In Memory of Lilian

(OOC: I hope you don't mind a few historical inaccuracies.)

Chapter 2: Civil War

January 3rd, 1424

A noble stands in a hallway, knocking on a door. "Fredrich," he calls, but to no response. "Margrave, I need to speak with you about the Polish War!" Frustrated at the lack of a response, he turns to the guard standing beside the door. "How long has he been in there?"
"He was there before my shift began, sir."
A concerned look crosses his face. He cracks open the door and peeks in, only to have a look of terror cross his face. The Margrave lies on the floor, dead.

-----

February 7th, 1424

There is a large gathering of nobles from across Brandenburg and the Holy Roman Empire as a whole in a cemetary. The Brandenburgian nobles all have a look of true sadness and dispair on their faces, as their Margrave has left no heir to the throne and chaos will surely come as a result. The Margrave's body is laid to rest and all but his closest friends and reletives leave the site.

-----

February 9th, 1424

"Gentlemen!"
An assembly of Nobles from all across Brandenburg are gathered in one place to decide on the new Margrave. Fredrich's family has been traced as far as possible, but to no avail. The man standing at the large table, generaly used for royal dinners, is Jakob von Streithorst, owner of the largest single tract of land in Brandenburg. "Why must we continue to bicker like children?" he resumes. "Why can the remainder of you simply accept that I control the most land and, therefor, should be the Margrave?" After much arguement, around one-fourth of the nobles have accepted his claim to the title of Margrave based on the ammount of land he controls.
Volker von Diersburg, partialy recovered from the loss of his wife, stands up and shouts, "Because of how you have used that land," to the amusement of many of the nobles. He is undoubtably refering to how Jakob often was reported to have sold the land to bribe other nobles.
With a look of anger on his face, Jakob retorts, "And who would you suggest for the position? Yourself? A man who's emotional stability..."
Volker cuts him off, shouting, "I suggest you leave that alone. I admit that I didn't take the death of my wife very well," he says quietly, "but I am much more capable than you are as a ruler, as are most of the people in this room!"
"Is that truly what you think? Do you think that I am incompetent?" Jakob's face is red with anger as he shouts, "Then I will see you on the battlefield!" He storms out of the hall along with many of the nobles. Volker is now left with the task of trying to defend his own land from Jakob and then defending Brandenburg from itself...

Next Chapter: End of Chaos


Event Used
Civil War
In 1424, the Margrave of Brandenburg died without an heir. This would not have been such a large problem had Jakob von Streithorst, one of the more powerful nobles in Brandenburg, not tried to claim the position of Margrave for himself. This caused Brandenburg to be split into many factions, some supporting Jakob, others supporting other nobles. This conflict would only come to an end when a certain noble used force to bring about a peace...
Lower stability by 6
Raise revolt risk by 100% for 12 months (I tried it with 15% and I didn't wet my pants.)
Deactivate all Historical Brandenburgian Monarchs
Activate Monarch: "Anarchy" (A no skill Monarch)

Don't worry, the classic good vs evil (or evil vs more popular evil if I want to make some events later... ) battle is coming. (Volker needs to earn his good leader stats in battle. They're not free you know.)

Chapter 3: End of Chaos

January 2nd, 1425

"Stefan!"
Volker von Diersburg, the person who is partialy responsible for creating the Brandenburgian civil war, is wearing a military uniform and quickly walking down a hallway in his large, but not huge, estate. "Stefan!" he yells again.
"Coming sir!" The servant of von Diersburg who assisted him in partialy recovering from the loss of his wife, Lilian, is walking around in a uniform of his own. It would appear that the once lowly servant has since been rewarded for helping the noble function normaly (or close to it) since the death of his wife. "Yes sir?" he asks.
"Have we gotten any replies to the requests we sent out yet?"
"Very few sir. We have, including our own men, around five-thousand infantry and no cavalry, although Streithort is reported..."
A man comes running down the hallway, inturupting the two men. "Sir! Sir!" he yells excitedly.
"Yes, Captain?"
"Sir, Streithort..." the man has a look of fear on his face that is matched only by the look of fear on Stefan's.
"Thank you Captain," calmly replies Volker. As the Captain begins to walk, or rather stager, away, Volker tells him to ready the army.

-----

Volker, Steffan and other various nobles and officers are on horseback surveying their army. "Do you think we can beat them?" asks one of the officers to Volker.
"We don't have a choice, do we?" says the noble with a grin.
"Sir!" yells one of the officers. On the horison Volker and the others can see a mass of soldiers, above them is Streithort's banner.
Von Diersburg squints at the army, saying, "Six."
"What?" asks Stefan.
"They'll be here at six. Prepare the army."

-----

A messanger on horseback comes from the opposing army. He is escorted to the command tent where Stefan and some officers are planning. "I bring a message for Von Diersburg," he states.
"He's outside," says one of the officers, "so get out." He obviousaly doesn't like the idea of an enemy seeing their planning.
After a few minutes of searching, the messanger finds the noble turned officer talking to a younger officer. "Von Diersburg?" he asks.
Volker excuses himself from the conversation with the officer and walks over to the messanger. "Yes?" he asks.
"Von Streithort has a proposition for you if you would..."
"No," inturupts the noble. "Tell him I'm not interested."
"You realize that our army is almost twice the size of your own?"
"Yes, now leave my pathetic army alone so that we may plan our futile offensive against your invincible force," says the noble sarcasticly.
The messanger stares at the leader before riding back toward his army.

-----

Volker looks at his watch. "Six..."
The two armies are lined up on the battlefield, a large farm bordering a forest. Von Streithort's is in a double column while Von Diersburg's is in a double line. Von Streithort's men open fire, dropping most of Volker's first line. The men in the line, seeing their comrades drop around them, begin to drop their weapons and flee from the battle. Stefan looks in fear, but Volker grins as he sees the opposing columns begin to charge at the fleeing line.
"Are you crazy!" yells Stefan upon seeing the leader grin.
The leader shushes Stefan, saying, "Watch..."
As the columns near the second line, the line fires and two lines of cavalry burst out of the forest and go behind and then into the columns. As the infantry advance into the now disorganized columns, stabbing at the soldiers, cavalry advance from the rear, slicing at the heads of the "invincible" army of von Streithort. "Come on," yells Volker, pulling out his sword and riding toward the battle. Steffan can only look on in amazement as he sees his master destroy the only army in Brandenburg that opposed him.

Next Chapter: For Lilian (OOC: With real wars!)


Event Used
End of Chaos
In March of 1425, Volker von Diersburg took command of several armies intended to end the civil war in Brandenburg once and for all... by ending Jakob von Streithorst's rule over the opposing armies.
Add 2 Stability
Activate Monarch & Leader: "Volker von Diersburg" (The values are fairly good, Monarch values being DIP 5, ADM 7, and MIL 9. Leader values are pretty good as well, but not quite a Napoleon.)
Create an army of 20 infantry and 10 cavalry in Brandenburg. (The army is gone from the revolts at this point.)

Chapter 4: For Lilian

February 19, 1425

"What the hell do you mean?" yells the Margrave.
Although he has held power for less than one month, it as if Volker von Diersburg has always held the position of Margrave -- All of the servants, including many of his own (OOC: Stefan! ) speak to him by his first name, he has many of the facts of Brandenburg and neighboring nations memorised and he has already met with the King of Poland and the King of Bohemia, although the second didn't go very well...
"I mean what I say," says a messanger, standing by the tall Margrave, "Bohemia warns Brandenburg not to..."
"I heard you," snaps the Margrave. "Tell your 'masters' in Bohemia that I got the message..."

-----

Von Diersburg and Stefan, now a good friend of the Margrave, are sitting in the palace garden. "What would she think..." asks the Margrave, perhaps to no-one specific.
"Hmm?"
"What would Lilian think if I let those Bohemians push me around?"
Stefan thinks about a response before replying, "I think she'd wonder what happened to you."
Volker grins. "Yeah..."

-----

February 20, 1425

All of the nobles in Brandenburg are gathered, just as they had a little over a year ago, although there are a few less faces at the table. Von Diersburg stands at the head of the table, wearing the same military uniform he wore upon defeating von Streithort, the action that assured his position as Margrave. "Gentlemen," he begins, "my position as Margrave is threatened."
The men at the table look at one another before the Margrave laughs, "No, not by any of you." The room emmits a sigh of relief before gaining a curious look. Then who threatens the Margrave?
"There are some who think of me as an expantionist and have already warned me not to expand... some people in Bohemia. They have officialy warned me not to partake in any expantion. They obviously think that Brandenburg is a military state, but this is not far from the truth. Our current leader, myself, came to power through battle, a battle that many of you participated in might I add..." The Margrave's comment gains some applause for the nobles who fought during the civil war. "...and," continues Volker, "we have one of the largest military capacities in Germany."
Volker stands up at the head of the table. "Gentlemen, I do not think that we have the right to disappoint the Bohemian government." There is a thunderous applause. Margrave's power is complete: What he says now happens without opposition.

-----

Stefan and Volker are walking down the hallway, talking about how well the meeting with the nobles went. Then the Margrave asks "...what should we conquer?"
As if a message from god himself, a messanger comes running down the hallway yelling, "Sir, Prussia is about to fall to the Poles."
A grin crosses his face as he says, "Then we will protect them... for a price."

-----

The Margrave is sitting in his office writing some notes about Poland's military as a messanger enters. "Sir!" yells the messanger. "The Prussians accepted our offer!"
"Excelent... prepare the armies."

-----

OOC: I won't pretend to be good at writing stories for the military aspects. I'll just put a short summation of the war... later. I want to get this up first and I'll edit the message in a while.


Events Used
Defiance of Bohemia
When Margrave von Diersburg defied Bohemia's warning not to go to war, not only did he prove to the world that he could rule the nation, but he proved that he was truely in charge of his government. His will shaped the government of Brandenburg into whatever he wanted it to be.
Lower relations with Bohemia by 200
Maximum Centralization
Army Quality +1

Deal With Prussia
In March of 1425 Prussia's capital was being sieged by the nations of Poland and Lithuania. The Margrave of Brandenburg made an offer to them - Independence from Poland in exchange for Vassalage to Brandenburg. Seeing how their allies and protectors, the Teutonic Order amongst them, were unable to protect the small nation, Prussia accepted.
Royal Marrige with Prussia
Gain Prussia, Memel, Danzig and Poznan as core provinces
War with Poland

Well, given the emotional state of the Margrave, I don't think he'll ever remarry. Perhaps Stefan... but I'll handle that later.
...and I like cavalry more...

As for the Screens, there isn't much to see right now. I just sort of let the computer sit for a few years until he took power. If the Polish war goes well, I'll get some I suppose...

Well I guess I'll take a break now. I started around 12 this morning and spent few hours trying (in vain for a while) to get the events to work before I realized that Monarchs & leaders are in the saved file. grr... I only got an hour or two of sleep, but the eight bottles of soda I drank helped pull me through. I'll be in the bathroom for the next few hours...