Records: kingdoms of the Levant

## **The Inexorable Tide**

The foundation itself had been otherworldly. One day, just a few years ago, there were a sudden sense that something had changed, but nobody could put their finger on it. There were a few new faces in town, but it was hard to remember exactly what they looked like.

That was the first wave of Sergeants-at-Arms.

The Mamluk hold on Jerusalem had loosened, then faded altogether. There was a gradual influx of Europeans, and then surveys and cartography and construction. The Egyptians weren't even sure when they'd lost the area, only that their control had faded without a drop of blood shed.

It was peaceful, at least in the area. Once safely away from Jerusalem (or anywhere near it), it was downright terrifying if they thought about it. It was hard to wrap their head around losing the entirety of the Levant, including the Sinai, without a single battle, but that's *exactly* what had happened.

While the Mamluks still had efficient water access from the near-Cairo Red Sea coast down and across to the Hejaz (with the holy sites of Mecca and Medina), the official territorial contiguity connecting them was gone. All was not lost, however, as the new master of the Sinai allowed pilgrims to pass through if they took a pledge of peace before proceeding. *And it was a lasting pledge, too*.

### **The Israeli Announcement**

The first declaration was the creation of a Jewish state, including Jerusalem. This land stretched west-southwest to the edge of Arish, up the Mediterranean coast to Tyre (also a former Mamluk holding). Inland, the new nation of Israel was a strip of land that reached up the western bank of the Jordan River to the Sea of Galilee before before following a trail out to Tyre.

This was the new-yet-ancient – and now sanctioned – land of Judea. It was born with its own slightly modified Magna Carta, and it was born into the CMC. Modest when compared against the whole of the Levant, it was defensible, it was self-contained, self-sustaining, and yet fully networked with the deepest resources of the CMC behind it.

It was born... *with its own Regiment*.

Word did gradually filter out, attracting Jewish diaspora from around Eurasia, though simply knowing it was there actually made Jews in the CMC more comfortable staying exactly where they already were.

### **The Zion Announcement**

The Yin to the Jewish Yang, the Christian *Kingdom of Zion* started to the immediate east of Jerusalem and assumed most of the Sinai to the south. The border between the two stretches from Jerusalem to the coastal town of el-ʻArīsh (itself now a Zion coastal city).

Zion's eastern border was also the west bank of the River Jordan. It carried along the Gulf of Aqaba and up the Gulf of Suez. The Western border stretches from Suez at the Red Sea north to the Salt Valley, then north (*slightly* northeast to the southernmost portion of the Levantine-Mediterranean Sea above the geological Sinai, making Arish the official Zion border town.

Just east of Jerusalem was to become a walled city, stretching from Calvary about 7 miles south to Bethlehem, containing the end and beginning locations of Jesus within its walls. There would be operational gates, but it they were to remain open at all times short of an approaching invasion.

Regional Christian-related treasures, artifacts and relics, such as the iconic painting the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, then stored in Jerusalem, were transferred to Zion.

The Guardians of Zion, a Royal Guard-style Regiment, is composed entirely of reclaimed and retrained soldiers of former Catholic military Holy Orders, including the Teutonic Knights, the Hospitallers and so on.

Zion did *not* maintain a Regiment: there would be no offensive capacity based in the land of Christ. There was plenty of defensive capacity, but none of the guards actually carried swords. Rather, they carried rods that served as lights, torches of a sort, and though appeared magical, used no arcane energy. Rather, this was extremely advanced "divine magic" – extremely difficult to produce, solid state crystal devices permanently powered by casimir-force plates. The rods had the power to deliver non-stop lightning on demand (among other, more subtle functions that many would assume were arcane but were, in fact, *psionic*).

Inspired by Wales, Zion featured *The Waiting Throne*. There would be a Jesuit governate, but no King of Zion. That was waiting for the return of the Christ.

## **And the Earth Shook**

Not a crusade as it wasn't commissioned or sanctioned by the Church. Nor was it a military invasion, per se, as not one battle had actually taken place... yet word now reached back into Europe that the CMC had given Jerusalem to the Jews and formed the Kingdom of Zion as a Christian nation, encompassing the locations of Jesus' birth, death and resurrection.

Just as Richard the Lionheart (more of Aquitaine than England) had fought for the cause, Rick of Aquitaine now secured the area like never before.

### **The Deep Mysticism of Zion**

The Jewish branch of the Sons of Abraham were working out their own issues (and doing it joyously, all things considered), though in Zion, there was a deep concentration of mysticism that had the area literally humming with energy. Practitioners would recognize the SNS-psionic power that was saturating the area, perhaps like never before, as Jesuits and [recent-ephiphany] Sufi mystics alike congregated in Zion.

The goings-on were extremely secret, though so large that they weren't as discreet they wanted to be. It was all profoundly religious, but more as history's connection the current affairs. There was expectation, especially since the Burning Frog of Cairo, of a war in heaven. With counsel on events around the world, including the megafauna of the Western Hemisphere, there was attempts to establish regular communication with angelic contacts to discern the nature of the situation, what threat there was, and what to do about it.