Imperator: Resurrection of an Empire

Months Later – The Holy See of the Principality of Christendom

The great hall of the Papal Palace was silent, save for the hushed whispers of priests and nobles who had gathered to bear witness to the momentous occasion. At the far end of the chamber, upon a throne of gold and ivory, His Holiness, Pope Peter III, regarded the assembly with solemn eyes.

At his right hand stood Cardinal Matthaeus, his red robes immaculate, his expression a mask of divine judgment. He had waited long for this moment.

The exodus had been total.

Tens of thousands had abandoned Carthage, fleeing north into the lands of the Principality, desperate to remain under the grace of the Church. Those who remained had suffered famine, disorder, and violence. The hospitals stood empty. The orphanages had been abandoned. Even the burial rites of the faithful had ceased. The land had been cursed in all but name.

And now, it was time for the final blow.

A herald stepped forward, unrolling a scroll as his voice rang through the chamber.

"In the name of our Lord and Savior, and under the divine authority of His Holiness Pope Peter III, the Holy Mother Church hereby decrees the following…"

Matthaeus allowed himself the smallest smirk as the words he had written were spoken aloud for all to hear.

"Let it be known that the kingdom of Carthaginia, having cast aside the mercy of Christ, having embraced the heresies of Rome and the false idols of the heathens, is hereby severed from the grace of the Holy Church."

A murmur spread through the assembly.

"Its queen, Serena, is stripped of all divine legitimacy. She is cast out as an apostate, an enemy of the faith. Let none of Christendom recognize her rule."

Matthaeus glanced at the Pope, whose face remained impassive.

"Furthermore, let it be declared that the false ruler who calls himself 'Emperor Julius of Romanus' is an affront to God Almighty, a blasphemer and an usurper who seeks to resurrect a dead empire in defiance of the will of Heaven."

Matthaeus felt a surge of satisfaction as he listened. Yes, this was his will made manifest.

"For his heresy, he is condemned. Let his name be cursed in the halls of the faithful. Let no kingdom, no city, no man of Christendom offer him aid or alliance. Let the righteous turn their swords upon him, for he is unworthy of peace."

There it was.

A slow smile spread across Matthaeus' lips. The Church had not merely cast out Carthage—they had declared a holy war against Rome itself.

He imagined the fool Julius, sitting in his stolen halls, surrounded by his pagan puppets, believing himself secure in his newfound empire. Let him bask in his fleeting victory. It would not last.

For soon, all of Christendom would turn against him.

And when the day of reckoning came, when the armies of the faithful marched upon his lands in righteous fury, Matthaeus would be there to watch his empire crumble into dust.

~

The days that followed occured just as the cardinal wanted, the pope quickly performed a holy rit to formally condemn and excommunicate the royal couple, even as word of their engagement began to spread.

But aside from the declaration the Holy Church took no further action at the moment beyond making sure that the region of formerly Carthaginian lands were more like a proper military occupation by the Order compared to the listless annexation it had been before.

Meanwhile in Romanus and Carthaginia, the faithful's response to the words of their Holy Father were considerably less so than the Cardinal could hope for.

As a close neighbor to the holy land itself, roughly 1/3 of the Carthaginian peoples could be recorded as followers of the faith, but their nationalism was greater than their faith as many of the people ignored the pope's mandate to flee the country that had become excommunicated.

Even still thousands of people took to the roads leaving behind their homes, friends and most of their belongings answering the lords call.

However again the church would be shocked to know that Julius the newly ordained Emperor did not stop his peoples exodus.

Instead he assisted with it, having Wagon, and fast carriages ferry those who wanted to leave to get out of the country faster.

Julius had a plan for this dangerous country, the threat of ideology was far to great, with potential war looming against Francia, while the ever present threat of Visigoth to their north, he did not have time to deal with the fanatic zealotry that a conquest of the Principality lands would entail.

When he confirmed in his system menu that the only remaining christians in his lands were loyal to his rule, he performed a similar action to what he'd done to Visigoth but when performed against a much smaller and less capable nation, the Principality became cutoff from the world as the day of the Exodus's completion a new great wall was erected along the present borders of Romanus and the principality.

Julius had blockaded the entire nation both by land and by sea.

The small nation state would be almost exactly like North Korea was in his former world, isolated and insular.

Those who were now contained within the walls were safe from annihilation but at the same time were now devoid of all luxury.

Julius had simply granted a sect of their faiths greatest wish, he had purge their ability of getting multiple of the sins.

The wall also served as a means to allow for the local Carthaginian garrison to be considerably less than what would otherwise be required to defend the borders.

With a rotating guard and other established forts now scattered aruond the land, Carthage had truly joined Romanus as it's next province.

And the days of the pain known only to Christians was only about to begin.

But while their nation and faith fell on hard times, Carthage and Carthaginia would rise to even greater heights as Julius's own deification would be more solidified within his lands devoid of the polythetizers of a competing religion.