For many centuries, the Palace of Winchester was the seat of House Godwin. Built by Harold the Great after his victory over the Norwegians and Normans, expanded by Leofwine and Osweald I, and its most recent construction under Roose Godwin. It was a sprawl of black stone towers, surrounded by a series of walls and defensive posts that made a siege more trouble than it would be worth. But the walls and defences were not impossible to break through. The Palace of Winchester was not invincible.
The Palace was under siege. No, the world was under siege. Beings from another universe, who wielded immense power and cut down all in their way. But for the last two decades, preparations were made. In Europe, the Treaty of Pisa allied the powers on the continent; the Holy Roman Emperor, the Kings of England, France, Aquitaine, Castile, Leon, Aragon, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Greece, and the Supreme Doges of Venice and Pisa were all given seats on the Council of Peace and Sanity for the Benefit of Christendom. The councillors would elect from - among their peers - one man to act as the Consul, the head of the Council and supreme leader of all of Europe in times of crisis. The Byzantine Empire, a rump state led by a depressed emperor who sulked in central Anatolia, submitted itself to the Council's will. The Almoravid Sultanate remained the only united Muslim empire, and it, upon discovery of what was to come, allied itself with the Council. For a number of years, steps were taken to unite the Muslim world under the Almoravids, who relocated their seat to Damascus and had eventually encompassed Arabia and united Persia under a cousin of the Sultan. India's Solanki Clan was informed of the future events separate from the Europeans, and had managed to unite the Hindus and Jains on the subcontinent under their Gujarati Empire. The Maharaja responsible managed to make vassals out of the Buddhist states, since they proved unassailable.
The expanding Mongol hordes were the first real test of the combined might of the Council, the Almoravids, and the Solanki, who managed to overwhelm the Mongol army at Samarkand. The spectacle convinced the fragmented Russian states and Cumania to pledge allegiance to the Council.
Roose the Fat was anything but; he was skinny, especially in his older years. His once-blond hair was now a dark grey, though it still grazed his shoulders as it had in his youth. His goatee was messy and his skin was wrinkled. But his blue eyes almost glowed with a darkness. And despite how utterly detestable many of his actions had been, he was a man. And not only was his life in danger, but his species as well. This would not do.
He glanced away from his window as the door swung open. Reports were flooding in now, thpugh even more so than usual. The attack had begun. As Consul, he was responsible for the defense of the Christian world.
"Father!" Eadgar said as he ran up to the throne. His eldest son, the Duke of Cornwall. Behind him, Roose's youngest son Domeric. The middle son, Edmund, had died in his youth.
"The Kaiser has retreated to the mountains. The Sultan is leading his armies in Cairo, but he is being flanked. And the Fae have demolished London. They are heading this way."
Roose sighed. "They will break through our walls."
"Father," Domeric said, "This keep is the most fortified in Britain. How could they possibly break through."
"You are being naive, my son. The Fae are more powerful than anything we have faced before. We cannot stop their advance, only stall it."
The Fae would be close soon.
