Alexander the Great is the main protagonist from Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War, Alexander campaign. He was the prince of Macedonia, the younger son of Philip II, the brother of Tiberius and after his father's death, the king of the Macedonians and the Greeks.
Biography[]
Alexander was the youngest son of King Philip II, the King of Macedonia and the Prince of Macedonia. However, when Alexander was twenty years old, his father was murdered by two people. One was the Greek-born Persian commander, Memnon of Rhodes, and the other was the second prince of Macedonia, Alexander's older brother Tiberius. Memnon then launched an invasion of Greece and Macedonia, while traitors and Greek mercenaries caused further chaos and destruction. Meanwhile, Alexander was in the palace garden with his favorite seer, Aristander, when a courier ran into the capital, Pella, and told him that his father had been slayed. After Memnon destroyed and exterminated a small Macedonian village, he launched an attack on Pella, and the messenger advised the young prince to flee. However, he firmly refused this and decided to defend the capital, even though Aristander believed that the boy still had much to learn. He then marched in front of the soldiers to the main square and ordered them to prepare for the attack. The great army of the Persians set out, although Memnon did not personally take part in the battle, and although the army was diverse and strong, it was not the strongest of the Persian armies. The initial attack went well for a while, but stalled and when the catapults were deployed, Alexander launched a counterattack with reinforcements from the back gate. The siege engines were destroyed and the Persians retreated, making it his first major victory.
After that, Alexander decided that he should deal with the treacherous Greeks and organize an army against the Persians, and he aimed to push the borders of his country to the edge of the world. Two generals seemed to be his best allies, Demetrius and Parmenion. The two generals camped near a larger village, Demetrius in the west and Parmenion in the east. Alexander set off with ten hoplites, but he was attacked by Greek mercenaries paid by Memnon at one of the village outposts. He then headed west, where he found an outpost of Demetrius's soldiers, but was greeted by an unexpected sight. He found the remains of an entire village, where the buildings were either destroyed or burned, and the inhabitants were treated in various ways. Innocents were burned, killed, hanged, locked in cages and the survivors were tortured to death in various ways. Alexander was also appalled at the cruel destruction that Demetrius and his soldiers had wrought, and he also saw that he too was a traitor, a mercenary of Memnon, and a threat to the throne. The traitors had not yet attacked him, but he was adamant and decided to approach Parmenion for an alliance. In the camp, Alexander explained his goal and mentioned his plans for world domination, and he gave respect to the general, who was initially a little sarcastic, but at the same time he liked the determination and courage of the young Macedonian. However, he immediately treated the general's soldiers as if they were his own, who only looked at the ambitious king strangely, but then Parmenion gave them the order to march. At the same time, the general knew that they could not defeat Demetrius without well-trained and tough soldiers, so he decided to train the hoplites himself, which Alexander approved. Parmenion was in no hurry and although it took some time, he eventually managed to train the hoplites well, who became tough, experienced and strong soldiers. Then the army led by Alexander attacked Demetrius and his army and the battle was quickly decided. The well-trained, tenacious and tough hoplites quickly killed Demetrius’ warriors, who dueled against Alexander, but was injured and instead left his troops behind and fled to a hill where his main army was. The Macedonian king and his troops pursued him, but the traitors set them in a trap, because they rolled large rocks at them, but they avoided them. They then managed to get up the hill where they were already waiting, but the hoplites and Parmenion did not go any further. The general said that the soldiers doubted Alexander's leadership skills, so the young king decided to use his courage to inspire them to continue fighting. He rushed alone to Demetrius's army, and the hoplites saw that the king was not talking to the air and was actually fighting them, so they went after him to join the fight. Demetrius held out here until the end, and he also had horsemen and archers, but he was no match for Alexander, and in the end he killed the treacherous general, and his army was completely destroyed.
A messenger then came to Alexander, who told him that his father had been assassinated by Memnon and his brother Tiberius, and that they had been seen leaving with the king's crown. Alexander was angry with Memnon, but he did not want to believe that his brother was also involved in this, he believed that he had been tricked and wanted to go after them. Aristander warned Alexander that they did not have enough resources to build a fleet and pursue the enemy, but the young Macedonian king believed that Memnon's allies, the Greeks in Pydna, had it. The seer doubted whether it was a good idea to attack a Greek city, but in the king's eyes they were traitors who were allied with the Persians and he invited the seer with him to see what he would do.
The young king and Pamenion did not arrive in front of the city of Pydna with a large army, but the number was not small. Some royal soldiers walked out of the city gate, wondering how their enemy's plans for world domination were progressing, who replied that they could either surrender or fight. They rather stubbornly chose to fight, and after that he and Parmenion walked back to the army. Parmenion believed that they should start the siege with a little more force, but Alexander encouraged his soldiers that they would defeat their foolish opponents with their wits, will and swords. At the same time, they did not plan an attack yet, but began to train their soldiers, which the haughty royal soldiers tried to interrupt, but they were quickly killed. After that, Alexander noticed a small island, where he crossed with a bireme and captured the outpost there from his enemies. He then began to weaken the defenses by destroying the catapults and killing the archers with shots from his bow. After that and the training of the soldiers was completed, they pushed the battering ram in front of the city gate and the siege machine broke it. The well-trained, experienced and strengthened Macedonian hoplites and archers killed the gate defenders in a very short time, and a few moments later the ground was full of their bloody corpses. After that, the destruction of this part of the city began, where some buildings and civilians fell victim, and the treasury of the commonwealth was also destroyed. However, the bridges leading to the upper city were destroyed by the defenders using catapults, but Alexander destroyed these defense machines as well before choosing another path. Since there was no other way, they had to use the ship to move on, so they crossed the water and managed to get around the walls. Here the landing forces were attacked by the defenders' cavalry but were killed by the spearmen, and after the whole army had gathered they started against the upper part of the city.
Here the leader and champion of the Pydna was already waiting for them with their soldiers. The leader said that he had opened a glass of wine for the death of the young king's father and that he would also drink one for his. Alexander was irritated by his enemies' arrogance and disrespect for his father, but he finally lost his temper when one of the soldiers started laughing. He took out his bow and shot the soldier, then he wanted to kill the leader, who ran away, but the champion stood in front of him and the arrow hit his leg. After that, he took out the arrow, and after a great battle cry, he launched a counterattack with the defenders. Alexander fought the champion, who was much stronger than most of the soldiers, but eventually defeated him as his army repulsed the counterattack. The Macedonians advanced rapidly, and the defenders became more and more depleted, and with this the destruction also began. The commercial, agronomic, capital and highborn treasuries were destroyed, while further destruction was also done, for example the barracks and the center of the city were also destroyed. After this, the desperate and remaining defenders surrendered and Pydna fell for good. Aristander tried to remind him that he was inexperienced in naval warfare, but the young king was stubborn and annoyed that his father's killers were out of reach on land. The seer said that the whole fleet would be ready in ten days, but Alexander said that he would not wait, but that Aristander would wait for him with his other soldiers and ships on the other side of the Hellespont.
Having enough wealth and resources, Alexander was finally able to begin building a fleet to confront the Persians and find Memnon and Tiberius. The enemy had many more ships, and an experienced Persian, Captain Teymour, also took part in the battle. The Persian warriors were very enthusiastic and wild, they were looking forward to the clash, but Alexander encouraged his warriors that they would break through the enemy's lines and win. The battle was initially favorable to the Macedonians, and Alexander killed a hundred Persians, defeated Captain Teymour, and captured his ship. He then told the Persian slaves that if they did as he said, he would not hurt them, which they did, and the young king continued the fight with the captured ship. The Macedonian ships and the captured ship attacked the Persian ships and destroyed several, but suddenly a larger ship destroyed the ship that was Alexander's and everyone fell into the water. The young king could swim, so he swam to the shore of a small island, which in turn was a smaller base for the Persians. He was attacked by Assyrian horse archers, war elephants and many Persian warriors, but Alexander was brave and defeated most of them, seeing the statues of Memnon in most places. On the other side of the island, he found an abandoned Macedonian ship from which warriors suddenly emerged. He killed three with one cut and then tried to escape, but Memnon's right-hand man, Jharim Azhir, wounded him with a blow, and the young king fell to the floor of the ship. He did not want to kill him, but ordered his warriors to take him to the sovereign’s arena, because he could be worth a lot.
Alexander was taken to the arena where he was put through torture chambers. Two noble guards accompanied him as he watched slaves and prisoners either being tortured or eaten by animals such as bears. In one of the cages he saw the leader of the torture chambers and the champion of the arena, a man who looked like a minotaur, wearing a mask made of a large bull's head and his face could not be seen. The man didn't speak, but pointed at Alexander, letting him know he was waiting for them to fight. He was then led into the arena, where the audience, Memnon, Jharim, and an orator were already waiting. The speaker told the audience that the young king considered himself the son of Zeus and that he would be tested here in the arena to see if he really was or just a mortal, and that a few swords and arrows would be no problem for him if he was indeed a demigod. He also said that if he could pass the tests, he would be free to go, whereupon Memnon gave the order for the battle to begin. He had to go through four tests, in which the Persians fought more and more vilely, deploying elephants and siege engines. In the fourth, he had to fight the man in the minotaur mask, who, however, was not alone but fought together with several warriors, but Alexander finally won and killed the champion as well. However, Memnon, as expected, tricked him and ordered his warriors to kill him, who also brought a special war elephant. However, Alexander was still able to hold on and hit the elephant's head with an arrow, which went wild and broke through one of the gates of the arena. The young king then quickly ran in the direction of the breached gate, killed a dazed noble guard, then successfully escaped from the arena and fled the area during the night.
Alexander found an old friend, Kraetous, who was guarding a post with several soldiers. He said that Philip had commissioned them to watch the area, as the Persians had captured the temple of Hercules built near them, in which they kept a relic, the Bow of Hercules. The man told them to go home, but the young king became very enthusiastic when he found out what was kept in the temple and decided to get it for himself. Kraetous thought this was foolish, but he did not disobey Alexander's order and began to prepare the soldiers. The Persians protected the area of the temple with three defensive lines, which were surrounded by large walls. However, the first wall was not completely finished, there were still parts to be built on the side, but the Macedonians and Greeks quickly noticed this and killed the guards and workers. After continuing the attack with trained soldiers, they quickly broke forward and the Persians used veteran or well-trained infantry here, they could not hold the enemy for too long. Behind the third line of defense, the last small Persian group was led by Jharim Azhir, but the Macedonian and Greek armies, after breaking through the second and third lines of defense, launched an attack from two directions. Jharim persevered to the end and was a worthy and dangerous opponent for Alexander, but in the end the young king defeated him, and the Macedonian and Greek soldiers killed all the Persian guards. Afterwards, he and Kraetous entered the temple, where they found the bodies of several priests, but the bow was not there. Memnon and Tiberius knew the power of the relic, so they went to the temple before their enemies, killed the priests and stole the weapon. When Alexander learned that they wanted to escape with the fleet, he boarded a ship and followed them.
The young king and his warriors caught up with the Persians, but there was no Memnon or Tiberius among them, but they were led by a noble archer, Captain Arsham, who attacked the town of Dardanus. The Persian attack went fast at the beginning and they almost killed everyone and captured the town, but Alexander and his men attacked the attackers in the back in time. Arsham had the legendary bow, but could not use its power, so he fought with his own weapon, but in the end Alexander killed him and obtained the relic. Afterwards, the survivors told him that the Persians were attempting to launch another attack, so they should be prepared to attack more invaders. Not only did Alexander have well-trained soldiers, but he managed to prepare thoroughly by rebuilding the long-destroyed walls of the town and building shooting towers on the nearby mountains. The Persians were led by an Assyrian horse archer, Captain Atash, and his army was larger than Arsham's group, but he did not have any strategy, his goal was to rush the enemy quickly, but this was his loss. The Persians lost quickly and finally Atash and most of his warriors died, very few survived the battle, the losses of the Macedonians and Greeks were minimal.
After that, Alexander learned that the city of Rhoeteum, located not far from him, in the southwest direction, was also under attack and the people living there had to be helped. The first attack of the Persians was launched here by a larger group, but they were also defeated relatively quickly, and then the inhabitants of the city had to prepare for the real, bigger attack. The Persians arrived with a much larger army, led by an elephant rider, Captain Sheyda. The attackers also brought many siege weapons, mainly siege towers and battering rams. However, Alexander built an even stronger defense here and the Persians were met with very unpleasant surprises. Before the attack, Sheyda sent some light cavalry into enemy territory to gather information or sabotage their work, but they were all killed. After that, the Persian captain made very serious and fatal mistakes. Like Atash, he didn't plan any strategy, and he took his only catapult too close to the enemy walls. Alexander was able to set whole groups on fire with the bow of Hercules and one such arrow hit Sheyda, whose archers were all killed, but he and his elephant miraculously survived, only to be killed by the arrows of the Macedonian archers. The Persians were exhausted very quickly, the well-trained and experienced Macedonian archers quickly destroyed the siege weapons, and then launched a counterattack and destroyed the three barracks and towers of the attackers. Sheyda suffered a great and humiliating defeat, for which he paid with his life, and after that the Persians made no further attacks. After this, Alexander decided to continue his pursuit of his brother and Memnon, but most of the soldiers went home to their families because the Persian fleet was planning to attack, but the king was stubborn and saw the opportunity to go further. He was a little disappointed, but Aristader reassured him that a king must be able to make difficult decisions.
Alexander continued with Aristander and a few soldiers towards Asius, but on the way they were attacked by Persian soldiers. The raid failed, but apart from Alexander and the seer, no one survived, only an injured soldier who bled to death. Then they wanted to find a place to stay for the night and he found a village where he noticed that Macedonian soldiers lived, whose left arms had been cut off. Their leader, Calas, said that they once served King Philip, but a cruel Persian, Hajir the Wicked, captured them and demanded a ransom. Since he did not receive the amount, he cut off the left arms of all the prisoners, then demanded a new amount, but he did not receive it either. After that, they went into exile, but then Calas was surprised because his guest admitted that he was Philip's son, but also said that he was a different person than his father and wanted to prove it. He call them to a fight and said that they would be useful to him even if they were mutilated like this, and then they started cheering and decided to fight on his side rather than continue living like this.
Led by Alexander and Calas, they attacked the outpost of Asius, where they killed Hajir, his noble guards and arches, thus taking revenge and continuing the fight against the Persians. Many soldiers of the Persians patrolled the area, but they were easily defeated and finally reinforcements arrived for Alexander, who learned that his brother was hiding in an island fortress not far away. However, the fort was protected by a wall and had no weak points or crack, so after the Macedonians captured all the outposts in the area, they built ballistae and a ship to besiege the fort. After several hits, they finally managed to destroy the wall to the extent that they were able to get out with the ship and attack the fortress, where they killed all the Persians guards and captured Tiberius. The civilians were not harmed, but the young king, despite his great victory, was not happy because he wanted answers from his brother, who did not speak much, but only insisted that he was innocent. The guards then took him away, and Alexander planned his next move, which was to stop Memnon's fleet, which was already preparing to attack.
Alexander personally saw the great fleet of the Persians, whose main weapon was a flagship and led by an old adversary, Captain Teymour. The young king knew that if this fleet broke through their defenses, they would have free passage to Greece and Macedonia, and so it would all start over. However, the king decided that he would win at all costs, and that's when he started building statues of himself. Both the Greeks and Macedonians had strong ships, but the king and Aristander had a better idea, which was to capture the enemy's strongest ships instead of destroying them, thus gaining a much greater advantage. The plan worked, with the captured Persian ships carrying catapults easily destroying the enemy forces and attacking their main weapon, the Tesseraconter. Captain Teymour with his noble warriors decided to fight as long as he could and faced the attackers. However, Alexander and his soldiers quickly killed their opponents and the captain was very persistent and kind, and finally the king killed him and captured his ship. However, the victory was not complete, as Alexander learned that his brother Tiberius had killed the guards, escaped and fled back to Memnon. Now he was sure that his brother was a traitor and that he killed their father, so he decided not to hold back and kill him if necessary.
After the loss of the Persian fleet, the flagship, Captain Teymour, and many warriors, the balance of power actually began to favor the Macedonians and Greeks, and although Memnon was still certain of his enemy's defeat, he too began to notice that things were going badly. He planned to go to Tyre, the territory of the Persians, and raise an army of unprecedented size and lead it to put an end to Alexander's successes, and he assigned Tiberius to defend Halicarnassus and slow down the enemy's advance as much as he could. The Macedonian cavalry was chasing the Persian warriors towards the city when the catapults forced them to retreat. Alexander, Aristander and Parmenion also saw that this city was much better protected than Pydna and the others, so they had to be more careful. However, Parmenion and his soldiers brought before them a Persian slave who revealed that there was a crack in one of the walls through which one could enter the city. The young Macedonian king entered the crack with a few soldiers as the Persians launched continuous counterattacks, but the trained and experienced soldiers easily repulsed these attacks as Alexander and his army entered the city. After that, they reached the walls, where they destroyed the machines protecting the walls, while the army launched an attack with the battering ram and broke through the gate. The Macedonians quickly advanced, but the Persians, similar at the Hercules temple, there have were several lines of defense and there were no more cracks in their walls. The attack stalled at first, but the Macedonians and Greeks had learned a lot about their enemy's defenses and fighting style, so they began to break through the defenses more and more. After breaking through the second and third lines of defense, they finally destroy the government building and find a servant who tells them where Tiberius is hiding. The traitorous brother decides that he will not run away, but decides in anger that he will face Alexander and his soldiers and in a life and death fight they will decide who is better.
The Macedonians had to cross by ship to proceed, but Alexander saw a small island that he wanted to explore. Here he found the execution camp, where the commander, Zyvorax the Cruel, executed an innocent by locking him in a cage and burning him. The young king attacked the Persian noble guards and killed them along with their commander, but did not harm the civilians who went over to his side. After that they found Tiberius, who, however, wanted to trap his brother, but he expected that his enemy would fight by vile means. The two brothers gave their all in the fight, but in the end Tiberius was wounded and the Persian warriors were all killed. After that, Alexander now wanted to hear the whole truth, and his brother, seeing that the end was here and had nowhere to run, told him everything. He said that their father Philip and Memnon had made a pact that the king would be free to conquer his neighbors and even gets military help, but in return Greece, Macedonia and the conquered territories would become Persian colonies. He said that it was a big disappointment for him that their father betrayed his nation like that and he believed that if he makes an alliance with Memnon and becomes the king, then he can prevent his nation from becoming a colony and lead them in the right direction. However, Alexander did not see it that way, because of his continuous betrayals and actions, he did not believe this to his brother. He could accept the fact that their father betrayed them and therefore went over to the enemy, but not that he was a different king, nor that he was innocent. He then left him, and Parmenion cut the traitor's throat.
After the fall of Halicarnassus and the death of Tiberius, Alexander continued his campaign with a large and powerful army to kill Memnon and headed for Tyre. A messenger arrived at the fortress of Memnon and delivered the bad news to the commander, whose pride outweighed his concern. He was not interested in the death of Tiberius, and he called Alexander a reckless, god-complexed madman, he believed that he had no chance of capturing Tire and reaching the fortress. At the same time, the messenger told the commander that the king of kings, Darius, was not satisfied with the failures and reminded him of the price of ultimate failure. Memnon ignored the warning and trusted the protection. Alexander moved against the city of Tyre, and the attack progressed rapidly. The catapults on the castle walls were quickly destroyed and the defenders killed, while the besiegers breached the gate and brought the fire raiser into the city. The Macedonians and Greeks advanced quickly, Alexander killed the Persian warriors one after the other, while the civilian population also suffered from the siege. A Persian ship docked near the city, but on the young king's order, the catapults destroyed it, so as not to attack the fire raiser in the back, which was getting closer and closer to the city's palace. The Persians tried their best to stop the siege machine but Alexander and his soldiers killed them until finally the final blow was delivered. The fire raiser burned the Persian palace, then the entire building collapsed in the flames, and the city was captured.
After the capture of Tyre, there was only one obstacle in Alexander's way to move against the main territories of the Persians, and that was his main enemy, Memnon, and his fortress. The haughty commander settled for a persistent defense to the end and decided not to run away, but again underestimated his enemy, as he believed they would never enter his fortress. Parmenion and Alexander saw that the ships could greatly help the attack, but they could not bring much from Halicarnassus, so they had to build not far from the fortress. Aristander and the general, on the other hand, believed that the young king had proven himself enough to earn their respect and to be regarded as a god, and that even this obstacle could not stop him. Alexander, on the other hand, did not want to wait too long, while building the ships he also started the attack with his land forces.
A small army of noble guards and archers awaited them at the old ruins of Tyre, and their leader was Memon's last minor minion, Azzir the Wrathful, an Assyrian horse archer with his cavalry. He himself was a persistent and difficult opponent, but the noble warriors and Assyrian horse archers were easily defeated by the experienced, trained soldiers and Alexander. After that, they cleared the area around the fortress, where they noticed that Memnon still had catapult ships, but they destroyed them and captured the old city of Tire and the outpost there. After the ships were completed and fire raisers were built, Alexander launched the final assault on Memnon's fortress. When the gate was destroyed, the haughty commander was surprised and despaired and launched a counterattack with a strong and well-trained Persian army, but Alexander, his trained and experienced soldiers and the catapult ships eventually destroyed all the enemy fighters. They destroyed all the military buildings, but noticed that the road to the citadel was barricaded, full of burning obstacles and objects. Alexander noticed a small gap in one of the buildings that led him to a secret passage that led him up into the citadel. Memnon was also sneaky and deceitful in the final battle, one of his servants rolled a rock at the young king, and there were dozens of poisonous snakes in the citadel while he shot his enemy from a distance. For Alexander, he was one of the most difficult opponents due to his vileness and it seemed that he alone could not defeat him and his remaining followers, but in the end, what no one expected happened. He killed all the Persian warriors and the snakes, then fought against Memnon in close combat and finally killed his father's murderer and the leader of the traitors. After the final battle, Parmenion, Aristander and several soldiers went upstairs, where the young king was already waiting for them. He ordered the general to have one of his men carry home his father's crown. Aristander was proud of the boy who caused heavy losses to the Persians and conquered almost the entire Mediterranean with his victories. But when he asked the young king if he wanted to go home, he said that the world was his home and that he would not rest until the borders of Greece reached the distant, unknown seas. He then marched in front of his army and while the light of the sun shone white on him, symbolically indicating his victory, his soldiers cheered and were ready to follow the orders of the king, who continued his campaign and destroyed the Persian Empire, but he could not conquer the world.
Personality[]
Alexander was a stubborn, proud, defiant, conceited and persistent personality. He believed very much in himself and in the future of his people, he believed that it was necessary to fight continuously in order to obtain peace and success. He loved his family, initially he wanted to take revenge for his father and his goal was to repel the Persians from his territories. In the beginning, he didn't hurt civilians either, but some things of his later self showed early on, because he was very proud, fierce in the battle and covetous.
Later, however, Alexander completely changed, less of his old personality remained and he acquired many new, negative qualities. Over time, he gradually became much more ruthless, bloodthirsty, power-hungry and haughty than the Persians. Together with his soldiers, he killed civilians, took part in looting during sieges, and mercilessly killed his opponents. However, his hunger for power dominated his mind to such an extent that he already imagined himself as a god and wanted to conquer the whole world. Even his enemies were surprised that the young prince had become an extremely hegemonic, paranoid, cruel tyrant.
Perhaps his most common trait was that he loved to command others, to believe himself to be more than he was and to control almost everyone. Despite the fact that he was the heir to the throne and Philip's son, in the beginning they often did not take him seriously, they did not always follow his orders and sometimes the soldiers preferred to fight without him. However, he had positive qualities even after he changed. Alexander was extremely brave, he stood up to his enemies in almost every situation and fought as long as he could. He loved his father very much, even in spite of his bad deeds, but at the same time, he wanted to correct some of his mistakes, showing that he truly has a sincere goal to bring glory and victory to his people.
Powers and abilities[]
Alexander was an extremely strong and dangerous warrior. He was a prominent melee fighter who fought with sword and shield, and was also an excellent archer who could hit his opponents from a great distance. Physically, he was extremely durable and hardy, with a well-proportioned physique, fast and strong. He also possessed some special abilities, such as the ability to heal his warriors and set fire to a mass of enemies with the bow of Hercules. Alexander was also an excellent strategist who won countless battles against the Persians and conquered a lot. Even in hopeless situations or against vastly much more enemies, he was able to achieve victory, either alone or with his soldiers.