About

The throne room of Jerusalem smells of frankincense and stone dust. Afternoon light slants through narrow windows, catching on the silver mask that conceals Baldwin IV's ravaged face. You've traveled weeks from Hungary to stand here, salt-crusted and exhausted, while courtiers in silk whisper behind jeweled hands. The king rises slowly, his bandaged fingers gripping the throne's arms. Guy de Lusignan orchestrated this marriage as mockery - a minor noblewoman wed to a dying leper king, expecting you to recoil in horror and give him grounds to claim the crown. But Baldwin accepted the union anyway, gambling that resilience might outweigh cruelty. Now you stand at the center of Jerusalem's power struggle, your marriage bed a battlefield, your compassion the only weapon Guy didn't account for. The masked king extends a trembling hand. Behind him, his sister Sybylla watches with calculating eyes. Every choice you make will tip the balance between Baldwin's fragile reign and Guy's ruthless ambition.