Chapter 3
Going underground
1st January 480 - 1st January 484
Reign of Agelaus Sosiclid began with regular ceremonies and senate sessions, every archon wanted to appoint their own faction members to important positions to gain more influence. Agelaus wasn't an exception, he changed almost every minister in charge of national research projects. Massilian research was advancing well although yet they hadn't achieved anything major.
Once the senate was reformed and cooled off from the change of Archon, which often took longer than it should, Agelaus was ready to held his first speech as an Archon.
Agelaus started more aggressively than many of the senators thought. He was known as calm senator who had learnt alot of things from Lysimachus Sosiclid.
"Dear senate. We all know that this war must come to an end as soon as possible. There is simply nothing we can achieve anymore. National treasury is draining faster than we can fill it even if our armies are paid only minimum payment that should be given during peace. Luckily we can do this as our friend Lysimachus Sosiclid is serving his country by blockading port of Epirus and keeping enemies at bay. I want to propose you we'll try to negotiate peace with Epirus as soon as possible."
All senators were turning around and looking at eachother, none wanted to complain about the idea but everyone knew that Massilia would have to demand some war reparations. Finally Military faction leader Aristotle Timolid stood up. He was careful politician, one of those who rather think for a while before saying anything than try to explain his words afterwards. Senate knew that and waited for him to open his mouth.
"I think we should ask for regular tribute, it would help paying the tribute to Romans. If they won't agree that peace offer we could demand the rest of their navy to ensure their naval weakness for a couple of years, a few triremes isn't much of a demand when they're utterly losing the war." Aristotle Timolid sat down and waited for someone to reply. As expected populists had to give their opinion. They had surprisingly big influence in the senate, especially when new unexperienced Archon was elected. Populist politician named Neoptolemus Theronid stood up and said
"Everyone of us here knows that we can't afford any larger armed forces. Demanding triremes would just make our financial situation worse than it is now. Neither side has won anything if you don't count a couple of naval battles. We should leave this mess to Romans to settle, offer Pyrrhus white peace to keep our national relations good. We can't afford losing any possible support from greek states, Rome won't help us out if we're in trouble. They haven't even been able to help themselves in this war so how could they help us in future?" For the first time in past years in the senate Agelaus was thinking that populist opinion was good. After all he was trying to ensure the financial safety of Massilia as member of mercantile faction.
"I agree with this offer." He said and looked at the boy whose job was to write down everything that was said during senate sessions.
"Senate, the peace offer that will be sent to Epirus is white peace offer to show our generosity. Those who want to vote for sending this offer to Epirus, please stand up now." Only a couple of old military faction senators staid sitting.
"81 Senators vote for sending the peace offer my archon." recorder boy said after counting senators. Agelaus cleared his throat and said
"I will send the peace offer in sealed letter to Rome from where they will deliver it to Tarentum and eventually to Lysimachus Sosiclid. He shall bring the peace offer to King Pyrrhus and handle the negotiations. In case Pyrrhus denies this offer Lysimachus shall continue the blockade and inform us about the situation there."
Lysimachus get the message in April, around a month later than Agelaus had sealed it. 22nd Day of April 480
Arauris softly hit Epirot pier in the harbor of Epirus and Lysimachus landed his feet on Epirot land for the first time in his life. As he expected, local town militia patrol immediately rushed to him. Two young men with light armor and swords followed by four men armed with spears and same light armor which had Epirot flag in it's chest. None of the guards had shield. Something Lysimachus didn't expect was that they immediately knocked him into ground and violently tied up with heavy chains and dragged him to Pyrrhus' palace.
"Good way to remove all authority from the negotiator.." Lysimachus thought
"Sure shows who's the boss. Too bad that this king doesn't know who he is negotiating with." Instead of bringing Lysimachus to in front of Pyrrhus the soldiers locked him up into a small dungeon.
"Well, this is about to be interesting.." Lysimachus said but nobody was listening. Lysimachus knew that his was a simple way to scare the negotiators, they weren't as eager to demand war reparations if they had to fear for their lives. Many people who were sent to negotiate about peace were politicians who had never even seen a dead animal or held a sword, not to talk about being locked up into a dark small dungeon with a couple of skinny rats. Lysimachus' guess was that he would spend a few hours in the dungeon while Pyrrhus was thinking about the rest of his negotiation methods. He was wrong. Pyrrhus went to sleep that night and most likely didn't think about this Massilian war hero any more than of the rats in the same dungeon.
At the morning of 23rd April, just after Lysimachus had finally decided to try sleeping, one of the militias came to his dungeon, removed his chains, just as violently as he had locked them, and said:
"Get up, King is waiting for you." Lysimachus was lead to great hall where King Pyrrhus was sitting on his throne. Pyrrhus knew that useless theater such as crowns and capes were useless in this case and was waiting there in a simple light yellow robe. Lysimachus kneeled in front of him, the soldier behind him was ready to kick him down if he hadn't done it and looked a bit surprised when this man knew to do it before a little encouragement from his boot.
Pyrrhus didn't waste time and started
"Welcome to Epirus.. you dog." Lysimachus watched this king straight into eyes and knew that he wasn't being insulted because he was Massilian but because Pyrrhus was scared.
"Perfect populist.." Lysimachus thought
"Blind, one armed farmer is worth five of those." Pyrrhus was surprised. This man wasn't showing signs of fear or uncertainity, instead his eyes were full of disrespect and hate. Lysimachus stood up and grabbed the letter from his pocket.
"Your majesty. I bring a peace offer from the senate of Massilia." His job was to enter the Epirot court and lick ass to achieve peace but in this point Pyrrhus hated whole Massilia due this one man in front of him and Lysimachus hated whole Epirus due it's ruler. Not a best possible situation for peace negotiations. For Lysimachus this was a personal challenge to humiliate Pyrrhus in front of his men, this king had thrown him into a dungeon and showing maximal disrespect in the situation where it shouldn't have been done.
"Time to strike back" Lysimachus thought and said:
"The honoured senate of Massilia, meaning that we negotiate merely on our own behalf, not Romans, has offered you white peace, meaning no tributes or other war reparations are demanded to be paid. However they demand one thing that must be done before we quit the blockade of your port: You have to eat this peace offer text to show your trustworthiness during the time of truce and fllowing years that hopefully will be peaceful." Lysimachus had himself added the last line to the offer
"Now or never Pyrrhus, bring it on!" He thought and smiled his evil smile. Pyrrhus looked serious, he knew that he was slowly being strangled to death, his armies were huge and way too costy and his only port was blockaded.
"I'd like to accept this offer, senate of Massilia is really honourable in this case but I cannot accept the offer if the additional demand isn't removed or changed." Lysimachus expected an answer like this and said
"I'm afraid I don't have right to change anything in this offer, it was already hard choice not to demand any war reparations even if we are clearly winning side of the war. You've lost Syracusae to Romans and now you're sitting duck waiting for enemy army to march into your capital and burn it. I assume that your popularity, honour, or prominence is secondary compared to your nation? Sign the peace with me, eat this paper and let me go." Pyrrhus didn't know what to say. He had very little or no options, Romans eventually would land on his beach and even if he had huge militia army guarding the city it would eventually fell.
"Those Massilian bastards.. They'll pay for this, I swear!" Pyrrhus thought.
"Let me get the official stamp, it'll work as my signature." Pyrrhus rose from his throne and walked to a big wooden door, opened it and went inside. Lysimachus was worried, kings do not walk themself to find some stamp if they don't have to and this king sure didn't have to, he had 40 000 militians to do the task. Something was wrong. Pyrrhus came back with the stamp and signed the peace offer. He waited for Lysimachus to commit. Lysimachus saw a group of 4 soldiers walking past them while he simply handled the peace offer to Pyrrhus. The paper was thick papyrus, not an easy meal for anything else but egyptian warelephants who were feed with the same reeds this paper was made of. It took twenty minutes for Pyrrhus to rip small pieces of it, put it into his mouth and try bite and swallow them. After this weird snack was eaten Lysimachus left before Pyrrhus ordered him to leave, he knew that Pyrrhus could order him to be jailed as his mood probably wasn't very high after the meal. Lysimachus was happy, almost laughing while he walked towards
Arauris. He had made Pyrrhus the great eat his peace offer, a thing that could be considered crime in case it wasn't diplomacy. His smile was freezed immediately when he arrived to his
Arauris, the group of soldiers he had seen had went down to harbor and lit his flagship on fire. It didn't took long to figure out why Pyrrhus had gone get the stamp himself. He had ordered his soldiers to go burn the ship in the harbor and then returned with the stamp, he couldn't have given the order while Lysimachus was listening. Where was his crew? Those men in
Arauris were experienced seamen who probably could fight against Pyrrhus' soldiers and win as well on dry land. But
Arauris didn't have 40 000 men, even these hardened men on the ship would lose a battle against several times larger group, especially if caught off-guard, which was likely as they we're making the peace offer and war was supposed to be over. Lysimachus had spent one night in the dungeon but his men would have waited on the ship instead of trying to find a bar or place to sleep. They we're professionals. Lysimachus knew that he was in trouble if he couldn't get away from this city soon. Epirus wasn't at was with Massilia anymore but now it was personal, assault against one man. Pyrrhus could jail him and come up with any created accusations to keep him imprisoned forever. Lysimachus' nautikon, the Massilias pride in this war, was still waiting outside the port, only a few miles of water between him and the nearest ship. Probably any of his men could have swam the distance but he doubt that his strenght was enough for it as he hadn't eaten anything since leaving
Arauris two days ago. Due the blockade the harbor was empty and no trade ships were leaving or arriving, ironically Lysimachus had blockaded himself into the enemy port. He knew that in the west was Macedonian border, he would have been safe there but it meant days or weeks of travelling which wasn't possible now, he had to order his navy back home and get onboard to his ships before they went back to Tarentum for refit. There was one possibility available before Pyrrhus' men would find him again, he was quite sure that the humiliated king did waste no time to catch and punish Lysimachus. Lysimachus dropped his cape and robes and jumped to the sea. Water was warm and seas were calm, at least in the harbour..
Back at home in Massilia mercantile faction was in trouble. Military faction, as a far largest of the senate factions, had demanded sacking Epirot capital and capturing Epirus before 490 AVC. Agelaus didn't remember such demand as it had been made to former archon and nobody had told him about it. By making peace this demand was not fulfilled and senate unanimously demanded mercantile faction to give up some of it's seats in the senate. This was a major strike-back for Agelaus who was mercantile faction member and he had to do something to gain the seats back.
Lysimachus swam, first hundred meters had gone nicely but then the pain began. He was tired, hungry and freezing. And in the middle of the sea. His estimate was that he was somewhere around the halfway. He stopped swimming for a while and floated while the small waves pitched him around. Maybe he would feel a bit better after the stop. Suddenly he saw movement on one of his ships, he wasn't quite sure about its name but as it looked bit different than others in the line he assumed it being
Aphrodision, one of the ships captured from Epirot navy. Lysimachus whistled as well as he could and waved his hands. No reaction on
Aphrodision. Lysimachus started swimming furiously closer and waving his hands when he could. After a couple of hundred meters needed to stop again as the pain in his stomach was rising again
"Should have eaten something.. I guess I'll remember next time if I survive now" Lysimachus whistled again and waved his hands, the distance to the ship was maybe a mile. Now if someone just would look towards the city he would see Lysimachus.. And someone did. Suddenly one hell of a hustle 'n bustle started on
Aphrodision and men were running around the decks. Finally Lysimachus saw the ship turning and moving towards him, Epirot ships weren't equiped with smaller row boats unlike Massilian triremes. It had been done on Lysimachus' demand, repairing ships from the outside on the row boat was a lot more comfortable than being in a flooding cargo hold and trying to hammer a board on the hole in the hull, and this had allowed Lysimachus to stay longer on the seas after battles. In case there was no boards that could be used for patching up the holes they were taken from the places they weren't needed as much. Every ship was unique due this, some had captain's cabin door removed and nailed on a huge hole in the bow caused by collision with Epirot ship, some had several long "wounds" in the upper hull as the boards had been taken and used to patch holes in the lower hull where the water would pour in. It wasn't a beautiful navy but it was the best in the world. It could take one-on-one battle with any same sized navy in the world and win.
(1)
Lysimachus swam slowly towards the ship. Finally it was next to him, going past him to be accurate as stopping a big trireme isn't as easy as it sounds because they don't have any sort of a brakes. One of the seamen on board throw rope ladder over the bulwark and Lysimachus grabbed it. Captain Pausanias Apollonid was obviously surprised.
"S..sir how..?" He stuttered.
"Pyrrhus didn't seem to appreciate our blockade and burnt Arauris, I don't know about the men's fate. Probably killed or imprisoned." Lysimachus' voice was calm and stable
"Let's go then!" he shouted with his typical voice which sounded like a confident football team's captain before the game.
"Ahead to Massilia."
Agelaus Sosiclid needed to do something to gain the lost seats back in the senate, he could alone force some things to happen without having much senate backing him but as the military faction was gaining such power the option was soon out of order. It was a tuesday, only senate session was at the morning and nothing special had happened. Populists had been surprisingly silent for a couple of weeks now. Maybe they were happy with the situation. Agelaus was wrong.
Even if the current archon had only been ruling for a couple of months populists were worried about the future. Religious faction seemed to gain a lot of potential members who could be elected to archons and this was the worst possible case to populists. Military faction member leading the senate you can always argue about military spending and national money usage. Mercantile faction member being archon you can do the same. Civic faction member being archon you can always argue about building policies and amounts of slaves, freedmen and citizens. When religious faction member became archon populists didn't have much options. These guys' policy was about gods and their actions. You simply can't go argue about existence of gods or their signs' power. This had forced Populists to keep down religious faction, so far their success had been good and soon it was time to give the final knockout blow.
When people are asked about secret societies their answer will most likely include free masons, even if the meaning of secret society doesn't really fit their appearance anymore. Probably some will remember Illuminati
(2). Both of these however are very modern groups and neither of them invented the secret society idea, it was existing over 2000 years before them. One of the earliest secret societies ever was the
Order of Hades(3) which was operating in Massilia as well as in Crete and Rhodes. This order didn't have national borders which gave it surprisingly big power. The origin of this group is unknown, the founders of the Order didn't note anything about it and none of the rumours and stories about it are allowed to be written down for next generations. This ensured, and still ensures, staying secret. When nothing had been noted about the founding it was hard to assume that there has ever been such group as
Order of Hades. Exact date of the founding had dissappeared into the changes of history but according to the stories and rumours told by older members to younger, the generation that had founded
Order of Hades were born before Alexander the Great, although after Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander.
Name of the group came from the Greek god of underworld
Hades and as this group was secret and working underground it was a perfect name for them. The hierarchy inside the order was slightly based on Hades and his "pet" Kerberos
(4), the three-headed hound that was guarding the gates of underworld. The Order had one ruler, simply known as
Rector, Leader, and three "ministers" like the heads of Kerberos. These ministers, also known as
Dignus Tres, Worthy Three, were appointed by
Rector and their job was to find potential recruits for the order, thus actually being opposite to the Kerberos who kept people inside the underworld.
Current
Dignus Tres were Aracides Aratid, civic faction leader in Massilian senate, Aristonomes Therid from Cyprus, a religious faction leader in Cyprus' senate and Giolchos "Cretan" Alcetid who was Military faction leader in the senate of Crete. The Order didn't care about politics in national level and people rather rarely talked about politics in the secret meetings.
Order of Hades was more interested in finances and trading, to be more exact in dominating world trade with monopoly and eventually gaining control in current superpowers like Egypt, Seleucid Empire, Rome, Carthage and combining them into one huge nation. The first generation had seen this happening once when Alexander the Great had unified all known world east of Macedonia but even he was stopped in India.
Order of Hades had no interests in going to India or trying to repeat the conquer of Alexander but unifying all rich land around Mediterranean sea, why not?
Kleandros Aratid was member in the order, he also was populist faction leader in Massilian senate and he would find use for the power of the Order.
Kleandros and a man in a grey cape were talking. Men meet in a small basement where was only one torch. Torch was burning behind Kleandros' back and the shadow from it hid half of the other man's face and made him look scary. Even if Kleandros was a member of the same order as the man in front of him he felt some sort of a fear when he was talking to this man. He didn't even know his name but he was buying a service from him, and in this point there was no coming back. Soon his past was past and his future was in hands of the
Order of Hades.
"How much do you think it will cost?" Kleandros asked. The man answered with a soft, deep voice
"400 Gold denars, 200 now and 200 after the job. 150 Denars goes to the money reserves of the Order, everyone here wins." Kleandros nod and closed his eyes for a moment. After a moment of silence he asked
"And you are sure about the target?" Man in front of him looked a bit annoyed.
"Yes I do." A short answer with no hesitating. Kleandros took a deep breath and gave the man two bags. One hundred denars each. Man in the grey cape didn't open the bags and check the amount of money inside it, Order members trusted in eachother and if someone wasn't worth trusting he would quickly lose his head, or at least parts of it.
WritAAR note: Four months passed in game and the file size is over 20 kilobytes.. This is about to be one heck of an update.... if it will ever end 
2nd June, 11 PM (23:00).
A warm summer night was a common thing in sunny Massilia, however this night was particularly warm and surprisingly big amount of people were awoke and outdoors, drinking and having fun with friends. The stars and the moon lighted the night and some houses had torches still burning, create warm orange light and calming sound of burning which was mixed into the talking of people.
It was one of those nights when everyone seemed to be happy. There was about to be a change. A lot more orange light and heat but way less happines as soon as people notice what's happening. The man in the grey cape was walking the street towards the big house of Sosicles Peneid. He had torch in his hand and a flagon of oil in his pocket. Same oil had probably been used in Epirus to burn
Arauris, Lysimachus Sosiclid's flagship. The man arrived to the house, walked behind it and looked around. Nobody was watching.
Silently he said
"In the name of Hades.." and touched his lips with his right fist. This ritual was like the cross sign for christians two thousand years later. Then he dropped his cape to the ground, poured the oil on the cape, lit it on fire with the torch and threw it inside the window. Man, now without the grey cape, ran for a hundred meters and then walked trough the streets like anyone else. Soon he disappeared into the night and the house behind him was bursting into flames.
Kleandros Aratid was riding towards the countryside, not in a hurry but he wanted to be fast to be not noticed. After a quarter hour he arrived to an old farmhouse. The owner of the farm was also member in the order.
Order of Hades didn't have restrictions in their member's status in the society or income so everyone who was considered worthy was invited to the order. The invitation was 'an offer you can't refuse' because they couldn't risk being revealed.
In the farmhouse Kleandros met the man with a new gray cape. Kleandros wasn't happy.
"You have failed." he said. His voice was cold.
"The target is still alive and gathering more support after having his house burnt." The man in the grey cape didn't believe the news. He was shocked. It was the first time ever he failed his mission.
"Have you seen the target?" He asked.
"Yes I do." Kleandros said and imitated the man from their first meeting. The man in grey cape was waiting and Kleandros continued
"It's too risky to try again now, the target is being guarded by soldiers 24 hours per day and whole senate is becoming worried about their security." The man nod. It wasn't his style to say sorry and in this case it would have been useless and stupid. With a cold and calm voice he said
"I offer you my sword to be used twice to pay back this failure." Kleandros nod.
"That sounds good, I will contact you if I need your services." Kleandros was quiet for a while and continued
"In the name of Hades.. May future be kind to you." Kleandros stood up and left the room, walked upstairs and entered foggy night of Massilia. It had been raining just a moment before and it would probably rain again soon.
25th July 10 AM (10:00).
Kleandros Aratid heard his door being knocked and hurried to open it. For his own surprise he found four town militias there.
"We have orders from Archon Agelaus Sosiclid to bring you in front of the judge before midday. I ask you to peacefully come over with us so we won't need to cuff you up and bring you trough the city when handcuffed." Kleandros felt sudden stab of fear.
"Did he say any reason for this? Let me tell you, he is just using you in his own smear campaigns and in case you want to keep your jobs after next archon is elected I suggest you to not do anything that makes people remember you." Kleandros hoped that he could solve the case with the soldier, it wasn't very funny to face judge and senate when being accused on something. Soldier responded quickly:
"You are being suspected on planning assassination of Sosicles Peneid. We are doing our job and nobody will remember us because of that, people will however remember a dirty politician who tried to kill his opponents. Either walk yourself or be dragged. Up to you." Kleandros agreed to walk with the soldiers.
Kleandros wasn't brought to judge, which actually meant going to archon who acted as judge, instead he was immediately brought to prison.
"Not everyone in the senate like killing eachother, I guess you'll learn it here in case you stay alive." Soldier said and smiled evil smile. Kleandros was locked up behind the bars and soldiers left. Not after a long time he was going crazy from seeing rats, bugs, spiders and other nasty stuff walking around his cell.
Populist faction appointed Neoptolemus Theronid to its lead. Neoptolemus wanted vengeance. He wasn't member in
Order of Hades and didn't know anything about the assassination plan, he thought that it was all Agelaos Sosiclid's smear campaign on populists which ended in tyrant action of imprisoning populist leader. In the populist faction meeting he started with an aggressive speech and seemed to have only one goal: Civil war and winning it.
"Dear faction members! I have a message for everyone of you. Our leader Kleandros Aratid was tyrannically imprisoned without proper reason. The current archon blamed assassination attempt of Sosicles Peneid on Kleandros and imprisoned him without even hearing his own story. We cannot continue to work for our political views under a ruler like that. Now I propose everyone of you to go to countryside and recruit as much men as you can and bring them all to Emporion. There we will supply them and take over the city. Next generation of Massilia will be under our fine rule!"
Next weekend's senate session was different to many others, over half of populist faction senators hadn't arrived to the session. Agelaos believed that they wanted to boycott the senate after imprisonment of Kleandros Aratid. Good for everyone else if they were away. Archon Agelaus Sosiclid started with normal things about tax efficiency and trade but at the end of the session he came up with a more important thing.
"I have noticed that populist politicians have some interests in Emporion, several of them have been seen there. What is more important is that almost two thousand farmers and men from country side have arrived to the city. Thus I ask you to vote for sending our second army over to Emporion to ensure safety of citizens if these men from countryside are planning a revolt." Senators were nodding and humming acceptably. Only the few populists looked unhappy. Voting was held and 80 senators of 84 who were present voted for sending the second army under command of Nikomedes Zagreid to Emporion.
2nd August 480 AVC Neoptolemus Theronid launched his plan. 2 000 men from the countryside with no real knowledge or skill to fight took control of the city, only to face 5 000 elite soldiers who quickly ended the revolt. However Neoptolemus named himself dictator and took rule of the Emporion which was now being besieged by 2nd Stratos.
The civil war didn't last long. Rebels tried to get a foothold in Massilia but they were quickly repelled. Lysimachus Sosiclid took his nautikon in front of the port of Emporion, blockade would make rebels surrender even faster. Massilian cities had great city walls that were constructed about hundred years ago to fight against the barbarian attacks. Now those walls were Nikodemus Zagreid's enemy.
Before the walls fell Lysimachus had to stop his blockade. He had been on the sea for almost half a year with no resupplying and his men started revolting against him and forced Lysimachus to go back to Massilia. After returning to Massilia Lysimachus' navy didn't go back to blockade again. Ships needed repairing that took months and supplies for men weren't as easy to find as before due the civil war.
20th March 481 Massilia went bankrupt first time. Agelaos had to confiscate money from citizens and farmers to make national treasury look good. Even if it could have been easy money to send triremes to Rome Agelaos didn't do it, navy was Massilia's pride and currently needed.
27th May 481 the defence of Emporion surrendered after over 180 siege days. Several populist politicians were imprisoned and some even executed. Neoptolemus Theronid however did manage to avoid the guards and continue his life normally. For a while.
Nothing special happened before November. Almost right after Emporion was back under Massilian rule Agelaos managed to get all traderoutes used, as Greeks and Romans didn't have free routes available he ended up trading with an unexpected party.
7th November civic party gained unexpected support and thus 5 more seats in senate. This was a lucky event for them as the civic faction had only 3 senate seats. Five extra gave them some more authority that was needed.
At the same day town militia patrol found Neoptolemus Theronid to imprison him for civil war. The militia patrol was awfully late, Neoptolemus had planned leaving the county for months and started executing his plan. When soldiers finally found him he was already a couple of hundred meters away on the sea from harbor. Neoptolemus had bought a trade cog on his own use and was sailing towards Rhodes. He would eventually manage to get there unlike Aesillas Therid who had met Lysimachus and most likely drowned.
Elections were close, it seemed that Religious faction would become the ruling faction again; they had two potential rulers and both had more friendly senators and support than military faction's candidate. Whatever happened before the elections is unknown but somehow Aristotle Timolid, the military faction's candidate, managed to beat both of his opponents and gain enough support to become next archon.
Aristotle's reign was surprisingly calm. Nothing nationwide happened.
30th March 483 AVC Lysimachus Sosiclid married Evgenia Aratid and a large party was held in Lysimachus' house. The night came and party continuedm, Lysimachus and Sosicles Peneid were talking when a familiar face appeared from the shadows.
"Congratulations Lysimachus." He said and smiled. It took a while for Lysimachus to notice that this man was Aracides Aratid, the civic faction leader of Massilian senate.
"Thank you Aracides. Wait just a second, I'll find something to drink for you." Lysimachus replied and walked away.
"Beautiful isn't she?" Sosicles asked and pointed at a black girl over by the door. She was a slave , most likely brought from Africa to take care of Lysimachus' house when he was on the seas.
"She's a slave. She's black. And she works for your friend." Aracides said. Those who knew him could hear humor in his voice.
"I didn't say I wanted to marry her, I said she is beautiful." Sosicles said and laughed. Lysimachus came back with wine glass for Aracides.
"I guess it's a good party if people are laughing before the first glass of wine." Lysimachus said and handled the wine to Aracides.
"Thank you Lysimachus. It's not the wine that makes men laugh, it's women. In this case your hot slaves." Aracides said and laughed again. Lysimachus smiled and said:
"If someone asks, you didn't hear this from me, but if someone is ever going to outlaw slavery in this country, or in this whole world, spend a night by talking to her and you're another man at the morning." Sosicles emptied his glass of wine and said:
"If you borrow her for a night, we would see.." Everyone bursted out laughing.
"Gentlemen, actually I came here to make both of you an offer. Lysimachus, would you dare to let us inside your house where we can talk without anyone else hearing? Aracides said. Lysimachus looked a bit surprised and answered:
"Sure. Follow me."
Three men went inside the house and gathered around a great wooden table. Aracides cleared his throat and started.
"Gentlemen, I'm here to offer you membership in a secret society called the Order of Hades. Order of Hades is international group that has members from Massilia, Crete, Cyprus and Achaea. I cannot tell you much more yet but I ask you to meet me in my house tomorrow evening at nine o'clock. Lysimachus and Sosicles looked surprised. After a moment of silence Lysimachus asked:
"Is the group some sort of an rebel group? And what if I'm not interested in joining?" Aracides coughed and said:
"Order of Hades isn't such rebel group as you think. Of course we have interests in gaining control of nations but revolting and such actions aren't our methods. You will not regret joining the Order, more you'd regret not joining because we have to keep ourself out of daylight and thus kill those who know about the Order but aren't members." Lysimachus looked worried.
"You know that I don't have many options. Hopefully the Order of Hades is as great as you say." Aracides was prepared to this, it is hard to convience people to join group that they don't know anything.
"As I said, please meet me outside my house tomorrow evening at nine o'clock. From there I will lead you to our meeting places where you will be told more and joining rituals will be done. Lysimachus, excuse my leaving from your party. Tomorrow you'll understand alot more." Aracides stood up and walked to the door while Lysimachus and Sosicles were rising from their benches. When Aracides had left Sosicles said:
"I'm interested but a bit scared, who knows what is going to happen tomorrow." Lysimachus nod and said
"Me too, but we'll see. Hopefully our trust is rewarded."
The rest of the party went on quite normally if certain things aren't counted, some people had passed out due wine drinking and some were having fun and doing things that should have waited until getting home to own bedroom.
Next day Lysimachus and Sosicles walked to Aracides Aratid's house. Aracides was waiting for them. Lysimachus and Sosicles saw Aracides rising his fist and touching his lips before walking towards them.
"Thank you for coming gentlemen. You'll be a worthy members for the Order." Aracides said. Then he lead the men to an old abandoned house, opened the locked door and went inside. Lysimachus and Sosicles followed him and nobody said anything. In the abandoned house's basement was huge stone door. Aracides knocked on the steel plate in the door and after a couple of seconds they heard a voice asking:
"What is the colour of the night?" Sosicles wondered the source of the voice, it was human but how did the voice sound like serpent's hiss trough tin cans? Arasides cleared his throat and said
Sanquine my brother. Again after a moment the weird voice answered:
Welcome home.(5)
The huge stone door opened. Lysimachus quickly looked at the door when it was closing behind them and noticed it being over meter thick, weight must be several tons. Yet he didn't have time to wonder how they moved it. The hall under the abandoned house was huge, it was well over 10 meters high and probably had several hundreds of square meters of floor area. The hall was like the interior of a huge chapel or castle. Aracides stopped and let Lysimachus and Sosicles look around.
"The islands of Crete and Cyprus have even greater halls, this is was constructed in a hurry and not long time ago. Wander around freely but try not to trouble other members, I'll come back soon." Aracides said and walked trough the great hall and opened a heavy wooden door. He looked back and saw Lysimachus and Sosicles still watching upwards and wondering the greatness of the hall. Aracides stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Lysimachus and Sosicles wandered around and found a huge gateway made of stone. They entered trough it and found a library. Every wall of the library had huge bookshelves that required ladders to reach the books on top shelf. Several men were reading the books but nobody looked at the strangers at the door.
"I doubt that this group's main focus is architecture so I guess we might find some other surprises here.." Sosicles said. Lysimachus nod and said
"I guess these guys aren't any rebel group, if they have funds to create hidden places like this in Massilia, Crete and Cyprus they probably have enough funds to pay any nation to agree with them." -
"Worlds largest corruption circle..." Sosicles said.
Aracides came back to them with a beautiful ceremonical dagger and a book. He saw Lysimachus and Sosicles waiting and said:
"It's time for the ceremony my friends. Soon you'll be official members and then you can ask whatever you wish." Aracides lead men to a room where was an altar.
"Remove your capes, robes and clothes and place them on the altar. Here you sacrifice everything from your old life and start a new one.
Soon Lysimachus and Sosicles were naked in front of the altar. Aracides took a flagon of oil, emptied it on the clothes and lit them on fire. Then he placed the dagger next to the burning clothes so the blade would heat up. "Next thing shows do you trust in me, I ask you to do because I don't want to spill any more blood than this ritual requires." - "Doesn't sound good. Not good at all." Lysimachus thought. Aracides grabbed the dagger from the flames and asked: "Who want's to be first one?" Sosicles looked at Aracides and said: "I'm not married, cut off whatever you want. Sosicles laughed and Aracides smiled and said: "I'm not going to cut off anything so don't worry." Aracides walked behind Sosicles and pressed the hot blade on Sosicles' back. By reflex Sosicles moved bit forward off the blade. "Trust in yourself. Trust in me." Aracides said and pressed the blade again on Sosicles' skin. This time Sosicles managed to stay still. Aracides draw two lines across Sosicles' back, from under left shoulder blade to above right buttock and vice versa, and a straight horizontal line in the middle. Lysimachus saw grimace on Sosicles' face. It had been close that he had screamed due the pain during the first line. Now Lysimachus too would need to take the pain without making a noice. Aracides let the dagger heat up bit more in the flames from burning clothes as it had cooled a bit during the ceremony. "Congratulations Sosicles. You're a member in Order of Hades now." Aracides said and handled him dark red robes and grey cape from the nearby table. "Have these, members' robes." Sosicles put the robes on and thanked Aracides. Aracides grabbed the dagger and pressed the blade on Lysimachus' skin. Lysimachus managed to deny the reflex and didn't move himself. Aracides cut three lines into his back. Two longer that made big X and then one horizontal line in the middle. After Lysimachus got the new robes he and Sosiclid were left again to wander around the hall. This time they had rights to touch everything and ask anything.
December 483 AVC came and again every faction was preparing for elections. Clear winner of the elections was religious faction's Sosicles Peneid.
Senate in January 484:
Map in January 484:
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Notes:
I guess I should write and play more and try to impress less with my latin skills.. Also just realized that Massilia is greek state and speak Greek, not latin.. Well, I guess I won't change the language anymore and go trough this AAR in latin.
(1) Most of the triremes were loyal to Lysimachus and all had 30 - 60% experience which gave nice bonuses. Also 11 martial skill doesn't do anything bad..
(2) If the name Illuminati doesn't ring a bell I recommend to read Dan Brown's book 'Angels and Demons'. Illuminati was originally a group of scientists that "revolted" against the power of church (and christianity) which lead to popes ordering purges against them, thus forcing them underground and becoming a secret society.
(3) I doubt that it's possible (with my modding skills) but I'll try to mod the Order into the game
(4) Written Cerberus in latin, Kerberos in greek
(5) This is a bit of an easter egg, does anyone know the origin of this dialogue?
It is a bit of a wall-of-text now, I'll try to make it little bit more reader friendly when I have time but now I have to hurry so I can't check typos and other mistakes..
