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The relief of the Germans at having entered Christian territory again was short lived, despite the warm support of the de facto autonomous prince, Leo II. The rugged Taurus mountains were a formidable to the progress of the army, and the alternative route suggested by the local guides was preferable only by contrast.
At the Saleph River, disaster struck.
Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia and second living son of the Holy Roman Emperor, was thrown from his horse and drowned.
At first, rumors spread word that the Emperor himself had drowned. Strong men, who had grown up in a world where the sixty-eight year old emperor had been emperor longer than they had been alive, wept and bewailed his supposed demise as if the Christ himself had deserted them. How could the army, bereft of the man who had held the Holy Roman Empire together by the strength of his will alone, possibly continue? [1] They were doomed to die in a strange land, far from home. Even the promise of salvation for their sins by virtue of taking the cross was forgotten in their despair.
But ultimately, the truth spread. It had not been the Emperor. He had survived, though the news of his son's death had hit him hard. And as news spread that the earlier rumors had been false, those who remained regained lost hope. Nothing could stop them now. Surely that the Emperor had been thought loss was not the punishment of God, but a test of their faith. A test of their worth. And they were determined to pass that test. Jerusalem would be theirs and the Saracens driven like dust before the wind.
For God. For Jesus Christ. For the Emperor.
Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra. [2]
1: A tip of the hat to those who designed the Barbarossa campaign for Age of Empires II.
2: Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. In Latin of course.
I'm probably going to add something on what Alexius is doing in response to the news on Iconium, as this is a short update, but I figured I'd post this now.
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