KotR - Unanswered Questions

[OverKnight]

Despite the release of the Illuminati Chronicles, there are several questions that were never fully answered in KotR, or the knowledge was restricted to a few individuals.

The purpose of this thread is to see if anyone has any questions remaining about the PBM and get them answered.

The purpose here isn't to speculate, but have people with first hand knowledge speak up.

Here's a few I have:

What ever happened to Dusan Kolar?

Did Siegfried von Kastilien inherit the throne legitimately, take advantage of Jobst's death to name himself heir, or kill him outright to take the throne?

Is Arnold the Anti-Christ? Is there a supernatural element to him, or is it just myths growing around a fearsome man?

Leopold supported Heinrich, despite past differences, when the Kaiser ran for a second term, was there a deal between them, and what was it?


And I'll throw in an explanation of my own:

I had Matthias kidnapped because if he had remained in play during the original transfer of Outremer to the Byzantines, he would have immediately rebelled and holed up in Adana. This would have screwed up the 'build up' to the Cataclysm, so he was removed for a bit.

[AussieGiant]

Nice idea OK!!

As for Arnold...I kept it ambiguous to a point...there where a number of supernaturalish moments for sure.

The first I recall was the story about being in the forest with his army while an unseen wind/or hand like movement washed over him and his troops out of the east. I don't remember what the event was that had me write that, but that was the first recollection of writing something that was a little 'fantasy' like.

I remember GH posting and saying he really liked that new aspect coming through so I kept it up.

I then had his supernatural strength and anti aging issue with his priest and the Papacy. Which then followed on with to the strange disappearance of his entire retinue for some years. This was an attempt to set up a story about him channeling his retinues combined powers into himself...I never wrote that part as it was going to get a little demonic...so I pulled back.

Although now that everyone seems to have equated the character with 'evil' I probably should have done so. I was trying to keep it a little more balanced than that.

In the end I settled for a combination of myth and somewhat strange events popping in every now and then. I certainly put the avatar in crazy places once he was around 8+ dread points...and boy he survived stuff that was beyond me sometimes. I tried to explain that with these stories.

So...I suppose there is no clear cut answer...which fits in with the medieval times in which paganism and witch craft where regarded as serious issues involving supernatural elements.

[Ramses II CP]

Personally, reading it after the fact, I always imagined the Siegfried was just in the right place at the right time and managed to pull a sort of Caesar. He had the support of the Kaiser's army, he had a Reich with something of a power vacuum at the top, and he was the son of the Duke of (probably) the most powerful house in the nation.

I'd like to know what was really behind the decision to send mini-Econ after Palermo. There has to be more than just trying to claim an Imperial training facility. I always thought Kaiser Elberhard must be planning some sort of long term con against Bavaria by carving some sort of Imperial enclave between Palermo and Rome, but I couldn't find any IC justification.

[Privateerkev]

This isn't a question but I wanted to address something I've seen in other threads.

Karl was not a successful undercover agent for the Illuminati. Fritz was.

We had Karl figured out early on since he was so tight with Arnold. The only thing we didn't know, was that he was an official Illuminati member. But we knew he was an ally and Econ just fed him stuff that wouldn't hurt us. I suspect Elberhard wanted to trust Karl but Jan argued heavily against it. That PM Elberhard sent Karl had no real important information in it. I think Elberhard was just gambling for a way to keep Becker alive.

As for Fritz, we knew he was an "ally" of the Illuminati in 1300 but we never knew he was a member and by 1380, it appeared that the bond of "ally" was broken.

He is the character that had us completely fooled. Especially me. And I spent countless hours looking into this.

This is through no fault of NN. Karl was too closely associated with Arnold to have been successful as an undercover agent. Where Fritz was so far removed from those that we knew were Illuminati, he was never suspected.

Well played Tamur and Ramses, well played.

[AussieGiant]

Good to know PK.

It was always a combination of trying to push Karl's Chivalry hard and making sure that the fact we where in the same house explained why we did work together. My hope was that people would see a honourable man loyal to his Duke but that was as far as it went. The idea that he was a member of the Illuminati could be possible but never really plausible due to the differences in Arnold and Karl.

[Privateerkev]

Good to know PK.

It was always a combination of trying to push Karl's Chivalry hard and making sure that the fact we where in the same house explained why we did work together. My hope was that people would see a honourable man loyal to his Duke but that was as far as it went. The idea that he was a member of the Illuminati could be possible but never really plausible due to the differences in Arnold and Karl.

The fact that Karl was Illuminati was a secret. I never even suspected it. But Jan still didn't trust him. It had to do with his voting record. He voted in a way that made it clear that he was very very loyal to Arnold. Hence, he was not trusted by the anti-Illuminati crowd and would never had been brought in while Jan was alive.

TC was right to push for recruiting Illuminati members from other Houses than Bavaria and Austria. Since the Illuminati was associated with Lothar and Arnold, no Austrian/Bavarian was ever completely trusted. Hence one of the reasons the anti-Illuminati crowd came mainly out of Swabia/Franconia.

Like I said before, recruiting Fritz was the smartest thing the Illuminati did.

[TinCow]

I'd like to know what was really behind the decision to send mini-Econ after Palermo. There has to be more than just trying to claim an Imperial training facility. I always thought Kaiser Elberhard must be planning some sort of long term con against Bavaria by carving some sort of Imperial enclave between Palermo and Rome, but I couldn't find any IC justification.

IIRC, econ21 told me that it Mini Econ's decision. He wanted to assault a citadel, so he told econ21 to submit those orders. I promised not to been up Palermo's garrison so much that it became suicide, since the boats were going to leave him behind, meaning defeat results in death.