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“Prussia!” Lithuania’s head shot up from where he had been resting it on the conference table. Scanning the room, he looked around for his older brother, before remembering that he was gone. And had been gone for a very long time. The Teutonic Order and Church had made sure of that, along with Lithuanian’s other siblings. Lithuania was the last of his siblings, and even he at a time had almost disappeared. Then the Teutonic Order took the name of his brother and used it for himself, Prussia. Now his brother is forgotten in favour of his murderer. His brothers name is now tarnished by the actions of the German bastard. Then again, most of the nations forget how strong he had been before his lands where taken and he was pretty much made a slave to Russia. Some days he longed for the peace of his childhood, before all the deaths and fighting, just being able to play in the woods instead of having to deal with paperwork and the other nations. But above all he missed his family, his eldest brother Prussia, his twin Žemaitija, his sister Lettigalliana, and the other Baltic tribes, all gone, or part of the surrounding serving nations. He was now the last one left. The last true Baltic.
At least he still had his religion. Like his previous king, Mindaugas, Lithuania had only pretended to convert to Christianity when Poland had demanded he convert for their alliance. But in truth he remained pagan, many of his people had died for the right to remain following their gods, he was not going to abandon them and their sacrifices by following the Christian god. He had kept his Gods for all these years anyway, why change who he worshiped now. And, why follow one god when you could follow many instead. But he hid his true religion, pretended to be Catholic like Poland. Even for nations, their religion could be dangerous, humans changed their minds so quickly and religion was one of their favourite things to fight about. Even nations were not safe from their humans when it came to religion. Lithuania knew many of the nations still carried scars from their religious choices.
His childhood in the forests and marshes of the Baltic region had been hard for sure but in a different way to now. He was no one’s servant, free to do what he pleased. But it was not always peaceful. His people and his siblings people often fought and raided each other, and Lithuania often had to face his siblings on these raids, but he tried to avoid them if possible. Even with the raids, he was mostly left alone, there were much bigger nations, that the Baltic region was often overlooked. But that peace did not last forever.
At first Lithuania did not want the war and death but the people saw it as a need, a need to expand, a need for power. As he got older the need for him to be able to fight grew stronger, as a way for him to keep his independence and remain free. To protect his people, Lithuania would learn to fight, to become stronger. Maybe one day becoming one of the strongest, then maybe his family and people would not fight anymore. But first blood was going to be spilled, and often. Some of them were unknown others were his siblings, hoping to expand. He knew it wasn’t really them, but their bosses but it still hurt, they burnt his lands and took his people, and it hurt just as much when he had to do it back. But Lithuania still loved his siblings, and he did not want to be left alone in the world.
That day came sooner than Lithuanian would have liked. One by one his siblings were gone. It started with Livonia, although not related Lithuania had grown up with her, she and her people were forced to convert. She and Lettigalliana left behind a child when they went, decades later, who would become Latvia. One of the only links back to his family. Following Livonia went his sister Lettigalliana, then Ösel, Curonia and Estonia’s lands were split. It was not all of Teutonic’s fault, he knew he was responsible as well for some of his sibling’s deaths. He’d played a role in the killing off his own twin, absorbing his land and people and leaving his brother as little more than a voice in his head, and then gave parts of that land to that bastard Teutonic. He hated himself for that. He had the blood of his family on his hands.
If only he’d started off a stronger nation and realised that if he united with his brothers they could have driven Teutonic away, instead of being divided and only realising too late that if he didn’t fight back, he too would die. Prussia’s death made him realise that. His eldest brother who was turned into a servant for the Teutonic Knights for years before he finally disappeared. Then Teutonic blackened his name, taking the name Prussia for himself. Making people believe that Prussia was German all along, when Teutonic was not really even German in the first place, he was born of German people yes, but was found in Jerusalem. He should not have ever existed; all he did was cause pain. Lithuania may have helped, but it was Teutonic that took away his family.
“Hay, Lithuania why are you glaring so hard at Prussia?”, America snapped Lithuania out of his memories.
“He killed my brothers and sisters”. Lithuania answered calmly.
“What?! Latvia and Estonia are still alive, aren’t they?” I could not blame him; he was not even around then and everyone else seems to have forgotten them as well. We’ve lived so long that sometimes we need to forget things, else we would be driven mad, and the easiest parts to forget is about those who we were not close too and are now gone. China’s missing years of his history, and some of the parts he does remember gets muddled up in his head.
“No, Latvia’s more like a nephew and Estonia is more related to Finland than me, although we did know each other when we were younger. I meant the other Baltic tribes, but I’m the only one left now.” America nodded, offering words of empty comfort for people he did not even know existed.
Lithuania was tired and dirty. He did not feel like the dirt, sweat and blood would ever come off his clothes or him. He was walking at the back of the army, if Teutonic Knight decided to follow their retreat, he would have more of a chance to warn the others. If Teutonic did come back for another round, he did not know how much longer they would last. They were on limited supplies; they would have to send another raiding party soon if they wanted to make it back with enough supplies to last the winter season.
Lithuania did not want to convert. The Christian God had taken almost all of his siblings, whoes to say that if they did convert, he also would not disappear, and another nation take his place. His gods had protected him so far, but he knew there were murmurs that the Duke was thinking of calling a truce and converting. Nations were supposed to obey their leaders, Lithuania knew that when that day came, he would not convert, he had promised Prussia that much. He had promised that he would remain true to their joint roots.
His elder brother had fought back. Even when all seemed lost and much of his people were under Teutonic rule. He still fought back. He had come to Lithuania in the dead of night, covered in wounds, barley dressed. He thanked Lithuania for sending aid and accepting his people who had gotten out but said that he could not fight anymore, that the Prussians belonged to the Teutonic Order now.
“Little brother, I’m sorry. My nobles they have accepted the Teutonic Rule. Too many of my people have died. I hope I have given you time to grow strong enough that you can fight and succeed. Please Lithuania you need to be strong. Do not accept any less than independence, of yourself and your people. As long as you keep your faith, your people will remain strong.”
“No Prussia. I can convince the duke to send you more men. You cannot go. You can’t leave us.”
“It will be okay; my people will live on even if I die. I just needed you to promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“That you won’t convert. Stay strong as a pagan, show them that their God is not the only one. Also, that if you find your independence taken from you, you will not stop fighting till you are independent again.”
“I promise.”
“Liet! What do you think?” Poland slapped his newly painted nails in front of Lithuania’s face. Not even bothering to pretend to pay attention to the meeting. Lithuania made the required noise of agreement and Poland went back to painting. Poland had changed a lot since then as well, he acted more confidently. Although their relationship was better now. Lithuania could never completely forgive Poland for what he and his leaders had done to Lithuania over their centuries of history.
His duke had decided to surrender. He decided that they could not fight anymore. That they should give up. They should forget the sacrifice of Lithuania’s brother to give them the best chance at keeping them free. No, he decided to marry that Polish girl, to accept Christianity. Said when they converted the fighting would stop. But Lithuania knew that his people would not accept that, he had seen his sibling’s peoples rise up against the Knights, even Livonia and Estonia had rebellions. The fighting would not stop until Teutonic was dead. And Lithuania would be happy to be that person to kill the Knight.
‘My people won’t surrender Aukštaitija,’ Žemaitija said in his head.
‘They won’t convert, they will stand up and fight for their beliefs. Like you should be doing. Not standing there and accepting defeat.’ He continued. Lithuania knew his brother was right. The people would not accept this change. They would fight back. He would fight back.
“I will not surrender. I promised that I would never convert, and I mean it. For our siblings, for the others who were forced to convert. I shall remain pagan.” Lithuania promised. He would not be made to become a Christian; he would remember his origin.
The wedding was a grand affair, The Union of the Grand Dutchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland was big news. The Catholic country taking the little pagan people under his wing. Lithuania stood of to the side. His boss did not believe that he was strong enough, he wanted another nation. Apart from on the battlefield Lithuania had never really interacted with the other nations, except the other Baltic tribes. What was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to act? Žemaitija would know what to do, and so would Prussia, they were the ones who interacted with the other nations more. Why could not they be the ones to have survived.
No, he had to be strong. He was the only one left. If this alliance meant that Teutonic stopped attacking, then maybe his people could return to the old ways.
Lithuania faked his way through his baptism, said the words at the right moment and did what was expect of him. But in his heart, he knew that he would stay true, and made a separate vow. He would remain pagan, he would not forget his family, and he would regain his independence.
The doors of the meeting room banged open as the nations started leaving. Lithuania quickly gathered up his papers and hurried out of the room, following the stream of nations into the streets of Brussels. He had kept his promise to himself and his family, he was independent once more and had managed to hide his true faith from the others.