to have as neighbors, true.
My own bias betrays me: I always see the Byzantines as friendlies, so the possibility that they might have less-benigd designs of their own doesn't even enter my mind.
Tough choices, yes. Still, being looted and/or enslaved (by Mongols, Muslims, or Byzantines) does sound like a lesser evil than having your heart sliced out by an obsidian dagger. Perhaps conquer someplace in the Near East and swear fealty to Byzantium is the least bad option? Mainly, I'd just want to get far away from the Aztecs.
Elspeth hates the Greeks. Elspeth's cousin, Ioustinas Doukas, is heir to Byzantium and is the one who had her father killed.
maybe marry into HRE would be the only viable choice as others have also said,,,I must admit that your story is very unique and I felt moved about the poor girl
As mentioned above, getting a strong alliance in near future is not likely. And not ready to run and abandon more of her people.
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Chapter 3
Uncle Artie took charge as we settled into Gwynedd, as first order of business he convened the Council. Most of the old council had survived, Artie and General Gennadios by not being in Stirling at the time of the Fall, and Iliya by luck of surviving that horrible daily lottery. The Court chaplain, Bishop Andrew of Llanelwy had been in Dyfed with General Gennadios helping negotiate the surrender. He had returned to Llanelwy when Gennadios had marched for Scotland. He had been waiting for us when we arrived.
To replace the Earl of Penthievre as steward, Artie called upon Megistos Phokas, Gennadios’s son. He had served as his father’s quartermaster in the army and while a decent soldier, he was even better with numbers. He had thoroughly embraced Scottish culture unlike his father and cousin who still maintained their Greek dress and traditions.
Bishop Andrew had been appointed several years ago to provide a Welsh voice on the council as Lothian had incorporated more and more of Wales into it's holdings, However, Art decided to replace Bishop Andrew with Bishop Annun of St. Davids. St. Davids was in the newly conquered county of Dyfed and we needed to bring these new people into the fold quicker. The new Welsh peasants did not trust Bishop Andrew, as he had been under the Scottish rule his whole life, while Bishop Annun was respected across the board by our Welsh subjects, both the new and the old. In our current situation, the importance of having a Welsh presence on to the Council had greatly increased. Scots were now looking like a decided minority, as my highest ranking vassals were Irish, Welsh and Breton, and the majority of my people, other than the Scottish refugees, were Welsh and Breton.
The first act of the reformed Council was to confirm Art as the new Regent to replace my mother. They then moved onto other topics including increased patrols along the border with Aztec England, resettling the Scottish refugees across the 6 counties of Wales, and working on re-establishing ties with the outside world by letting them know at least a portion of former Kingdom of Scotland was still free and independent.
While the Council continued, I decided to go explore my new home.
The County of Gwynedd, the entire Duchy actually, had been a part of the personal demesne of the Lords of Lothian for the past 40 years, with the exception of Powys which my grandfather had granted to Art. Though it had been in our family, I had never visited it prior to this. My father had used Aberffraw as his base of operations during the war for Duchy of Deheubarth, but it had never been a home.
The first thing I noticed was that everything about Aberffraw was much smaller than Stirling where I was raised. Starting with the motte under Aberffraw, which couldn't compare to the towering crag of Castle Hill that Stirling Castle sat upon, the castle itself, the surrounding village, and even the River Ffraw was a creek when compared to the River Forth that flowed below Stirling.
Aberffraw also lacked the furniture and wall hanging and other signs of the wealth the Dunbars had accumulated at Stirling over the last 200 years. My mother had arranged for mobile portion of the Dunbar wealth, gold, gems, plates, cups, silverware and the religious service items from the chapel to be spirited away from Stirling. But the larger items, furniture, paintings, tapestries, and rugs were left behind. Also left behind were the animals, the dogs from kennels and the horses from the stables. I was worried about the dogs. One of the sailors on the White Gull had said the Aztec army were like locust, leaving nothing edible in the path unless it was useful for riding or pulling a wagon. I didn't like to think of the dogs being used to feed the Aztec army. I also hoped there had been a small enough cart for my pony to pull.
My explorations were cut short first by seamstress who had needed to take my measurements to make me some new clothes. I had arrived in Aberffraw with just the clothes on my back, clothes I had been wearing since the fall. I was wearing a borrowed dress that was too big for me. The Welsh servants would make me clothes more suitable for a lady, but it might be awhile before I had something in a proper Dunbar tartan.
After that Iliya rounded me up and took me to the library for my lessons. This library was small and had few books to select from. My father had sent the better books to Stirling years ago to please Mother, and now they were gone forever. Iliya explained that while we would continue our lessons on history and math as we had done before, but we would spend much more time studying the Aztec Empire. He said he was already looking for someone to help us learn the Nahua language which was what the Aztecs spoke, as well as learning more about their culture and religion. I protested at first saying I didn't want to know anything about these filthy pagans, but then quickly changed my mind as I realized what Iliya wanted to do. He needed to learn this himself in order to do his job as spymaster and I would need to know my enemy once I truly ruled.
Iliya began to talk of more recent history, of the Scotland's, more specifically Lothian's, conquest of Wales. About how Scotland had expanded into Ireland and Wales to protect them from the English and help Scotland be better able to defend itself.
I shook my head, " That's wrong, mostly."
"What do you mean it's wrong?"
"The kings of Scotland had little to do with it. It was all us. It was the Dunbar dream, our destiny."
My father had told me there has always been the Dunbar dream of uniting all of Britain under the Dunbars, for as he often said, we were the culmination of all the royal blood lines of Scotland, England, and Ireland. My father had come so close to achieving the dream before the arrival Aztecs and the plots of the Byzantine Emperor. He had been heir to the throne of Scotland and he personally and through his vassals already controlled enough of Wales and Ireland to claim the crowns of both those lands once he sat the throne of Scotland. Then he could focus on bringing England into the fold. His eight sisters had given him alliances with the both the Holy Roman Empire and the Eastern Empire, as well as with Poland, Castille, Navarra, and Anjou in France. These allies would have supported him in his push into England.
The dream started to die when the Aztecs had taken Ireland away. The death of my father killed it for good. Alive, he might have rallied his allies to defend Scotland against the Aztecs. But the alliances died with him and Scotland died soon after.
For close to 200 years, we Dunbars had worked toward this goal. There had been set backs, but the hope, until now, had stayed alive. Now the only goal was survival.
I explained this to Iliya as my father had told me during all those nights spent in the library at Stirling. Explained how all of this had begun with Dolfin Dunbar, another child who had been born into a time of foreign invaders threatening the British Isles.
Uncle Artie took charge as we settled into Gwynedd, as first order of business he convened the Council. Most of the old council had survived, Artie and General Gennadios by not being in Stirling at the time of the Fall, and Iliya by luck of surviving that horrible daily lottery. The Court chaplain, Bishop Andrew of Llanelwy had been in Dyfed with General Gennadios helping negotiate the surrender. He had returned to Llanelwy when Gennadios had marched for Scotland. He had been waiting for us when we arrived.
To replace the Earl of Penthievre as steward, Artie called upon Megistos Phokas, Gennadios’s son. He had served as his father’s quartermaster in the army and while a decent soldier, he was even better with numbers. He had thoroughly embraced Scottish culture unlike his father and cousin who still maintained their Greek dress and traditions.
Bishop Andrew had been appointed several years ago to provide a Welsh voice on the council as Lothian had incorporated more and more of Wales into it's holdings, However, Art decided to replace Bishop Andrew with Bishop Annun of St. Davids. St. Davids was in the newly conquered county of Dyfed and we needed to bring these new people into the fold quicker. The new Welsh peasants did not trust Bishop Andrew, as he had been under the Scottish rule his whole life, while Bishop Annun was respected across the board by our Welsh subjects, both the new and the old. In our current situation, the importance of having a Welsh presence on to the Council had greatly increased. Scots were now looking like a decided minority, as my highest ranking vassals were Irish, Welsh and Breton, and the majority of my people, other than the Scottish refugees, were Welsh and Breton.
The first act of the reformed Council was to confirm Art as the new Regent to replace my mother. They then moved onto other topics including increased patrols along the border with Aztec England, resettling the Scottish refugees across the 6 counties of Wales, and working on re-establishing ties with the outside world by letting them know at least a portion of former Kingdom of Scotland was still free and independent.
While the Council continued, I decided to go explore my new home.
The County of Gwynedd, the entire Duchy actually, had been a part of the personal demesne of the Lords of Lothian for the past 40 years, with the exception of Powys which my grandfather had granted to Art. Though it had been in our family, I had never visited it prior to this. My father had used Aberffraw as his base of operations during the war for Duchy of Deheubarth, but it had never been a home.
The first thing I noticed was that everything about Aberffraw was much smaller than Stirling where I was raised. Starting with the motte under Aberffraw, which couldn't compare to the towering crag of Castle Hill that Stirling Castle sat upon, the castle itself, the surrounding village, and even the River Ffraw was a creek when compared to the River Forth that flowed below Stirling.
Aberffraw also lacked the furniture and wall hanging and other signs of the wealth the Dunbars had accumulated at Stirling over the last 200 years. My mother had arranged for mobile portion of the Dunbar wealth, gold, gems, plates, cups, silverware and the religious service items from the chapel to be spirited away from Stirling. But the larger items, furniture, paintings, tapestries, and rugs were left behind. Also left behind were the animals, the dogs from kennels and the horses from the stables. I was worried about the dogs. One of the sailors on the White Gull had said the Aztec army were like locust, leaving nothing edible in the path unless it was useful for riding or pulling a wagon. I didn't like to think of the dogs being used to feed the Aztec army. I also hoped there had been a small enough cart for my pony to pull.
My explorations were cut short first by seamstress who had needed to take my measurements to make me some new clothes. I had arrived in Aberffraw with just the clothes on my back, clothes I had been wearing since the fall. I was wearing a borrowed dress that was too big for me. The Welsh servants would make me clothes more suitable for a lady, but it might be awhile before I had something in a proper Dunbar tartan.
After that Iliya rounded me up and took me to the library for my lessons. This library was small and had few books to select from. My father had sent the better books to Stirling years ago to please Mother, and now they were gone forever. Iliya explained that while we would continue our lessons on history and math as we had done before, but we would spend much more time studying the Aztec Empire. He said he was already looking for someone to help us learn the Nahua language which was what the Aztecs spoke, as well as learning more about their culture and religion. I protested at first saying I didn't want to know anything about these filthy pagans, but then quickly changed my mind as I realized what Iliya wanted to do. He needed to learn this himself in order to do his job as spymaster and I would need to know my enemy once I truly ruled.
Iliya began to talk of more recent history, of the Scotland's, more specifically Lothian's, conquest of Wales. About how Scotland had expanded into Ireland and Wales to protect them from the English and help Scotland be better able to defend itself.
I shook my head, " That's wrong, mostly."
"What do you mean it's wrong?"
"The kings of Scotland had little to do with it. It was all us. It was the Dunbar dream, our destiny."
My father had told me there has always been the Dunbar dream of uniting all of Britain under the Dunbars, for as he often said, we were the culmination of all the royal blood lines of Scotland, England, and Ireland. My father had come so close to achieving the dream before the arrival Aztecs and the plots of the Byzantine Emperor. He had been heir to the throne of Scotland and he personally and through his vassals already controlled enough of Wales and Ireland to claim the crowns of both those lands once he sat the throne of Scotland. Then he could focus on bringing England into the fold. His eight sisters had given him alliances with the both the Holy Roman Empire and the Eastern Empire, as well as with Poland, Castille, Navarra, and Anjou in France. These allies would have supported him in his push into England.
The dream started to die when the Aztecs had taken Ireland away. The death of my father killed it for good. Alive, he might have rallied his allies to defend Scotland against the Aztecs. But the alliances died with him and Scotland died soon after.
For close to 200 years, we Dunbars had worked toward this goal. There had been set backs, but the hope, until now, had stayed alive. Now the only goal was survival.
I explained this to Iliya as my father had told me during all those nights spent in the library at Stirling. Explained how all of this had begun with Dolfin Dunbar, another child who had been born into a time of foreign invaders threatening the British Isles.
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The process of rebuilding is going to be slow. Are the Aztecs fabricating claims on your land? Or do they not need to since they already have CBs? With so many nations bordering the Aztecs, what are the chances you get picked as their next target?
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You're doing some credible worldbuilding here. The references to the Dunbars' seat in Wales, the various council members and their backgrounds, the resettling of refugees and patrolling of the borders... A lot of things that aren't in the game itself, but which really help to create a picture of this universe.
Poor Elspeth. Her family has fallen far, she has much to accomplish if she wants to continue her father's work, and not much to accomplish it with. This would be a challenge even if the Aztecs weren't her nextdoor neighbor.
Poor Elspeth. Her family has fallen far, she has much to accomplish if she wants to continue her father's work, and not much to accomplish it with. This would be a challenge even if the Aztecs weren't her nextdoor neighbor.
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Would swearing fealty to the Holy Roman Emperor be something the young Duchess (or her regent) would consider?
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The Aztecs don't need to fabricate claims, they have been snapping up kingdoms one at a time.
God is on her side, but the Aztecs have more gods.
Thanks, definitely trying to flesh the story out.
Aztecs have a lot of targets to choose from, they actually got into an embargo war with Pisa right after they took Scotland.
Swearing fealty to more powerful friends or foes is certainly an option, but I can say no more.
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The Lords of Lothian
Dolfin's Tale, Part I
1066 – Dolfin Dunbar – Earl of Cumberland
In January , 1066, at the age of 6, Dolfin Dunbar, the eldest son and heir of Gospatrick Dunbar, the Duke of Lothian, was granted the Earldom of Cumberland by his father. He was sent to his new holdings in Cumberland under the tutelage of Walter of Carlisle, the Steward of Cumberland. Dolfin's father had believed in the philosophy of "learning by doing" so had sent his son to learn how to rule by making him lord of the recently conquered Saxon province.
Dolfin was the first trueborn Dunbar as his father's lineage was somewhat confused, with disputes as to his parentage. Gospatrick, however, always maintained he was born a Dunkeld, nephew to Duncan, the first Dunkeld king of Scotland and that he was the great-grandson of both King Malcolm II MacAilpin of Scotland on his father's side and King Ethelred II of Wessex, the King of England through his mother. The Dunbar clan have lived and died by Gospatrick's claims ever since. Nevertheless, he had adopted the name Dunbar when he had been granted that county by King Malcolm III. Malcolm would later confer on him the County and the Duchy of Lothian and Duke Gospatrick had since added Teviotdale and Cumberland as vassals to the Duchy and risen high in the court of King Malcolm III as Chancellor of Scotland.
In 1066, while England to the south was being invaded by both Norman and Norse forces; King Malcolm had spent the past year dealing with its own internal turmoil. First, Prince Mael-Snechtai a Muirebe, the Duke of Moray, had declared war to press his claim to the throne of Scotland. This had been shortly followed by Earl Miles of Atholl, the King's illegitimate half-brother, pressing his own claim to the throne as the eldest son of the late King Duncan. In that time, the King's forces had lost every battle, only the death of the Prince during the siege of Scone had ended the Moray rebellion.
In the summer of 1067, Dolfin's father was captured following the defeat of the King's army outside of Perth and taken prisoner by Miles of Atholl. Malcolm had allowed one his most powerful Dukes to be captured. Proving yet again he had no idea how to fight a war.
Dolfin was taking his lessons with Walter of Carlisle, when the messenger arrived wearing his father's livery. His mother Aelthred had sent the dire news of his father's capture from Stirling. Until this time, Dolfin had been a calm child of even temper. But with his fears for his father and the shockling detailed stories he had heard of how Prince Mael-Snechtai's skull had been smashed apart by a rock thrown from the walls of Scone would have him shying away from physical confrontations for the rest of his life.
The war finally turned around in early 1068 when Malcolm pulled together enough troops to lay siege to Count Miles at Blair Atholl. This was only made possible because the Atholl Army had run into the remains of the former Moray rebel army making its way home and had been soundly beaten, allowing Malcolm to march unopposed into Atholl.
In July, Blair Atholl and the other holdings fell and Miles was captured, ending his rebellion and ultimately his life. He was not formally executed, but nevertheless was dead the next day and his brother, King Malcolm inherited all his lands and titles. But for the Dunbars there was good news, after twelve months in Blair Atholl's dungeons, Dolfin's father was freed.
While Scotland's turmoil was ending, England's was far from over. King Harold had been murdered on the orders of the Mayor of Dorchester, who was spymaster for Prince Godwine, Godwine was crowned king, but the two invasions continued. In June of 1068, a year after he was crowned, Godwine surrendered the throne to William "the Conqueror" de Normandie. But William found himself King of a country with another invading army holding most of central England. Harald Hardrade continued to press his own claim to the English throne.
In early 1069, England's troubles continued, when William the Conqueror fell in battle against Danish troops under King Svend, one of Harald Hardrade's allies. His 15-year old son Robert became King. Almost immediately, Duke Morcar of Northumberland pressed Eadgar of Wessex claim to the throne and rebelled, and just about all of the Saxon lords joined him.
Meanwhile in Cumberland, Dolfin's lessons continued. However his new found caution left in him obsessed about security. In 1070, after much pleading with Walter, who was Regent as well as Steward, Dolfin finally convinced him of the need for additional protection so Walter agreed to put forth funds to build a wooden palisade around the manor house at Burgh.
In the spring of 1072 Harald Haradrade of Norway died in bed, and the Norwegian War for England ended. But young King Robert's problems continued, not only were most of his Saxon subjects fighting for Eadgar of Wessex, now both Eu and Evreaux in Normandy were in rebellion, supporting his younger brothers', Richard's and William's, claims to the throne.
King Malcolm and Dolfin's father had a stormy relationship. The King had made Gospatrick his chancellor. However, every time they had a disagreement, the King would toss his chancellor into the dungeon for a few days and then send him home. Then a month later he would call him back and make him Chancellor again. This went on for years, right up until Malcolm died in the spring of 1076 from pneumonia. His son Duncan was crowned King Duncan II at the age of 16, less than a year older than Dolfin, who had been an Earl for almost 10 years by this time.
King Malcolm had spent the last years of his life reclaiming the de jure lands of Scotland. First taking Argyll from the Norwegian Duke of Soreyar, and then Carrick from the Irish Duke of Galloway. His son continued that policy by declaring war for Scotland's de jure claim on Galloway as his first act upon ascending the throne.
Spring of 1076 also saw the end of the reign of Robert I of England, as he surrendered to Morcar of Northumberland and the Saxon King Eadgar II of Wessex was crowned king. The revolts in Normandy continued, but for the first time in close to 10 years no blood was being spilled in England.
That summer Dolfin reached his majority at 16 and the regency ended. He had been well schooled in the management of lands by Walter of Carlisle and on Walter's recommendation, Duke Gospatrick asked Dolfin to become Steward of the Duchy of Lothian and run the day to day business while he was off leading Duncan's war in Galloway. Prior to leaving for Stirling, Dolfin had already instructed Walter to replace the wooden palisade around Burgh with a stone wall.
After some discussion with his parents as well as his mentor, Dolfin became betrothed to Der-Lugdach nic Lorcan an Irish girl from the court of the Duke of Munster. While not an heiress, she was descended from two ancient and royal lines, her father being an Ua Briain and her mother the sister to the new King of England. With Dolfin's lands bordering on England and most of the people in Cumberland being Saxons themselves, ties to house Wessex seemed a good idea. But being she was only 8 years old, it would be some time before any wedding.
No sooner than Dolfin had left for Stirling to take up his duties as steward, some of his Saxon peasants revolted in Cumberland. With his father's permission Dolfin marshaled the Lothian levees and sent them marching back to Cumberland, where they quickly dispersed the rebels.
Meanwhile, King Duncan reclaimed the county of Galloway for Scotland, and the Duke of Galloway retreated to his last holdings on the Isle of Man. Duncan immediately turned his attention north and declared war on the Duke of Soreyar to annex his last piece of Scottish lands. This war ended quickly with Innes Gall being returned to Scotland. Duncan made his younger brother, Malcolm, the new Earl.
In late 1078, the new stone wall at Burgh got its first test. The Earl of Teviotdale had refused the Duke of Lothian's request to revoke his title and had raised an army, but he was soon driven south into Cumberland by the main Lothian army , so laid siege to Burgh. The new wall proved more than a match for this army, so they just huddled outside, pestering travelers until the Lothian army caught up and ended the revolt.
In 1079 everything changed, Duke Gospatrick went to war against his king to press Donald Dunkeld's claim on the throne of Scotland. He talked often of how it was for the good of Scotland etc. etc. but Dolfin thought his father just couldn't stand being ordered around by a boy his son's age. He preferred the King's uncle, someone from his own generation. Gospatrick had managed to bring most of the other lords of Scotland along with him, and since he had been leading the Scottish armies in the last three wars, he soundly defeated the replacement generals in the field and began to lay siege to King Duncan's holdings.
But then King Eadger of England entered the picture, pressing his de jure claim on Cumberland against the Duchy of Lothian. In short order, over 4,000 Saxons showed up outside Burgh and easily overcame it. Teviotdale soon followed. Duncan even though thoroughly defeated, refused to surrender, hoping the Saxons would do his work for him.
So Duke Gospatrick took the expedient route ..... he gave Cumberland and his son away to England.
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So Dolfin becomes subject to the English throne? Interesting... I wonder how that affected him, when his own father threw him under the bus so that he (his father) could pursue his ambitions regarding the Scottish throne.
It should give Dolfin a unique perspective, neither fully Scottish nor anywhere near English, but somewhere in between.
It should give Dolfin a unique perspective, neither fully Scottish nor anywhere near English, but somewhere in between.
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I'm a bit confused-we have just gone back in time to discuss some other Lord-what is the connection please? I know I am probably being reallyu stupid but what is the link to our link to our little princess and the Aztecs?
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If you read the last few lines of Chapter 3 (the second last update), it sort of transition into the past.
I must admit that I find the transition too sudden as well. There was an atmosphere created with the Aztecs threatening the little princess but the mood changed greatly with Dolfin making it seem out of place. I apologize if I appear very critical.
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Thanks my friend. I must've skipped those lines in my head. I see what the author has done now and whilst I think this latest chapter is well written I too think it's a bit too jarring as an aside. It almost feels like this is the new direction of the AAR
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