"I found my will on the battlefield, but my purpose as Emperor," - Andronikos III Palaiologos, attributed, Resurgent Palaiologoi, Chapter 4 of 10, 'The Silent Decade'.
1334 to 1335
The powers that were of the Mediterranean were not used to the Roman resurgence even in the half-decade since it had begun. If any had an inkling it would have been the Genoese, and they were pushed aside for it, as from them had been taken important ports and lands in the Aegean, and Anatolia, that had cut off many flows of income.
Into this void stepped the Venetians further still, and their Hospitaller allies [1].
Genoa, reeling from it's loss of land and power, was all but pushed aside by the Venetians, who began to scheme with the Papacy and Kingdoms of Cyprus and France; the mercantiles wished to curb the excesses of the Turks of Anatolia, as the efforts of the Romans had stripped away much of their usual targets--as had the loss of Genoese mercantile influence in the region in recent years. [2]
Now, instead, the surviving Turkish coastal polities attacked the goods along the Venetian route, and that itself impacted all the lands from Cyprus, to the Papacy, Venice itself, and even France, as it's own trading had drifted towards North Italian, Venetian, lines as Genoa licked it's wounds.
As such, an armada was formed in the autumn of 1334--a Holy League, and one the Romans weren't invited to, as near-some 40 galleys combined departed from League waters eastward, and clashed in multiple battles against Turkish pirates and raiders; scoring over a hundred 'kills' of (albeit lesser) Turkish vessels across the period of a month and a half.
What should have been the start of growing Holy League against Islam degraded, and eventually collapsed in on itself less than a week into December, as once the aura of victory wore off all parties involved simply went back to squabbling; Venice especially, as France found it's growing power over the Kingdom of Cyprus to be an offense.
Venice, of course, in all but actual words told the French to 'mèteteo su'l cú' [3].
While restoring a line of trade for Italy, and Southern France, the League's efforts also had the unintended consequences of allowing both the Romans, and Ottomans, to raid the lands of Saruhan, which in time collapsed; Artemios riding into Izmir the following year; reclaiming it as Smyrna.
A tense stand-off held when one of Artemios' captains pushed to go further east, into Akhisar, and Antalya; the Duke of Nicaea having firm words with the man, and reminding him of their truce with the 'wolves of Osman'.
As 1335 came to a close Aydin itself would expand at the expense of Mentese; fully annexing the Beylik after months of fighting.
Needless to say, the Hospitallers especially weren't pleased with how things had turned out; a stronger enemy on their border, and the Romans expanding as well.
Philip IV of France, upon hearing the news, was supposed to have said (likely apocryphally) 'Qui vivra verra' [4].
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[1] Venice has long supported various Crusader and Latin polities in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, with the Knights Hospitaller of Jerusalem being one of their key allies, alongside Cyprus (although the latter has become more-so a Client Kingdom over the years).
[2] Andronikos III gradually chipping away at Genoese possessions in the Aegean and Anatolia has effectively crippled the Republic's ability to properly trade in the region; Galata was a big blow to the Genoese, and one they're not likely to ever truly recover from.
[3] Venetian Italian for 'shove it up your ass'--colourful lot those Venetian sailors.
[4] A famous medieval French saying meaning 'Who lives, we'll see'; conveying the sense of uncertainty of the times, and the belief that one shouldn't jump to conclusions when it came to the Romans--as they seemed to be a group one shouldn't count out.
Yes, I am back, and yes, it has been a while--and for that I'm sorry.
Life here really got in the way, and I found myself unsure if I'd ever really have the drive, time, or energy to get back into this timeline (fans included) that I enjoy so much.
2 years--still can't believe it's been that long.
This post, excluding this little end bit, is only 660 or so words--about a 6th of what one of my posts should usually be, but I'm trying something different--more narrative, less clinical, as the former can be rather tedious and draining. Even aside from trying something different, I wanted to be sure I could still dip my toes back into this.
I do intend to post a larger follow up to this tomorrow, one which closes off the 'Silent Decade' and brings us forward. One of my biggest hurdles is parsing out a map for this TL, as without one I often struggle to visualise everything going on--I hope to rectify this, and any help in figuring out a method would be very welcome.
Sorry this was so short, and again, sorry for being gone so long; I have missed you all.
