Jerusalem

One of the oldest cities in the known world, and one of the holiest, Jerusalem is a site of the utmost spiritual importance to three faiths; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Some of the holiest figures in all three religions have ties to this venerable metropolis, making it one of the most importance centres for pilgrimage in the world. It also makes it a tempting prize for conquest.

Over half a century has passed since the First Crusade, when the Knights of Christendom descended upon the Holy Land to liberate it from the clutches of the Muslim Fatimid Caliphate. They did so in the hope of two things; eternal life hereafter, and the opportunity to carve out their own fiefdoms in the blistering desert. The jewel of these Crusader states in the Holy Land, as one might imagine, is the Kingdom of Jerusalem, currently ruled over by Baldwin III, of a cadet branch of of the House of Anjou.

It is a beleaguered realm, beset on all sides by vengeful Muslim lords who would love nothing more than to recover the sacred city that was wrested from them in 1099, and wracked by internal division. In recent years Jerusalem has been the site of a bitter power struggle between Baldwin and his mother Queen Melisende; attempts to reconcile the pair by dividing the Kingdom between them culminated in a virtual coup d'etat by Baldwin, annexing his mother's lands into his own. Although King and Queen Mother are now reconciled once more, it remains to be seen how long this tenuous peace can hold.

Once more Christian and Muslim take up arms against one another; and the intrigues among the Crusader States themselves can be as deadly as any Saracen or Turkish army. For one of the holiest places in the world, Jerusalem certain seems to feed the baser instincts of men...