Abomination
A battle raged overhead, giant lasers streaking across the night sky and giant balls of fire erupting where they struck. A battle raged throughout the galaxy as his father's empire crumbled against the onslaught. His empire, now. This particular battle had been waxing and waning within the solar system for months on end, finally reaching the upper reaches of Folkmar's atmosphere last night.
His father's flagship led the defense and for a time it appeared as if a flanking maneuver would stave off defeat for a time. Not three hours gone the flagship had succumbed to the focused lasers of the enemy, exploding and taking with it a large part of the enemy fleet in the area. The enemy had retreated for the moment. It was in this moment of relative quiet that The Guard of the Cross chose to move The Prince. The time had come for him to become acquainted with the past of his people, a past that none outside of The Guard of the Cross and the Admiralty were familiar with. There would be no other time.
The Prince was sixteen years of age, towering of height with broad shoulders but little muscle, maintaining his usual stoic demeanor in spite of the knowledge that he was the Last. He was accompanied by three heavily armed men and a single equally heavily armed woman, all Guards of the Cross. Last among the party is the First Cardinal, the primary adviser of the late king.
Together this party of six rushed up the mountain, or what could pass as rushed while wading through four feet of snow. The Guards and The Prince were used to wading through such amounts of snowfall and were even familiar with the blistering wind across their uncovered faces. The First Cardinal however was an elderly fellow that relied upon the others to clear the way. Their destination was a barrier protected castle nestled among the three peaks of this range, invisible from the air, undetectable by modern technology, and impenetrable from below.
Suddenly a laser could be seen descending from the heavens some fifty miles north. Its bright red glow blinded everyone and the impact with the ground produced a visible shock wave. A shock wave that quickly grew in size and crossed the fifty miles in a matter of seconds so that the group was thrown off their feet just as their eyes began to adjust to the light that was still streaming from the sky.
"MOVE!" came the shout from one of the Guards; The Prince could not tell which. The glow from the laser decreased yet it became clear that it was quickly moving south. South, directly towards them.
"The barrier is past that statue!" Shouted the First Cardinal. Sure enough The Prince could see a weathered statue of what could only be a bearded man standing tall, crown on his head and sword at his side, arms open wide. "Quickly!"
The snow worked its way into his armored clothing as The Prince threw caution to the wind and moved just as fast as the Guards through the snow at a dead sprint. He wished he was in his hydraulic armor, able to increase his strength a thousandfold with a flick of his wrist, but it was forbidden. No technology past the barrier.
The laser approached and even from miles away they could feel the heat, the snow melting as it approached and seemingly refreezing into glaciers in its wake as the cold air rushed back in. They rushed past the statue with less than a mile to go and immediately felt the heat disappear.
They all stood and caught their breath as they saw the laser, at least seventy meters in diameter, sweep just west of their mountain peaks, indeed leaving a glacier streak behind it as the melted snow refroze.
"Abominations." stated The Prince, in a low voice.
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Deep inside the castle the First Cardinal walked back into the room of The Prince with a great tome and set it on the dusty desk. He opened it to the first page.
"It is time you learn our history. Your history. Our heritage is what makes us who we are. It is why we lead the fight against the enemy. It is why the other races look to us for leadership." The First Cardinal paused. "It also led to our arrogance and the First Downfall. Without the deeds of our forefathers, we could not stand here today."
He waited for The Prince to nod, which took several minutes. Yet the First Cardinal did not rush him. The Prince was the Last. The fight had been raging for centuries. There had been many casualties and the family was no exception. His Father was only the most recent.
"It is within the pages preserved in this castle that you will learn what it means to be who you are. Hopefully you will also rediscover the secret to the ultimate defeat of the enemy, which died with your grandfather." He paused again.
"To begin. First, your family name was Machiavelli. In the Sol system on the home planet, there was a Count named Folkmar I, founder of the Machiavellian dynasty, who ruled from Nordgau Castle on the river Rhine..."
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Hello and welcome. This will be my first AAR in years, played in Crusader Kings II on a 867 start as Count Folkmar Machiavelli II of Nordgau. It is a custom dynasty and a custom ruler from game start. I cant promise a regular update schedule. I am currently in year 923 so I have a bit of time to catch up on but I intend to take my time. Additionally, updates may not always be chronological. I may update the story of the main dynasty up to the point I have played up to in game and then go back and provide interesting tidbits on cadet branches of the family, side stories, other areas of the world, or even just interesting events that happen in the world, both in game and in my imagination.
This is very much a production done on the go with no set plans and without me really knowing what will happen more than 50 years in advance of what I am writing. But we will see how it goes and adjust from there. Hope you enjoyed what I have so far!
