Warhammer

124: Celestine's Return Ride

Celestine's arrival caused a sensation in Altdorf. The imperial court took the opportunity to build momentum among the people, claiming that the appearance of the God-Emperor's champion warriors showed that the God-Emperor had never stopped blessing and bestowing grace on the mortal world. It was also a sign of a test. All the people of the empire should unite and march forward under one banner. Blah blah blah...

Countless hopeful believers, on both sides of the red carpet covered with flowers laid out when Celestine rode her griffin into the city, paid homage to the champion warriors chosen by Sigmar's power. They enthusiastically chanted scriptures, cheered, and recited the names of various saints, and kissed the ground where Celestine walked. Before that, many of them donated lavishly to priests and churches in order to get a chance to come into contact with the chosen one, just to be qualified to walk on both sides of the avenue into the city that day.

During this process, the church in Altdorf held countless large and small "fundraising" activities for indulgences and holy relics. Beneath the bright and beautiful appearance, there was a foul smell.

But Celestine's own psychological condition had been affected by what happened in the south, and she was not very interested in these things. At the same time, after contacting the northern leader, she formally embraced the Myrmidian faith and became one of the very few, or perhaps even the only, chosen ones in the world who served two different gods at the same time.

Like Orion and Ariel - the exceptions that the hunting god Kurnos and the mother goddess Aisha made to the wood elves.

The Universe's goal of getting her out and the Church of War is unlikely to succeed. The inclusive priests hope to get Celestine's support, and the female knight is not interested in this either. But she is indeed a devout follower of Sigmar, but the faction she favors now is very radical and alternative among the various factions of the entire state religion - the Return Faction.

One believes that the social contradictions in the empire today are extremely serious, corruption is rampant, and faith is lacking; they admit that there are many problems in the empire at present, and attribute the root of all this to the state religion, that is, the dereliction of duty of the "Church of Sigmar".

They called on the state religion to return to its past model. They believed that the ancient church had a higher moral standard than the current one because the church at that time would not get involved in too many secular power struggles. In their view, the root cause of the various problems currently facing the church lies in the fact that after the Great War, the Sigmar Church became the only dominant church and became the official "state religion" in all the Electoral Territories. As a result, the relationship between the church and the government and the powerful class became too close, resulting in a serious decline in the church's moral level and transcendence.

The rampant indulgences, the sale of holy relics, tithes, as well as the church's purchase of land, opening of factories, and involvement in economic activities, have greatly corrupted people's hearts, and the functions of religion have been continuously eroded.

Therefore, they advocated the establishment of a church that was not influenced by the court or the powerful, returning to ancient times, taking root in the "real majority," or the broad masses of civilians, and cutting off economic activities that corrupted people's hearts, such as lending and running farms.

From all aspects, the priests of the Return Sect may not be saints, but at least they can be regarded as excellent and qualified clergy.

They recognized the many problems that existed in the current empire, including the gap between the rich and the poor, and the conflicts between capital and labor. Altdorf, with a population of over three million, was ironically called "a city of 100,000 bureaucrats, nobles, merchants and soldiers, and 2.9 million hired workers serving them."

The corruption of the church is a microcosm of the moral decline and fall of the entire society, but as clergymen, it is impossible for them to change the government and bring about a new revolution. They can only seek reform and purification within the church, hoping to further influence the country by reshaping the church.

After Celestine returned to the empire, she met the emperor, and countless dignitaries came to pay her respects. The large and small Chinese religious sects distributed in the cities and territories of the empire also sent their representatives to pay homage to the living saint.

During the conversation, Celestine only showed her recognition and favor towards the priests of the Return Party, which made the Return Party, which had a certain populist color, suddenly gain momentum both in the church and among the people. The Return Party believed that they had the support of the living saint, the Chosen One of Sigmar, so they expanded rapidly in both the church and the secular world, and began to implement their "reform of the system based on the past" in many churches and temples controlled by them.

Including "abolition", that is, no tithes, no semi-compulsion, such as not allowing masses, selling indulgences under the threat of "blasphemy" and "disrespect for God", free medical treatment and donations, and justice for believers who have been oppressed, such as withheld wages and work-related injury compensation, etc. It is very popular among the people in the affected area. There are even many believers who would rather wait in long lines for a long time to go to the churches dominated by the Returnists to attend masses, pray, and find priests to provide hospice care, etc., rather than go to other churches to find pastors.

This caused various undercurrents to surge within the state religion, and debates and mutual attacks never stopped. The rise of the Returnists was hostile to almost all factions within the state religion, including the archbishop and all the archbishops. Except for the Sisters of Modheim and a few knightly orders and regional bishops, they were not liked by the ruling class, including the court and the dignitaries.

The most crucial point is that Celestine, who caused the church turmoil because of her attitude, had no interest or desire in politics, power struggles, and religious reform.

Her views on the church are also very "retro". She believes that she has obtained the power bestowed by Sigmar and only serves His orders. As a warrior of the Hammer Wielder, she should not interfere in factional struggles.

Celestine was also influenced by her family in this regard. Julius was a typical military noble who made his fortune entirely by relying on his military exploits. For generations, he was trusted by the emperor. During the period of Karl Julius, as the leader of the military at the time, he set the tone for his family descendants that they must never interfere in politics and must serve as the emperor's sword wholeheartedly. Therefore, Julius, who had a shallow foundation, was able to develop all the way to where he is today.

"Don't meddle in politics" means not interfering in any affairs other than your own duties. This is Julius's family motto.

In Celestine's understanding, her main job is "warrior", so she naturally shouldn't interfere in other things.

This made the return faction lack a real core pillar that could support their camp, and also allowed Celestine to slightly avoid the increasingly serious storm.

Soon after she returned to Altdorf, she was assigned by the Emperor to travel the empire's territory for nearly a year as "God's Chosen One, the Emperor's Special Envoy". The female knight had left her footprints in almost every major city. Rhine, as Celestine's close cousin and an important figure in "welcoming back the Chosen One", also accompanied his cousin across most of the empire.

During this process, Celestine saw a lot of things, and she was also always paying attention to the situation in the south. Only Rhine, Will, and the elder Hart of the tribe knew that she had given birth to a son in the south. When Rhine heard the news from Will in the tent, no matter how furious he was, he used a magic scroll to isolate the internal and external information when Will spoke later to prevent outsiders from eavesdropping.

Later, Rhine threatened Will that if the news was leaked, he would first kill his cousin who was closer to him than to Celestine in terms of blood relationship.

Old Hart had been guarding him almost since he was a child. He was his adjutant and chief of the personal guards. He had also taught both him and Celestine, so there was no possibility of any leaks.

In addition, when the beastmen were being slaughtered, Rhine lied that this was one of the purposes of the expedition and did not tell the troops the real reason. Therefore, even though some soldiers saw Celestine being "courteously escorted" back by the beastmen, no one knew the reason.

Only later did they learn that the noble daughter of Julius whom they had found was actually a chosen one of God.

The emperor must have known the whole story, at least he knew that Celestine was "missing" because of an attack by beastmen, and one of the purposes of Rhine sending troops to Pina was to find her, etc., except for the fact that the virgin gave birth to a child.

But no one will make a fuss about it.

After all, no one can prove what Celestine encountered in the Pina Forest except the person involved.

The divine power and blessing on Celestine are real, so her identity as the Chosen One of the Emperor is beyond doubt. No one would do such a stupid thing as attacking a Chosen One who can be said to be "indifferent to worldly affairs".

The news coming from the south was one of the reasons why Celestine's mental state had been somewhat low.

125: Celestine's Worry

From a normal perspective, for a "mother" to learn that her "son" is "away from home" and "in a foreign country", and has worked hard to build up a huge foundation in just one or two years, and is supported by the people to become the leader of a country... these are all good things that cannot be better.

There is no mother who would not be proud of her son's achievements.

But needless to say, everyone knows how weird the situation of this mother and son is. When they "met" for the first time, Al chose the partner for himself in the "killing and fucking journey" that would unfold along the way according to his own sexual orientation.

After Al was born, he killed Zacken and dragged the unconscious Celestine back to the cave. Strictly speaking, their first meeting was when Al felt sexual desire for the naked Celestine and discovered that she was a virgin - and gave birth to him.

Not to mention Celestine and Al's first meeting afterwards.

Fortunately, Al, whose thoughts were confused and without thinking, was killed by Celestine in his childhood.

This pair of mother and son, one is the son of four mothers, the (pseudo) eternal chosen one of God, now has an army of one hundred thousand, and if he exaggerates his size, he can be called the leader of the Southern Alliance with "tens of millions of people in the country"; the other is the double chosen one of God in Sigmar Mirmedia, a living saint recognized by both churches.

I guess they were all strangled in their infancy.

If Al had really been killed by Celestine at that time, even though Alina had not yet revealed her true intentions to him and formed a bond between the man and the horse, she would most likely have killed Celestine to avenge the "Son of God".

Even if the bored Centaur just left without caring, Celestine would still have to face a large group of Chaos Beastmen who worshipped Slaanesh.

But she should have had the opportunity to commit suicide at that time...

In short, there can't be a normal relationship between this mother and son.

Compared to some loving stories about mother and son with "juice flying everywhere" and "lotion gushing out", the possibility of "blood and flesh flying everywhere" between them is greater.

After learning that the man who claimed that "My name is El, I am not a beastman, I am the son of mankind, the son of the human union", had risen up through his own womb to the ground, various new institutional reforms, and the three-year plan that played an important role in rebuilding Estalia, aroused a discussion in the imperial court. Whether to introduce the "Southern experience" and follow the example of the United Kingdom to formulate a national development plan that achieves certain goals within a certain period of time, with the court and various government departments working together to coordinate and plan...

The more famous Al became, the more he acted like a "holy lord", and the more worried Celestine, the "mother", became.

She would never forget the horrific visions that had tormented her for nearly a year.

In her dreams, she had to endure the torture of four illusions every day.

Red, green, blue and purple are four kinds of horrors, four types of demons... As a believer who has been familiar with scriptures since childhood, Celestine knows what they mean.

Four terrifying evil gods who once brought endless suffering to the mortal world!

Although the descriptions in the illusion seem to be different from those in the books, for example, the four evil gods... appear in female form?

But no matter what, Celestine has always believed that the kid who named himself "El" is the son of a demon. Later, what Sister Themis said to her also deepened this impression. After all, although Themis's friend who she met a long time ago was sometimes not very serious, as a priest of the god of order, he would not deceive her on this point, and there was no point...

So when Celestine learned that El's power was growing, her worries were also growing. She became more and more wary, especially after El defeated his neighboring country almost easily and annexed it.

She was afraid that the cub who came to the earth through her body would tear off his disguise one day and stir up bloody storm in the mortal world. Celestine prayed to Sigmar and Myrmidia, seeking revelation, but received no response. It seemed that the God-Emperor and the Goddess did not feel threatened by the so-called "alliance" that rose in the south, or they had other decisions... Celestine did not know.

After a long time, she even had some terrible thoughts: "Maybe he is not a demon as he said and behaved?" "Do the gods acquiesce in his existence?"

and many more.

Celestine once considered whether to inform the archbishop of the incident and form a crusade to fight against the "Son of the Devil" in the south, but was dissuaded by Rhine and gave up the idea. Her "son" was no longer the tribal kid who was chased by the Imperial Expeditionary Force in the forest, but a ruler who was recognized by the Empire, elves, dwarves... and many other countries.

After Aiur annexed Tyrell and formed the Southern Alliance, it became a regional power that could not be underestimated. Although the land of the unified South might not be as fertile and rich as its northern neighbor, its land area alone was even larger than that of Bretonnia, plus its colonies all over the world... As the king of such a country, Aiur had the strength and resources to mobilize that it was absolutely impossible for him to be brought down by relying on the instructions of a chosen one.

Ultimately, this goal can only be achieved through brutal warfare.

Rhine and his men had personally witnessed how powerful the tribal soldiers were. Even though they were still no match for the imperial chariots, it was still a fantasy to attack a country that had a population of six or seven million people on its own and was separated from the empire by mountains and neighboring countries.

And in the current situation, even "atheist" scholars can be popular and spread their heresies in various salons and gatherings. The first job of the priests is to make money. Only by making money can they buy more luxurious decorations, hold more extravagant and grand masses, and hand over more charity to the regional bishops, patriarchs, and archbishops. Only then will they have the opportunity to be promoted and enter the eyes of important people. Even if Celestine disregards her own reputation and stands up to make everything clear, and accuses El's identity as the co-chosen one of the gods, it is worth thinking about what the reaction of everyone from the church to the court will be.

So Rhine firmly opposed Celestine to keep staring at that "evil creature".

However, the various news from the south inevitably made the female knight fall into a state of anxiety and depression. Coupled with the increasingly fierce sectarian conflicts, although she has repeatedly stated her attitude of not interfering in power and line struggles, there are always people who are eager to gain her support in various ways, which makes Celestine very annoyed, even including her family.

Finally, at Rhine's suggestion, she chose to live alone in the Julius family's villa near the royal estate, using the name of retreat to avoid seeing any outsiders. The estate was large enough, and the emperor granted the female knight the right to pass through the royal estate in order to win over Celestine, so she stayed there for nearly a year and hardly left the vicinity.

After having some free time, Celestine developed two hobbies, reading and fishing. She also practiced martial arts on a daily basis. I wonder if she was preparing for the future.

Rhine would come here to see her from time to time, accompany the female knight in training, or go fishing, riding horses, drink afternoon tea, and then go back to Altdorf.

Although he accomplished many things when he went south, and even gained a chosen one for the empire, Celestine, a "pleasant surprise", the outpost was still not accomplished. Although this was also due to the imperial court's own wrangling, for balance considerations, the emperor demoted Rhine out of the court after rewarding her for bringing back Celestine, and often sent her out on missions. Otherwise, it would be bad for a member of the Julius family, a favorite of the emperor and a chosen one of the gods, to have too much power.

Celestine also had some unclear connections with radical priests... This was very discouraging to the emperor. Fortunately, Celestine showed her qualities as a Julius, so it did not cause any big problems.

......

The two sat by the lake and talked. Rhine was worried that his cousin would be involved in the increasingly intense church turmoil, because he felt that he had roughly found out the attitude of His Majesty. Obviously, his attitude towards the returnists was not good. Many radical elements among the latter even shouted slogans such as "hereditary rule is a major cause of national decline", which made the emperor very unhappy.

In particular, some of them had come into contact with William, the nephew of His Majesty Karl Franz, the former Elector and legal heir to the Landgrave of Reik and the heir of Wolfgang Ka's line, and had obtained the support of Prince Reik.

126: Lakeside Talk

His Majesty Carl the Savior remained unmarried throughout his life just like Sigmar, but that doesn't mean the emperor was so chaste. On the contrary, he was very extravagant in his private life and court entertainment.

It is said that he did not marry and did not take a formal wife in order to keep the electors in the idea of ​​marriage, but he did have an unofficial "queen", who was his childhood sweetheart and distant cousin, and gave birth to two children for him, a boy and a girl.

But because he had no formal identity and was an illegitimate child who was not eligible to inherit the territory, Emperor Ka's successor in his early years was his designated nephew. Later, when Emperor Ka's eldest son Luitpold was recognized and had the legal right to inherit the estate, the great war came hastily. The emperor took his army to put out fires and fight fiercely everywhere. With the whole world on the brink of destruction, no one had the time to pay attention to these things.

After the Great Holy War ended with the victory of the Order, Emperor Ka continued to govern for a few years, but suddenly ascended to heaven without any explanation. This left a critical question for the imperial lineage:

Should he nominate Prince Luitpold, the descendant of the savior, to succeed him? Or should he choose Wolfgang Ka, the only heir chosen by His Majesty Karl Franz when he was alive?

No one thought about competing with the Franz family for the throne, and they just watched the infighting among the court.

In the end, "bloodline" prevailed and overwhelmed the old legal system. Emperor Carl's eldest son Luitpold was crowned and ascended the throne in the Grand Palace of Altdorf with the support of the court and the church, becoming the first emperor of the empire after the great war.

However, the lineage of the Emperor's nephew did not withdraw from the political stage, and still retains a considerable influence in Altdorf. Some people who oppose the deification of the Emperor's bloodline insist that:

The heir after King Carl should be his nephew Wolfgang, whom he had designated when he was alive, while his son Luthbold could only inherit the city of Altdorf.

This faction has received covert support from a number of forces that are disgusted with the union of theocracy and royal power. For example, the various Electors have more or less complained about the Altdorf court's attempts to portray itself as the "true descendant of Sigmar" and the "successor to the God-Emperor."

We are all descendants of the ancient Yuancong and the Twelve Chiefs. Who is nobler than who?

You Reiks are just occupying an Umbrogen who was born in Sigmar. You are indeed closer to him, but... In short, the throne of the God-Emperor belongs to the entire empire, not just Franz's family!

......

His Majesty the Emperor, who sits on the throne, rules the empire, and commands power, is not without competitors for the throne. The fact that the returnees have contacted the prince is enough to mark them as enemies in the Emperor's mind.

After the Great War, the Empire entered an unprecedented golden age of prosperity, but the internal disturbances, struggles and intensities were also unprecedented. A chosen one, a champion warrior, might have a special status and be extremely respected, but if he was really involved in the struggle involving imperial power and religious power...

In the past hundred and fifty years, figures like archbishops have been assassinated by "heretics".

Fortunately, Celestine herself is a qualified "Julius". She keeps a distance from politics and feels disgusted with it. In addition, she has been feeling depressed because of El's affairs and has no intention of getting involved in the internal turmoil of the empire. Otherwise, she would not have chosen to come to this villa to live a semi-secluded life and not contact the outside world.

"Don't worry, Rhine." Celestine raised her hand and touched her cousin's head as she did in the past. Rhine had brilliant golden hair, outstanding appearance and heroic temperament. It was no wonder that the emperor gave him the title "Little Griffin".

She stretched, showing her graceful curves, and leaned back in the chair. "Except for what Sigmar orders me to do, the church, the court... the politicians and the priests should solve their own problems. I am a warrior."

After getting reassurance from his cousin, Rhine's uneasy heart finally settled down.

Celestine's current status is special. As long as she doesn't want to, no one can force her to do anything. No one will fail to respect a chosen one who is qualified and capable of stepping into the affairs of Aldorf and stirring up the storm, but lives in seclusion and does not fight with the outside world.

Rhine was in a better mood, so he picked up the fishing rod from the rack and started to put bait on the hook. He accompanied his cousin to fish to pass the time. At the same time, he casually said, "Do you know what's happening in the south recently?" He stared at the lake without looking at Celestine. He saw the fishing line that was submerged in the water tremble, causing faint ripples on the lake.

Celestine turned her head to look at her cousin: "What?"

Rhine did not give a direct reply, but mentioned another matter first: "The progress of the dwarves' war in the Endless Mountains has come to a standstill. They have been in a stalemate with the enemy in Black Rock Castle for more than a year. The delegations that came to Altdorf to seek support have come twice this year... Due to various problems, they failed in the end, and just like before, they recruited a group of people and sent them back."

"Your Majesty actually wanted to organize an expeditionary force to go to the mountains to help the dwarves in the name of the country. Just like Kislev, they could do so without any compensation. However, the Senate opposed it, and the Imperial Council did not support it either, so this matter has been delayed until now."

Rhine sighed. From an officer's perspective, he certainly supported this type of military action, but he also knew some of the current problems: "Merchants have money, the church has money, the nobles, the court, all have money...but the treasury has no money."

"It took me more than a year, almost two years, to get the compensation for that expedition. It's simply..." Rhine was a little indignant when talking about things related to his profession.

The expeditionary force's entry into Estalia was a national policy led by the court. How could the Alliance of Order just walk away when faced with the greenskin invasion?

The Imperial Expeditionary Force fought bloody battles in Bilbarri and suffered huge casualties. They were treated favorably by both the Northerners and the "United Kingdom" after Aiel ascended the throne. However, after returning home, the various factions argued over the issue of pensions. The military insisted that the national treasury should be responsible for the cost, while the latter forced the former to share the cost... It was a very ugly situation, and Rhine began to feel somewhat disgusted with the current situation.

There was one thing he hadn't told Celestine.

It was a certain black-haired, red-eyed guy who was busy doing things and having sex every day in Margarita. After learning from the disabled veterans of the expeditionary force who had retired and settled in the south that the Empire had been arguing for a long time about the pension issue of the expeditionary force, he lamented that the ruling class of the Empire's big brother was increasingly inclined to do things in an inhumane way, and at the same time he gritted his teeth and withdrew a sum of precious funds to Aldolf. He mentioned the matter when he paid homage to the throne, and said that the people in the south who had accepted the help of the expeditionary force had an obligation to bear some responsibilities for their allies.

The emperor sighed, "This kid from the south is a pretty good guy," and handed the money to Rhine to handle. He did not put it into the national treasury, otherwise it would have been washed away by those ogre bureaucrats in the Ministry of Finance.

......

Recalling what happened before, Rhine clenched his fists and said, "This time, His Majesty intends to fulfill the ancient covenant and call for a chivalrous expedition to support the dwarves... Regarding the issue of military funds, we need to raise them domestically in the name of a holy war. The court may want you to come forward."

Celestine raised her eyebrows when she heard this: "Doesn't the court even have the funds to raise an expeditionary force now?"

In response, Rhine could only smile bitterly, shook his head, and said softly: "It's not entirely for this reason, but..." He did not elaborate, but looked at his cousin seriously: "What do you think?"

Celestine had no concerns about this. This kind of thing was not something she would reject. As Sigmar's chosen one, it was only natural for the dwarves to help Sigmar sign the Generational Covenant in person. She had no objection to this.

But what she was more concerned about was what her cousin had mentioned before: "You were in the south before?"

When the two were chatting, the word "South" was mentioned, basically it was about a certain black-haired guy and the weird country he created.

"Yes, from the south. According to the news a few days ago, the envoy sent by 'that person' reached an agreement with the Eternal Peak. The Southern Alliance will send troops to the Endless Mountains as a formal ally and join the dwarves in the war to recover lost territory."