Dominus Protector Meus

by Zh3sh1re

The will of God or simply a turn of fate?

Kungshuset (Wrangel Palace) –Throne room
Stockholm
Sweden – January 12th, 1700 A.D.
The king clenches his fist against the armrest of his silver throne. In truth, Charles hated the Wrangel Palace. It had been but 3 years since Tre Kronor castle disappeared in a sea of flame and the royal court was forced to move to the Wrangel Palace. A true shame, since the Tre Kronor castle had a long and interesting history. Not to mention splendor. He sighed as he looked down at his throne. Thankfully, it had been but one of two pieces of furniture saved from the fire and rightfully so. This throne was first owned by Queen Kristina and it was used for her coronation in 1650. He was thankful for whatever servant carried it out of the castle instead of running for his or her life. He would have to find this person and commend him. An elevated position, somewhere. Perhaps even with a uniform?

But for now, he was stuck in court. While he was only 18 years of age, he held strong against his royal court and had already implemented a few strong policies and taxes to get his kingdom and empire on the right track. Like his father, he was skeptical of his council. It is true that he held absolute power over his kingdom and that the council was mostly useless since the reforms of his father Charles XI. He preferred to take actions into his own hands when he could but some things are best decided in group and that is precisely the reason why he kept them around. For the moment, he would listen to his court until something more interesting came up. What made matters worse, his night had been disturbed by a sudden lightning storm last night. He hadn’t been able to get one ounce of sleep.

The court was busy discussing of what percentage of tax to put on tobacco when suddenly a man slammed open the doors to the royal throne room. He immediately recognized the man as a fellow councilman by the name of Axel Horn. He did not know the man personally, but from the rumors around the palace he knew that he was a truthful man. The man had been gone for weeks, inspecting his holdings in Bohuslän. The court fell silent as the man marched towards the throne. He stopped in the middle of the room. He seemed odd. Unusually silent and the face of slight madness. His skin was rough, and his eyes bloodshot. He seemed like he had been riding for the past night non-stop.

As he spoke, the king heard that his voice was torn and tired, even hoarse. His untidy appearance was certainly not something you would show yourself to your king in. “My king….” He spoke silently. He drew in a large breath. “It is with the most horrific of news I come before you.” The king raised his head slightly. He cleared his throat and spoke. “Speak, Axel. I expect your news to be most dire if you decide to come in front of your king in that attire.” Axel did not even react to the jab, but continued to speak. “I regret to inform your majesty, that….” He seemed hesitant for a moment, before he continued. “…that Norway is gone.” His voice quieted down after speaking this simple, meaningful sentence.

The fellow council-members began laughing. One chap in particular who was known to be overly arrogant spoke. “That is the most absurd and laughable thing I have ever heard. Whatever do you mean Norway is gone?” He withheld his snickering as Axel continued to speak.
“As some of you may know, I was going to investigate my newly acquired holdings in Bohuslän. On the way there, there was the most terrible of thunderstorms. People were running for their lives the morning after! A simple thunderstorm couldn’t have frightened the peasants.” He drew in a breath and continued his story. “I did as any respectful and god-willing man would. Tried to find someone who knew what was happening. I quite quickly commanded one of the running peasants to inform me of what was going on.” The king listened intently, while the council-members were busy holding their laughter. “The peasant spoke with fear in his eyes. He told me that he had been close to the border, hunting. As he was getting ready to retire to his tent, the thunderstorm was upon them. He felt the ground itself shift and when he looked outside his tent, he was suddenly presented with an ocean! The mountains to the north were collapsing and reshaping into a new coast! He described it as if god himself had simply cut Norway from the map!”

The council-members began laughing once more. This time however, the king would have none of it. He clapped his hands. “Silence!” The aristocracy quieted down at the command of their king quite quickly. The king looked back towards Axel. “My good man, you are a servant of the lord are you not?” Axel nodded quite quickly. “And you know the penalty for lying to a king?” Again, he nodded. “Do you still claim that you are telling the truth?” Axel nodded a third time.

A spur of action came from the king. He raised his finger and pointed towards one councilman in particular, who had been silent until now. That man was Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld, a man who the king held in great regard as a military commander and also happened to be the marshal of the Swedish army. “Carl. Send out four of your best scouts. Two of the west and south respectively.” Carl bowed with extravaganza towards the king. “I will do so at once, my king.” He rose quickly and moved with purpose out the throne room.

The king sat down once more, put his hands together and looked towards Axel. “Tell me more.” He commanded with an autocratic voice. Axel took a deep breath and prepared to continue.

Comments

[Boltaction]

This will either be awesome, or flop. And so far, things have been awesome and filled with suspense.

[CHIMMIE Star gamer]

This will be intresting you chaught my intrest good sir

[Acacia Sgt]

It's good to see a new story with this kind of premise. This is interesting, I'll be waiting for more. Good job so far.

[Vegeta900X]

Interesting premise. Nice to se a story that involves my own country.

[vorxil]

*Notices cover art*
*Reads description*
*Reads first chapter*
...

You have my attention, good sir.

[RainbowPanda132]

Gott mit uns, gott mit Carolus rex!

Heh, never thought i would find a fic within the svea stormaktstid era. Will favourite this and wait for the next chapter!

Hopefully Charles won't die early in this timeline :p

[Zh3sh1re]

7277620 You have no idea how hard it is to find a period where Karl XII is actually home and at semi-peace with the greatest territorial extent! There is so much research for a fic like this.

[RainbowPanda132]

7277706 "semi peace" is the right term to call it xD

If you need any help on the research, i might help you out if i can, since i'm also very interested in this subject :p (though my knowledge may or may not be clouded by extensive EU4 gameplay.)

[Zh3sh1re]

7279875 I have 1270 hours in EU4 ;)
But yeah, I would appreciate the help. If something comes up, I'll send a memo ;D

[Just Sandy]

why sweden and nt germany or the all mighty netherlands?

[Brasta Septim]

7280140 Because the author is Swedish. Duh.

[HussarianGlory]

7280106
Got fact for you.
Wait I forgot it