I say first go home, then to Russia, it's to good opportunity to pass by , it keeps other European powers against us in check which helps us deal with Pope (going for Rome now could potentially create even more problems on top of existing ones ) and it also can helps us down the line with Egypt (given that plan is in place it seems shame to simply give up , it's better to delay it) by pressing the Ottomans on the Balkans.
So yea coup Rob, go to Russia , Get new home for Pope and then go to Egypt.
Severin hated the heat. His home was in the Vosges Mountains, and he was well acquainted with the cold. His father liked to joke that it was their Swedish blood that gave them such an affinity, but now, in the sweltering summer heat of Sicily, Severin couldn't help but curse his Swedish ancestry. Rushing into the tavern which had been appropriated as the officers lounge for the newly acclaimed Le Corps d'Acier Trempé, he ordered a chilled drink to cool his head. II Corps, the Garrison Corps, and the Republican Guard had won a crushing victory, the total annihilation of an army in the field. He couldn't be prouder of his men, the tens of thousands he had trained from green boys into men with spines of steel. Well, in battle at least. The slaughter of an army was a glorious achievement; the slaughter of innocent bystanders a disgrace. Severin had already sent off his report to Therese, but he would be having words with Antoine once he found him.
Quickly downing his refreshment, Severin turned to survey the tavern. The mood was unusually dour after such a decisive victory, and one with so few losses besides. Spotting Perrot, Leclerc and Abel at the bar, he asked about the situation in his usual blunt manner.
"Oi, Perrot, who died? What's got everyone so gloomy?"
"Severin, haven't you heard? A proclamation from Rome arrived and was read at this morning's mass."
"Perrot, I'm Lutheran, hardly better than a heathen to the likes of Joly. I don't need to go to mass to have a priest pray to the Lord for me when I can do it myself. I was off with my brother and my son holding our personal prayers."
"Right... right. I'd best let you know before you talk to Joly or one of his cultists-"
"Too late, my fool brother is one of his mad cultists!"
"-but we've been excommunicated."
"-What?"
"We've been-"
"No, I heard you, but it's damned-" Everyone in the tavern winced at the utterance, as Severin continued: "-peculiar that you boys have been excommunicated. I thought only the pope could do that, and isn't he way too busy to bar a few common soldats from Catholic heaven?"
"Severin, by we, I mean everyone in the Army of the Orient. And the fleet as well, I suppose."
"What the fuck? Can he even do that? That's well over a hundred thousand souls right there. And for what? Conquering a kingdom overnight? We didn't kill that damned-" Another wince- "King Ferdinand, and Therese let him keep the crown of Naples, the richer of his two thrones. How in the Hell-" Yet another wince- "Can that silly hat-wearing bastard justify that to anyone?"
"I have no clue Severin, but the pope is God's representative in the mortal realm, so what he says goes."
"For Catholics, anyway. By the way, Perrot, have you ever considered converting? Lutheranism is a bit different, and Calvinism can be even more stringent, but if you want something familiar, there's the, eugh, Anglican Church, which is basically Catholicism one step removed-"
"Severin, maybe later, but for now, the lads and I are just commiserating with a stiff drink. You might want to talk to Joly, though. He hasn't been taking it well."
"Maybe I will, Perrot. I'll leave you to your drink." Turning away, Severin searches some more until he espies a morose Joly in the corner drinking straight from a wine bottle.
"Oi, Joly, that's not communion wine. You can't hold the Eucharist by your lonesome!"
"Ohhhh Fachk offff, Severeeen! I've been a good, upshtanding Catholic all my yearsh, but I've been eks- echs- exa- damned! How- whyyy? What should I dooo!"
"First things first, put a cork in it." Putting words to action, Severin corks the half-empty bottle, noting the two empty ones rolling about on the table.
"Second, get ahold of yourself, man! What ever happened to your oh-so-virtuous Catholic morality? Drunk so early in the morning, and on duty, no less!"
Joly blinks blearily for a moment before straightening himself to a semblance of order.
"Third, don't get depressed, get mad! There's no reason to excommunicate a whole damned army! Armies in the past have done way worse things than us, and they were never excommunicated! Some got their own excommunications revoked for doing vile things! And wasn't this the same pope who denounced the revolution and all of the things that it brought? Sure, the last few governments were... weird... about religion, but the pope was against all those other things too. This stinks of politics and muckery. He'd rather have us all kneeling and scraping before those hoity-toity high nobles, and breaking our backs paying ruinous taxes to the fat old King Louis! He's abusing his position and influence to play dirty politics to get us uppity commoners back to "our rightful places" in the "natural order." So the pope can go fuck himself, he's not the least bit pious anyway!"
The unintended pun at the end of Severin's rant elicited a startled giggle from the inebriated Joly, before he fell into a confused fugue.
"But if I'm Catholic, and the pope's the pope, am I allowed to be mad at him?"
"Joly, stop. You can be mad at the fucking pope. The pasta-muncher can eat shit. You know, there are other denominations of Christianity that don't answer to the pope, right?"
"Yes, Severin, but to abandon the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church after all my years of faithful devotion- it's such a hard decision!"
"Joly, listen to me. This pasta-muncher also excommunicated Generale Auclair and-"
"The pope can go fuck himself!"
"'Atta boy, Joly, 'atta boy! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got words for Antoine."
"He's upstairs!"
"Holy shit, Severin looks pissed."
"Isn't Chamans his friend? I've never seen Severin so angry."
Stopping at the foot of the stairs, Severin addresses the whispering officers.
"If you idiots have time to get drunk and gossip like old biddies, then you can get back to work! Go jump in the harbor and sober up, you nitwits!"
Stomping his way up the stairs, Severin makes his way to Chamans' room, pounding heavily on the door. After a minute of fumbling and cursing on the other side of the door, it is answered by a haggard, sleep deprived man.
"Huh? Severin? Wha- what are you doing here so early?"
"It's nearly ten, Antoine, it seems you missed mass and some important news. Having trouble sleeping?"
"Aye, Martin. It's only since the storm blew over that I've managed more than a couple hours a night."
"Well, wash your face and get dressed. I've got something you need to see."
"Why the secrecy, my friend?"
"It has to do with the battle, and your actions and orders in the aftermath."
"Oh."
"Yeah, oh. I know Nick already reamed you out for disobeying orders, but now you'll have to explain it to me. You know my stance on war. What you did went too far."
"I did what I thought was necessary! Martin, let me tell you, I took no pleasure giving those orders-"
"Save it Antoine! I don't expect we'll ever agree that what you did was necessary. And it's not me you have to convince, it's one Julian Minci."
"Who?"
"A boy who watched his parents burn to death before his eyes on your necessary orders."
"Oh."
Rolled Severin's reaction to the excommunication and the start of his conversation with Chamans into one omake. Pope Pius VI doesn't seem to be all that pious, since he's playing politics here. And once Severin confronts Joly with the fact that the focus of his cult-worship has also been excommunicated, he flips to the "fuck the pope" camp.
As for Chamans, I've painted him in a slightly more sympathetic light here. He still ordered the massacre of civilians and surrendering soldiers in the name of terror tactics and breaking morale and a country's will to fight, but in this portrayal, he took no pleasure in giving the order. After all, no one considers themselves to be a monster or a villain. All the terrible things they do are necessary evils. Severin may have skewed morals when it comes to war, but this is not something he will countenance. Kill soldiers where they stand, and as they run, but if they make an effort to surrender, you respect that, otherwise expect them to do the same to you. Yeah, steal people's stuff after the battle is over, the men need to be paid. Rape is something that happens and is to be harshly punished, but killing people for no crime other than being in the army's way? That's beyond the pale.
Because we'd ideally want to get the excommunication revoked before we start facing mass desertion. If Robespierre is playing silly buggers and trying to get the Capet kids killed, I'd prefer to go slap him upside the head with an army that isn't massively demoralized.
Honestly I'd rather just go to Egypt and get this done. We've come all this way. There are too many plates spinning to just abandon this. Also we're not losing our damn sniper. Even if we shared even a little bit of sympathy with Rob, he's just too fucking good. The Commissioners can come along if they want to, but if they try taking Louis, we'll fucking shoot them for undermining the army.
And if Robby wants to coup, our boy toy is more than capable of couping him right back.
If Robespierre is playing silly buggers and trying to get the Capet kids killed, I'd prefer to go slap him upside the head with an army that isn't massively demoralized.
Rome does seem to be the most sensible target, it's closet and it solves the big issue with morale that excommunication will cause. Issue is getting approval for it will be unlikely. If we do it without approval, well then things get interesting.
Indeed. However, going to France and slapping Robespierre seeme like the best/least bad Option for me.
Of course, we could ALSO send part of the Army to do something else while we are dealing with Robby. I think Davout and the others have proven that they can handle themselves without our personal oversight being necessary.
Indeed. However, going to France and slapping Robespierre seeme like the best/least bad Option for me.
Of course, we could ALSO send part of the Army to do something else while we are dealing with Robby. I think Davout and the others have proven that they can handle themselves without our personal oversight being necessary.
Might give us some valuable experience in winter fighting and how to keep the army supplied whilst doing so. It is very possible the Russians might copy our organisational style but they won't be the only ones learning from the experience.
Well, that would be very difficult, considering if we step foot in the holy city, we might have some mad Catholics, brainwashed into holy fever by the Holy Father to stand in it's defense. And while slaughtering a poorly organized army and taking over Rome might be good in the short term, it also causes problems.
We will not send Louis home. We keep him on and promote him for his bravery. Make him an officer within our general staff or give him command of a military unit and etc. As a subtle message to those in power in France. "Louis and his sister aren't going anywhere and that he has been so loyal to France and brave in battle, that he has been promoted.
Right now I feel like, honestly, we do not have anything to lose apart from the kids, who we are keeping with us, and maybe Brian, but he has protection in the form of Napoleon, and that if we lose him we really don't have things to lose. I'm on a warpath.
It seems like Robespierre is about to move against his other consul. Requesting us to hand over the royal children for execution to defang a "Royalist coup"? To me, this sounds more like Robespierre is preparing to coup Napoleon and is doing anything he can to ensure that no one can challenge his authority anymore or ever again.
The only silver lining here is that if we thwart him again and that we can catch him, we can justifiably go straight to punishing him without giving him a trial, on account that he's a threat to France that can not be allowed to be tried, lest he uses lies and oratory and deception to snake his way out of punishment again. At best for Robe, he is going to be jailed for a long time (and hopefully somewhere where it will be very hard for him to escape), and at worst, he's getting a date with the guillotine.
Wait, I'm pretty sure that this is the same pope who denounced the French Revolution and the Constitutional Clergy, so him not liking us at all was pretty much a given.
Might give us some valuable experience in winter fighting and how to keep the army supplied whilst doing so. It is very possible the Russians might copy our organisational style but they won't be the only ones learning from the experience.
Vosges can be quite hot in the summer. I should know, I hiked there quite a bit.
The driest village in France in in Vosges (on the Alsacian side) and maximum recorded temperature in the Vosges is above 40 C.
When I was in school, Strasbourg was the exemple for 'semi-continental' climate, half-way between 'Oceanic' (Brest) - moderate changes - and Continental (Moscow) - extreme cold and hot cases -.
Well I hate letting go of Egypte but we need to come home, clean up a bit then we could go directly to Russia via the north sea it roughly a 2 week of travel (3 with the embarkment and disembarkment).
And let me be clear ROBESSPIER IE DEAD TO ME.
Well I hate letting go of Egypte but we need to come home, clean up a bit then we could go directly to Russia via the north sea it roughly a 2 week of travel (3 with the embarkment and disembarkment).
And let me be clear ROBESSPIER IE DEAD TO ME.
There is still civil marriage, the French Revolutionary state actually made religious marriage secondary to civil ones, and that carries over even to modern France.
There is still civil marriage, the French Revolutionary state actually made religious marriage secondary to civil ones, and that carries over even to modern France.
There is still civil marriage, the French Revolutionary state actually made religious marriage secondary to civil ones, and that carries over even to modern France.
Its one of those things that seems so weird prior to the revolution, but it was one of those things that was really important for the world in terms of rights to citizens.
Since the church no longer had authority over someone's ability to marry and divorce.
).
