1375

## **World Events**

* April 14 – The Mamluks from Egypt complete their conquest of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Levon V Lusignan of Armenia is imprisoned for several years in Cairo until a ransom is paid by King John I of Castile.
* June 18 - The future King John I of Castile marries Eleanor of Aragon.
* October – Margaret I of Denmark becomes Regent of Denmark after the death of her father Valdemar IV.

### **Date unknown**

* Battle of Gardiki between the Principality of Achaea and the Despotate of the Morea.
* Coluccio Salutati is appointed Chancellor of Florence.
* Heirin-ji Temple is built near Tokyo.
* Petru II succeeds as ruler of Moldavia (now Moldova & eastern Romania). He is the first ruler from the dynastic House of Bogdan.
* The Russian town of Kostroma is destroyed by the ushkuinik pirates from Novgorod.
* Mujahid Shah succeeds his father, Mohammad Shah I, as Sultan of the Bahmanid Empire in Deccan, southern India.
* Moscow & Tver sign a truce. Tver agrees to help Moscow fight the Blue Horde.
* In Nanjing, capital of the Ming Dynasty of China, a bureau secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Ru Taisu, sends a 17,000 character-long memorial to the throne to be read aloud to the Hongwu Emperor. By the 16,370th character, the emperor has been offended by several passages, and has Ru Taisu summoned to court and flogged for the perceived insult. The next day, having had the remaining characters read to him, he likes four of Ru's recommendations, and instates these in reforms. Ru is nevertheless castigated for having forced the emperor to hear thousands of characters before getting to the part with true substance. The last 500 characters are elevated in court as the model-type memorial that all officials should aspire to create while writing their own.

## **The Sphere of Magic**

### **January:** the *Society of Jesus* is revealed in the Court of England

* Only 165 years early, the Society of Jesus is born and baptized by fire in the English Royal Court.
* John Wycliffe, who was a cynic regarding the state of the Church and a pessimist regarding the fate of humanity, had taken a significant turn in this evolving timeline. His indoctrination had *profound* effects, and placing him in a semi-political role with the future Crown Prince had *significant* implications. In this case, his scholarly, history and academic insight into Jesus – and the context of the era of those three years – was greatly accelerated and enhanced. That, in turn, drove his desire to be true to the teachings of Christ that much more... but in the laid-back, peaceful style of The Man, Himself.
* While Wycliffe was a necessary counterbalance to selfish acts committed in His name, his constant reminders earned him, and his small army of monks and friars, the derisively-toned moniker "What Would Jesus Do?" (“*Quid, Jesus facere?*”)
	+ "Jesuit" essentially meant *one who used too frequently or appropriated the name of Jesus*. While used in reproach, just like the Lollards, Wycliffe embraced the name.
	+ The aristocratic contempt wasn't in the presence of the Boys, by any means, but was definitely common among *the peerage*.
* This proto-Jesuit group adopted the name (in English) of *The* *Society of Jesus*, or "Jesuit" for short. While it was common to create groups named after a person (*any other* person, usually a saint), evoking Jesus' name was considered offensive, presumptuous and downright blasphemous by some.
	+ That made it roughly par for the religious course in the English Court.
* As an Oxford man, Wycliffe made a special public vow to follow the laws of logic in the consilience of reason to christian doctrine. He promoted evangelization-by-example and apostolic ministry. He recommended correcting the bloody Catholic karma by giving retreats, ministering in hospitals and parishes and promoting social justice and ecumenical dialogue.
	+ That January, the English Royal Court unofficially kicked off the English Reformation a century and a half early, and the Protestant Reformation along with it.
	+ This would've been complicated all by itself, but this was while England's dismal war effort behind John of Gaunt drained royal coffers, English blood and countryside patience.
	+ Also... *magic and maybe young saints following Merlin...*

### **February:** the Brothers buoy the Royal Court of England

* Now in the public eye of the Royal Court for four years, the boys were a necessary distraction, a promise of the Post EdIII future. So much so that the spotty royal court of Edward III was more the court of his grandsons, now regularly held in the previously unused Westminster Hall.
* While there was now 18 years combined between **Richard of Bordeaux** (8) and **Edward of Angoulême** (10), they were collectively 180 years old. Their demeanor was reserved but inquisitive, compassionate and empathetic. They are both friendly, perhaps more than befitting a normal king, but reminiscent of the *King of Kings*.
	+ Older Edward maintains his interest in medicine and religion, but has since reluctantly taken up the study of arms and strategy. He'd also been parsing national politics, and in the presence of the peerage that denounced the Jesuits, proudly announced membership in Wycliffe's *Society of Jesus*. Given his position as future Crown of England, *that made waves*.
	+ Young Richard also disclosed his support for the Jesuits, and lauded their discovery of the magic of the Holy Spirit – *it was the very source of divine miracles* – but professed his time was taken in pursuit of Merlin's  magic of the natural philosophies. Attaching miracles to Jesuits firmly affixed the spotlight to the Society, but that "news" was muted under the regular supply of *Glow Stones* he was passing out. This included shipments he'd sent to Bordeaux, distributed to those fighting on behalf of England. As for making waves, Richard was a one-man typhoon.
* While the boys couldn't conduct official business, that their social command was recognized and blessed by both King and Crown Prince led the junior court to slowly grow actual authority. Courtiers knew the boys were some of the few that ever actually spoke to the heads of the kingdom.
	+ Adding to the momentum, John of Gaunt and Alice Perrers (King Edward's favorite ), regularly deferred to the boys when they made Court appearances. The youth had a particular moderating effect on Alice, who was otherwise outspoken and flamboyant – and that helped keep the peace a great deal more than the corner she'd painted herself into in the original timeline.
* The boys were rarely subtle, usually bringing some levity with jesters, music, art and magic. Edward regularly game-planned the English future, with actual scholarship and academics. If this was the future of England, things were looking up...

### **June:** the Treaty of Bruges

* June 22 – Fighting had been renewed in the Hundred Years' War since 1369. The English, weakened by the plague, had lost considerable ground [MAP] to the French and agreed to sign the Treaty of Bruges. Similar to the original version, it featured the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne to the deep south, but still had 1373-level territorial holdings, keeping contiguous land between Bordeaux and Bayonne.
* The Treaty was called at the instigation of Pope Gregory XI. France was represented in the negotiations by Philip II, Duke of Burgundy and England by John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster. Negotiations broke down over the issue of sovereignty over Aquitaine. The English wanted full sovereignty over Edward's territories, while the French insisted that the House of Valois retain sovereignty of any Plantagenet provinces.
* Notably, something as tiny and insignificant as Richard's *Glow Stones* made an impact on the war. He produced *thousands* of them, and they'd been passed out as light sources to English troops. Far greater than their tiny operational advantage, this was real, palpable magic – *and it was in the hands of the English*. That did incalculable things to morale, boosting the English and shaking the French – so much so that borders at the Treaty of Bruges marked territory at the 1373 levels.
* John of Gaunt's "Great Chevauchée" (three years in the making and two years in execution) had all but failed – but Rick's Glow Stones had succeeded at the relative "last minute" (the last two months when the English surged back across the countryside). Gaunt was all but discredited, while Richard was a war hero without ever having raised a sword in France.

### **August:** Richard's Semi-Secret Recruiting

* Rick's third-party success in helping the English cause in Aquitaine created a massive wave of popularity in England and Bordeaux alike. As older brother Edward remained in England under their regular tutelage, younger brother Rick sailed south to Bordeaux.
* This would eventually go down as a massive rally to English morale, in the north and south alike, but there was something else going at the same time.
	+ 5 young adults, late-teens/early-twenties, were seen boarding the boat that as far as anyone could tell, had nothing to do with the crew. The rumor was that young Richard had taken on five apprentices to learn magic.
* This would make sense: he'd been exhausted producing the Glow Stones for the English effort. He wanted to do more, but complained that there simply weren't enough magically-trained hands. Now he was correcting that. Maybe.
* There was a corollary: if he was hiring five people, how was he paying them? He could easily have a line of credit with his father or grandfather, but where and how had he bought raw materials for the Glow Stones? This opened logistics conversation (when Rick wasn't there) about his own treasury.
* REFEREE EYES ONLY**: *Spoilers regarding Rick's War Chest****...*

### **October:** Richard acknowledges the *Order of Merlin*

* Upon return from Bordeaux, the five non-ship's crew were still with Rick – but were now operating as a close-knit team. Introduced to Royal Court in white academic robes, they had the characteristic Richard-driven sense of unified visual organization. The differentiations were evident in the trim: the styles were matching but the colors varied.
* Where two years prior, Richard made a pair a handkerchiefs dance in the air, this team took bags of grain, threw them above the courts' heads – and there they froze, suspended in mid-air. The OM had their wands at the ready, and like maestros conducting the philharmonic, made visual magic.
	+ Like living lace, the grain flowed through the air in fantastically intricate patterns. In morphing, pulsing designs, the show went on for three minutes, mesmerizing the court to the point they wept at its beauty. The show ended by flowing the grain into kettles, which were instantly, magically cooked, creating a sweet custard that, again, brought people to tears by taste alone (it also had a mild euphoric effect).
	+ The wands, perhaps missed before, were now *featured*. Within a week, wands became a fashion statement. Maybe they weren't *functional* wands, but the sudden trend of the royal court became a sudden trend of high society through southern England and growing.

* **Initial Projects**
	+ They had already created magical wands, and such wands were already carried by the order. The wands were able to cast discrete magical effects, like opening and closing doors.
	+ They were looking into the creation of philosopher's stones and the development of an elixir of life. As models of history and lore, they were looking to recreate great objects from myth and legend, not the least of which was Excalibur itself.
* Between groups evoking Jesus and Merlin, the English court was reaching out to people far beyond England...