Conquest and A game of Empires: A Seleucid AAR

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Thank you Alexandros Megas! Im going to put up act 2 soon, right after my mini AAR is done ;)

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Im gonna post up the prologue for this soon

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Prologue: The Empty Throne
Ptolemaios The Crippled

The night was still and silent apart from the occasional sound of the palace guards, marching in perfect lockstep. A shadowy figure waited in the darkness for the patrol to pass before slipping into the Great courtyard of the palace of Antioch. The man walked with a distinct limp and if any citizen in Antioch had witnessed the scene he would have immediately recognized the man. He was Ptolemaios the Cripple, Lord of Alexandria.

Ptolemaios slipped past another patrol and entered a building through a side door. Before him was a massive hall, easily able to fit 70 000 people. At the end of the building was a gigantic structure, forged out of steel and molded gold: The Throne of the Seleucid Empire. Ptolemaios didn't need to sneak in. As governor of Alexandria, he had enough influence to order the guards to let him through. However, he had no reason to visit the Throne room at this time of night and if he had not sneaked in, people might start to ask questions.

Ptolemaios approached the throne slowly and with each step his confidence grew. By the time he reached the throne, he was bold enough to sit on he throne, a crime punishable by execution and the extermination of all living relatives of the offender. The throne was a symbol of the power of the Seleucid Emperors. Yet no King had sat on the throne in more than a century. No King had even entered Antioch in 100 years and people began to forget their loyalties. The throne was ripe for the taking, thought Ptolemaios, and he would be the man to take it. It was more than the promise of power for Ptolemaios. It was revenge. 130 years ago, Theodoros the Great had destroyed the Ptolemaic Kingdom. He had killed Ptolemy II at Alexandria and Ptolemy III at Memphis. Every single family loyal to the Ptolemies had been butchered in the invasion. Except One. Xenos Ptolemaios, a very distant relative of Ptolemy II had fled with his family to Arabia. Because they were a weak and small family, Theodoros did not bother pursuing them.

"That was a Mistake, now your descendants will pay", Ptolemaios said to himself. He sat on the throne for hours, reflecting on the long road that had brought him here

Xenos Ptolemaio's family grew rich in Arabia through the lucrative spice trade and during the Seleucid-Sabaen wars, they had aided the Seleucids foreseeing the inevitable defeat of the Saba Federation. For their help, the Ptolemy family was pardoned and given a small cluster of settlements in northern Arabia to govern. The descendants of Xenos had been content to govern their small Satrap until Ptolemaios the Cripple. He had been far too ambitious for that. At age 16 he left his Satrap and traveled to Alexandria. There he quickly rose within the political Hierarchy until he was the second most powerful man in the city. He then appealed to the royal family to make him the new governor of Alexandria. The nobles in Antioch were worried about having a Ptolemy as governor in Egypt, fearing an attempt to re-establish the Ptolemaic Kingdom. However, the masses showed their support and Ptolemaios was made Governor. As Governor of Alexandria, he was one of the most powerful men in the Empire but even this was not enough for him. He traveled to Antioch to further increase his power within the elite political circle of the Empire. It was at Antioch where he realized how disconnected the people were from their Kings, campaigning thousands of miles away and he began to plot his grand schemes.

Ptolemaios stood up and began to walk back towards the doors. He stopped and looked back at the empty throne
"Soon, you will be mine, I swear it", he whispered and then disappeared through the doors and into the night

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ok for some reason im getting a massive CTD on this so i will officially end this AAR. However rest assured I will make another Seleucid AAR that will outshine this one as soon as my holiday starts