April 13th, 1187, Lordship of Tyre, Kingdom of Jerusalem

▪────"Regina, mater misericordiae:
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle."────▪

Less than a hundred years ago, a Crusade was preached in order to reclaim the Holy Land from its Saracen invaders. This military expedition, struggling with disease, hunger, and weariness achieved what was believed by many at that point to be virtually impossible: retaking Jerusalem.

Much has changed ever since the fateful days of 1099, the position of the Latin States of Outremer has steadily worsened. The Fall of Edessa, followed by a failed Second Crusade, and then by the loss of a weak truce with Damascus, led to Queen Bealdwine III of Jerusalem's ill-fated invasion of Egypt in 1169.

The disaster in Egypt enabled Salahadina's rise to power, which united both, Syria, and Egypt under one Sultana. This union of realms effectively surrounded the vulnerable Christian kingdoms and deprived them of potential allies in the region, effectively isolating them from the rest of the world, owing to strained relations with Byzantium and a lack of reinforcements from the West.

Naturally, this weakness was evident to the recently crowned Queen Bealdwine IV, who sought to curb Ayyubid power by all means, who planned an invasion of Egypt after her raid on the Beqaa Valley, which never took place due to the collapse of the Jerusalemite-Byzantine alliance. This situation put Jerusalem on the back foot and led to the Battle of Montgisard against Saladina. By way of a stroke of luck, Bealdwine's forces defeated Saladina. However, manpower issues prevented them from fully crushing the Ayyubids. Following this engagement, a truce was signed which was due to expire in 1182, but it was cut short by Regina of Sidon, who seized a merchant caravan travelling from Damascus to Egypt. This violation led to the Battle of Le Forbelet. The battle prompted yet another Ayyubid withdrawal, and enabled Bealdwine to end the naval blockade imposed by Saladina.

Following Bealdwine's death, her niece, Bealdwine V ascended the throne, and a short-lived truce was negotiated, which ended upon Guylaine de Lusignan's ascension to the throne, and subsequent defeat at the Horns of Hattin, which created the conditions to cause the fall of Jerusalem.

Map of Outremer, c. 1099

Kingdom of Jerusalem, c.1189

▪────────────────────────────────▪

Friederike Éléonora von Rotenhan, as per the chronicles, was born in Catania to the Lady of Motta Sant’Anastasia, and the Lord of Aci Reale. Rebellious and troublesome since her early teens, Friederike, or Rike, as people tend to call her, was put by her mother under the custody of the Lady de Cidrac, a Hospitaller Knight, in hopes of correcting Frederike's behavior. While Lady de Cidrac was strict and demanding, Friederike's time as her squire did little to change her ways, and she would frequently find ways to avoid her duties and to do as her heart pleased.

Following the events of the Battle of Le Forbelet, Lady de Cidrac decided to join her Hospitaller sisters in the Holy Land, and after a long, grueling trip, arrived at the Holy Land in early 1187. Owing to the length of the trip from Sicily to Jerusalem, Friederike fell severely ill on the march towards Hattin, and was forced to remain at La Saphorie, where news of the Crusader defeat prompted her to flee despite her illness.

Upon recovering from her illness, Friederike returned to Catania where, free to pursue her desires, she lived a relatively decadent lifestyle until she was threatened with disinheritance by her mother, who demanded that she join a monastery until she passed. However, in an act of rebellion, Friederike joined the Hospitallers. Unexpectedly, this pleased her mother and forced Friederike, now caught in the middle of masses of people travelling through Catania (including multiple Hospitallers), to take up the Cross and join the hosts of the Third Crusade.