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Wiliart

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Sep 26, 2011
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Unity of the Brethren, a narrative MEIOU AAR

For there is only one true faith.

This will be my second AAR and now I will play with Bohemia, although I might tag change, this is a narrative hussite AAR above all. This will be a different kind of AAR, this one will be narrative, it will tell the stories of the men who feel the need for a change. The main goal of the game will be to spread the hussite religion. The main goal of the AAR will be to tell a story, therefore it may or may not be historical accurate. It will be alongside my other AAR, although this will probably have less frequent updates, stories need time to be written and that time is more than just 5 minutes. I haven't written stories before, but have had ideas for them frequently. I can write when inspiration comes, but eventually inspiration will come because I start to write. The game offers good moments to write towards.

The settings of the game will all be at default, difficulty will be normal. Yes, it will be with MEIOU again, because I just love this mod. The start date will be 1399, the vanilla start point, as Jan Hus was living around 1400.


There is but one true way to homage God and the monks don't know it. This world will know the better, this world needs to know, for they need a better life in the life to come. I must work in the dark, with whispers in the ears of others, for the Catholics are powerful, too powerful. When more people follow the right path I can move into the open, offer advice for those who want to spread the word. That time may never come, for my actions are small, may they lead to greatness. It is not that my life is important, but the right people and enough of them must believe before I can risk myself. I may be a small man, but I am the man God has chosen for his work. I am afraid I will disappoint my one true lord, but if I will not try, who will? He gave us the words on how we should follow him, no man should tell another how to believe, but I will have to tell others. I may sound a hypocrite, but the words are not mine, the words are His. Let us create His kingdom on Earth. ~ Jan Hus

These were his words when my mission began, this is the journey through the land and life that God gave me. This is how I united my brethren.​
 
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Chapter 1: When it all began.

He started his preaches and discussions in Anno Domino 1400.

It was May when I saw and heard him preach. I saw the love for God burning in his eyes, still he listened and replied with grace. He proved them wrong, he made us see how the clerics used us. They don’t believe in God, they believe in the chests of gold in their churches. They twist His words and don’t preach the bible, the preach words that sounds like His, but are truly only to enrich themselves. We should read the words ourselves, know ourselves how the world was created, how his son sacrificed himself for us. How do we repay him? By killing each other, by trying to be the richest, not by trying to help our fellow humans. I knew it had to stop and after his speech I tried to sneak to Jan Hus so we could speak and discuss, but I was not the only one.

I tried to reach him, but the rows around him were too thick, luckily the guards didn’t take any actions against Jan Hus. I heard the clerics whisper against them to deal with this heretic that spoke against the church and thereby against God himself. I think the guards have had enough of the clerics too, too often the clerics want to get rid of something because it is heretic, while it seems normal. No, that day they didn’t do a thing, while Jan Huss answered all the questions he could.

KhcBhB1.jpg

I forgot to take a screen shot, so this is the same event, but 3 years and a month later.

I saw the clerics walk away, whispering among themselves. The guards didn’t listen to them, so they had to take another route. They could try to talk to the local officer, but he probably was to busy to deal with “that religious nonsense”. He was a practical man, Ludvik Radecký, although he did go to church often. He prayed often enough, his work was dangerous and he wanted all the protection he could take. That didn’t mean that he thought of God as his all powerful protector, he saw him as an extra. A man that looked for something that could help him, but that he would not have to rely on for everything. At least, that is what I thought he was back then, I know better now, he would do everything for the protection of his people.

I had given up in reaching Jan Hus, I knew there would be a next time. Although the clerics would certainly hope to find a way to prevent that. They could not handle the fact that someone proved them wrong.​
 
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Oooh, I'll be following this one with interest. I almost played a Hussite Bohemia game once except I got side-tracked with fixing the Vassal Support stuff. I had initially feared there might be a problem like we have with the Reformation events happening late but that definitely isn't an issue.
 
I was just thinking I wanted a new and more interesting Meiou AAR to read. I'll be watching.
Thanks for telling

Oooh, I'll be following this one with interest. I almost played a Hussite Bohemia game once except I got side-tracked with fixing the Vassal Support stuff. I had initially feared there might be a problem like we have with the Reformation events happening late but that definitely isn't an issue.
It's fun so far.

There doesn't seem a problem with the events so far, there was only one event that was a bit early. it isn't a problem, and I can easily fit it in the story, I just though I would have some more time
before Jan Hus would be killed, it was 1403 instead of 1415



I tried to make some changes to the font, please say so if you think this font is hard to read.

EDIT: I changed it back, I saw it on another screen and it was very hard to read for me.
 
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Chapter 2: The real start of my life.

It was 3 years before I would hear him preach again, this time I was at the front row.

So much had happened since the last preach, so much meetings that I’ve been to. One off course the most important, my second, where I met Markéta. How long ago it seems, although it has only been two years. To think that our first child will be born in half a year is just crazy.

We fit so well together, although at first it seemed that we could never marry. How could I as a local blacksmith think that I could fancy the daughter of the wealthiest merchant in town. Her father was so angry when he found out about us. Although he seemed most unhappy about the fact that his daughter didn't follow the church the proper way, but like that heretic Jan Hus seems to think is the proper way. He also didn't liked that his daughter, his only child and treasure was hanging around with such a lowly smith. He was mad that I didn't even ask for his permission to date his precious, not that I would have gotten it. He didn't like it that Markéta was a rebel against the church, but he hated it that she was a rebel against him. Not that it mattered, Markéta couldn't live with him anymore, couldn't handle the fact that he wanted to protect her, protect her too much. When she told him, he just threw her out of the house, although she was his only child, his treasure, he didn't want to have a daughter that didn't listen to him.

Markéta could only come to me, but I could not just let her live with me. Although people knew I thought different about the church, and let me do it, they would not accept it that we would live together without us being married. My house was also too small for two to live in. So we had to arrange things fast, she could stay at the Hungry Boar, the local inn, for two weeks before she was out of the money she had with her. It was on short notice, but it would have to do. I was not ready, was not ready at all to marry at the age of 25, I was only out of apprenticeship for a year. I could not let her rot away on the streets, she didn't belong there, not that she belonged with me, but it was all I could give her.

Bohdan ,the local priest, was a free thinker, I had seen him at the preach of Jan Hus too and had often spoken with him over Jan's words. I had doubts about the church and was not sure of myself, the priest had had doubts too. So when we came he asked me how we wanted to get married. I had not given it a thought that you could marry differently than the way of the Catholics. There weren't many changes, but it was still different somehow.

First, her father didn't give her away, even after two weeks he was still mad at her and it didn't seem that he would ever forgive her for being a rebel. It seemed though that Bohdan had seen us coming, when I asked him how he knew he had said that Ludvik Radecký had seen how her father had thrown Markéta out. Ludvik Radecký had spoken about it with Bohdan when he had a conversation about his faith. It seemed that I was not the only one who doubted the Catholic church, I didn't knew that Ludvik Radecký was such a religious man after all. It seems that he had said no to the cleric at the preach of Jan Hus because he wasn't certain that they were right to demand they were right. No he was certain they were wrong and he was certain that Jan Hus was right. He also knew that we as fellow followers of Jan Hus needed help, so he had spoken with Bohdan how he could help us. Bohdan had said that we would need help when we would marry, for he just knew we would. So it was Ludvik Radecký who gave Markéta away to me, he even gave us a small bag of gold. I wanted to refuse, I wanted to make clear that we would be able to take care of ourselves. He simply said to me that hard times were ahead for us followers of Jan Hus and that we should support each other as much as we could. We were the first pair to be married according to the teaching of Jan Hus, we were also still young and needed some help to get us settled. He didn't need the money, those filthy bribes that the Catholic clerics tried to use to get him and his boys against the followers of Jan Hus, no, it would be much more satisfying if the money of those bribes were used to help the followers of Jan Hus.

Second, there wasn't a great feast, there was no great celebration of us being married. No, it was just us, Bohdan, Ludvik Radecký and the other guards that thought Jan Hus was right and had followed their captain to this marriage. As he had asked them to be there at the first proper marriage of the followers of Jan Hus. There were just the seven of us, I don't know if there are more people in town who follow Jan Hus, there probably are.

But I'm running away with my memories, I was going to tell about the second preaching of Jan Hus that I attended.

KhcBhB1.jpg

Yes, this is the same picture, the first one should not have been there, but I forgot to take a screen shot of the first time the event happened. I forgot that I forgot and simply looked at the event.

Listen not to these clerics that say that they preach the world of God. I have read His words and they are not what they say. I ask you to read His words yourselves, and to think how they hold us back. We can create our own Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Therefore we must know His true way, the way HE intended it to be. The first rule should be however to love your fellow men. Understand him, explain to him that the bible is the true word of God, not the words out of the mouths of the clerics. I will not tell you what the true word of God is, read it yourself. I know much of you can't read, but you will have to me thought. The clerics don't want that you can read, because if you can read the words of God yourself you will know that the clerics are not preaching the true words of God.

Take a look the Pope himself, one of his predecessors has proclaimed that our King is the Holy Roman Emperor and that his vassals should stay autonomous. They all have the blessing of God to rule over their piece of Earth. Yet still this Pope has annexed the city state of Modena because he wanted it for himself. He therefore doesn't follow the way that God wants us to follow. His predecessor was wrong, or he is, clearly one of them isn't following the way of God. They don't follow the way of God, they don't follow the bible, they follow the way that suits them best and they try to tell us that it is the way God wants it. Don't longer to these men, read the bible yourself and follow God the way He wants. Don't be alone however, spread the word: The word of God is in the bible and only in the bible.


I couldn't read yet at the first preach, but Markéta had thought me. I could now, although I was still low at it. Her father had somebody thought her how to read, she was his only child, so he had to make sure that she knew things, could read the figures of the trade.

I walked to Jan Hus after his preach, I offered him my help, that I believed that he was true. He smiled and said that he was glad for it. I should not follow him though and I should not preach the true way too much into the open. The clerics were after him and he didn't wanted other followers of the true way of God to get caught. He was afraid himself, but he knew he had to spread the word of God. The more people that followed meant that more people would try to create the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and that more people would reach Heaven. The King of Bohemia and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was forgiving enough about him, or just didn't care, but the clerics weren't. If I wanted to help, I should stay here and slowly teach people that the bible is the true word of God and only the bible. We should teach them how to read.​
 
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You're building up a nice cast of characters there. I wonder if the protagonist will be present at any of the major happenings that define the Hussite event chain.
 
Chapter 3: Honour the glory of God.

Each time there are more people that want to read, at first they didn't think reading was important. That it was something for the nobility and the church. Now that they don't trust the church any more they want to read for themselves. We asked Bohdan if he wanted to help too, but he declined. He could help us with this, our marriage was different and weird without our families attending. We were just a young couple that wanted to get married. He would help us he couldn't try to change the church from inside any more.

Markéta couldn't teach any more from November onwards, our child should be born within a few weeks now and she didn't want to strain herself, I agreed. I could read well enough for myself now, and could teach the basics to others. Once people got the letters and the simple words, the rest came much sooner.

It was during one of our reading sessions that Ludvik came in, as soon as I saw his face I knew it was big trouble. At first I thought something might have happened to Markéta, but I was wrong. It was something just as terrible, Jan Hus had been burned at the stake.

SDzbwDb.jpg


All the people there were shocked, after the initial shock the questions came. How, when, they wouldn't have to ask about the why. Apparently he had been lurched into a discussion about the church with some other preachers and clerics, as soon as he was inside they arrested him on the accounts of heresy. It seemed that the king had finally decided what he thought about Jan Hus, that he became too dangerous for his realm. They had burned him at the stake only a few hours later.

At that moment of silence another messenger came in, now it was about Markéta. She was in labour. At that time the troubles with Jan Hus had to wait. I ran out the door and didn't stop until I was home, two streets down the block. Just as I wanted to enter the midwife came out carrying some sheets; "Good, wash these as we our busy. We will let you know when she is ready." I wanted to protest, I wanted to be there for Markéta, but she wouldn't let me. I went off to wash the sheets, I could only think of all the things that would happen now. How would we name our child, what would it be, would I be the father of a daughter or a son. Would I be a father at all? I hoped that Markéta would make it through the birth. Was I fit to be a father. Was Jan Hus right about the church, or did we condemn our child to hell? I may have stood there for hours, without doing anything. I only thought of everything Jan Hus had said and what the consequences might be for our child.

Until I heard the wailing of a baby and I stormed inside. There she lay, the woman of my life, with our child in her hands. I could only look at her smile, she looked at me and asked “What’s wrong?” It seemed my face told the storm of thoughts that ravaged in my mind. I told her Jan Hus was burned at the stake. I said I didn’t want to talk about him, I wanted to talk about our child. “It is a big part of our life darling, we can’t just walk around it, even at a time that we have our first child.” Indeed, we could not walk away from what Jan Hus as told and taught us. ”Let us honour him by calling our son” I had even forgot to ask what the gender of my own child was, what an idiot I was ”By naming our son after him. We shall call him Jan Bohuslav, meaning Jan glory of God. Yes, that was a good name, a very good name.

At the end of the day I went back to group, they had probably discussed hard on what we would need to do now. As I came in I felt all the people stare at me. “Well?” asked Ludvik, “Are you the father of a daughter or a son?” I told him that I had a son and that we named him Jan Bohuslav, after Jan Hus. “He is not alone in getting the name of Jan Hus, we have decided we shall call ourselves the Hussites.”
 
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It was interesting to see the thought processes of a man who has seen a major part of his faith destroyed at what should be the best time of his life. If this roughly follows the original timeline for events, which it probably wont since Hus got staked much too soon, young Bohuslav should be old enough to fight by the time the Hussite Crusades start.

By the way, this AAR has inspired me to see if I can get the Hussite events working a bit more sensibly. Future players should be able to start at the MEIOU Grand Campaign and have a more historically-accurate experience.
 
It was interesting to see the thought processes of a man who has seen a major part of his faith destroyed at what should be the best time of his life. If this roughly follows the original timeline for events, which it probably wont since Hus got staked much too soon, young Bohuslav should be old enough to fight by the time the Hussite Crusades start.

By the way, this AAR has inspired me to see if I can get the Hussite events working a bit more sensibly. Future players should be able to start at the MEIOU Grand Campaign and have a more historically-accurate experience.

He may have to fight, he may have to die, he may have to live, he just must be part of the story. ;)

Good to have inspired you, this should prove to be interesting for new players that want to start with the first 'great' reformation.

I'll be watching this with interest. :D

Well, thank you, and good to have you along.
 
Chapter 4: Will there come no end to yet another start?

It was a strange year, I had the joy of seeing Jan grow up, but we lived in fear when they would start to prosecute Hussites. Yes, it was a question of when for us, not if. More and more church councils had come, on how to deal with the Hussite Heretics. Another one is coming, and Bohdan has been sent to go to it. Not that he wanted, but the high priests want to hear the story of a priest who lives in the middle of Heretic country. I hope they don't know that Bohdan is a Hussite himself, although still in secret. Luckily the King had demanded that the council should take place within Bohemia, as he was the Holy Roman Emperor and that the biggest problems within the church were here. Therefore Bohdan wasn't away for a long time.

ojvZaWx.jpg


He did came back with ill news, although the King still thought this all would blow over, the church wanted to kill every Hussite out there. I asked Bohdan and Ludvik to come over to our place. Although it would be dangerous, it just had to happen. We needed to make sure that thousands of people wouldn't be slaughtered because of a false religion. It seems that we four were the leaders of the local Hussites. I didn't want to be it, but as Markéta and I had set up the lessons in the Bible and reading, we had become it. I'm not sure I was the right man for the job, but I was the man at the job.

"Before we say anything different," Bohdan started, "I think I can be worth the most for our people in the Catholic church. I can tell you what they think, what they want to do. I can offer then advice on how to handle the Hussites, with which I clearly have experience as they are all around me. I must work with caution, for there is always the danger that they find out I think Jan Hus was right."

"Although that will take out the element of surprise for us, it still doesn't mean we are save for the Catholics."
Ludvik replied. "Maybe it is better that we leave all together, to somewhere where the Catholics aren't in control."

"We can't go too far away though,"
Markéta answered, "I don't think the others would follow us to the end of the world. The king still tolerates us, we don't know it others would to so too, they probably will not. The Orthodox to the east will hate us too, as they would still think of us as heretics."

They raised valid points and I feared for our people, I felt responsible for them. I could not let them die, just because they followed the bible. I could also not think of a life outside the city that I grew up. I was not alone though, I had to think of the safety of others Hussites, Markéta and Jan above all. I also thought though that I should not raise the lives of my own family above the families of others, we all were creatures of God.

Ludvick then came with a wonderful solution: "What if we start a new town in the woods, away from all the Catholics, away from all their clerics who want us dead. We would need to get word out, not only to the people here, but to all the people we know to be Hussite. We would still be in Bohemia, so we can benefit from the lack of interest from the King. Our people wouldn't need to change their language, they will still live in the land that they are born, just in another part of it. It will still be a great change, so most Hussites may not follow us. "

I looked into the eyes of Markéta and knew what we would do. I told him that we would stay, although the new town could probably use a blacksmith for the creation of new tools, it would have to do without us. We would be needed here, we would stay behind to educate more people.

" I have told you at the start and I will tell you again, I will stay. I am needed to keep the church in check, hopefully without them noticing to much I do so." Bohdan declared.
Than I will go,"Ludvik ended "for I've had enough of these clerics that come every day to my office and whine that I should put all the Hussites on the stake. I have to use all the force of will I have to hide that I am a Hussite myself. No, I will go and I will make sure our new Hussite village will have a law. We may be outside the Catholic church, but that will not mean that we do not respect the laws of the King. Even when the King decides that he doesn't want us anymore, our people still need protection. I can give them that and I can train them, for I do not want open warfare, but if the Catholic clerics stay on the course that they fare on now then war will come one day."

It took some months before we had the message out, but in March of the next year the first entirely Hussite town was founded.

THh92S2.jpg
 
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I keep looking up things and learning while reading this AAR. It's one thing to see an event with some interesting words but to understand their significant for the story here you need to go deeper.
Your non-Hussite King seems to be a rather nasty sort, going to war with his former Silesian vassals to seize their lands.
 
Looking forward to see how Hussites can perform with your help...

I warn you, they will have to perform better than in my own AAR, where I spent half a century fighting them before simply giving up... :p
 
I keep looking up things and learning while reading this AAR. It's one thing to see an event with some interesting words but to understand their significant for the story here you need to go deeper.
Your non-Hussite King seems to be a rather nasty sort, going to war with his former Silesian vassals to seize their lands.
Do you mean that you need to go deeper into the events to understand them, or that I should?

He is a nasty King indeed.

Looking forward to see how Hussites can perform with your help...

I warn you, they will have to perform better than in my own AAR, where I spent half a century fighting them before simply giving up... :p

Well, I do want them to be as successful as can be, eradicate all the Catholics may be a bit to much, but if I push I might make that. So I think that will be my goal game wise. They did quite well in you AAR, in my other AAR they kind of failed a bit.



Yes, this isn't dead, I just did not had the time/inspiration to write. I am going on vacation however and take notes with me, perhaps I can write a large part of the story while getting red like a lobster on the beach.