The Declaration of First Crusade

The World Tree was 300 meters tall and had a diameter of 50 meters. Even though we used magic enchantments that could cover a crop field of a million hectares or ten thousand square km if used for agriculture on a single tree, we only barely covered the necessary amount of nutrition needed to keep a tree of such a size alive. Even then the World Tree's leaves were purple, an indication of phosphorus deficiency, though there wasn't anything I could do to change it at the moment. On the bright side, the Tree looked as majestic as any tree possibly could. It was indeed a fascinating sight. However, I still had work to do before I was even allowed to enjoy the sight.

I turned towards the people kneeling on the ground and declared,

"The Lady has answered our prayers and reunited us with the World Tree! I hereby declare that the Lady has judged us qualified to carry on the hallowed mission! And I was made the harbinger of Light!

At this very moment, the heart of darkness occupies more and more of the hearts of the innocent and of the ignorant. The armies of petty little puppets of darkness have clouded the minds of humanity, have overthrown temples, and have laid waste to Goddess' kingdom. If you permit this supinely for very long, Goddess' faithful ones will be still further subjected….

I speak to those present, I send word to those not here; moreover, Laddy commands it. Remission of sins will be granted for those going thither, if they end a shackled life either on land or in crossing the sea, or in struggling against the heathen. I, being vested with the holy gift from Goddess, grant to those who go.

O what a shame, if a people, so despised, degenerate, and enslaved by demons would thus overcome a people endowed with the trust of almighty Light, and shining in the name of the Lady! O how many evils will be imputed to you by the Lady Herself, if you do no help those who, like you, profess to the Light and humanity!

Let those who are accustomed to wage private wars wastefully even against Believers, go forth against the Infidels in a battle worthy to be undertaken now and to be finished in victory. Now, let those, who have taken the Holy Light as their guide and sworn to be the Holy soldiers of the Lady fight for her grace; now let those, who dedicated themselves to the study of law and order bring them to the lands of the darkness; now, let those, who formerly contended to their greed, rightly fight the armies of darkness; and now, let those, who recently was hired for a few pieces of silver, win their eternal reward!

alcar mi Tarmenel na Aenna, ar mi cemen rainë i hínin!"

(glory [be] to Aenna in the highest

and on earth peace, good will toward men)

Hearing the declaration of the Crusade directly from the apostle of the Goddess right after seeing the growth of a legendary tree on a Holy day, the people of Alta cheered and celebrated until after nightfall. It felt like the whole city would take up arms and march toward the nearest heathen town, however, we managed to calm them down. My purpose for the conquest was solely to save them from the tyranny of the uneducated, ignorant, and malicious medieval tyrants, therefore my people couldn't be savages themselves. I already informed high priests of temples and called for a conference to instruct priests to instill a sense of morality that embody humanism, charity, honesty, and kindness that includes all life forms. However, this sense of morality wasn't pacifistic. I emphasized the importance of conversation and dialogue, yet I also included defending oneself and one's community among the teachings, as well as the holy mission to spread the faith of the Light. Apart from the changed morality, I also highlighted the importance of art and culture and added the sense of aesthetics as a pillar of life. The endless amounts of books, poems, and plays that I had read on earth still remained in my head, so it allowed me to hand pick many literary works that I thought to be life-changing and write them here, albeit modified to fit into this world. But perhaps the most important change in daily life was the introduction of a seven-day solar calendar that had 13 months and 28 days exactly in each month and a leap day every 4 years. Simultaneously with the calendar, we introduced pendulum clocks with anchor escapement for bigger clocks and hairspring clocks for smaller pocket clocks.

The most important problem was my position, which had changed to a holy existence. I used this as an opportunity to make myself officially declared the heir apparent of the Order. I then summoned my brother to Alta to bend the knee, but apparently, he and his mother run away to Medes through the Black Sea and Georgia.

This showed us that the delay in orders and information was a problem. I ordered post offices to be built across the country that would house the homing pigeons that I tamed and bred years ago. From my tests, they can travel 500 kms a day safely and up to a thousand km if they push themselves a bit.

The diplomats that were present during the Theophany and witnessed the birth of the World Tree did their job perfectly as new delegations, diplomats, travelers, and spies continue to enter Alta to see the World Tree. Many of them ended up converting to the faith of Light and ended up being missionaries to their own lands. I sent letters and gifts to their Lords in good faith and urged them to convert.

A week later we received a letter from a missionary we sent to the Kingdom of Pergamon, a polytheistic kingdom on the Western coast of what is today Turkey, asking us to help the believers who were forced to pay more taxes, had their freedom restricted and was being monitored after the birth of the World Tree. In response, I summoned my vassals and we declared war on the Kingdom of Pergamon.