The Holy Mother Church

[Kennelly]

BACKGROUND NOTES:

This is my first CIV IV tale and it won't be very detailed. As it was a rather boring game (only on Warlord level), I will only write some in-game letters where you will learn something about the civilizations, wonders, cities etc. of this world. You will not know how the whole world looks like and not everything what happens, but hopefully get a little feeling for being a citizen in this world.

I also have the habit of renaming captured cities, so whenever you hear a non-Greek city name, you can be sure, the city is NOT Greek.

 

[Kennelly]

Thermopylae, in the year of our Lord 1000 AD

Dear Father Diogenes,

I hope you have arrived well in our capital Athens. When I visited it in my youth over 60 years ago, it was already a thriving city and I have heard it now houses over 1 million people. Oh, I still remember wandering through the Hanging Gardens or visiting the Center of our Jewish brother's faith, the Temple of Solomon right in the city's heart.

Even if they do not see the Lord has already sent his son down to Earth, they are still our older brothers- and of course the official religion of our Greek Empire.

This is why I'm so joyful that King Alexander has asked us here at the Church of Nativity to send a Priest to his royal court, to advise him in matters of our religion. Most likely he now has realized the importance of our faith, which in the past millennium has spread from Essen on the Southern Ice Islands to Gordium in the upmost corner of the Persian peninsula (and therefore the world).
This said, I hope you will find time to spend some time on Lake Athens or to visit the wonderful wineries southeast of the city.

May God bless you,

your friend, Lysias, Patriarch of Thermopylae

 

[Kennelly]

Sparta, in the year of our Lord 1200 AD

Dear Father Mahatma,

I hope life is still enjoyable in Madras, I know this letter will take some time to reach you, but I wanted to inform you that I have returned alive and well to Sparta.

Oh, thy great Sparta, the most wonderful city on Earth (some historians claim Athens is the one, but don't listen to them). While I enjoyed my stay in India, it is always good to return home.

Anyway, now some words about my journey: after we had left Madras to the Southwest, we arrived in Bombay. The city itself is not great, but the Jungles around it are full of thousands of variations of God's creation. In the same category fall the hundreds of mines north and East of the city where people dig out the finest rubies, smaragds and diamonds.

After resting in Bombay for two days with the local Jewish community-the majority in the city- we again traveled a week overland to the harbour of Kolhapur, where we entered our ship for the long journey over the Eastern Ocean. After about 10 days, we got into a terrible storm so we had to anchor in Tenochtilan for repairs.

I was surprised about the Aztec hostility to our small Greek group. Initially I thought they were still furious about the lost war against Greece more than 800 years ago, where we took Syrakusai and Thurioi. But a member of the small Greek community in the city told me, the hostility came from the deep connection between the Aztecs and their Western neighbours, the Americans, from which we conquered Taras (then "New York") 42 years ago.

By the way, I have heard frightening stories about this city: besides the Greek garrison and some officials, no Greeks are living there, armed revolts occurring everyday and thousand of slaves bringing in bananas from the big plantations Northeast of the city.

Well, to talk of more joyful matters, after the repairs we again set sail for Sparta and spent 4 other boring weeks on the Eastern Ocean before Sparta came into sight. Or, to be more precise the shine of the Great Lighthouse. It safely lit us all the way to Sparta, where we passed under the Colossus at the habour entrance. Oh, I learned Sparta now has more than 2.3 million people (the biggest city of Greece it is).

I hope you will receive this letter soon,

may God bless you,

your friend, Aristophanes, Archbishop of Sparta

 

[anjf]

Looks good.

 

[petey]

Cool story. Keep it up.

 

[The Caltrop]

Dating in the Latin would put AD first. Just FYI.

Looking good, keep it up!