1378

Coming in to 1378, the *Incidence of Incidents* has so far been limited in scope to small-scale, localized phenomena. Cultures around the world are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In Western Europe, the one place so far with demonstrably consistent magic, the impact has shattered the momentum of previous regional events. The arcane is growing from an energy source into a social force...

## **World Events**

* **January:** The first apparent global supernatural event, the *Scream of Spectres* is a mass haunting. The phenomena hits particularly hard in the Aztec city-states and the battlefronts of what would become the Ming dynasty.
* May 20: The War of Chioggia was a conflict between Genoa and Venice which lasted from 1378 to 1381, from which Alt-U Venice emerged triumphant. It was a part of the Venetian-Genoese Wars.
* **May:** the Church announces their ***Temporal Divestment plan***.
* **July:** Florence avoids riots as the Ciompi (unrepresented laborers) successfully negotiate new representation and tax considerations.
* **July:** Around Europe, the Vernacular Bibles demonstrated the incredible ***Weight of Paper***; not measured in pounds but in thoughts. The protestant movement rapidly expanded and diversified.
* August 4 – Galeazzo II Visconti, co-ruler of Milan, dies, leaving Bernabo Visconti as the sole Charles IV Holy Roman-appointed Imperial Vicar. In an alternate timeline, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (Gelazzo II's son) might've succeeded his father, but was killed some months prior supporting France during the brief Battle of Poitiers.
* November 10 – Estimated appearance date of Halley's Comet.
* **November 24:** Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, dies in Prague after having fled the Battle of Calais. His first son Wenceslaus had died in that battle, leaving his younger son Sigismund to inherit Crown lands. Further, Charles' HRE legacy, the Golden Bull of 1356, was technically nullified after the Pope had ordered the ecclesiastical princes of Mainz, Cologne and Trier to begin temporal divestment.
* **December:** The HRE met to elect a leader, but there was controversy about whether the Prince-Bishoprics were valid votes any longer. The Bull governing succession didn't involve the papacy, but the possibility of PB dissolution undercut their authority (as their force wouldn't be around the enforce their decrees). The Empire, already enduring low-grade rebellion from the Imperial Cities (to say nothing of the Protestant friction), decayed into civil war.
* **December:** Charles IV's death (and disastrous succession decisions) leads to the death of his other two sons by rioters in Frankfurt. The HRE was already embroiled in civil war, but now the eastern half was suddenly enflamed in a new set of ***Bohemian succession crises***.

### **Date Unknown**

* Dmitri Donskoi of Moscow & Vladimir resists a small invasion, by the Mongol Blue Horde.
* Tokhtamysh dethrones Timur Malik, as Khan of the White Horde.
* Kara Osman establishes the Turkomans of the White Sheep Dynasty at Diyarbakır, in present-day southeast Turkey.
* The Turks capture the town of Ihtiman, in west Bulgaria.
* Uskhal Khan succeeds his father, Biligtü Khan, as ruler of the Yuan Dynasty in Mongolia.
* Balša II succeeds his father, Durađ I, as ruler of Zeta (now Montenegro).
* Tai Bian succeeds Zhao Bing Fa, as King of Mong Mao (now northern Myanmar).
* Da'ud Shah succeeds his assassinated nephew, Aladdin Mujahid Shah, as Bahmani Sultan in present-day southern India. Da'ud Shah is assassinated in the same year, and is succeeded by Mohammed Shah II.
* Sa'im al-Dahr is hanged, for blowing the nose off the Sphinx.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **January**

* ***Scream of the Spectres:*** around the world, especially on recent battlefields, ghosts are witnessed. In the daytime. *By everybody*. Places with a lot of history – and recent death – are particularly subject to this rise in hauntings. There were plenty of references to the dead rising in the bible, but most of that was resurrection, not angry ghosts.
* Archbishop of Canterbury Simon of Sudbury is recalled to Rome, and through February, answers the curia's questions regarding events in England, as well as the overall heretical posture of the English crown. Testifying before Pope Gregory XI, Sudbury discovers the College of Cardinals is thinking strategically – and sees another brewing schism in Christendom.

### **February**

* **February 7:** Joanna of Bourbon died in Paris three days after the birth of her youngest child, Catherine. This was a massive blow to Charles V of France, who himself was likely suffering from arsenic poisoning. Given the miracles to the Plantagenets, Charles is deeply embittered.
* ***The World Microscopic:*** the Royal Academy announced a series of discoveries made with an inverted telescope: an optical device called a "microscope." *There were creatures that appeared to be alive and were smaller than the eye could see – and they lived everywhere, including the average well water*. It was likely that these creatures carried a great deal of the world's diseases.
* **February:** following the February death of French Queen Joanna of Bourbon, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV visits his nephew Charles V of France. This was a memorial trip that became a conference on European affairs.

### **March**

* **March:** Symbolically, King Edward ***outlaws the Inquisition in England***. This was based on the Crown prediction of the Curia's next step in the effort to bring England to heel: *an inquisition against English magic*. Given the "Incidence of Incidents," some made the correlation themselves and spread the fear. The Plantagenets were having none of it.
* **March 24:** 49-year old Pope Gregory XI passes, likely from stroke after arguments with the Curia. The College of Cardinals, not currently under duress, elect Cardinal Robert of Geneva as the new Pope Clement VII. This was extremely risky, given the disposition of Rome, though they went forward with the Coronation to show that God's Will bent to no mob. Notably, Vernacular Bibles (in Roman Italian rather than Vulgate Latin) had turned up, *en masse*, in Rome.

### **April**

* **The Ruin and Rise of Rome:** within a week of the installation of French Pope Clement VII, the populace of Rome rioted. The now-Pope responded the same way he had against Cesena: *let God sort them out*. By the time the extermination reached 6,000 civilians, the now-civil war broke through defenses to inflict like-wounds against the Curia. One person single-handedly stopped the mob from burning down the Vatican: visiting Archbishop of Bari **Bartolomeo Prignano**. Prignano was subsequently elected Pope Urban VI by the surviving and reconstituted College of Cardinals.
* **London's Apocalypse**: As Rome burned, London froze. Replacing the *Scream of the Spectres* as the biggest recent supernatural event, temperatures quickly dropped well below freezing, killing many – only to have all the locally deceased rise. From zombies to skeletons, there were battles in the streets of London before the Royal Order of Merlin discovered the mechanism of unholy evil and destroyed it. Westminster was partially destroyed in the frozen battle and afterward, was demolished.

### **May**

* **Parliamentus Apocalyptus:** After London's Apocalypse, the Crown calls for parliament – and it's held at Windsor Castle. There is fear of the future, even fear of association with the royal family as they were the targets. The alternative, however, is somewhat worse: the possibility of no royal support (or of civil war in breaking away). There are rumors of Request for Reconfirmation, but many parties are still smarting from the Audit and Rectification. Given that the Magna Carta (a Plantagenet Family Document) is far more about protecting the nobility than the commons, the House of Lords isn't ready to press their luck against a populist king.
* **The Navarrese Declaration of War:** Charles II of Navarre had a wildly different few years since Glow Stones had affected the fate of Aquitaine. His alt-timeline treaties weren't captured by France, but instead his agents were caught in possession of Glow Stones destined for France and Castile. In the eyes of Prince Rick, that was a declaration of war.
* The***Ambrosius*** ***Company*** begins selling Magical Lighting. London's chandlers are out of business overnight – but hired and trained into the company that displaced them. The chandlers are positively enchanted, while fire danger slowly declines in the tinderbox of Old London.

### **June**

* **Harfleur, Seville go down with the tide:** England destroys the French fleet, then the Castilian fleet, establishing control of the western waters from Copenhagen to Lisbon.
* **Poitiers returns to Aquitaine:** the Palatine Arms, as they were now known, had been absolutely surgical in their campaign through greater Aquitaine, slowly reclaiming lands once won and held by Edward III. The late-June Battle for Poitiers had been set up by the gradual palatine reclamation of the province of Poitou, for which several French nobles had been sent to support. This non-battle was won with Aquitaine's surprise debut of *howitzers*.

### **July**

* **House Review**: Following the success of the RN in Seville and the Aquitaine Arms against France, John of Gaunt looks to leverage their recent success in a campaign against Castile. Edward is reticent and Rick is hesitant, but Rick lays the groundwork for an Iberian campaign.
* **The French Recruiting Drive**: After the destruction of the Bastille and the loss of Poitou, not to mention key family, Charles V feels the Plantagenet heat as never before. Facing it head-on seems like suicide, so he goes with a Fabian PSYOPS campaign, drawing support from around Europe of those already suspicious of magic.

### **August**

* **The Angevin Empire:** Prince Rick assumes Angers, Anjou, and has an immediate military force at his disposal: the locals he'd spared from combat at the *Battle of Poitiers*. Instead of rolling Anjou into Aquitaine, he establishes it as a separate domain (*Demesne a la Plantagenet*). Out of Angers, then, the Noble House of Plantagenet becomes a coordination center for England, Aquitaine and potentially Castile. Maine is assumed as well, but joins Aquitaine.
* **The Allies of the Angevins foresee the future:** While the French call against magic swayed a portion of Europe, others went different directions. Beyond treaties and alliances, for instance, the Viscontis of Milan, were reaching out for deeper relations with the Plantagenets.

### **September**

* **The Welsh Dialogue:** the capture of Owain Lawgoch sparks the opportunity to bring a lasting peace to Wales – one way or another. A Welsh-English parliament is called with both Welsh factions, the Prince of Wales, the pretender and the King of England. The symbolism of Excalibur and the power of Merlin's magic are major social factors.
* **The Great Illumination:** compulsory education and magical *Books of Learning* come together. Not without its controversies, it kick starts the *Age of Enlightenment* across Plantagenet lands.

### **October**

* **Calamity in Calais:** attacks claim 1,200 civilian lives and devastate the port city, but militarily, it's a stalemate. Prominent in the attack is Philip the Bold and Charles IV, Holy Roman Empire, with his Kingdom of Burgundy forces led by his elder son, Wenceslaus.
* **The Answer from Aquitaine:** England is torn a dozen directions, not the least of which is reticence to give up the Regiment of St George near the site of the Devil's Teardrop attack. Prince Rick takes the initiative to relieve Calais, *rolling right past Paris to get there*. Wenceslaus perishes in the action.

### **November**

* **Le Mans Certified:** Aquitaine's Maine Regiment is ready for duty – and in striking distance of Paris. This vastly changes the political equation in northwestern France, throwing off the complex political equilibrium of Brittany.
* **The Evolution of Government:** The *Royal* House Plantagenet federalizes its shires and counties across England and Aquitaine alike, leaning on officials and clerks trained by *Books of Learning*. This makes record-keeping, tax collection, law enforcement systematic and fair. It's also the beginning of Royal Guard garrisons across the kingdom – and an increasingly administrative Royal Court.

### **December**

* **Prince Rick recalled to Reinforce Regency:** The English Crown had a duty to respond regarding Calais, and while Aquitaine filled the breach, the substitution diminished the potency of England in the eyes of Europe. England needed to respond, but sending away the Regiment (much less the heroes of the Apocalypse) would spark a mass exodus of London. It would take *The Magi* to soothe fears.
* **Edwards lead St. George to France:** Landing in Brest, west Brittany, the English battalion "visited" Valois-leaning agitators before heading east to Normandy and repeating the process. Met by the freshly minted Le Mans Regiment, there were mutual salutes as the English set a new standard of polite as they traveled. Brittany and Normandy alike were destined for Aquitaine.