Love is War

The count is eager to strike a deal since your family "von Lichtenstein" controls an important trade route between Frankfurt and Cologne. As a sign of loyalty your father will have to send you as an esquire to the house of Nassau. [[Accept your fate]] [[Rebell against your father]]

Your family "von Lichtenstein" controls an important trade route between Frankfurt and Cologne so the count has no difficulties finding allies to help destroy your castle. An army of overwhelming proportions shows up on your doorstep demanding you hand over the keys. [[Surrender]] [[Fight]]

You stand no chance with the odds being ten to one and so you do the only reasonable thing and hand over the keys. It turns out the count is also reasonable and offers to pay you for the land. He also offers you a place in his retinue. [[Stick with Johann von Nassau]] [[Sell some of your ancestral lands to Johann von Nassau]]

The castle has stood on this mountaine belonging to your family for two generations and it all comes down to this moment. There is no way you're gonna give it up without a fight and so you tell the 30 men-at-arms in your retinoue to ready themselves. There are ten times as many soldiers outside and so you end up defeated after putting up one hell of a fight. The silver lining is that you stayed true to where your loyalty lies... [[Accept your fate]] [[Reach out to the new king]]

You enter in to the retinue of Johann von Nassau to complete your training as a knight. Courtly etiquette masks the ancestral fued brewing beneath the surface and you act like you do not notice his snide remarks. Your shortcomings recieve more attention than anyone elses and this turns you in to a formidable warrior over time. [[Stick with Johann von Nassau]] [[Become knighted and go back home]]

You are not ready to make sacrifices for your family so they cast you out. You no longer have any claim to the ancestral lands and belongings and the only option is to try your luck elsewhere. Without title and honor. [[Go to Italy]] [[Join the Teutonic Order]]

The new king is from the opposition and owes you a favor. He grants you the ancestral mountaine as a fief to rebuild your castle. You are now a direct vassal to king Albrecht but you've also made powerful enemies. [[Focus on rebuilding the castle]] [[Join the kings retinue]]

You are now a mercenary in foreign lands. The city-states of Lombardy are vying for dominance and have struck alliances with broader political powers. On one side are the Guelphs who are backed by the pope and on the other the Ghibellines who are supported by the german king. [[Join the Guelphs]] [[Join the Ghibellines]]

You join the forces of the Papacy and travel to Florence. While in the city, Giotto begins his work on the bell tower of the cathedral, and you become fascinated by the cultural flourishing taking place during the early Renaissance. [[Continue your military career]] [[Focus on intellectual studies]]

The Ghibellines are the defenders of the holy roman empire and as such they hold all of the imperial might. However you realize over time that this is purely ideological and in reality they move like a bunch of savages. [[Go out to the pub with the boys]] [[Focus on intellectual studies]]

You lay aside your silk robes and take up the white mantle bearing the black cross of the Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, better known as the Teutonic Order. The Grand Master welcomes you into the brotherhood and assigns you to military service on one of the frontiers of Christendom. [[Go to Prussia]] [[Go to Greece]] <img src="CP1.jpg">

After 7 years you can‘t wait to return to the humble estate of your family. The reality however is a stark contrast to the courtley life you've become accustomed to and you realize with horror that the financial situation has worsened exponentially. [[Sell some of your ancestral lands to Johann von Nassau]] [[Become a serf in the feudal system of the King]]

The castle is razed to the ground and the coffers are empty. You try to gather enough funds to rebuild but to no avail. After 7 years you realize there are only two options. [[Sell some of your ancestral lands to Johann von Nassau]] [[Become a serf in the feudal system of the King]]

After 7 years a new king is elected but you manage to keep your position. King Henry is obsessed with becoming emperor and for this he has to go to rome. He offers you to join him. [[Go to Italy]] [[Stay in Germany]]

Your castle is no longer yours and you've pledged fidelity to the count of Nassau. This means whatever happens in his realm, you might be called upon. A few years in to your service there is a rumour spreading about a dragon that is devestating cattle and threatening travelers in the western part of the realm. You happen to be in the region on an administrative task and decide to... [[Take the rumours seriously and move wth caution]] [[Disregard the claims as looney]]

Your situation leaves you with no other choice although this plays in to the aggressive expanture politics of your rival. At least you get to keep some of your fiefs for now. Over time however the Nassaus buy more and more of your land until you are left with little more than the castlemount. With the little money you've saved you can [[Go to Italy]] [[Start an uprising]]

With your guardian out of the picture the count of Nassau shows up to settle old scores. [[Start the game]]

Now that you are in financial ruin, the King buys all your holdings. He appoints you subject to a lord and you return to the knightly lifestyle as he instates you as the administrator of the castle and the surrounding local grounds. The lord wields enormous power in the region and he also has a daughter. She is the beautiful descendant of an old noble lineage. One day they visit you to inspect the estate and you notice there is some romantic tension. [[Make a move]] [[Avert your eyes]]

The count has been looking for a reason to dispose of you for a while now. [[Start the game]]

You go to the eastern borderlands of the Holy Roman Empire, where you meet a fellow crusader by the name of John of Bohemia. Together, you fight against the pagan Slavs with the aim of converting them to Christianity. Something about this mission doesn’t sit right with your conscience, and you feel the need to talk to a confidant. [[Talk to the Teutonic Grand Master]] [[Talk to John of Bohemia]]

You go to Greece to fight for the Latin principalities against the Byzantine Empire. The imperial might of Andronikos Palaiologos crushes your forces completely, and you are brought to Constantinople, where you have no choice but to… [[Be a prisoner of war]]

The strict social etikette prevents you from openly expressing your feelings. After all the lord is her father and his presence would not allow the circumstance to make such vulgar moves. Nevertheless yours and the eyes of this princess can't help but to meet every so often. The whole situation reminds you of Guinevere and Lancelot and so you subtely alude to the ideas of courtley love. [[Gift her a souvenier]] [[Send a message through her maid]]

[[Explore the map]]

You meet Werner von Urslingen, who strikes you as quite a rowdy and outspoken character. After a few beers, you open up about your story, and he invites you to make your fortune as one of his soldiers. [[Become an outlaw]] [[Refuse]]

Trade with Byzantium has caused ancient texts to resurface, which you study in depth after meeting a Greek intellectual. He is a translator of philosophical manuscripts, and after realizing how deeply interested you are, he introduces you to a circle of friends who initiate you into ancient esoteric practices. Your military experience makes you uniquely suited to carry out a secret mission. [[Continue]]

[[Continue]]

Dragons are obviously reserved for the lands of fairytales and if they ever existed, they for sure haven't in a few hundred years. At least thats your assumption and so you move on with your day to day administrative tasks. When the time finally comes to leave the region and meet up with count Johann von Nassau, you have to triverse a forrest. There is something eerie about these parts that even your super rational mind can't dismiss. Why is there a sheeps skull just laying on the wayside? You dismount your horse to investigate and can't believe your eyes; the lower part of the sheeps jaw must've been smashed with immense power. You look up at a sound coming from the thicket but it's too late. Your horse has already taken flight and you can barely finish the lords prayer before you are eaten alive by a random but mighty dragon. [[Start the game]] <img src="CP2.jpg">

Defeated and humiliated, you must relinquish all your possessions. After swearing an oath of fealty to Emperor Andronikos, you settle in the Latin principalities of mainland Greece. These territories are frequented by a marauding warband known as the Catalan Company. Since you live in proximity to the county of Athens which they had overtaken, you consider your options: [[Let the Catalans know that you are an ally]] [[Stay under the radar]]

Your superior is shocked by your admission of guilt for killing these infidels. He views you as a liability and swears to ruin your military career. After disgracefully kicking you out of the Order, he speaks to the Pope in an attempt to have you excommunicated. [[Plead for your innocence in Rome]] [[Become an outlaw]]

Your new friend appreciates the trust you have placed in him and urges you not to speak to anyone else about how you truly feel. He offers to take you under his wing in order to give you an honorable and discreet way out. [[Join John of Bohemia’s knightly retinue]]

You pledge your loyalty to the King of Bohemia and follow him throughout Europe. Together, you traverse tournaments and battlefields alike, and the more glory he earns, the more you become respected as his faithful servant. He relies on you more and more after an illness causes him to go blind. You side with the French in the Hundred Years’ War, and on that fateful day at Crécy, he decides to charge the English line. You help your blind lord guide his horse, and together you gallop into a glorious death. [[Start the game]]

You travel to Rome to speak to the Pope, and after judging your character, he decides to lift your excommunication. The condition is that you become an ally of the Papacy, and so you have only one choice: [[Join the Guelphs]]

Morality has no place in these harsh times, and you learn to play the cards that were handed to you. With little to your name, you decide to live off the land and extort the local community for protection money. [[Join a mercenary band]] [[Plead for your innocence in Rome]]

In your next mission, the boundaries between the real and the fantastical begin to dissolve until there is no longer a clear distinction between the two. You have reached the GOSPEL DRILL timeline. From this point onward, history gives way to myth, dreams become memories, and the impossible becomes ordinary. Check out my comic book to discover how the story continues. <img src="CP2.jpg">

Although you may be drunk, you are still sober-minded enough to know that there will surely be more honorable opportunities. Sure enough, one of your friends from the tavern tells you about a young nobleman who has been making waves as a capable military leader in Milan. [[Sign up for service]]

You take part in the Battle of Altopascio on the losing side, and since you are not wealthy enough to be taken for ransom, you are promptly killed. [[Start the game]]

You fight under the serpent banner of Azzone Visconti and win many glorious victories in his name. The Battle of Parabiago is one of the bloodiest of the century, but you manage to survive. Afterwards, you are honored with the title of Dragonslayer and entrusted with a most secret and important mission. [[Continue]]

You take up your position in a fiefdom of the Eastern Roman Emperor. Your neighbors are the famed Catalan Company, whose tales of glory and conquest inspire you. Seizing the opportunity, you reveal to them your shared Latin roots and seek their friendship. [[Travel to Catalonia]]

You get instated as the groundskeeper of a small piece of land and get in to farming. After some years this lifestyle becomes a bit boring and you consider a career switch. [[Focus on intellectual studies]] [[Become an outlaw]]

You go to Catalonia on the Iberian Peninsula, where the Reconquista is taking place. You hear about Yusuf, the Sultan of Morocco, who has assembled a huge army to support the Sultan of Granada in the holy war. Thank you know how to ride a horse, how to fight, and more generally how to conduct yourself in difficult situations. The Pope has granted the king absolution for his sins and his blessing to assemble opposing forces. [[Join the Spanish]] [[Join the Moroccans]]

Having been swept up by the spiritual fervour, you enlist to take part in the defense of Christendom. Many bloody battles follow, and although the Muslim invasion is pushed back, you do not live to see the eventual expulsion of the Moors. You fall in the Battle of Río Salado. [[Start the game]]

You find yourself captivated by the magnificence of the Nasrids and become eager to travel to Fez, where you hope to witness the splendour of its great court and deepen your understanding of the Islamic faith. But first, the Christian Duke of Athens has a task for you. [[Continue]]

After making a living as a small-time criminal, you realize that in order to evade the law, you need some sort of protection, and so you join the mercenary company of St. George with Werner von Urslingen, who is also known as the Enemy of God, of pity and of mercy. Together, you fight against Azzone Visconti in the Battle of Parabiago, one of the bloodiest battles of the century. [[Explore the map]]

You arrive on the Iberian Peninsula and board the vessel of Luis de la Cerda. After a long and uncertain voyage, you eventually arrive at the Islands of Fortuna. These unexplored territories were to be charted and brought under Christian supremacy by order of the Pope. However, when you arrive on the island of Lanzarote, you encounter monumental structures that could not possibly have been built by the cave-dwelling inhabitants of the island. Luis de la Cerda is forced to abandon the mission as he receives news of an imminent invasion of his lands by Muslim forces. You once again have the option to: [[Travel to Catalonia]] [[Stay and investigate]]

As the ships depart, you go up towards the mysterious fortification. On the way, you pass through a forest and arrive at a small clearing with an altar in the middle. As you move closer, you notice a swarm of flies covering what seems to be a deceased goat. The infidels who live in these lands must have performed a sacrifice. You clutch your sword. [[Turn Back]] [[Continue on]]

When arriving at a big wooden gate you notice the cross above the entrance. Almost like the symbol of the Templars... Could this be the rumored hideout of the Brotherhood, which was demolished decades earlier? You enter and are greeted by a monk with an attitude that is not very inviting. Nevertheless you are relieved about the presence of civilazation in these uncertain corners of the earth. The monk takes you to a great hall and now it is obvious that you have found the Templars. Their council presents you with a grim choice: [[Get initated]] [[Die]]

Overwhelmed by fear, you run back towards the shore and catch the last Spanish ship just before it departs. You [[Travel to Catalonia]]

As they cannot afford to be discovered, the Templars decide to execute you. You are brought back to the forest clearing, and to your dismay, the Brotherhood reveals its more sadistic practices, making you their sacrifice to Balphomet. [[Start the game]]

You swear that you have no allegiance to any institution and ask to be sworn into the Brotherhood. You are asked to kiss a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and over time you learn about the mysteries of the Fall and the redemption of mankind. It's getting a little bit culty but at least you are alive. That seems to be the attitude of many of your brothers as well. [[Advance in the organization]] [[Stay under the radar]]

By rigorously studying ancient Gnostic texts and being an exceptional fighter, you quickly distinguish yourself as a competent and trustworthy knight. You are let into the deepest secrets of the Order and learn that the reason they chose the Fortuna Islands as a hideout is because they believe Atlantis once existed here. [[Explore the wilderness]] [[Explore the castle]]

When the opportunity presents itself, you pull out a silk handkerchief embroidered with your family coat of arms and present it to your crush. The duke's daughter blushes, and with some hesitation, she accepts the piece of fabric and tucks it into her décolleté. She then gestures for you to follow her into a hidden corridor. [[Meet with the princess]]

[[Follow the maid]] [[Disengage]]

You decide that the short-term pleasure outweighs the potential long-term gains, and you follow the maid into the wine cellar. She promptly undresses, and just as things begin to get heated, the duke's daughter walks in, alarmed by the noise. She promptly alarms her father and you are disgraced with no other option that to leave the lands. [[Become an outlaw]] [[Head off beyond the Pillars of Herakles]]

Good call! You have escaped chlamydia. Realizing that you must take matters into your own hands, you gather the courage one evening to speak to the duke's daughter. She seems smitten by your advances and, with a shy smile, gestures for you to follow her into a hidden corridor. [[Meet with the princess]]

You decide to explore the wilderness along the coastline. As you make your way across the rocky shore, you notice figures high above you on the cliffs. To your astonishment, the indigenous Guanches descend the steep slopes with remarkable agility, using long wooden staffs to support themselves and leap across the uneven terrain. Though they keep their distance, they watch you carefully. Their mastery of the land is evident, and you quickly realize that these islands are far from deserted. [[Contact locals]] [[Ignore and venture inland]]

Pushing open a secret door reveals a narrow passage descending beneath the foundations. At the end of the passage, faint voices echo upward. You follow them carefully and find yourself overlooking a concealed chamber where several figures are gathered around nautical charts and unfamiliar instruments. Their discussion is not about land, but about currents, routes, and something they repeatedly refer to as “the outer drift.” From your hiding place, you realize the castle is not only tied to the island—it is tied to the sea. [[Explore the sea]] [[Opt to stay]]

You cannot bear the inner turmoil set in motion by the previous events and need a change of scenery. You travel to Genoa, where you meet Spanish merchants. They offer to take you aboard their vessels. One ship is bound for the Kingdom of Catalonia on the Iberian Peninsula, while the other is setting out to explore the Atlantic Ocean. [[Travel to Catalonia]] [[Head off beyond the Pillars of Herakles]] <img src="CP6.jpg">

The two of you spend the evening exchanging stories, stolen glances, and cups of sweet wine. Her usual composure gives way to a warmth you have not seen before. As she steps closer, the formalities of court and the burdens of noble life seem to disappear for a moment. For the first time since arriving at the castle, thoughts of duty, war, and ambition give way to something far simpler. [[Continue your advances]] [[Leave]]

They do not rush toward you. Instead, they observe. One of them steps forward and speaks a language that feels older than the ship that brought you here. In the silence that follows, you realize that this land is not unclaimed—it is merely unrecognized by your world. Where waves meet land, something that resembles architecture waits beneath the surface. The question in your head: [[Is this Atlantis?]]

Without hesitation, you draw your weapon and move forward to engage, interpreting their advance as hostility. But the formation does not break. They adapt instantly—circling, flanking, closing distance with trained efficiency far beyond anything you have encountered. The first strike comes before you can properly read it. The second ends it. Your vision collapses into sand and sky, and the last thing you register is not victory or defeat, but the realization that this land was not waiting to be conquered at all. [[Start the game]]

You decide to remain at the Templar base and never hear any of these strange terms again. Instead there is talk of a figure within the Church whose presence has become a point of tension among those who still remember older loyalties. Weeks later, a man brushes past you and you find a folded fragment of parchment in your possession. It contains no instructions, only a location and a date. You were never off the radar. You were being assessed. [[Take on secret mission]]

You choose to engage with the Guanches. They do not react as either subjects or enemies. There is no sense of hierarchy in the way they observe you—only assessment. Your weapons, your posture, your symbols are studied without fear or reverence. You begin to realize that the stories you were given—of conquest, of discovery, of empty islands awaiting meaning—do not exist here in the same form. [[Follow the locals]] [[Return to the castle]]

You venture deeper into the untamed wilderness. Sailors and merchants have long spoken of strange tales carried across the seas—stories of Mami Wata, the mysterious spirit of the waters, and of creatures said to dwell in hidden places beyond the reach of ordinary men. Perhaps these are merely superstitions. Or perhaps the island conceals secrets far older than the charts of Christendom. [[Take the rumours seriously and move wth caution]]

One of them eventually turns away without ceremony, and you follow instinctively. The group does not lead you in formation or instruction, but in scattered movement—some toward the coast, others inland, none waiting for the others. As you try to keep up, you notice something unsettling: they are not choosing directions. They are responding to the terrain itself, as if the land is giving different instructions to each of them. [[Go inland]] [[Go to the shore]]

You decide to return to the castle.The structure stands heavier than you remember, its stonework damp with salt air and age. Inside, the corridors are quiet in a way that feels deliberate rather than abandoned. You begin to explore, moving past halls that no longer seem used for courtly life, but for observation. Behind a worn tapestry, you notice a seam in the wall that does not match the rest of the masonry. [[Explore the castle]] [[Turn back]]

You get a secret identity and travel back to your ancestral lands in the heart of the holy roman empire. The brotherhood believes that a powerful bishop in Westphalia aided the campaign against the Order by providing testimony, sheltering informants, and helping seize Templar assets that later enriched his diocese. You are ordered to act during the bishop's journey between ecclesiastical estates. [[Carry out the attack]] [[Don't]]

You board a vessel heading for the open ocean. After a journey akin to Homer’s Odyssey, you arrive at a tropical coastline. Before disembarking on these strange lands, you dedicate a prayer to Mother Mary for protection. As you step onto the unfamiliar shore, the sound of the ocean is drowned out by distant drums. Figures emerge from the tree line—neither wild nor fearful, but deliberate in their formation. [[Engage the natives]] [[Wait]]

Creeped out by this experience, you run back to the ship. While you wait until the others have completed their mission, the captain tells you that he is heading for Genoa. [[Go to Italy]]

The terrain rises until the forest thins into rock, and the rock narrows into an opening barely visible from the outside. There is no formal entrance—only a passage worn smooth by passage and time. As the group settles, the cave begins to align with something outside. A narrow shaft in the stone ceiling allows sunlight to enter at a precise angle. It is not random—it is timed. When the sunlight reaches the center of the chamber, the Guanches do not speak. They simply become still. [[Stay inside]] [[Go outside]]

The descent brings you down through familiar terrain until the coastline returns into view. But something is wrong in its arrangement. The shoreline is too structured—too regular in its breaks and protrusions, as if shaped rather than eroded. Where you expect open beach, there are instead collapsed stone formations partially submerged at high tide. Walls. Foundations. The remains of something built on a scale that no current settlement on the island could account for. [[Enter the waves]]

As the last of the sunlight retracts from the chamber, the distinction between wall and shadow begins to dissolve. The air tightens, not like pressure, but like meaning collapsing into a single point. The cave is no longer a place you are inside—it is something that has closed around you. For a moment, all reference to shore, island, and ship falls away. Then even that thought is gone. There is no transition. Only absence of position. The story does not continue beyond this point. [[Start the game]]

Outside, the path you followed inward is still there—but the certainty that it is the same path has weakened. You can no longer tell whether the landscape has changed, or whether your understanding of it has. The geometry of it feels altered—too ordered in its breaks, too deliberate in its edges. Where waves meet land, stone surfaces emerge beneath the surf: collapsed walls, stepped foundations, and angular blocks worn down but not erased. They do not resemble ruins scattered by time, but remnants of something that was once continuous. [[Enter the waves]]

The Guanches move along these structures without hesitation, treating them as part of the natural terrain. One of them pauses and points outward—not to the horizon, but to what lies just below the surface.For a moment, you understand the implication without it being spoken: this coastline is not the edge of the island. It is what remains of something larger. In the shallow water, you think of the old sailor stories—of Mami Wata moving through currents, of a presence in the sea that guides, takes, and returns men who try to name what they see. [[Continue]]

You instinctively reach for the framework you were taught—names, claims, orders, ownership. The same logic that made distant land legible now feels heavier in your hand, as if it requires force to apply. The Guanches do not react to your hesitation. They simply wait, as though the real question is not what you will say, but what you will assume is yours to decide. For the first time, it is not the land that feels judged, but you. [[Follow the locals]] [[Turn back]]

You have never before felt this inspired by the circumstances of life and begin searching for a creative outlet to express the emotion in your chest. You discover a passion that greatly outweighs the love you have for the royal art of war. [[Write a love poem]] [[Return to your martial studies]]

At first, you escape suspicion. But rumors travel faster than riders. A servant talks, a merchant remembers a face, and soon you discover that the secret tribunals known as the Fehmgerichte have taken an interest in the case. Suddenly all contact to the Order ceases, it is as if the Templars never existed. [[Go in to hiding]] [[Carry on like nothing happened]]

You refuse. At first, nothing happens. One evening, you find the brotherhood's mark carved into your door. Three days later, they catch up with you outside an abandoned chapel. Oaths, they remind you, cannot simply be abandoned. You are executed as a traitor to the Order. [[Start the game]]

With every road watched and every inn potentially harboring informants, your journey becomes a desperate flight across Westphalia. You abandon the main routes and move only at night, cutting through forest paths and forgotten farmland. You take refuge in places no one has reason to visit: [[Enter the forest]] [[Blend in to village]]

With the Templars gone, there is no longer any structure shielding you or explaining what has happened. Their absence does not bring relief—it removes context. There are no more intermediaries, no hidden brotherhood, no competing loyalties. Only your name, circulating through quiet channels that never publicly exist. You are not being pursued by individuals, but by a system that does not announce itself until after it has already decided. [[Leave Westphalia]] [[Stay]]

You go deeper into the forest network, avoiding settlements entirely. At first it works. The woods are full of forgotten infrastructure—old hunter routes, abandoned charcoal burners, collapsed boundary markers. You learn to move without leaving a pattern.But the deeper you go, the more you notice something unsettling: claw-like markings scored into stone that no animal in these woods should be able to make. [[Continue]]

You hide in a Westphalian village, working fields and moving quietly through daily labor. For a time, you are indistinguishable from everyone else. Then the silence changes. Strangers arrive and do not behave like travelers. They do not ask questions. They look. By morning, the village has stopped speaking your name. When you try to leave, the road is already occupied. No trial follows. No warning is given. Only the tribunals, and the end of movement. [[Start the game]]

You remain in Westphalia, moving constantly through forests and abandoned roads. At first, nothing changes. Then the routes begin to tighten around you—paths return you where you did not intend, and places refuse to hold you for long. Eventually, even movement loses neutrality. You notice it before you see it: the absence of coincidence. One evening, the road simply stops offering escape. The Fehmgerichte do not arrive. They are already there. [[Start the game]]

You don’t feel safe and return to the only place that might be able to protect you from the tribunals: your ancestral castle. He has maintained good connections to the kings, but since you left, you have been expropriated. Nevertheless, your father welcomes you back and puts in a good word for your advancement at court. [[Become a serf in the feudal system of the King]] [[Join a monastery instead]]

Days pass in silence and labor. You are assigned copying work in the scriptorium, where ink and parchment replace movement and speech. For the first time in a long while, no one appears to be searching for you. One night, you are summoned to the abbot’s chamber. He places two objects on the table: a simple black habit and a sealed writ marked with the symbol of the tribunals. The monastery can shelter you, but only if you sever all remaining ties and accept permanent enclosure within its walls. If you refuse, you are free to leave—but the writ suggests your name has already reached those who do not offer sanctuary. [[Take monastic vows]] [[Refuse and leave]]

You accept the habit. Your name is removed from circulation. You are folded into the monastery’s internal order, your past no longer spoken or acted upon. The world outside continues without reference to you, and for the first time, you are not moving through danger—you are no longer moving at all.

You decline the habit and step back into the night. No one stops you. The gate closes behind you without force, as if your decision had already been recorded elsewhere. At the edge of a quiet forest road, you understand too late that refusal was not opposition—it was confirmation. You are found before morning. There is no trial, only completion. [[Start the game]]

You compare her smile to spring after a long campaign, her silence to an unopened gate. Before long, composing verses has become more consuming than martial training itself. Rather than sharpening your sword, you sharpen your quill. Slowly, you realize that the strongest fortress in the kingdom is not her father's castle. It is your own restraint. [[Force yourself on her]] [[Leave]]

You push the feeling aside, reminding yourself that fleeting emotions have no place in the life of a noble. There will be time for poetry after victory—if such a time ever comes. [[Join the Teutonic Order]] [[Go to Italy]]

Welcome to "LOVE IS WAR": an immersive story in which you are reborn as a knight of the early 14th century. This is the first of 93 choices where you get to embark on a historically based adventure with fantastical elements. [[Start the game]]

Our story begins in the woods of central germany at the dawn of the 14th century. You are born in to an old noble lineage but the tides are shifting and political unrest is certain. A rival family of upstarts had managed to position one of their own as king Adolf von Nassau. The king has died in battle and his relatives are now securing the support of their allies as well as rooting out the opposition. Your family happens to belong to the latter camp. What are you going to do? [[Send a letter of appeasement to the count]] [[Keep supporting the opposition]]

Wrong choice. There is no other option than repentance from your sins. [[Flagulate yourself]] [[Take monastic vows]]

Overwhelmed by the feelings in your chest, you pull back and leave the room. The princess is heartbroken and immediately tells her father about your advances. He is not amused by the idea of an upstart laying his hands on the innocent princess and has you executed. [[Start the game]]

Seeking forgiveness without abandoning the world, you join a company of penitents during a public procession. Bare shoulders exposed, you walk through the streets chanting psalms before striking your back with knotted scourges in time with the prayers. Each blow is offered as penance, each wound a plea for mastery over passions that no earthly discipline has managed to conquer. When the procession ends, the wounds remain—but so does the temptation. [[Continue]]