十年战争的故事#8
来源：http://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/tales-of-the-ten-years-war-part-8，以下由HeavenK翻译。
雄鹿皇帝 – 850 YSD – The Stag Emperor
出人意料的声明 – An Unexpected Announcement
After the defeat of Amílcar, the alliance between Griffin and Wolf marched west, with the intent of supporting Rowena of Unicorn who was struggling to wage war on two opposite fronts. But soon after they had passed the border between the Bull and Greyhound Duchies, unexpected messengers presented themselves to every single commander, generals, and of course Duke and Duchess. To say these couriers materialized out of thin air would not be an overstatement. They were the Glories of Elrath.
在阿米卡被击败不久，狮鹫和恶狼联军开赴西线，前往支援正在试图将战事推进到对手前线的独角兽女大公罗温娜。但当他们还没穿过公牛和灵缇公国边界不久，意想不到的信使出现在每一个指挥官、将军，当然也包括公爵和女大公们的面前。这并不是夸张的说法，因为这些信使真的是从薄雾中现身的，它们是艾尔拉思的耀灵。
These Light Elementals were often used by the Church of Light when they needed to deliver messages in a timely fashion. This time, the message the Glories were delivering was simple: an Emperor had been chosen. And that Emperor was none other than Seamus na Feidh, Duke of Stag.
这些光元素常常被圣光教会用来在紧急时刻传递消息。这一次，耀灵所带来的消息很简单：皇帝已经被选出来了。而这位皇帝不是别人，正是雄鹿公爵，谢玛斯·纳·费吉。
The news came as a great shock and surprise to most belligerants, as the Church had remained relatively quiet in the previous years, and after the debacle of the Conclave of the New Dawn, their legitimacy to choose a new ruler for the Empire was heavily disputed. As it turned out, the Church had rallied behind the charismatic figure of Archbishop Wilhelm. A hero of the War of the Broken Staff, Wilhelm had chosen to support Seamus’ claim, and had managed to convince the ecclesiastical authorities to do the same, in the interest of pacifying an Empire that was ripping itself apart.
这一消息给所有人都带来巨大的震惊，教会在最近数年来一直默默无闻，特别是从新晓议会崩溃以后，他们作为选帝者的合法性受到重创。但是现在，教会在极富魅力的大主教威廉的领导下团结起来。作为断杖之战的英雄，威廉选择支持谢玛斯的宣称权，并以为了将分崩离析的帝国平静下来的理由，设法说服了神职当局做出相同的选择。
After seven years of war, the people of the Holy Empire were all too willing to let the Church decide who should rule them in exchange of a return to peace and stability.
经过七年的战争，神圣帝国的人民都愿意接受教会所决定的统治者，以换取和平与稳定。
Immediately, Enguerrand of Greyhound and Amílcar of Bull put their pride and ambition aside and swore featly to the new Emperor. A few weeks later, under pressure from her people, Rowena of Unicorn had to lay down arms and bend the knee. But while the announcement had effectively brought a temporary end to the fighting, peace was still a faraway dream, as Ivan and Stefan still refused to acknowledge the new Emperor.
很快，灵缇公爵昂格朗和公牛公爵阿米卡就放下了自己的骄傲与野心，宣誓效忠于新皇帝。数周之后，独角兽女大公罗温娜在自己人民的压力下也选择放下武器屈膝效忠。但是尽管这一宣称有效地带来了暂时的停战，真正的和平却还只是个遥远的梦想，因为伊凡和斯蒂芬拒绝承认新皇帝。
内部圣战 – The Inner Crusades
Seamus set his imperial court in Horncrest, which was already the capitol of the Stag Duchy. One of his first imperial decrees was to repatriate the Crusader Orders. These regiments were the remnants of the forces that had once hunted the Orc rebels to the ends of the known world. Scattered in the Sahaar Desert and other dangerous areas on the Empire’s borders, the Crusaders had spent the last few centuries keeping a watchful eye on the Empire’s neighbours. Only the Emperor had the power to recall them.
谢玛斯将自己的王庭设在了弘克莱斯特，原先的雄鹿公国首府。他的第一个赦令就是召集圣战团回国。这些军团属于当年被派往已知世界尽头猎杀兽人叛乱的部队所属残余势力。他们分散在萨哈沙漠和帝国边境的其他危险地区，这些远征军们最近的几百年内主要在监视帝国的邻居们。只有皇帝有权召集他们。
In a public address amidst the ruins of Falcon’s Reach, Seamus tasked the Crusaders with bringing bread and other resources to the most devastated areas of his dominion, crafting for himself the image of a just and generous ruler. He quickly became popular among the citizens of the Empire.
在法肯里奇废墟中的一场公开演讲上，谢玛斯下令远征军将面包和其他资源运往帝国最困难的地方，这给他打造出了一副公平和蔼的统治者形象。很快，他便受到了帝国人民的广泛欢迎。
Ambassadors of the neighbouring nations made the trip to Seamus’ court, to gauge the new master of the world’s most powerful nation. We are lucky that the delegation sent by the Silver Cities included none than Ivan’s old “friend”, Tanis of House Anima. After a few months at Seamus’ court, Tanis began sending Ivan reports of the matters discussed in Horncrest, and what was truly going on in the Stag Emperor’s lands.
邻近国度的大使也纷纷来到谢玛斯的王庭，打算试探一下这位世界上最强大国度的新统治者。对我们来说幸运的是，银色联盟派来的代理人不是别人，正是伊凡的老朋友，灵谕学派的塔尼斯。在谢玛斯的王庭待了几个月后，塔尼斯开始给伊凡发送许多关于目前正在弘克莱斯特所讨论的事情，以及雄鹿皇帝的领地上真正发生了什么的消息。
Seamus had explained the Crusaders would help restore order and justice in the Empire, as most of the Empire’s armies had been decimated during the seven years of inner conflict. But Tanis’ information made apparent that their real purpose was actually to enforce Seamus’ authority, by force of arms if needed.
谢玛斯宣称远征军将回来帮助重建帝国的秩序和正义，因为大部分帝国的部队都在七年的内战中消耗殆尽。但是塔尼斯的消息指出，他们真正的目标是加强谢玛斯的统治，如果必要的话就采取武力。
Many arrests were made to get rid of “seditious elements”. Villages were burnt to the ground for having displayed sympathies towards Ivan or Stefan in the past. While Seamus was distributing bread in one of the Empire’s corner, his Crusaders were perpetrating mass executions in another.
许多人都被逮捕，以消灭所谓的煽动分子。那些曾经对伊凡或斯蒂芬表示过同情的村落都被夷为平地。当谢玛斯在帝国的一处发放面包的时候，他的圣战士们则在另一处实施着大清洗。
战火重燃 – Resumption of Hostilities
Even after Tanis’ reports had been confirmed by my own agents, Ivan was not willing to take any action against the Emperor. There was one last person he wanted to get in touch with before going to war. That person was Nolwenn, Seamus’ eldest daughter, with whom Ivan was in a relationship before the war. Ivan remembered Seamus as a good man that Nolwenn loved dearly -- he needed to know how much of it remained in the man now sitting on the imperial throne.
即使在塔尼斯的密报被我们自己的探子所证实之后，伊凡仍然不愿意对皇帝采取任何行动。在开始战争之前，他还有最后一个人想要联系上。这个人正是诺尔温，谢玛斯的大女儿，也是伊凡战前的爱人。伊凡记忆中的谢玛斯仍然是那个诺尔温所深爱的好人，他必须要弄清楚，如今坐在王位上的这个人内心还保留着多少当年的善良。
After many manoeuvres and shenanigans that would be too long and tedious to detail here and now, I managed to arrange a meeting between Nolwenn and Ivan in Talonguard, a castle built by Ivan’s ancestor Anton of Griffin.
在经过了一系列冗长到这里无法详述的策略和计谋之后，我设法安排了诺尔温与伊凡在伊凡的祖先狮鹫公爵安东所修建的塔伦嘉德城堡的会面。
According to Nolwenn, her father had grown obsessed with the idea of becoming Emperor after Maeve’s death. Now that he had achieved his goal, he was subject to frequent mood swings, as well as fits of anger and depression. At first Nolwenn had interpreted this behaviour as resulting from the -- understandable -- stress of his new responsibility, and had been doing her best to appease him. But Seamus was becoming less and less tolerant of his daughters’ kindness, even growing suspicious of her motives. A few days earlier, he had accused her of conspiring against him. Nolwenn was pained to admit it, but her love for her father was turning to fear.
据诺尔温所言，她的父亲在玫芙女皇死后，就被成为皇帝这个念头所蛊惑了。如今已经达到了这一目标的他，却被不断的情绪波动所困，时而愤怒时而沮丧。起初，诺尔温以为是由于他说面临的新的职责所带来的压力导致了这一行为，于是她尽量安抚自己的父亲。但是谢玛斯却越来越无法忍受自己女儿的好心，甚至开始怀疑她的动机。不久以前，他宣布自己的女儿意图谋反。诺尔温不愿承认，但是她内心对父亲的爱却早已化作了恐惧。
By the time she left, Ivan had made up his mind. Using Talonguard as his base of operations, he would gather his and Stefan’s forces, march on Horncrest and remove Seamus from the Holy Throne. Of course, thanks to the information I had obtained on my end, he already knew that beyond the borders of the Stag Duchy, Seamus was also preparing for war…
当她走后，伊凡下定决心。他将塔伦嘉德作为自己的行动基地，在此召集他和斯蒂芬的部队，向弘克莱斯特进发，以将谢玛斯从王位上赶下来。当然，在我通过自己的内线所搜集到的消息的帮助下，伊凡早已知晓，在雄鹿公国的境内，谢玛斯也在准备着战争……
