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Introduction

HistoryDude

Emperor of Greece and Rome and Holy Roman Emperor
39 Badges
Mar 19, 2018
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Because something means that I must have a lot of AARs going on at once.

Anyway, this AAR is set in the same universe as Rise of the Romano-Mongols, and it covers an incident in their history.

As for what the style is, well it's... very poetic, shall we say.
 
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Book 1, Chapter 1
And here's the first update!


Sing to me, O Muse, of that emperor
Who slipped into madness
Due to the stress of ruling a nation at war
That brought an empire into a long sadness

Sing of the fall of Rome’s last legacy
Of the destruction of the last Huns
Sing of their foes’s ecstasy
And their last run

There was always a renewal after defeat
But there was not after this
The Romano-Mongols were no longer a state after this defeat
For they were dismissed

The annals of history alone remembered them for eons
But their descendants didn’t forget past glory
As their ancestors, the Achaeans,
they remembered their past but they were wary

For their glory days were not without flaws
Revolts ruled as much as the Romano-Mongols did
Dissent reigned as much as rule of law
And many revolted unbid

Such was the state of the Empire
When Dristar assumed the throne
For the Romano-Mongols still had fire
In their hearts and wouldn’t be overthrown

But that was not their decision to make
For governing a realm wasn’t easy
And ruling could break
A man’s sanity

Sing to me of Dristar’s broken sanity
And of his heir’s desperate stands
For the annals of history
Remember and they preserve in their vast sands

Sing of the ruptured peace
And of the undoing of conquest
For revolts never did cease
Even if world domination was their quest
 
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There once was a poetic tale
Which strangely enough did not fail
It inspired one more
No doubt soon a score
Now all other tales will seem stale
 
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ANOTHER AAR? :eek: :D
 
There once was a poetic tale
Which strangely enough did not fail
It inspired one more
No doubt soon a score
Now all other tales will seem stale

Songs of the Saiiban is great, honestly. This came about because I wanted to explore a few events from Rise of the Romano-Mongols in more detail, so... here we are.
ANOTHER AAR? :eek: :D
Yes. Hey, I only have 5 AARs going on right now. That's less than I had a few weeks ago!
 
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Songs of the Saiiban is great, honestly. This came about because I wanted to explore a few events from Rise of the Romano-Mongols in more detail, so... here we are.

I'm a little sad that the convention of only replying in verse doesn't seem to be catching, though that does make it a lot easier for me to reply. All I've been able to accomplish so far are poor imitations of haiku and limericks.
 
I'm a little sad that the convention of only replying in verse doesn't seem to be catching, though that does make it a lot easier for me to reply. All I've been able to accomplish so far are poor imitations of haiku and limericks.

Yes. I do reply to Songs of the Saiiban in verse, but that's mainly free verse, and this is written with an ABAB rhyme scheme, which is... harder to come up with on the spot.
 
Book 1, Chapter 2
Haixi was the the first nail
But it would be far from the last
The revolts would increase in scale
Until the Romano-Mongols were an empire of the past

Dristar wasn’t a military commander
But he attempted to lead anyway
Unfortunately, his men had no candour
So others had to keep his decisions at bay

The Haixians had revolted during an invasion of China,
The Romano-Mongols’s great enemy
Which would be the final
Invasion of that archenemy

That campaign had begun well
But that glory was short lived
Soon the bells
Would ring as doom arrived

Dristar quickly realized that war wasn’t his specialty
And so he retreated into governing
And gave his men command, especially
Those who were comforting

They whispered honeyed words into his ears
But nothing came out of that
As those who freely volunteered
Advice were also those who were rats

This contributed to the early failures
In that great conflict
Dristar caught on to their behavior
And quickly made his policy on advice more strict

Still, defeat followed defeat
In the Middle Kingdom
The Romano-Mongols were forced to retreat
And Dristar sought out his advisors’s wisdom

His advisors told him to take command directly
Or to at least get in correspondence with his generals
Which was how war was waged correctly
According to the annals

Dristar listened
But his heart knew that this was a bad idea
And the stars glistened
In the moonlight, the Emperor was visited by Sophia
 
Book 1, Chapter 3
She advised him not to lead
For he knew not the ways of war
Instead, he let his duties accede
Onto his heir

Alp was that heir’s name
And he would be the penultimate ruler
His campaigns would receive great acclaim
And his glory was ocular

Still, Alp wasn’t the only military leader
In those glorious days
Before the cross of cedar
Was destroyed in a glorious blaze

His peer was
Not royal
But he isn’t as well known because
He was loyal

Dristar slipped out of sanity
And his reign suffered
Ultimately, the Council in their vanity,
Respite offered

They reigned
Over the great empire
But they had not gained
Anything higher

Alp seized the day
And he made peace
Which kept some rebels at bay
But they didn’t completely cease

War continued
Until the Romano-Mongols could fight no more
Alp issued
His end to war

Unfortunately, that end was destruction
And the realm perished
That was the direction
That had to be taken to gain what was so cherished

END OF BOOK 1
 
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Book 2, Chapter 1
Dristar had just ascended
And he dreamed of glory
He dreamed of sitting on that splendid
Throne in Chinese territory

War was thus declared
And a messenger sent to the Ming
Who were caught unprepared
And this was during spring

Dristar rode out toward
Great Beijing
For he hoped to record
Its fall as a king

He stopped
In subjugated China
Which had begun to adopt
The ways of their empire’s messiah

In those twin provinces
He gathered men
Who were given promises
Of their freedom again

A man refused
And Dristar made it clear
That this wasn’t an offer easily excused
He knew of the motivations of fear

Fear is a good motivator
And many agreed and served
As human labor
If only because that was what they deserved

From the lands of the Shun
Dristar moved east
Where he intended to have the war be won
And his prestige be increased
 
Book 2, Chapter 2
Beijing lay undefended
For the Ming ruler
Intended to leave his capital undefended
As bait for the Romano-Mongol Emperor

The Ming Emperor wanted
To go on the offensive
Shun was where he started
His counteroffensive

News of this quickly reached Dristar
But he did nothing
It was too far
To do anything

Or so Dristar thought
But another reason also existed
Dristar enjoyed paths fraught
With peril, so he insisted

Few men deserted
For they feared Dristar’s wrath
But many wanted their attention diverted
From the long path

That path was long
And full of danger
But the Romano-Mongols were a strong
People - they would endure dangers

And so the war became a race
To see who could capture land quicker -
Specifically, the base
Of their enemies’s flickers

Beijing fell first
And Dristar celebrated
But the Ming had a thirst
For blood and they hated

Hate left to fester
Was a terrible thing
And ignoring a messenger
Was a foolish move, even for a king

The Ming took Shun easily
And then they headed toward Beijing
Dristar dismissed this news breezily
After all, what threat could the Ming bring

Dristar thought the Ming broken
And that was his folly
But the Chinese people remained unbroken
And there deaths wouldn’t occur calmly

Dristar faced no resistance
As he had south of the Ming capital
Only a token force was left in Beijing, as Dristar wished for assistance
In his sieges, and the Ming ruler was proving unflappable

The Emperor of the Romano-Mongols thought nothing of
The lack of Ming opposition
He assumed he was being assisted by forces above
And the invasion was keeping to tradition

This was a bad move
For the Ming were really preparing
To remove
His allies through an act of daring
 
Seems like the Ming is too cunning for dear old Alp and Dristar. Cunning like a cunning fox who has just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.
 
Seems like the Ming is too cunning for dear old Alp and Dristar. Cunning like a cunning fox who has just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.

For Dristar, yes. For Alp... well, you'll see.
 
Book 2: Chapter 3
Dristar suspected none of that
And he occupied his time sieging
Occasionally, he would have a chat
Or two with his men about their feelings

A few were honest
But most were not
No one was at their calmest
Around the emperor, and truth wasn’t found in that spot

That would prove disastrous
As most of China’s North was subdued
No one had that trust
That often kept emperors out of feuds

Dristar’s paranoia was nonexistent
At the time where it was most needed
It was yet distant
But that was when it should have been seeded

The Ming marched toward their capital
And the Romano-Mongols were busy dealing with their own conquests
Normally, the Ming soldiers were implacable
During the wars aimed at their conquests

Now, however, they fought angrily
For they despised the Mongols
Dristar didn’t understand that satisfactorily
So he went about his war from all the wrong angles

Still, neither side had reached the other
Dristar had no reason to expect defeat
He had no idea that he was to be Marcellus, rather
Than Attila, ruler of an empire complete

Actually, to an extent, he was Attila
He would lose an empire through poor planning
He couldn’t know that he was trapped between Charybdis and Scylla,
Of course, so he spent his time, for his victory, planning
 
Book 2: Chapter 4
But he didn’t look to secure said victory
And that is why he isn’t known
Or remembered by history
His faults were shown

Still, he wasn’t totally incompetent
For he did have messengers
Where the Romano-Mongols were dominant
One came toward him, then, bearing messages

These messages told of an attack on the Chagatai Khanate,
But they were dismissed.
“The Chagatai Khan believes himself Genghis Khan incarnate,”
Dristar said. “They should be able to resist.”

His sieges continued,
And the Romano-Mongols grew complacent
Soon, Dristar didn’t even send out scouting retinues
He believed his victory to be nascent

Luckily, his advisers convinced him this was a bad idea
As the Ming could use it to gain the element of surprise
And that would be a
Huge shame, losing due to the enemy knowing how to surprise

Dristar reluctantly obeyed them
But he made it clear that he was the ruler,
Refusing to let them condemn
His decisions, for his word was law as the Emperor

As such, he got new advisers
After this debacle
These men allowed him to be their supervisor
And to not allow his reign to topple

The Ming didn’t arrive,
And the men began to get restless,
But they wished to remain alive,
And they weren’t headless

Due to that, their complaints were infrequent,
For Dristar’s temper was legendary,
So they allowed the sieges to go on sequent,
As everything was, to their lives, secondary
 
Book 2, Chapter 5
Dristar waited
And, then, he received news of the Chagatai capital under siege
The Chagatai were hated,
But he was still their liege

Dristar disliked it,
But he decided to send token reinforcements
He expected that to be the end of it
But the Ming had informants

They quickly got wind of this new development
And the Ming returned to the vassal Khanate
When the reinforcements arrived, they quickly learned of the envelopment
Of the Chagatai army in their capital city but this they did not hate

No, they wished to bleed the Chagatai dry
For they had been at odds for years
And the Romano-Mongols had no wish to see the Chagatai Khan fly high
Even if it was only in the eyes of his peers
 
Book 2, Chapter 6
The Chagatai sent Dristar a message
A demand for aid
Dristar left them to become a wreckage
They were insolent, and the debt of that had to be paid

Dristar smiled a terrible smile,
Indeed, a cruel smile at that
And his men knew that the war would still last awhile
But orders still emerged from Dristar’s lips were at

And no one was willing to disobey their monarch
Lest their disobedience become a flame
For no one liked Dristar, and any act of disobedience would be a spark
And that act of disobedience would force the man who did it to bear the blame

Dristar knew, however, that he wasn’t loved
So he called one of his generals into his camp to receive orders
Who wasn’t completely unloved
And, for many years, had defended the borders

His name was Olkhunut
And he fought with distinction
Still, trust was something he had, but
The Emperor needed someone who could keep his culture from being forced into extinction

He ordered this general to quell local unrest
For the Empire had to be stable while it was conquering
They’d fought against their subjects and foreigners before, but that was under the Empire’s best
And Dristar couldn’t be offering

Such an ambitious campaign
When his talents were unknown
Ambition was many rulers’s bane
And this campaign couldn’t be blown
 
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Book 2, Chapter 7
Therefore, the campaign was entrusted to Olkhunut,
Who Dristar knew he could trust
He was a man who wanted glory but
He believed in the Romano-Mongol state - he wouldn’t fall to power’s lust

Dristar stayed
For Beijing couldn’t be lost
And it wouldn’t be unless Dristar was faced with a blade
For his death would be too high a cost

Beijing was leverage
Leveled right at the Ming Empire’s heart
It was no city that was average
For capitals were cities that were apart

The Ming Emperors lived in Beijing
And the city was a symbol of their rule
To lose it could bring
Their entire regime into war’s whirlpool

Unfortunately, the Forbidden City had yet to fall
But it would eventually - if only it remained under siege
Its fall would call
To the Emperor and battle would be joined between the lieges

Olkhunut, meanwhile, moved north
His path was initially unimpeded
It seemed as if the rebels refused to come forth
Thankfully, a battle wasn’t strictly needed

If the rebels were cowards,
Then they couldn’t take any cities.
Their rebellion’s morale would plunge ever downwards,
And their influence would be reduced to that of mere committees.

It seemed, however, as if the rebels realized this,
For they began to raid Olkhunut’s camps
They stole supplies and generally ended Olkhunut’s bliss.
As a result, Olkhunut’s strategy had revamps.
 
Seems like Olkhunut has his hands full.
 
Seems like Olkhunut has his hands full.

Oh, he will. To be fair, our emperor isn't going to stop attempting to gain glory on the battlefield for a while.

Of course, anybody who has read Rise of the Romano-Mongols knows how Emperor Dristar turned out.