43 - Deus Vult

As Turkish power is entrenched across Anatolia and Kılıç Arslan consolidates the power of the Sultanate of Rum, in Constantinople Emperor Alexios Komnenos calls for aid from the West.  The Emperor envisions a relatively large, but still manageable, army of experienced Latin knights of the type that have fought for Byzantium in the past in order to retake Anatolia.  But his call for aid coincides with a papal reform movement in Rome seeking to entrench the power of the Papacy, and Pope Urban II uses the opportunity to raise a great host of holy warriors.  The Pandora's box is opened, and the crusading era is launched, as the unruly "People's Crusade" makes its way to Constantinople and ultimately comes to the gates of the Turkish world.