Re: A New World [SS6.4 HS]
On the first day of the great war, the Great City of Venice, the jewel of Italy was illuminated by the rising sun from the east, as always. However, what hope the Sun gave to the proud Republic each day, was now beset by the shadow of a greater threat from the west. A city once impossible to conquer now was the easy picking. While the nobles tried to keep the populace calm, advisors and diplomats rushed around within the Pałaso Dogal... The Doge, sitting in the chair in his hall had a grim, desperate face. Several generals were trying to tell their own plans to repel the coming enemy, but the Doge would hear none of it. All would result in the destruction and death of his countrymen.
Suddenly, the Great Doors of the Palace opened. A lone messenger in ragged clothes stumbled in, almost falling to the ground in exhaustion. The guards surrounded him, with the intent to remove the madman who dared to bother the leaders of the Republic in this great times of need. But Doge Cristiano wawed to let the man speak. "My Doge!" - The messenger said with a drained voice. "The answers of the Norwegian and Hungarian King arrived! They say that they will answer our cry for help, and have already mustered their royal troops to help us!
Silence beset the palace for several seconds. But the eeire moment was broken by a general from the corner of the hall: "And so what?" - He asked. "When they arrive, Italy will be nothing but a pile of rubble! We are outmatched in North and South Italy too, the risky move of trespassing to the French Kingdom have failed as the Aragonese prepared for us, and yielded nothing but a new possible enemy in a war we cannot ever dream to win! Even our navy, our one saving grace has to retreat to waters we don't even control... So I ask again: What does two.."
"SILENCE!" - The Doge's voice echoed through the palace.
Cristiano rose up from his chair. He started walking through the frightened men that were in the palace, stopping in the middle, where everyone could see and hear him well.
"Generals! Nobles! Diplomats of our Great State!" - He Started
"There have been many instances in our History, where we thought that all hope was lost. Once, we asked, how could we ever depose the Byzantines as a small city-state against the Empire of the Romans? We said it couldn't be done. And yet, we earned our independence. When the Normans invaded us, we asked, how could we ever defend our city against an army of heavy knights? We thought all hope was lost. And yet, we drove them out. And when we raised the question of how would we ever prevail when the Pope himself went to war with us with the Hungarians? We thought our bodies and souls were damned. Yet, we won and grew ever stronger. We even thought once that we would be nothing but ferrymen, and then we proceeded to sack Constantinople and defeat the mightiest Empire in History!" - A small laughter emerges from the crowd.
"...South Italy might be taken. North Italy might be taken. Veneto, our homeland might be taken! Our armies may run, our navy might flee, our treasury can empty... But we will prevail!! When the dust settles on the battlefields of Italy, we will come back from the mountains of the Alps, the deep seas of the Mediterranean, the coasts of Dalmatia. And we will give our blood so that the menace that is the Kingdom of Aragon will fall. And when our allies arrive, we will fight hand in hand until we either win, or there is nothing left of us, just the souls entering the gates of the Kingdom of God!"
The eyes within the room, once filled with despair were now burning with hope. Everyone knew that the Aragonese would defeat them, and only their Allies could win in the end, making a nation once proud, a shadow of its former self. And yet, they decided to fight on...
Hungary 35 up: https://www.sendspace.com/file/3mtx0e
Originally Posted by Ramble12
