Sanglante: Alojzy

Sanglante: Alojzy

Brother Thomas heard the Hussars approaching. He stood up from his notes and called for a few knights to greet his allies. “Prince Alojzy, it is a pleasure to see you. Here to do the lords work with us I suppose?”

Alojzy dismounted his horse and embraced Thomas. “Yes good knight, we will defeat these pagans and drive them from Christendom.” The hussars cheered.

Thomas brought a map out and began to show the prince. “You see, these are the locations of there temples. Destroying them is the first step in cleansing these devil worshipers from the land.”

As the prince looked it over he noticed the marks around one temple in particular, “Thomas, what is so special about this place?”

The knight smiled. “It is a sacred grove, in it is rumored to be one of the oldest pagan temples in existence. Not only that, it houses something of a library where the documents and texts of their superstitions are kept. Breaking it will render most of the other shrines inconsequential.”

Alojzy looked over the terrain between the temple and their forces. Alojzy motioned for a servant to bring the men some wine. They drank and steeled there nerves. There was an ocean of blood Christ demanded from his apostles on Earth, an deluge to cleanse it of non-believers. Thomas's grandfather had fought for Jerusalem! And now he was here out in the sticks fighting over forests, for what....

Ecumenical politics, the crusades in the East were meant to distract them all from the catastrophic defeats they were suffering in the Holy Land. Soon it would be decades before a christian pilgrim could see the shrines of Christ. And yet the pope and the emperor had Thomas and his knights fighting in Lithuania. What even was Lithuania, a vast dark jungle full of devils between the Kingdom of the Poles and that of the Rus.

Thomas Stared at the maps, the wine was slowly overtaking him. He looked at Alojzy, “We are no longer fighting just for God, nor to assist the noble Polish king against these goddess pagans. Do you know what we really want prince?”

Alojzy smiled, “Brother you have had too much wine, tomorrow my hussars and your knights will bring a torrent of souls to Christ. They will convert before our crosses or upon our lances.” At these words he patted Thomas, smiling and walking away toward the Hussar encampment.

Thomas stood there and watched his ally walk away. His knights weren't fighting for these poles, nor Christ. He knew he wanted to carve out a Teutonic kingdom in the east, a brotherhood of cross and sword, a permanent scar in the land. The pagans once called the area Prussia. Yes, Thomas thought, Prussia will be a good name for there kingdom.