Legends Never Die: The More Things Change (ch. 97)

Things hardly settled the very instant that the victory happened. It took time for the effects to ripple out across the Roman empire that found itself shocked by waves of news. First, that iconoclasm had been officially repealed by the Pope and Patriarch of the faith. Then, at the same time, news that Bulgaria had been conquered spread alongside the repeal. As far as anyone could tell, it mostly had the intended effect -- people took it as a sign.

But not everyone did. Fanatical believers weren't so easily convinced with evidence. Anything short of the skies parting and God whispering to them his will, they would remain determined to see what they believed to be his will done. After all, these were people who not only killed their own countrymen over the issue of Icon, but killed their own kinsmen if needed. The result was a smattering of rebellions and tensions across the Roman Empire -- a dozen people in a village, a hundred in a town, or a thousand in a city.

Few and dispersed, but they had the potential to become a rebellion that would have engulfed the empire if given the chance.

Michael Lachanodrakon was the one rallying voice that could have ignited the scattered fanatics and tipped over those that were sitting on the fence. Which was why snuffing out the flames of his rebellion before they could truly begin had the effect of killing the rebellion in the crib. The measures that Irene took ensured that the dispersed fanatics were quickly rounded up and put down. Sometimes with words, other times with the point of a sword.

Naturally, Irene didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity to increase her own power. Michael and his kin were stripped of their titles and possessions, reduced to landless nobility. Irene repossessed the title of Strategos and had yet to name another for the region, and I doubted that she would in her lifetime. Likewise, the minstrels, news barkers, and rumors in taverns all spun the same tale. Whispering who was responsible for such victories.

People began to whisper a name -- Irene the Glorious. It was through her actions and initiatives that icons were restored. That the Abbasids were rebuffed. That Bulgaria was conquered. The credit wasn't going to her son, as the emperor. It went to Irene, as the regent.

My own actions seemed to restore the favor she had shown me before, to a degree at least. My crushing victory was used as evidence by God of his approval of Icons. In any case, I learned that Irene's favor was fickle. She would only ever remember the last good thing I did for her. It suited me fine enough.

My forces spent a month in Kiev, settling Bulgaria for a time before the Roman garrison took our place. In that time, I was never approached by Krum -- though, I had no idea if that was because he died during the battle, or if he simply wasn't interested in speaking to me. So, I instead turned to internal matters such as the recruits and Jarls.

It was a rather simple affair, really. The jarls were none too pleased by the thought of losing command by joining my army, but their people were more than pleased by the thought of climbing through the ranks by merit. It forced the Jarls to bend, simply because if they didn't, most of their forces would desert them and they would lack the strength to retake their lands in Denmark. Likewise, my victory of the Red Sea, as people had taken to calling it, validated those that had come so far for me -- it was proof that I had been blessed by the gods.

The result was a thousand men staying behind in Kiev to hold it for our people. There, they would actively recruit warriors from afar. It mattered little of their origin -- Bulgarians, Romans, Khzars, Rus. So long as they were able bodied and could pass the tests that were left behind, they could be recruited. As what happened after Ravenfest, there was a surge of warriors that were interested in fighting under my banner. All of it paid for by the Bulgarians, as I had reclaimed all the loot I had taken.

It also allowed us to set up a more consistent trade route with the Baltic sea. I had inadvertently done enough damage to Denmark as it was, but setting up a trade route would help prepare things for the future.

The near ten thousand that came with us to Crete settled in without much issue, for the most part. Norland had grown significantly during the stay of the Christians. The city became one of cultural importance in the aftermath of the debate. Which made ten thousand pagans a less than welcomed sight to the Christians, but any insurrection or bad blood was swept away with my return to Norland.

To the refugees and pilgrims, Norland was what they were promised in their eyes. A gentle land that could sustain them, where even the winters were mild. Even before I had arrived to the city, I sent word to help correct some of their beliefs -- they were a jumbled mess, exactly as Hoffer had warned me, with some believing that I was a Christian prophet, others mistaking me for Jesus, but most were under the impression that I was a god, of the asier, and here to deliver them to a promised land.

Sorting through that mess took some time, but just by confirming that I followed the gods -- Odin, Thor, Freya, and the others -- was enough to convince most of them that I wasn't in any way Christian. I'm sure there were still a few that held fast to the belief, but they kept it to themselves as far as I could tell and so long as they did, they could believe what they liked.

In the time I dealt with that issue, the reactions throughout the empire began to settle. With the establishment of iconoclasm some decades ago, it was used as an excuse to revoke many titles and lands from those that kept practicing their faith with icons. Naturally, those that had lost everything were hoping to reclaim what was lost. Likewise, other established nobles desired the now vacant lands as Irene repossessed the lands from rebels.

I kept my nose out of the entire ordeal, but the outcome was obvious. It was an opportunity to build her powerbase further, so she would only grant the lands to those that were loyal to her. Which Michalis seemed to be because three months after the rebellion in Bulgaria, his family lands were restored to him in full. Thus completing one of the first quests that I had received in this land.

Quest:

Objective: Restore Michalis's family lands, titles, and fortunes.

Bonus Objective: Destroy those that brought his family low.

Reward: 250 Prestige, 1 Diplomacy perk.

Bonus reward: 1 Boon Perk.

Between the Red Sea and fulfilling the quest, my Prestige was once more at a comfortable place where I could either grant two people Blessings or one person a second. It also granted me my first Diplomacy Perk, along with another Boon.

The Diplomacy Perk had been something of a conundrum as I had a choice between three useful perks.

Silver Tongue: Negotiation is the act of give and take. With words, influence, and charm, you attempt to sway the scales your way. With Silver Tongue, you will always know what the other party wishes to hear. It is only a question of if you wish to say it.

Know Thy Enemy: A person is defined by the traits that they embody. With this Perk, the user can tell the three most prominent traits that a person possesses with merely a glance.

Relationship Tracker: Relationships are now measured and calculated by the number of benefits and malices that transpire between you and others. For example; gifting someone a treasure that they desire would be a +10 to the relationship, while someone else could be -10 because they desired that same treasure.

Relationship Tracker does not define what the relationship is, but those that have a positive modifier will generally view you more favorably than those with a negative modifier.

All three were useful in their own way, but Know Thy Enemy struck me as the most useful overall. Silver Tongue was tempting, but only situationally as, so far, I generally knew what the people wanted when I was negotiating with them -- me either dead or gone from their lands. Relationship Tracker was interesting, but in the end, I already possessed a version of it with True Sight. Even if it would be useful to know what people took as a malice.

The Boon was a much easier selection, in the end.

Terrifying Presence: By simply exuding your presence, those of weak will shall feel as if they are locked in a cage with a predator.

Map: Creates a highly detailed 3D map of where the user has been.

It wasn't even a choice as I chose Map with no hesitation. My models had been invaluable as time proved, and it only became more useful when Fertility Map marked out the soil fertility on my Map. It also worked very well with Simulation, which allowed me to simulate the effects of natural disasters on the map on a much broader scale. Map was by far the best Boon I could have taken.

Given that it was scalable, I could have a large map of a small area or a small map of all of Crete. It would only improve as time went on as perks such as Ore Wealth would help develop the Map significantly. It also made my other Quest to develop Norland that much more important because between Map and City Manager, I would have a firm grip on how I would go about developing Denmark upon my return.

Quest: Founding a city.

Objectives:

Population: 29,556/25,000

Wealth: 65,000/100,000

Military power: 8,000/10,000

Notable buildings: 3/5

Reward: 1,000 Prestige. Trait: City Builder. 3 Stewardship perks. 1 Diplomacy perk.

City Builder: Locations for cities will be highlighted for the user -- Green for good, yellow for neutral, and red for poor.

When managing or visiting a city owned by user, the city's stats will be revealed and are as follows:

Happiness

Quality of life

Population growth

Wealth

Security

Education

Religion

As well as other detailed information such as imports, exports, notable figures within the city, notable goods found within, spheres of influence, and expected levys.

I had the population. Wealth was slowly building up through trade. The Notable buildings was the next task I was handling -- My Longhouse counted for one, the library second, while the third was the bathhouse that was built. I hadn't expected for that one to count, but I was hardly complaining. I had two other projects in mind that would count as notable buildings, and they would begin shortly. The one that was causing me some issues was military might.

I was recruiting in several places but the military power was all spread out across several locations. Nor did it strike me as wise to count the military that would be leaving with me back to Denmark. It was tempting to just open the floodgates and allow anyone who wanted to join, simply to increase the numbers, but I didn't want to lower my standards too much. After all, it said Military Power rather than army size. Things like walls counted as well.

And, as much as I would like to simply focus on developing Norland, I didn't have that luxury.

Irene approved of my request to establish outpost on not only Sicily, but Sardinia as well. The reason was rather simple, in the end -- the Roman Empire had struggled to exert its influence on Greece and Crete, and they were both directly next to the bulk of the empire. Further off islands, such as Sicily and Sardinia, might as well have been Norway and Denmark with how far removed they were from the empire. They played lip service to the empire, but enjoyed rather independent rules with the Jarls of the islands acting as kings in function.

Naturally, they were less than pleased with our arrival but they lacked the strength to oppose us. Rather than building settlements from scratch, I decided it would be far better to simply co-opt the settlements that were already there. On Sicily, there were several, but the one chosen was the ancient city of Palermo. On Sardinia Cagliari was chosen, largely due to the silver mines that were already operating in the area.

Between the two, my forces were spread out. It was progress, even if it was inconvenient as it helped me with another quest.

Quest: Lord of the Tides

Objective: Establish a military presence on (3/4) major islands in the Mediterranean:

- Reward: 1,000 Prestige. Title: Lord of Tides. 1 Boon.

Bonus Objective: Establish (10,100/20,000) army within the Mediterranean.

- Bonus reward #1: 1 Martial perk.

Bonus Objective: Maintain (550/1,000) standing fleet.

- Bonus reward #2: Learning Perk: Early Age of Exploration Ship: Caravel.

Bonus Objective: Maintain an alliance with (0/1) major power within the Mediterranean.

- Bonus reward #3: Third hint to legendary item (3/3)

Lord of Tides: The ocean will ever be in the favor of the bearer of this title.

As it so happened, securing the islands would be the easiest task. The Balearic islands were going to be taken off of the Umayyad Caliphate in the coming year. The alliance was in the works with the Abbasids. The army and the ships were the real issues, as Hoffer would need a powerful army to maintain his grip on the islands while the ships would allow him to control the Mediterranean sea. To say nothing of the Learning Perk that I wanted.

Things were generally moving in the direction that I wanted to and, eventually, things settled back to normal.

Which is why another year passed in what felt like a blink of an eye.

…

“What is it?” I asked, looking at the odd contraption that Alexios revealed to me as we sat outside of the University of Constantinople. My visits weren't as frequent as I liked, or what I had planned when I first arrived at this city, but Alexios was always a friendly and familiar face to me. Especially, little by little, I was copying everything that the massive library contained.

The contraption in question was a small still of some kind -- The four legs were made out of wood, there was a round copper basin that had a lid on it, and protruding from that lid was two stalks that had a ball between them.

“This,” Alexios informed proudly, grinning at me with a split lip and a blackened eye, “is an aeolipile! I've been waiting to get my hands on it for ages. Ended up having to take it by force when my turn was skipped again,” he elaborated, tending to a small fire underneath the basin to get it going before he grabbed two waterskins and began pouring them into the basin itself. “It could prove useful to your latest project.”

I looked down at the text in my hands -- a long scroll that described the rotating dinning room that belonged to the Emperor Nero. It caught my attention as it was lofted as one of the most incredible creations of the old empire and I was inclined to agree with them. It sounded incredible. Suetonius, the author of the biography that described the dining room, lacked detail about how it worked. But, given that he called it a wonder of engineering, I was less inclined to believe that Nero simply had slaves pushing the room beneath the floor.

Which left me pondering how exactky I would build a rotating room. Or could.

“Oh? How so?” I said, letting the scroll full itself up as I leaned forward on the stone bench that I sat on.

“Watch and be amazed, my young student,” Alexios boasted, feeding the fire so it grew. I had no idea what he intended for a long few minutes until a trace of steam drifted out of the spigots in the ball. Slowly, the steam grew in intensity as the water inside of the basin began to boil, and once it was boiling in earnest, the steam grew in power. Which made the ball begin to move. “The steam generates pressure, and through correct containment, it is possible to guide that pressure to turn it into force.”

The ball was spinning rapidly now with a high pitched whine. I got off the bench to walk forward, interested in how the aeolipile worked. It was still going, but I did spy one problem. “Has it ever been used for something bigger?”

“Not to my knowledge, no,” Alexios admitted. “For something like this, it's perfect. I think before it came back to the university, it was used as entertainment for some nobles. Larger scale runs into logistics problems.”

I hummed, nodding as I used Structural Analysis upon the aeolipile. It was rather simple, and it did exactly what Alexios said. The water boiled, the steam was guided, and it created force which made the ball spin. “To make a room spin, it would take significantly more water than a few waterskins. That could be doable easily enough, especially if I'm willing to use an aqueduct to provide the water. The real issue is the heat to boil it.”

“Well spotted,” Alexios said, giving me a proud grin. “Wood is entirely ineffective. Costs too high, too labor intensive, and it fails to provide a sustained burn. Charcoal is better, but it is entirely too expensive and labor intensive to provide the quantities that you would need.” Steam was impractical in a number of ways, it seemed.

But, the core idea was sound. “So, pressure and force is the answer?” I said, watching as the aeolipile spun itself out, the water evaporated.

“Applied pressure and force,” Alexios corrected ever so slightly. “It is the basis of all machines, in the end. What makes them so impractical is how the pressure or force is created.”

I crouched in the dirt, thinking about it for a moment. It was a topic I was familiar with by now. My attendance to lectures were few and far between, but I had done significant self study. “An ox pulls a plow through a field,” I muttered to myself, sticking a finger in the dirt and drawing a line. It was the same basic principle -- the ox applied force, the plow was how that force was guided, and the result was a field for farming.

It was just a question of how the force was created and how it was applied.

With my finger still in the dirt, I thought of a wagon wheel. It was circular, which allowed it to smoothly distribute force. Though, that was largely because there was only one point of contact on the ground at a time… Drawing the wheel, I tilted my head in thought… “The room is a wagon wheel,” I remarked, but that just confused me further.

A wagon wheel was pulled forward, causing the axle to turn, which in turn turned the wheel. If the axle was planted in the ground, then that meant that some kind of spinning force was applied.

I scratched at my head, thinking on it for a second more- “Father!” I heard a young voice call out to me, and I immediately looked over to see that it was my son, Ragnar. He broke into a dead sprint, leaving his guards behind him as he raced towards me. He had grown. It felt like just yesterday that he was just a baby, stuffing everything that he could find in his mouth, and causing no end to trouble the moment he learned how to crawl.

Now he was running, talking, and finding even more trouble.

“Ragnar,” I replied, catching him as he jumped to me. At the age of two, he felt like he was my spitting image -- dark red hair with Astrid's bright blue eyes. He was big for his age and he wore the emblem of our house proudly upon his chest. “What are you doing here? Got bored of the manor?” I asked him, pushing the wild strands of hair out of his face. He gave me a cheeky grin before he threw his arms around my neck and gave me a fierce hug.

I patted his back at the nonanswer, “I do hope you at least told your mother where you were going,” I said, my gaze flickering to the half dozen guards that protected my son whenever we were in this city.

“Yeah! I told her I wanted to read books with you,” Ragnar said, pulling back and I looked at him.

Ragnar Siegfriedson

Traits: Curious.

As a child, he had what seemed to be starter traits that could grow into other traits. Around their teens is where the traits began to solidify. I could see the three major traits that defined a person, but there were others that would only reveal themselves the better I knew them. Such as Ragnar's guards -- not only were they blue to True Sight, but they had the Loyal trait.

“In that case, let's go read some books,” I changed my plans easily, looking to Alexios to see that he offered an understanding smile. Some would say that I was too soft with my children- no, I knew that they said it behind my back, but I cared little. There was very little point in creating all of this if I didn't use it to indulge my children. To that end, I patted Akexios on the shoulder before moving on, heading inside the library with Ragnar at my hip. His guards trailed behind us and they cut a frightful sight.

They wore the latest attempt at recreating the armor that Astolfo wore. It was a type of half-plate at the moment as I had yet to solve the issue of mobility when it was a single unified piece, as well as the difficulties of creating such a chest piece. The half plate went over the chest while lamar armor covered the vitals at the stomach. Their arms and legs, however, were clad in layered plate armor with the only gaps being at the knees and elbows, but those were covered by the long set of chainmail. It went down to the knees, which were then further protected by the studded leather skirt gambison that extended down to their ankles.

Their helms were modified for guard duty -- the traditional nasal helm of our people served well enough, protecting their heads, nose, and eyes but left their faces exposed. For war, their faces would be covered with a mail coif for added protection. They were armed with a shield, a dagger at their belt along with a hand axe, with their main armament being a modified Dane axe -- the head of the axe was still there, but it was joined with a spear tip at the top so it could act as a thrusting weapon.

The training that my warriors underwent, as well as the potential recruits, had its intended effect. My people were in general already taller than the average Roman, but with the training, they packed on muscle. And, in the past year, they weren't the only ones.

It had been some time that I hadn't been at least a head taller than anyone I met. I finally surpassed Thorkell in height some months ago, which left the only person taller than me being Hoffer, but the distance seemed to be shrinking by the day.

The library was quiet for the most part -- the only real sound came from my soldiers, and my son’s sound of excitement when he saw the shelves overflowing with texts. Ragnar wasn’t particularly interested in the scrolls themselves as he was me reading them to him. There were a few tightened expressions from those in the library, but they kept their heads down. As a noble, and with my influence, most simply avoided me outright.

The only one that dared to look up was a familiar face. Jasmine smiled at us through her veil, seated at a table and surrounded by her own guards. With no invasion incoming, the negotiations between the Romans and Abbasids had been ongoing in regards to Jasmine. The Romans were stalwartly against any idea of returning Jasmine to her homeland, but they had conceded on a number things. One of which was her admittance to the university. Another was that she was granted Abbasid guards.

A year was enough time for them to accept that I didn’t have any untoward intentions towards their princess, but they still eyed me with open suspicion as I neared. Jasmine, on the other hand, simply gestured for me to take the seat across from her. “I see that you are in high spirits. Is it time to leave already?” She asked, gently closing a text. I couldn't read Arabic upside down, but I suspected that it was another book about the lands the Romans had seen.

Almost as soon as Jasmine begun her stay at the university, she proved to have a hunger for tales of the wider world. As well as a talent for numbers.

“No, not yet. The little one decided to go on an adventure,” I said, sitting Ragnar on my knee while I grabbed a nearby text. “I'll remind you, you are free to come and go as you please in the city now. Your brother has proven he's an adept haggler,” I remarked. As part of my help with restoring his family name, Michalis had awarded me with a manor within the city limits that had once belonged to Chares.

I didn't see much of Michalis these days -- we still aided each other, but with the controversy and stigma that followed me, he would only communicate through letters. I didn't mind much. We had never been friends and he reminded me too much of a snake in the grass willing to bite whoever was nearby to sate his hunger. The point being, with the manor, we had an easy residence to come and go from.

Jasmine offered a small shake of her head, “I could, but then I wouldn't get to see the little one.” Jasmine said with a fond smile, looking at Ragnar. He was a charmer. “I even found a book that I think he might like,” she said, sliding me the one that she had been reading.

Taking it, it fell open to a page as a slip of paper had been wedged in the binding. A message written in Arabic.

‘My brother invites you to speak of the alliance you offered.’

“I think we'll both enjoy it,” I replied, my gaze meeting hers for a brief moment.

There really was no rest for the wicked.