One’s rise to power always happens at the expense of someone else, this is how the world worked and Oskar was aware of this. Born in the Von Weisser family, his father was a baron, the lowest form of landed nobility in the Kingdom of Volghart and his mother was a commoner. When he was 17, his father died of a heart attack and he succeeded him as the new baron of the Von Weisser household. In a way, one could say his rise to power began at the expanse of his father’s life.
When he was 24, the war between Armithris and the Coalition began and he decided to join the coalition armies. He didn’t join because of religious belief or because of national pride, he did it because he thought it would be the best way for him to show his abilities in warfare tactics, an opportunity which was very rare in Novomundis as there had never been wars of this scale on the Island. One of Oskar’s passions was history and as such, he read a lot of books during his childhood. Some of these books told tales of great wars between grand armies and that is how he started to grow an interest in strategy. Later, he bought books on tactics and warfare from the Jade Empire as wars and clashes between clans or between sects were commonplace.
As such, when he joined the army, he was one of the most competent people in this matter and he was able to sit on the War Council. But nobles on the War Council were not as learned as him, a fact he understood quickly when the leader of the coalition, Duke Velgach Von Deisburg, made stupid decisions one after the other in search of hypothetic glory without heeding Oskar’s advice. His bad tactics worked for a time as they had an advantage In number over the Armithrians but at the first battle of Monastrie, the situation changed rapidly. As the bulk of the army was assaulting the city, Arkaron swooped in and destroyed their camp, capturing Princess Lemegdia who accompanied them, and nearly killing the Duke.
The retreat was painful but in the process, the Duke’s misfortunes would allow more qualified people to come forth. In this case, these people were the Four Heroes: Herakles, Scipion, Devus, and Stein. The counterattack was led by these four men, they even managed to capture one of the four great generals of Armithris, Hong Wubao, which made it possible to get back the princess with a prisoner exchange. Oskar had accompanied them on this counterattack which allowed his rise to power to truly begin.
As time passed, the Four Heroes gathered more and more support and so did Oskar. He became the Grand Strategist of the Coalition and he reformed many aspects of the Volghartian army to be capable to fight the armies of Arkaron.
The war lasted for three years but was finally over. The Royal family of Armithris was dead, their most famous generals died in combat and their capital was sacked. A treaty was signed between the new head of the Noble League of Armithris, Duchess Celena Neozar, and the head of the coalition, Duke Velgach Von Deisburg, which ceded all territory north of Plaisance to the Kingdom of Volghart and crippled Armithris economy and military amongst other humiliating terms.
When the army came back to Volghart, they were showered with rewards, and the most impactful individuals were given lands and riches. This is how Oskar became a Count, the Count of Monastrie. He reaped the rewards at the expanse of the Armithrian people, a sad state of affairs but not something surprising by any means.
“What are you thinking about ?” a voice said to Oskar.
A grand feast was organized in the Royal Palace of Volghart by the King, to celebrate the victory over the rebels. Oskar was holding a glass of wine in his right hand and he was looking at the window at the city below.
“Nothing important, I was reminiscing” he answered. “And you, what will you do next Scipion ?” he asked.
The man Oskar was talking to was in his fifties and was clearly of Avirtan descent. He had streaks of white in his black hair but overall he felt younger than his age.
“Well, I have a lot of things to do as you know. You heard what I asked the King during the reward ceremony right ?”
“You said you wanted to create an Academy In Fesagne right? Like the ones in Avirtas ?”
“Something similar but with less of a focus on magic. My goal would be to welcome students from the nobles families of Volghart and other influential people”
“That is a great idea, let us have a toast to our victory and our projects !” Oskar lifted his cup toward Scipion’s and they drank.
“You didn’t tell me what you wanted to do, I was also wondering why you asked for Monastrie, after all, a lot of the city was destroyed during the war,” Scipion asked.
Stolen story; please report.
“This is a great opportunity. The King will fund the reconstruction and will also send citizens from Volghart. This way, I won’t have to deal with Armithrian insurgents and I will also be able to build Monastrie more efficiently. I want this city to be impregnable”
“This makes sense. Good luck in your endeavors and if you need help, don’t hesitate to contact me”
“Likewise,” Oskar said with a smile.
Scipion smiled back and walked away. Once he finished his discussion with Oskar, many nobles came to speak to him, he was still one of the Four Great Heroes of the War amongst the three alive. These nobles were like Vultures craving prestige and recognition.
Meanwhile, Oskar was looking at the scene quietly and he was happy people didn’t bother him. He didn’t want to hear false promises and empty compliments. As he was drinking, a noble approached him. Oskar recognized him immediately, this one was not a Vulture, he was an Eagle.
“Greetings Count Von Weisser, I think we didn’t have the pleasure yet to be acquainted,” he said in a calm voice.
“Indeed my Lord, I have heard a lot about you, It's truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Oskar said to the man. This one, like Scipion, wasn’t young either as he was also in his fifties. Everyone here knew him, he was Jager Von Lindenbaum, Chancellor of the Empire and Grand Duke of Hanzburg. In a lifetime, he rose from a simple Baron to one of the most powerful nobles of the Kingdom, a feat none accomplished before him. A lot of nobles viewed him as an upstart in the beginning but he is now part of the landscape of Volghartian nobility.
“Many nobles only see martial and magical power as indicators of someone’s power. They are so blind they can’t see how valuable you are, a pity for them, but it is great for me” Jager smiled.
“I thank you for your compliments my Lord but I don’t think I deserve them”
“If you say so. I won’t make you lose your time and I will get straight to the point. I am certain you are not ignorant that there are many factions among Volghartian nobility and I wish you would consider joining mine.” Jager proposed to Oskar.
“I will definitely consider your proposition my Lord,” Oskar told him.
“Thank you. Also, I wanted to ask you a few questions about the Three Heroes, I want to know more about their personality, and from what I understand, you know them well right ?”
“Well, I don’t think this is a problem,” Oskar said. “Stein is not really interested in politics, from what I understand, he is planning to go on a great voyage by boat. Herakles is very zealous and he is hard to control, he only follows Agrevis' wishes so he is sometimes very hard to deal with. He also led the sack of Armithris but this is another matter. As for Scipion, he is very logical and methodical. If you want to strengthen your faction you should recruit him.”
“Thank you for your information, you can consider I owe you a favor”
“I will remember it, my Lord,” Oskar said as he smiled.
“Then, farewell Lord Oskar, I am certain we will see each other a lot in the future” Jager smiled back as he walked toward Scipion, following the advice of Oskar.
Oskar had already thought about the faction he would like to join and being invited by Jager Von Lindenbaum in person cemented his choice even more. There were three factions in Volghart.
First was Von Lindenbaum’s faction. Amongst his ranks, you could find low-ranking and high-ranking nobles. Von Lindenbaum only discriminated on competence, he wanted only the very bests under him. As such, it was not the most powerful in terms of land and armies, but his faction exerted a lot of power over the whole country as more than half the positions on the Council were held by them.
Then, you had the faction led by Duke Von Deisburg, where you could find old families of the Kingdom who cling to the old tradition of ‘Might make right’. Their members generally came from the high-ranking nobility and as such they tend to be very elitist. They had the most powerful military forces in the Kingdom.
Finally, you had the faction led by Grand Duke Von Ysfergheim which was somewhat neutral. They tend to support the King more than anyone else and several families belonging to this faction were very religious and zealous. It caused a lot of tension when It was Duke Von Deisburg who was chosen to lead the coalition and not Duke Von Ysfergheim.
Some nobles decided to stay neutral, not joining any factions, the most powerful among them being Duke Von Farschweig.
Oskar knew that if he wanted to have a place in Volghartian politics, the best way would be to ally with Jager Von Lindenbaum. As he said before, the other nobles wouldn’t recognize his abilities, only he would.
Oskar started to walk around, he spoke with a few nobles here and there. He knew that in this place, he had to wear a mask, that is what everyone was doing. Lies were rampant, deception was the norm. As he came from a small baron family, he only knew these people by name, and from the rumors surrounding them, he wanted to know what was true and what was not. As he read in a Qiuren book: ‘If know your enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.’
Following this quote, Oskar tried to extract as much information as possible. There was this scandal affecting this noble, this noble’s peasants were revolting, this noble’s land was plagued with bandits, …
In and of itself, each piece of information was not that interesting but as a whole, It gave new ideas to Oskar. Ideas to gain favors, power, and influence. Why did he want any of that? Oskar didn’t particularly want his family name to be known for ages, he didn’t want to become King or something like that, he only wanted to be remembered by history and to become ‘immortal’ in a certain way.
He admired Jager Von Lindenbaum for his rise to power and he intended to do the same. He knew that even if the war was over, the conflict was still going on. It was just a matter of time until the whole Island would blow up again in an even more destructive conflict. And when it would, Oskar would be ready to withstand the waves of chaos and ride along them to rise or die trying. This was his ambition.
End of Chapter 5