Domzhirov, Ursus of Zubstov: Novgorod Gazette

[Lugotorix]

URSUS OF ZUBSTOV

St. Sophia's at Kremlin Novgorod


Teutonic Defense of Dunaburg, Lithuania, 1258


Novgorod at merchantile height

The Account of the Domzhirov, Boyarstvo of Smolensk

Our story begins in 882, when Oleg Varyagi of Veliki Novgorod took Smolnya Rivulet on the dark banks of the Dnieper on his tour south to Kiev. His Varyagi countrymen still live in the lands north of the city, and they are the Druzinka, the bears of Zubstov.

Over the next three hundred years, the city became prosperous, as an intermediary to the Byzantine emperors, and their Scandinavian mercenaries, and the foundation for modern Russia. In 1054, Smolensk became a princedom, a land of Tsars, and their dynasty ruled over Kiev for many years.
It is four years after the reign of Yaroslav II, Grand Prince of Vladamir.
Crowned in Novgorod, in 1222, he has been successful in rebuking the Mongol invasion of all of Russia in 1238 by Batu Khan. The victory has come at too high a price. One of the greatest cities in eastern europe, Kiev, has been razed by the Mongols, a metropolis of over one hundred thousand.
The fifth son of of Yaroslav Vsevolodovich and the Princess of Ryazan, his third marriage, have given rise to a great Duke, Alexander Vsevolodovich of Neva, the first of the Moscow line of princes and a saintly man, who defeated the Livonian armies of the Teutonic Knights under Magister Hermann, brother of the Bishop of Riga. At the Battle of the Ice, he routed both the Danes and the Swedes along with the Teutons at the beck of Poland.

He has been entrusted with governance of Novgorod years prior by his father, who ruled from the south of Kiev on the advice of Prince Danylo of Halych.
In the last twenty years of his rule, he has resisted papal requests to make war on the Golden Horde and the Tartars, while ruling fairly, opting peaceful tribute to the Khan over the rise of Catholicism in the very near and very present west.
Two years after Domzhir arose as general to the Grand Duke, Nevsky would befriend and ally Sartaq Khan. Ten years later, he would be dead on the Volga, returning from Sarai, the Khanate capital. In 1256, he traveled north and defeated the Swedes and Finnish, while arranging a long lasting peace treaty with Norway.
The year is 1250, and a council of boyars requests dominion over a city to the north. The leadership of Russia takes a much different course.

What follows is a historical reinterpretation of the Novgorod uprising of 1258, with representatives of Zubstov and Smolensk re-envisioning a unifyed Principality of Vladimir, and war against the Tartars and Danes, culminating in the struggle to retake Kiev and expanding borders to present day Kaliningrad.
This AAR will feature every unit from the early era peasant and Boyar's Son's to the Cossack Musketeer and Dragoon and cannons.

13th Century Castle


Narva, Livonia, 1255
"Brought a bearskin and scepter to the court of Novgorod today. The hall was empty. " -Domzhir


AAR Will Begin Soon

[Cahir]

Hope you fight as good as Nevsky