Test of Time - Byzantium

The Test of Time - Byzantium

Inspired by several good stories on this forum (The French Struggle by DMOC, Princes of the Universe by Sisiutil or the RPC's of slobberinbear to name a few) I finally decided to write an own story, based around a game of Civilization.

The game is played in a fully patched version Civilization IV: BTS 3.17, with as an addition the BUG & BAT mod on. The changes that come with BAT are non-gameplay related, that mod provides for more cultural diversity with the units (and also changes the flags, so some flags might seem weird). Also note that this mod, when playing as the Byzantines, provides for a 'Byzantine' style rather than going the historical route and making the Ancient/Classical age units in either the Greek or Roman style - since historically, the Byzantine Empire grew from the Greek part of the Roman Empire. But hey, this is not about history. Civilizations and persons described in this story, while (sometimes) loosely being based on history, have no link to the real historical civilizations and persons... blah blah blah, you probably already saw that coming.

For those who do not know about the BAT mod or other cultural diversity mods, you should really check them out. Finally you can see a difference between English, Roman, Mongolian, Zulu and Aztec gunpowder age units!

To the BUG&BAT team and the artists who have made the custom units go the credits.

The difficulty level is Emperor, the speed is Marathon. While it is primarily a story rather than a game of Civ, gameplay discussion is still welcome. Constructive criticism (what could I do better?) is also welcome. Flaming is not. Duh.

I went for a Tectonics map, with 60% water. Regular Tectonics maps are quickly becoming a favorite for my usually war-dominated games, mainly because the more earthlike structures allow for an interesting military game (particularly chokepoints are good with the mountain ranges tectonics create) as well as a strong naval side created by the often long coastlines of Tectonics. 60% water instead of Earthlike (with 70% water) allows for more peaceful expansion - Earthlike maps are IMHO too crammed at the regular number of civilizations. To compensate for the extra room, there are 2 extra civilizations on the map.

Finally, the civilization is the Byzantine civilization, led by Justinian I - or in this game, simply Justinian. There are 8 AI's on the map. Gameplay is no-holds-barred.

Prologue: The Dying Man

"Is he going to be all right?"

Alexius, priest of the Byzantines, gave a grave look at the young Justinian. "No. I still do not know what kind of animal bit him, though I know it was no ordinary bite. You see, if he was bitten by ... say... a wolf, the bite would be bloody, but still have the proper colour. The animal that bit him, however, gives no clean bite. The wound is discoloured, which means a venom of some kind. I cannot help him anymore... Constantine is going to die soon, likely within the next hours. I'm sorry."

"Can I still speak to him?"

"Yes, you may enter to try to speak to him. I'm not sure you might be able to get something useful out of him... I have noticed that very ill people are often not well in their thoughts. He might not even hear you."

Justinian walked in. His mentor - Constantine, chieftain of the Byzantines - lay on a bed, hardly alive. The venom had worked its way quickly through the veins of the venerable chieftain. Yet still, he was just alive enough to convey words onto the young Justinian.

"For a long time I have been your mentor, young Justinian... " Constantine spoke in a hoarse, soft voice, "and have been teaching you everything you need to know to lead the Byzantine tribe when I would no longer be able to do so. While my teachings are not complete yet, the gods have decided that my time has come, so there is nothing left for me to do except to transfer the leadership to you. Justinian, you are hereby named chieftain of the Byzantines. May the Byzantines prosper under your leadership... and may you finally find the place where we will settle down for all eternity. There is still one more thing, though..."

Justinian leaned a bit closer to Constantine. "Yes?"

"Justinian. I cannot tell how I know of this, but remember these words and this sign. In this sign you will conquer. If you will later go on to build a city... this will be the sign that will bring you victory. It is carved in this block of wood..."

Justinian looked at the sign on the block. "That doesn't make sense at all. A cross, an elongated bar though the middle with a curl to the right? What is the meaning of this symbol?"

"You will learn in time."

Justinian sounded angry now. "What? You don't even know what it means???"

"No, I do not know either what the symbol means. However, by a divine omen I know it is right. I saw this symbol in my dreams, with the words "In this sign you will conquer. That was all."

Justinian still sounded unbelieving. "You could have been hallucinating. Alexius has told me that illness can do strange things to a man's perception - such as seeing things that are not actually there."

Constantine frowned. "I do not question divine signs, and neither should you. Know that you are a man - a ruler of men maybe, but still a man. You are nothing compared to the gods, and you will not gain any victories without their approval. Show proper respect to the gods, and they will grant you greatness. Defy them, and they will take it all away."

He did not know anymore - Justinian could not hear whether the dying man spoke truth or hallucination. Sad, he walked out. "Constantine... I will remember you as in better days." Several hours later, Alexius brought the news to a thunderstruck tribe: Constantine, the man who had united several smaller tribes in the larger Byzantine tribe, had died to the venom of an animal bite. The tribe mourned for a day, then went on to seek what Constantine had been looking for... a place to stay forever, to cast away their nomadic ancestry and to build a civilization. That had been Constantine's dream.




Years had passed since then... but for this particular day, the memory came back to a now older Justinian. Today, the Byzantines were finally ready to begin building their settlement. Justinian spoke to the tribe:

"For you, Constantine, founder of the Byzantine tribe: I shall name the city in your honor. Its name shall be Constantinople - the city of Constantine. Even though your last day was perhaps somewhat... err... unworthy of someone like you were, I owe you at least that much. May your name, in founding this city, endure forever. Now let us start building to honor him!" The tribe cheered him, and started on the city.

Yet even though Justinian again spoke that Constantine was hallucinating on his deathbed, the strange symbol that Constantine had shown him still remained in his mind. Was it really just a hallucination of a dying man... or a sign of a greater truth?

Only time would tell.

Chapter 1: Tribal Dealings

The surroundings of Constantinople were well known since the days of Constantine, when the tribe had been scouting for a city.

But as Constantinople grew, so did the yearning of the people to learn more - more than fell directly within Constantinople's sphere of influence.

And so Michael - a black-haired man of average height and posture, explorer by profession - had been sent out to scout out beyond the reaches of Constantinople, at the head of an exploration party composed of himself, Nikos who was responsible for making the map which he neatly did with a knife and a piece of wood, a small group of warriors armed with clubs to ward off animals and hostile tribes. They also carried some small Byzantine trinkets with them - to trade for with other tribes, in the hope they could learn more about this world and the peoples that inhabited it.

Nikos carved some signs in his piece of wood. "Forest, south of us right now, east of the lake and the river we found."



"I hear drums in that forest." Nikos remarked.
"Yes, Nikos", Michael replied, "I hear them too. Must be a tribe or something. I don't think those are drums of war, so we should be safe. Nikos, come with me. The rest of you, stay behind. We're going to check those drums out."

The burly, grim-looking head of the armed troops - named Andreas - scratched his head. "So you're saying that you and Nikos there are simply going to walk into that village without any weapons, and try to deal with them? What if they are hostile?"
Michael sighed. For Andreas, everything was reason to bash heads with that club he carried along. "That is EXACTLY why I'm not bring armed men along. Most people are as primitive to assume if someone is wielding a weapon, that he wants to use it on someone. Which, as far as you are concerned, is true."

Andreas grinned sheepishly.

"And thus, there is also a way of signalling peaceful intent", Michael continued, "namely not to bring any weapons or warriors along. They will assume that we are not looking for a fight, and so they will deal with us in peace. And since I presume that such a tribe will likely not understand the need to bring warriors along - such as for protection from wild animals - it's probably best for you and your warriors to stay in the forest, Andreas. These dealings do not concern you. Wait for me to return."

"But what if..."

"Relax, Andreas. That tribe is not hostile. I'll come back." He turned himself to Nikos. "Nikos! Take the goods, we're going to that village to try and trade some." Silently, Nikos complied with their leader's wishes.

As Michael and Nikos headed for the village, Michael sighed again. Nikos told him: "Frustrating as it sometimes is, Andreas is indeed a simple man, but a good one as well. He likes to fight and is proficient enough with the club to do that justice, yet he is also genuinely concerned with the well-being of the scouting party and our safety. He means well... he just does not understand the subtle notions of diplomacy." Michael nodded in agreement.

And sure enough, Michael's gut instinct had proved correct. The villagers were not hostile, and as the two Byzantines walked into the village, nobody drew their weapons. Sure enough, the two were followed by curious eyes who wondered who these two strangely-dressed men were, but out of innate human curiosity, not out of fear.

Michael walked towards the easily recognizable chieftain: the only man wearing several necklaces and bracelets made out of the teeth of some wild animal, probably beasts they had killed.

"Nikos, the goods."

Nikos produced some wooden carvings of tribal Byzantine deities, a heritage of the mysticism these tribes possessed. The chieftain looked impressed, and produced some of his own goods.

Much haggling followed, as the two men could not understand each other and tried to cheat the other. A language barrier and the typical self-interest of humans prevented them from reaching an agreement, as goods were added to piles or removed from them again, greedy hands held away from the other's pile, and the two Byzantines were not in agreement either.

There was some rustling in the forest that caught the chieftain's attention. The tribal chieftain turned away from the two haggling men and looked at the plains, from whence the Byzantine scouts had come. Suddenly, his eyes went wide with fear. He signalled something to his tribe, and the tribe fled in terror.

"... what are they doing??? They're running away! Michael, what did you tell them?"
"I told them nothing that would cause them to run away!

The cause of the chief's terror did not need much of an explanation. Andreas came charging into the forest, followed by several other of his warriors, clubs at the ready.
"Andreas! WHY???"

"Um, you took quite a long time to return from the tribal village. Then, I and the other warriors decided that whatever dealings you had with the tribe had taken a bad turn and we decided to charge straight into them. Worked like a charm, no? We sent them running!"
"No, this was NOT good!! I was working out a barter agreement with the tribe for some artifacts of theirs with some of ours, and it was all going fine until he suddenly ran away... because YOU and your bunch of SAVAGES decided to act like a band of BARBARIANS and storm into the village!!! I KNEW I should not have brought an armed party along for dealings with other tribes!"

Birds scattered from the trees in the forest, startled by Michael's angry speech.

Andreas grinned to Michael, as he spotted the goods of the tribe still lying scattered through the abandoned village. "You know, they left their goods right here. Bartering was not necessarily needed. We got what we wanted, and well... they think they got away with their lives from a bunch of barbarians."
"So now we're down to bringing an armed party to other tribes to extort goods from them?"
"Hey, do we care? We got free goods! I bet you one of these trinkets that the Despot won't mind getting free stuff from local tribes either!"
"You're probably right, Andreas. But still... I wonder what we could have learned from them, were it not that you came storming in..."



Michael looked out of the forest, seeing the tribe run for their lives.
"I guess we won't be seeing them again..."

Nice story. Pretty funny at that part. Good Luck!

Chapter 2: The Rival

Night had already fallen over the huts and houses of Constantinople, its guard at ease and reduced to a minimum, its citizens asleep. Yet even as all was asleep in the city, there were still men awake in the palace. Or rather, just the one. Justinian had been suffering from insomnia lately, trying to get questions out of his mind which he simply could not know the answer to. As time had flown by for the Byzantines, it had not for Justinian - the Despot looked and felt exactly the same as he had when he gave the order to found Constantinople. Part of him was happy that he in fact turned out to be ageless - as his seer had put it, since it turned out that he would not age, or die by natural causes. But - he was not immortal. He could still be killed.

Even more foreboding had been the words of his seer that he was not the only one who sought to bring a civilization to glory - as the seer had told him, he was not alone. Other leaders would also come up and try to gain victory over him. It was all too difficult to comprehend right now, even though years had already passed since the foundation of Constantinople.

He turned to his other side in bed, tried to fall asleep for a minute, then decided that he was not going to sleep anytime soon. Instead, it was probably a better idea to take a walk through the nightly streets of Constantinople, maybe even to the sea. He got up and walked out his palace - no more than a house slightly bigger and more ornate than the other houses.

As Justinian headed down the street, he saw that not everybody was asleep. In fact, the small military that remained behind in Constantinople was wide awake, running towards the outskirts of Constantinople. Justinian stopped one of them and inquired 'Why all the activity?'

"Sir, we've sighted non-Byzantine humans near the forests east of Constantinople! We are right now trying to find out their intentions. Draxos went ahead, he might try to talk to them or simply club their heads in. As for now, stay in the city. If they're hostile, it's better for you to stay back a bit. At least we're quite sure they're not a bunch of random barbarians."

"All right. Keep me informed. Good luck." Justinian sat down in front of his palace, still musing a bit on his agelessness and his quest. Would this then be one of his rivals? If so, he had better pay attention - find weaknesses and exploit them.

The men that had shown up were indeed not barbarians. Their clothing was more sophisticated than that - the foreigners all wore odd caps upon their heads and carried sticks for fending off animals.

----

For five minutes, Draxos talked - or rather, tried to talk - with the foreign scouts. He futilely tried to explain that they were the Byzantines from Constantinople, led by Despot Justinian - and that taking a step further towards Constantinople would cost them their heads. The foreigners tried something similar, but their attempts were futile as well.

"I give up." Draxos threw his hands up in despair and turned to the other present Byzantines. "It's utterly useless to try and communicate with them - they do not speak our language and I can't make a thing out of what they say."

One of the soldiers remarked: "You can hear though that two words are spoken with a kind of reverence: 'Pharaoh Hatshepsut'. That might mean their ruler, or one of their gods. I suppose their ruler, though."

Draxos grunted: "Which would probably be translated as 'Despot Justinian'." Laughs broke out under the Byzantines. "Wonder if that ... pha-ra-oh... would be ageless just like Justinian. But unfortunately, we cannot know since we cannot talk."

A young soldier named Matyas then tried something different. He pointed at himself and pronounced the word. "Byzantine" He then pointed at each other man of Draxos' company, each accompanied by the word "Byzantine" Then, he made a wide gesture, trying to indicate the whole group, also accompanied by the word "Byzantine".

Matyas turned to his commander. "There. That should clear up that we are the Byzantines."

One of the foreigners stood up and pointed at himself. "Byzantine?"

The Byzantines broke out in raucous laughter, and Draxos slapped his forehead. "Matyas, now they think that our word for 'man' is 'Byzantine'. Matyas quickly made a gesture of denial to the foreigners and once more tried to explain that they were the Byzantines and the foreigners were not. Matyas' crude attempt at communication by gestures did not go without fruit, however. The leader of the foreign scouts pointed at his group and said something that sounded like 'Egypt' to the Byzantines.

Matyas cleared things up between the two groups. First, pointing at his own: 'Byzantines'. Then, pointing at the foreigners: 'Egypt'. Both groups gave signs of agreement.

Draxos stood up. "Matyas, how about you try and work out some of the language barrier with those 'Egyptians'. I'm going back to Constantinople and try to get Justinian over here to help understanding them. I don't know how he's going to react to the foreigners, and with maybe another ageless leader leading them... this might be very interesting to him. Would this be enough news to wake him for?"

Matyas smiled. "That's a question we will never answer. He was still awake when the Egyptians arrived. I'll see you soon."

----

Justinian arrived somewhat later, and tried to make agreements to meet Hatshepsut in person. While still struggling with the language, he could convince the Egyptians to ask Hatshepsut to come to Constantinople. One part of the Egyptian scouting party would head back and try to convince Hatshepsut to come to Constantinople, the others would brief him on the language so that the two of them could talk. Justinian would have enough time to learn a bit of Egyptian before Hatshephut came.

And Hatshepsut came. Days later, the Egyptian scouts returned with the Pharaoh and an escorte of guards.



----

Justinian watched with slight amusement, as he saw the Byzantine guardsmen stare in disbelief as the Egyptians parted and made way for Hatshepsut. 'This is not what they expected' he thought to himself, not entirely surpressing his grin. And granted, were it not that she wore a crown, nothing pointed at that small woman being the god-queen of Egypt. 'God-queen' he reminded himself - the Egyptians revered Hatshepsut as a god. 'Odd culture. Here, we see the leader as a man... an ageless man, but a man nonetheless' As Hatshepsut walked forward through the palace, Justinian rose to greet her.

"I, Justinian, Despot of the Byzantines, hereby welcome you to Constantinople."
"Justinian! I am the Horus, mighty by his Kas, the lord of East and West abounding in years, the golden falcon, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Kamara, the daughter of Ra, Khnumit Amon, Hatshepsut."



From the corner of his eye, Justinian saw two of the Byzantines sniggering. He figured one of them had made a remark along the lines of 'That's a lot of words to say you rule Egypt'. Justinian knew, however, that formal greetings could become a bit drawn-out and ritualistic, and if your people saw you as a god, greetings became even longer and more reverent. 'It's simply their way of saying hello.' he thought. And so the formal greetings between the Egyptians and the Byzantines went on, until Justinian dismissed the guards, seated himself at a small table in the palace, and asked Hatshephut to do the same. She did, and the two leaders seated themselves to talk.

Neither of the two had much to say to the other, however. Both civilizations were still young, and neither of the two was willing to give away much information over his civilization or future plans - for Justinian, it was simply too early to tell whether Hatshepsut was a friend or a foe - though he could discern that Hatshepsut did not seem to be interested that much in military matters. That, if anything, was a good sign. Hatshepsut's talk was mostly of cultural achievement - the building of shrines to the gods, and plans for even bigger shrines to build besides them.

After about half a hour, both had said enough to the other. Peace was declared between Egypt and Byzantium, and well-wishes were exchanged at the parting.

"May peace last for over a thousand years."
"May Ra smile upon your country, like he smiles upon mine."

Then, Hatshepsut recalled her guards, and the Egyptians left. Justinian left the palace as well, and looked after them in the distance.

"Sir?" Draxos asked. "What did you find out about them?"
"Not too much, it seems. Like myself, the god-queen of Egypt was reluctant to give away much of her future plans. Her talk was mostly of culture and buildings and few mentions of the Egyptian military - either she's not interested in military matters or she manages to hide it well."

Draxos looked pensive.
"For now, we must prepare and build up. I doubt she will be the only one to challenge us. Tell someone to keep an eye on the Egyptians - what they are doing, what their research is directed to and the strength of their military. Find Egypt and map it out. We have to be prepared."
"Yes, sir." With these words, Draxos walked away, leaving Justinian alone to think.

Good story so far, looking forward to more.

Indeed. You're off to a good start and I'm looking forward to more.

Chapter 3: Tribal Dealings, Part Two

"That makes two." said a grinning Andreas. The scouts had just met another tribe... or well, not really met them. At the site of the tribal encampment now rested some valuable tribal artifacts, while the tribe had hastily scurried off at the sight of the scouts. "And this time, it's not even my fault. Since seeing animals hulk around, you wanted to have an armed escort, and the tribesmen ran away. How convenient."



Michael sighed. "I'm still amazed you support stealing valuable goods from tribes."

Andreas responded. "And I'm still amazed you call it stealing. If people run away when seeing armed men, it's not our fault that people run away and leave their valuable goods behind because we need to carry clubs for protection. Technically, we're not stealing goods."

"No, technically it's not stealing. Technically, it's robbery."

Andreas suppressed a laugh as he heard the leader of the scouts lecture him on morality. Wasn't it mighty convenient that they had come by extra goods to fill the treasure chest of Constantinople?

"No, Andreas, it's not really funny. How would you like it if people tried such a stunt on you?"
"I'd club them in their faces until they ran away."
"And what if there are ten of them, and you are alone?"
"I'd still club them."
"But you would be clubbed to death yourself!"
"Like any of them barbarians know how to wield a club!"
"They can, Andreas! You've simply not met them yet!!"

Nikos butted in. "When you two are finished with exchanging your wisdom, please stay quiet a bit. I think I saw something in the distance, on those hills."

Michael, Andreas and the other scouts looked at the hills Nikos pointed to. Clad in yellow and green, a group of scouts walked over the hills they had seen some time ago.

Andreas grunted. "No Byzantines, those men."
"And nothing like those tribes we... erm... met, either." Michael answered.

One of the scouts saw them, then alerted his companions to the new people. The scouts tried to address the Byzantines in their own language, but fell flat as none of the Byzantines understood them.

"Egyptians?" Andreas asked.
"No, these are not Egyptians. A different people. If you go back to Constantinople and get Justinian, I'll convince them to have their leader come as well. Arrange a meeting, just like with the Egyptians... as they said."

Andreas left, while Michael stayed and sweet-talked - as far as he could with the language barrier - the other people into getting their leader as well. He managed to grasp that they were the Aztecs, led by Montezuma. The Aztecs left to get Montezuma: the two would meet on the hill.

---

Justinian looked in astonishment towards Montezuma. "Is that him? Truly, no leader would wear a skull as a headdress??"
Andreas quipped: "They might have sent the village idiot in his place."
"If that is so, how did he come by that skull?" Justinian walked up the hill, not confident at all about the Aztec leader's sanity.

The Aztec leader bowed to Justinian, who shuddered momentarily. While bowing, the skull on Montezuma's head 'stared' in Justinian's eyes, and it creeped him out. His words were even worse. "I am pleased to meet you, Justinian! Let us each slaughter ten thousand slaves to celebrate this auspicious occasion!" Justinian was at a loss what to say to such a man, who killed others with abandon and seemed to wear the skull of one of his victims on his head.



"It seems that we have quite a collection of peoples here in this area. Some time ago, we met Hatshepsut..."

With the mention of Hatshepsut's name, Montezuma's expression soured. "Oh. I see my bad reputation with her has already preceded my coming. Trust me when I say: the world would be better off without her. At my first meeting with her, she already condemned my ways, and said I was doomed to fall would I continue, because Ra could not stand the visage of people sacrificed and would punish me for my evil. In all her feigned glory, she might yet meet her false gods." Montezuma's implications were crystal-clear: he was already eyeing Egypt. "Do you intend to judge me by her lies, or by the glory you see?"



'I'll make up my own damn mind', thought Justinian, 'I will not take the opinions of the Egyptians for truth, though you are not making a good impression on me either right now.' Feigning friendship, Justinian answered: "No, of course not. We will not believe the lies of the Egyptians."

"Then we shall have peace, Justinian. May the altars to the gods never be empty of sacrifice." With these words, Montezuma turned around and left for the Aztec lands, leaving a bunch of 'impressed' Byzantines behind in a lengthy silence. Finally, Andreas broke the silence:

"That man does surely leave an impression, does he not?"
"He's insane." Michael summarized.
"No." Justinian spoke, "twisted, but not insane. He knows perfectly well what he is doing - his ways are simply twisted. He would slaughter his own people for his gods, or simply for himself - but I fear, he would rather slaughter other peoples. Do you understand what I mean?"

Andreas faintly nodded, picturing his own skull on Montezuma's head.

"Then we are on one line. We need to be on alert against him. He might prepare an attack, or even attack on a whim. The same as for Egypt goes: find out where he is, how much troops he has, and how willing he is to attack. Though, if I read his intentions well, he is a man of overconfidence, and he despises the Egyptians, so there is hope he might go for Hatshepsut first."

"And when war does break out?"
"We will see how we can use that to our advantage."

@ everybody who's enjoyed the story so far: Thanks for commenting!

"That man does surely leave an impression, does he not?"

Click to expand...

Loved this line! That's an understatment to be sure!

You're life is going to get real interesting with Monty around.