Difference between revisions of "Kostadin the Black"
From PRIMUS Database
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Time fades even legend, and thus have the earliest years of Kostadin the Black been all but lost to history. Testimony from those prior affiliated with the necromancer have given some evidence to his birthplace being in the region of Elena, Bulgaria, but the authenticity of such has yet to be verified. Indeed much can be said for the vast majority of Kostadin's many years. | Time fades even legend, and thus have the earliest years of Kostadin the Black been all but lost to history. Testimony from those prior affiliated with the necromancer have given some evidence to his birthplace being in the region of Elena, Bulgaria, but the authenticity of such has yet to be verified. Indeed much can be said for the vast majority of Kostadin's many years. | ||
− | What is known from what historical record can be found, is that Kostadin | + | What is known from what historical record can be found, is that Kostadin first appeared sometime in the late fifteenth century in Ottoman controlled Bulgaria as an insurgent leader, identified at the time only by the surname “Vankov”. |
− | According to written reports within the archives of the Catholic Church, and collaborated by historical record held in the archives of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, | + | According to written reports within the archives of the Catholic Church, and collaborated by historical record held in the archives of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Vankov was the leader of a group known as the “Sinove na Bŭlgariya” or Sons of Bulgaria. Opinion differs as to the goal of the insurgency group. While Catholic record insists that they were intent on combating the abuses inflicted upon christian minorities by the Ottoman Empire, Islamic record insists they were little more than the latest in a long line of groups intent on reforming the old Bulgarian Empire. |
Whatever the goal of the insurgency was, it became quickly apparent that under the leadership of Vankov they were anything but your typical bandit or rebel group. Existing dispatches from the region by the Ottoman's forces paint the picture of a nomadic group of numerous armed rebels who operated in cells of thirty to sixty. Their knowledge of the land, habit of coordinating in force only when necessity dictated it, and penchant for using game trails to always stay on the march throughout the Balkans made them notoriously hard to track by conventional Ottoman forces. | Whatever the goal of the insurgency was, it became quickly apparent that under the leadership of Vankov they were anything but your typical bandit or rebel group. Existing dispatches from the region by the Ottoman's forces paint the picture of a nomadic group of numerous armed rebels who operated in cells of thirty to sixty. Their knowledge of the land, habit of coordinating in force only when necessity dictated it, and penchant for using game trails to always stay on the march throughout the Balkans made them notoriously hard to track by conventional Ottoman forces. | ||
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+ | It was also within these dispatches that the earliest recordings of Kostadin's use of what was then described as “witchcraft” were found. According to the documents, the insurgency's ability to coordinate ambushes at night, and to predict troop movement within their region of influence seemed almost supernatural. What was even more troubling for the Ottomans was Vankov's ability to uncover their own agents within the villages under the insurgency's area of influence. In that time frame, no less than a dozen men posing as civilians vanished without a trace. | ||
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Revision as of 19:02, 30 May 2018