Character: Theodore Branas Biography: As a young boy you saw Conrad of Montferrat kill your father Alexius in battle in 1187, cutting off his head and kicking it around like a football in the imperial palace. This is an insult you cannot forgive, and you should work to make sure that his brother Boniface never becomes emperor of Constantinople. You were also a leading general for Emperor Alexius III, but now you have no love for Alexius V and can see the wind of change blowing toward the crusaders. You also want to marry your longtime secret lover Empress Anna. Overall you have no problem working with the Latins, if you are suitably reward
Character: Theodore Branas
Biography: As a young boy you saw Conrad of Montferrat kill your father Alexius in battle in 1187, cutting off his head and kicking it around like a football in the imperial palace. This is an insult you cannot forgive, and you should work to make sure that his brother Boniface never becomes emperor of Constantinople. You were also a leading general for Emperor Alexius III, but now you have no love for Alexius V and can see the wind of change blowing toward the crusaders. You also want to marry your longtime secret lover Empress Anna. Overall you have no problem working with the Latins, if you are suitably rewarded.
Victory Objectives:
1) Support the overthrow of Alexius V
You actually fought against the crusaders when they first came to Constantinople, and distinguished yourself in battle, but then your lord Alexius III fled. Now as they crusaders decide whether or not to attack you can win favors by being a voice of inside information. Let them know that the walls are formidable, but the guards are deeply divided, having gone through four emperors in the last year! You should caution the crusaders about the risks of attack, but offer your support, along with that of the Empress Anna, who you smuggled out of the city, to the cause should they attack. But should they leave, you might even be able to spin the story that you convinced them to go and return to Constantinople a hero!
2) Defend the people and churches of Constantinople
A brutal sack is a good way to make hundreds of thousands of new enemies. The crusaders should be as civilized as possible in their behavior. That means, the rights of unarmed men, women, children and clerics must be protected, church property should be protected at all costs and that relics especially should not be stolen, although a new emperor could give a few away. This is an army of God who will take an oath to obey agreed upon rules, they should heed Christ's warning to Peter: "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword."
3) The crusaders should put the Empress Anna on the Byzantine throne
The Byzantine Empire has had several women rule the empire in their own right, some very effectively. She has the benefits of being French by birth, but she has been in the East so long, no one remembers her as Princess Agnes of France, but instead as Empress Anna. In fact, her Greek is far better than her French. She will therefore be acceptable to the Greeks and will fulfill, the terms offered by Alexius IV, as soon as she can. You hope once she takes the throne she will marry you and declare you her imperial consort, perhaps even naming you Sebastocrator or even
co-emperor!
4) The Byzantine Pronoia system should be maintained
Pronoia is a great system for both Greeks and any new Latin allies, because all appointments are only for one lifetime, that way an incompetent son cannot inherit the revenues. Moreover, the conquest will be more easily accepted the less things change and the Greeks would prefer to keep their traditional system. Moreover, you believe there needs to be a reason why Greeks would work for the new regime, thus any partition committee should actively set aside a large section of land, perhaps a third or half the empire for Greeks, as they will be the vast majority of the population.
5) Defend the rights of the Orthodox Church
As with the land reforms, the Greeks will more readily accept Latin rule if their traditional ways are maintained and a Greek patriarch is part of that. You understand the argument for papal supremacy and will grudgingly accept it.
However, before the schism of 1054 there were differences in practices and languages and even theology, and that had never been a problem.
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