Sarajevo, 28 June 1914 is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at the Latin Bridge in the Uchronic Paris cycle. The shots were fired by Claude of the Time Bandits, projected there as an Uchronic Guard in the role of Cvjetko Popović. It triggers the First World War.
| Type | Event |
| Date | 28 June 1914 (Vidovdan) |
| Victims | Franz Ferdinand; Duchess Sophie |
| Spanish entry | Sarajevo, 28 de junio de 1914 |
The date
28 June is Saint Vitus’s Day (Vidovdan) and the anniversary, 525 years on, of the Battle of Kosovo (1389), where Prince Lazar died and medieval Serbia fell to the Turks. The Black Hand renews this chronomantic date. Mony Vivescu warned of it by crystal ball: “days that bear a saint’s name collect what is promised to them.”
The assassination
- The first conspirator’s bomb bounces off the carriage and explodes behind it.
- Security redirects the carriage; the driver gets new instructions.
- At the Latin Bridge he takes a wrong turn, which chronomancy attributes to subtle influence.
- Claude, as Popović under compulsion and partial amnesia, projected by the Simultaneous Circle, stands at the exact corner.
- Two shots. The Archduke dies almost at once.
- Sophie, mortally wounded, refuses the resurrection offered her: “Déjenme ir. Nos encontraremos en el pasado” (“Let me go. We will meet in the past”).
- Claude tries to heal her with ancient scriptures and a necromantic aura; she disappears or dies, depending on the reading.
- He kisses her hand, closes her eyes and vanishes into the crowd. His arrest and interrogation follow.
The group’s roles
Higher temporal forces projected the Time Bandits to Sarajevo under magical compulsion:
- Claude fires. He keeps seventy-five years of Popović in his psyche; the resulting schizophrenia is permanent.
- Corvino escapes on conjured raven wings, in daylight, with the press on his trail.
- Swan watches with an Astral Eye from over three hundred feet.
- Philippe leaves by teleportation scroll before the shots to contact Mony in another city.
- Aby provides chronomantic cover from afar.
Consequences
The war follows in common and uchronic history alike: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia and the alliance system activates. The shooter is recorded twice: as Gavrilo Princip in the Austrian file photograph, and as Claude in the Akashic record. Both versions coexist.