The Papal State

The Papacy is the lands in central Italy centered around the regions of Lazio and Umbria. This state is ruled by his holiness, the Pope. With the threat of the Muslim Sicilian invaders pushing into Italy, the very heart of Catholicism itself is threatened. The Papal State must expand, secure its church authority, and work with the great Christian Kingdoms of Europe to remove this foreign threat and save the church. Yet, there are members of the church itself seeking to destroy the Catholic order calling it corrupt and evil. The Papacy must stabilize its situation at home and abroad, lest Christendom collapses in on itself.

## Lore

It is Anno Domini 1444, and the holy rock upon which the whole of Christendom sits has never been in more jeopardy. Over the past several centuries, the vile Saracens have been steadily gaining more ground in Southern Italy. Indeed, by the mid-14th century, the Holy See was faced with increasingly larger challenges during the last major Sicilian offensive. Always weary of their soft underbelly, in the 1340s the Pope had sought to form a loose coalition of Italian cities, hoping that such a patchwork alliance bore strength sufficient to beat back the threat to Rome.

Alas, a lack of communication between the various Italian states, paired with their innumerable conflicts of interests, lead to repeated failure. Scapegoating Papal leadership for the coalition’s collapse, all but the Norman Kingdom of Trinacria abandoned their oaths, believing it would be more productive to resume their own wars in the north. Through Italy’s collective negligence, those brigands of Sicily carved their way across the peninsula, until now they rest at the gilded doors of the Holy See itself!

The previous Pope, Eugenius IV, had attempted to strengthen ties with Francia throughout his reign, with the call for a Crusade against the Andalusians becoming the monument to his efforts. The aging Eugenius died in December of AD 1443, from a fit of apoplexy upon receiving word of the Iberian Crusade’s disastrous outcome. Despite repeated efforts to rally the north to the Vatican’s defense, the turmoil spurred on by Eugenius’ failure, and the lingering specter of the Western Schism, have done much to weaken the Papacy’s legitimacy and influence.

Capua, the rump-state successor to Trinacria, has proven to be nothing but a nuisance ever since the mad duke Robert XI de Hauteville took the throne. Eugenius repeatedly tried to appease Robert’s predecessors by funding Norman arts and institutions, but to no avail. The mad duke bears little care for what came from his late father and elder brother’s reigns and is believed to be attempting to persuade Perugia and Urbino to join his cause, and proclaim himself the King of Rome. A pirate-lord with a blackened heart, Robert the Mad will likely refuse to cooperate beyond a superficial level, preferring instead to fill his arena with captives and ruin Tyrhennian commerce.

Even if domestic affairs are sorted out, however, the new Pope will have to contest with far more than just his vassals. The Sultanate of Sicily, once weak and divided due to the uncontrolled banditry in Southern Italian lands, now stands to conquer the Holy See itself and make slaves out of all Italy. The Pope actively seeks for an excuse to rule Southern Italy directly from Rome, and shall see fit to reap the riches which the great cities of the south have to offer. Perhaps the threat of Muslim invasion is the catalyst the Vatican needs, if it is to enforce the will of the Lord more… directly...