Altair: A Record of Battles (2017)
Tughril Mahmut is a young pasha serving on the Divan of the Türkiye Stratocracy. The clouds of war are gathering over his country due to the threat of an aggressive Empire. With the Divan split between warmongers and the pacifists, Mahmut begins his quest to keep the peace at any cost. As he finds himself deeper and deeper in the politics of the ancient world, new enemies and allies surface. Who will prevail? What will Mahmut do if war proves to be inevitable?
Seasons & Episode
After being newly appointed as Pasha, Mahmut spends some time at a festival with his friend, Ibrahim, and meets Shara, a dancer who Ibrahim is friends with. The next day, Mahmut is called into the Divan to discuss the Balt-Rhein Empire's demands after an empire minister, Franz, is found dead at Türkiye's border. One Pasha, Zağanos, knows this a ploy for the empire to invade Türkiye and proposes a preemptive strike at them.
As everyone looks on in horror as Phoiníkē burns, Konstantinos tries to rally soldiers to defend the city, but Apollodorus sabotage the speaking tubes and scolds him for not seeing the reality of the situation. In order to save the citizens from slaughter, Apollodorus and the senate agree to surrender to Balt-Rhein and relay the message to everyone in the city.
Mahmut and Kyros learn the reason for Venedik's abandonment of Phoiníkē was to avoid making an enemy out of Balt-Rhein. While they accuse Doge Lucio for betraying the pact, Lucio pragmatically explains the loophole in the alliance and that they are willing to conduct business with the empire to continue to use the Phoiníkē's crystals for their trade.
With Röd Orm's presence in Mızrak, Mahmut deduces Louis is behind the four stratocracies' opposition of Türkiye. After fighting off Röd Orm and evading the Mızrak Cavalry, Mahmut and his group meet up with Süleyman, Beyazit, and Ayşe. Süleyman relays Mahmut the Divan's orders to start a rebellion against the current sultans and replace them with new rulers that will support the Greater Türkiye federation. The group travels to the Biçki Stratocracy's capital and finds that there are wanted posters for them.
With preparations for Orhan and Ayşe's wedding and the assassination underway, Ismail voices concerns about gaining public approval since the new rulers will claim the thrones dishonorably.
In a series of flashbacks, Louis persuades Balaban to join forces with Balt-Rhein, appealing to Balaban's long-sought dream of independence from Greater Türkiye. Concerned for his ambitious brother, Beyazit approach Zağanos to become one of his spies to safeguard his homeland and keep Balaban from going down a dark path. Present day, Mahmut explains to the others that the Divan is planning to take the other sultanates' capitals, thus they cannot expect reinforcements from Türkiye.
With Balaban's absence, Uzun leads his army to finish off Kiliç's forces, but Mahmut and his group arrive back with Balaban's severed head to show everyone that he has been defeated, prompting Uzun to withdraw. Ismail and Beyazit's gun unit follows Uzun, using the guns to cause panic and confusion among the soldiers and giving Ismail the chance to kill his father alone. After apprehending Fatma and her young son, Kemal, Mahmut and co. discuss whether to execute Fatma as protocol dictates for treason.
Following the naval battle, Venedik and Balt-Rhein sign a peace treaty over the wheat, and Venedik release the imperial prisoners. However, the empire's shipment of wheat was attacked by pirates and Admiral Lowe concludes that Venedik has purposely made sure the pirates run free in their territory, realizing Venedik now considers them an enemy.
At Balt-Rhein, Louis, Emperor Goldbalt IX, and their advisers prepare to take over the Centro city-states, despite the protests from Adviser Duke Eisenstein and General Corentin Pineau. At the Centro, Venedik notice that their rival nation, Republic of L'isonlani, was seen violating the secret pact between the eleven Centro nations by aiding the empire's navy ships from pirate attacks.
Mahmut, Erbach, and co. arrive at Chielo and meet the state-city's leader, Carvajal, and his secretary, Cassandra. With the Balt-Rhein army pillaging provisions around the surrounding areas, thousands of refugees come to Chielo (who has a strong welfare-based system) to seek aid and shelter. Despite this taking a toll of their food supply, Carvajal allows the refugees in and agrees to join the Anti-Imperial Alliance to safeguard Chielo.