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I think there are some examples of the Saeculum Obscurum indeed. Wasn't one of the Tusculani Popes murdered too?

@RandomWriterGuy - I'm sure about an Assyrian state yet... unless its indeed a convenient buffer for a more powerful Byzantium. Even then, it would be in a more precarious position than even Edessa, so I have my doubts about its long-term feasibility for survival. As for the Templars, like...

@RandomWriterGuy - You know, elicited by your post, I went to do some research on the Assyrians, and you are very much correct. By the timeframe of the TL, they had a much larger population, and I see that, in the context of the narrative, they should indeed have some relevance. I figure that...

Great start! It is an idea I wanted to explore in some TL, a surviving Brazilian Empire. This one here shows a lot of promise! In 2017 or so I visited the Ilha Fiscal, in Guanabara Bay, mentioned here. Fascinating place, with an impressive historical relevance, owing to the "Last Ball of the...

@EmperorOfTheNorthSea - I think it is so far the most bizarre one! @ImperatorAlexander - I don't intend to see Manuel's personality changed too much. Nonetheless, the format I chose for the TL, which emulates a historical chronicle, doesn't really gets in too many details about the...

@St. Just, @Talus I of Dixie and @Icedaemon - about the Finno-Ugric peoples and Russia. First of all, I'm not really knowledgeable about the subject, so I'll concede to all the points raised and, well, learn more from it. In any case, considering the focus, the scope, and the purpose of the TL...

Answering the posts before the latest chapter: @dunHozzie - good point. The plans I mentioned are just ideas, I don't have anything consolidated yet. My general concept is to have a more dynamic and distinctive geopolitical panorama in places of Europe and Asia that were historically united...

57. THE PONTIFF BETWEEN TWO EMPIRES Non-contemporary detail of a fresco depicting Pope Stephen X (Bernard of Clairvaux), c. 1350, Cathedral of Spoleto I. The New Pope and the Emperor of the Occident Pope Victor IV, whose reputation has been vindicated by both modern and medieval...

With a Medieval POD, have the Hohenstaufen be more successful, especially with Henry VI and Frederick II going through with the erbreichplan, which would impose hereditary succession. One caveat would perhaps be of eliminating Sicily from the Empire. In the long run, its incorporation did more...

@dunHozzie - provided Russia appears in the way it did IOTL - which is not granted, as I have some changes planned for the Rus' Principalities - you might be right. To be fair, Russia becoming even more bigger and powerful than OTL is already a bit too bizarre, considering that it is even today...

@The Merovingian, @Curtain Jerker, @HerodotosofBerlin - thanks for the compliments, friends. @DanMcCollum, @St. Just - I'm thinking rather seriously about devising a scenario in which France's centralization is avoided entirely and thus it becomes weak (but not defunct) as a political entity...

This chapter is a bit different, because it actually focus on events occurring in contemporary Europe, but which are somewhat related to the alt-Outremer. This will serve to explore important divergences of the TL, so that we see the formation of a more complex and refined alternate world...

I disagree... I think it is entirely possible that without Imperial patronage, Christianity would have remained a large, but non-majoritarian religion inside the Empire, bound to see longer cycles of toleration, but sometimes marred by persecutions by some more intolerant emperors. With time it...

For the posts before the latest chapter: @Sarufiyyun - The Italians WILL want a piece of Egypt, by any means, but it might be sufficient to have their own district in the major towns of the country, as it was common in the period. They will likely even, once Frankish control over Egypt is...

Hello guys, I'll be posting here a new chapter, and tomorrow I'll be answering the previous posts. I've recently moved to a new city, and the previous couple months have been busy (even more with the Covid pandemic). I've been in home office, so even staying at home, I unfortunately don't have a...

That's an interesting suggestion. However, I think that the dates don't match up. According to the Wiki, Matilda became a widower in 1125, and remarried in 1127, while Thierry's first wife died only in 1132. I don't think that King Henry, or even William Adelin (upon becoming king) would wait...

You know, I'm considering having Adelin surviving as a divergence of my TL, so this is a very interesting discussion. I agree that Fulk would try to secure Geoffrey for Eleanor, now that the alliance with England is secured, and this marriage is one Duke William X might have found the best one...

@Shador - Indeed! As others mention below your post, the time seems ripe for the Crusaders to get to their own disputes, considering that their neighbors are in their worst shape. @luis3007 - I agree. In the next installments, I want to explore exactly this premise: was a civil war indeed...

Let's continue, starting the new Act with a teaser. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ An excerpt from the Bible, I Samuel 8: “So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, ‘You...

@Revalus - thanks for the detailed input! I don't remember seeing you around in the thread discussions before, so, be welcome if you are mayhaps a newcomer. You raised interesting points regarding the relations between the Italian Republics and the Ottomans, and how this pushed the Iberian...