Northern Europe

The Midsummer Crusade

Private canon and manuscript archive

In 1236, the eastern rim of Christendom is coming undone.

Finnic raiders maim Bishop Thomas of Åbo and burn his compound at Korois. Pagans equipped with operational knowledge and “Saracen” arrows they shouldn’t have annihilate an elite Sword-Brother crusading army in the bogs of Saule. Pagan sacred sites from the far north to Gotland and beyond, many beneath Christian churches, hum with otherworldly energy.

In Rome, Sten Skarpr, the Pope’s cold-eyed procurator, pulls threads no one can see. Turning indulgence into leverage and “salvation” into a blueprint for conquest, he architects the Urholm Concordat, a coalition of northern bishops, Baltic merchants and rival military orders meant to crush the Tavastian resistance and wrest the Eastlands from Sweden.

But tenuous pacts can fracture, and the Finnic tribes do not tame easily.

Battle Hymn of Hämä

Tavastian Resistance Theme

Hämä, land of hallowed earth,
That soothes all grief and sorrow,
Where ancestors sing of yesterday
And the stones speak of tomorrow.

You shared your streams and glens,
Gentle snows and misty breath,
But now strangers march against us
Under banners of cross and death.

Let the waters sweep them away!
Let the current pull them down!
Let their heavy armor sink them!
Let the nixies make them drown!

Hämä, beloved hearth and home,
Where the Vanajavesi runs deep,
The sacred shrines remember
And the guardians never sleep.

They want to silence our voices,
Plant their flag, excise our names,
But the ember within our hearts
Burns hotter than their flames.

Nixie Ward Song

Shines the North Star
And wanes the moon,
Spins the sky-hag
And wails the loon.

Knickknack, quickquack,
What is all the fuss?
Knickknack, buttcrack,
Nixie’s after us!

Eastlands March

“Lütelēn Broderen” Crusade Theme

Mighty Creator, King and Lord,
We bear the pike, the shield, the sword;
We, the host of the sacred cross,
Obey God’s will at heavy cost.

In boundless grace, in judgment stern,
The godless shall be made to learn:
No man may dare our God reject,
His love comes first, the blade comes next.

Where border idols loom and stare,
Before the Lord, all tremble there;
Let sinners hear the high command:
“Repent, or meet the sword’s demand.”

Kleinebrüderlied

This land is cold and harsh,
Its skies ashen and gray,
From the sea to the marsh,
And ridges to the bay.

Christ may not have tread here
As a man of flesh and bone,
But we march without fear
Where His light has never shone.