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Sneaky: France
Bialaska: England
Donkaiser: Spain
Parabranko: Safavids
Korona: Inca
Scrapknight: Venice
Tufto: Timurids
Maxwell: Ming
Baboush: Muscovy
Riccardo: Knights Hospitaller

Here are the first batch of application acceptances! Remember, even if you didn't get on the first time, that doesn't mean you've been forgotten :p
 
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1: Poland
2: Brandenburg
3: Papal States
 
1. Ottoman Empire
2. Kingdom of Bohemia
3. Vijayanagar Empire
 
1.
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Aztec Empire
 
Ming is taken.
 
GW289H302


Henry VIII Tudor

Rex Angliae et Franciae et Dominus Hiberniae (King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland)


Born in 1491 and crowned king upon the death of his father in 1509, he is the second king to be of the Tudor dynasty, a branch of the House of Lancaster.

Considered attractive, well-educated and despite his age, an accomplished king, he possesses great charisma. A marriage to Catherine of Aragon has ensured close ties to Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.

Henry has been quite involved in European politics and the wars. Less than a decade ago, the young charismatic king secured support from the Pope, and if he had been able to defeat the French during the war of Cambrai, he would have been crowned Most Christian King of France.

After a few years without war, the English king once again look upon the lands he consider his rightful domain with hunger, and as war seems to close in on the horizon, the forces of the English prepare themselves.
 
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Huayna Capac, 11th Sapa Inca of the Incan Empire
Huayna Capac is the 11th Sapa Inca of the Incan Empire, he is the son of Topa Inca Yupanqui, and father of Atahualpa, and Huáscar Inca. Huayna is much loved by his people, as he builds many temples to Inti, as well as improving the massive road system of the Inca empire. He is known for expanding the south of the empire, as well as founding the city of Atuntaqui. After multiple defeats in the north, Huayna is preparing the Incan army to invade the north. Deeply mistrustful of the white men who landed in the north, Huayna is advising his citizens not to go near the white men, as they bring death upon the Incan people.

Diplomatically, the Incan empire is relatively isolated, as it never comes in contact with many other major powers.
 
Terraferma: Bavaria
Rovsea: Vijayanagara Empire
GermanKaiser: Brandenburg
Ab Ovo: Papal States
LatinKaiser: Hungary and Bohemia
Bakerydog: Kalmar Union
Aedan: Austria
Jeeshadow: Poland and Lithuania
Spectre: Ottoman Empire
Jcucc: Scotland
Noco: Aztec Empire

Of the notable nations, Portugal is still available, and if my co-GMs are willing, we can possibly allow for new spots (such Switzerland, the Teutonic Order, Sweden, Mali, Ethiopia, and the various hordes near China); that way, Imperator, Zex, and others can still involve themselves in the game. Furthermore, if any players want to contribute, from finding pictures and information, to assisting GMs in writing (preferably outside of their region or area of vested interest), or even becoming a GM themselves, it would be more than welcome. With this fluff out of the way, I declare the game officially open! IC your hearts out, bbs.
 
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King Francis I of France

Francis I was born on 12 September, 1494. He was born to Charles the count of Angouleme and Louise of Savoy. He and his family was not expected to inherit the throne of France, Charles VIII was still King when he was born and thus far away from the throne. Francis own father died two years after his birth, and Charles VIII died in 1498 leaving no heir and the throne to Louis XII who then succeeded him who also lacked a mail issue, making the young Francis the heir presumptive to the throne of France and being made the Duke of Valois. In 1505 he was engaged to Princess Claude, the daughter of Louis XII, the two were finally married in May, 1514, shortly before the death of Louis XIII and Francis ascension to the throne.

As he inherited the throne from Louis XII, he also inherited his war against several rivals of French most notably the Habsburgs. The War of the League of Cambrai had been a mixed affair for King Louis XII, at the start the French armies had done very well, but after the Battle of Ravenna in which Gaston de Foix, commander of the French armies was killed resulted in the French fairing much worse in the aftermath. In the following years the French met military defeat after defeat until the death of Louis XII on the 1 January 1515. King Francis of France had taken the title of Duke of Milan upon his ascension to the French throne, and he was eager to retake the duchy.
As such Francis had assembled his army in Dauphiné which numbered some 40,000 men. With them he quickly moved towards Milan, the Swiss and Papal forces had moved north to the Alpine passes to block Francis in his tracks but he was able to avoid them and instead marched through the valley of Stura.

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King Francis commanding at the battle of Marignano​

Eventually resulting in the Battle of Marignano, resulting in a decisive Franco-Venetian victory, which secured Milan for Francis as well as the “Eternal Peace” between Switzerland and France. As well as ended the War of the League of Cambrai.

Francis I was however not only a warrior King, he was a renaissance prince, a true King of the era. Francis received an academic education which taught him arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing. He also become excellent in the languages of Hebrew, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Francis came to learn chivalry, dancing, and music and he loved archery, falconry, horseback riding, hunting, jousting, real tennis, and wrestling as well as being fascinated with art, literature, poetry, and science.
Francis was a great patron of the arts, funding many different painters, some more famous than others. Francis had decided to increase the great art collection of the French crown, many of the pieces at the Louvre Palace. Some of the more famous artists that Francis patronized was Andrea del Sarto and Leonardo da Vinci. When da Vinci travelled to France he brought with him many great pieces of art, including the Mona Lisa, now in the possession of Francis I.

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The death of Leonardo da Vinci.
Upon the death of da Vinci, King Francis himself was there and held his head in his arms, as da Vinci said his final words to the King whom he had become close friends with.

King Francis not only supported artists, but also writers and poets, Francis himself was also a poet, even if he himself did not have the greatest abilities as a poet. He has worked tirelessly to expand the royal library, as such to send agents to Italy not only to find great pieces of art, but also of literature. King Francis also spends the time reading as many of the books in his library as possible.
During the last two years King Francis has spent a great amount of time and effort into his palace, the Château de Chambord.
 
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ENCYCLICAL LETTER
DECET ROMANUM PONTIFICEM
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
LEO X
TO HIS VENERABLE BROTHERS
THE PATRIARCHS, ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS
AND OTHER LOCAL ORDINARIES
IN PEACE AND COMMUNION WITH THE HOLY AND APOSTOLIC SEE,
TO THE CLERGY AND FAITHFUL OF THE WHOLE CHRISTIAN WORLD, AND TO ALL MEN OF GOOD WILL,
ON THE UNREPENTANT HERESY OF MARTIN LUTHER

Through the power given him from God, the Roman Pontiff has been appointed to administer spiritual and temporal punishments as each case severally deserves. The purpose of this is the repression of the wicked designs of misguided men, who have been so captivated by the debased impulse of their evil purposes as to forget the fear of the Lord, to set aside with contempt canonical decrees and apostolic commandments, and to dare to formulate new and false dogmas and to introduce the evil of schism into the Church of God—or to support, help and adhere to such schismatics, who make it their business to cleave asunder the seamless robe of our Redeemer and the unity of the orthodox faith. Hence it befits the Pontiff, lest the vessel of Peter appear to sail without pilot or oarsman, to take severe measures against such men and their followers, and by multiplying punitive measures and by other suitable remedies to see to it that these same overbearing men, devoted as they are to purposes of evil, along with their adherents, should not deceive the multitude of the simple by their lies and their deceitful devices, nor drag them along to share their own error and ruination, contaminating them with what amounts to a contagious disease. It also befits the Pontiff, having condemned the schismatics, to ensure their still greater confounding by publicly showing and openly declaring to all faithful Christians how formidable are the censures and punishments to which such guilt can lead; to the end that by such public declaration they themselves may return, in confusion and remorse, to their true selves, making an unqualified withdrawal from the prohibited conversation, fellowship and (above all) obedience to such accursed excommunicates; by this means they may escape divine vengeance and any degree of participation in their damnation.

I. We have been informed that after this previous missive had been exhibited in public and the interval or intervals it prescribed had elapsed —and we hereby give solemn notice to all faithful Christians that these intervals have and are elapsed—many of those who had followed the errors of Martin took cognisance of our missive and its warnings and injunctions; the spirit of a saner counsel brought them back to themselves, they confessed their errors and abjured the heresy at our instance, and by returning to the true Catholic faith obtained the blessing of absolution with which the self-same messengers had been empowered; and in several states and localities of the said Germany the books and writings of the said Martin were publicly burned, as we had enjoined.

Nevertheless Martin himself—and it gives us grievous sorrow and perplexity to say this—the slave of a depraved mind, has scorned to revoke his errors within the prescribed interval and to send us word of such revocation, or to come to us himself; nay, like a stone of stumbling, he has feared not to write and preach worse things than before against us and this Holy See and the Catholic faith, and to lead others on to do the same.

He has now been declared a heretic; and so also others, whatever their authority and rank, who have cared nought of their own salvation but publicly and in all men's eyes become followers of Martin's pernicious and heretical sect, and given him openly and publicly their help, counsel and favour, encouraging him in their midst in his disobedience and obstinacy, or hindering the publication of our said missive: such men have incurred the punishments set out in that missive, and are to be treated rightfully as heretics and avoided by all faithful Christians, as the Apostle says (Titus iii. 10-11).

II. Our purpose is that such men should rightfully be ranked with Martin and other accursed heretics and excommunicates, and that even as they have ranged themselves with the obstinacy in sinning of the said Martin, they shall likewise share his punishments and his name, by bearing with them everywhere the title "Lutheran" and the punishments it incurs.

Our previous instructions were so clear and so effectively publicised and we shall adhere so strictly to our present decrees and declarations, that they will lack no proof, warning or citation.

Our decrees which follow are passed against Martin and others who follow him in the obstinacy of his depraved and damnable purpose, as also against those who defend and protect him with a military bodyguard, and do not fear to support him with their own resources or in any other way, and have and do presume to offer and afford help, counsel and favour toward him. All their names, surnames and rank—however lofty and dazzling their dignity may be—we wish to be taken as included in these decrees with the same effect as if they were individually listed and could be so listed in their publication, which must be furthered with an energy to match their contents.

On all these we decree the sentences of excommunication, of anathema, of our perpetual condemnation and interdict; of privation of dignities, honours and property on them and their descendants, and of declared unfitness for such possessions; of the confiscation of their goods and of the crime of treason; and these and the other sentences, censures and punishments which are inflicted by canon law on heretics and are set out in our aforesaid missive, we decree to have fallen on all these men to their damnation.


III. We add to our present declaration, by our Apostolic authority, that states, territories, camps, towns and places in which these men have temporarily lived or chanced to visit, along with their possessions—cities which house cathedrals and metropolitans, monasteries and other religious and sacred places, privileged or unprivileged—one and all are placed under our ecclesiastical interdict, while this interdict lasts, no pretext of Apostolic Indulgence (except in cases the law allows, and even there, as it were, with the doors shut and those under excommunication and interdict excluded) shall avail to allow the celebration of mass and the other divine offices. We prescribe and enjoin that the men in question are everywhere to be denounced publicly as excommunicated, accursed, condemned, interdicted, deprived of possessions and incapable of owning them. They are to be strictly shunned by all faithful Christians.

IV. We would make known to all the small store that Martin, his followers and the other rebels have set on God and his Church by their obstinate and shameless temerity. We would protect the herd from one infectious animal, lest its infection spread to the healthy ones. Hence we lay the following injunction on each and every patriarch, archbishop, bishop, on the prelates of patriarchal, metropolitan, cathedral and collegiate churches, and on the religious of every Order—even the mendicants—privileged or unprivileged, wherever they may be stationed: that in the strength of their vow of obedience and on pain of the sentence of excommunication, they shall, if so required in the execution of these presents, publicly announce and cause to be announced by others in their churches, that this same Martin and the rest are excommunicate, accursed, condemned, heretics, hardened, interdicted, deprived of possessions and incapable of owning them, and so listed in the enforcement of these presents. Three days will be given: we pronounce canonical warning and allow one day's notice on the first, another on the second, but on the third peremptory and final execution of our order. This shall take place on a Sunday or some other festival, when a large congregation assembles for worship. The banner of the cross shall be raised, the bells rung, the candles lit and after a time extinguished, cast on the ground and trampled under foot, and the stones shall be cast forth three times, and the other ceremonies observed which are usual in such cases. The faithful Christians, one and all, shall be enjoined strictly to shun these men.

We would occasion still greater confounding on the said Martin and the other heretics we have mentioned, and on their adherents, followers and partisans: hence, on the strength of their vow of obedience we enjoin each and every patriarch, archbishop and all other prelates, that even as they were appointed on the authority of Jerome to allay schisms, so now in the present crisis, as their office obliges them, they shall make themselves a wall of defence for their Christian people. They shall not keep silence like dumb dogs that cannot bark, but incessantly cry and lift up their voice, preaching and causing to be preached the word of God and the truth of the Catholic faith against the damnable articles and heretics aforesaid.

V. To each and every rector of the parish churches, to the rectors of all the Orders, even the mendicants, privileged or unprivileged, we enjoin in the same terms, on the strength of their vow of obedience, that appointed by the Lord as they are to be like clouds, they shall sprinkle spiritual showers on the people of God, and have no fear in giving the widest publicity to the condemnation of the aforesaid articles, as their office obliges them. It is written that perfect love casteth out fear. Let each and every one of you take up the burden of such a meritorious duty with complete devotion; show yourselves so punctilious in its execution, so zealous and eager in word and deed, that from your labours, by the favour of divine grace, the hoped-for harvest will come in, and that through your devotion you will not only earn that crown of glory which is the due recompense of all who promote religious causes, but also attain from us and the said Holy See the unbounded commendation that your proved diligence will deserve.

VI. However, since it would be difficult to deliver the present missive, with its declarations and announcements, to Martin and the other declared excommunicates in person, because of the strength of their faction, our wish is that the public nailing of this missive on the doors of two cathedrals—either both metropolitan, or one cathedral and one metropolitan of the churches in the said Germany—by a messenger of ours in those places, shall have such binding force that Martin and the others we have declared shall be shown to be condemned at every point as decisively as if the missive had been personally made known and presented to them.

VII. It would also be difficult to transmit this missive to every single place where its publication might be necessary. Hence our wish and authoritative decree is that copies of it, sealed by some ecclesiastical prelate or by one of our aforesaid messengers, and countersigned by the hand of some public notary, should everywhere bear the same authority as the production and exhibition of the original itself.

VIII. No obstacle is afforded to our wishes by the Apostolic constitutions and orders, or by anything in our aforesaid earlier missive which we do not wish to stand in the way, or by any other pronouncements to the contrary.

IX. No one whatsoever may infringe this our written decision, declaration, precept, injunction, assignation, will, decree; or rashly contravene it. Should anyone dare to attempt such a thing, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 3rd January 1521, during the eighth year of our pontificate.


Leo P.P. X

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Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversum eam
Matthaeus 16:18​
 
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In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,​

I was born in Andijan, in the country of Ferghana, a strange town where nine streams flow in yet none flow out. I became that country's ruler when I was only a boy of twelve years. I miss Andijan greatly; it was a Turkish town which knew well its language, and whose people were beautiful in appearance. The plants and gardens of Ferghana were wonderful- especially the violets of Aush.

I was born as part of the Barlas, a clan of the barbarous Mongols, although my ancestors had long ago forsaken the ways of the rough and savage tribesman. The great Timur-i-lang, Sword of Islam and Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction, conquered a vast empire, which his descendants ruled for many decades. But, alas, that empire fell and burnt not a century after his death. The Uzbeks from the north, savage tribesmen rising from the remnants of the Jochid ulus, descended upon the sweet lands of my youth.

I am the last of the many Timurid rulers who ruled and fought in Khorasan, Herat, Ferghana and the rest of the the region. How I miss the apples of Samarkand! How I long for the pomegranates of Khujand! I have won many battles and lost many battles. Once I was lord of all the Timurid lands, from Samarkand to Kabul; at another time, I was captured by the savage nomads in the hills of the East, wearing little but an old sheepskin coat. Now, I am lord of Kabul- a place I thought little of at first but which I have beautified and made grand, with mosques, palaces and gardens.

But now comes for me a moment of decision. The Safaviyya order now rules all Persia, and our mutual enmity against the Uzbek threat makes us natural friends. China is again strong and united, and now far from my family's domain. Neither of these can be reclaimed. I must choose what road I should take from the remaining pickings. Two parts of our patrimony languish under intolerable dominion: Hindustan, conquered by my illustrious ancestor but now ruled by infidels, and the lands of Mawarannahr, the lands of my home and my ancestry, now ruled by the barbarous Uzbeks.

May God guide me to the right decision. May God guide me to victory, and to the restoration of the once-great Empire.

Zahir-ud-din Muhammad Babur Padshah, of the dynasty of the Son-In-Law.
 
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STAT REVISION


Kingdom of France
Player: Sneakyflaps
Literacy: 19%
Government: Feudal Monarchy
Centralisation: 7
Infrastructure: Average (4/5)
Population: 22.506 m. (3.563 m. Italians)
Economy: 81.02 m. F
Treasury: -.2.5 m. F
Balance: 1.854 m F
Income: 7.7 m. F
Trade: 8.1 m. F
Tariffs: 1.62 m. F (20%)
Taxes: 6.08 m. F (7.5%)
Tribute: 0 m. F

Expenses: 5.861 m. F
Army: .382.5 m. F
Navy: .128.5 m. F
Infrastructure: .750 m. F
Royal Officials: 1.5 m. F
King’s Court: 1 m. F
Defences: 2.1 m. F
Military
Army
Infantry: 55,000 (10%)
Cavalry: 20,000 (10%)
Artillery: 1,000 (10%)
Manpower: 1.125 m. (.178 m. Italians)
Mercenaries: 0
Quality: 3/5 Excellent

Navy
Galleons: 2 (10%)
Caravels: 4 (10%)
Galleasses: 5 (10%)
Galleys: 25 (10%)
Small Ships: 50 (10%)
Quality: 4/5 Average

Thanks to Mr Sneakyflaps, Cross and Compass will soon have a fantastic new stat system, full with its own Excel page (which believe you me is far better than me just making up numbers with no rhyme or reason; now it’s made-up numbers that follow some semblance of warped logic!). With these changes, I expect some questions will emerge, namely regarding the odd percentages next to the military; these percentages represent maintenance costs (10% being the bare minimum). To understand this fully, a soldier of all sorts is paid 2 florins annually (in Western Europe, at least), and at most will cost 15 florins in maintenance a year; at 10%, you obviously pay only a tenth of that, or one and a half florins. This is where quality comes into play; a soldier of average quality at 10% maintenance must be paid 3 florins annually, whilst one of excellent quality must be paid 4.5 florins to kept in reasonably good order. In purely mechanical terms, the equation is:

Number of soldiers* annual payment* (full maintenance *percent paid)*quality multiplier1

For ships, the situation is not all that different; for example, a galleon has a maximum maintenance of 30,000 florins, a rather hefty sum; even at a severely reduced 10% maintenance, a single galleon will require 3,000 florins to properly maintain; if this were say a galleon belonging to Spain, a nation known for its excellent navy, the cost of maintaining the ship is even higher (the 1.5 multiplier coming into effect once again), meaning that at the absolute minimum, Spain would pay 4,500 florins for this single ship. Here, the equation is:

Number of X2-type ships*(X-type maintenance*.percent paid)*quality multiplier

With Sneaky hard at work getting these numbers crunched, hopefully we can get a goodly sum of these done so you all can get to plotting and spending as soon as possible. Lastly, if you have any questions, PM me or ask me on IRC, and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely manner (and also edit them onto this page for all to read).


1(Quality multipliers being Awful (.5), Poor (.75), Average (1), Good (1.25), and Excellent (1.5)
2(X representing: Galleons (30,000 base maintenance), Caravels (25,000), Galleasses (20,000), Galleys (15,000), Small Ships (10,000), etc.)

---

Also, Zex, welcome aboard as Portugal :D
 
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Regnum Hungariae

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Ever since the death of Matthias Corvinus in 1490, the Kingdom of Hungary had been in a precarious position. The Hungarian nobility, fearful of another absolutist monarch, invited King Vladislaus of Bohemia to become King, knowing that Vladislaus was a weak man who could easily be manipulated. Vladislaus lived up to his reputation, receiving the nickname "Vladislaus Bene", due to his compliance with almost all of the requests of the Hungarian magnates. By the time Vladislaus died in 1516, he had significantly weakened the power of the monarchy in both Hungary and Bohemia, and had incurred a debt of over 400,000 Hungarian florins.

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King Louis II of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia

King Vladislaus was succeeded by his ten-year old son Louis, the only surviving legitimate male heir of the Jagiellonian line in Bohemia and Hungary. During Louis' minority, he was raised at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. He married Maria of Austria in 1515, and his sister Anne married Archduke Ferdinand, brother of Emperor Charles V. The Hungarian magnates, having grown quite powerful during his father's reign, were determined to retain their privileges under the new king. The internal struggle between the monarchy and the nobility further weakened the Kingdom, leaving it vulnerable to attack from the expansionist Ottoman Empire. After the ascension of Suleiman I to the Ottoman throne, an Ottoman envoy was sent to the royal court in Buda to demand tribute from Louis. In stark contrast to his father, the young King had the Turk beheaded, and the head was sent Sultan Suleiman. Louis' position was clear: no matter how much he was pressured, he would not bend the knee to any Muslim ruler. As tensions mount and the Hungarian economy struggles, Louis must take arms against a sea of troubles which threaten to destroy his Kingdom.
 
Vijayanagara Empire
(IC to Follow)
 
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The Teutonic Order

The Teutonic Knights were originally one of the first military orders established in the north, to convert the pagans along the baltic and other pagan nations closer inland like Lithuania. As age went past, and the brotherhoods to the south fell, the knights of the north expanded their reach and became one of the most succeful of their kind. In the age of the sixteenth century, their usefulness has all but dried up, with most of their surrounding populace christian, what use do they serve in the modern world?

The knights however were undaunted, and continued to support themselves despite the papacy's withdrawals of power. They viewed themselves as subjects of the Holy Roman Emperor, as germans, and they viewed the Pope as their supreme sovereign. This would not last, sadly, as the branch of the Livonian Order started to falter(forming into the Livonian Confederation, which now had mixed opinions, but still nominally a branch of the Tuetonics) and the Knights overextended themselves. Under their current Grand Master, Albert of Hohenzollern, refuses to pay homage to the Polish kings(as was ordained in the Peace of Thorns not a decade past) and wages war against the polish king for indepedence, and for the Teutonic ancestral lands of Royal Prussia.

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(Royal Prussia pictured, the knights are especially keen on reclaiming all lands east of the Nogat River.)

The Order is however in no means defeated, the war has been ongoing for three years, and the Polish forces are drying up just as fast as the Teutonic's. The Knights are able to pool their resources from across Germany, while the Polish have been gaining aid from the Duchy of Masovia and Gdańsk. Despite this, the Order has taken numerous castles, even striking as far as Międzyrzecz(far western poland) and going on a spree of sieges to link back up with defensive knights, to go as far as Płock(in the middle of modern-day poland). The war seems to be as a stalemate, as the pospolite ruszenie being tired, and the mercenaries of the germans being unpaid.

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(Marienburg, the largest castle in the world)

Despite this the Knights seem keen on surrounding the Nogat River, and drying up Marienburg's reinforcements. In all past engagements between Delegates from both sides, the knights have demanded the castle back, stating that Königsberg is strong and defended while Krakow is ever closer to their forces. They have been rebuked, but with the drawing threat of the Ottoman Sultunate, the pleas of the Germans for both sides to stop the fighting may finally fall on listening ears...
 
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