Chapter 6 - The Reign of Queen Sela the Cruel "Queen of the Darkness" - Part Three (901-905)
Reign of Terror
It was a dark time in the dark lands of the dark queen. All that Sela had built in the image of her father was at risk of crumbling, and rays of hope and light had begun pierce Abyssinia's dark veil.
It was all rather too much for Sela to handle.
SHE was the chosen one. SHE was meant to rule over her father's earthly kingdom. Her vassals were catspaws of her Ancient enemy, and they would be purged.
Her assassins spread across the kingdom
The child, Duchess Maharene, was killed for her duchy.
Count Melaku was jailed and banished.
Duke Fasilidas died very graciously saving Sela the great hassle of having his murder ordered. As you could imagine, filling out all that paperwork can just be horrendous.
Ogbae was beloved of his people, so he had to go.
Gabra of Shewa was caught plotting behind our back. He was banished as well after a healthy amount of torture.
Baroness Selassie had forgotten to properly salute Sela one morning. She wouldn't be forgetting again.
Amidst this period of murder and blood, Sela took one of her courtier's wives, Amhara, as her paramour. Together, they tortured, schemed, and tittered, and Sela finally came to be happy. She had a partner now who stood alongside her as she praised Lucifer, and she felt her need for worldly goods dissipate.
And then something wonderful happened.
Amhara gave birth to Sela's child.
Yep.
I've thought about this event for a while, and can't quite wrap my head around what happened here. Where there is a Antichrist, there is always a way I suppose.
Apparently, this attitude could be applied to the Abbasid war as well. After leaving the Abyssinian army in tatters a few months earlier, the Abbasids had preceded to get themselves completely annihilated by the Romans, which, must to my frustration, I had been unable to take advantage until this point.
However, after "inheriting" the wealth of several of my vassals, I was able to raise a few mercenary bands to augment my forces, and I sent them north to Aswan once more. Unfortunately, I was behind by 80 war score at this point, and was far too shell shocked to risk sending my meager army too far into Abbasid territory, so I set to sieging a few provinces while keeping an eye out for any massive Abbasid response.
Baroness Selassie, daughter of the earlier Baroness Selassie, was discretely disposed of with the intention of inheriting her family's Barony. However, the dead Selassies had a distant cousin that I had failed to account for. Not to worry, he could be dealt with.
Sorry, man. Shouldn't gotten noticed by a deranged Demonspawn Queen. Could've happened to anyone.
And the next year, continued very much in the same vein. Sela continued to wipe out her vassals with aplomb (I think I banished or killed about 4 or 5 more vassals, but I didn't take screenshots of all of them), and the army continued sieging in Aswan with little Abbasid response.
In fact, I finally got back to a positive warscore when the Jews decided they'd had enough.
Sigh. It couldn't have been worse timing. In response to the rebellion, I had peeled off a portion of my army to deal it. However, the Abbasids had chosen this time to finally surrender to the ERE, thus freeing themselves to send another 12,000 strong, mercenary reinforced stack my direction.
If my forces had been consolidated, I might have continued the war, but after years of beating my head against the wall that is the Abbasid Caliphate, I was suffering from a case of war exhaustion. I asked the Caliph for a white peace, and considered myself lucky when he agreed.
After six years and nearly a hundred thousand deaths, the Abbasid war was over.
