Proclamation of 1116


Greetings and regards to the Baselius, the Caesar, the Senators, and all people of Byzantium. I pray for the continued successes of the Crusade, as I do now for the men who have stayed home to defend their lands. It is this latter group that will have much work to do in the coming years.

Our enemies on the banks of the Nile, naturally believing that an effort to save a city from genocide amounts to a very assault on their supposed “great religion” itself, have called for their equivalent of a Crusade on our lands: a Jihad.

As the soldiers of the Caliphate are about to find out, war with religious implications is to be taken quite seriously, for its combatants are always more motivated. As such, this is why I fear the called jihad more than any political incursion into Byzantine territory. These soldiers are motivated by false promises of salvation and are being worked up into a frenzy by their imams to stop at nothing to see Byzantine buildings burnt to the ground; to see all that Orthodox razed and purged from the earth.

Yes, it was perfectly-timed. Our finest men will be either on or across the sea by the time the storm hits our homelands. We will be thinned on the ground and hard-pressed to stop the hordes sure to come our way. Orthodoxy is about to face a trying test.

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that we will prevail, for the Lord is on our side. It was the Lord that allowed Vissarionas ek Lesvou to be present in the very city, in the very palace, at the very moment the Caliph unveiled his sinister plan. It was the Lord that allowed Vissarionas to escape the Caliph’s clutches and delivered him to Constantinople to inform us all of what was transpiring. It was the Lord that has, so far, allowed safe passage to the Crusaders on their Holy mission. It is the Lord that will deliver us twin victories in the name of His Faith.

These times are trying, my sons. Danger lurks both at our doorstep and far away. However, if we have faith, then we shall pass these tests with flying colors. Have faith and all will be well. Remember the Lord, and the Lord shall remember the Byzantine Empire. We will get through this.