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Sounds like something intriguing. I'm not entirely sure how much to treat the surviving tagmata regiments having "direct lines back to the times of the Full Empire" as a big deal in itself in the long run (units coming and going is a thing for the course of centuries), but it should shape the...

Well, if you're doing a fictional figure as becoming emperor, you might have something like: Nicephorus Botaneiates doesn't trust/believe in Melissenos as much as OTL, so he writes a different letter. How that letter goes may favor that person more than the Komnenoi - perhaps there's an...

Something post 1078, possibly with the Komnenoi playing a different role than OTL (it's not like Alexius was the only young general who might have been in a good position to become Emperor) but not eliminated certainly could be interesting. Normans and then crusaders and Pechenengs and who...

That seems like it would depend on what losses they took defeating Thomas, in a timeline where that happens. Could be close. I think that might be worth a thread on its own though - no civil war/rebellion by Thomas vs. one he wins vs. one he is beaten by the Bulgarians might be interesting to...

I'm confused because you haven't actually explained how Leo not being killed would lead to an earlier conquest of the Bulgarians. It doesn't appear Leo was in the middle of planning a campaign against them when he was murdered. Michael II and Theophilus had to deal with the Arabs on the...

You said in your earlier post that you think Bulgaria would have been conquered earlier. My question is - okay, when do the Byzantines turn to conquer it? It's not like how John I seems like he intended to campaign more in the Levant when he died, or Basil II planning an expedition to Sicily...

Now this raises a question. Leo had made peace with Bulgaria prior to Michael II taking over, so it doesn't seem like it was one of his immediate priorities. So when do the Byzantines turn to focusing on Bulgaria in this situation?

True. I suppose it depends on if you count that as "foreign threats" or "internal instability", since the barons not exactly opposed to Louis (at worst) are kind of both of those things at the same time in this particular context. It would be genuinely interesting to compare to China over the...

I would say it took the dynasty dying out with no clear successor and foreign invasions (plural) happening at the same time for things to be as bad as they were. But mostly that the Byzantine period wasn't a constantly Crisis of the Third Century situation - there were periods between...

We also have earlier examples of lasting dynasties too (and if not in the male line, the Angelids are related to the Comneni), but it doesn't seem entirely fair to compare one era to another era as far as if Byzantium was more or less unstable here than other countries - otherwise we could pick...

That is not especially encouraging, in my opinion. Late middle ages is pretty close to "only within the family" (after Michael VIII in 1259, we only have John VI from outside the family until the empire was conquered). It's possible in theory for Alexius Philanthropenos say to become emperor...

Since you mentioned England, the following might be worth listing for 1066-1461. William the Conqueror: Whether or not you believe him about Harold Godwinson, he still took the crown by force - not peaceful succession. WIlliam II: Death by hunting accident. Henry I: His brother would certainly...

Going west might make some sense, but going north seems like it would be taking land that is neither prestigious nor especially valuable (in premodern times) to make up for being difficult to take and to hold. Even as a "the empire tries, that doesn't mean it succeeds" project, I'm not sure...

It's certainly something that could be a thing. I think with the little statelets, the best bet may be just not worrying about them as much as the major powers - however you define that - within the "German" parts of the empire. But as far as other states existing - well, the HRE existing on...

It's your timeline, but my first question is "Why not?" In my honest opinion there's a lot of room for anywhere from "very like OTL" to ""very unlike OTL" in western and central Europe with the POD here (which influenced my vote for Austria as "fair sized territory" - there's no guarantee...

This promises to be rather interesting. A siege of Constantinople without strong naval support is not going to be fun for the besiegers, but they seem intent.

That seems to leave out Venice's role/goals in this, and the element of the Crusaders being unable to pay them in the first place (thus going off to first Zara and then Constantinople instead of Egypt). I'm not sure anything about this was an inevitable consequence of civil wars or "likely at...

What are you using them for? Observation? They'd potentially be handy if limited. But using them as literally flying artillery or bombers seems like it won't be particularly impressive, especially with steam engines being less effective than the gasoline engines they used IRL. I mean, take...

When does he calculate their height as having been?

Moscow becoming capital of Russia. It's not ASB or anything. It wasn't even just "Wow, this is just crazy lucky." exactly. But if you put me in the mid-11th century and asked me to predict a successor to Kiev, "If there would be one.", Moscow isn't in the running. Heck, even in the mid-13th...