The 2nd Writing Group Files Storage Thread

[The Stranger]

The Files of Stepthen Asen:

Stephen Asen
Favorite Genre: History with a little mystery
Favorite Writer: James Clavell; Umberto Eco
Favorite Book: Shogun; The Name of the Rose
Writing Experience: I'd say beginner, though I started my own story almost two years ago.
Strengths: passion for writing and the ability to develop a story from a single flash of inspiration
Weaknesses: too much thinking ; grammar; and often lack of organisation

First Assignment:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The letter of Manuel Dooukas, only one of the main characters in the story " Byzantine intrigues: The Struggle for Power "


My name is Manuel Doukas. It is hard to say why I started this letter as nobody will read it. For there will be nobody to send it. This is a letter which is doomed to be destroyed just like its writer.

Many things I can not remember since that mysterious accident I have survived, and many things seemed to have been so unreal for a man in my position. Now I feel myself as a wrecthed prisoner in one of the towers of the Palace of Mistra, the main city of the Roman province of Morea. But I am the heir of the old and large Doukas family, which gave to the Empire emperors and generals. Before the rule of the cursed people who were Crusaders only by name my ancestors lived in this province.When Constantinople was brutally pillaged by these barbarians they fled and established in Morea. It was at the time of the first emperor of the Palaelogus dinasty Michael the Eighth who managed to restore the Roman power on these lands. He also returned our old lands to my family.

The story of my family was as glorious as it has always been. The family that gave to the Empire emperors and generals continued to produce capable politicians even now in the fouteenth century after the birth of the Saviour. My father Nicephorus Comnenus Doukas was definately very skilful man or at least many people claimed this. He was one of the most powerful men in the Empire and was married to the niece of the Emperor Andronicus Palaelogus the Second who inherited his father Michael as ruler of the true Roman Empire.

I was born in October in the year of our Lord 6803 or 1295 years after the birth of the Saviour. My childhood was happy feeling I was loved by my mother and her maids. My father was distant and he was always busy with more important things at that time. But my mother managed to compensate his absence. Then the time to prepare for my mission as a heir of the Doukas came. In the age of six I started to attend one of the best teachers in the Empire. I was learned to write in modern Greek and in Ancient Greek, which were the languages of the world culture and then Latin, the language of those who founded the Roman Empire before they saw the Greek was the most civilized language. At the same time I was given to a mysterious man called Constantine Matsakes. I have heard few about him and my mother seemed to avoid pronouncing his name. However, he was an excellent teacher and he learned me not only to fight with sword but also to some Italian language. I have heard he was a bastard of the noble Loukas Matsakes, who had come from Venetian Crete.

At first, everything went well but at the time I was at the age of eleven many things should have happened and my life became very difficult. I could not bear all the hopes of my family and I failed pathetically. Few years after my mother died and then I was left to cope with my father alone. It was true Constantine tried to improve our relations but he was not very successful. In a few years time, my father became ill. Many people said he deserved his leprocy and probably these were right. And he moved in Morea, the land of his ancestors. He became its gopvernor and I suspect he was still very influential man,though he was far from the capital. But I little cared about it. In fact, I hated him and he hated me. But I met my love there. Her name was Helena. She was a hetaira, a member of the elite companion class. She helped me to look at the world in a different way. It was not as black as I thought and my nightmares did not happen as often as they used to. We all felt good and we little cared about the world. But it seemed it cared about us. My father died few days ago but he did not die of natural death as many people expected. He was poisoned. But I was arrested at the same since I was suspected of his assassination. And in order to make the things more complexed, I had that mysterious accident which costed me some of my memory and put me in a physically weak position.

And here I am closed in this solar hoping the only man who is able to help me, Constantine Matsakes, will find a way out. Helena is a weak woman, my brother Alexius is too young... the others are not very interested in my fate... and some even wish my death. I know I may be more than a simple observer since I might have the key in my memory. The physician said it would be a matter of time to regain it. But in this case it is the time that matters. I fear I may regain my memory when it is too late... Or maybe I should fear from what I will remember...