Records: Royal Republic of Olympus

## **Reclaiming Heritage from Antiquity**

Prince Edmund had brought his inner team to Achaea, but he'd expanded it on arrival. Following Rick's go-local policy, the *Books of Learning* meant everybody new on the team read from the same playbook. By the time his Palatine team took Thrace, Edmund and the Plantagenets were adoptive Greeks.

There was a point to the exercise: reclaiming the identity that made the collective Grecian culture of Antiquity, as wide-ranging as it was, into one coherent concept. He had done that, bringing out the best in those around him, and around them, and around every circle that now commanded the lands of the Aegean Sea.

Likewise, he gave them input on what directions this should go. A kingdom, a royal republic...? Of Greece? Of the Aegean? Based on the spirit of the times, they were looking to reclaim the power that could attract and hold Greek culture together. They wanted to evoke the power of the Gods, the lightning bolts they'd seen... and given the new unknowns behind their own mythology, they wanted to rebrand it as their own.

That led to people's decision on the capital. This wouldn't be based in Constantinople, as the fallen Byzantine empire had been. This wouldn't be nominally based in Athens, as it had been in the days of Alexander. Rather, they knew they could build now unlike any other time – so they wanted something so audacious it would be seen from the heavens. They wanted the capital based in the legendary home of Zeus – and they wanted their nation's name to reflect it.

Thus was born the *Royal Republic of Olympus*.

### **Who Dares Wins**

Edmund loved the courage and the statement, especially given the huge population of orks who'd taken residence on Olympus, but was it too much? Given the recent attack on Rick, would this just be baiting the likes Ares/Michael?

Rick was asked – *and approved the gesture*. So much so, that he made sure he was there at the signing of the charter – and crowned Edmund as Sovereign of the RRO, sworn protector of their Magna Carta.

The day after, the pre-assembled Grecian parliament voted on, and approved, entry into the *Commonwealth of the Magna Carta*. In the great circle, the CMC now counted one of the foundations of Western Eurasian Culture among their own.

### **Bringing the Geography Together**

Based on the location of the new capital, this unified the patchwork of regional polities into one cohesive kingdom. It had been led and coordinated from the Peloponnese, using the Achaea as the western anchor, the Galata/Constantinople district as the eastern anchor, and had been working their magic in between for the last several years.

The threat of war was never far away, from Murad if not from Edmund himself, and that had been realized in the Zeus-like lightning strike that reclaimed Thrace. Murad knew it was coming, but nobody that far south had been around first-hand to see what the Regiments had done to the north, so there was a natural skepticism.

Between the anchors, they'd brought in the Duchy of Athens and the Duchy of Neopatras from Aragon (and peacefully cycled the Catalan company into retirement). Just a little north, the Despotates of Epirus and Arta took soft persuasion; while the Albanian principalities came quietly.

Moving a bit east, the province of Thessaly had been somewhat attached to the Byzantine remnant out of Constantinople, and was a smooth transition to the Royal Republic. Likewise, the remainder of Murad's Rumelia was rolled into Olympus with minimal turbulence from human elements. The conflict was the orks, which had nearly paralyzed the Ottoman effort (and everybody else), but whom stood no chance against the arcane firearms of the Regiments.

In the islands, and rectifying the horrors of the Fourth Crusade, the Venetians were peacefully persuaded to surrender their Aegean possessions. This included the Duchy of Naxos, the large island of Euboea (just east of Athens), and to the south, the massive Kingdom of Candia (what might've later been known as Crete).

### **Greece is the Word**

The impact through the rest of Europe was *significant*. The Ottoman Turks had been a growing threat and now the *Regiments* had crossed another "challenge" off the list.

This wasn't in the same category as the threat of the archangels, though given Michael's now-famous note of also being Mars/Ares, there were *audacious*interpretations spreading regarding the CMC taking *Olympus**.***

The Grecian unification impacted the neighbors like thunder after lightning, as much *how* it was done as *that* it was done. The mish-mash of polities in Anatolia felt they were next, and to a large degree – *they were right*. But it didn't have to end the way it did for the House of Osman.

The RRO was also a nearby strong point for mutual aid to either the Kingdom of Israel or the Kingdom of Zion, though given Egypt's restructuring and the warming relations from Arabia, that wasn't much of a threat. Babylon through Persia had plenty of conflict, but the state of the Timurian Horde much less the regional ork hordes was locked in turbulence of its own.

Mostly, though, this sent shockwaves up the Balkans. The interface with the now-magically-empowered Greeks had been dicey, but they were CMC through-and-through. That had significant effects for the likes of Hungary and even tilted conversations as far as Poland and Lithuania.