Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

Alpheo sat in his study, sunlight pouring through the tall windows and pooling over the stacks of parchment and ledgers cluttering the wooden desk. His steward had just handed him the latest inventory report from the royal warehouses, and Alpheo’s sharp eyes scanned the document with growing satisfaction.

”Three thousand six hundred bushels of grain,” he murmured to himself, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smile. ”Five thousand bushels of oats. Four thousand bushels of barley.” He leaned back in his chair, clasping his hands behind his head and exhaling a pleased sigh.

The numbers were better than he’d expected. His diligent oversight of the kingdom’s agriculture—and the crown’s relatively lighter taxation policies—apparently did not weighted down on the total by a lot . Now, the coffers of the warehouses brimmed with the sustenance needed to fuel his next plans.

For the first time in months, the path forward seemed as clear and golden as the bushels themselves, no war , no political issues, just him , his reports and the warm air of summer.

Alpheo rose from his chair, pacing the room with a bounce in his step, his boots echoing faintly against the stone floor.

His mind raced with the possibilities: expanding the crown’s lands, inviting new settlers to cultivate fertile but unused territory. That was the thing that had been bugging around his head, since he had married into the throne.

”With this much food stored,” he muttered, his tone almost giddy, ”I can feed two thousand new settlers through winter until they’re self-sufficient.’’ Of course, he also knew his limitations making sure to not invite too many was of fundemental importance, for he knew the danger of overconfidence and bad preparation.

A perfect example of it was the Roman-Gothic war, where the Eastern Romans had accepted to give sanctuary to the Goths . who had been displaced from their lands by the relentless advance of the Huns, it seemed a gesture of both pragmatism and goodwill, as the Goths would receive lands, and the emperor could make use of their warrior with his wars against Persia.

However as the first bunch of refugee arrived, it proved immediately to be a disaster. As bad logistics, incompetence of the people overseeing the job, greed, and malice alongside the sheer number of refugees, caused a famine to erupt among the camps. Making it even more daunting, was the fact they were still half of the total number that were still to enter the Roman province of Moesia.

Apparently the people tasked with overseeing the camp, instead of despersing them when it came clear that they did not have enough food, they instead got bribed by slave traders, who exchanged rotten dog meat with parents in exchange for the children.

When the rest of the Goths were refused entry, given that the Romans struggled with even simply half of their number, they instead invaded the empire. Seeing this, the Romans then tried to slaughter the Goth’s leader at a banquet, but the whole ordeal backfired when one of the Goths leaders escaped and rallied his forces against the Romans, defeating them and rising in revolt.

This was exactly what Alpheo wanted to avoid, making sure to invite as much people as his current restrictions would allow to mantain, for the last thing he wanted was to repeat the mistakes that the Romans made.

WIth that out of the way Alpheo leaned back in his chair, the rich grain totals swirling in his mind as he tapped a finger thoughtfully against the armrest. Though his heart brimmed with the quiet glee of a plan finally within reach, he forced himself to rein in his excitement as he considered from where he would get these settlers

The first hurdle was obvious. Peasants, in the world of nobility and power, they were not merely subjects of a lord but property tied to the lands they worked. To poach settlers from the lands of another lord or prince would be tantamount to theft. Such an act would not only incite the wrath of the local nobility but could also mark Alpheo as a dishonorable rogue among his peers—an invitation to isolation or, worse, retaliation from other princes.

To find his settlers, then, he would have to look beyond the borders of his kingdom and those of his neighbors. A pool of willing people must exist somewhere—people unattached to the suffocating chains of feudal obligation. His thoughts drifted across the sea, to the distant shores of the other continent.

While his navy had been a costly investment, now it seemed it would serve a purpose beyond mere prestige, after all how else would he be moving people across the continent if not by sea?

And of course, the choice of where to draw settlers from was paramount. After careful consideration, Alpheo’s gaze turned south—beyond the borders of the Sultanate of Azania, just south of it . It was a gamble, admittedly, but one with potential.

He hated to admit it, but his understanding of the region was woefully incomplete. His knowledge extended only to the most rudimentary details: the area to the south of the Sultanate was dominated by a patchwork of tribes that made their homes in the rugged mountain ranges. Beyond this vague notion, he was in the dark. He knew nothing of their culture, their customs, or even the names of these tribes. To complicate matters further, he didn’t even know if these mountain tribes shared a common language with the Azanians or if they communicated in entirely distinct tongues.

This lack of information made the task more daunting, but it also presented an opportunity. These tribes, nestled high in the mountains and distanced from the Sultanate’s main centers of power, might be open to persuasion—or, at the very least, more accessible to an ambitious prince seeking settlers.

The initial proposal would be straightforward: an invitation for some mountain tribes to settle in his lands as a vassal tribe. In exchange for autonomy and the right to self-administration, they would pledge to provide levies during wartime and to abide by his overarching laws. However, Alpheo was a pragmatist. If the tribes rejected his offer, he had no qualms about exploring an alternative: purchasing slaves. While not his first choice, it was a practical solution to his immediate need for manpower.

After all that was how the europeans and Americans got their slave, they paid the elders of a tribe to go to a war against a neighbor, then afterward selling their prisoners to them in exchange for things such as iron.

Fortunately, he possessed something these mountain tribes often lacked—a commodity so vital that it could sway even the most reluctant sellers: salt.

Alpheo had in fact made sure to produce salt on his own using the sea to create salt fields, something that he was sure that the tribes desperately needed as they tended to stick to the mountain, which meant that unless they had many salt mines, they were open for business.

Alpheo recalled stories of merchants trading salt for its weight in gold with certain African tribes. The logic was simple while gold was used as a simble of power, for rings and necklaces for the elders of the tribes . Salt, however, was a necessity—essential for preserving food during lean years and ensuring survival, as such in the eyes of both Europeans and Africans it was a deal

Which in his case would make for a fantastic diplomatic tool.

Before proceeding, Alpheo knew the first step was selecting the right envoy. The task required something specific : someone tolerant and open-minded enough not to insult the tribes for any perceived lack of sophistication, yet strong and resolute enough to hold their own during negotiations. The choice was critical, as these mountain tribes, in Alpheo’s estimation, were defined by their martial prowess, which meant that using talks would only bring one so far.

Their ability to maintain independence while living on the doorstep of Azania—the mightiest empire across the two continents—spoke volumes about their strength. Approaching them with anything less than respect would be a grave mistake.

Which made those tribes the perfect pick for the prince , for what Alpheo coveted most was not just their numbers or on how much taxes they could pay but their skills as warriors. These mountain tribes, forged in the rugged terrain, likely excelled in skirmish warfare and ambush tactics—a mastery born of necessity in their environment. Such expertise was invaluable to Alpheo, who envisioned integrating their unique capabilities into his forces.

His ambition was to mold them into something akin to the Almogavars, the famed light infantry of the old Spanish kingdom of Castile, masters of hit-and-run tactics on foot and uncanny ability to exploit difficult terrain.This however made them more like bandits than proper soldiers, as they were stationed on the border with the Muslims using them to raid and pillage the enemy’s farms even during times of peace.

Alpheo saw potential in these tribes to create a similar corps of warriors, versatile and deadly, that could serve as an asset for defensive warfare.

Alpheo was also acutely aware of the strategic value in introducing warriors from diverse cultural backgrounds into a region where warfare followed predictable conventions. He admired historical precedents where such integration had yielded remarkable results, none more inspiring than the example of Frederick II of Sicily.

Who had extended his protection to the Muslim communities within his predominantly Christian kingdom. In return, he cultivated a loyal and elite force of Muslim archer-infantry. These warriors, with their unmatched skill in precision and discipline, became a cornerstone of Frederick’s military strategy and served as his personal royal guards during the many years of his excommunication

There was a distinct advantage to integrating warriors from a different culture into the fabric of a feudal state. Such individuals, often disconnected from the local nobility and political machinations, would rely solely on their monarch for protection, status, and livelihood, which made them extremely loyal if treated well.

By standing apart from the entrenched power struggles of the nobility, these warriors could serve as a stabilizing force, answering only to their sovereign. This arrangement not only enhanced the ruler’s military capacity but also provided a reliable counterweight against internal dissent something that Alpheo did not know he would bash his head a lot in the future.