The Siege of Jerusalem
Author’s note:
FYI. This fic makes deliberate and explicit connections between historical antisemitism and the treatment of the Earth Church in LOGH. This is both in terms of physical violence perpetrated against Jewish people, and in terms of the conspiracies and propaganda that have been weaponized against them.
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Excerpted from The Legacy of the Neue Reich in Letters by Johan von Meier, published 400 N.I.C.
[…] Among early detractors of the Lohengramm dynasty, the most prominent voices fell into two camps—the conservative remnants clinging on to the Goldenbaum era, and the factions within the conquered Alliance territories, which resented their new status under the Reich. It was politically important for Kaiser Reinhard, and later Kaiser Alexander’s regent-mother Hildegarde, to make overtures of amelioration towards at least one of these factions by embracing some elements of progressivism, as much as the strictures of monarchy would allow.
The picture of a progressive Reich is one that was deliberately cultivated, and this is reflected in the art of the time and in later days. This is not always out of a top-down propaganda effort. Many writers, when comparing the Lohengramm dynasty to what had come before, genuinely believed in the youthful spirit of the new nation, or found value (be it financial or spiritual) in trying to believe it. It’s hard to find a political work of the early Reich that does not paint the Reich’s various enemies as belonging to a backwards and corrupt existing order, simply to provide a counterpoint for Kaiser Reinhard’s progressivism. Even those who claim to be the Kaiser’s detractors are unwilling to call him something other than new. And the ‘new’ implies and generates its own opposite in ‘old’.
Whatever Kaiser Reinhard is, his enemies are not.
The cracks in this narrative are obvious from the beginning, but it takes time for them to grow large enough that people begin passing anything substantial through them. Despite the awareness during Kaiser Reinhard’s generation that he and his peers were “making history” (and they made efforts to record it as such[1]), it took at least a generation for Kaiser Reinhard to fully move into the category of ‘history’, as part of a lineage and continuation of what had come before, rather than something unknown in the entire course of humanity.
One of the first works that makes an explicit attempt to reform Kaiser Reinhard’s legacy in this way is The Siege of Jerusalem , a thousand-line alliterative poem about Admiral Wahlen’s campaign on Earth.
Although The Siege of Jerusalem is written from the perspective of a participant in the campaign on Earth, the consensus among those who have studied the work is that it significantly post-dates Kaiser Reinhard’s brief reign, enough that the author could not have been present at the time. The author is anonymous, and the poem is written in the dialect that was common on Earth during that era, but the historical context that the poem draws upon speaks to the author being a highly educated person, which would have been rare or nonexistent on Earth at the time immediately following the Earth Campaign, as most of the educated leadership were killed.
The poem takes its name and form from a much, much older work, a poem written several thousand years ago in Middle English, which concerned the actual Siege of Jerusalem which took place in 3529 B.N.I.C.. That siege was part of a war between the Roman Empire and the Jews, a religion whose members were resisting Roman rule. The siege ended with the destruction of the Second Temple, a focal point of the Jewish religion, and is regarded as marking a turning point for the Jewish diaspora, as the loss of their capitol and homeland. The Jewish people remained a persecuted group until the Thirteen Day War over two thousand years later and the resultant seismic shift of much of the culture on Earth.
The original Siege poem is written celebrating the defeat of the Jews and the destruction of the temple. It is a vicious and cruel work, despite its technical mastery, reveling in the suffering of the Jewish people of the city. It goes to great lengths to describe the horrors inflicted by the righteous Roman conquerors.
The author of the modern Siege has chosen to deliberately connect Kaiser Reinhard’s campaign to destroy the Earth Church to the Roman campaign to snuff out Jewish rebellion, as a way to fix Kaiser Reinhard as a part of history. For the author of the modern Siege , the cruelty of the present is made clear through the lens of the past, and the plight of the Terran religion is explicitly linked to that of the Jewish people. What was done thousands of years ago by one empire is done again by this one— Kaiser Reinhard is no newer than the Roman emperors who embraced a rival religion to reform their own empire in the ancient Siege.
The modern Siege is written from both a broad historical narrative standpoint, and from the perspective of a soldier serving under Admiral Wahlen. Although the poem is written from the point of view of the conqueror, it is clear that the author is, at the very least, sympathetic to the Earth Church and well read in their religious practices, as the poem discusses their theology in some detail.
Where the original Siege ’s cruelty is straightforward and meant reinforce the intended audience’s existing hatred for the Jewish people, the cruelty of the modern Siege is meant to create sympathy for the Terrans. Though the modern author follows the structure of the original closely in the beginning, the two works diverge in the later passus , where the perspective narrows in on a soldier witnessing the carnage, and feels regret[2].
Excerpted here are several representative passages from throughout The Siege of Jerusalem , translated into Imperial Standard. The rhythmic scheme and alliteration in the verse[3] has been preserved as much as translation allows.
From the First Passus — In which Kaiser Reinhard is threatened with assassination by a hidden member of the Earth Church, and he swears revenge.
In the first few days / of that fierce Kaiser
Whose youth had abused / the old brutish regime
Who had swept them swiftly / from their sure perches
There came a new cause / for a campaign of war.
Though the lion had leaped / on the limbs of his enemies,
Had ripped their roots / from the Reich’s rich soil,
Had trampled the threats / of traducers foreign,
At home, an enemy interred / to injure the crown.
[A description here is omitted in which Kaiser Reinhard’s enemies are listed, and contrasted with the nobility of his retainers. It leads into Kaiser Reinhard being fooled into visiting a man who attempts to assassinate him.]
The king was invited into / the inner home of the traitor,
Where a wicked weapon / was wholly concealed:
An expanse of explosives, / expected to kill
The righteous ruler / who refused to bow.
From close to his chest / the coward attacked.
The kin of his companion— / cousin to his wife—
This traitor was taught / to threaten his kingdom,
To strike Reinhard’s self / in a singular blow.
[A lengthy description of the assassination attempt faced by Kaiser Reinhard has been omitted.]
And why would this wife-kin[4] / wish to kill?
For the purpose of power, / and power alone.
He had a faith that festered / in the forest of night
From a land long lost / from the Kaiser’s true light.
On a barren black planet, / beyond his rule
A plot was planted / to prove a faith.
To claim the crown of the kaiser / as a corrupt idol
And shout that there is no master of men / but the mother Earth.
If the leader should let / his life be threatened
Without retribution or revenge / for wrongs done
The world would be weaker, / and such waning power
Would swiftly be shaken, / and struck from the throne.
The only course is obliteration entire, / of overwhelm,
Of destruction without delay, / of descending terror,
Of forces brought forth, / to send fear through men.
No rot shall remain, / when Reinhard Kaiser strikes.
Kaiser Reinhard returned / to his retainers loyal
He commanded they convene, / the cabal to destroy.
From among their amount, / one amenable is chosen
The wise Admiral Wahlen, / shall ward off the foe.
[The verse form of Kaiser Reinhard’s speech, in which he charges Wahlen to destroy the Earth Church, as well as a discussion between several of his admirals about the dispatch, has been omitted here.]
From the Second Passus – Wahlen’s journey to Earth and his near-assassination
Wahlen’s fine fleet, / five thousand[5] ships strong
Traversed the barren byways / of the blackness of space.
Each man marked the passage / and made his own vow
To face any foe / without fear in his heart.
The ships through the sky / swiftly went forth.
The only sight more splendid / was the strength behind them:
King Reinhard’s royal face / and righteous commands.
His beauty bolstered both / one’s body and spirit.
Gleaming in the gloaming, / and gathering speed,
This Wahlen fleet went / without delay,
Til they reached the resting grounds / of great royal Jove[6]
Where they planned a procedure / to punish the Earth.
[A long section detailing Wahlen’s operational plans and a glowing description of the admiral as a leader has been omitted here.]
When the fleet was fair ready / to go forth again
Each man of the many / made praises to Odin
Save for one, only one, / who waited in shadow
And searched for a singular instant / to strike with his knife.
The wise Admiral Wahlen / was the wicked man’s target.
From some covert corner / the command was given
To poison the point / of a pig-slaughter blade[7]
And to hit the heart / of the heroic leader of men.
From the solid shadows, / the assassin leaped
Bearing his blade / a blow fatal to deal.
Wahlen was saved solely / by his own steady hand
As he treated the traitor / to three shots of his gun.
One struck his side / with the sizzle of flesh,
One hit his hand / and he howled in pain,
One licked his leg / and he lay still on the ground.
Though he breathed barely / he had yet balance of life.
But his blade had drawn blood / from the bright admiral’s arm.
He was stabbed through the sinew / and sick red flowed.
Blood like rain in the rivers, / rushing from the wound.
Silent poison poured / with every pulse of his heart.
As the admiral called commands / to question the traitor
Wahlen’s breath left his body / and he barely held life.
To save his soul from flight / such a sacrifice was made—
The doctors detached the arm / defiled by the blade.
[A section concerning Wahlen’s fall into a coma, subsequent recovery, and remaining journey to Earth has been omitted. Although the assassin is interrogated, he refuses to name the man who gave him orders.]
The clear-eyed soldier[8] was then commanded / to clean the caked blood
Which flooded the floor / where fair Wahlen had bled.
As he moved his mop / he murmured and said,
“How frightening! That fiend / had a face like any man.”
From the Third Passus — A description of Earth, seen by the nameless soldier for the first time.
Five thousand silver ships / from the sky descend—
Each with its true task, / each filled with true men.
They glittered and gleamed / under Earth’s great Sun,
Which shone in the sky / like a singular gem.
When the soldiers stepped forth / upon the soft grass
They were stunned by the sweet sounds / of songbirds in trees
And by the whisper of wind / upon their white cheeks.
That such a pretty planet / could be profaned by war—!
For many a man / among their number
The growing ground greeted them / with fair green smells.
It reminded them richly / of returning home,
Of the scent that they smelled first / in their sweet mother’s breast.
Why must men move / from their mother’s love-side?
Why do they travel / the long trip from home?
Why, when they wish / for some way to return,
Do they keep their keel / pointed keenly to the wind?
[An extended passage follows which focuses on the beauty of Earth and the soldiers’ feelings of home[9].]
The tawny-haired trooper / tarried a while
Taking his time / to tally the stars.
He filled his food-bags / with fine-scented roses
And let the sun linger / light on his face.
It wasn’t fear that forced / his feet to slow.
It was only the ordinary type / of organic delay,
Caused by craving / a calm afternoon
Where no one makes war / or walks out to die.
Was he the only one / who wanted it so?
Did no other dull dutyman / drag his feet?
The slender-shouldered soldier / saw no such waiting
Among the moved of men / who moved at his sides.
Under the bold banner / they bravely marched[10]
The golden glow of the lion / gave them grace to forge on.
Until they made way to the mountains, / molded high as the clouds,
And they stopped and shivered / at the sight of the rock.
The greatest glory of Earth, / grew up there before them[11],
Though scraped and scarred / from the scourges of the past
When men made marks / that mowed mountains down
And injured the Earth, / their innocent Mother.
Though the temple of the top / had toppled long ago,
Still the mountain made home / for many of her children.
This place where pilgrims, / came to pledge love
Now stood centered / in the soldiers’ target-sights.
From the Fourth Passus — The battle of Earth and the nameless soldier’s regret.
[The Fourth Passus is the longest section of the poem, as well as the most gruesome. Much of it has been omitted, but enough is retained to paint a picture for the reader. The passus begins with a description of the protracted battle that takes place to enter the headquarters of the Earth Church. The exits are sealed except for one, trapping everyone inside. ]
Some who had seen / the soldiers’ approach
Tried to take themselves / away from this place.
They ran like rats / from the round mountain-hole
And the soldiers slaughtered them swiftly / as they swarmed to be free.
The bodies at the beginning / of the tunnel’s broad face
Were piles of pilgrims / who had pushed to escape.
They had shoved their shoulders / against those standing in front
And had been smashed by the stampede / or shot at the door.
All the red blood ran / on the rough stony floor
Staining the sleeves / of their snowy white robes.
Men, women, and wains, / not one was spared.
Those who fled were felled, / those who faced it were doomed.
Soldiers heaved and hauled / heavy corpses away
To clear the canyon / and claim the path.
Though they were thrown from the top peak / and tumbled down a way,
The bodies were not buried / and they bloated and stank.
The death-gas ghosts up / from the grave-canyon
It spoiled the supply / of safe-drinking water. [12]
Those pilgrims who perished / poisoned their living brothers
While the soldiers stood, / shadowing their door.
[The soldiers enter the Earth Church’s sanctuary, and kill indiscriminately. Those who fight back are killed; those who try to hide are killed; those who attempt escape are killed. The record of this goes on for some time, as the poet describes both the slaughter and the interior of the sanctuary in great detail. The soldiers loot whatever they deem valuable enough to carry. The nameless soldier has spent much of this passus tarrying behind his comrades, and barely fighting (there is one passage where he must fend for his life against a woman who lashes out at him just to try to get by), but now that the fighting is over, he enters the center of the complex, alone. Several hundred lines describing these events have been omitted.]
Though the dire darkness, / the dead-hear soldier ran
He shut his seeing-eyes / to spy not the dead
Who littered the lair / in long white robes.
They looked living like ghosts, / and looked dead like men.
He chased through the caverns / cold and quiet now.
For what he was wanting, / he wouldn’t have known.
The sole thing he sought / was a slight reprieve,
But grace was only given / to the growing chorus of dead.
He came to the center / to the church’s cold heart
Already picked apart / by his peers and kin
No glitter of gold stayed / to garnish the walls
Nor any shine of silver / where he swung his light.
It was empty of everything / that ever had value
At least to those that thought / of things of this world.
But still the ceiling caverned above / the coward boy-soldier
And suffered him sanctuary, / a second’s snatched peace.
As he stepped softly / and shone his light through
His gaze glanced out / at the great temple-front.
He stopped and stared / though seeing brought grief.
There the altar was adorned, / although not with wealth.
Its rubies were ribbons / of red-bright blood.
Its pearls were the pink / of pale-dead skin.
Its gold was the girlish glint / of gloss-soft hair.
Its value had a vastness / no vandal could steal.
The altar cloth covered / the childish figure.
The mother had made sure / her message was clear.
“My daughter is dead, / my dear one, my only.
Let her remain resting / with our Mother Earth.”
The clear-eyed boy broke / and bent at the knees.
What cause had cost / the child her life?
Some distant dictator / some dead-heart Kaiser
Who never would know / the names of the dead.
The soldiers will send / songs of victory home
They’ll end out again, / against some other foe
They’ll wage wars, / they’ll win some,
But for what false purpose? / Some fated Kaiser?
For country? For king? / For kind? For kin?
For valor? For value? / For victory? For vice?
For salvation? For saity? / For satisfaction? For strife?
For hunger? For horror? / For home? For life?
Will anyone mourn the many? / Those millions of Earth?
The bowed-kneed boy begged, / though nobody heard
Of that last lamb / left for the slaughter—
The tomb and the temple / take what they’re given.
1 Julian Mintz’s memoir _ Unbroken Circle _ (47 N.I.C.) discusses his motivations for chronicling Yang Wenli’s life in particular, and Marshal Yang’s awareness of his place in history. Although no one on the other side of the conflict was as willing in their writings to discuss this motivation as frankly, it can reasonably be assumed that they felt the same way, as they took great pains to both curate their own personal records and allow access to material that would have been kept under lock and key during the previous dynasty. Most interesting is the posthumous release of select personal correspondence of members of the royal family. For a more complete discussion of Kaiserin Hildegarde’s policy of record transparency and “glasnost” (as well as its limits), see chapter two.
2 This emphasis on the soldier’s regret is a good choice by the author of the modern _ Siege _ , despite its divergence from the original’s structure and the artistic compromise that this entails. It is tempting to say, when reading the ancient _ Siege _ , that no one in our modern day could construct a poem of such cruelty and not expect the reader to sympathize with the victim. But the author had likely seen much of the writing about the Earth Church and the campaign on Earth, either by the Lohengramm government or by private citizens, and seen horrors equal to those depicted in the original _ Siege _ — some splashed in brilliant colors on movie screens, others in black and white text. No one sympathized with the enemies of the Reich. For further discussion of the treatment of the Earth Campaign in both contemporary and later media, see chapter ten.
3 Like the ancient _ Siege _ , the modern _ Siege _ is written in alliterative long-line, a classic form of Germanic poetry that has existed for thousands of years. The lines are broken into two half lines with a caesura in the middle, with at least two alliterative elements in the first half, and a minimum of one in the second, each alliterative element on a stressed word. The line ends with an unalliterated but stressed element. These lines are arranged into quatrains, and the quatrains are grouped into each _ passus _ of varying length.
4 The “wife-kin” to whom the poet refers is Baron Kummel, the cousin of Hildegarde von Mariendorf (later Lohengramm). The use of “wife” in the kenning is anachronistic on the author’s part. Baron Kummel attempted to assassinate Kaiser Lohengramm shortly after his coronation, over a year before Kaiser Reinhard’s marriage to Hildegarde. The reasons for Kummel’s actions are highly disputed. Although the poet here relates the official story that Kummel, a believer in the Earth religion, acted on religious orders to assassinate the Kaiser, this claim has often been called into doubt by historians. In the early days of the Lohengramm dynasty, it was politically expedient to blame domestic troubles on “foreign” actors such as the Earth Church, rather than allowing any official acknowledgement of homegrown dissent, to avoid bolstering it through recognition. Baron Kummel (a member of the Goldenbaum aristocracy, for all that he was in a privileged position in the Neue Reich as cousin to Hildegarde) may have resented the change in order. A similar blame-shift can be seen with the kidnapping of Kaiser Erwin Josef, which was also orchestrated by members of the old nobility, who were later described as puppets for foreign interests. For further information about the straggling powers at the end of the Goldenbaum dynasty, see Emilia von Braunshweig’s book, _ End of a Proud Line _ (364 N.I.C.). Despite their importance to the beginning of the Lohengramm dynasty, relatively little has been written about the Mariendorf clan. The only book which discusses Baron Kummel’s life and relationships to the rest of the Mariendorf family in any detail is Wolfgang Strauss’s _ Mariendorf _ (178 N.I.C.), a biography of Kaisarin Hildegard’s father, the secretary of state Count Franz von Mariendorf.
5 The poet here significantly understates the size of Wahlen’s fleet. The Earth Campaign involved approximately nine thousand ships. By making this underestimation, the author is obliquely referring to the ancient _ Siege _ , in which the Roman forces were vastly outnumbered but emerged victorious. Of course, as the Earth was not a defended planet, and its population outside of the larger settlements was made up largely of subsistence farmers, even a five thousand ship fleet would have been more than sufficient to crush any resistance. The population of Earth at the time was estimated to be no higher than ten million, mostly concentrated in a few medium sized cities in the sub-tropical/temperate regions and their outlying river-delta farmland. For an overview of Earth’s demographic changes throughout history, see Maya Hernandez’s _ Who We Were Once: A Biography of Earth _ (388 N.I.C., tr. Rudolf Machen).
6 “Resting grounds of great royal Jove” – Jupiter’s orbit. Jupiter is a gas giant and the fifth planet in the Sol system. (Earth is the third planet.) Jove, or Jupiter, was a member of the Roman pantheon (similar to Odin in position among the gods). The poet uses “resting grounds” to call attention to the death of the Roman religion.
7 “Pig-slaughter blade” – Wahlen’s would-be assassin was a kitchen worker on board the flagship Salamander. His weapon of choice was a large cooking knife. The poet’s choice to specify the animal for which the knife was intended is an interesting one. The poet invites direct comparisons between the ancient Jewish religion and Terraism, but Judaism has a prohibition against eating pork. Vegetarianism is practiced by many members of Terraism, but there is no explicit teaching against eating meat, only for respecting the lives of animals.
8 This is the first mention of the protagonist of the poem—the nameless soldier. He is later referred to as “tawny-haired”, “slim-shouldered”, and other descriptors. The divergence in form from the ancient Siege poem begins here.
9 This section of the poem, though its surface level is of pure description of the Earth and the soldiers’ lives, is a protracted discussion of the philosophy of the Earth Church, partially encoded in metaphor. The soldiers’ feelings unconsciously (to them) express the “natural” Earth Church teaching. This section has been omitted because it is likely impenetrable to the modern reader without explicit interpretation, and this task is unfortunately far beyond the scope of this book. For an extended analysis of Siege ’s religious message, see the excellent monograph by Hellen Vonnich, Earth Mother/Earth Mirror (352 N.I.C.)
10 Marching, along with much of the soldiers’ time spent outdoors in this section, is an artistic exaggeration by the poem’s author. Wahlen’s fleet typically landed their ships directly at their targets. Earth had no air defenses that would have required them to land and approach on foot or by vehicle.
11 The Earth Church’s headquarters were in the Himalayan mountain range, which was once the site of Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on the planet. This area of the planet suffered both during the Thirteen Day War and the Earth-Sirius war, and the peaks of several mountains were obliterated by missile strikes meant to target underground bases. The Earth Church still recognized the mountain range as sacred, despite the unnatural damage. Wahlen’s campaign to target their headquarters, a site of pilgrimage, is echoing the profaning that happened to the mountains in past conflicts. Similarly, in the ancient Siege , the temple destroyed is destroyed for a second time.
12 The modern Siege author is here making a direct reference to events in the more ancient Siege. Wahlen’s campaign, though it took longer than some other depictions would suggest, was more of a quick slaughter than a protracted fight of any kind. The poet here implies a longer timeline for suspense and artistic reasons. The water supply of the Earth Church headquarters was poisoned, but it was a deliberate tactic by Wahlen to kill any stragglers who might remain hidden in the comlex, and not this semi-accidental biological warfare that the poet proposes.