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by The Realm of Topoliani. . 173 reads.

Dandi Axrimos - Old Canon

Grandmaster of Topoliani
Dandi Axrimos

LinkTheme
Personal Info

Born:

XX/XX/1169

Birthplace:

Athens, Byzantine Empire

Age:

41

Father:

Dareios Axrimos (Adoptive)

Mother:

Unknown Biological

Gender:

Male

Sexual Orientation:

Straight Closet Bi

Ideology Info

Political Ideology:

Absolutism

Economic Ideology:

Centrism

Misc Info

Religion:

Culture:

Greek

Traits:



"God has saved us once, hopefully he'll do it again" - Dandi

Dandi Axrimos is the 1st Grandmaster of Topoliani, former commander of the Great Demon War, Commander of Dandi’s Loyal Followers, and current record holder of most beers drunk in an hour. Dandi is the first, and so far only, Grandmaster of Topoliani. He is a despot but is fair and just in his rule. Many in Topoliani would call him a friend rather than a leader, as he is often found in the fields working alongside his men rather than 'trapped' inside his castle. While he does spend most of his time at his home of Topoliani, he is well known for traveling across the world in an attempt to see what's left of it. This exploration usually doesn't go far, however.


















Early Life

Dandi was orphaned as a baby after his parents mysteriously disappeared while he was still an infant. He was adopted by Dareios, a mercenary captain who presented himself as a rogue knight with an army of 'loyal followers'. Of course, Dareios was not actually a knight (The Orthodox Church did not sanction knighthood) but rather he managed to gain a fortune after the failed Serbian Revolt saw Dareios loot a castle with a few comrades. Despite this, he was still a good fighter and an amazing mercenary captain. For his amazing abilities as a commander, he was rather the lackluster father. This left Dandi to be raised by the mercenaries that accompanied his father, who raised him in their various crude and obscene ways. That's not to say his adoptive father didn't try, however, as his father used his free time to teach the growing boy basic literacy in Greek along with fighting tactics. Most importantly of all, however, he sat in the sidelines of battles his father fought. While he didn't know it at the time, he was taking mental notes, though his dad started making him take actual notes at around 10.

By the age of 11, the mercenary band had left Greece when the Komnenian restoration came to an end. Looking for work, they went to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. His father fought in the Battle of Al-Fule with Dandi himself watching from afar. Being 14, he again had to sit on the sidelines as the company fought. However, he was ambushed by 3 Ayyubids while picking berries. Being the stoic and brave boy he was, he charged at the men fist raised and got absolutely pummeled. The soldiers didn't even pull out their weapons, instead choosing to beat up the young Dandi. However, Dandi was eventually saved by the love of his life: Iseabail. Iseabail was a Scottish pilgrim and was 15 at the time of meeting Dandi. The Young Scotswoman was traveling from Acre to Jerusalem alone when she came across the sight of the young Dandi being beaten up. Acting quick on her heels, she threw a rock at the only soldier without a helmet but hit the armor instead. The soldiers, however, got distracted for just long enough that Dandi was able to kick one of the soldiers below the belt and grab his sword. Both ran in opposite directions, scattering the soldiers before they were picked off by crusaders.

After the battle was over, Dandi and Iseabail met up again. Though neither one could understand each other, she decided to follow the band of mercenaries for protection. As she slowly learned Greek, Dandi began to bond with her, though the feeling was only somewhat mutual. He, along with other mercenaries way more often, would sometimes get yelled at by both Iseabail and Dareios for trying to take things 'too far too quickly'. Despite Dandi's romantic advances, Iseabail found the young Dandi enduring enough to stick around for a couple of years as they wandered the Levant, Anatolia, and Egypt.

Life

At 16, Dandi officially was an adult and was allowed to join his father in battles. Which was immediately followed by the siege of Jerusalem, which they lost, but were allowed to leave peacefully. The battle caused Dandi to start thinking in more humanist terms, realizing that the supposed 'Evil Sacrens' that priests often preached were more human than he realized. Arguments began to break out between conservative Orthodox soldiers and those who thought in more humanist terms. None-the-less, the 3rd crusade broke out with Byzantine joining the crusades on the side of the Saracens. With his loyalties to the Byzantine Empire, Dareios joined the crusade on the side of Byzantium dragging Dandi and Iseabail with him.

At 1190, however, the Demons invaded. At first, they laughed at the thought of Demons attacking the holy city of Jerusalem, but their attitude quickly changed when a dragon flew overhead followed by several humanoid beings. Thinking that the world was ending, they fled to Constantinople, hoping to take refuge in the church of Hagia Sophia. By the time they reached the city, however, it was too late. Most of the city had been scorched to the ground, with what remains of the residents fleeing or hiding from demons. Dandi said nothing as his comrades marched to Athens in silence. By the time they reached the city, the city was on full alert with soldiers patrolling at all hours and most of the funding going towards supplying an ever-increasing army. Dandi described it as an invisible siege. All of their defenses quickly came apart when the demons finally attacked, quickly overwhelming the soldiers including Dareios' men. By the end of the siege: Dareios, 3/4ths of his army, and 4/5ths of the city were dead. Dandi himself was devastated, reportedly not talking, eating, or even leaving his tent for 3 days straight. By day 4, however, Dandi came out of his tent. Though tears covered his cheeks, he looked enraged. He made a fiery speech to what remained of Athens, screaming about the futility of hiding and running and how 'resistance is the only option'. Most of the peasants rolled their eyes at the 'madman', but he did manage to get more than 600 men and their families to join his ranks.

As they left the city to march to Scotland, at the time one of the last areas in Europe not ablaze due to its mountainous terrain, he buried his father where he found Dandi all those years ago. After saying his last goodbyes to his father, he adorned his armor (stolen from the Templars) and took his sword. With one last look at the city his father lived in, he marched upwards through the Balkans. Along the way, Iseabail trained with a spear, claiming that she wanted to fight alongside Dandi and his soldiers. Along the way, he was attacked by smaller detachments of demons, which allowed him to study the tactics of the invaders. He developed a form of guerilla warfare, reversing the tactics of his father and instead preferring hit and runs with small groups of units. He dubbed them 'The Dandi Square', though really they were overglorified squads with a mixture of infantry and ranged units. The tactics proved effective when he raided a demon camp with around 300 demons of all varieties, including a dragon. While losses, mostly injuries, were low; the demons were completely overwhelmed despite Dandi only using half his army (250 soldiers).

Despite his new tactics preventing demons from overwhelming him, traversing the ruined remains of mainland Europe proved to be a long and treacherous journey. He came across many towns, villages, and cities all under extremely different conditions and often stopped his entire army to help the locals in any way possible. His humanitarianism was eventually outshined by the annoyance and fear of his army, who just wanted to get off the continent in any way possible. Reluctantly, Dandi stopped his constant help instead promising to only stop if necessary. Though, he did finish up his task of providing cows to the mostly intact town of Ulm. As he continued to march towards the coast, he was caught up in a battle between King Phillip II of France and Demons in Luxembourg.

Although he did not play a major part in the battle, against his better judgment he helped the king attack the demons. 21 of his men died that day and the battle was lost but despite this, Dandi considered it the 'best mistake of his life'. His tactics were eventually copied by French commanders, which allowed them to inflict blows on demons that otherwise would not have been possible. As thanks, a low-born commander from Reims gave Dandi a dragon's tooth, an ornament he keeps to this day. Despite the setback, he continued marching to Calais and found an abandoned ship. Though none of them were sailors in the slightest, Dandi attempted to sail the ship anyways and ended up getting shipwrecked at Dover. He continued North on foot, avoiding major cities like London and York, and managed to reach Perth by 1192. Although it took him 2 years and nearly 100 men had either died or abandoned him, he had finally made it.

His celebrations were shortlived, however, as months later the Battle of Arbroath Heights began. Wanting to protect Perth, Dandi agreed to join on the side of the Scots. Similarly to the Battle of Luxembourg, Dandi's tactics were adopted by other combatants who saw the relative effectiveness of Dandi's soldiers. Although they were not as effective due to lack of training, the tactic was still adopted on a large scale and saw the demons repelled from Arbroath. With his help, the Scots were able to win the first major victory of the war. However, Dandi was not among the lords celebrating. Rather, he searched the battlefield like a man possessed looking for Iseabail. She had joined the soldiers in the battle, fighting for 11 days before going missing. For days, he searched through both the wounded and dead trying to find her. However, he was unable to find any trace of her. Once again grief-stricken, Dandi took to drinking as a way to cope.

His grief quickly added back onto his anger as he began looking for a way to defeat Satan himself. He left his men in Scotland and began traveling the world looking for a way to defeat him. He eventually made it to Ethiopia but decided to travel even southward towards the city of Mogadishu. Along the way, he met an old Somali Muslim named Sareeye Kooshin. Sareeye drugged Dandi with an herb that allowed him to understand the man along with all other human languages. Sareeye explained that he had fallen into a crack left by the Demons when he was in Mecca, sending him to hell. In hell, he discovered several technologies the demons were using to take over the world along with a few others. Among those was the Moloch Device, which Sareeye had a ‘blessed’ version of. He granted Dandi access to the device, who then used it to transport himself to hell itself. He was immediately chased out by angry demons, but in the process, he was able to steal several Moloch Devices as he returned to Earth.

His army in Scotland had nearly doubled by the time he returned, though Scotland herself was at war once again as Demons incursions from Liverpool had threatened to torch most of the country. He had explained to his soldiers what had happened while he was gone and how both Christian and Saracen could now take the fight to Satan himself. Initially, his men laughed it off as Dandi going nuts from traveling alone for so long. But when Dandi used his device to transport them to the Amazon, they quickly changed their minds. It was at this point, however, Dandi realized he did not know how to use it for travel inside a dimension as he meant to transport them to Dundee rather than the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. As the now, overheated, soldiers marched through the Amazon they came across a group of Yanomami tribesmen.

Initially, the tribesmen were not too friendly to the army of strange white men, and the feeling was mutual. However, thanks to the herbs the old man had given him, Dandi was able to talk both sides down and explained that he was able to travel here through Demonic technology but he himself was human. Both laid down their arms and Dandi learned that he was the first Christian they had seen. He learned of an entire continent far west of Europe and how they too were under attack by Demons. It was also here he learned of Demonic terraforming in occupied areas, as he saw the Amazon burn. In the heat of the sweltering jungle, his soldiers were poor fighters. However, the natives were able to utilize the jungle to their advantage and were able to achieve the first victory in the Americas (or, as it is known in Topoliani’s universe, Masithahi).

After leaving the Amazon, and leaving a device, he similarly traveled to several places around the world but fought in less serious battles or none at all. Along the way, he showed the locals his tactics and gave them the devices. After years of war, humanity was beginning to retake their land from the demons. Dandi too decided to go on the offensive. From Scotland, he invaded the occupied city of Dumfries. Although having a much smaller force (1000) compared to the demons (2000 + 3 dragons), he managed to draw them outside their fortifications and exhaust their resources and morale until they were weakened enough to be defeated. However, the war became draining on the morale of his army as many began questioning the leadership of Dandi.

Realizing the fruitlessness of his war, he began thinking. After much deliberation, he realized that with most of Satan’s forces on the Earth, Hell would be an easy target for invasion. He went to the leaders of the largest armies on Earth and announced his idea of a final stand of humanity. Though some leaders laughed at the idea of invading hell, many others agreed to join him. By the end of the year, he had amassed an army of 23 million, which was nearly half of the armies of the world and 1/5th of the world’s remaining population. By Scotland’s noon, Men from as far east as Siberia and far west as California entered hell. Dandi himself was not the leader of the invasion, but rather the charismatic King of Poland led the charge with Dandi acting as a mere translator. Dandi, however, fought bravely with his men none-the-less. For his bravery, however, he was blinded by rage against the demons and often took unnecessary risks that got him in deep trouble. It was this trouble that broke his leg and forced him to reluctantly hide in his tent as the rest of the armies attack Satan himself. Despite his injury, he used a crossbow as a cane and limped towards the battlefield. As the battle was beginning to end, he managed to find a nice cliff to fire upon as he took several shots at Satan. His effectiveness is unknown, but what is known is that a few bolts ended up blinding Satan’s right eye.

There was no official peace treaty with Satan, but it did agree to send no more demons to Earth and “stop influencing humans”. Along with this, Dandi demanded the revival of his dead comrades, friends, and family, to which Satan proclaimed his lack of power to revive the dead. Although his involvement in the final battle was nothing to shake out, he left Hell feeling happy for mankind’s victory but feeling that he had personally achieved nothing other than getting himself injured and culling his men. However, Dandi’s demeanor changed immensely after the war. He was more appreciative and kind, even more so than before the war, and became a lot more socially active compared to the brooding and silent man he was during the war.

He returned to Scotland after the war, only to find it a much more hostile land than it was when he left it. The King of Scotland had died and the country was thrown into chaos as the ancient tribes reclaimed most of the country. In fact, all over the world most of the world had become tribal and savage with most cities being destroyed and central authority non-existent. To top it all off, most of the land that wasn’t inhabited by angry tribals was barely habitable or uninhabitable altogether. This made it hard for Dandi and his horde of peasants and cranky soldiers to settle down. Eventually, Dandi managed to find the land of Topoliani. While he did not know it was the former Holy City of Jerusalem itself, he stated that the area had a certain “Holy Aura” about it when he decided to settle down near the upper part of the Sorek River. With that, Dandi had founded Topoliani.

Reign and Ideology

Dandi could have made Topoliani anything he had wanted, and indeed in early Topolianian history, he is shown as being dictatorial as he often disregarded the opinions of others. However, rather than barking orders from his shoddily-built castle, he was in the fields and streets helping to build the home of his people. While building Topoliani, he had devised a 'two town' policy. Realizing that, given the limited amount of space, a town of nearly 2000 would be hard to maintain he devised a second town further down-river. This town, called Alba Ùr, would hold the Catholic Church and Dandi heavily encouraged Catholics to move to the town. It wasn't a bright decision on his part, but he did anyway, and thus the two towns were made. However, Alba Ùr would later be suddenly abandoned in 1208 due to a supposed curse placed on the town, meaning that the town of Topoliani would double in population.

In 1205, Dandi wrote the code of laws titled ”Of Labourers and Artisans”. This was in response to an argument between him, the mayor of Alba Ùr, and the Orthodox Priest. In the argument, the Mayor wanted to bring back Serfdom upon the peasants that make up the majority of the nation while the Priest wanted to enforce Orthodoxy on both the Muslims who had immigrated to the nation and the Catholics. The laws proclaimed how future leaders of Topoliani should treat the ‘commoners’ and acts as a bill of rights over the nation. Ideas of Humanism fill the code, with religious and personal freedom being one of the main issues of the code. It got mixed opinions by the general populous but angered the Church and Mayor of Alba Ùr. However, Dandi was able to maintain relations with both through his generally likable personality and fear of demons.

It was under Dandi's influence that allowed Topoliani to be, De Facto, founded in 1207. While Topoliani as a town existed for nearly a decade, Dandi legitimized it in a ceremony. His mercenary organization was disbanded, replaced instead by a new government. A charter was signed by Him, The Mayors, and the 20 Cataphracts and Knights of Topoliani. With that, he had founded the Community of Topoliani and he was dubbed the first Grandmaster of Topoliani. Along with this, he was given the title of 'Keeper of the Holiest City of Jerusalem, Blessed Be God' by both the Orthodox Priest and Catholic Priest. The title was completely made up, but he none-the-less accepted it.

After he officially founded the community, Dandi had relaxed his power over the community. While he theoretically has unlimited power over the region, he has since only used it for basic maintenance or in cases of emergencies. While he does have ambitions to expand, he has allowed his people to live peaceful lives for the time being with most major changes being unexecuted plans for the time being. This excludes the war against a bandit group in Bethlehem, who later surrendered and allowed Topoliani to annex the land.

Policies
Since taking power Dandi has enacted a series of policies, they have resulted in:

  • Founding of Topoliani

  • Writing and Signing of “Of Labourers and Artisans”

  • Building the “Mikri Sofia” and “Bhatican Ùr” Churches

  • Accepting the 50 Persian Refugees

  • Criminalizing Witch Burning

  • Legalizing Public Drunkeness

Political Opinions

Dandi is considerably liberal for his time period, through would be considered conservative by most of the modern world. Many of his ideas come from his upbringing from his laidback mercenary friends and his father’s egalitarian teachings regarding other religions, women, and ethnicities. Along with this, both the crusades and war against demons exposed him to the greater world along with their many philosophies.

First and foremost, he believes in basic rights for the common man. He has heard of the lifestyle of many of his mercenary comrades before the war and considered disgusting compared to his relatively liberated life. As such, he believes certain rules should be put in place to protect the common man from the exploitation of the upper classes. He also is heavily for secularism and ethnic tolerance. Though many in his religion would say otherwise, he believes that the church should not be allowed to force its will upon others. Likewise, he does not believe any ethnic group is superior to the other and as such should be protected under law.

Politically speaking, he does not prefer one system over the other. He has stated his opinion on all known forms of Government with various neutral expressions. Similarly, his economic opinions are neutral. However, he has stated that he would wish that any system prevents exploitation as much as possible.

Pro and Anti

  • Pro: Commoner’s Rights, Secularism, Ethnic Tolerence

  • Neutral: Monarchism, Women’s Rights

  • Anti: Exploitation, Constant War, Theocrats, Ethnic Discrimination

Personal Life

Dandi is lives in a small castle on a hill named ‘Axrimos Castle’. While he is the richest person in Topoliani, he is constantly in debt to the local taverns due to his alcoholism. In fact, he spends most of his free time drinking, eating, or otherwise carousing with the common citizen of Topoliani. He is extremely skeptical of the Christian faith but still believes that there is a god out there and he still goes to church every Sunday.

While he is normally happy, he is often subject to mood swings that cause him to become angry or otherwise dejected. He is normally able to control himself when they happen, but sometimes his mood swings cause him to do irrational and rash things. These include attempting to kick down the house of a peasant who accidentally tripped him, getting into bar brawls, and isolating himself from the world for several hours.

Dandi is very much in love with his childhood lover, Iseabail. While he has gotten quite the unfortunate reputation as being a rakehell, he has not felt any strong romantic feelings for anyone other than Iseabail. Along with his attractions to women, he has privately written several letters regarding men as attractive to him as well. Luckily for him, most take it as quite humorous rather than his actual feelings, which says he is thankful for in other letters.

While normally Dandi is nominally sedimentary, he has an adventurous spirit in his heart. Probably planted by his father and grown by the war, he has occasionally used the Moloch device to travel the Earth. These escapades are usually just him exploring the ruins of fallen civilizations from as far away as Puget Sound, however, he occasionally finds items, people, or events of note. This includes the 'great pillar of fire' in the center of the Sahara, the village of 'New Venice' in Manhattan, and his long-lost lover of Iseabail

One day, he left Topoliani without a trace. His Moloc Device was missing and, as such, it was presumed he went traveling again. Indeed, he had, as he was in Scotland a couple of miles away from the former city of Elgin. It had been several days before Dandi returned to a concerned populous. The citizenry was shocked and surprised when they saw Dandi talking to Iseabail, a woman most had taken for dead. Dandi proudly presented her around the town like a child with a toy as the pair publically wooed each other. Despite this, he is not embarrassed when people bring it up, stating how he was just happy to have her back and wanted the world to see it.

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The Realm of Topoliani

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