BirdNES 3: When Worlds Collide
- Thread starter Birdjaguar
- Start date
Player Openings:
England
The Ottoman empire
The Delhi Sultanate
England
The Ottoman empire
The Delhi Sultanate
Kentharu
Zebra Commander
From Alfonso II, King of Naples and Jerusalem
To Charles VIII, King of France, Brittany and Burgundy
Know that you, and your descendents shall forever be first in my heart, and the hearts of the people of Naples. Though we longer acknowledge you as our father, know that we shall forever embrace you as a brother, for it is with you that we shall prosper ever more.
Blessed is King Charles VIII, most noble of nobles.
To Charles VIII, King of France, Brittany and Burgundy
Know that you, and your descendents shall forever be first in my heart, and the hearts of the people of Naples. Though we longer acknowledge you as our father, know that we shall forever embrace you as a brother, for it is with you that we shall prosper ever more.
Blessed is King Charles VIII, most noble of nobles.
LittleBoots
The Bloody Banner
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2006
- Messages
- 1,979
TO: Alfonso, Second of that Name, Pious Child of God, Most Catholic King, AND Charles, Eighth of that Name, Wise Emperor, Most Catholic King
FROM: Gregory, Servant of the Servants of God
The heavens rejoice at your concord, and you set an example before all the kings of Christendom, for as one brother to another, so each of you deals with other. You are both constantly at the center of my prayers, blessings be upon you both.
FROM: Gregory, Servant of the Servants of God
The heavens rejoice at your concord, and you set an example before all the kings of Christendom, for as one brother to another, so each of you deals with other. You are both constantly at the center of my prayers, blessings be upon you both.
das
Regeneration In Process
Hmm. Birdjaguar, when is the actual deadline? There is some ongoing diplomacy I'd like to settle before then, and I'd like to know how much time I have left, if at all.
I start updating stats and outlining the update as orders come in; once that is complete, I start to write. I accept orders up until I begin writing. So, go ahead and get your diplo completed and then send in your orders. If I know they are coming, I can make accommodations.
I have a big pile of orders atm, so I have plenty to do and my wife just decided that we need to redo the kitchen floor. I believe the workmen start next week.
I have a big pile of orders atm, so I have plenty to do and my wife just decided that we need to redo the kitchen floor. I believe the workmen start next week.
Immaculate
unerring
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Messages
- 7,623
i just read some of your updates for the first time; your writing is very impressive BJ.
EDIT: Can i take over for England?
If so,
To Ireland:
From England:
My father King Henry VII was a wise man but as his illness grew greater... well... you see the results.
Alas, he has now passed on and it is my turn to take the mantle of leadership and I, for one, am not eager to send the men of England and Ireland to the next life without righteous cause. And so, indeed, we are interested in peace between our people.
But your attack upon our forces... and threats upon my person... You must decide what path YOU want to tread between our people.
King Henry VIII of England, heir to the now deceased King Henry. (long live the king)
(continued by PM)
To the world's nations:
From England:
King Henry VIII seeks a wife of royal blood. Applicants must come from excellent breeding and have a full womanly figure suitable for bearing many sons.
EDIT: Can i take over for England?
If so,
from update said:
To Ireland:
From England:
My father King Henry VII was a wise man but as his illness grew greater... well... you see the results.
Alas, he has now passed on and it is my turn to take the mantle of leadership and I, for one, am not eager to send the men of England and Ireland to the next life without righteous cause. And so, indeed, we are interested in peace between our people.
But your attack upon our forces... and threats upon my person... You must decide what path YOU want to tread between our people.
King Henry VIII of England, heir to the now deceased King Henry. (long live the king)
(continued by PM)
To the world's nations:
From England:
King Henry VIII seeks a wife of royal blood. Applicants must come from excellent breeding and have a full womanly figure suitable for bearing many sons.
You are England, Immaculate. Thanks.
das
Regeneration In Process
From: Tsar Demetrius II of Russia and the Court of Moscow
To: The Sejms of Poland and Lithuania
It is the will of God that this current war among Christian and Slavic peoples be ceased, and permanent peace established.
We and Our most splendid brother King Michael I have discussed this matter through our respective envoys, and have reached an excellent agreement.
Recognising the illegitimate claims of the Jagiellons as the true cause of all strife between our powers, Michael has graciously agreed to concede all of the Russian lands, with the exception of Volhynia, Galicia and Podolia, which are rightly considered bound to and under the protection of the Polish Crown, to the rightful inheritors of the Great Princes of Kiev. In reward for his righteousness, We shall not place any war contributions on Michael or his people in the Sejms, but will ourselves send him [2000 EP] so as to assist his Slavic and Christian cause.
Now as for the nobles of the realm whose estates in Russia will now come under Muscovite rule, know that We do not hold any of them as Our enemies for having fought for monarchs they have sworn to serve. Nevertheless a man cannot serve two masters and so We require that they make a choice to either stay on their lands and swear allegiance to Us, who will protect their justly deserved privileges upon Our own discretion, or follow King Michael and move west, forfeiting their Russian estates but receiving a humble monetary compensation from Us who wish to see the noblemen of the Republic as Our friends and allies in the future.
Now as for those of them who will prefer to stay, as well as for the Latin clergy in the Russian lands, know that We are a Christian ruler and a protector of true Orthodoxy, but will respect the customs of Our new subjects, for is it not shameful if the Turkish Sultan should be known to treat Christians better than they treat one another? Therefore the Catholic Church and its servants will not be driven out, but will be called upon to moderate its preaching and to recognise Our rule and not conspire against it, lest Our mercy be revoked. And as for those nobles who persist in being Latin, they too shall be allowed to choose as they will in this matter, and will not be forbidden to maintain the churches on their lands or hindered in their service to Ourselves.
Lastly, We will announce the joyous news of the birth of Our son Ivan Dmitriyevich, which We have taken as an omen for the conclusion of the war. God wills that Russia and the Republic be reconciled, and so provided the means to do so; thus when Our heir becomes of age, We propose that he should wed a suitable female relative of King Michael, and with this and the reception of the dowry [which is the Glinski estates in newly-Muscovite territories], future peace shall be ensured.
EDIT: OOC: Actually, okay, here's a rough map. Feel free to adjust it for aesthetics/geographical details I just plain missed.
To: The Sejms of Poland and Lithuania
It is the will of God that this current war among Christian and Slavic peoples be ceased, and permanent peace established.
We and Our most splendid brother King Michael I have discussed this matter through our respective envoys, and have reached an excellent agreement.
Recognising the illegitimate claims of the Jagiellons as the true cause of all strife between our powers, Michael has graciously agreed to concede all of the Russian lands, with the exception of Volhynia, Galicia and Podolia, which are rightly considered bound to and under the protection of the Polish Crown, to the rightful inheritors of the Great Princes of Kiev. In reward for his righteousness, We shall not place any war contributions on Michael or his people in the Sejms, but will ourselves send him [2000 EP] so as to assist his Slavic and Christian cause.
Now as for the nobles of the realm whose estates in Russia will now come under Muscovite rule, know that We do not hold any of them as Our enemies for having fought for monarchs they have sworn to serve. Nevertheless a man cannot serve two masters and so We require that they make a choice to either stay on their lands and swear allegiance to Us, who will protect their justly deserved privileges upon Our own discretion, or follow King Michael and move west, forfeiting their Russian estates but receiving a humble monetary compensation from Us who wish to see the noblemen of the Republic as Our friends and allies in the future.
Now as for those of them who will prefer to stay, as well as for the Latin clergy in the Russian lands, know that We are a Christian ruler and a protector of true Orthodoxy, but will respect the customs of Our new subjects, for is it not shameful if the Turkish Sultan should be known to treat Christians better than they treat one another? Therefore the Catholic Church and its servants will not be driven out, but will be called upon to moderate its preaching and to recognise Our rule and not conspire against it, lest Our mercy be revoked. And as for those nobles who persist in being Latin, they too shall be allowed to choose as they will in this matter, and will not be forbidden to maintain the churches on their lands or hindered in their service to Ourselves.
Lastly, We will announce the joyous news of the birth of Our son Ivan Dmitriyevich, which We have taken as an omen for the conclusion of the war. God wills that Russia and the Republic be reconciled, and so provided the means to do so; thus when Our heir becomes of age, We propose that he should wed a suitable female relative of King Michael, and with this and the reception of the dowry [which is the Glinski estates in newly-Muscovite territories], future peace shall be ensured.
EDIT: OOC: Actually, okay, here's a rough map. Feel free to adjust it for aesthetics/geographical details I just plain missed.
Attachments
Ninja Dude
Sorry, I wasn't listening...
I'll be sending in orders tomorrow. Sorry for the delay >_<
^^Not a problem.
das: Please include a map of the peace boundaries here or in your orders. Thanks.
das: Please include a map of the peace boundaries here or in your orders. Thanks.
das
Regeneration In Process
I'm too lazy to make maps! 
Okay, maybe I'll see what I can do. Alternatively, there is a map of regions of Poland-Lithuania we used for the negotiations. Would that, plus some instructions, be an acceptable substitute in a pinch?
EDIT: Well, here's something "here".
Okay, maybe I'll see what I can do. Alternatively, there is a map of regions of Poland-Lithuania we used for the negotiations. Would that, plus some instructions, be an acceptable substitute in a pinch?EDIT: Well, here's something "here".
Fabulous, thanks.
das
Regeneration In Process
Yup. Working on the orders as we speak.
Many of you have included stories in with your orders. While i often use them in my updates as source material, I am not very good about using them verbatim in my updates. So please feel free to post them in this thread. Thanks.
alex994
Hail Divine Emperor!
OOC: Sorry, mine will be late(r). 
Luckymoose
The World is Mine
At the time I sent my orders I couldn't send stories. Can I PM you one or two if I get the time?
Yes, or you can post it if you want it public.
das
Regeneration In Process
"Hear me, good people, as I tell you of the stand of Dmitriy the Tsar before Smolensk; but not what you have already heard, from idle tongues and fools repeating commonplace knowledge - like how the Tsar trapped Michael the Apostate with his army, and how he set up his camp before the city, and made the cunning Tatar end his campaign and surrender the fortress and come to talk wih the Tsar about peace, or how a Lithuanian knight, persistant in obedience to pagan gods, tried to put a hex on the Tsar during the feast between the victors and the conquered, and was thwarted by the angels. No, I shall speak to you my own truth, for I was there myself."
The good people at the wooden inn in the small backwater trading town of Solvychegodsk were greeted by a strange sight that day. The man wore the robes of a novice at the monastery, but held himself as a warrior, if not to say - as a boyar. At the same time, he spoke as a street story-teller, yet at the same time with a strange and bitter pride that did not, however, keep him from seeming as though he was laughing at both the ones he spoke to and himself. He seemed too stately and rakish to be a monk, but all the same, in his slightly stooped posture, faded eyes and manner of speech, he seemed broken in some strange way. And some said that he must have been the Devil, while others - that he must be Polish, which might very well be worse; but the innkeeper, a servant of the old Stroganov who built and owned the town, said to those who asked that this man was allowed to do as he liked in this town. And as most of the people who came to the inn and to the town itself were of the kind too inclined to greed and curiosity (which is but greed for knowledge), it is no wonder that the man had many listeners. He told things both curious and strange, and quite alarming to think about for too long.
Like any good story-teller, he started from afar, from the year 7011 from the Foundation of the World, when Dmitriy the Young was crowned in the new way and received from the Metropolitian of Moscow and by proxy from the Patriarch of Constantinople the title of the Tsar of Russia. At his right hand was the Metropolitian Gennadius, at his left hand was his chief adviser Feodor Kuritsyn, and the one liked the other like the cat likes the mouse. Kuritsyn said, "And now, o Sovereign, you should go consummate your marriage with the Danish princess; for it is one thing to call yourself the Caesar, and another to get the others to acknowledge you; but making friends of Denmark and of France and others would go a long way towards making sure that you are recognised among the lands and even the current Roman Caesar will be forced to recognise your claim to be his equal". And Gennadius fumed and said: "There is not much of consequence to far-off Latin schismatics, and to be equal to one of them would be a diminution. You are the Tsar in God's eyes and the eyes of His true representatives on Earth; and in the eyes of your people as well. Look instead to the Russian lands, o Sovereign. For your ancestors had in times of troubles relinquished their hold on parts of their rightful patrimony, and Russian lands and Russian peoples had slipped away to the rule of debauched and mendacious Latins - Lyakhs and Litvins. Your grandfather took back some of those lands, but others, not excluding Kiev, are still under this intolerable reign! God Himself commands you: prove that you are the Tsar; look not to the West or to the East, but right in front of you; go to war and become the true sovereign over all of Russia". The Tsar considered this and replied...
"Wait, what about the other boyars?" - an old merchant asked - "Since when do a dyak and a pope get to tell the Tsar what to do?" "No one would dare order the Tsar! But the boyars would just follow what he says, they do not have their own heads anymore". - laughed a younger merchant in contempt. "Indeed, I'd love to see them try defy him!" - agreed the storyteller - "For the Tsar's decrees are non-negotiable even for birds and beasts, as all men know. Still, it is true that the Duma Boyars are supposed to help him with advice, and help him they did! But here is the amazing thing: their advice matched word for word what Feodor whispered or Gennadiy yelled. Amazing are the works of God."
Regardless, in the end the Tsar replied: "I have listened to your advice, and I decided that I love to enforce the claims of my ancestors. Therefore it behooves me to put trust in God and in the warriors of Rus, and to go and make war upon the Poles, so that my truth and the Lord's truth might prevail, and also so that my enemies are humbled and my standing elevated among the rulers of the world, for have not Svyatoslav and Alexander and my predecessor Dmitriy of the Don won their greatest glory on the battlefield, and are not many Latins famous for wars?" And all agreed that it was wise, and were glad that the Tsar had listened to their advice and did not so much as imprison any one of them, as his grandfather was known to do. Gennadiy nevertheless worried that the Tsar was so interested in the deeds and the opinions of the Latins, though he himself was known to seek counsel with them...
"Ey, do not speak ill of the dead!"
"I merely speak the truth; and it is not true what some say about Gennadiy being an apostate or a hypocrite who wanted secretly to join the Catholic Church, for he hated them more than many merchants hate thieves. But he sought their knowledge for his purposes, as a wise owner would hire a thief to make a lock. But mayhaps now he thought all thieves were dead, or maybe he did not want the Tsar to keep such bad company as his caretaker."
...And Feodor Kuritsyn, who was by then no longer a dyak but a landed boyar, thought it was bad that Gennadiy should have such power over the Tsar's mind as to decide when he would go to war. He himself of course desired after nothing other than the greatness of the Tsar Dmitriy, with his advice of course, and so was not at all opposed to making war upon Poland. Indeed, he had considered it inevitable, and had already sent his spies into the Russian lands of Jagiellons to get the princes and the peoples of those lands to rise up. But he thought it was folly to go to war with Poland before the armies had returned from Finland of our friends the Danes, and wished that the Tsar would seek out more allies.
"Who knows?" - added the storyteller, suddenly thoughtful - "Maybe if the Tsar had listened, we would have gotten Galicia as well, and would not have had to bargain with the Apostate."
"And now you would whiten the heretic and black sorcerer Feodor Kuritsyn!"
"I would no more lie about my late benefactor than I would about his enemies. How else do you think I would have known what was on his mind if I had not been in his employ at the time?" - said the strange novice without any passion, and silence fell upon the inn until he once again picked up his story.
...Nevertheless, once the war had started the quarrels had to recede. Feodor's agents arranged for Russian princes to go over to the Tsar's side in droves, and for the townspeople to rise up and welcome their new ruler; which they were glad to, because their stubbornly resistant Polish lords did not allow them to worship in the proper way, and also because they knew from what Feodor's men - we - had told them that the subjects of the Tsar did not have to pay high tariffs anywhere in his realm. He also sent men to German towns in the Empire, to hire master craftsmen and armourers for the Germantown set up near Moscow...
The storyteller looked around. The merchants, mostly from the old Vladimirian lands, were clearly none too happy to be reminded of Little and White Russian merchants and German craftsmen who had now flooded into Moscow, and Feodor Kuritsyn, who so deceived the Tsar into assisting their competitors, clearly just sunk even lower in their eyes. But they dared not interrupt.
...Gennadiy blessed the warriors of Rus as they had left for war, and had them accompanied by monks bearing icons and sacred banners. Let it be known that he was no fool either; he too had his agents working in Little Russia, and in Kiev the local clergy was preparing to help turn over the city long before the Tsar's army had reached it; and the Crimean Khan menaced the Polish borders on Gennadiy's order and not Feodor's, for it were the Metropolitian's men who had access to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Patriarch of Constantinople is - and there is hardly any shame in it - a partner in the profitable enterprises of the Grand Vizier of the Turks, who could command the Khan. And Pyotr Vasilyevich Obolenskiy-Nagoy and Yuri Zakharyevich Koshkin-Zakharyin and Vasily Ivanovich Patrikeyev and Vasily Fedorovich Shuisky led the Tsar's armies under his eyes, and took Smolensk and other cities, but were stopped for a time at Polotsk.
The storyteller sighed, and paused for breath.
"It was a bad thing that happened after Polotsk." - he finally said - "Vasily Ivanovich blamed Vasily Fedorovich and Vasiliy Fedorovich blamed Vasily Ivanovich, but their defeat was at the hands of God, not Poles; the army they were leading was tired and starving when they were besieging Polotsk, and when the Poles attacked them they could hardly have expected it. It might have ended with those mutual recriminations, but at this time Roman Yuryevich, the son of old Koshkin-Zakharyin, was the Tsar's favourite having been his friend since childhood, and he was envious of the ancient lineages. And it was he who promised both of them help in settling their quarrel before the Tsar when he had asked them to explain themselves, and then told him that they had lost the battle by quarreling among each other and failing to stand up properly against the Poles."
"And the Tsar?"
"The Tsar was dubious," - sighed the man - "But Roman Yuryevich was anxious that his scheme should succeed, and he went to his father. The father sighed, for he saw tat it was folly, but knew that family honour had to be upheld. Now, it is known that Yuri Zakharyevich was for long an ally, if a reluctant one, to Gennadiy the Metropolitian. But Gennadiy was for the time somewhat out of favour, since the Patriarch of Constantinople had refused to raise him to an equal rank. But all knew that it was a momentary disgrace only, and steadfast allies seldom flee their factions during such disgraces, leaving that to smaller people at the court. And so Yuri Zakharyevich turned to Feodor Kuritsyn, and told him that Saint Feodor was watching over him, and that he and his family would support him from now on if he had helped settle the matter in their favour. The two Vasilies were good and valorous warriors, but not the best commanders nor the most prudent allies in the court, unlike the whole clan of Koshkiny-Zakharyiny. And Feodor was ill, he knew his time was short and he needed to make sure that his work lived on beyond him..."
So Feodor told the Tsar that it was folly to let two men command when one could lead instead; and the Tsar took this advice to heart and took charge of the Big Moscow Regiment personally, while the Vasilies were exiled to far-off towns, their ancient lines dishonoured by the whim of an unworthy scion. And in exchange Yuri met with Feodor, and helped him expose the plots of Gennadiy and Sofiya's old supporters, who the Metropolitian had promised to restore to grace. This gave Feodor his - our - last few victories over the Metropolitian, but it is regrettable, what happened to those worthy men."
The merchants spoke among themselves and complained about the boyars and "little dyaks" clouding the Tsar's eyes in this matter. The storyteller merely smirked.
...In any case, Feodor died soon after, while Gennadiy became the Patriarch, and entered Kiev with the Tsar's own army, and the army of his loyal ally Prince Yaroslavskiy. What was left of Feodor's party now gathered around Prince Obolensky and his friends the Koshkiny-Zakharyiny.
"And there was another bad consequence to the illness and death of Feodor before this," - remembered the storyteller.
And he mentioned the name that was on everyone's mind. Michal or Mikhail Glinski, known as the Tatar for being descened from Mamai who was defeated by Dmitriy of the Don, or as the Apostate for having abandoned the Orthodox faith of his ancestors while in far-off Italy.
Of course, many of Glinski's relatives were still Orthodox, and he held many hereditary lands in Lithuania, and quarreled with the Polish king and his closest supporters. And this made him an obvious ally, whom Feodor's men had courted for a long time. But after Polotsk and Feodor's illness, it was said that Mikhail lost all interest in becoming the Tsar's subject, as he greatly disliked Gennadiy, who responded in kind, and also started to consider other plans. Being the sort of devil that would thrive in Italy and Poland, Glinski decided to rebel nevertheless, but instead of bringing his men over to the Tsar's side, he conspired with his Polish friends against the king and his Lithuanian supporters, and took over in the place of the Jagiellons, then vowed to continue the war. And after this, and without Feodor's assistance, there was no way to win over any more supporters from among the nobles to Tsar Dmitriy's side, as half the nobles who had not yet defected hated Glinski but also hated the Tsar, and the other half would have helped the Tsar, but were as eager to help Glinski and uneager to help Gennadiy.
"But what about the battles?" - someone asked, confused.
"The battles the Tsar kept winning, for the most part, but under Glinski the Poles and other foreigners whom he had gathered to his side had started fighting in a smarter and more steadfast way, and so the war stretched on for years. It didn't help," - he laughed - "That Gennadiy and his allies kept the Tsar from his plan of carving up Poland with the help of Latin and Muslim neighbours, though you would think that a hunter would be better off hunting a bear who was stronger and less badly injured than he had expected if he were to call for help from his fellow hunters."
"Now wait," - said someone else, a young man who also seemed out of place among the merchants, being apparently a poor boyars' son hired as a guard - "Weren't the Tsar's warriors still more numerous and strong, and armed with best German weapons and armoured in best Italian armour? Was it not more that the Poles avoided battle for so long?"
"They did," - confirmed the strange man - "But how they did so, and how they then in spite of all their disadvantages managed to get back into Smolensk... Well, that ties in well with the story I have come to tell today. But before I tell you about Smolensk, and the battle, and the stand, and the feast, and the peace, I would have a drink."
---
OOC: And Birdjaguar would have to update.
Sorry, this story ended up going in a different direction in its first half, while its second half kind of depends on what else happens in the update and would work better after it. Ah well, on the bright side I got to catch up with the previous updates story-wise.
The good people at the wooden inn in the small backwater trading town of Solvychegodsk were greeted by a strange sight that day. The man wore the robes of a novice at the monastery, but held himself as a warrior, if not to say - as a boyar. At the same time, he spoke as a street story-teller, yet at the same time with a strange and bitter pride that did not, however, keep him from seeming as though he was laughing at both the ones he spoke to and himself. He seemed too stately and rakish to be a monk, but all the same, in his slightly stooped posture, faded eyes and manner of speech, he seemed broken in some strange way. And some said that he must have been the Devil, while others - that he must be Polish, which might very well be worse; but the innkeeper, a servant of the old Stroganov who built and owned the town, said to those who asked that this man was allowed to do as he liked in this town. And as most of the people who came to the inn and to the town itself were of the kind too inclined to greed and curiosity (which is but greed for knowledge), it is no wonder that the man had many listeners. He told things both curious and strange, and quite alarming to think about for too long.
Like any good story-teller, he started from afar, from the year 7011 from the Foundation of the World, when Dmitriy the Young was crowned in the new way and received from the Metropolitian of Moscow and by proxy from the Patriarch of Constantinople the title of the Tsar of Russia. At his right hand was the Metropolitian Gennadius, at his left hand was his chief adviser Feodor Kuritsyn, and the one liked the other like the cat likes the mouse. Kuritsyn said, "And now, o Sovereign, you should go consummate your marriage with the Danish princess; for it is one thing to call yourself the Caesar, and another to get the others to acknowledge you; but making friends of Denmark and of France and others would go a long way towards making sure that you are recognised among the lands and even the current Roman Caesar will be forced to recognise your claim to be his equal". And Gennadius fumed and said: "There is not much of consequence to far-off Latin schismatics, and to be equal to one of them would be a diminution. You are the Tsar in God's eyes and the eyes of His true representatives on Earth; and in the eyes of your people as well. Look instead to the Russian lands, o Sovereign. For your ancestors had in times of troubles relinquished their hold on parts of their rightful patrimony, and Russian lands and Russian peoples had slipped away to the rule of debauched and mendacious Latins - Lyakhs and Litvins. Your grandfather took back some of those lands, but others, not excluding Kiev, are still under this intolerable reign! God Himself commands you: prove that you are the Tsar; look not to the West or to the East, but right in front of you; go to war and become the true sovereign over all of Russia". The Tsar considered this and replied...
"Wait, what about the other boyars?" - an old merchant asked - "Since when do a dyak and a pope get to tell the Tsar what to do?" "No one would dare order the Tsar! But the boyars would just follow what he says, they do not have their own heads anymore". - laughed a younger merchant in contempt. "Indeed, I'd love to see them try defy him!" - agreed the storyteller - "For the Tsar's decrees are non-negotiable even for birds and beasts, as all men know. Still, it is true that the Duma Boyars are supposed to help him with advice, and help him they did! But here is the amazing thing: their advice matched word for word what Feodor whispered or Gennadiy yelled. Amazing are the works of God."
Regardless, in the end the Tsar replied: "I have listened to your advice, and I decided that I love to enforce the claims of my ancestors. Therefore it behooves me to put trust in God and in the warriors of Rus, and to go and make war upon the Poles, so that my truth and the Lord's truth might prevail, and also so that my enemies are humbled and my standing elevated among the rulers of the world, for have not Svyatoslav and Alexander and my predecessor Dmitriy of the Don won their greatest glory on the battlefield, and are not many Latins famous for wars?" And all agreed that it was wise, and were glad that the Tsar had listened to their advice and did not so much as imprison any one of them, as his grandfather was known to do. Gennadiy nevertheless worried that the Tsar was so interested in the deeds and the opinions of the Latins, though he himself was known to seek counsel with them...
"Ey, do not speak ill of the dead!"
"I merely speak the truth; and it is not true what some say about Gennadiy being an apostate or a hypocrite who wanted secretly to join the Catholic Church, for he hated them more than many merchants hate thieves. But he sought their knowledge for his purposes, as a wise owner would hire a thief to make a lock. But mayhaps now he thought all thieves were dead, or maybe he did not want the Tsar to keep such bad company as his caretaker."
...And Feodor Kuritsyn, who was by then no longer a dyak but a landed boyar, thought it was bad that Gennadiy should have such power over the Tsar's mind as to decide when he would go to war. He himself of course desired after nothing other than the greatness of the Tsar Dmitriy, with his advice of course, and so was not at all opposed to making war upon Poland. Indeed, he had considered it inevitable, and had already sent his spies into the Russian lands of Jagiellons to get the princes and the peoples of those lands to rise up. But he thought it was folly to go to war with Poland before the armies had returned from Finland of our friends the Danes, and wished that the Tsar would seek out more allies.
"Who knows?" - added the storyteller, suddenly thoughtful - "Maybe if the Tsar had listened, we would have gotten Galicia as well, and would not have had to bargain with the Apostate."
"And now you would whiten the heretic and black sorcerer Feodor Kuritsyn!"
"I would no more lie about my late benefactor than I would about his enemies. How else do you think I would have known what was on his mind if I had not been in his employ at the time?" - said the strange novice without any passion, and silence fell upon the inn until he once again picked up his story.
...Nevertheless, once the war had started the quarrels had to recede. Feodor's agents arranged for Russian princes to go over to the Tsar's side in droves, and for the townspeople to rise up and welcome their new ruler; which they were glad to, because their stubbornly resistant Polish lords did not allow them to worship in the proper way, and also because they knew from what Feodor's men - we - had told them that the subjects of the Tsar did not have to pay high tariffs anywhere in his realm. He also sent men to German towns in the Empire, to hire master craftsmen and armourers for the Germantown set up near Moscow...
The storyteller looked around. The merchants, mostly from the old Vladimirian lands, were clearly none too happy to be reminded of Little and White Russian merchants and German craftsmen who had now flooded into Moscow, and Feodor Kuritsyn, who so deceived the Tsar into assisting their competitors, clearly just sunk even lower in their eyes. But they dared not interrupt.
...Gennadiy blessed the warriors of Rus as they had left for war, and had them accompanied by monks bearing icons and sacred banners. Let it be known that he was no fool either; he too had his agents working in Little Russia, and in Kiev the local clergy was preparing to help turn over the city long before the Tsar's army had reached it; and the Crimean Khan menaced the Polish borders on Gennadiy's order and not Feodor's, for it were the Metropolitian's men who had access to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Patriarch of Constantinople is - and there is hardly any shame in it - a partner in the profitable enterprises of the Grand Vizier of the Turks, who could command the Khan. And Pyotr Vasilyevich Obolenskiy-Nagoy and Yuri Zakharyevich Koshkin-Zakharyin and Vasily Ivanovich Patrikeyev and Vasily Fedorovich Shuisky led the Tsar's armies under his eyes, and took Smolensk and other cities, but were stopped for a time at Polotsk.
The storyteller sighed, and paused for breath.
"It was a bad thing that happened after Polotsk." - he finally said - "Vasily Ivanovich blamed Vasily Fedorovich and Vasiliy Fedorovich blamed Vasily Ivanovich, but their defeat was at the hands of God, not Poles; the army they were leading was tired and starving when they were besieging Polotsk, and when the Poles attacked them they could hardly have expected it. It might have ended with those mutual recriminations, but at this time Roman Yuryevich, the son of old Koshkin-Zakharyin, was the Tsar's favourite having been his friend since childhood, and he was envious of the ancient lineages. And it was he who promised both of them help in settling their quarrel before the Tsar when he had asked them to explain themselves, and then told him that they had lost the battle by quarreling among each other and failing to stand up properly against the Poles."
"And the Tsar?"
"The Tsar was dubious," - sighed the man - "But Roman Yuryevich was anxious that his scheme should succeed, and he went to his father. The father sighed, for he saw tat it was folly, but knew that family honour had to be upheld. Now, it is known that Yuri Zakharyevich was for long an ally, if a reluctant one, to Gennadiy the Metropolitian. But Gennadiy was for the time somewhat out of favour, since the Patriarch of Constantinople had refused to raise him to an equal rank. But all knew that it was a momentary disgrace only, and steadfast allies seldom flee their factions during such disgraces, leaving that to smaller people at the court. And so Yuri Zakharyevich turned to Feodor Kuritsyn, and told him that Saint Feodor was watching over him, and that he and his family would support him from now on if he had helped settle the matter in their favour. The two Vasilies were good and valorous warriors, but not the best commanders nor the most prudent allies in the court, unlike the whole clan of Koshkiny-Zakharyiny. And Feodor was ill, he knew his time was short and he needed to make sure that his work lived on beyond him..."
So Feodor told the Tsar that it was folly to let two men command when one could lead instead; and the Tsar took this advice to heart and took charge of the Big Moscow Regiment personally, while the Vasilies were exiled to far-off towns, their ancient lines dishonoured by the whim of an unworthy scion. And in exchange Yuri met with Feodor, and helped him expose the plots of Gennadiy and Sofiya's old supporters, who the Metropolitian had promised to restore to grace. This gave Feodor his - our - last few victories over the Metropolitian, but it is regrettable, what happened to those worthy men."
The merchants spoke among themselves and complained about the boyars and "little dyaks" clouding the Tsar's eyes in this matter. The storyteller merely smirked.
...In any case, Feodor died soon after, while Gennadiy became the Patriarch, and entered Kiev with the Tsar's own army, and the army of his loyal ally Prince Yaroslavskiy. What was left of Feodor's party now gathered around Prince Obolensky and his friends the Koshkiny-Zakharyiny.
"And there was another bad consequence to the illness and death of Feodor before this," - remembered the storyteller.
And he mentioned the name that was on everyone's mind. Michal or Mikhail Glinski, known as the Tatar for being descened from Mamai who was defeated by Dmitriy of the Don, or as the Apostate for having abandoned the Orthodox faith of his ancestors while in far-off Italy.
Of course, many of Glinski's relatives were still Orthodox, and he held many hereditary lands in Lithuania, and quarreled with the Polish king and his closest supporters. And this made him an obvious ally, whom Feodor's men had courted for a long time. But after Polotsk and Feodor's illness, it was said that Mikhail lost all interest in becoming the Tsar's subject, as he greatly disliked Gennadiy, who responded in kind, and also started to consider other plans. Being the sort of devil that would thrive in Italy and Poland, Glinski decided to rebel nevertheless, but instead of bringing his men over to the Tsar's side, he conspired with his Polish friends against the king and his Lithuanian supporters, and took over in the place of the Jagiellons, then vowed to continue the war. And after this, and without Feodor's assistance, there was no way to win over any more supporters from among the nobles to Tsar Dmitriy's side, as half the nobles who had not yet defected hated Glinski but also hated the Tsar, and the other half would have helped the Tsar, but were as eager to help Glinski and uneager to help Gennadiy.
"But what about the battles?" - someone asked, confused.
"The battles the Tsar kept winning, for the most part, but under Glinski the Poles and other foreigners whom he had gathered to his side had started fighting in a smarter and more steadfast way, and so the war stretched on for years. It didn't help," - he laughed - "That Gennadiy and his allies kept the Tsar from his plan of carving up Poland with the help of Latin and Muslim neighbours, though you would think that a hunter would be better off hunting a bear who was stronger and less badly injured than he had expected if he were to call for help from his fellow hunters."
"Now wait," - said someone else, a young man who also seemed out of place among the merchants, being apparently a poor boyars' son hired as a guard - "Weren't the Tsar's warriors still more numerous and strong, and armed with best German weapons and armoured in best Italian armour? Was it not more that the Poles avoided battle for so long?"
"They did," - confirmed the strange man - "But how they did so, and how they then in spite of all their disadvantages managed to get back into Smolensk... Well, that ties in well with the story I have come to tell today. But before I tell you about Smolensk, and the battle, and the stand, and the feast, and the peace, I would have a drink."
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OOC: And Birdjaguar would have to update.
Sorry, this story ended up going in a different direction in its first half, while its second half kind of depends on what else happens in the update and would work better after it. Ah well, on the bright side I got to catch up with the previous updates story-wise.
qoou
Emperor
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2007
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I'll hopefully be able to finish orders and send them soon. I fully trust Bird's NPC-ing though 
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One other thing I remember:
Bird, you underestimate the Romanian Principalities. It hasn't even been a generation since Stephen the Great utterly humiliated Poland, Hungary, and the Turks, all within the same reign, and on top of it all received high praise from the Pope even though he wasn't even Catholic. Those guys are some scary mfers to go up against in forests/mountains/marshes, and they like to pick their battles so that's the only place you'll have a chance to fight them.
.One other thing I remember:
Bird, you underestimate the Romanian Principalities. It hasn't even been a generation since Stephen the Great utterly humiliated Poland, Hungary, and the Turks, all within the same reign, and on top of it all received high praise from the Pope even though he wasn't even Catholic. Those guys are some scary mfers to go up against in forests/mountains/marshes, and they like to pick their battles so that's the only place you'll have a chance to fight them.
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