The Lions of Olomouc: a CKIII Ironman AAR (Duchy of Moravia, 867)

[Revan86]

It's been quite a ride. Started this massive undertaking nearly 2 years ago, it's hard to believe. To all of my readers, especially @filcat, @alscon, @Midnite Duke, @Silverio90, @Idhrendur, @Bullfilter, @Knud_den_Store, @coz1 and everyone else who has left feedback, constructive critique and encouragements on this AAR: thank you so much, you have been an incredible help to this AAR and to my writing generally. The Lions of Olomouc wouldn't have lasted two books without you guys, and you helped me keep it going for seven. I can't tell you how grateful I am.

 

[filcat]

- "Forty seven have become fifty nine chapters; there is no possibility to cover all without destroying the thread at this point." Bah - Hold the beer.
- Mate, do not even try it.
- Do you know who I am?
<extremely confused> - Errr... mate, you are... me?
<but the sound escapes at the end of his words, as he sees many more emerging behind the other. defender and watchdog, the affiliated (and mad) student, the team of Breaking news and the other programs, and so many more, some from aborted dreams, some from alive horizons, altogether, looking at him>

- Exactly.

---

Do you remember that poem you sent me, when we were first married?’
‘All too well,’ Bohodar admitted. ‘The grammar was horrible.’
Mechthild chuckled.

And then the tears that Blažena had held back for so long would no longer be contained, but escaped her in torrents – a grief which seemed boundless. The sole light of her life, the one man in whom she had ever placed faith, was gone. And no one could take his place.

‘Rad… ko…’
His vision swam, pooled in circles of dim green and red, then faded to black.

‘I beg your pardon?’ asked Radomír, before straightening his shoulders and fixing her with a cold glare. ‘I am the Kráľ. I go where I please.’

And as it turned out, Eirēnē’s words proved prophetic. She did not have to wait long for her husband to join her. He reposed in relative peace at the age of sixty-six, and was buried in a grave next to that of his loyal and supportive wife.

King Eustach stayed active to the very end. And his death came swiftly and softly, as it had done for his beloved Dolz.
(...)
It may have crossed the minds of some of the nobles then in attendance, seeing the fat, placid, amiable and easygoing figure of Tomáš Rychnovský as he took the throne, that God had favoured them with a ruler who was indulgent and easily-swayed.

How very wrong they were.

‘Be that as it may, it shall still be his burden to bear.’

He was able to witness, thank God, the birth of another grandson—Karolína’s second son Drahomír. And he was also able to make an agreement with another Prisnec, the independent vojvoda of Lemkovyna, for mutual defence. However, Prisnec’s heart gave out on the twenty-second of October, 1146, and he went to join his fathers in Velehrad.

He awoke to find his heart torn out of him… for his wife, his childhood playmate, his beloved, his queen-consort and the prop of his rule, Czenzi, had ceased breathing during the night.
(...)
Twenty days afterward, after the hunt had been concluded and all of them were safely back in Olomouc, Kráľ Bohodar passed away—shriven and at peace with all.

Álmodtam vagy igaz talán.​

Kráľ Želimír’s heart had given out the night before. No one else but the night watchmen had been awake, and no one had been able to come to his aid.

Gleaming in the distance like the last rays of sunlight or the last embers of a warm fire, there are yet among us those who have not forgotten the days of Kaloján.

Radomír retired to his own chambers directly after hearing of this news. And that was the last anyone ever saw of him alive.

And then came the day of great sorrow, when his friend Vojtech did not come out at all. Ihumen never saw him again. Evidently his injuries had been too severe. The loss of the old friend weighed heavily in the bay’s heart.
But when he left Olomouc, he left with Praksida. He would heed no other. Even if death had claimed Vojtech, at least he would have this new friend to stand by him.

Radomír died quietly in his sleep, after being shriven and receiving the Gifts one final time. He had already determined that he would be laid to rest in the royal gravesite at Velehrad, rather than in the smaller family plot in Olomouc.

Vojtech lay motionless on his bed. One of his eyes had been completely put out, and that part of his head was an unrecognisable mass of pulp and blood. That of his flesh that had not been destroyed, had taken on an unmistakeable pallor. The king was indeed dead.

My Spirit Lives On - this was an interesting surprise. Well played, kudos.​

‘How do you think they will fare?’ asked Ilse. ‘Vojtech and Predslava? Bohodar and Liusia?’
‘I—I don’t know,’ Robin answered truthfully.

---

Spoiler: farewell

I'll fake it through the day
With some help from jewell of russia black
Send the poison rain down the drain
To put bad thoughts in my head
With two tickets torn in half
And a lot of nothing to do
They will be missed, the words of dreams
Will they sing it too?

A sound in the dark
Dancing the lines in my ears
Telling me I'm strong and hardly ever wrong
I said, "World is alone without words"

Words had plans for the eyes
Reading them to fly out of town
To a place I seen in a magazine
That they'd left lying around
I don't have them with me
But I keep a good attitude
They will be missed, the words of dreams
Will they dance it too?

I know I'd rather flow into night
Than to see myself the way that I am
But I am in the life anyway

Next door, the TV's flashing
Blue frames on the wall
It's a comedy of errors, you see
It's about taking a fall
To vanish into oblivion
Is easy to do
And I try to be, but you know me
I come back when I create them
They will be missed, the words of dreams
Will they fly with us too?
[*]​

---

Kudos.

---

[*] Appropriated butchered from Miss Misery of the album XO by Elliott Smith (1998).
Link to the 1998 version used also as the epilogue song in the film Good Will Hunting, whereas there is another early version (posthumously) released in 2007.

 

[Midnite Duke]

Thanks for the trip. With an average reign of 27.9 years, RNG smiled on this reign. Were all successors sons? I will see you in EU4.

(My Avon was twenty-eight years with six sons and two daughters. Once, I did have a #3 as two older brothers died childless before the father.)

 

[Idhrendur]

A lovely AAR, and wonderful that we get to see history continue in EU4.

 

[Revan86]

Thanks for the trip. With an average reign of 27.9 years, RNG smiled on this reign. Were all successors sons? I will see you in EU4.

(My Avon was twenty-eight years with six sons and two daughters. Once, I did have a #3 as two older brothers died childless before the father.)

Not too bad! I didn't calculate average reign length...

Interestingly, all male rulers this time. Some of the successors were grandsons rather than sons.

A lovely AAR, and wonderful that we get to see history continue in EU4.

Thank you, @Idhrendur! Appreciate it!

Also, thank you to everyone who voted for Lions in the CK3 ACAs this quarter! I'm glad that I was able to write an AAR that people read with pleasure.