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"Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth."
-Psalm 58
-Psalm 58
In the late winter months of the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty Seven, the Empire of the Urceans was nascent, reaching its peak and controlling more land than ever before. It had swallowed Levantia whole and forged an Empire of gold and steel. It stretched from sea to sea, controlled most trade routes, and had one of the most powerful militaries in the known world.
Behind this great Empire was the House of Urce-Nero, of course, as they sat upon the throne since the foundation of the Empire by St. Julius I. A second house was almost equally as important, one that was able to turn the wealth and vision of the Urce-Nero's into military success and proper administration, the House of Cronis, who, in 1257, was headed by Marius the Elder, Lord of Justonium and Martial of the Empire.
Who was not involved in the forging of the Empire, however, was a man by the name of Benedictus Cronis, Lord of Sagia Castle on the outskirts of the Empire. A man whose primary descriptor among the other Lords is "nice", Benedictus was neither brutal nor savage; neither dishonorable nor unknown, but otherwise unremarkable. Benedictus had always languished in his brother's shadow, and, now a man of 57, had become the family's yes-man, always there to do their bidding. On his part, it was a comfortable existence and one he did not protest to.
A friend of Emperor Tiberius II since the days of the Northern Campaign, Benedictus found himself on the way to Imperial Capitol to celebrate the fourth year of the reign of the Emperor, when he and his retinue found themselves under attack by particularly vicious highwaymen, probably deserters. Knocked from his horse, Benedictus found himself unconscious and laying at the side of the road, at the mercy of those fighting around him.
Far from the fighting, he found himself now walking far above the Levantian continent, and from his vantage he could see the entirety of the Urcean Empire, and far in the distance, on the same plane above the land, a golden throne, and a man clothed in pure gold armor sitting upon it. Behind the throne shone a bright light in the shape of a cross, almost as if the sun had changed its shape. Benedictus found himself compelled and drew closer and asked, "Is that you, Lord?", to which the man responded "No, sir, draw closer still; the glory before you cannot begin to compare to the glory of the Lord. No, I am the one whose land is below, who forged forward with Christianity in the once pagan land below. I am the first Emperor, the Sainted Emperor, and I come bearing a message: Go. Serve the people of God, for they are in much distress. You shall know the calling when you see it." The cross behind the throne flashed so bright as to block the vision of old Benedictus, and then the light turned to darkness and the land below disappeared.
He awoke with a throbbing headache to find that his company had survived relatively unscathed, thanks to the chance arrival of the local constable and his men. Offering a reward but being refused, Benedictus and his party went on their way to Urceopolis, and he did not tell a soul of his vision of the "Sainted Emperor". Upon arriving to the celebration, murmurs and rumors of a land called Calradia circled, and this land was evidently in peril. Benedictus had heard of it once or twice before, but the concurrence of the rumors and gossip reached its climax when someone suggested "If only a Urcean Lord could sort that lot out!". It became evident what the vision meant. Benedictus would serve the people of Calradia. After the celebration he made his intention to go to Calradia known to the Emperor, who arranged for a ship but noted that he could take neither his wealth nor his men, but only as much armor as he could wear and some fish. Emperor Tiberius doubted Benedictus, but he would support the measure none-the-less, as he felt a genuine pity for the social stature of his friend. Publicly stating the reason to be gratitude to the Emperor, but of course having other, more private motives, Benedictus changed his personal standard to an image of St. Julius I, the founder of the Urcean Empire.
Sailing aboard the personal craft of the Emperor, Benedictus endured a long and hard journey before arriving in the port of a city called Praven. Looking towards what would hopefully be a bright new future for him in Calradia, he eagerly hauled his one belonging, his heraldic armor, through the city streets. It was not long, however, until Benedictus would again find himself in trouble...