00:00The Crusades of Blood and Shadow
00:04Traino's allegory chronicles
00:08I, when holy fire became a weapon,
00:13the age of the seven corrupted thrones birthed the storm.
00:17A storm painted as righteous, blessed by priests and crowned with the name of the Messiah.
00:23But beneath the banners of the cross, marched armies forged not by heaven.
00:30But by empire, their leaders spoke of salvation.
00:34But their swords spoke of conquest, their prayers sought God's favor,
00:39but their hearts sought land, power, and absolution through blood.
00:43This era would be remembered as the Crusades of Blood and Shadow,
00:48a time when the holy became hollow and the beast wore the garments of light.
00:54But the call that shook the world began with a voice.
01:03Rome's voice, declaring that God himself had commanded.
01:07The retaking of Jerusalem, crowds roared, knights knelt, peasants wept and believed.
01:12They were promised.
01:14Hence erased.
01:15A place among the redeemed, divine glory, treasures of earth and heaven.
01:20The church, Rome's bride, offered salvation in exchange for service to empire.
01:26And so men marched, not knowing the path ahead was paved with the deaths of innocence and the ambitions of kings.
01:33Three of the children of light warned, but no one heard hidden prophets.
01:38Descendants of the people of the first dawn saw the visions.
01:42Rivers running red.
01:44Pilgrims turned predators.
01:45Cities set ablaze in the name of God.
01:48The Messiah's message twisted into a war cry.
01:52They whispered warnings.
01:53This is not the Messiah's war.
01:55This is Rome's shadow marching.
01:57But the seven thrones drowned their voices beneath the drums of sanctified war.
02:06The first wave.
02:08Pilgrims turned predators before armored knights even rode out.
02:12Bands of desperate peasants, fanatics and opportunists surged east.
02:16They claimed to be following God's will, yet their journey became a trail of brutality.
02:21Jewish communists across the Rhine were slaughtered.
02:24Not by soldiers, but by mobs bearing crosses.
02:26They plundered towns, pillaged markets, slew families who had no quarrel with them.
02:31Wherever they passed, villagers whispered, trembling.
02:35If this is holy, what is left for evil?
02:39The knights march east.
02:41The true crusaders, armored nobles blessed by bishops, marched next.
02:45Their path carved destruction across the lands.
02:48They claimed to liberate.
02:49They starved villages to feed their armies.
02:52They sacked Christian cities.
02:53Because supplies were easier taken than earned.
02:56They fought each other more often than their enemies.
02:59Even allied cities trembled when crusaders approached.
03:02For the beast was fed as much by chaos as by conquest.
03:07The holy city becomes a furnace.
03:11When the crusaders reached Jerusalem, they did not pray.
03:14They descended for two days.
03:15The city burned.
03:17Mosques filled with refugees were set ablaze.
03:20Synagogues barricaded with families inside became tombs of ash.
03:24And the crusaders waded through streets ankle deep in blood.
03:27They lifted their swords toward the sky and shouted,
03:30Dave's fault.
03:31God wills it.
03:32But the heavens were silent for God had not willed this.
03:36Only Rome had.
03:38The dark pilgrimage continues.
03:40More crusades followed.
03:41Each claiming righteousness.
03:43Each darker than the last.
03:44They attacked cities not held by infidels, but by their own supposed brethren.
03:49Christian Constantinople looted by crusading armies.
03:53Villages of the faithful burned for tribute.
03:56Children sold into slavery by men wearing crosses.
03:59The crusades became not holy journeys, but sanctioned invasions.
04:03Commerce and blood.
04:04Warfare wearing the mask of devotion.
04:07He the beast feeds and grows through the crusades.
04:09The seven corrupted thrones strengthened.
04:13Rome expanded influence.
04:15Kings gained legitimacy.
04:17Nobles gained wealth.
04:18Merchants gained trade routes.
04:20Europe gained an identity forged in violence.
04:23And the beast, the ancient force behind empire,
04:26fed on every death, every theft, every betrayal.
04:30Its hunger had no end.
04:34But the light did not die.
04:35Even in the darkest marches, there were remnants.
04:38Warriors of compassion hidden among the armies.
04:41There were those who refused to kill innocents.
04:43Those who protected the weak.
04:44Those who saw through Rome's lies.
04:47Some were monks.
04:48Some were knights.
04:49Some were quiet villagers who sheltered the hunted.
04:52These were the children of light disguised in the roles of the era.
04:56And though the crusaders bore crosses of empire,
04:59these humble ones bore
05:00the true light of the Messiah.
05:06X, the prophecy of the returning fire.
05:09The children of light recorded a prophecy spoken in secret by one of their mystics.
05:14When the cross becomes a sword, it no longer belongs to the Messiah.
05:18But the sword will one day turn to dust.
05:20And the hidden flame will rise again.
05:23A reminder that the empire's glory was temporary.
05:26But truth endures.
05:28Jerusalem had burned.
05:29Nations had bled.
05:31The beast had awakened.
05:32But the light, though wounded and overshadowed,
05:35still lived.
05:38Waiting for the moment.
05:41It would rise again.
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