Chapter One
Peace had come to Nordlandia and the newly crowned Emperor of the Venetians sent his Crown Prince to the court of the High Yarl of Nordlandia in order to bring that country into the Empire as a tributary. Crown Prince Gaius Maximus Icarius (the Icarius family would struggle with two other families for the throne for the rest of the existence of the Empire) brought a small army of supporters, entertainers and missionaries with them. The High Yarl greeted the Crown Prince warmly and thanked him for the help the Empire gave in keeping the Orcs at bay at various times. The High Yarl gave gifts and gold to the High Yarl and even gave him purple robes and a white toga and a tirara. The High Yarl shaved his beard, his head and adopted the dress and manners of the Venetians. He ordered the other Yarls to do likewise. The Crown Prince and his party stayed with the High Yarl and the gathered Yarls of Nordlandia for three months, the cultural missionaries taught the Yarls latini, the official language of the Venetian Empire. The High Yarl ordered the Nords to use the latini language and Venetian alphabet for official documents and official business. The High Yarl sent his Princes with the Crown Prince and his party back to Venetia for a "high education" and the Venetians went back to their Empire, which was at it's greatest height at the time, and it had even made the Orc Kingdoms (the First Orc Empire was dissolved) tributary to the Venetians.
"We need to next bring the Vyir under our heel." said the Emperor to his Senators. "Why on earth should we meddle in that snow and ice-caked hell?" asked Senator Decimius Fabius Dornia. "The Senator raises a good point, we would be wise to leave them alone." said Senator Secundus Helma. "That is besides the point, we are so close to ruling the known world! Our Empire will bring peace forever!" exclaimed the Emperor. "But at what cost?" asked Senator Dornia. "We will just send the Crown Prince with a small party of cultural missionaries." said the Emperor. "Making them tributary should be easy after that, they are only barbarians after all." said the Emperor. "Ah, true but they are highly organized around their Yarls. I have seen their Capitol! It is amazing what they are done in only 20 years!" said the Second Prince. "Indeed?" asked the Emperor. "Yes, their "Great Hall" is almost bigger than your Palace. Their Halls are all made of stone, their streets are lit at night, their roads are paved and they even pipe in water to their Halls with stone pipes and pipe out water with other stone pipes. Their capitol has a force of police attached to the Great Hall. They are 90% literate and write everything on deerskin parchment, which they roll into scrolls or they lay flat and sew it into large books. Their library is the biggest I've ever seen and they even have a University that is ran by their Priests. They require everyone to have some sort of schooling. They use advanced seigecraft, dragons and wolves in combat. The Vyir are 20 times stronger than all humans. Factor that all together your Highness." said the Senator. The Prince nodded. "Well, we proceed like we proceeded with the Nords then. Slow takeover. We make them so dependent on us that they cannot live without us." said the Emperor.
Chapter Two
The Crown Prince of the Emperor of the Venetians, his brother and a small party of cultural missionaries traveled up the river to the Vyir Capitol. They passed fields of wheat, cattle and horses and saw many Halls and small villages as well as the Yarl Seats as they traveled. It was summer. They came to the Great Hall and were granted enterance. "Come in!" said the High Yarl. They came in and the skalds began to play their music and sing their eddas. "Hail! We come in peace from the mighty Empire." said the Crown Prince to the High Yarl. The servants showed the royal party to the Guest Chambers as the Chancellor whispered into the ear of his High Yarl. The party came back downstairs and offered a gift of a purple robe and a white toga and a tiara. "I must decline, my Yarls would dethrone me if I accepted such a gift." said the High Yarl. "Then we offer you horses and gold." said the Crown Prince. "Yes, just so long as there is no strings attached." said the High Yarl. "It is a free gift." said the Crown Prince. "Fine, I will take the horses and the gold then." said the High Yarl. They talked and the cultural missionaries tried to sell the High Yarl on adopting latini and the Venetian alphabet but the High Yarl declined. "We have too much history with our runes, we can't just turn to something else now and lose volumes of history and meaning later." said the High Yarl. "Then let us take a son down to our Capitol, so he can learn to be a better ruler." said the Crown Prince. "I can do you one better. Marry your daughter to my oldest son. Such a marriage would seal a pact of peace forever." said the shrewd High Yarl.
"I will have my daughter Princess Dimna marry your oldest son then." said the Crown Prince. "How old is she?" asked the Vyir Crown Prince. "She is eighteen this year, as is our custom." said the Venetian Crown Prince. "That is the same as our custom." said the High Yarl. "My son is twenty-three and is a great warrior. She would make him a fine wife." said the High Yarl. "It is done then." said the High Yarl and the two parties saluted each other. "Can we build a road to your Capitol?" asked the Crown Prince. "Only if it is a defensible road! The Orcs would use that road to invade us every time." said the High Yarl gravely. "We can build forts every mile and post our troops to protect the road?" asked the Crown Prince. "No, we can have Thanes patrol that road to keep the enemies off." said the High Yarl. "Can we donate 2,000 of our books to your University?" asked the Crown Prince. "Sure, but I am not sure of how many Vyir would want to read them. I can get translators to translate the books to our format and send back each copy as we translate." said the High Yarl. "Why bother with translators? Just adopt our latini and our alphabet like the Nords did." said the Crown Prince. "Because that is a deep betrayal of our sacred traditions handed down to us since the time of Ysgramor!" said the High Yarl. "You ask too much." he added with a note of warning. "Can I read you a tract?" offered a Venetian Priest. "Fine." said the High Yarl with a nod of the head. "And the gods said to one another; does not the high god have no beard and no hair? Is he not clean-shaven?" said the Priest. "Ah! You misquote! The gods meant that they were shaving off the old residue of darkness that had held them captive back when their brothers lived with them in Vallhalla-Mitgarde. The dark gods were exiled from the heavenly hall and the gods of the light cleaned themselves of the filth, but they regrew their beards." said the Vyir High Priest. The Venetian Priest looked like he had been horsewhipped. "Lice and bugs harbor themselves in beards and hair." said the Crown Prince. "But our hair and beards are clean. We already know about lice and bugs and we bathe and sauna daily." said the High Yarl. "And we need the hair for the long winter months." said the High Yarl. The missionaries searched their books, they were dumbfounded that these "barbarians" were rejecting their culture. "You would like our games." said the Crown Prince. "Heard of them, barbaric and filthy! Why slaughter humans for no cause? For sport? For laughter? For merriment? Not here! All men here are freemen and our slaves are never killed without a fair trial and we don't execute people in public. In fact, we executed a mass murder as of late, a former slave who called himself the "son of Timon", he was given a fair trial and even a jury of slaves and they voted for him to die and he was beheaded in the basement of the Great Hall in the room of execution. No, we do not cheer death in our lands as you do in the south, we have far too much of it with these endless wars with the Orcs." said the High Yarl. "You make yourselves to be better than us?" asked the Crown Prince. "I simply stated a fact." said the High Yarl. The Crown Prince sat down and fumed. "I will give you 1 million guilders and seven of our best breeding cattle-stock as a gift, if you keep the treaty." said the High Yarl. "Fine, we have a deal. Your gift in exchange for a wife for your son." said the Crown Prince of the Venetians. The servants counted out the gold coin and the Royal Breeders selected seven breeder bulls for the Venetian guests as the party feasted with the High Yarl and his Huscarls. Later in a private conversation; "The Priests do not like the divinations for the treaty. There is death hanging over this agreement." said one of the missionaries. "We should demand a hostage from these people in return for the marriage agreement." said the Crown Prince. "And they would demand one from us in return. We cannot win this time, we should bide our time." said another missionary. "Perhaps if we raised up a Prince from this Hall, he would become loyal to us, and when he becomes of age, Vyirlund becomes ours." said another missionary. "No need, the seed of the union would be sent to us." said the Crown Prince.
The Venetian party left Vyirlund. The Venetian Crown Prince talked with his daughter and hold her about the Vyir. "You would have the honor to bear a son that would be seed royal of both the House of Icarius and the House of Ysgramor. He would rule both the Empire and Vyirlund." said the man to his uncertain daughter. "The Priests have looked at that in their divination's and they have seen death. I am scared papa!" said the young woman. "Do not be afraid, perhaps the death only occurs to the firstborn." he said, soothingly. "Prepare for your journey north! We leave next week!" said the Crown Prince.
The Vyir Priests looked at the omens. "Dire news your Highness. The young wife of your Crown Prince will die or her child will die." said the High Priest to the High Yarl. "It is not the will of the gods? I will then have the wife live in a Hall south of here and apart from her new husband." said the High Yarl. "We cannot cancel this treaty now." said the High Yarl. "Besides, my grandson will be Kaiser of the entire known world! Both Vyirlund and Venetia! Imagine, our thanes and Yarls will go south and receive new lands galore! I would make sure he is raised Vyir of course." said the High Yarl.
The new wife and her party came north to Vyirlund and her new husband met her at their brand-new built Hall 80 miles south of the Capitol and was married there by the Vyir High Priest. The Crown Prince and his new wife fell on their wedding bed and conceived a child while the Venetian Emperor suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. Word was sent to the Princess that he Grandfather was dead. She wore black and went into mourning. He father and his brothers argued before the Senate who should be the Emperor and finally Senator Mohiam raised his aged hand and declared that the Princes shall rule as co-Emperors, all five of them. The Crown Princes submitted to the will of the Senate and moved into the Palace and expanded the throne to include five thrones. The Vyir High Yarl heard the news and laughed. "So much for them conquering the known world!" he said in a merry moment. "Only your grandson will not be Kaiser!" said an adviser, a wealthy Thane from the nearby valley. "If we support the cause of your son-in-law, their Empire will be ours!" he said. "Maybe, let's see where the bones will fall?" said the High Yarl.
Chapter Three
The Princess was pregnant and her husband used every excuse he could to be with her. Her belly swelled with a large baby, which the healers feared might be the death of her. She was small in frame and not at all strong like Vyir women. The factions in Venetia began to make flags began to chant and march whenever there was a holiday from work. The five factions were secretly backed by each of the five co-Emperor's and the marches became riots in the middle of the summer. More and more people joined one faction or another and many Governors and Generals began to secretly pledge their support of one of the five Emperor's. The Vyir and the Kelti went to war when a large Kelti army landed off the coast of Vyirlund. Rumor had it that one of the co-Emperor's ordered the Orcs to order the Kelti to attack the Vyir. Finally the flags and the banners of Venetia came down and the provinces declared for one Emperor or another. Venetia herself declared loyalty to the Senate and the Senate declared it would recognize the winner of the "debate". The senior Senators, moved by Mohiam's sense of urgency, called the five co-Emperor's to the Senate to get them to recognize Crown Prince Maximus Pilander Icarius, whose daughter was the wife of the son of the High Yarl. The four co-Emperors refused and rode out of the city with their factions while Maximus Pilander remained in the Capitol and fought against his brothers. The armies agreed to only fight each other in the field and no-one burned fields or sacked farms or killed civilians, because they knew that they would lose support. All five contestants built their share of forts and walls in a defensive strategy to keep their enemy out of their provinces. The High Yarl sent 10,000 Vyir to Maximus Pilander to use in his legions and he wrote that his help "hinged on his willingness to keep Vyirlund free of Venetian troops." and Maximus agreed. The 10,000 were trained in Venetian tactics, given Venetian armor and were taught Venetian. They fought in 123 battles and they were the main reason why Maximus Pilander defeated his rivals, won over the Generals, one by one, and finally defeated his last rival and returned in Triumph to Venetia and was crowned Emperor and his wife became Emperoress. The Vyir troops marched with their patron in the Triumph in their Venetian armor and clothes. The citizens of the city threw gold and silver coins and flowers at them. "Remember this Triumph, if you stay with me, we'll conquer the known world." said the Emperor later to his mercenaries. "If you mean our homeland, we'll be waiting for you, with steel in hand." said the Thanes. "Fine, I am in agreement with your High Yarl. I will not attack Vyirlund as long as I live." said the Emperor. The Thanes believed him and nodded. As soon as the civil war was over, Mohiam retired from the Senate and Osilanar succeeded him as Head of the Senate. The mercenaries followed the new Emperor on his campaign against the newly insurgent Orcs, who were trying to reform their lost Empire. Gar'Rath'azr was crowned the new Emperor of the Orcish Empire and he rallied 20,000 Orcs, marched on Fort Antonina and burnt it to the ground. The Venetian Imperial Army hit the Orcs at the fort site and fought the Orcs to a standstill. The Imperial Army withdrew and returned to Venetia while the Vyir mercenaries went home.
Chapter Four.
The Princess gave birth to a healthy baby boy but the Princess died shortly after because the birth was too much for her. The healers tried everything to stop and stem the blood loss but the mother died. The baby boy was given to a kelti nursemaid to nurse and raise in the Hall. Once the child reached twelve, he was sent into the wilderness on his rite of manhood. He survived and even came back with several wolf skins. When he turned thirteen, the Emperor asked for him. He was sent by ship, to Venetia. He arrived at the Imperial Court and was raised as a Venetian noble and learned latini as well as the arts and sciences.
The client ruler of Nordlandia died of old age and his son hated the Venetians with a passion because of what he saw as cultural genocide in his lands. He ordered the Venetians out of Nordlandia and canceled all the treaties between them. The Emperor of Venetia sent a 100,000 man legion into Nordlandia and the High Yarl and his Yarls took their warriors and went on a "merry chase" all over Nordlandia. The Venetians marched until exhaustion while the Nord Army set traps and slowly reduced the Venetians to a small number of 1,000. The main Nord Army hit the 1,000 troop remainder and slaughtered them. The Emperor was humiliated and defeated. He appealed to his ally in Vyirlund but he got no response. The Emperor raised an army of 100,000 mercenaries from the kelti kingdoms and the provinces and invaded Nordlandia again. The Army attacked and burned the Nordic Royal Hold and invaded Vyirlund, a treaty violation. While Nordlandia was under occupation for the second time, her army withdrew into Vyirlund and joined up with the 500,000 Vyir Grand Army. The 800,000 man force marched on the 100,000 man force and fought them in a series of running battles where they seemed to be retreating but were drawing the legion into traps. Defeated again, the Emperor and his legion withdrew back to Venetia. He walked into the Palace and greeted the Vyir Prince with a hug. "Grandfather, I have a gift from the gods for you." said the Vyir Prince gravely. The Emperor missed the malevolent glint in the Prince's eye and the Prince rammed a blade deep into the stomach of the Emperor until the tip of the sword came out the back. The Vyir Princeling withdrew the blade and fled the Palace, only sparing the females of the family but he utterly slaughtered the most of the males except for the one that was in exile in a distant province. He fled back to his father's Hall in Vyirlund disguised as a Priest. The exile returned to the Imperial Capitol and became Emperor Gaius Maximus Glander Icarius. The kin-killer was put into irons in the Great Hall but was released after it was learned that the Emperor had insulted the Prince repeatedly and had done everything to besmirch his honor. The High Yarl fell by the blade of a Venetian assassin a month later, revenge for the kin-killer Prince. The New High Yarl sent an assassin to the Court of the Emperor and the assassin closed the Emperor in a pool room and drowned him. The assassin escaped back to Vyirlund and so the Assassins War began in earnest. Many nobles on both sides died and all the Yarls had their huscarls defending them on two shifts. Finally after the last known member of the House of Icarius died in a pool of his own blood, the Assassin's War ended.
THE END
Peace had come to Nordlandia and the newly crowned Emperor of the Venetians sent his Crown Prince to the court of the High Yarl of Nordlandia in order to bring that country into the Empire as a tributary. Crown Prince Gaius Maximus Icarius (the Icarius family would struggle with two other families for the throne for the rest of the existence of the Empire) brought a small army of supporters, entertainers and missionaries with them. The High Yarl greeted the Crown Prince warmly and thanked him for the help the Empire gave in keeping the Orcs at bay at various times. The High Yarl gave gifts and gold to the High Yarl and even gave him purple robes and a white toga and a tirara. The High Yarl shaved his beard, his head and adopted the dress and manners of the Venetians. He ordered the other Yarls to do likewise. The Crown Prince and his party stayed with the High Yarl and the gathered Yarls of Nordlandia for three months, the cultural missionaries taught the Yarls latini, the official language of the Venetian Empire. The High Yarl ordered the Nords to use the latini language and Venetian alphabet for official documents and official business. The High Yarl sent his Princes with the Crown Prince and his party back to Venetia for a "high education" and the Venetians went back to their Empire, which was at it's greatest height at the time, and it had even made the Orc Kingdoms (the First Orc Empire was dissolved) tributary to the Venetians.
"We need to next bring the Vyir under our heel." said the Emperor to his Senators. "Why on earth should we meddle in that snow and ice-caked hell?" asked Senator Decimius Fabius Dornia. "The Senator raises a good point, we would be wise to leave them alone." said Senator Secundus Helma. "That is besides the point, we are so close to ruling the known world! Our Empire will bring peace forever!" exclaimed the Emperor. "But at what cost?" asked Senator Dornia. "We will just send the Crown Prince with a small party of cultural missionaries." said the Emperor. "Making them tributary should be easy after that, they are only barbarians after all." said the Emperor. "Ah, true but they are highly organized around their Yarls. I have seen their Capitol! It is amazing what they are done in only 20 years!" said the Second Prince. "Indeed?" asked the Emperor. "Yes, their "Great Hall" is almost bigger than your Palace. Their Halls are all made of stone, their streets are lit at night, their roads are paved and they even pipe in water to their Halls with stone pipes and pipe out water with other stone pipes. Their capitol has a force of police attached to the Great Hall. They are 90% literate and write everything on deerskin parchment, which they roll into scrolls or they lay flat and sew it into large books. Their library is the biggest I've ever seen and they even have a University that is ran by their Priests. They require everyone to have some sort of schooling. They use advanced seigecraft, dragons and wolves in combat. The Vyir are 20 times stronger than all humans. Factor that all together your Highness." said the Senator. The Prince nodded. "Well, we proceed like we proceeded with the Nords then. Slow takeover. We make them so dependent on us that they cannot live without us." said the Emperor.
Chapter Two
The Crown Prince of the Emperor of the Venetians, his brother and a small party of cultural missionaries traveled up the river to the Vyir Capitol. They passed fields of wheat, cattle and horses and saw many Halls and small villages as well as the Yarl Seats as they traveled. It was summer. They came to the Great Hall and were granted enterance. "Come in!" said the High Yarl. They came in and the skalds began to play their music and sing their eddas. "Hail! We come in peace from the mighty Empire." said the Crown Prince to the High Yarl. The servants showed the royal party to the Guest Chambers as the Chancellor whispered into the ear of his High Yarl. The party came back downstairs and offered a gift of a purple robe and a white toga and a tiara. "I must decline, my Yarls would dethrone me if I accepted such a gift." said the High Yarl. "Then we offer you horses and gold." said the Crown Prince. "Yes, just so long as there is no strings attached." said the High Yarl. "It is a free gift." said the Crown Prince. "Fine, I will take the horses and the gold then." said the High Yarl. They talked and the cultural missionaries tried to sell the High Yarl on adopting latini and the Venetian alphabet but the High Yarl declined. "We have too much history with our runes, we can't just turn to something else now and lose volumes of history and meaning later." said the High Yarl. "Then let us take a son down to our Capitol, so he can learn to be a better ruler." said the Crown Prince. "I can do you one better. Marry your daughter to my oldest son. Such a marriage would seal a pact of peace forever." said the shrewd High Yarl.
"I will have my daughter Princess Dimna marry your oldest son then." said the Crown Prince. "How old is she?" asked the Vyir Crown Prince. "She is eighteen this year, as is our custom." said the Venetian Crown Prince. "That is the same as our custom." said the High Yarl. "My son is twenty-three and is a great warrior. She would make him a fine wife." said the High Yarl. "It is done then." said the High Yarl and the two parties saluted each other. "Can we build a road to your Capitol?" asked the Crown Prince. "Only if it is a defensible road! The Orcs would use that road to invade us every time." said the High Yarl gravely. "We can build forts every mile and post our troops to protect the road?" asked the Crown Prince. "No, we can have Thanes patrol that road to keep the enemies off." said the High Yarl. "Can we donate 2,000 of our books to your University?" asked the Crown Prince. "Sure, but I am not sure of how many Vyir would want to read them. I can get translators to translate the books to our format and send back each copy as we translate." said the High Yarl. "Why bother with translators? Just adopt our latini and our alphabet like the Nords did." said the Crown Prince. "Because that is a deep betrayal of our sacred traditions handed down to us since the time of Ysgramor!" said the High Yarl. "You ask too much." he added with a note of warning. "Can I read you a tract?" offered a Venetian Priest. "Fine." said the High Yarl with a nod of the head. "And the gods said to one another; does not the high god have no beard and no hair? Is he not clean-shaven?" said the Priest. "Ah! You misquote! The gods meant that they were shaving off the old residue of darkness that had held them captive back when their brothers lived with them in Vallhalla-Mitgarde. The dark gods were exiled from the heavenly hall and the gods of the light cleaned themselves of the filth, but they regrew their beards." said the Vyir High Priest. The Venetian Priest looked like he had been horsewhipped. "Lice and bugs harbor themselves in beards and hair." said the Crown Prince. "But our hair and beards are clean. We already know about lice and bugs and we bathe and sauna daily." said the High Yarl. "And we need the hair for the long winter months." said the High Yarl. The missionaries searched their books, they were dumbfounded that these "barbarians" were rejecting their culture. "You would like our games." said the Crown Prince. "Heard of them, barbaric and filthy! Why slaughter humans for no cause? For sport? For laughter? For merriment? Not here! All men here are freemen and our slaves are never killed without a fair trial and we don't execute people in public. In fact, we executed a mass murder as of late, a former slave who called himself the "son of Timon", he was given a fair trial and even a jury of slaves and they voted for him to die and he was beheaded in the basement of the Great Hall in the room of execution. No, we do not cheer death in our lands as you do in the south, we have far too much of it with these endless wars with the Orcs." said the High Yarl. "You make yourselves to be better than us?" asked the Crown Prince. "I simply stated a fact." said the High Yarl. The Crown Prince sat down and fumed. "I will give you 1 million guilders and seven of our best breeding cattle-stock as a gift, if you keep the treaty." said the High Yarl. "Fine, we have a deal. Your gift in exchange for a wife for your son." said the Crown Prince of the Venetians. The servants counted out the gold coin and the Royal Breeders selected seven breeder bulls for the Venetian guests as the party feasted with the High Yarl and his Huscarls. Later in a private conversation; "The Priests do not like the divinations for the treaty. There is death hanging over this agreement." said one of the missionaries. "We should demand a hostage from these people in return for the marriage agreement." said the Crown Prince. "And they would demand one from us in return. We cannot win this time, we should bide our time." said another missionary. "Perhaps if we raised up a Prince from this Hall, he would become loyal to us, and when he becomes of age, Vyirlund becomes ours." said another missionary. "No need, the seed of the union would be sent to us." said the Crown Prince.
The Venetian party left Vyirlund. The Venetian Crown Prince talked with his daughter and hold her about the Vyir. "You would have the honor to bear a son that would be seed royal of both the House of Icarius and the House of Ysgramor. He would rule both the Empire and Vyirlund." said the man to his uncertain daughter. "The Priests have looked at that in their divination's and they have seen death. I am scared papa!" said the young woman. "Do not be afraid, perhaps the death only occurs to the firstborn." he said, soothingly. "Prepare for your journey north! We leave next week!" said the Crown Prince.
The Vyir Priests looked at the omens. "Dire news your Highness. The young wife of your Crown Prince will die or her child will die." said the High Priest to the High Yarl. "It is not the will of the gods? I will then have the wife live in a Hall south of here and apart from her new husband." said the High Yarl. "We cannot cancel this treaty now." said the High Yarl. "Besides, my grandson will be Kaiser of the entire known world! Both Vyirlund and Venetia! Imagine, our thanes and Yarls will go south and receive new lands galore! I would make sure he is raised Vyir of course." said the High Yarl.
The new wife and her party came north to Vyirlund and her new husband met her at their brand-new built Hall 80 miles south of the Capitol and was married there by the Vyir High Priest. The Crown Prince and his new wife fell on their wedding bed and conceived a child while the Venetian Emperor suddenly dropped dead of a heart attack. Word was sent to the Princess that he Grandfather was dead. She wore black and went into mourning. He father and his brothers argued before the Senate who should be the Emperor and finally Senator Mohiam raised his aged hand and declared that the Princes shall rule as co-Emperors, all five of them. The Crown Princes submitted to the will of the Senate and moved into the Palace and expanded the throne to include five thrones. The Vyir High Yarl heard the news and laughed. "So much for them conquering the known world!" he said in a merry moment. "Only your grandson will not be Kaiser!" said an adviser, a wealthy Thane from the nearby valley. "If we support the cause of your son-in-law, their Empire will be ours!" he said. "Maybe, let's see where the bones will fall?" said the High Yarl.
Chapter Three
The Princess was pregnant and her husband used every excuse he could to be with her. Her belly swelled with a large baby, which the healers feared might be the death of her. She was small in frame and not at all strong like Vyir women. The factions in Venetia began to make flags began to chant and march whenever there was a holiday from work. The five factions were secretly backed by each of the five co-Emperor's and the marches became riots in the middle of the summer. More and more people joined one faction or another and many Governors and Generals began to secretly pledge their support of one of the five Emperor's. The Vyir and the Kelti went to war when a large Kelti army landed off the coast of Vyirlund. Rumor had it that one of the co-Emperor's ordered the Orcs to order the Kelti to attack the Vyir. Finally the flags and the banners of Venetia came down and the provinces declared for one Emperor or another. Venetia herself declared loyalty to the Senate and the Senate declared it would recognize the winner of the "debate". The senior Senators, moved by Mohiam's sense of urgency, called the five co-Emperor's to the Senate to get them to recognize Crown Prince Maximus Pilander Icarius, whose daughter was the wife of the son of the High Yarl. The four co-Emperors refused and rode out of the city with their factions while Maximus Pilander remained in the Capitol and fought against his brothers. The armies agreed to only fight each other in the field and no-one burned fields or sacked farms or killed civilians, because they knew that they would lose support. All five contestants built their share of forts and walls in a defensive strategy to keep their enemy out of their provinces. The High Yarl sent 10,000 Vyir to Maximus Pilander to use in his legions and he wrote that his help "hinged on his willingness to keep Vyirlund free of Venetian troops." and Maximus agreed. The 10,000 were trained in Venetian tactics, given Venetian armor and were taught Venetian. They fought in 123 battles and they were the main reason why Maximus Pilander defeated his rivals, won over the Generals, one by one, and finally defeated his last rival and returned in Triumph to Venetia and was crowned Emperor and his wife became Emperoress. The Vyir troops marched with their patron in the Triumph in their Venetian armor and clothes. The citizens of the city threw gold and silver coins and flowers at them. "Remember this Triumph, if you stay with me, we'll conquer the known world." said the Emperor later to his mercenaries. "If you mean our homeland, we'll be waiting for you, with steel in hand." said the Thanes. "Fine, I am in agreement with your High Yarl. I will not attack Vyirlund as long as I live." said the Emperor. The Thanes believed him and nodded. As soon as the civil war was over, Mohiam retired from the Senate and Osilanar succeeded him as Head of the Senate. The mercenaries followed the new Emperor on his campaign against the newly insurgent Orcs, who were trying to reform their lost Empire. Gar'Rath'azr was crowned the new Emperor of the Orcish Empire and he rallied 20,000 Orcs, marched on Fort Antonina and burnt it to the ground. The Venetian Imperial Army hit the Orcs at the fort site and fought the Orcs to a standstill. The Imperial Army withdrew and returned to Venetia while the Vyir mercenaries went home.
Chapter Four.
The Princess gave birth to a healthy baby boy but the Princess died shortly after because the birth was too much for her. The healers tried everything to stop and stem the blood loss but the mother died. The baby boy was given to a kelti nursemaid to nurse and raise in the Hall. Once the child reached twelve, he was sent into the wilderness on his rite of manhood. He survived and even came back with several wolf skins. When he turned thirteen, the Emperor asked for him. He was sent by ship, to Venetia. He arrived at the Imperial Court and was raised as a Venetian noble and learned latini as well as the arts and sciences.
The client ruler of Nordlandia died of old age and his son hated the Venetians with a passion because of what he saw as cultural genocide in his lands. He ordered the Venetians out of Nordlandia and canceled all the treaties between them. The Emperor of Venetia sent a 100,000 man legion into Nordlandia and the High Yarl and his Yarls took their warriors and went on a "merry chase" all over Nordlandia. The Venetians marched until exhaustion while the Nord Army set traps and slowly reduced the Venetians to a small number of 1,000. The main Nord Army hit the 1,000 troop remainder and slaughtered them. The Emperor was humiliated and defeated. He appealed to his ally in Vyirlund but he got no response. The Emperor raised an army of 100,000 mercenaries from the kelti kingdoms and the provinces and invaded Nordlandia again. The Army attacked and burned the Nordic Royal Hold and invaded Vyirlund, a treaty violation. While Nordlandia was under occupation for the second time, her army withdrew into Vyirlund and joined up with the 500,000 Vyir Grand Army. The 800,000 man force marched on the 100,000 man force and fought them in a series of running battles where they seemed to be retreating but were drawing the legion into traps. Defeated again, the Emperor and his legion withdrew back to Venetia. He walked into the Palace and greeted the Vyir Prince with a hug. "Grandfather, I have a gift from the gods for you." said the Vyir Prince gravely. The Emperor missed the malevolent glint in the Prince's eye and the Prince rammed a blade deep into the stomach of the Emperor until the tip of the sword came out the back. The Vyir Princeling withdrew the blade and fled the Palace, only sparing the females of the family but he utterly slaughtered the most of the males except for the one that was in exile in a distant province. He fled back to his father's Hall in Vyirlund disguised as a Priest. The exile returned to the Imperial Capitol and became Emperor Gaius Maximus Glander Icarius. The kin-killer was put into irons in the Great Hall but was released after it was learned that the Emperor had insulted the Prince repeatedly and had done everything to besmirch his honor. The High Yarl fell by the blade of a Venetian assassin a month later, revenge for the kin-killer Prince. The New High Yarl sent an assassin to the Court of the Emperor and the assassin closed the Emperor in a pool room and drowned him. The assassin escaped back to Vyirlund and so the Assassins War began in earnest. Many nobles on both sides died and all the Yarls had their huscarls defending them on two shifts. Finally after the last known member of the House of Icarius died in a pool of his own blood, the Assassin's War ended.
THE END
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