User blog:The Forgotten Bulgar/An alphabet of our own

An alphabet of our own is a custom scenario created by the user The Forgotten Bulgar (probably it would be the 1st scenario from a campaign called 'The Golden Age'). It depicts the events about 885-886 when the pupils of Saints Cyril and Methodius run from the German clerity in Great Moravia and three of them try to reach their homeland Bulgaria in order to spread the alphabet and the translations of the christian books among the Bulgarians and the neighbour Slavs.

Intro
''After our knyaz Boris I had been baptised by emperor Michael III himself many priests from the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire came to the Bulgarian lands to spread the christianity. However, they spread it on their Greek language, unknown for the common folks in Bulgaria. So many religious terms would remain mystery for them because at that time they didn't have their own Bulgarian words to describe them, to understand them, to feel them.''

''The knyaz was aware that two brothers - scholars from Thesaloniki in the Eastern Roman Empire who can speak the Bulgarian language as their own mother tongue - successfully translated the holy books from Greek. They were dare enough to disput with the Pope Adrian III himself in Rome about the right of all people to serve God on their own language and to convince him that as the Sun shines for everyone, in the same way God would like His words to reach the souls of everyone no matter if their language is from the 3 'holy ones' (Hebrew, Latin, Greek) or another one. Their names were Constantine 'The Philosopher' (who accepted the name Cyril shortly before pass away in Rome) and Methodius.''

''After losing his younger brother Cyril, Methodius became an archibishop in Great Moravia where he taught the Word to the folks in Panonia on their own language. However, the German clerity didn't like the idea about losing influence in Great Moravia. A monk called Wiching sent their king Svatopulk an alegedly forged letter 'from' the new Pope - Stephen V - according which he has to remove the Thesaloniki-born scolar from the archibishop place. Later Methodius also lost his life but the deceased brothers had their followers and pupils - the 5 best of them together with the 2 brothers would be known later as 'The Seven Saints'. One of them, Gorazd, who inherited the archibishop duty in Great Moravia (after Methoudius and his enemy Wiching), also passed away. The rest of them - Clement, Naum and Angelarius - had to find their path to the Bulgarian knyaz Boris I Mikhail in order to save the sacred cause of their teachers...''

Starting conditions

 * Starting Age: Castle Age (or Feudal, I'm not sure yet)
 * Starting resources: None
 * Population limit: N/A
 * Starting units:
 * knyaz Vladimir Rasate (renamed Vlad Dracula unit)
 * knyaz Gavrail (renamed Ivaylo unit)
 * 8 Konniks
 * 8 Cavalry Archers
 * Gaia units:
 * 4 Transport ships
 * P.S. I'd like to have 2 ships with 10 places each but for now there are 4 with 5 places each
 * Clement (renamed Priest)
 * Naum (renamed Monk)
 * Angelarius (renamed Ox Wagon)

Objectives

 * Find a way to cross the Danube river and rescue Clement, Naum and Angelarius.
 * Clement, Naum and Angelarius must survive.
 * Take the Relic from the city of Belgrade (with either Clement or Naum) and garrison it in the Monastery of knyaz Boris I Mikhail in Preslav (together with the three men).
 * Bring 70 sheeps to the flag in the palicade wall in Preslav in order to use their leather for parchments.
 * Send Clement to the city of Ohrid.
 * Clement must survive.
 * Build a Wonder in Ohrid.

Hints

 * Vladimir Rasate and Gavrail, sons of Boris I, have better HP than the regular Konniks and can regenerate as Hero units. Use their strenght against the Teutonic Knights.
 * Clement and Naum, as every Monk (Priest) unit, can heal your troops. Use them before sailing to Belgrade. Angelarius (the Ox Wagon), however, is ill so he can't walk by himself and can't do the same.
 * After rescuing the three holy men you'll need again the Transport Ships to reach Belgrade.
 * While caring a Relic Clement (or Naum) can't heal or convert. However they can always drop it somewhere and take it again after.
 * Watch out for wild animals in the forests!
 * There are a lot of sheeps behind the mountain pass and near Danube river. They are well guarded so be prepared to fight for them.
 * You can't train units before reaching Ohrid but there might be additional Konniks and Cavalry Archers to join you.
 * Use the range of Clement to see enemies from distance. He is a must-survive unit during the entire scenario so never leave him unprotected.

Scouts

 * Your Scouts report: The Bulgarians (blue) start in Preslav (eastern corner of the map) with 2 of knyaz Boris I's sons (Vladimir Rasate & Gavrail) and several Konniks and Cavalry Archers.
 * Wiching (red) protects the fortress in Great Moravia (western corner of the map) with Teutonic Knights and Arbalesters.
 * The Byzantine troops (orange) consist of Cataprachts, Pikemen and Elite Skirmishers. They are situated southeast and northeast.
 * Your allies, Ohrid (green), have no military troops. Their villagers wait for the arrival of Clement in the area of Kutmichevitsa (south corner of the map).

Players

 * Player (Bulgarians)

Enemies

 * Wiching (Teutons)
 * Byzantine troops (Byzantines)

Alies

 * Ohrid (Slavs)
 * Boris I Mikhail (Bulgarians)
 * Belgrade (Bulgarians)

Outro
''Clement, Naum and Angelarius reached the capital of their motherland where they were welcomed with great honours by knyaz Boris I himself. Later the ill Angelarius has passed away. Naum would be known as Naum of Preslav where he remained as the main tutor of the Glagolic alphabet. Clement was sent by the knyaz to the other end of Bulgaria to do the same where he would be known as Clement of Ohrid.''

''Soon after the Glagolic alphabet were replaced by a new one (called Cyrillic in honour of their deceased tutor Constantin-Cyril Philosoph) which said to be created by Clement himself. After Clement passed away on his turn his clerical brother Naum followed his footsteps and continued his work in Ohrid.''

''More than thousand years later the Bulgarian alphabet known as 'Cyrillic' would be used by many of the so called 'Slavic' countries like Russia, Serbia and even some non-Slavic, like Mongolia. The people using it would be about 250 milion or approximately 3 per every 100 persons in our Earth. And, according Saint Cyril, our God would like each one of us on this Earth to have the right to praise His name on their own language and their own alphabet. Amen!''

Trivia

 * Contrary to the usual belief the saints Cyril and Methodius did not create the Cyrillic alphabet but the Glagolitic one. The Cyrillic was created later by their pupils on order by the Bulgarian rulers for it being easier for the Bulgarian people.


 * There is no evidence how exactly the three pupils escaped from Great Moravia and if Vladimir Rasate and Gavrail had ever been involved personaly in their rescuing. They were added just for the purposes of the game. For sure the third son of Boris I, Simeon the Great, wasn't there because he was still a pupil in the Magnaura school in Constantinople at that time.


 * The first Bulgarian University after the Freedom in 1878 was build in Sofia and was named after 'St. Clement of Ohrid'. Exactly next to it is the 'SS. Cyril and Methodius' Bulgarian National Library. Today there are many schools, streets and other objects in Bulgaria and abroad with these and similar names from this age like the 'Seven Saints' church (Sofia), the Monastery of 'St. Naum' (near Ohrid lake), the Shumen University 'St. Constantine of Preslav', etc.


 * Belgrade, the capital city of Serbia, and Ohrid, one of the biggest cities in present Northern Macedonia, were part of the Bulgarian Empire most of the time during Middle Ages.


 * Among all the so called 'Slavic' languages (Russian, Serbian, Polish, Czech, etc.) which are synthetic only the Bulgarian language, being analytic, distinguishes from them all. The only other analytic exception is the one spoken in the contemporary Republic of Northern Macedonia. There is an argument if the Macedonian is a separate language or just one of the Bulgarian dialects but despite the small inevitable lexical differences there aren't gramatic differences between them which explains a lot.