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Pelasgia

Established Nation
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
4,255
Location
Athens, Greece
Nick
Demos
Propontis, Optimatoi Theme

Polemarch Aristarchos Kavalaris had a rather particular habit which made him stand out as a Lycaonian: it consisted of playing with the small kombolóï which he kept on his person most of the time. The object in question, sometimes translating as worry beads, consisted of several beads tied together with a rope or string. This particular kombolóï was made of amber beads, a fine leather string and assorted bronze metal pieces for ornamentation, putting the wealth of its holder on display for all to see. In Lycaonia such objects were owned by most, if not all, adult men, being used to fidget and pass time. Their styles and materials changed with the status of their owner. In Propontis, by contrast, and most of Old Pelasgia, the kombológia had been brought over by the lower class Lycaonians who had come in search of work, and were largely limited to slightly older men of the lower and, partially, middle class. It was, therefore, quite extraordinary to see an officer and a gentleman playing with one, let alone the Polemarch, one of the Empire's Three Great Archons of State.

For his part, Kavalaris cared very little for such formalities; he had been raised as a Lycaonian noble, and he fidgeted with his kombolóï at leisure. In this particular instance, he was trying to kill time in the operations room of the Pelasgian General Staff, flanked by subordinates of various degrees, all of them bearing the insignia of the Supreme Military Command of the Interior and the Archipelago (ASDEA) and the First Army. With countless lesser officers moving around, Kavalaris sat silently with a handful of generals and other upper officers, all of them dressed in olive green Pelasgian uniforms, their tunics covering their necks, their kepis resting calmly on the table before them. A few moments later, a junior officer came to the table with an important piece of information: "Colonel Nikolaidis is reporting that the MAK units are approaching the target as ordered. Colonel Petropoulos says that the first and second armoured battalions are awaiting orders to move forward." The Marshal continued fidgeting as one of the Generals responded: "Tell Petropoulos to wait for our order. The MAK must capture the target first, or this will all be for nothing." The officer saluted and left the upper officers to their deliberations.

"All is going as planned," said the Marshal, content. He turned to the large screen in front of the central table where him and the other commanding officers were sitting in the operations room. There he could see the feed from each and every soldier of the MAK unit currently advancing towards its crucial objective. The objective in question was no other than the Imperial Palace itself; Kavalaris was engaged in the very same tradition that many a leading Pelasgian officer had taken part before him: a coup d'état. In this particular case, Kavalaris's own deep-seated malice for the Crown and the Laskaris Dynasty certainly made things easier from an ethical standpoint. "The MAK have entered the perimeter," said the officer as Kavalaris and the other officers witnessed the special forces soldiers crossing the outer fencing of the Imperial Palace, entering the expansive gardens that surrounded the Palace complex. Approaching from three different directions, the three sub-detachments of the MAK unit silently made their way through foliage, closing in on the ornate building, which was for now beyond their immediate field of vision.

Suddenly, the feed of one of the soldiers approaching the palace from the south, belonging to the 3rd sub-detachment, noticed an unexpected flash of light moving in the gardens. He stopped, motioning the other soldiers, all of whom wore night-vision gear, to do the same. Within a split second, a ripple of machine-gun fire ripped through that part of the gardens; the soldier in question collapsed immediately, and so did two others in his detachment. More and more ripples of fire could be seen and heard, hitting the unsuspecting MAK commandos from all directions. The MAK commandos had only expected a rudimentary guard at the palace, consisting of over-glorified honour guards and a few YKAK security personnel. That was clearly not the case. As the last of man of the 3rd sub-detachment fell down, having been hit by small arms fire, the feeds of soldiers in the 2nd sub-detachment begun taking fire. The 1st sub-detachment soon followed. The 1st sub-detachment was wiped out almost immediately, having progressed deep into the gardens-it had walked straight at the centre of an ambush.

The 2nd sub-detachment pushed on, having almost reached the palace, emerging from the gardens at an expansive courtyard which was used as a mastering area for the honour guards. Instead of an empty paved area, however, the MAK men found several detachments of Pelasgian army soldiers, armed to the teeth and well-positioned behind trucks and sandbag barriers, with machine-guns and other small arms. The trucks of the soldiers clearly bore the markings ΠΔΞ and Α' ΣΣ (Ν), standing for Pelasgian Ground Forces and I Army Corps (New) in large white letters on the side of their olive green surface. The MAK men stopped, realising that they had been chased into a firing gallery and were stuck between a hammer (the forces chasing after them in the gardens) and an anvil (the fortified position). An officer emerged from the ranks of the fortified men, holding a megaphone.

"Men of the II MAK, your officers have misled you. You are surrounded on all sides and have no hope. Surrender and save your lives. To surrender when fighting for an unjust cause is no shame; to continue fighting is treason against the Emperor."

After pausing for a moment, the commander of the MAK troops walked forward and shouted back at him: "And who are you?"

"Lieutenant Tzivaeris of the 8th Infantry Battalion, 1st Army Corps," replied the man with the megaphone.

"Well, I fuck both you and your Emperor," responded the MAK commander, a defiant and hardline Nationalist to the end, just like any Bluecoat veteran of the National Schism. Raising his rifle, he shot in the direction of the man with the megaphone, injuring him badly in the right shoulder, and shooting a soldier who was standing next to him in the head. Almost immediately, a hay of fire engulfed the MAK unit; less than a quarter of an hour later, the entire unit had been wiped out by the Loyalist soldiers.

Kavalaris could not believe his eyes. How could they have known?! he couldn't help but wonder. "We must send in the armour," said one of the Generals next to him. "What good will the armour do if we don't have control of the Palace? They'll send in aerial forces and blow us up by the time we manage to force our way to the the Quarter of the Angels," responded another. Kavalaris slammed his first of the table in anger; "Where the hell is Vatatzopoulos?!" he asked, referring to the commander of the 1st Army Corps. His question was soon answer; General Vatatzopoulos walked into the room, flanked by a group of Armed Forces Police (AED) officers and several of his staff officers. They were all dressed in the new, Cussian-style uniforms of the New 1st Army Corps: olive green but with peaked caps, ties instead of tunics that buttoned to the neck, and simplified rank insignia on the shoulders.

"I must ask Your Excellency to follow me," the General said to the Polemarch, as the armed AED officers filled the room. The junior officers filling the room stopped and stared, waiting for the Polemarch to respond.

"What is the meaning of this, Vatatzopoulos? Do you want me to hang you or have you shot?" the Polemarch responded angrily, starting towards the General.

"Your Excellency is perfectly aware of the reason for this most unpleasant meeting. An attempt on His Imperial Majesty's life is High Treason. An attempt to capture the Imperial Palace is High Treason. Treason must be put down, even if its requires such unpleasantries as the entry of armed troops into the General Staff building."

"Arrest this fool and call Petropoulos and Nikolaidis," Kavalaris said. Nobody moved; he stared around him and noticed the insignia on the the officers that filled the room: ASDEN and the 1st Army Corps. ASDEN was largely composed of career officers without political leanings, who acted as executive and logistical support for whomever controlled the military. The 1st Army Corps on the other hand... he remembered that the New 1st Army Corps had been sworn in recently, and that they were commanded by staunch Nationalists. But whose brand of Nationalists? Notaras's or Eratosthenous's? Evidently it was the latter. Kavalaris threw down his kombolóï and put his hand on his sidearm.

"Your disloyal dogs," he said, "You son of a Thracesian whore, Vatatzopoulos. How much did Eratosthenous pay you? How much did that bastard Laskaris pay you? Is he going to make you a Lord?"

"Insulting His Imperial Majesty is High Treason!" shouted a Brigadier to the right of Vatatzopoulos.

"Go fuck yourself," Kavalaris said and pulled out his sidearm; before he could raise it completely, a shot flew right through his back and he collapsed to the ground. Turning his head he saw one of the Armed Forces Police officers who had been guarding the operations room, his Type 33 rifle's barrel steaming. Kavalaris focused on the sergeant insignia on the man's arms: the field where the golden chevrons were located dark red, not olive drab, meaning his was a professional soldier, not a conscript. New First Army Corps..., he thought, I should have expected it. Collapsing on the ground in a pool of his own blood, Kavalaris let out his last breath. The AED men entered the room at a quick pace and arrested the conspirators left and right. The Coup of February 3 was not to be. It would merely be the February 3rd Incident. Less than a year before Kavalaris was assured of his victory over the Laskarids and his vengeance for his father's death: the Propontine Empire had been torn down in a civil war he won, the Loyalist Marshal who previously held his place had blown his own brains out, and the Laskarid Emperor had been assassinated and replaced by a powerless son. And yet, now, he had been defeated and killed at what would have been the height of his power. How fleeting fortune was after all...
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Ano Rematia, Hagios Demetrios Province, Optimatoi Theme

Located a couple of kilometers outside the city of Hagios Demetrios, among the quaint forests and fertile land of the Hagios Demetrios Province, Ano Rematia was an unassuming town that subsided mostly on small-time trade and agriculture. In recent years, the fair forests and quiet scenery of the locale, coupled with some archaeological ruins from antiquity, had earned the riverside settlement some touristic importance. However, for the most part, Ano Rematia remained insulated from the rest of the world, its closest connection to other settlements being a train stop which linked it to the nearby city of Hagios Demetrios and a few other settlements further down the line.

It was because of this tranquility that Sakellarios Themistoklis Notaras, the Lord of Hagios Demetrios and the surrounding territories, had elected to build his country house there so many years ago. The cottage was far from a poor home, but it was not a magnificent palace either; somewhere in between the two, it was a traditional home of a Pelasgian noble built in the Propontine style, with a large internal courtyard, lush gardens, and consisting mostly of stone, marble and a tile roof. Since the foundation of ODAD, Notaras had left the Imperial capital and retired to his cottage, trying to work out a solution and regain control over the Empire's executive. The capital was far too dangerous for him and, more importantly, his family, now that everyone could sense his power coming to an end; he had far too many enemies there. In Hagios Demetrios, by comparison, he was virtually unassailable, even after the nobles had lost real power over their feudal domains, at least in Old Pelasgia. By tradition alone, he was given great deference, and his fortune, including great amounts of fertile agricultural land, worked by landless peasants or freeholders with a small lot which did not suffice for their needs, was certainly impressive.

On this specific day, Notaras was preparing to leave his home and head out to the nearby river with his youngest son, Aristotelis, to go fishing. Aristotelis would soon become an adult and leave the locale to go to university, so Notaras was trying to get as much quality time with him as possible. Of course, he would find out about whether Kavalaris's coup succeeded by the end of the day, at which point he would return to the capital to take control of the 'provisional' government. Success was almost certainly assured, and since Kavalaris would need at least until the middle of Sunday to completely consolidate control over the capital, there was no rush. Besides, there was not much governing to be done until Monday. As Notaras closed the trunk of the car, he was alerted by his son to the movement of a group of vehicles on the road which led to the house. From this distance, it could be clearly told that they were army vehicles, painted olive green and all of the same model. Kavalaris paused; had they won or lost? He directed his son to go back inside and waited for the jeeps to arrive.

Soon enough, the jeeps reached the residence and parked outside. No less than a couple dozen armed officers of the Armed Forces Police, dressed in full combat gear, emerged, led by a Second Lieutenant and a man in a dark grey YKAK uniform.

"How fares Emperor Isaakios?" asked the Lord Chancellor, still unsure of whether this was an escort or an arrest party.

"He lives and he reigns. And all who betray him do neither," responded the Second Lieutenant, drawing his sidearm.

Notaras placed a hand on the hood of his car to support himself. Kavalaris had failed. But how? The First Army was entirely under his control... but what about the New First Army? Could Eratosthenous have converted Vatatzopoulos to his cause? No, Eratosthenous was just a follower, he always had been. Vatatzopoulos might have been the one pulling the strings after all. Or perhaps someone above both of them.

"Can you give me a moment to say goodbye to my family?" asked Notaras.

Almost immediately, he heard his son's voice behind him. "What is the meaning of this? You're pointing your guns at the Lord Chancellor of the Empire!" His son had sneaked back out.

"You should just shoot the little bastard and nip the problem in the bud," pointed out the grey-clad YKAK officer. "Treason is a hereditary disease," he added, referring to Polemarch Kavalaris.

"I'm sorry, my Lord, but that's impossible. I have orders," the Second Lieutenant said.

Notaras sighed deeply. He opened his shirt and took out the golden cross he always wore, handing it to his son. "This is for you," he said. Then he took off his wedding ring and gave that to him too. "This is for your mother. I love you both. I love all of you."

The soldiers moved closer and took Notaras away, cuffing his hands like a common criminal. Then they put a black hood over his head. His chancellorship was no more. Soon enough, his life would follow.
 

Pelasgia

Established Nation
Joined
Sep 30, 2014
Messages
4,255
Location
Athens, Greece
Nick
Demos
Palamas, Makri Island Province, Theme of the Thalassinoi

The Tower of the Karanikolis Clan (or the Karanikolides) stood high above the rest of the town of Palamas as a symbol of the landowning clan's power and prominence above all others in inland Makri. In the great hall of that Tower, a tall house of stone built on the slope of a mountain, located on its third floor, various guests sat around a large table; some were dressed in the traditional clothes of the local landowning notables, with their baggy breeches called "vraka" and their ornate vests, while others wore the Western-style formal clothing imported from the mainland. In any case, tea with milk and honey, along with a plate with some small quantity of spoon sweet were placed before each man. At the central seat on the narrow end of the table, called the "presidential" seat in Pelasgian, sat none other than Petros Karanikos, the near-elderly and visibly overweight chief-notable, or "Megas Proestos" of the village. Around the table sat the other notables of the local region, the "Proestoi", their rank decreasing in a counterclockwise fashion starting from the man sitting to the right of Karanikos, Anastasios Mavros, and ending with a small elderly man by the name of Georgios Petrozoidis.

"You all know why we are gathered here, my aphentades," said Karanikos, adressing his fellow notables with the plural form of the Pelasgian aphentis, meaning "master". All those in attendance shook their heads down and then up, signifying acceptance. "The new land and social reform bill has passed the Legislative Assembly and is set to be voted on by the Senate by the end of the month. If this bill passes and is signed into law by our Sovereign Lord, which I have no doubt will happen if it does pass the Senate, our class and our ancient privileges, which have so benefited ourselves and all those under our care and supervision will be as good as finished."

"I say, Petros, that we must try to block the law's passage in the Senate," said Mavros. "Many of the Low Aristocracy are very much on our side, seeing that this would errode their power and essentially force them to become over-glorified bourgeois from the provinces or to move to Propontis and become High Aristocrats. This would be a centralisation of the Crown rule unseen since the First Restoration, and it would hurt their interests as well as ours to see so much power in the hands of the Central Government, whether it be in the hands of the Emperor himself or of the new Sakellarios acting in his name. Moreover, we could try to convince many of the Hierarchs by telling them that the new reforms would undermine traditional order and, with it, religious faith in the rural heartlands, which are the soul of Pelasgia."

"That might do very well to cause a ruckus, but it won't block the bill. It seems, Anastasios, that you reasoning operates on the assumption that the new powers that be in Propontis do not want to cause an open conflict. Worse yet, it might very well be that we simply don't have that much clout anymore in those groups, and the Propontines want to demonstrate just how powerless we are to stop them." The words came from another notable by the name of Orestis Bakas, a dark and large man with a fearsome and piercing stare and a hairless but sharply angled face.

"And what do you propose we do them, Orestis?" replied Anastasios. "Should we just lie down and wait as the Propontines take away all our ancestors have built? I say, even if the lesser nobles don't stand by us, the Church, or at least the lower clergy will. They themselves must be quite displeased at this Ultramarianism* business that has been taking hold across the Long Sea, in shadowy negotiations between the newly appointed Patriarch's delegates and those of the Great Heretic of Old Tibur."
*Ultramarianism is the belief in the unity of the ecumenical Christian Church across the Long Sea through the healing of the Tibur-Propontis (or Old Tibur-New Tibur) Schism.

"With the Church on our side we could put up a resistance, perhaps," said Petrozoidis, speaking loudly despite his old age. "But the Church is twofold: it is made up of laity and of clergy. We need to get the laity on our side, for the priests are powerless without their flock. To do this, we must present ourselves as revolting against this Ultramarian agreement that's being discussed across the Long Sea, and tie the reforms in as part of a greater narrative of the importation and imposition of foreign ideas and institutions by the new Propontine regime."

"It is all we seem to be able to do," said Petros, finally speaking once more. "So we must do it well, or perish. We should try to placate the peasants partly, but not so much that they might see us as weak. And then we must get the local priests on our side, so we can start raising them against those administrators that now sit in Kavos, who were sent to us directly from Propontis."
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Kavos, Makri Island Province, Theme of the Thalassinoi

Kavos was one of the largest towns in the western half of the Pelasgian Archipelago, counting around fourty thousand residents, and acting as the capital of the island of Makri. Due to its strategic location and historical privileges, it has served as a hub of trade, though it still remained quintessentially Orthodox and Pelasgian despite this wealth, and the many temporary barbarian conquests that came with it. This wealth was reflected in the countless baroque buildings that lined the city, especially near the quay, including the majestic all-marble Cathedral of Saint Athanasios, many of them built entirely through the payments or the donations of the city's wealth merchants. The city as a whole boasted such wealth that even the humbler of buildings were constructed in the neoclassical style that Pelasgians seemed to so love, their facades sometimes improved with donations or stipends from the local municipal government.

In one such humbler building, located in the poorer, southern side of the port, was located an ouzo-drinking establishment ("ouzadikon" or "mezedopoleion") by the name of "Michalis' Ouzadikon", as indicated by the large sign above its main entrance. Inside the establishment in question, one could find quite a familiar sight: wooden tables covered in colourful but simple-patterned table cloths, flanked by simple wooden chairs, all facing towards an elevated stage. The store's patrons sat at the tables, eating and drinking, to enjoy themselves or forget their woes, and on the stage a band played Pelasgian popular songs of the laïko or, more rarely in such an openly visible establishment, the rembetiko variety.

It was in this particular establishment that a small group of men belonging to the Imperial Field Constabulary, the Empire's new gendarmerie force, sat and relaxed, their plain olive-green uniforms, garrison caps and soft kepis clearly identifying them as members of the Emperor's own internal troopers. Finding such men in such an establishment on any regular day might cause bad spirits, or even open fights, due to their opposition to the usual patrons. And yet, on this night, the men were seen as honoured guests and left alone; this was due to the fact that the local populace perceived them as their allies against the inland notables, perhaps even their liberators therefrom, a sentiment which was shared by the Archipelago's urban merchant class, who so deeply resented the notables for holding far more political power than them, even if their economic power was far inferior.

"Say," said one of them at some point in their lively conversation," say Thimios, you're from here, aren't you?"

Thimios, clad in his brand new uniform sat silently for a moment and then took a sip of ouzo. "Yes, from Palamas," he answered unfeelingly.

The other men exchanged a look for a moment and then the one who had spoken first, Vasilis, spoke again: "Cheers then! Here's to Thimios's coming home!" All those assembled joined glasses and, after a very slight delay, Thimios joined them.

"This island is beautiful, Thimios," said another of the men, Valentios, sensing that his comrade was feeling under. "How come you left?"

At this point, Thimios could not by sigh deeply. He turned and looked at the stage, where the band had started playing another song, one of his favourite rembetiko pieces: . He tucked his cap under his empty shoulder-strap and stood up. "I'll tell you after this dance," he said and got up, moving to the centre of the empty dance floor which stood before the stage.

"This is going to be a long night..." remarked Vasilis.
 
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