- This AAR isn't just a game report, but aims to be narrative, authentic and alternate history:
Narrative: It follows several protagonists that are shaped on the characters you can find in the game (spies, assassins, merchants, priests, generals, and what not), from their traumatic childhood until the end with their own fateful story. Only one person is the narrator. You can try to find out who it is. What happened in the game is more or less the backdrop to the story, but of course, most of the time they’ll be right in the middle of it. The beginning and end of their story arc are set before and after the game action.
Authentic alternate history: The story is based on a game, and therefore obviously can't be following the historic course of events. I do, however, try to reconcile both, and to show that our course of events is plausible. It will, for example, explain how the rulers have lost control of large swathes of Europe (rebel territory) at the start of the match, and how the situation at the beginning of the match came about.
Ingame factions and characters will be reconciled with historic ones. Example: I was playing Milan, but Milan as a city state did not exist in the the 11th century. Instead, it was ruled by Albert Azzo II, the forefather of the mighty houses of the Guelphs and d’Este and ancestor to amongst others several kings of Britain and one tsar of Russia. He and his family will be heavily featured in this AAR. The ingame faction leader Georgio Rossi, is replaced by him. In this AAR, he’ll be ambitious, and so will his sons and the protagonists of our story serving them. This story will explain how we deviated from the known historic course of events and got to the starting situation of the game.
- A lot of historical figures are included; a lot of fictional characters allude to historical ones that lived in different times, especially the Italian renaissance. I pay homage to a lot of stuff, even if it’s anachronistic. Like Marco Polos “Il Milione” in the first chapter. You can try to catch all subtle references and indirect quotes, it’ll be a challenge.
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