THE SKY WENT BLACK,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Agoge's inaugural TDM.
WHEN? The Battle of Hattin, 1187.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

FROM JERUSALEM WITH LOVE;

the horns of hattin, 1187: the holy land

read the jerusalem setting infopage

Your eyes open, and above you is the roof of a tent, a heavy woven material that blocks you from what must be an otherwise glaring heat that is beating down. Near you stands a man - you understand him, but you aren’t sure you are supposed to. Aware as you are that he is speaking Arabic, a trickle of words as he dabs water on your brow, that as you go to reply, you realise, you are speaking Arabic too. Urging you to sit up slowly, and now that you are awake -

“Good, slowly does it. You are meant to have heat stroke. Nothing sudden now. The Commander will explain it to you soon - in here it’s safe, no outsiders can come in. Check your BCE, it will tell you what has happened - ”

As he indicates to the small pack that seems to hold your belongings, he explains: you are in the encampment of Saladin, the greatest commander in all of Islam. He has been fighting the crusading invaders since the death of the Crusader King Baldwin VII. But one of the most important was about to start: you are here, at Hattin, though the enemy hasn’t arrived yet. Not that it means it’s time to rest: this is a war camp. There is much to do. Saladin runs a impressive army, and it wins by its discipline, no idle hands here, and for you, newly awakened to it, there is just as much to do. So enjoy the first few moments of reprieve, there won’t be much of it in the coming days.

MISSION OBJECTIVE

The forces of COST-- allied, today, with the armies of Saladin, though they will never know-- aim to win the day.

This is imperative, because Saladin's victory at Hattin makes his next victory possible: he intends to march on Jerusalem, long held by invading Crusaders, and take his city back. Historically, he wins a Hattin and at Jerusalem. But, the Regency supposes, if they could weaken Saladin in Hattin, perhaps even completely defeat him, he would not be so able to take the city.

Preserve the flow of history. Aid Saladin's army. Defeat the Crusader army at Hattin.

A MESSAGE FROM GROTHIA

>>@CMDR

@ALL I don't have time to explain right now, but the transporters have played havoc on the way in and we think that the - nevermind, the techdacts don't make any sense at the best of times. Your memory has been tampered with, one of the Regency's tricks, no doubt. Price for late intelligence, we didn't know until we made the transfer.

Short of it is, I put you all down as having a bout of heat stroke that knocked you out and that’s the story you need to stick to. Even if you don't want to trust me, you're going to have to follow my instructions if you want to live through the next week. We can do our reintroductions later.

Follow our instructions and we’ll all make it through this with minimal casualties.

Welcome back, soldiers. Good to have you with us again.

WIN THE DAY

MEDICAL

Help build up the army after the Siege of Tiberias.

After this battle, Saladin's forces turn toward Jerusalem, and eventually take it from Crusader control. It's imperative, then, that Saladin's forces are strong, healthy, and most importantly, alive. This is war: there are a larger number of soldiers who are wounded and require medical care to maintain the numbers. Saladin's forces are lucky: their medics are some of the best in the medieval world. But there is constant need for more hands on deck to assist. Whether that’s holding down a soldier to cut off his leg - or dress a wound. Maybe it’s just as simple as a soldier that wakes up from his fever wanting water, there is always something that needs doing.

STEALTH

Sabotage the water supply of the crusaders.

All armies march on their stomach, and in the desert, access to water means life or death. Saladin knows this, and the Crusaders are heading for the largest oasis between Jerusalem and Hattin to replenish their stores. Saladin has placed a line of defense at the oasis to stop the Crusaders. Some truly desperate Crusaders are risking death, attempting to break through the defenses in an attempt to get some water. Your orders are simple: no Crusader should be getting to that water.

STEALTH

You know what else armies need? Sleep. For those brave enough, its been encouraged to try and exhaust those Crusaders. Your orders are vague, leaving plenty of room for creativity: psychologically mess with them, mimic loud animals to wake them up, forcibly introduce these 12th century men to Cyndi Lauper at the top of your lungs. Whatever takes your fancy, just try not wake Saladin’s forces, they still need their beauty sleep. And most importantly: don't get caught.

COMBAT

The Crusaders are here: fight them. Crusaders will in heavy chain mail into battle, often with a padded gambeson underneath them. Aim your weapons for the chinks in the points that quickly immobilize: the throat, armpit, inner elbow, inner thigh, inner knee. You will always want to aim for the veins and joints. This isn't about clean, this is about hard and fast. Battles in the desert are made worse for every hour spent in the gruelly heat.

They fight with heavy sword and shield, and the metal they wear makes them more strongly defended, but also slower; they cannot mount their horses without some help, so if you manage to unhorse a Crusader, they must survive the remainder of the battle on foot. Often if you wounded a horse, it can kill the man riding it.

Medieval warhorses are huge animals that can do serious damage with a single kick; however, by Crusader tradition, many are stallions, which are famously willful difficult to control. Being thrown from one of these horses, especially in armor, is no small thing. This is where by contrast Saladin's army comes into its own. They ride a lighter horse more suited to this kind of warfare, and the cavalry works by spiking in quickly, reigning down an attack, then retreating. The Turks are famous for riding by, and shooting down arrows into foot soldiers before retreating out of range again.

Aside from the knights on their horses, keep an eye on hired mercenaries and others of all classes storming into battle. Watch out for crossbows: a single bolt can punch through thick metal, much less whatever you might be wearing. However, the shots take a great deal of time and strength to load, requiring the user to pull the bolt back while standing on the bow. The weapons are not stealthy, and striking an opponent while they load them is the surest route to victory. More traditional archers are far more difficult to defeat; though their arrows can't cut through metal, they can shoot from much farther away and draw another arrow ten times as fast. Other fighters charge in with cudgels, maces, spears, axes, polearms, and the fervent determination fanaticism brings. Do your fellow soldier on the battlefield a favor: try and take out an archer whenever you can. But for those fielding the arrows, don't stay put, they'll always try and take you out first.

The battle of Hattin is one of the most bloody in the history of the Crusades; famously, it is said that its outcome left the sky black for all the birds hungrily circling the carnage. Your job in this battle is twofold: fight to win, and survive.

COMBAT / STEALTH

Capture Guy D'Lusignan.

History dictates Guy D'Lusignan, current King of Frankish-ruled Jerusalem, is captured by Saracen forces, which later leads to Muslims recapturing Jersusalem from Frankish hands. Help the Saracen war parties ride out, make sure they aren't sabotaged, and attack King Guy's war party. Along with them, you'll find Reynard de Chatillion, another nobleman whose capture will herald a collapse of the Crusader forces. Medieval battle isn't like modern warfare, where soldiers fight on in spite of their leader's capture or death.

A medieval battle ends when one side gives up, or when a leader has been killed or captured. Capturing the heads of an army leads to the immediate death of the battle's morale and will to fight. To win the Battle of Hattin, it is imperative that Guy D'Lusignan and Raynard de Chatillion are captured, as they were in history.

read the jerusalem setting infopage

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

[dominance]

[ the longer he tries to do this, the more he realises this isn't him. he's brought back to that day, very early on in his journey on the ground, when atom had been thrown to the dirt, poisoned by the acid fog. he'd begged him to alleviate his pain, but bellamy, for all of his bravado, couldn't. he needs clarke here, but she isn't, and so he has to make do once more. posturing, talking loud, voice deep, appearing more authoritative than he truly feels ... he's grateful he hasn't yet had to alleviate anyone of their pain yet. ]

[ letting himself inhale deeply once daenerys takes her place beside him, he feels that thundering beating of his heart and the desperate need to stop his hands from shaking. ignoring it successfully, he looks at her for a moment, taking the bandage but doing nothing with it. ]

[ he looks over his shoulder to the boy she has temporarily left. he'd taken bellamy's notice long before, and his anger had pulsed so hot and blinding at the thought a young boy was to die because of this war. ]

[ rather than admit his frustration, he says, ] Aren't you? [ his gaze doesn't fall away from the boy, despite wanting to look away. ]

[tress]

[ Dany's eyes fall to his trembling hands and she feels a twinge of pain in her heart. She, too, had shaken when the boy had been brought to her. He had lost so much blood. He was crying for his mother. She will never forget the sound of his screams. He is calmer now, although no doubt still in pain, and she suspects simply having someone beside him to speak softly and brush his hair out of his eyes was enough to placate him. She had to be a calming force for him, despite having no calming force for herself. She had willed her hands into stillness through nothing other than sheer determination, and even now, they threaten to tremble just as his do.

Daenerys sets the man's arm down, tying the bandage. She is no medic, but it will have to do. She follows Bellamy's gaze back to the cot where her own patient lies, half-unconscious, and thinks to herself, yes. Yes, she is frustrated. Frustrated that injustices like this are allowed to occur in the world. Frustrated that he may die before he was ever given the chance to live. She does not say so, however. Instead: ]

He is called Rojan. He was set upon by three men at once. [ He'd never stood a chance. It's a miracle he's even breathing at all; he could easily have died right there on the battlefield. She turns her head back to look at Bellamy's patient, this wounded soldier. Distantly, she wonders about his family, thinks about how worried they must be. She knows what it is like to know your family is dead. ]

When he first came, he couldn't stop wailing, [ she continues. ] I wondered what manner of beast would harm a child, for surely no man could do such a thing and sleep soundly. [ Of course, she knows this is untrue. There are many terrible men in the world. But a true man, a good man— that man would never harm an innocent youth. She clenches her jaw, anger coiling up in her stomach. ] We will take Hattin, and then we will take Jerusalem. And the men who did this will die in the dirt like dogs.

[dominance]

[ bellamy's bark has always been much louder and more powerful than his bite, but with each passing day on the ground, he thinks they're close to becoming equal. hearing the story of the boy — rojan — causes his chest to tighten with thick, hot anger. his bite's going to be much worse than his bark when he gets back out there. in his mind, that boy is charlotte, too young to be sentenced to experimentation and unknown death on the ground. he's meant to grow taller, livelier — live a life with his mother and father and siblings. he doesn't understand why children are always the soldiers sent to the battlefield. ]

[ thankfully for his patient, daenerys is taking care of him for bellamy. his attention's too splintered, mostly focusing on rojan. there's too many sights, sounds — the ground had prepared him for a bloody war, but it hadn't prepared him for this. nothing could, not even countless encounters with the mountain men and the more feral and unforgiving of the grounders. bellamy cannot focus, and for that, the people he's trying to help pay for it. ]

[ daenerys' story only makes him angrier, but it's a quiet anger, a storm without thunder announcing it's arrival. rojan could've been octavia. ]

[ his gaze lingers on rojan before he looks to daenerys. she doesn't look frightened, but he doubts any of them truly do in this moment. ] Did he tell you what they looked like? [ his voice is rough and deep, words a little too tight to be anything close to innocent, as the hardness of his jaw begins to expose how he truly feels. focusing enough to get a solid look at the people who attack you is hard, but bellamy's got a one-track mind when it comes to those who are his responsibility being hurt. and now, in this moment, he makes rojan his responsibility. ]

[tress]

No. [ She looks down at her hands, swallowing. If he had, she would have — she doesn't know. Something, something great and terrible. She is only one girl, no Queen here; she cannot command armies nor slay these men herself. But surely, she thinks, her rage would have been enough to move mountains. To kill a man would be a minor feat. ]

He barely spoke. [ It had mostly been incomprehensible tears, crying and screaming and horrible, guttural sounds. He has quieted since, but she suspects his throat is so sore from his bawling that he couldn't speak much if he wanted to. Whether he wants to is under debate as well, as he is so emotionally and physically exhausted that she could not blame him were he never to speak again. ] I mostly spoke to him. I told him stories from my homeland and sang.

[ She feels a fire welling up in her chest, and she knows, knows what she's about to say is wrong, somewhere deep down inside, but she doesn't care. What's wrong is hurting a little boy. She glances back up, meeting Bellamy's eye, gaze intense. ] I will see every one of their soldiers slain if I must. [ If she cannot find the three, she will kill them all. Somehow, against all odds, she will convince the army to slay them all. ] They may come forward and save their brothers in arms, or die with their secret.

[dominance]

[ he can't help but wonder if that's how the grounders had viewed them. with the death of their comrades, of their children and warriors, he has to wonder, now, if that's what they had thought. had that fed the fire that had eventually tried to engulf his people? ]

[ he watches her, and is reminded so intently of clarke. she had been for peace, but there had been iron to her words. her belief in the good of people could never be swayed, not like bellamy's. ]

You can't do it alone.

[ killing people has never been a part of his code. bellamy blake had been raised to survive, to be the big brother and caretaker for one octavia blake. living on the ground, being incapable of saving everyone ... he'd pulled a lever once. perhaps killing is the only way to survive when anchored to the ground. ]