Chapter XIII: Ladies and Heirs.

Justinian is now named Nikephoros the Fourth, on the year of our lord 1229. My hard efforts and close companionship with him earned me a position of the Megas Domestikos, the overall commander of the Imperial armies! But such high command will require lots of attention. I also advised Justinian that he needs someone to be marries, but he initially refused to all of my suggestion but then I ordered a scribe to write the Scrolls of Marriage:

Marriage has played a significant role in the politics and society of empires throughout history. One of the most important functions of marriage in an empire is its use as a political tool for strengthening alliances and consolidating power.

In many empires, political marriages were arranged between members of ruling families in order to form alliances and secure peace between rival factions or neighboring states. This allowed rulers to expand their influence and consolidate their power by forming strategic partnerships and avoiding conflicts.

Another important aspect of marriage in empires is its role in succession and inheritance. In many empires, the right to rule was passed down through family lines and the marriage of the ruler's children was used to secure the succession and continuity of the ruling dynasty. This helped to ensure stability and maintain the continuity of power within the empire.

Furthermore, marriage was also used as a tool for social control and maintaining the social hierarchy in empires. Royal marriages were often used to cement alliances and reinforce social hierarchies, by marrying off members of the royal family to members of the nobility or other powerful families. This helped to maintain the social hierarchy and ensure the loyalty of powerful families to the ruling dynasty.

Additionally, marriage was also used as a way to spread a culture, language and customs of a dominant group to other subjects or communities. This was particularly the case in empires where there was a significant cultural or ethnic diversity among the subjects, where marriage was used as a way to assimilate and integrate different groups into the dominant culture.

In summary, marriage played a crucial role in empires throughout history, serving as a political tool for strengthening alliances, consolidating power, securing succession, maintaining social hierarchy and spreading culture among the empire's subjects.

This scroll took us 2 months to completely finish it and sent it to Justinian to read it, after several persuasions he finally agreed to find a lady to be married.

I have travelled to various countries and lands to find the right lady for him, the great news is I found ladies, but each one with different personalites.

I.

Me and my Lazurian Knights went to the lands of Cumans, I found a lady that was an apparent heir to the chief of the tribe. Her name was Sorcha, she was gorgeous, tall, her skin was fair, charming. However, she was deadly with the bow and arrow. I have seen her fought on horse just with her bow, she was excellent at it, even knocking out enemies with a single blow of her mace. And she was perfectly using the art of ranged weapons even while moving on a horse.

Choosing her will gain the loyalty of the Cumanian tribes and will gladly help the Empire in all the wars by supplying us with their superior mounted cavalry, however the local nobles will not agree to this.

II.

After I headed there, we sailed a galley to the lands of the Bulgars. I found Ivanka, the lady that Tsar Asen that already planned a marriage for her and Justinian. She was so smart, excellent in diplomacy and administration, she is also quite good in weapons but not good as Sorcha. However, If Justinian chooses her, he will gain a powerful ally and a woman that will administer the country if he is gone to wars.

He has only two choices, it can't be both as it will spark a controversy within the internal affairs and will decrease his popularity within the nobles and the churches.

5 months have passed, the ladies have arrived to Nicaea. The current capital of the Empire, when Justinian saw them he was flustered and having trouble of choosing one, Sorcha was taller than he taught, and Ivanka was shorter than him. Based on their eyes on him, it seems that they want to "pleasure" the Emperor but time will tell that.