BIOHAEMICA RUPTIO
Christianity was largely united. In the 520s, the vast majority of Christians were Catholics or Britannic Christians, and Britannic Christians were relatively isolated from the Catholics. However, small rifts had opened up from time to time between Catholics in different regions. Relations between Western and Eastern Catholicism were sabotaged by the two wars between the Roman Empires, the first leading to the Western seizure of Sardina and the province of Africa, the second leading to the seizure of Italy; however, both involved the Western Roman Empire attacking the Eastern Roman Empire while it was not only weak, but also fighting heathens in defense of Christianity.
In 527, Rhomaion was attacked by the Shapurids. The Bishop of Constantinopolis, and the Eastern Roman Emperor, begged the Roman Empire-Consulate for assistance against the heathens. No such help was given. The Bishop of Rome commented on the issue that the East was being punished for their sins. That was it, the East had had enough. The Bishop of Constantinopolis excommunicated the Bishop of Rome, and when the Bishop of Rome heard of this, he, in turn, excommunicated the Bishop of Constantinopolis.
Christianity was now split into three (major, with more minor) divisions. Britannic Christianity was led by the Pope, or Papa, of Londinium. Catholic Christianity was led by the Pope, or Papa, of Rome. Lastly, the Nomitrope [1] Church (which called itself the Nomitrope Catholic Church) was led by the Pater [2] of Constantinople. The Huns, Christians in the Slavic states, Christians in the Taurigothic Kingdom, Eastern Romans, and Christians throughout the Shapurid Rahbarate adhered to the Pater, while the rest of the Catholic states adhered to the Pope.
Shapurid troops advanced from the west, easily conquering small towns, until they reached Constantinopolis itself and began a siege. Shapurid ships blockaded the Strait to East Roman ships, and supplied the troops around Constantinopolis. Meanwhile, the Huns showed the first sign that they would become a power once again, by invading Crete with a fleet of warships and an army of Hun cavalry and Germanic mercenaries. Prior to the invasion, Akariyar of the Huns made a deal with Abas-Mashid Shapur. The Shapurids eyed Crete as well as Constantinopolis, but with a small, quick, and tidy payment, Abas-Mashid would give up that claim. The Huns, after all, could afford it--a sizable class of Hunnic merchantry had emerged ever since the breakup of their great Horde, leading to an equally sizable increase in prosperity.
Shapurid troops and ships invaded various Aegan islands. By 529, Crete was entirely under Hunnic control and all of the Eastern Roman Aegan islands were occupied by the Shapurids. Constantinopolis had been under siege for a year and a half. Abas-Mashid was content with waiting for the city to surrender from starvation; the entire rest of their nation had fallen, so waiting inferred no risk--and the walls were nigh-impossible to penetrate anyway, they had been fully repaired since the last siege. Half a year later, after a total of two years of siege, slaves managed to open one of the gates and Shapurid troops poured in. Intense fighting occurred for an hour, a sizable portion of the city caught fire, and one hour after the breach of the gates, the city surrendered. It was February 3rd, 530, and the Eastern Roman Empire had fallen.
After the conquest of the Aegan Islands and Constantinopolis, the Shapurid Rahbarate entered a new era--the entire Mediterranean World entered a new era. Indeed, modern historians mark February 3rd, 530 as the end of the Classical Age and the beginning of the Mediatempene [3] Age. Two days after the surrender of Constantinopolis, Abas-Mashid Shapur renamed the moderately-damaged but significantly-crippled city, which now only harbored 200,000 people, after many poor souls were lost to battle or starvation. The new name was Shahrestan, or, in Greek, Xorapolis [4], and it was designated as the capital, and the construction of a Royal District and a palace was commissioned in the destroyed area of the city. Zoharist officials from across the Rahbarate settled in this district, and so did Abas-Mashid, his Greek but Zoharist consort Zoe, as well as his only son. However, just two days after moving into his new palace after construction had finished, he died, on July 2nd, 538, to be succeeded by his son, Abd-Xanthipos Shapurid [5]. The greatest change to the Shapurid Rahbarate after the conquest of Rhomaion was incited by Abd-Xanthipos--he established Greek as the new state language, not only because it was now the most-spoken language, but also, and actually mostly, for trading purposes--the Yehuds in the Yehudahid Rahbarate were now reluctant to trade with the Western heretics, and the Shapurids would have to look north, west, and south for trading partners.
Alemannia seemed unstoppable. Faramondus’s army grew after the conquest of Burgundians, as many Burgundians offered to join his army; they either had no opportunities other than farming, or they had no opportunities at all (because the Alemannians had burned down their farms). Faramondus, now known as Faramondus the Great, invaded Langobardia in 528. 80,000 Alemannians, 25,000 various mercenaries, and 30,000 former Burgundians attacked Langobardia from all sides. Much in the same way that Remorica, with its Francian warfare and Celtic military traditions, had been a formidable foe, Langobardia was also a formidable foe, inheriting the barbaric Hunnic style of warfare (which, ironically, the actual Huns now lacked). Langobardia defended itself with more than 70,000 horse-mounted troops. It took 2 years and 50,000 deaths merely for the Alemannians to reach Parici, and another year and 30,000 deaths to siege it--the Langobardians were, in retrospect, extremely lucky. After the Alemannian army was reinforced, however, it took a mere month to conquer the rest of Langobardia, as all organization was destroyed with the capture of Parici, and all of their greatest generals died defending the city.
In 531, by the end of November, the Langobardian lands were firmly under Alemannian control. Faramondus the Great set up a vassal state and headed northeast to attack Frysklan. The 80,000 or so surviving veterans of the war with Langobardia, and 15,000 more troops, invaded. The Frysklan troops had nowhere near the numbers and were nowhere near as effective in battle...they may have been skilled hunters, and there may have been infrequent disputes within Frysklan, but the Alemannians picked up on many military techniques their recent enemies had used. A little bit less than a year passed, most of the land up to the Rhine was conquered and annexed into the Langobardian satellite state, and peace was made.
Faramondus headed southeast into Niedrhein. A little bit more than a year passed, and Niedrhein became yet another satellite state of the Alemannian empire--however, not without Faramondus’s death. As Faramondus II succeeded to the throne in January 534, Langobardia, Niedrhein, Burgundia, and Fhreinca entered their Post-Faramondian period, sometimes called the Puppet Years, because the nations were dominated by Alemannia.
Biohaemia was a multiethnic empire. In the south lived Latin-speaking peoples who considered themselves Romans. The rest of the kingdom was filled with Germanic peoples, such as the Doringians in the northwest, the Juthungians in the center of the nation, and the Rygians in the northeast. Throughout the entire empire were officials who considered themselves Biohaemian, and spoke Hunnic, Germanic Biohaemian, Latin, or any combination of the three. In 534, the king of Biohaemia, Ayarizich, died. Throughout his entire life, his right to the throne was questioned, as he was accused of being a bastard, though this accusation was probably false. All of Ayarizich’s heirs were also accused of being illegitimate, although these claims were probably also untrue. His heir apparent, however, Ayarizich II, was known, without a doubt, to be illegitimate. Even though Biohaemian succession law permitted illegitimate heirs to become the King, a succession war broke out within the Kingdom after Ayarizich succeeded to the throne, and by 536, the kingdoms of Doringen, Rygaland, and Jutheland had emerged, with a small remnant of former Biohaemia. The Huns to the south also invaded, siezing a large area east and southeast of the Alps.
While Central Europe was ravaged, fractures began to emerge in the Yehudahid Rahbarate...
[1] ‘Nomitrope’ and ‘Nomitropo’ are from Greek ‘νόμιμο τρόπο’, or ‘nómimo trópo’, literally ‘legal way’.
[2] ‘Pater’ being from both Latin ‘pater’ and Greek ‘πατέρας’, or ‘patéras’.
[3] ‘Mediatempene’ derives from Latin ‘media tempestas’.
[4] ‘Shahrestan’ is Persian for ‘large city’ or literally, ‘place of city’, and is composed of the word for city (‘shahr’) and the word for a place of something (stan). ‘Xorapolis’ is the Greek version of this name, composed of ‘xora’ or ‘chora’ for ‘land’, and ‘polis’ for ‘city’.
[5] Abas-Mashid’s Greek wife insisted on giving their son and only heir an at least partly-Greek name.
