the haunted kingdom by Charles E.J. Moulton (best detective novels of all time .TXT) 📖

two years of hard labour to convince the stern bureaucrats that letting them go ahead with their plans was a good idea.
Honorius’ two advisors Rufinus and Eutropius, who otherwise had dominated the brothers, were replaced early by a new advisor: Flavius Flaccila. This man is credited with the actual saving of the Roman Empire. He was a strong man, who supported the sons’ endeavours and never took credit himself for his accomplishments. It was only later Wandiffian historians, among others the eminent archaeologist Musar Jansonius – author of books such as “As Rome became Wandiffia”, that found out what his role in this rescue had been.
Accordingly, he and the sons took a hold of most of the problems arising in the empire. The problems had been, among others, the death rate of the wealthy due to bad lead pipes. Now the water was purified to a larger extent and as a result Caesar Honorius, the prime emperor of the new dynasty, could in 408 Anno Domini see a country that had not only a higher life expectancy, but also higher moral values. The 32 000 prostitutes of Rome were now reduced to an amazingly minimal 1500. Gladiator games were deemed illegal and instead Honorius introduced the Caesarean Competitions: a version of the Greek Olympic Games.
The farming estates labelled Latifundia were still owned by the wealthy men, but now not completely controlled by them. When slavery was abolished in 409 A.D., the former slaves could now decide themselves what was to be done. This had the effect that the rich farmers still were happy, whilst the slaves, now called Servants of Caesar, had reached a new social level. As a result, inflation soon became a thing of the past and the up until this point very problematically arising unemployment sank.
Due to this surge of morals, the empire stood behind Honorius to such a vast degree that King Alaric of the Visigoths could not sack Rome in 410 A.D., but was chased away.
The trade success returned. This was due to Arcadius’ ingenious idea of taking away all power from the Praetorian Guard as to the choosing of a new emperor when he was appointed Caesar in 420. Now the exclusive right to appoint an emperor lay in the previous emperor. It was a dictatorship, but one with a positive effect: the emperor was by law required to secure the trade. The power was his to appoint trade senators that wrote down each quadran that was spent and earned. By 476 A.D. the Roman Empire was Christian and very wealthy.
Consequently, Romulus Augustus was not deposed by Odoacer on September 4th, 476 Anno Domini, but became known as an emperor who appointed so many trade ministers across the empire that parliamentary discussion what to import and export became pointless. Everywhere, trade ministers controlled the purchase of goods. Soon, all the commercial cargo of the known world was available everywhere. Like Trajan did in the 2nd century A.D., Augustus brought a wide spread medical care into Rome and the citizens were becoming quite adamant in their views on how to change their life and the position of their province within Rome. These changes are also credited to the genius of Flavius Flaccila, who laid out the original plans how to restructure Rome from the ground up.
These plans were followed to book. The vast change that would eventually create a new kind of Rome occurred in a new strong province within Germania Superior. The province was called Wandiffia and had a very peculiar Latin dialect that was influenced by Scandinavian tongues. Wandiffia was small, but it had worked itself up as the main role player within Germania Superior. Trade ministers, who ruled the continent by now, had their official home in Wandiffia. More often than not, the Caesar had to consult the Wandiffian trade route councillors before going ahead with his export arrangements.
The emperor Ceasar Flavius Agronicus was the first emperor to be lobbied by the Wandiffian Senate to let Wandiffia become trade capital of Rome. In 573 A.D. this became the case. As a result of this, the Wandiffian trade route councillor Marai Titanius had the Miranian Export Parliamentarian Zufar Milas in the Wandiffian capital Mirania sign a treaty for full export of all commodities through Wandiffian territory in 582 A.D. This meant that a Channel had to be dug between the Germanic province of Wandiffia and the former renamed peninsula of Jutlandia, so that the ships from Brittania did not have to sail around Dania but could sail along the coast uninterruptedly.
The work of digging the Danish Channel was the extensive laborious responsibility of the architectural and marine reconstructive expert leader Marcus Flavius Gregorius. He managed the all-embracing effort of numerous decades of work. His statue was raised at the pier in 602 A.D. with the inscription: “This man’s life work can be sailed through here.” Needless to stress, the channel was an immense success, as it has been ever since.
The Danish Channel was the end of Rome and the beginning of new Wandiffia. Due to trade, Rome split into separate countries in 619 A.D. and became just as technologically highly developed as before also due to trade. Herbal Physicians travelled the known world to find cures for illnesses and due to the wealth the death rate was very low and mortality date late.
The urban decay that had plagued Rome ceased entirely in Wandiffia. Due to its’ successful trade, Wandiffia soon became very rich and had the necessary monetary resources to rebuild the cities. This provided for a continent where citizens roamed freely and could trade goods as they chose to make it possible. There was an exchange of information and merchandise that kept Wandiffia strong and sturdy and wealthy.
Forty kings ruled Wandiffia from 619 A.D. to 1089 A.D. with an infrastructure based on that of ancient Rome until the year of 1089 A.D. when Simon the great founded Prosperania and built his dearly beloved castle Iuventus Sacrum, rebuilt four times up until the reign of King Alexander of the Winsletenna Dynasty.
The problems began with the seemingly endless quarrel between Simon and his brother John. This was a disagreement that ended on the night of April 14th 1108. John marched in after two years of absence with his own recruited army of crooks and smugglers and nomads from the Gfuhre Territories and murdered Simon and his family, raping Simon’s wife to death at the capital marketplace in front of the parliament.
The only survivor of the attack was the eldest son George, who managed a brave escape with his wife Carina and his young son Joseph after 19 years of proverbial imprisonment within the confines of the new Nocturanian guard. These gilded cages of sorts were rooms at John’s castle where Carina had to serve as child bearer for the presently responsible Nocturanian guard.
After fleeing to Olandus in 1127 A.D. the family never returned. It was only after careful consideration that Joseph returned with the northern army and defeated Nocturania in 1168 A.D. Nocturania was reformed and given a separate coastal nation next to the fatherland.
The dark beginnings of the empire lay in the blood feud between two brothers that made the large Prosperanian Land split entwine. It started a rebirth for Prosperania.
It made the world what it is today.

PROSPERANIA


Once upon a time there were two brothers, Simon and John. With them our venture into the dark and light Medatlantia begins. Had it not been for their blood feud, Michael and Lucifer’s war in heaven would’ve never transported to tellar territories. Simon was a benevolent ruler and had turned the 600 year old Wandiffian Empire into Prosperania. This was a beloved, kind king who built his castle Iuventus Sacrum with a complete system of guesthouses, thermal baths and infrastructure according to old roman plans, including running water from the lakes and waterfalls on the grounds themselves. He knew how important the young people were for a nation, they were the future. He knew that educating them was making sure that the empire had a future at all. He called his palace the palace of sacred youth, or in the language Old Wandiffian, a dialect of Latin, Iuventus Sacrum. Simon had a brother, John. He was younger, dark haired, constantly brooding type. His extraordinary expertise, however, made him an invaluable asset to the king. Everywhere the king went, he was there as advisor. In the spring of 1103, Simon and John got into an argument that lead to their mutual estrangement. By that fall, only three-quarters of all royal decisions were signed by both brothers and the decision was made legal that only the king’s signature and seal was required for legality. John began speaking against his brother at every possible occasion. He ridiculed him at parties and he countered his opinions in the senate. In an open forum in the capital, Clurafar, he was faced with facts of having to cope with the new laws or leave. John promised to cope and signed a treaty with his brother on the 11th of March 1105 that he would only be required to add his signature to one-half of the official treaties. That summer, John was the perfect example of brotherly love. He was so perfect that many never suspected he was planning a coup-de-tat. The only one not suspecting this new change was Simon himself, but sadly he said nothing. John was working behind the scenes. Secretly, he was recruiting infiltrators among the criminals of Clurafar. By that September of 1105 there were three hundred members in this most secret of organizations. Officially, John was always on solitary riding training during these rides. He could be gone up to a week during these sporadic “crusades”. The worst criminals of Prosperania were now part of a group that called themselves “The Holy Order of the Nocturnal Activities” or “The Dark Order” as they often met at night. The legend goes that these men were given the task in the end of September of riding out across the continent and recruiting new members that were interested in joining their group. The group literally grew larger from then on without John having to do a thing. By 1106, apparently, he had an army of five thousand recruited from North Africa, Hispania, Prosperania, East, West, North and South. Completely oblivious to all of this, Simon was prompted by John to sign an official militia treaty with him on the Ides of March 1106, stating that all military power be parted equally between them. In an official meeting of Prosperanian dignitaries, two days later on the 17th of March 1106, John marched out, ripping the document in two, claiming it a “preposterous outrage” and wanted full control. Simon threw him out and John left, willingly and was not heard of for two years. Well planned until the end, his coup worked meticulously. He returned the Spring of 1108 with an army no one had seen before. Living underground, training in secret territories for two years, they had become the Army of Death and he attacked Iuventus Sacrum during the night on the 14th of April 1108. The core of the army dragged Simon out to the marketplace of Clurafar and hung him there from the old senate by his feet. They took the family and raped his wife on the square, whilst Simon hung there half dead. John whispered into Simon’s ear that day that the dark order had won, that Prosperania soon would become Nocturania. The army killed the entire family and imprisoned the only surviving son, George, in the dungeons of the castle, now renamed Mortis Examine. He was never allowed to leave the castle, but soon enough he was transferred to a rather dainty room way off in the west wing of the palace.