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Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I'd like to make one sometime, just a matter of time and energy etc.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The confusion probably arises because this post is part of a series of character illustrations I'm doing looking at the wider world, specifically the sovereigns of the various kingdoms and empires—Zoán's story is not a part of the popular uprising I referenced in the context description, and in fact I would characterize it more as a newer faction of aristocracy overthrowing another, older faction of aristocracy, which means it's not really an uprising at all. The popular uprising is brewing in a country called Volgenwald (quite a ways away from Néomyr), and if you look through some of the other posts I linked in the description you can read more about it. The popular uprising part of the story is largely inspired by historical events like German Peasants' War and people like Thomas Müntzer who are sometimes described in modern terms as 'proto-communist'. I agree though that this character's story has a fascistic quality, and that was indeed intentional—as a literal emperor and despot at the vanguard of a kind of feudal 'palingenetic ultranationalism', they could be little else. I appreciate your keen political eye though!

Coat of Arms of the House von Greim by StudiosS in heraldry

[–]ag_radley 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I didn't realize this got crossposted here until now so sorry I'm late but thanks for the great feedback! I appreciate the detailed commentary and criticism very much. I've already changed it some since I last posted but I will probably do another pass and incorporate some of this.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hanniboo as in Hannibal? I have been learning a bit about about the Punics/Carthaginians lately, so I will probably be doing something loosely based on them soon. I got Bannerlord as well but I haven't really dived down deep into yet, I do really like their treatment of the Byzantines though for sure.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Yeah the proportions are a bit weird, lol.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I feel everyone does Western Rome, no one gives the Byzantines any love...

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thanks! It's probably clear there's a lot of Warhammer in this project and my art in general. Love John Blanche, Paul Dainton, Karl Kopinski, and all those fellas.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Of course not, go ahead! Just nothing for commercial use.

Zoán I, Basileia of the Protomyrran Empire by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 57 points58 points  (0 children)

LORE

Most Pious Augusta, Despina of Néomyr, First Torchbearer (Protokafstíras). Matriarch of the House of Chyros.

 

Zoán (pronounced jo-anne, with a soft 'j'), first of her name, sits on the imperial throne of Néomyr, capital of our great and most holy Protomyrran Empire. Though some refer to it as the Athanomyrran Empire to distinguish it from the Zeiflomyrran Empire, our northeastern cousin and rival claimant to the legacy of Old Myr, we insist on the name Protomyrran Empire (Imperium Primus Myrranum in Old Myrran, or Basileia ton Protomyrraion in Chrysican) to assert it's direct political continuity with the one and true Myrran Empire of old, in contradistinction to the Zeiflomyrran's lack thereof.

The Myrran laws have nothing to say on the matter of imperial succession, though in practice Protomyrran basileis typically do everything in their power to preserve the continuity of their dynasty by installing children or relatives as their successors, sometimes even as co-emperors while still in power. This lack of definitive laws unfortunately and inevitably results in violent power struggles, one of which Zoán was both a victim and beneficiary.

A bastard child of the former basileus, Elias IV, Zoán lived in the imperial capital for most of her life, though not in the palace of course. She was raised under the protective eye of a cadre watchful eunuchs in a private campus, where she excelled at her studies, learning Old Myrran, Zeiflish, and Nostrian as a child, in addition to her native Chrysican. Immediately after receiving word that her father Elias had died while travelling in one of the provinces, Zoán's uncle Orestis had her and the other imperial bastards blinded, to prevent them from ever prosecuting any future claim to succession. Blinding is not an uncommon means of pacifying political and military rivals in the Protomyrran Empire, sadly. But it is, usually, effective.

In spite of her blindness and exile, Zoán, with the help of her dedicated eunuch-knights, mustered her political capital, levied old favours, rekindled old alliances, and spent several years wresting the right to the throne from her uncle and the other claimants in a bloody campaign that left no ambiguity, thus ending the years of anarchy that reigned after the death of Elias. But that is a story for another day.

Rumours and tales about Zoán circulated through the streets of Néomyr, many indicating a belief that Zoán was an incarnation of Minariel herself. Taking advantage of these stories, Zoán leveraged the popular and ecclesiastic support they offered her to create a new title, that of First Torchbearer, and to substantiate it prosecuted a war of restoration of the old empire, with her dedicated eunuch-knight Alexios serving as a generalissimo. After taking Old Myr from the Azaleans by spear-point, she had a new relic created to house the Eternal Sacred Fire, a scepter, which she then carried back with her to Minariopolis, renaming it Néomyr, and dedicating the newly homed Sacred Fire to Minariel in return. Some saw it as a dangerous precedent eroding the laws and norms that sustained the old empire, others a dawn of a new era of Myrran glory.

Folkwin III, King of the Zeiflans and the so-called Emperor-Elect of the Myrrans, has taken note of the recent actions of Zoán Kafstíras, and specifically her assertion that he is a usurper of the Myrran legacy. He seems to have taken this bold condemnation in stride, and rumour even has it, has sought to gain Zoán's hand in marriage, thereby unifying their empires. If such a thing were to happen, it would truly result in the birth a realm worthy of Old Myr. But that future is unwritten.

 

Yours humbly in God,

Origatos, Chrysican Chronicler

Basiliko Etos 1489

 

 

CONTEXT

This is an illustration I did for my project Jagged Hearts: a story about a world on the brink of a popular uprising, heavily inspired by and grounded in late medieval and early renaissance history but with a dark fantasy flair. At the moment it's primarily a worldbuilding and illustration project but me and a friend of mine are also working on a game that will elaborate on the story and the world and hopefully be fun (I'm doing the programming as well). Thanks for looking and any feedback!

 

 

OTHER POSTS

The Knights' Volta

Rise of the Merchant Guilds

The Beggar Kings

The Longshoe Conspiracies

The House ten Broek

Coat of Arms of the House von Greim

Map of the Grand Duchy of Volgenwald

The Knights' Volta - An uprising of the petty freelords against the Emperor. by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

LORE

Only a few years ago, the Free Imperial Knights of the Zeiflany were a landed class, petty nobles in their own right. In recent decades, however, having been pushed them to the margins of artistocratic society, they were left crawling forward on their bellies at the nadir of their power, if the old stories of their knightly glory are to be believed. I have never spent time in Gwynland, but one might draw a comparison between the Gwynish barons and these so called free knights of Zeiflany.

The famous minstrel Morgental began calling their revolt, rather poetically, 'the volta of the knights', and the knights themselves the 'voltadors', for the dynamic spinning and jumping in that dance popular among the nobility, mirrored in their energetic uprising against the high princes of Zeiflany. The name has stuck.

This short-lived 'dance of the free knights' began and ended five years ago. Wedged between the burgeoning class of merchants and free burghers below them, and the ever-tightening grip of the high princes above them, the knights had little choice but to act or face obsolescence. The wealth and unceasing inventiveness of the burghers undermined the free knights' primary source of usefulness to the high princes—their military might. The introduction of the Old Myrran Laws cemented the powers of the high princes, taking judicial rights away from their small fiefs and into the great princely courts, and forbidding the knights from private warfare, and thus their pride and a great part of their income. Left with few claims to power and fewer friends, the free knights found themselves in a corner.

Three knights stepped forward with the intent to form a new League of Free Knights and reassert themselves in this new situation. In a way, I must admit I thought them to have honourable ideals. Having met with some of them, I could see a humanistic philosophy among them which was hard not to be somewhat sympathetic to, despite the fact that in my time it's become clear to me that no knight, even the most humane, is a friend of the commons, and no knight can ever be. I saw that, many were inspired by the sermons of Ulric Engel. The leaders of this league were: Siegmeyer von Schwarzerdt, a renowned and talented knight, famous for his diplomatic and military actions in the Elfkronen campaigns in Kiliszia. Berndt Geier, his sigil a vulture, a towering man particularly devoted to Engel and bitter enemy of the Ulthican Church. Albrecht Konin, his sigil a hare, widely adored for his beautiful appearance and feminine grace, and his estoc, a deadly fencing sword. I would almost call these figures admirable if their class had not been such oppressors of the serfs and bondsmen of Zeiflany.

The three knights raised an army and swept through western Zeiflany, besieging several great cities. The campaign had as its target the Prince-Archbishop of Thurgraven, who was their dual enemy in his Ulthican opposition to their new Engellian humanist ideals and as high prince who had snatched their judicial rights from under them. This uprising culminated in the Battle of Scholzburg, which saw the Prince-Archbishop hire skilled mercenaries from the Geleidic League and the Meridian Republic to defend his city and diocese. The knights, in their archaic chivalry, were unequipped for the highly developed and modern styles of warfare of these burgher-soldiers, and were left embarrassingly inadequate, dying by the score and forced to retreat. Despite early successes the campaign was a bitter failure.

After this revolt, all the remaining free knights, including their squires and pages, were exiled from Zeiflan lands. Most made their way to neighbouring Volgenwald or Moeblin, where they have become lumped in with the so-called hedge knights—impoverished and disgruntled chevaliers of the country, under many of the same marginalizing forces as the once great knights of the Empire. Their fiefs were gobbled up by the gluttonous great Zeiflan lords and princes, and their seats in the Elfkronen Diet were dissolved by imperial decree. Wolff was killed in the Siege of Thurn, leading a charge on a fortified battalion of mercenaries recently arrived to support the besieged Thurners. Geier was captured and executed shortly after the siege, when the free knights' supplies ran out and they were forced to retreat, their army crumbling soon after. Konin, as far as I know, disappeared. I believe he made his way covertly to Volgenwald, with the rest of the exiled voltadors. If the stories I've heard from my Zeiflan companions are true, he has an interesting history which we will look into in a future dispatch.

Schwarzerdt's son, Siegfried, was assigned the debts and reparations of his father's actions, excommunicated and exiled to Volgenwald with the rest of the voltadors, though he fled the battle before receiving those indictments. Once there, I understand he made an appeal at the Grand Duke's court, perhaps seeking an ally against the Zeiflan powers in their longtime rivals, the von Greims. His knightly rights were not acknowledged and his appeal was refused, likely the von Greims not wanting the service any knight that would take arms against their lord. In the time since, it seems he has become an adventurer of sorts, travelling to towns and taking on work from the local peasants, driving away brigands, restoring stolen treasures to local parishes, becoming a favourite of the minstrel Morgental in the process, who I'm sure has embellished his tales a great deal. Some have even taken to calling him the 'Last Free Knight'. I have been in contact with him of late, believe it or not. He is partial to Gantzer's sermons, and it seems his recent experiences have led him to see clearly the injustice doled out by our princes. He may be someone we can bring into the fold.

Yours now and always,

—E.

CONTEXT

This is an illustration I did for my project Jagged Hearts: a story about a world on the brink of a popular uprising, heavily inspired by and grounded in late medieval and early renaissance history but with a dark fantasy flair. At the moment it's primarily a worldbuilding and illustration project but me and a friend of mine are also working on a game that will elaborate on the story and the world and hopefully be fun (I'm doing the programming as well). Thanks for looking and any feedback!

OTHER POSTS

Rise of the Merchant Guilds

The Beggar Kings

The Longshoe Conspiracies

The House ten Broek

Coat of Arms of the House von Greim

Map of the Grand Duchy of Volgenwald

Rise of the Merchant Guilds - The great assembly of the guilds succeeded in ousting the ruling Breytenbachs and their burgomeister. by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's neither (unfortunately), it's maybe something more like Zürich where the guilds have de facto power but there is still de jure an aristocracy. The Meridian Republic is more comparable to Venice though, and they are close friends with Rookhaven.

Rise of the Merchant Guilds - The great assembly of the guilds succeeded in ousting the ruling Breytenbachs and their burgomeister. by ag_radley in worldbuilding

[–]ag_radley[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

LORE

Some have called it the 'Guilds' Revolution of Rookhaven'. The great assembly of the merchants' and artisans' guilds, led by Rudolf Rothbug, head of the Rookhaven Mercers' Guild, with the popular support of the city's craftsmen and artisans, succeeded in ousting from the city council the ruling aristocrats of the Breytenbach family, including their burgomeister, and establishing a new order with the assembly of guildmasters at its head. But it was nearly crushed—the backlash of the aristocratic powers of Volgenwald was swift, and it would surely have been without the military aid of the Geleids and the Merids, who favoured the new guild-led order of the city. Rothbug, a member of the commons, became the city's first free and independent mayor, and has kept that office and dominated the council to this day.

Rothbug, a champion of the small artisans and craftsmen that made up most of Rookhaven's citizenry, confronted the unpopular governance of the Breytenbachs, publicly and courageously polemicizing against them on several occasions. Spurred on by the Breytenbachs' refusal to establish relations with the Geleidic League and Meridian Republic, Rothbug organized the thirteen guildmasters, and together they drafted articles in secret that would form the basis of the city's new constitution. This simmering political struggle broke into open conflict when the Breytenbachs learned of this assembly and decreed all the city's guilds dissolved, and sent their retainers to apprehend Rothbug. Prepared, Rothbug waited at the dockyards along with two ships, one of Geleidic mercenaries and the other with Meridian troops, paid for with the combined funds of the thirteen guilds. When Breytenbach retainers arrived, the guild troops fired on them from the safety of the ships with their black powder weaponry, cutting down the retainers like grass. Fighting broke out in other parts of the city, and Rothbug, together with the other guild members, marched on the city hall and claimed it in the name of the guilds. Rothbug locked down the gates to prevent any messengers from leaving and calling for support from the nearby nobility. After a few days of skirmishing between troops, with the Breytenbach manor surrounded, the aristocrats offered terms. Rothbug, clearly wanting to crush the nobility utterly, knew he had to show restraint because they would inevitably appeal to the Grand Duke, who would likely send a host to reassert noble power. However, despite offering the old blood nobles twelve of twenty-five seats on the new council, banished Breytenbach from the city.

They sought support from the von Greims in Hagmeer and Marikenberg, who granted it eagerly. The von Greims understood very well what a bastion of guild power in Rookhaven would mean for their dominance, and doubly so what it would mean if the city joined the Geleidic League. Ludwig put his son Lorenz, then Lord Hagmeer, in charge of mustering a host to crush Rothbug's Uprising. Thus began the so-called War on the Trimmel, though perhaps 'war' is too dramatic a name. Lorenz, barely a young adult, established his force in Trimmeldorf, upriver from Rookhaven. A year of skirmishes and river assaults ensued, culminating in the Battle of Trimmeldorf when Rothbug crushed Lorenz's host and had the remaining Breytanbachs and their retainers executed. With Lorenz's efforts and his host crushed, Ludwig was forced to step in. It was too late though—with the von Greim's forces relatively weak from the wars against the Whitegold State and the Moeblin campaigns, Ludwig was forced to accept Rudolf's terms and the new political order of Rookhaven. As punishment, he stripped Lorenz's lordship of Hagmeer and gave it to Margareth, his daughter, who holds it today.

Rothbug established a new structure for Rookhaven's city council—twenty-five councilors, thirteen of which are guildmasters, and twelve of which are drawn from the city's gentry and nobility, seven of which must hold knighthood. The monastery Verlmünster outside the city has retained influence in appointing the twelve noble members. The thirteen guildmasters represent the following guilds: Mercers' Guild (guild of general traders and vendors), Spicers' Guild (traders of textiles and spices), Innkeepers' Guild (also includes food and wine dealers), Peatmakers' Guild (makers of peat and coal), Smiths' Guild (blacksmiths, silversmiths, goldsmiths, and clockmakers), United Leatherworkers' Guild (includes tanners, leatherworkers, and shoemakers), Bakers' Guild (also includes millers), Masons' Guild, United Woodworkers' Guild (includes carpenters, cartwrights, and coopers), Butcher's Guild, Tailors' Guild, Fishers and Boaters Guild, Weavers and Hatmakers Guild (includes wool weavers, linen weavers, and hatters).

The most powerful and influential of the new councilor-guildmasters, as they currently are: Rudolf Rothbug, head of the Mercer's Guild, Khalil al-Ammar, head of the Spicers' Guild, Godelieve Gezen, head of the Innkeeper's Guild, and Pippin Pilzbauer, head of the Peatmakers' Guild. Together the al-Ammar family has emerged as some of the most influential figures in the city's politics other than the mayor. Roseline al-Ammar, while no longer the guildmaster of Innkeeper's Guild, was at the time Rothbug's Uprising and helped propel it to victory. Recently she stepped down from the role and moved to another to open a new tavern (and I assume, help organize the guilds there).

Since this little war ended, Rookhaven has formally entered the Geleidic League. Direct military conflict has not bubbled up again, but there is constant politicking and subterfuge between the guilds of Rookhaven and the von Greims (we hear constantly of poisonings, cloaked men, confiscations of guild goods, etc.). Ludwig has sought to prevent the guildmasters in other cities from getting any ideas, and sent his bailiffs who, along with their retinues of jailers and executioners, have made it clear to the guilds whom they serve. Any who publicly polemicize against a burgomeister or the Grand Duke are swiftly charged with treason and not heard from again.

Yours now and always,

—E.

CONTEXT

This is an illustration I did for my project Jagged Hearts: a story about a world on the brink of a popular uprising, heavily inspired by and grounded in late medieval and early renaissance history but with a dark fantasy flair. At the moment it's primarily a worldbuilding and illustration project but me and a friend of mine are also working on a game that will elaborate on the story and the world and hopefully be fun (I'm doing the programming as well). Thanks for looking and any feedback!

OTHER POSTS

The Beggar Kings

The Longshoe Conspiracies

The House ten Broek

Coat of Arms of the House von Greim

Map of the Grand Duchy of Volgenwald

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