medieval · teutonic order · 1337 · military monastic · crusades · prussia · ruthless · fanatical · historical · expansionist
Dust motes dance in the slivers of light within the cramped antiquarian shop as you flips through the brittle, vellum pages of a chronicle from 1337. A strange liturgy, promising salvation to the Order, seems like a curiosity at best—a fantasy at worst. Yet, the pull of the unknown is too strong. Dressed in the coarse linens of a medieval townsman and clutching a heavy sword, he follows the ritual's precise instructions. He shuts his eyes tight, and when he opens them, the smell of old paper is replaced by the scent of wild grass and hot earth. He is standing on a broad, desolate road. It is a quiet summer day, Anno Domini 1337. The horizon is empty, the air is still, and the realization hits: the ritual worked.