King Magnus "the Bold": Part I

King Magnus of Selenium has often been portrayed by the propaganda of the time as a mad and rash ruler, bent on world conquest. His ultimate defeat has been portrayed by Pro-Imperial writers as "Well deserved" and "Fate for his evils". These writers accuse Magnus of killing both his father and elder brother, Olav in order to rise to the throne himself. These claims, as one should suspect, are far from the truth. His father, Haakon III, was a weak ruler that died from dysentery trying to regain control over his nobility. Olav was not a bastion of health during his life either and his death from typhus should not come under question of the schemes of Magnus whatsoever. Indeed, from the surviving records of the King, he loved his family greatly and the death of his elder brother and father seemed to have hurt him greatly as he wrote in his journal not long after Olav's death "My brother's loss is tragic, as he was a great man that seemed destined for greatness, only to have it robbed from him by the gods. May Selen protect his soul."

With so much false information circulated about the former King, as someone who knew Magnus personally my entire life, it is my duty to displace these fouls tales of him and tell the world the truth about our former King.

Magnus was born in 1068, the second son of Haakon III and showed from an early age according to many that knew him, great promise. He would ascend to the throne in 1096 at the age of 22 and would quickly prove himself to be one of the greatest Kings Selenium had seen in a long time. He managed to reverse the course of the entire war against rebellious nobles of the North by winning victory after victory and by 1101, had finally forced them to submit to Royal Authority. The Royal Domains expanded in 1102 thanks to his future archnemesis, Pomerlane, killing the Prince of Danevirke in cold blood, alleged by Pro-Imperial accounts to be because the Prince betrayed Pomerlane by not paying him but those that knew the former Prince have disputed this consistently over the years. What seems more likely to those who think beyond the narrative presented was that Pomerlane was growing dissatisfied with his current pay and requested more for him and his men due to him being injured. The Prince rightfully rejected this and Pomerlane would conspire to have his "revenge" on the Prince by murdering him and scattering his army during the night. Either way, this did help King Magnus expand Royal Domains to their greatest extent yet.

When Pomerlane invaded Feeshland unjustly in 1102 under the pretext of him having a claim on the crown of a long-pasted state, Magnus was irritated by this development but held off on doing anything until 1104 because he was dealing with an uprising in the South and raids by the primitive barbaric Rosebutas on frontier outposts in the east. Magnus had never been a fan of the Republic of Feeshland personally, seeing it as little more than a backwards corrupt state but it was still his tributary, and he did issue an ultimatum to Pomerlane to stop his conquest or meet Magnus in person to find a solution. This was perhaps the biggest mistake Magnus ever made as King because he allowed himself to be convinced by someone in a position of weakness to take over Feeshland in exchange for vassalage. The Pro-Imperial Narrative about him desiring the conquer all of Ninisani or wanting Pomerlane to conquer Eliria is not supported by Magnus's own journal or records that have been found and it seems Magnus allowed the pied piper to play him in this instance. He could have easily crushed Pomerlane at this moment, and he would come to regret it greatly as things developed.

Magnus spent the next several years focused on his own Kingdom, trying to shore up the eastern outposts against Rosebutas and even waging a punitive campaign deep into their lands in 1106 that was so successful Rosebutas were subdued for a decade. He could never hold that wasteland but what he could do was make sure they never caused him issues again. He also invested heavily into the expansion of mining within his territory and backed the development of steam power, something which is not mentioned about him.

When the news of the marriage of the Empress to Pomerlane came to Magnus, he indeed was greatly angered by this news, not because it broke any agreement but because he rightly saw this as a great danger to his own Kingdom and that it upset the balance of power in the Empire. But Magnus could not justify war against his vassal, because Pomerlane had not broken his vows of vassalage to Magnus and there was no law against the marriage from taking place. Magnus indeed seemed to have no desire to wage a war against Pomerlane until he was approached by the Inapuff dynasty, who were one of the great families of Pomerania, in 1110. The Inapuffs told Magnus that their spies had captured dispatches between Pomerlane and one of his Generals, a certain Sergius Cato, that he planned to invade Pomerania in 1111 or 1112 to reclaim his lost lands. The Kings of Selenium, who were considered the traditional protector of the rights of the Pomerania, could not allow this to happen and Magnus had realized that he had created a monster in Pomerlane and would form an alliance with Pomerania to combat this rising threat. In the Spring of 1111, Magnus would lead his armies across the border into "Syrenia", under the pretext that Pomerlane had broken his vows to his liege.

To be continued.