SENATE? SESSION 7: Rome is restored!

Rome is restored!

The foreign usurpers are overthrown!

“Kiev-Byzantium”? More like “Roman Rome!”

By the way, do you like our new flag, I made myself! It’s the Branas family cipher. Doux Helias tells me it’s super cool.

It’s very nice. Tell the emperor how nice his flag is, Senators.

Hey, Helias, shouldn’t there be more of them? I read in the Alexiad that Alexios appointed like four hundred of these suckers!

Regrettably, the majority of the sitting senators willfully collaborated with the Yaroslavovich Regime by participating in his “New Senate”. Many have fled the capital, no doubt sheltered by the Tuscan Pretender. Many others you have, regrettably, found it necessary to imprison.

I did?

You did, my Emperor.

Wow! That was right smart of me, eh, Helias?

Anyway, to those of you that are left, welcome! Where was I? Oh, right!

Rome is restored!

See? Says so right on the map. “Roman Empire”! Those stinky Russians up in Kiev needed to learn who’s boss. It’s us! First Rome!

Okay, sure, the empire’s a little smaller than it was before. The wicket Papal State seized the ancient seat of our civilization, and after the civil war, we lost…

Ahem.

…after the civil war, we granted the Republics of Abkhazia, Belgorod, Crimea, and Venice their independence, in recognition for their exemplary service in sending that Russian pretender back to Italy where she belongs!

Anyway, Rome is restored, and with it– the Old Senate!

Since really, what was all this New Senate business about? “The Committee of Venice?” “The Varanangian Committee?” That’s all way too ominous sounding and spooky!

So instead, I’ve brought all your old favorite parties back!

The New Byzantines! Helias is really a Turk, so I bet he likes you guys, huh?

The Old Romans! The party of Trajan II and St. Valeria!! Need I say more? I need not!

The Mivlians! We’ve just lost a Pentarch, go get him back!

The Komneni… Kom… Brana… Branassassins? Branasians? The Branas Party. Just… the Branas Party.

I’ll even bring the Discordians back! Have fun, guys!

And also I don’t go in for any of that “imperial fiat” business Yaroslav the Ruskie was all about.

I believe… in votes!

So, I am putting the following to vote:

The following paper is circulated amongst the Senators

Emperor Komitas I Branas posted:

do you like me
[ y / n ]

SENATE VOTE

The Senate is split between the reigning emperor and the covert supporters of the pretender! Do you participate in Komitas’s restored new Old Senate, or hope for the restoration of the old New Senate of the Yaroslavoviches?

Do you support the Russian girl being tutored by a German-culture Sicilian, or the Greek emperor who was just installed in office by pretty much every non-Italian vassal in the empire?

You can either ##support Branas or ##support Yaroslavovich. IC, you can consider your votes private letters to either the Doux of Paphlagonia (for Komitas Branas) or the Queen of Sicily (for Dobrava Yaroslavovich), so the other side won’t know about your loyalties initially. However, at the conclusion of this dynastic dispute, when I am again playing as the emperor or empress of Byzantium (i.e., after Dobrava either dies or reclaims the throne), the cache of letters will be discovered and your loyalties known! But this is mostly just to determine the overall disposition of the Senate, rather than mete out individual consequences. Mostly.

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

Finally! Those those filth-ridden pretenders are overthrown! Rome forever over Russia!

Suppport Branas!

StrifeHira posted:

Jesus help me, what have we gotten ourselves into…

I just get back from a family meeting back in Lesbos over mom being caught in the Inn explosion, and I return to the Senate informed that not only has the late Emperor-Tsar’s kid been kicked out but a puppet Emperor has been set up in her place.

The poor girl now lacks much in the way of restoring herself to the throne, and both the puppet and the puppet’s master couldn’t see conspiracy if the Black Chamber supporters started shouting it in their faces, as they’re want to do.

(OOC: Oh god the poor intrigue score on the both of them, I don’t want to start going through Emperors like it’s an Imperial bargain sale. Even Dobrava’s is laughable, though at least she has the excuse of being a 13 year old kid.)

I will say this in front of the entire senate, as a descendant of one of the founding members of the Old Romans and as the daughter of one of the old regime’s first Varangian supporters: I abstain from giving my support to either Yaroslavovich or Branas claimants. If you need me I’ll be busy devising plans for taking back Rome and the Republics.

(OOC: This is going to be a glorious mess. )

Readingaccount posted:

Wow, this Yaroslavich guy comes and kills the majority of an action session, shits all over Byzantium in almost all of his sentences, and the remainder cower in worship of Kiev, leaving it to the Black Chamber to deal out justice… then this rebel overthrows his daughter and restores Greco-Roman cultural supremacy (a VERY important thing for our internal stability, culturalism aside) and gives us back our votes and you thank the new Roman Emperor by sailing for Tuscany to put the Russian back on the throne, meaning another round of civil strife after a costly conflict to reinstall her.

He is the puppet of the Doux of Paphlagonia more than he is of the Douxes in general. If we simply offer the man pulling the strings his daughter in marriage to him or one of his sons then I am sure he can keep the other Douxes in check.

Tevery Best posted:

##support Branas

Dear Imperial Majesty,

you’re cool man 10/10 we should like hang out

Also you wanna do something about those highly uncool Black Chamber guys? I mean, they don’t seem to tend to like you and stuff.

Luhood posted:

The Phanariote Committee

An open letter to Komitas Branas and Helias Altunetkin posted:

To Lord Branas and Grand Prince Altunetkin,

By force you managed to put this pretender on the throne. Branas is naught but a puppet on your strings, Helias, an opportunist’s tool to secure power for himself regardless of what happens to the State itself. In your petty war you managed to hand Rome back to the Pope, the final Heretic and master of the Landless Horde. Several of the former vassals of the Empire rejected you openly and ignored your missives about loyalty, and one of if not the last true successors of the purple branch of the Komnenos was reduced to a mere Princess and Doukessa in Tuscany.

We Qutuzids haven’t fought this hard against the Unitas just to get a Doux with his Greek head stuck so far up his own Greek arse he can see out of his mouth on the throne. We finally had a lord who knew what it meant to fight, and what it meant to rule. The complacent and decadent parties of the Senate was rid of, and we were once again reminded that we are all mere administrators under the glory of the Basilissa. This one seek to get back to the old ways not because they were better, but because they were Old. I won’t merely align myself with the true Basilissa, I will align myself AGAINST this pretender. This is a warning and a challenge. Remember that just like you once ousted the Tsarista you can be ousted just as well. Don’t think the Doukes will be more loyal to you just because you’re one of them. They will rise against you just as easy as they rose with you.

I, Tachat II, am the last of the living Qutuzid nobles. We have stood loyal to the royal line of the Komnenos, and later with the Yaroslavovich family. Watch your steps. The mythological Black Chamber may be vast, but a small, focused blade often strike more true than several. By the time you read this letter me and Berat will have fled Constantinople. I am the last of my line, and I’m not afraid to rise against you should you force my hand. Rest assured I will not stop ’till the true royal line is back on the throne.

LONG LIVE DOBRAVA YAROSLAVOVICH! LONG LIVE KIEV-BYZANTIUM! DOWN WITH THE PRETENDER!

– Tachat II Qutuzid

Lord Cyrahzax posted:

Qutuzid, listen to yourself. Knew what it meant to rule? If he did, he wouldn’t been blown up. The doukes may rebel again, but do you think they will fight for a little Russian, especially after it was proven she lacks God’s favor? I doubt it. And, am I to understand you support the Yaroslavovich pretenders merely because they aren’t Greek? You, a “Turk” from a “Turkish” family that has lived in Constantinople for generations? That has sat in the Senate and spoke Greek for decades? The only thing not Greek about you is your name. How does it feel to be to living proof of Unitas’s doctrine?

Why support this ousted pretender? An Empire cannot be run by a foreigner, much less a barbarian. What do you think will happen if she regains the throne? She will either adopt Roman ways, or be overthrown again. Therefore, to prevent further unrest, I call for the immediate execution of every member of the Yaroslavovich family, and every traitor that supports them!

Kiev is no Rome, Yaroslav was no Emperor, and his daughter should have been blown up with him. Long live Rome! All hail Emperor Komitas!

For the Emperor and the House of Branas: 17