By the close of the Tenth Century the Venetian trading networks were well established. The city had given military aid to their former masters in Byzantium and in return had been given concessions in the markets of the East. The Venetian economy was now prospering from the distribution of Eastern goods along the waterways of Northern Italy.

1000 - Doge Pietro Orseolo II set out with a great fleet to subjugate the Slav Pirates, the Uscoks, that operated from the shelter of the Dalmatian Coast. These pirates were the greatest threat to the Venetian trade routes. Prior to departure the Doge slipped out of the city, rowing his own gondola and spent the night out in the lagoon calling to the two faeries. Daphne and Esme appeared before the city's ruler and agreed to guide the Venetian ships in return for a gold ring cast into the sea each year to commemorate the victory to come. The successful operation is commemorated each year with the ceremony of the Marriage of Venice to the Sea, in which the city's lordship of the Adriatic is confirmed. This ceremony also re-affirms the pact that was made with the two powerful and somewhat capricious sea faeries. The nature of this pact is Venice's most closely guarded secret, known only to the handful of founding families, the head of each of the houses known as the Apostoli, and the current doge. Not even the Grand Inquisitor, the controller of the Council of Ten, a man who knows nearly every secret in Europe was permitted to know.

The Doge of Venice could now accord himself the title of Duke Of Dalmatia. Whilst they could lay claim to the northern half of the Adriatic, Venice did not control the southern half. This was controlled by the Normans of southern Italy, whose fleet threatened to confine the Venetians to the north.

1081 - The Byzantine Emperor, Alexius Comnenus, himself feeling threatened by the continued Norman expansion, appealed to the Venetians for aid. The result was a series of naval engagements costly in both men and ships. Venice emerged victorious however and established itself as the protector of the Eastern Empire's seaboard. The cost for the Byzantine Empire was the granting of invaluable commercial rights to Venetian traders, the Crisobolo Charter (The Golden Bull). The charter declares Venetian Merchants to be exempt from all tolls and taxes within his lands.

1095 - Pope Urban II called for a Christian Army to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. Within four years Jerusalem has been retaken by the First Crusade. During the following decades the Venetians turned the chaos to their own financial benefit. The Venetians offered to transport men, arms and supplies to the East in return for grants of property and financial bonuses. Venice extended its footholds in the Aegean, the Black Sea and Syria, battling all the time (sometimes literally) against its two chief maritime rivals in Italy - Pisa and Genoa. Some in Venice condemned this self-seeking attitude towards the Crusades and saw in the twin calamities that followed the hand of a displeased God.

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