Culmination of Events in Byzantium

Over the course of the year Senator Gabriel conducts a tour of the provinces of the Empire, speaking to the nobles and great merchants and pious bishops of the Emperor's realm. His name is soon on the lips of many of influence beyond the city of Constantinople. It seems the illustrious senator is keen to remind those with whom he speaks of the Roman Empire's greatness in times past and importantly of the virtues that led to that greatness. The senator's speeches are reasoned, but nonetheless impassioned, arguments for the key virtues of patriotism and loyalty to the eternal Roman Empire. But the senator also argues for the other virtues that characterise the Empire: diversity, prosperity, freedom and belief in the true God.

In Constantinople too Senator Gabriel gives speeches upon the floor of the Senate, reminding those there that they owe a duty to the Roman Empire and its citizens. Upon the floor of the Senate also unmasks a number of spies, documents proving that they sold information to their still hidden masters in the Crusader Kingdoms. This sordid business out of the way the Senator talks of a brighter future for the Empire and concludes his speech with a chant of “Senatus Populusque Romanus” which is taken up by the other senators who thump their bunches and stamp their feet in acclimation.

There are other less public manoeuvrings within the political sphere of the Roman Empire over the course of the year too. General Makis Karantenos, already well-regarded as a great general if somewhat eccentric, begins to crop up in more and more conversations. It is noted that, for example, General Aprenos is frequently heard to praise his fellow strategos and in the more subtle matters of funding the general's requisitions are granted quickly and without complaint. It certainly seems that the effect is to make both generals more welcome at court, though General Karantenos is shown particular favour.

A large number of the important figures in the Roman administration suddenly remember just how much they enjoy the good general's company. It also becomes apparent that a number of the very best families have remembered that the general's daughter – Lida Karantenos – has reached the age of her majority. Suitors begin to appear at the general's home in Constantinople and letters asking him to call with his daughter so that the young folk may get to know one another. (A number of more tentative enquiries are also made about the general's son Demetrios which no-one can remember hearing of in recent years.)

Suddenly, during the year, it becomes clear that Emperor Isaac II Angelos is showing particular favour to Senator Gabriel. The senator's business concerns suddenly receive a number of profitable state monopolies and the ultra-loyalist Imperial faction in the Senate sides with his proposals on a number of occasions when it might be considered somewhat against their interests. In the murky world of Byzantine politics it is clear that the Senator is rapidly becoming an Imperial favourite, and can expect new doors to open for him.

It all begins with the head of the Imperial Bodyguard riding out of the northern gate of the city one dawn at the head of a large force of the Varangian Guard. The city is immediately alive with questions and rumours, what has sparked this departure of forces from the Palace? Those in the know claim rumours of rebellion and heresy.

The city grows tense.

As if in response more forces appear later that same day. The troops of General Karantenos on the plains round the city supported by the mercenaries of the Rus General Korovic, ships of the Imperial Navy under Megas Doux John Choniates and even a much smaller cavalry contingent led by General Aprenos.

Now the populace are convinced that trouble is on the way. The rumours of rebellion, treachery and heresy are on every lip now.

It is in this febrile atmosphere that Senator Gabriel sets out to the Senate to speak to the powerful and hopefully calm the weak. A careless wine merchant passes before him halfway between his home and the Senate House and SMASH. A wine barrel is upset and strikes the senator to leave him unconscious in the road.

Senator Gabriel's bodyguards rally round him, swords undrawn, but there is no further sign of trouble. The bodyguards ask the way to the nearest skilled chirurgeon and, alert for any sign of trouble, the senator is carried away to be healed.

It seems that news of the senator's injury spreads with unnatural speed because only minutes later other senators, bureaucrats and the favourites of the Emperor begin to arrive at Senator Gabriel's home to learn what they can and to offer their sympathies to his wife. This is the first the confused good woman knows of her husband's hurt and she is reduced to weeping while servants are sent running to find his true location.

It is amidst this confusion that other men and women make themselves known. Dressed as an Orthodox priest a woman enters and flings open a hidden place behind the orthodox shrine of painted icons and calligraphic bible. Within is the paraphernalia of Jewish worship: skull caps and strange candles and a Torah. The woman moves with purpose through the house while the amazed dignitaries can only look on. Pulled from hidden compartments in wardrobes come religious clothing of the Jewish faith, from small hiding spaces in the children's rooms come items such as dradles. Even the kitchen gives clues as the priest points out that none will find any pork in the larder and the strange oven designed to slow cook food upon the Jewish Sabbath.

The horrified leaders of the Roman Empire turn to question Simeon's wife but she has disappeared. Nonetheless the evidence is overwhelming.

Senator Simeon Gabriel is unmasked as a secret Jew at the heart of the Imperial government.

Troops of General Korovic arrive to secure the traitor's home and begin to search the city for the treasonous senator and his family so they may be arrested.

Even as the senators and bureaucrats leave Simeon's home to spread the horrifying news in the Senate and to bring it to the Emperor himself the news has somehow reached the people of the city.

The mob is enraged!

Now all know what has happened. There is a Jewish plot to overthrow the Roman Empire! There is a republican plot to dethrone the Emperor! All the senators are Jews dedicated to destroying the Orthodox faith. Is the Emperor a secret Jew too?!

The moneylenders are the first to be attacked, even in a normal riot they would fare badly, but now the mob is convinced that they are all secret Jews. The great and powerful are not spared either, senators are stoned in the street and attempts made by rioting howling crowds to force their way into the homes of anyone upon whom suspicion alights.

The city militia is overwhelmed by the riots and cower in their watch posts. The Varangian Guard are mostly out of the city and those in the palace form up on the defences built by Governor Ithakenseys and General Romanos. Faced with this chaos General Karantenos' forces march into the city to restore order.

General Lucius Aprenos' cavalry do not enter into the city but instead move to stop the chaos from spreading beyond Constantinople.

Within hours the trouble has been quelled. There are still isolated incidents, robberies and stonings, but the forces of General Karantenos and Korovic have the situated locked down. It is dangerous however, the people still simmer with rage, and without the troops the city will certainly explode into violence again.

It is now that Loxos the Golden Tusk enters Constantinople at the head of one of his parades. It seems he has an appointment at the palace and arrayed in all their finery the elephants and camels and dancing girls and monkeys and servants dance and trumpet through the half-deserted streets of Constantinople. Under the wary eyes of Karantenos and Korovic's troops the crowds that gather give muted cheers and the sense of danger seems to recede. After all the danger must have passed if the elephants are back in town! For the first time in what feels like weeks but may only be hours a few smiles are seen.

Loxos the Golden Tusk's parade arrives in the great square before the Imperial Palace before the wary and alert eyes of the Varangian Guard. There is some confusion and obvious heated arguments between the guardsmen but the most senior officer remaining waves a friendly gesture at Loxos and the gates to the gardens of the Imperial Palace open for Loxos to parade in private for the Emperor Isaac II's amusement.

Before Loxos can enter into the gardens though a stream of people come running out of the Palace. People in tears, people fleeing in fear, guards with swords drawn running in and running out and a single woman – just a fleeting glimpse – pursued by a dozen men dressed in the elaborate uniforms of the Emperor's own personal guard. The very largest of Varangians with enormous axes just keeping up with the fleeing women. A brunette? Young and then vanished?

But the news from inside the Imperial Palace is terrible. The Emperor Isaac II Angelos is dead. His head and heart cut from his naked body. (And more sordid rumours that his manhood is still stiff.) He has been murdered in the most brutal manner in his own bedchambers.

And the aghast guards, seeking in some vain to make up for their bloody failure, are in pursuit of the murderer even now.

Even as they pursue though the news spreads before them.

And the city begins to burn.

The elite Varangian guardsmen pursue the running figure with difficulty, but the people of the city are alarmed and when they lose the assassin someone catches a glimpse and points them to their revenge. And within the space of minutes they are at the home of General Makis Karantenos and a black clad figure with brunette hair and something upon her back dashes through a door even while the guarding soldiers of Karantenos demand to know what is happening.

The Varangians, enraged, charge and force their way through General Karantenos' guards. It is clear later that the General was out leading his troops and only his family and servants are at home. Swords and axes clash but these are the elite of the Varangian Guard and they force their way easily within. The crowd waiting

A young brunette woman steps out a strangely blank expression on her face. It is Lida Karantenos, the daughter of General Karantenos. She is covered in blood and held loose in her hands is one of the axes of the Varangians. She looks out for a moment then wipes the bloody axehead on her dress and turns and calmly walks back into her home, closing the door behind her. Before the light within is blocked the crowd sees a few shapes slumped on the ground.

• Together Nizam Ata and Nadia put in place the plan to gift the Shai'tan djinn Nizam Ata's wife, once unknowingly and once knowingly.
• Nizam Ata stops betraying her and treats her kindly for several weeks, rekindling her love.
• Casually he introduces a disguised Nadia as an expert on wicked spirits to Constantia
• The djinn takes Nizam's form and has his wicked way with Constantia one night pretending to be her husband. At the end he reveals himself to her. Horrified the woman runs screaming to her husband, who consults with the wise woman. It must have been an assassination attempt but the djinn was distracted by Constantia's husband. She has survived the horror and saved her husband, but the djinn will surely be back.
• Nizam Ata continues to treat his wife with respect for six more months; she is madly deeply in love again.
• During this time too Nizam Ata carefully observes the Emperor's guards and habits when he visits the Imperial Palace. He interviews some of those women he has already sent there “to better understand what his glorious master seeks in such humble vessels” and learns the security arrangements for the Imperial bedchamber. He passes this information to Nadia.
• Nadia sends a fake letter written in blood from the djinn saying that either Constantia surrender herself to him anointed in blood and wearing imperial regalia three nights hence or the djinn will slay her husband. Nizam Ata scoffs and will not hear of any such thing.
• Then on the day before the night the djinn will appear Nizam Ata “sickens” terribly; the wise woman is called in and declares it the work of a djinn and that he will surely die by the next dawn unless something is done. And she is powerless! The wise woman explains (rather accurately) the nature of the Shai'tan djinn.
• That night Constantia surrenders herself willingly to the thing's foul embrace in order to save her treacherous husband, while Nadia and Nizam Ata watch in hiding and laugh.
• The deal completed the djinn bows to Nadia and turns to a black gas which enters into her. Nadia departs the palace, while Nizam Ata beds a few of his wife's maids.

Nadia only

• The shai'tan noble is terribly cowed by the swirling maelstrom of darkness within you. He does indeed call you “ma'am” and you sense that some part of your own darkness has entered into him, whether he wills it or no he is now as loyal to you as any member of the Court of Shadows can be (which is very little). His name is As'Sayyal.
• Nizam Ata has informed the Emperor that you will be awaiting him that evening in his own bedchambers and that you will be ready to delight him.
• You make your way there, using Nizam's information to sneak past the Emperor's elaborate security arrangements. Within you As'Sayyal groans in pain as the wards assail him, muted by the protection of your own flesh. The djinn's pain is an immediate pleasure to go with the anticipation. The wards do not seem to recognise you though you feel them brush against you.
• The Emperor's guards are much reduced compared to the information Nizam Ata gave you. This is not a change of arrangements; it's clear that they have simply been withdrawn. Reaching the Emperor is much easier than it ought to be.
• You enter the Emperor's bedchamber dressed in scandalously little but veils and with the drum upon your back, it will not beat well with a change of clothes and wig within but you don't expect the emperor to be much interested in music.
• You prompt As'Sayyal to put forth a black halo around with you, and he screams in agony within your mind as he does so, bound to obey you as best he can but tormented by the wards at the heart of the Imperial Palace. You can feel bits of him being flayed away.
• You dance for the Emperor's pleasure displaying awe-stricken deference and abasement. First decently, then quite suggestively and then shedding what little costume you have.
• The emperor's attention is quite obvious, especially once he is disrobed too in an elaborate teasing dance, and you submit to his masterful embraces.
• As you settle him down upon the bed and lie with him you strike. As'Sayyal boils out of you gagging and binding him and in your hands come two punch daggers made of his shadowy substance, the edges twisting and writing. You stab the emperor a lot and then cut out his heart and take his head.
• Next you cut off the top of the drum and retrieve the disguise to make yourself appear as Lida Karantenos. The discarded dancer costume and parts of the emperor take their place. None have heard and no-one comes to investigate yet. You have to give the alarm yourself when ready!
• You exit the palace pursued by a dozen seven foot tall Varangian guards with red beards and enormous axes.
• In the time you have been inside all has changed in the city. Outside the palace is Loxos and his full parade, suspiciously ready for action. Elsewhere in the city the troops of Generals Karantenos and Pavel Korovic are containing riots that have broken out.
• You lead the Varangians a merry chase to the home of General Karantenos where you slip through his guards and into his home. You watch as Lida Karantenos goes bezerk and slaughters your pursuers, never seeing you, and then depart.
• It seems the riots are because Senator Simeon Gabriel has been unmasked as a Jews and a republican and a traitor. He has disappeared.

ALL:

• Upon her return from Constantinople with the emperor's head and heart, Nadia shows to Nizam Ata a way of having an even better time in the marriage bed or especially by the jackal pit. It was an agreement after all. Nizam Ata learns an awful lot about pleasure in the process.

It is a day later before General Karantenos hears the news of events at his own home, for the city is in utter chaos. His own forces and those of General Pavel Korovic are just barely enough to contain the fires that are set. It is hours later before they can even begin to spare men to contain the looting and rioting.

At the Imperial Palace no-one knows what to do. The Emperor is murdered, the city in chaos, and Senator Simeon Gabriel revealed as a Jew and a republican conspirator. Who can be trusted? What can be done?

Loxos rises in his great howdah set upon Cyril, the largest of his elephants, and cries out for silence. None listen, but then he signals and the elephants of his herd trumpet with a great noise and the confused courtiers are briefly silenced.

Into this silence Loxos the Golden Tusk makes a stunning annoucement. Once he was known by a different name, a very different name.

Once he was Emperor Alexios I. The rightful emperor of the Roman Empire until the demon Andronikos stole his throne, strangled and drowned him. But in truth he was rescued from the harbour and sold, forgetting all his old memories, and passed into a distant land. Now he has returned at the head of the great herd to the Roman Empire; he thought to deliver it from the vainglorious rule of the pretender Isaac but now it seems to deliver it from chaos.

The stunned and disbelieving courtiers don't know how to respond. If Alexios were alive then he'd be a decade older than Loxos… Then the captain of the remaining Varangian Guard, the one who ordered the gates of the Imperial Gardens opened, steps forward and alongside him Megas Doux John Choniates and they proclaim the truth of what the Emperor Alexios I says.

In the city the news of the Emperor's death arrives before the news that Loxos has proclaimed himself the new Emperor. The staff in General Karantenos' headquarters are momentarily stunned. But the maps spread before them show that they hold the city; it is the troops of Karantenos' legions that line the streets and guard the keypoints and hold the gates. The few Varangians remaining could not oppose them even if they chose. And General Korovic seems to be their ally…

The aide-de-comp slips out of the room as General Korovic sends more forces to the harbour to prevent the mob from burning ships seeking to leave. The mob suspects that the still missing Senator Gabriel will be smuggled out of the city by his conspirators to plot further heretical treason. They must be stopped.

Then from outside comes the clash of swords on shields and cries of “Emperor Makis”. The general looks puzzled and then begins to command them to sto… and then stops and straightens.

His aide-de-comp enters and the rest of the staff taking up the same chant. “Emperor Makis! Emperor Makis!” The general smiles strangely and says, “Ah, Mucianus, it seems I can oppose you no longer. Very well then if both you and the Legio X Fretensis demand it, who is Vespasian to deny it?”

General Karantenos has had the path prepared to him, and with no command from him or apparently even knowledge, his troops form up and without weapon drawn or arrow fired drive Emperor Alexios from the city. His elephants are near match for the Karantenos' troops, but the outcome is obvious and Alexios was not prepared for this kind of battle.

Makis Karantenos enters the palace and sits himself upon the throne and for several days as the city is brought under control the proclamations of Emperor Vespasian issue forth. Immediately after this though the general proclaims himself to be, in truth, Emperor Michael. (Taking the Latin form of his name.)

Emperor Michael has taken Constantinople but the city remains restless. Rumours abound that Jews remain within the government conspiring against the new emperor, or that the remaining senators merely bide their time and wait for the Emperor to display any weakness before they act against him. There are several more riots and few days pass without a lynching of a target the mob has suddenly grown suspicious of. It is only the large number of Emperor Michael's troops in the city that restrain a more dangerous outbreak of violence.

The new Emperor Michael's support is firmest in the Balkans and in the newly conquered territories of Lykandos and Mesopotamia. However, he has little sway over the Imperial Navy. Megas Doux John Choniates has declared for Emperor Alexios (Loxos) and the fleet has evacuated the city. The Peloponnese and Ionian islands are therefore firmly under the control of allies of Alexios, though he lacks in soldiers to almost the same degree that Michael lacks in sailors.

Many governors have not yet declared their hands. Most important of these is Governor Sergios o Ithakenseys of Cyprus - though the infantry forces of his theme are not great he commands the only substantial fleet not yet aligned with Emperor Alexios. Importantly it is also thought that Governor Antipatra of Cherson will in all likelihood follow his lead.

General Aprenos and Candida Aprene have not yet signalled their intent, though – in hindsight – their actions earlier in the year were instrumental in preparing the path for Emperor Michael to take the throne. Nor Dukos Archos Nizam Ata has yet declared for either Emperor; his theme possesses the largest garrison force not to have sided with either Emperor.

Finally there is the question of what happened to Simeon Gabriel. Stripped of his senatorial rank and much of his public wealth he and his family disappeared in the chaos of the riots and the proclamation of the twin emperors.