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Merasan - The Twelfth Crusade


rust

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This is a short description of one of my old pet projects, a Renaissance roleplaying

setting which uses modified Call of Cthulhu rules as well as material from other sour-

ces, including the old Birthright setting for AD&D.

The Background History

In 1312 the order of the Knights Templar was disbanded in most of Europe, only in

Portugal it managed to survive under another name, now known as the new Order of

Christ. Its most famous leader, Prince Henry the Navigator, turned this order into an

organization of seafaring explorers, and with the order's cross on their ships' sails the

order's famous members like Vasco da Gama set out to explore the world and to con-

quer it in the name of Christ. The Templars had not lost their crusading spirit, they

had only changed the name of their order and improved their methods and techno-

logy.

In 1508, only ten years after Vasco da Gama had found the sea way to the riches

of India, the Portuguese conquered and occupied the Oman on the coast of the Ara-

bian Peninsula. They took Muscat as their capital and controlled the richest parts of

the land from there, but they did not have enough men to rule the more remote and

poorer regions. Therefore their leaders, members of the Order of Christ, asked for the

help of other, minor knightly orders, and one of them agreed to rule the desolate nor-

thern peninsula of Merasan in their name.

Edited by rust

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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The Merasan Peninsula

Merasan, the northernmost part of Oman, is a peninsula in the Straits of Hormuz,

between the Persian Gulf in the west, the Arabian Sea in the east and the desert

of the Rub al Khali in the south.

A high mountain chain runs along the middle of the arid peninsula. The west coast

has some fertile and sparsely settled lands, while the once also fertile east coast

became a desert like wasteland several centuries ago, when a series of powerful

storms turned the freshwater lake of Marhab into a bay and washed away the fer-

tile soil on the coast of Rahel. Only the ruins of Thibba prove that this coast once

also was inhabited.

North of the peninsula, but considered a part of it, is the Yousera Island, covered

by low hills and rocky desert.

post-246-140468074979_thumb.jpg

Edited by rust

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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The People of Merasan

It is unknown who originally inhabited Merasan. The first recorded settlers on the

peninsula were Greeks of Alexander's time, followed by Persians from beyond the

Straits of Hormuz and then Arabs from the interior of the Arabian Peninsula.

Today there are three settlements on the west coast of the peninsula, the small

town Ber Mera with several hundred inhabitants in the south, the village Deicera

further north and the village Qasar on the tip of the peninsula.

The Merasani are farmers, herders and fishermen, in Qasar there are also some

pearl divers, and until the Portuguese conquest of the region there was some sea

trade with the Persians on the other side of the Straits of Hormuz and even with

the Mughal Empire, further east on the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. Portu-

guese warships now control the seas around Merasan, and allow only their own

seafarers to trade.

Surprisingly the majority of the Merasani are Nestorian Christians, with their own

archbishop who had never heard of the Pope in Rome until the Portuguese arrived,

but there are also Jewish, Muslim and even Zoroastrian minorities among the Mera-

sani.

When the Portuguese conquered the Oman, Merasan had been under the control

of a tribe of desert bedouins from the south for several decades. They had exploi-

ted and thereby almost ruined the peninsula, the settlements and the roads con-

necting them were no longer sufficiently maintained, and the lack of any protection

from pirate attacks had led to a decline of the population and to the destruction of

much of the peninsula's small fishing fleet.

Edited by rust

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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The Crusaders

The player characters are members of a small, unimportant and comparative-

ly poor Iberian knightly order, sent to Merasan with other knights of their or-

der and a company of veteran soldiers of the order to rule and to protect the

peninsula in the name of the King of Portugal.

They will have to win the trust of the Merasani by organizing a new and effi-

cient government of Merasan and by protecting their quite sceptical subjects

from the raids of the desert bedouins and the pirates. They will also have to

restore enough of the peninsula's economy to enable it to pay for their activi-

ties with taxes low enough to avoid a tax revolt, and they will have to develop

their new realm under the watchful eyes of a Portuguese governor at Muscat,

who is unsure whether he wants them to succeed or to fail, and whether he

should allow them to avoid Portugal's sea trade monopoly by sending diplomats

and traders to Persia and the Mughal Empire.

Edited by rust

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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The Rules

As mentioned, the core rules used for this pseudohistorical setting are those

of Call of Cthulhu, specifically those of the German "Mittelalter" (= Middle Ages)

supplement, with a few of the BRP options added, but without all of the Mythos

- my usual homebrew system.

Since neither Call of Cthulhu nor BRP covers Renaissance technology well, I will

also use material from GURPS Low Tech and the three excellent supplements for

it, especially the one about the everyday life with its rules for crafts and con-

structions.

For ships and seafaring I intend to use the Runequest Pirates supplement. It co-

vers a somewhat later time period, but it should not be difficult to modify it for

the years around 1510.

To make ruling and developing Merasan interesting, I also plan to use Runequest

Empires with its material on the economy, on the various yearly events and on

the outcome of diplomatic and other missions of the characters.

Well, that much for a first overview. :)

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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Thank you. :)

The Order of Arcon

The Knightly Order of Arcon was founded during the early years of

Spain's Reconquista by Basque knights from the Kingdom of Navarra.

Financed with the income from some small bequested fiefs in the Py-

renees, it never had the means required for major campaigns of its

own, and its few knights therefore usually served with the forces of

other, more rich and powerful orders.

With the fall of Granada in 1492 the order lost its purpose, and a de-

cision to disband it had already been made. However, a letter from

the Grand Master of Portugal's influential Order of Christ with the in-

vitation to take over and rule the Merasan Peninsula in Arabia gave

the Order of Arcon a new aim, the decision to disband was revoked,

and the expedition to Merasan was planned and organized.

The means of the order are sufficient to pay for the equipment and

upkeep of the dozen knights sent to Merasan and of the foot soldiers

under their command, and the order will probably be able to send so-

me additional money to Merasan now and then, but all expenses be-

yond the knights' and soldiers' basic costs of living will have to be

paid with the income from Merasan's economy.

post-246-140468074981_thumb.png

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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The Crusaders' Challenges

The first task of the knights will be to establish themselves as the

new rulers of Merasan. Their subjects are sceptical, but in the end

most likely to accept them, since they have no real alternatives to

these foreigners' rule. Unless the characters fumble their diplomacy

badly, the transition of power should be a smooth one.

The next and most important task will be to protect their subjects,

which will require the construction of at least basic fortifications of

the peninsula's settlements and a successful defense against the

bedouins' and pirates' first attempts to test the strength of these

fortifications and the resolve of the defenders.

Since the materials for basic fortifications are readily available, and

the knights hopefully remembered to bring an experienced engineer

with them to Merasan, it should not be too difficult to repel the rai-

ders and use the success to win the trust of the Merasani.

Afterwards it will get more difficult, because repairing and expanding

the peninsula's economy will take more than stone walls, arquebuses

and swords. AD&D Birthright and Runequest Empires offer a lot of op-

tions for new constructions and other measures to develop the eco-

nomy, but they all require lots of silver to start with.

This money has to come from trade, and the Portuguese control the

trade routes and will hesitate to allow any competition, or at least

will demand a major share of all profits. Some clever diplomacy and

trade will be necessary to handle this.

This will be especially true for the major projects. For example, there

is the option to resettle the east coast of Merasan in order to gain

additional fertile land. A dam could separate the Marhab Bay from the

Arabian Sea, and over time the former bay would again become the

freshwater lake it once had been. However, a dam of the necessary

length and stability would be a real engineering challenge, and also a

most expensive project.

And then there also are the cultural and political challenges. The or-

ders' grand master will want the knights to convert their subjects to

the One True Faith, but any such attempt would be likely to end the

Merasanis' sympathy for their new rulers. The Portuguese will see the

knights as servants of the Crown of Portugal, and will grow suspicious

of the peninsula's development into an autonomous fortified realm in-

side their domain.

Besides, the bedouin raiders and the pirates will still be there, the Per-

sians on the other side of the Straits of Hormuz may have their own

doubts about a strong Christian realm of Merasan, and the Arabs of

Oman are most likely to rebel against the Portuguese in order to re-

conquer their lands ...

"Mind like parachute, function only when open."

(Charlie Chan)

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