Grandpa's tale - A CK beta AAR

[Nikolai]

Thought I'd start a new AAR. This time I will not try to make a crazy AAR as lat time though, more like a stroy told to a child at the feet of grandpa. If you have suggestions on how to improve the story, just say so. o First installment will come soon.

Setup:
1187
Duchy of Saxony
Normal/Normal
CK beta patch October 23rd

 

[Nikolai]

"Grandpa?"
"Yes, my child?"
"Who is the person on this picture?"
"A great man. A great, great man he was."
"Oh? Oh, please! Please tell me about him, grandpa! Was he strong? Was he like......St. George or something? Please, please tell me!"
A warm smile grew in the old man's face.
"Yes, my child. Yes, I'll tell. But first, sit here by my feet, and I'll start the tale. A tale about a great duke. The duke of Saxony."

Bernhard was his name. Bernhard Askanien. When this tale starts, in the year of our Lord and Saviour 1187, he was a 47 year old duke of Saxony, not more, not less, important than any other duke in the Holy Roman Empire. Except, he had ambitions. He dreamt of a great future, and he worked for it. He had a great demesne, too great for any man to bear. He had thought he had to work all by himself. Had he done so much further, he probably had faded away, never growing to anything more than an overworked duke of a greater empire. But he was smart, oh yes he was. Or rather, according to himself, God was. He, in His great love of His loyal servant Bernhard, gave some of His own wisdom to this man, giving him a goal and a way to achieve it.

Bernhard's first wife.
By summer 1187, Bernhard had given away over half of his demesne to loyal vassals. His wife had died suddenly a few months before, but by God's grace, Bernhard managed to get fastly through his mourning, and find a new and young wife, ready to give him more heirs than the one and only child and son Heinrich, 12 at that time.

Bernhard's second wife.

Bernhard's only son and heir.
But I get lost in my story. Bernhard divided his army in two, and set sail to the baltic coast. The Baltic at that time was a godforsaken and pagan land, where bloodthirsty tribes lived by raiding good Christian neighbours. God by His Son, the Saviour Jesus Christ, had ordered man to baptize the peoples, and now Bernhard went to fulfill this divine goal. One after eachother, the pagan provinces fell to the noble troops of his, and soon Bernhard had taken much of the coast. But problems arose. The pagan peoples of his new lands did not want to stop worshiping their dead and satanic gods, and soon made trouble for the crusaders. Disputes and rebellions spread, and Bernhard soon saw that this was too much for one man to handle. He therefore gave out his lands to loyal servants of his, and his son and heir, he had only got a daughter from his new wife so far, got several provinces to rule and learn this hard task as soon as possible. His father the duke was, after all, not young anymore, and nobody could know how long he would live on. But as for now all was allright with him. However, the godless Emperor of the HRE had had enough of this rise of power of this duke, he feared for his own power, and forgot that the power of God is bigger. He did the godless act of making peace with the pagans even though the crusaders was much stronger than them. Bernhard luckily still didn't loose hope and faith, and by intrigue, he managed to get the lesser pagan countries to be supressed before the emperor's emissionaries came to them. Soon, the whole coast of Balticum was German.

By now, duke Bernhard was the strongest vassal of the Emperor by far. He had even got a new dukal title; Duke of Courland. And trough careful plotting, he had even got promise from the Holy Father himself that he might get the royal title as King of Lithuania as a reward for his worthy services to God's cause. The Holy Father had called for a new crusade against Cairo some time ago, which few had joined, so he was very pleased for the spread of Christendom in the cold north. Now Bernhard had to take out his two greatest opponents to the kingship, the two strongest princes inside what would be his future kingdom's theoretical borders. He had enough presitge to take the dukal title of one of them and taking one of the provinces of the other. He went to war, after they had refused to cooperate at all. All forces in his dukedom was called upon, and soon the Saxon armies was all headed for these two underlings, orthodox princes with no respect for papal authority. The victory was total, and one of the princes had to surrender his prince title and become a Saxon vassal, the other had to secede half of his princedom and promise to come under Bernhard's rule as soon as the kingdom was set up. Not long thereafter, duke Bernhard was crowned King of Lithuania, owning northern Germany, his dynasty's old lands of inheritance, and all of the baltic coast, except the northermost part, which the emperor had managed to secure for his empire by plotting and bribes. Bernhard swore revenge, but to the might of the emperor, at the time he could do little.

In the mean time, the heir to the throne, Heinrich, had got a brother and two sisters, all who had got their own counties in the neighbourhood of their father the king. Heinrich was the only who got a dukedom, and managed to rule it satisfactory. But he was a headache for his father. He was sceptical!

Heinrich, heir to the throne, and sceptical.
Oh, how bad this must have felt for the old zealous king! He, who had fullfilled the dream of God, to bring the gospel to Balticum! He, who looked at the heavens with sincere longing. He, who wished his children all luck and happiness! And to know then, that his most beloved son and heir was a sceptic... It was of great pain. He could only pray to God that his son would see the light one day, and so he did. Pray that is. But for now, all that happened, was that the heir's wife died. Not that it was a disaster for the king or his son, the woman was more than twice as old as her husband, they was married lonmg before this tale even started. But now she was dead. Bernhard hoped that facing death, his son would come to belief. But so didn't happen. Bernhard was not happy. He was an old man after all, he could not know if God would bring him home tomorrow or today. He prayed. And soon decided to take up the cross once again. With the pope's blessing, a pope he had gained personal friendship with by the way, he sat sail for Finland. The lands there fell like cards. He now sat his one and only mistake to power there. Or mistake? He loved that boy, but he was a result of sin, a mistake made because of his sadness over his son the heir's scepticness and his loneliness in the field. The boy was a bastard, but Bernhard in his merciness and greaness decided, he was still his son!

"And here our tale will end for tonight, my child. The time is late, and you need to sleep."
"Oh, no grandpa! Please, please tell me more! I'm not tired!"
Smiling, the old man raises from the chair.
"I will tell more, dear, I will. But not tonight. And," he added, "you'll get to know one day, why he is so important to me... But in the mean time, look at this map of the kingdom of Lithuania. Isn't it great how God's dream was being fullfilled?"
"Grandpa..."
"Nono, go to bed. I'll come and give you a good night kiss as soon as you are in bed!"

 

[Rythin]

Oh man, sick bastard grandpa likes giving a kiss to his sonnie!

 

[Nikolai]

Now, it's only natural to give a kiss to one you love, but not neccessarily on the mouth.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Now, it's only natural to give a kiss to one you love, but not neccessarily on the mouth.

In this context, such a comment can only be followed by a demand for a good-old fashioned witch burning!

 

[unmerged(26933)]

Good work, keep it up please.

 

[Stuyvesant]

Ah, you've started a new tale! Good! And you've alerted me to the existence of a new beta patch. I'll have to check that out too.

Nice story and a tone that seems to fit the age.

 

[Nikolai]

Thanks. Now, that beta patch was releaseed while I played the game and wrote the first installment, so I'm afraid the new things in the _latest_ beta patch isn't in. I use the 23rd oct one. But I haven't seem much difference in those two so far on what I've looked for at least.

 

[Nikolai]

“Grandpa! It’s late!”
“Hmmm? Now, when did I last time hear you say that?” the old man laughed.
“Grandpa… You promised…”
“Hmmm. Well I guess so. Now where was I…? Ah! In the year of the Lord 1194…

Or rather, 1198. Why this jump? You see, boy, for those four years, Bernhard had grown tired. He had waged war against a couple of orthodox princes, to secure his throne. But most of the time, he was moving around in Lithuania, chasing rebels. Oh yes, the pagans still worshipped their false gods of Satan, and he knew how to make life difficult for the Lord’s servants! All over the country, there was coming demands, demands on being able to worship these false gods. Bernhard, in his love to God’s cause on Earth, did not allow it, neither did his vassals. The result was Satan’s fury, bloodshed, massacres, pain, tiredness. The king got tired, for he did not want others to take this burden. He was set to this task, he would finish it. But he longed. Longed for peace, longed for heaven. He was 58 years old by now, 58 years walked together with the Lord. But he felt like 80. He wanted away.

Time went on. King Bernhard had become 63. Still he fought, still new revolts emerged. But the last year the revolts had been fewer. The old king now, for the first time for several years, began to alter the vassals’ lands and power. He, by the wisdom of the Lord, had found out that having half his kingdom ruled by orthodox princes was unacceptable! The great Lord’s servant felt his time would come, but now, for the first time for a long time, he felt he still had the power to do Christ’s work among these sheep that had left the shepherd. He would lead them back! This noble wish made his position in Christendom even stronger. For years, the Christian kings, bishops and popes had looked at him with admiration in their eyes. There, there was a noble man! Look at him, Christ’s loyal servant! He was admired, but people also was sad for him, as they saw how Satan fought against him. “Look at him,” they said, “it’s like Job. God bless him!”

And truly, Bernhard was blessed! His son and heir, Heinrich, was at last saved from Hell, he had embraced the true Christian belief, his years as a sceptic was over! Bernhard’s long, hard prayers every night had helped; Heinrich was even seen as quite zealous! The only thing that made Bernhard sad, was that in one of his many battles for Christ, Heinrich had become severely wounded by an arrow, and had constantly pain and health problems because of that. Nevertheless, he had got several sons and a few daughters, but only one of the sons was really capable of taking over the throne one day. Bernhard looked on the future as quite bright though, for, if God’s on your side, giving you a good heir, who can stand against you?

The reborn but severly wounded heir.

Then, October 29th 1206 did a thing talked about in Christendom for years to come, happen. King Bernhard was captured by some of the filthy scumbags that had, once again, rebelled against him! They demanded more than 1700 gold in ransom, an enormous sum for the poor kingdom. The sum was payed, with the result that the king now owed more than 1400 gold! It was a great sum, but nothing could be done, the king after all was too loved by the people of Europe, except the pagans of course, that he could be risked killed. But did this break Bernhard? Oh no, he kept on fighting, as a real knight and hero!

The king is captured!

But all good things have an end. So also king Bernhard’s life. A rainy morning November 21st 1207 the king was found sleeping peacefully in his bed. Too peacefully. A great life was ended, a dedicated servant of the Lord had come home. A few days later, thee new king Heinrich was crowned. His life was also a good one, but that is something you must hear another day.

The new king.

The new heir.

“Good night, boy. May your sleep be good.”
“Good night grandpa. See you tomorrow. You’ll tell more, promise?”
Two warm smiles.
“Promise dear. So, off you go!”

 

[Stuyvesant]

So, in hindsight, knowing that good king Bernhard died a year after being captured by the pagans, do you think paying the ransom was worth it?

 

[Nikolai]

I...do...not...want...to...answer...that...question...

 

[unmerged(26933)]

I was thinking the same thing while I read it. Don't do the math calculating the years you'll be paying it off. No, don't worry about that. Good work.

 

[Deaghaidh]

I freaking hate that event. 10% chance king dies my ass, more like 66% in my experience, and I usually end up with a minor as king and 1500 in debt.

Of course, on time it was the Emirate of Assassins that pulled that on me, so it made sense. Bastards

 

[Nikolai]

Here's the next installment. Sorry that it has taken some time, but I have school to work with unfortunately, and my mum absolutely has to use this computer to do her work on when she's home these days...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Zzzzzzz…..”
“Grandpa!”
“zzz….hrrrrrrmm….wh….at?”
“How did it go? Did he do many great deeds?” Did he?”
“Did….who? Ah! Yes, yes, I’ll tell my tale. Listen, for Heinrich is an ear worthy!”

The first years of Heinrich’s reign were quiet, except for the usual attacks from pagan scumbags all over the place. Around Christmas time 1209 however, happened the only unusual: It was discovered that the duke of Esthonia, the subject of the Emperor and the one big torn in the eye of old Bernhard, had planned to kill his own 14 year old son, a count under king Heinrich, to get his holdings. This dishonourable plans had to be stopped, wise Heinrich decided, and an assassination attempt on the duke himself was done. This would have the nice side-effect that the young count would inherit the dukedom himself, and thus secure it for Lithuania. Unfortunately, the attempt was discovered and stopped. Luckily it obviously stopped the duke from fulfilling his plans, but a month later, an assassin was found hiding in king Heinrich’s own bed room! The king was enraged, but decided to end the fight there, to not upset the kingdom’s stability too much.

After that , little happened. Until October 1211. That month, Heinrich decided he could not be worse than his great father. He and his house was destined to conquer the pagans and converting them for the Lord! The king of Norway had lately showed up in the Finnish lands yet not part of Lithuania, and conquered them. Heinrich was desperate. He knew that he could not go to war himself, severely wounded as we was, but he could organize it! He could pray! He could fund it! He knew too little was done to baptize the pagans, only one province was so far saved for the Lord! He wanted to build churches, but the Lord told him they would be of no use yet. “Set your best priests to spread the word.” He said to Heinrich in his dreams, “I do not want churches, I want souls! I will tell you when you can build a house for me.” And so it went. Heinrich set his best men to work, and sent over an expedition to pagan lands. “Conquer for the Lord, or die trying!” was his mantra.

And conquered they did. The Sames was subdued, and the king’s next oldest son got the provinces to gain them for the Lord. In the mean time, the king’s wife was once again pregnant, at an age of 37 no less! She had given the kingdom lots of children, all boys, but to Heinrich’s great sorrow, none of them had any skills in the ruling of a country. But lo and behold! In the middle of the pregnancy, the queen got complications, and died! The king mourned for a month, and them started looking for a new wife. He was truly sorrow he said to his nearest, but evil tongues claimed he had had her killed, and even relatives were unsure what to think. Nothing could be proved of curse, as all evil rumours. Some months after these sad events, Heinrich and his lovely bride Rycheza were wed in the old family church of the dynasty’s old Saxon lands. Soon they were expecting a child.

The new wife.

April 1215 things began to happen again. The king one night got a vision and a revelation from the Lord Almighty himself! He was told that he was to start the construction of a church in Memel, his capital province, and that it was time to extend his kingdom’s border, this time into orthodox lands. With little prestige, the possible targets was few, but God in His mercy gave directions. A dark night in the middle of April 1215, an army began marching from Memel to the lands of the prinsipality of Volhynia.

The Lithuanian lands in 1215.

“Hrrrrrrrrnnnnnn…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……….*snort*….zzzzzzz……”
“Grandpa?”
“Zzzzzzzzz………”
“Grandpa! Oh, well… Good night grandpa. Sleep well.” the child says, kisses the old man gently on the chin and slowly walks out.

 

[Nikolai]

1.) I am currently playing R:TW after finally getting it to work, but I will update this if
2.) anyone are intersted? I know how people don't always post even if they read, I am not always good to that myself(1 post minimum though), but it would be nice if people wrotev something, tips, critics, or just hi.

 

[unmerged(36148)]

You should add some lies that the grandpa says, and then the grandsom discovers it

 

[Solmyr]

2.) anyone are intersted? I know how people don't always post even if they read, I am not always good to that myself(1 post minimum though), but it would be nice if people wrotev something, tips, critics, or just hi.

Welcome to the world of AAR writing.

 

[Stuyvesant]

I am reading and enjoying grandpa's tales. Haven't made my presence known lately and I apologize for that. I will use the novelty of having found work as an excuse.

If you continue with it, I will be reading and commenting. Unfortunately, I'm no good at hints, either gamewise or writing wise, so I'll refrain from those.

And if you decide that Rome: Total War is more deserving of your time, then I'll just be jealous that you apparently have a computer that can run it.

Anyway, it's up to you.

 

[Nikolai]

Solmyr: Thanks, I knew that comment was coming somehow...

Stuyvesant: Thanks. R:TW and CK is both enjoying, and I play both, but I haven't time to play them both every day AND do homework I'm afraid... I will continue the tale, I just can't say whether it will be tomorrow or near the weekend yet.

 

[unmerged(10727)]

This is shaping up to be pretty interesting. The Mongols might be arriving just as you take out the last pagan and that's always fun stuff.

I think it might be fun to have a little more interaction between the Grandfather and Grandson. I'm wondering if there's something more going on here than just telling a story...

Looking forward to more, although Rome: Total War is a lot of fun. It's the REAL Rome instead of the poor man's version.