TIMENT VENEDI
The Slavic horde continued to push into the Ostrogothic kingdom. The Venedi Slavs were savages. Every town they conquered was looted and nearly completely destroyed. People conquered by the Venedi Slavs, well, at least the people who survived, had two choices.They could offer to join and fight for the Horde, which was probably their best option, or they could be sold into various types of slavery. However not all were lucky enough to receive a choice, and some were immediately sold into slavery. Eastern Roman accounts stated that the Venedi Slavs occasionally engaged in cannibalism. These accounts were most likely untrue.
By mid 487, the Slavs and Eastern Romans had completely conquered the Ostrogothic territories. The King of the Venedi Slavs, Vluku, died to be succeeded by his son Kunedzi. But not all approved Kunedzi as King of the Slavs and for two years a war of succession was fought. Notable pretenders included Rozedazi, Vlucezi, and Ruczeu. Ruczeu was the most successful claimant and he captured Dorostorum, Marcianopolis, Novae, and Ratiara before he was killed in battle and support disappeared.
When Kunedzi became the undisputed king of the Slavs, he invaded the Hunnic Empire. 120,000 troops poured in, including not only Slavs, but Gepids, Ostrogoths, Greeks, and even Huns. The Huns, the scourge of the Earth, masters of the horse, warriors from the East, conquerers of Europe, were not what they once were, and now lived a more sedentary, ‘civilized’ lifestyle. Horses played a large part in Hun life, being used for farm labor, and the Huns had a large army which consisted mostly of cavalry, but the Huns were, as the Ravenian philosopher Antoniuso put it, “a people, not a Horde”.
The Slavs led two main armies into Hun land. Kunedzi himself led 65,000 troops southward into Greece, while 45,000 troops headed westward, who were led by the general Vlad. Kunedzi’s troops had great success except at the Battle of Hadrianapolis (which actually took place quite a ways east of Hadrianopolis, in the mountains), when the Hun cavalry, cleverly using the terrain, literally jumped onto the Slavs, flanking them from both sides. Kunedzi was later (mis)quoted as saying, “it rained horses and men”, however, the phrase originated from an Eastern Roman historian of the time, Xanthippus, in his writings about the event. The Slavs were forced to retreat and significant casualties occured, however, they returned a week later with reinforcements and captured the area, including Hadrianopolis itself. Vlad’s army was also successful, reaching past the Dinaric Alps. The Eastern Romans also led armies in the south, but made many less gains due to most of their troops troops fighting slave revolts in Anatolia and Rhodes. In 492, the Huns made peace with the Slavs and Eastern Romans, giving up their territories in Greece and establishing a border partly on and partly around the Dinaric Alps.
After the Huns conquered much of Greece, a large exodus occurred as Greeks migrated to Anatolia, non-Hun Greece, and Italy. However, a sizable amount of Greeks remained. When the Slavs conquered the area, they all fled, every single one of them. Only the Huns remained--and they either joined the Slavic armies or were enslaved. Slavs, Gepids, and Ostrogoths settled the area heavily.
This era, at least in the Holy Roman Empire, was known as a time of peace. Votadini joined the Holy Roman Empire when its leader, Cryten, converted to Britannian Christianity. However to the north of the Holy Roman Empire, not all was peaceful. Gorteim of the Picts succeeded to the throne of Grand Chief after his father Talorc died. Talorc had united most of the Pict tribes, but to Gorteim that was not enough. Starting 488, Gorteim assembled a large army of many warbands and many mercenaries and ventured north, vassalizing and conquering the rest of the Pictish tribes in Britannia. In 493 all of the Picts were united under his rule, and the only other peoples in northern Britannia were the Goidels.
Judocus II of Biohaemia was an ambitious ruler. Most of the previous rulers of Biohaemia were occupied with keeping the kingdom together. However, his father, Judocus I, managed to finally crush most resistance. To stabilize the kingdom further he lowered taxes, which made the people happy, and he gave local rulers more power (but not too much power), which made them happy. This decreased his power, but assured that he would stay in power. Judocus II therefore, when he became king, had the perfect opportunity to bring Biohaemia the glory it always deserved. In early 487, he led an army of 50,000, and a general, Kotzuk, led another army of 30,000, to conquer barbarians to the north... who really weren’t much more barbarian than Biohaemia itself. Regardless, by November 490, Biohaemia had almost doubled in size. This was still not enough for Judocus II, and he invaded the Huns, seeing an opportunity, as the Huns were also being attacked by the Eastern Romans and Slavs. The Huns were focused on fighting the Slavs and Biohaemia occupied large swaths of territory, almost easily. Biohaemia made peace with the Huns just a few months before the Eastern Romans and Slavs did.
Biohaemia wasn’t the only nation with an ambitious ruler at this time. Azipar of Langobardia invaded Francia, hoping to take the capital itself, Lutetia Parisorium. A massive army intruded on Francian land, heading for Lutetia Parisorium... but Francia was prepared. In fact, they had built extensive fortifications a few years before. However, Athanarius of Alemannia and Fraduric of Burgundia saw opportunities, and declared war on the Kingdom of Francia. This was something that Francia was most definitely not prepared for. The Alemannian, Burgundian, and Langobard armies charged into Francia and the Franks simply could not beat the combined enemies. To make matters worse, for the Franks anyway, the governor of the Remorica province declared independence. Suffice to say, Francia collapsed in 494, after barely more than a year of fighting. However the siege of Lutetia Parisorium lasted until 496. Langobardia also conquered barbarian tribes to the east, and coincidentally, the siege of Lutetia Parisorium, and the conquest of those tribes, were both concluded on the same day.
The new nations of Remorica was technically a continuation of Francia, and also the spiritual successor to Aremorica. However, it took on a much more Brythonic flavor, as its core lands were the same ones settled by Brythons before, during, and after the fall of the Roman Empire. In the Remorican dialect of Brython, the nation was known as Areimorca or sometimes as Fhrainca.
Khodadad II had conquered most of the known world. But his hunger for power led him to desire land even further than the Indus. And so in 490, he declared war on the Ahir Empire, to ‘spread the faith’. The Gupta, seeing that if the Zoharists conquered the Ahir, they would go after the rest of India, came to Ahir’s aid. Like the last war, the Zoharists were victorious, but this time, even more so, because they utilized many skilled Indian warriors, and utilized a large amount of elephants. By 495 a fifth of the Indian subcontinent had been conquered by the Rahbarate.
The palace in Constantinople, January 5th, 497:
“Dear emperor...” said one of the Eastern Roman Emperor’s advisors
“Yes?” stated Zeno II.
“...the Venedi have laid siege to Dionysopolis...”
“...”
“...and the Persians to Adana.”
