A Bloody Twilight

Actually, I'm from the US, so I suppose I'm atypical. That being said, AP World and AP Euro are both fairly awful- one overemphasizes sub-Saharan Africa, a caricature of China and a bit of India at the expense of the rest, and AP Euro has nothing east of the Rhine until the week we cover the Enlightenment, in which case we are shown Austria, Russia and Prussia. No middle ages, no interesting ancient history or anything.

APUSH, by comparison, is intensely detailed, partially because we cover about 250 years of history as opposed to millennia.

The problem is that they overemphasize broad caricatures of India and China (and way overemphasize Sub-Saharan Africa) in one course, skip straight to the 15th century England and France in another, and then do US history perfectly, in insane amounts of detail. There is no balance between the three areas, and it generally becomes "why whites are Satan", "Why the only two European countries are England and France" and "Here, learn details only about America".
 

FDW

Banned
Actually, I'm from the US, so I suppose I'm atypical. That being said, AP World and AP Euro are both fairly awful- one overemphasizes sub-Saharan Africa, a caricature of China and a bit of India at the expense of the rest, and AP Euro has nothing east of the Rhine until the week we cover the Enlightenment, in which case we are shown Austria, Russia and Prussia. No middle ages, no interesting ancient history or anything.

APUSH, by comparison, is intensely detailed, partially because we cover about 250 years of history as opposed to millennia.

The problem is that they overemphasize broad caricatures of India and China (and way overemphasize Sub-Saharan Africa) in one course, skip straight to the 15th century England and France in another, and then do US history perfectly, in insane amounts of detail. There is no balance between the three areas, and it generally becomes "why whites are Satan", "Why the only two European countries are England and France" and "Here, learn details only about America".

Yeah, being a History Major in the US has really made realize that conventional history classes are shit, which is why I can't wait to start taking the First part of Chinese History at my Community College this fall (or summer if they offer it then).
 
Yeah- high school history was a chance to know possibly more than the teacher, know more than the curriculum, and generally show off that I knew a ton of history. It is my intended double major or minor behind political science, my other major passion in life.

APUSH was a great class, probably because I had an excellent teacher, but the other history classes I had taken were easy enough that I could pass them without reading, taking notes or studying. They focus far too much on math/science/English for my tastes- high schools need better humanities departments.

Anyways, I am already writing the next update- I have decided it will be on the Indian subcontinent. Expect.... differences, especially in regards to emerging hegemonies from OTL...
 

FDW

Banned
Yeah- high school history was a chance to know possibly more than the teacher, know more than the curriculum, and generally show off that I knew a ton of history. It is my intended double major or minor behind political science, my other major passion in life.

APUSH was a great class, probably because I had an excellent teacher, but the other history classes I had taken were easy enough that I could pass them without reading, taking notes or studying. They focus far too much on math/science/English for my tastes- high schools need better humanities departments.

Anyways, I am already writing the next update- I have decided it will be on the Indian subcontinent. Expect.... differences, especially in regards to emerging hegemonies from OTL...

Hmm, might all of India actually be united continuously under a single regime?
 
Well, we shall see. I am certainly looking for a more united, more important India, seeing as China has been thoroughly broken.

It'll be an interesting time for the Indias.
 
And now to perspectives from the Indian Ocean, which I hope aren’t too ASB. But seriously- if any of this seems ASB, tell me so that I may rewrite it completely.

The Rise of the Ellasha Empire, Damasena Sungha, University of Sopara [1], 1968 AD

By the late 4th century, the western satrapies that had ruled Gujarat were under increasing pressure from states to their east, specifically the Gupta Kingdom. Descended from the Saka [2] and before them the Indo-Greeks, the state was undergoing military and dynastic breakdown just as the Gupta burst onto the stage.

It was in this climate that Simhasena contracted a group of Hellenic pagan mercenary-prisoners, exiled by the Christian Roman emperors so as to keep Greece and Anatolia peaceful. Many of these soldiers came from Mani, remote mountain regions, and Crete. In the ports of Roman Eastern Arabia, these exiled soldiers congregated, often influenced by the semi-Romanized pagans living in Arabia at the time. Greek, by trade and volume of Greek pagans, became the lingua franca of the mercenaries. By the time of Simhasena, these pagan exiles had formed mercenary companies, often working for the Aksumites, the Sassanids, the Romans or even kingdoms in the far east like Funan and the Malayan states. Eventually, these small, now professional bands formed into companies, and when the Romans withdrew from eastern Arabia, these companies suddenly found themselves larger and in need of greater amounts of work. Although they termed themselves Hellenes, after the adoption of vulgar Greek and their gods, these mercenaries were often composed of Roman pagans, Greek pagans, barbarian pagans and a sizable number of isolated Arabs, both urban and Bedouin.

Simhasena may not have had geopolitical strength, but he did have trade routes and a sizable treasury. Eventually, the largest company of these Hellenic soldiers arrived in India, and entered the service of Simhasena. Upon arrival, they assimilated into the armies of Simhasena, making up the officer core and many of the elite units.


They soon took to fighting in battles for the western satraps, and gained much fame as fearless warriors, cutting down Guptas, rebels and other enemies in battle despite numeric disadvantages. Eventually, after the death of Simhasena in 387, these mercenaries became the Royal Guard.

It was in this climate that the leader of these mercenaries, Menandros, became the military power behind the throne. The officer corps of the army was largely full of these Hellenic exiles, and they held a lot of sway in the dying kingdom.

A new king rose to power in 387, by the name of Rudrasena IV. However, due to incompetence (and not paying the Hellenes enough), he was overthrown by the successor to Menandros, Leonidas. Leonidas married the youngest daughter of Simhasena, and soon had competing nobles and royals assassinated by his Hellenic cohort.

The new king, calling himself Basaraja [3], immediately consolidated civil and military control of the state. More Hellenes and even Roman pagans were contracted as a feudal warrior class for the state, promised land, women and money as their faith was eroded away in Europe. In 391, Leonidas went to war in the north. The experienced Hellene soldiers and their well-trained Indian comrades were soon able to conquer all of the petty northern realms, including the ruins of the Kushanshas. These states folded to the might of the Hellene-led Indian armies, and the northwest of India belong now to Basaraja Leonidas. He declared the Ellasha, a corruption of Hellas that became the name of the dynasty. The Greeks themselves were still called Yavana.

Leonidas then turned to the Indus, where the border with the Huns was at best fluid. He conquered land to the banks of the Indus, and even conquered past the western bank to Krokola [4]. He also seized the city Multan and its environs. The lands between those environs and the forking of the Hydaspes and the Asecines stayed Hunnish, and the border was set on the banks of the Hydaspes, and then the Nain Sukh tributary river. It would be this Indus border that separated India and Persia afterwards.

By 397, the land from the Gujarat to the Kashmir to the Gupta border belonged to the Ellasha Empire- the previously fractious northwest now belonged to a new, dynamic sovereign. Of course, this peace was not to last- in 400, the brothers, Emperor Ramagupta and the younger Chandragupta went to war with Basaraja Leonidas.

The war was ill-advised, in part because the Ellasha had a strong, veteran army and a defensive advantage. Eventually, the Gupta armies were trapped by the Ellasha, with Chandragupta slain in battle by Leonidas. With the Gupta armies slaughtered in the Gujarat, their own realm began to crumble, and Leonidas invaded with both his forces and Gupta defectors.

Over the course of 7 years, the Gupta empire was slowly conquered, bereft of armies and the tactical genius of Chandragupta. Eventually, Leonidas captured all of the cities on the river Ganges, the last being the sacred Varanasi captured in December 403. The Gupta were forced into the northern regions near the Himalayas after the Treaty of Varanasi on April 4th, 404. The Ellasha, after the defeat of the Gupta, would continue moving south, conquering the Abhiras, the Parivrajakas, and the northern parts of the Vakataka kingdom, before stopping.

After these conquests, they begin to consolidate rule and create a new noble class, and Basaraja Leonidas the Great would die in 407. Luckily for them, their filibuster state would survive the conqueror Leonidas.

For about a period of 149 years, the Ellasha would remain peaceful, and focus on controlling the mass expanse of land they had conquered. The capital was moved to Varanasi, and the beginnings of modern Hinduism start with the Ellasha, who centralized the faith and modified it significantly, cutting the numbers of gods and incarnations, eliminating the castes and creating a local clergy. Of course, the early Ellasha kept to their faith, but of many of the lower Hellenic nobles did not. Old gods from their lands were equated with equal Hindu figures, speeding the assimilation of the conquerors. These reforms were intensely gradual- castes died out fully in the late 10th century- but the influence of the Greeks on culture and faith was immense. Although the rulers began to Indianize, the architectural and artistic styles of India would be heavily influenced by the Ellasha.

Conquest began again with the rule of Leonidas’ great-grandson Basaraja Skandrashoka [5]…


Chronicles of the All-Highest Basaraja Alexandrachokos Hellachas, Mohindras Chadros, 600 AD

In the year 556, after 6 years of peaceful rule, my lord became restless- he demanded action, to march forth with the army, to conquer that which his forebears Demetrios and Seleukos had not conquered. In the times of peace, the middle of India had not stirred. However, the Kalabhras and Pallavas of the south had been overthrown by the devoutly Buddhist branch of the Chera clan, which established kingship of all the Tamils and had converted much of the southern tip to the Buddha. The Tamils and Malayalams all worshipped the Buddha- the families Pallava and Kalabhra also converted, and Buddhism even spread further north, going against the Hindus. They were even bolstered by Hindus from the land of my just lord, who had taxed them and set against their praying places. In their perfidiousness, many of them had fled, despite the just conversion of many of their fellows.

My lord, a devotee of Shakti and a member of the Nyaya school of philosophy, had codified the official royal interpretation of Hinduism in 551, and my lord justly and rightly spread it across the country, to every village, town and city, in the pockets of preachers, gurus and holy men. It already had gained devotees by 556- tax breaks and a general admiration and loyalty to the Basaraj helped the spread of his own interpretation of the Hindu truth.

In order to achieve this end and conquer all of Bharat [6], Alexandrachokos assembled the great hosts, the Yavanas and all the martial races within his right dominion, and went on campaign. In 556 alone, my lord conquered the rest of the Vakatakas and their Nala allies. Their soldiers rotted in the fields, felled by the righteous fury of our hosts, and my conquering lord paraded through the burning husks of their cities, taking much plunder and captives.

In 557 and 558, many more states were brought under the right and just rule of my lord. The petty lords of Kottura, Erandapala, Devarastra, Pistapura and Avumkta all fell to our glorious and mighty armies, the houses plundered and the women taken as wives by our soldiers. Our war banners flew on every fort and city, and our great lord Alexandrachokos, devoted of the greatest divinity Shakti, continued creeping southward.

From 558 to 560, a peace settled on India as our conquests gained nobles and governors, the hallmarks of our state extending over the people and the clergy. Buddhist monasteries and devotees were expelled, all of them streaming south to the Chera, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Hindu temples glorifying Shakti and other rightful deities were built in their place. Other Buddhists saw the light and recanted the Siddhartha Gautama, who our lord rightly rejected, and they helped tear down the worshipping places of him. In other places, our lord had mercy- many Buddhists lived in Varanasi, and our glorious capital became a center of tolerance for Buddhism, for that it is where it was founded.

In 560, a naval campaign took place to conquer Taprobane [7], as it was undergoing civil war. Within months, our armies had taken the island and pacified the lawless jungles of the island, and raised the rightful banner high above their capital. In addition,

In 561, campaigns against the Rashtrakutas and the Salankayanas began. They were conquered by 563, and new nobles and governors established in those regions. In 564, the Kadambas and Gangas were conquered, and their cities, monasteries and towns put to plunder. For two more years, peace reigned in India as they two were consolidated and centralized.

In 566, the last campaign against the Chera came, and our armies, by then almost 70,000 strong, invaded them as their king died in the capital. On August 9th, 567, their capital fell to our glorious forces, and Alexandrachokos the All-Highest executed their false lords and officials, and cast down the Buddha idols from their main temples.

After the great conquests, Alexandrachokos took rest, and went off to administer and convert our glorious nation. The Empire of all Bharat was declared, and the Hellacha dynasty made its ruler. From the banks of the Indus to the Ganges delta to Taprobane, all of India belonged to Alexandrachokos the All-Highest, the Glorious, the Mighty White Tiger of Bharat.

In these thirty-four years, roads were commissioned and forts were built, and the nobles of the realm, who had grown arrogant, were brought to heel. The empire was thoroughly centralized, and tribute streamed in to the capital in Varanasi, where our lord ruled supreme.

The imperial interpretation of the Hindu truth was proliferated throughout the land, and even the most ignorant of serfs were soon singing the songs of praise to Shakti, called Isis by the high Yavana lords. And Nyaya was spread throughout all the academies, and through the communities of the wise men, and all of Bharat had a standardized faith, ready to be spread. With it came the standardization of language- the modified Sanskrit of the royal court was mandated throughout the empire, and the imperial dialect was mandated as well. Buddhism, popular amongst the far southern peoples, was heavily discouraged by taxes, and these people were displeased.

In 579, the Buddhists revolted against our rightful sovereign, and he went to their dwelling places and destroyed them utterly. The Tamil rebels were exiled to a land beyond the farthest ocean to the south, a tip of some great island where they would rot in perpetuity, unable to bother the rightful lord of all Bharat. The Malayalam went to the west, to another island barely settled, resigned to the same fate as the Tamil. The other Buddhists, mainly those of the center and north of India, were allowed to stay by the mercy of our lord. It would not be too long before they too saw the lies of Buddha and the truth of Shakti.

And after that our lord was most effective, a fair and litigious ruler. The corrupt and unjust officials were crucified publicly for their transgressions, and the government of the land began to take shape. The armies went to rest, to become the Kshatriyas of the land. And Alexandrachokos raised his son Porukles to be a good administrator, a man of law and faith, and Bharat had a proper Rajput [8].

And even now the glorious peace continues, led by Alexandrachokos the glorious, the lawgiver, the conqueror, the great sovereign and true servant of Lady Shakti.



The Ancient Austronesian Exodus, by Hatta Simawang, Yogyakarta University, 1979

Although archaeological records are scant, we know that the Austronesian peoples of various islands suffered a great plague in the mid 600s. This plague is established as being the same as the great Serican plague from three centuries earlier, which reemerged in the Lac Kinh states and spread down to the Malay islands.

This plague killed large percentages of the population in the islands, and sent great amounts of people elsewhere to avoid the plague. A great number of Austronesian settlers from all the islands went to the island in the far west, conquering the native Papuan peoples. This also weakened native influences in the culture of islands like Sumatra and Java- Indian influence spread over the survivors. Indian merchants began to set up colonies, taking over places like Bali and the smaller islands, acculturating the native Malay peoples. It was this cultural hegemony that allowed the Bharati Empire to seize many of the islands during the First Domination from about 789 to 1234.

People like the Dayaks and the Tagalog went west, hoping to escape whatever malus caused the breakdown of their societies. Most of these people moved over a span of 4 decades, from 640 to 670, settling in the interior of Madagascar, where they were confronted with the settled Malayalam communities of the coasts and the Austronesian inhabitants of the interior. It is estimated, from primitive Malayalam records, that about 69,000 people immigrated to Madagascar, flooding into the interior and the booming coastal settlements. This upset the fragile accord had with the interior tribes, and chaos broke out across the island. The interior was the scene of much violence for those 4 decades before the tribes settled down into some sort of peace. At the same time, Malayalam settlements began to have an influx of Austronesian settlers, and some communities, like the Tagalogs, set up their own communities on the coasts of the island.

For about 100 years, this state of affairs continued, with the Malayalam subsisting on their own and the interior tribes coexisting in the jungles. However, the merger of Tagalog and Malayalam trade communities into a Buddhist hybrid of the two yet again upset the balance of the island. This hybrid people began to move into the interior, looking for agricultural opportunities (especially the chance to trade elephant birds to rich, curious buyers). This community began to expand inward until they conquered the island fully in the 770s, setting up small agricultural holdings of luxury goods and cutting down the forest. Soon, rich Malayalam warriors had vanilla plantations, and Theravada monasteries began forcefully recruiting Austronesians into the faith. Of course, the tribes fought back in the jungles, but the forces of trade, intermarriage and social cohesion proved too great. The Tagalam kingdom, as it was called, became the one political entity of Madagascar, and would last as a unifying Buddhist trade kingdom for another three centuries before splitting into culturally similar Theravada fiefdoms in 1066.

The effect of population drain, plague and climate change on islands like Borneo, Sulawesi and the Takei Jima[9] was immense. While islands like Sumatra, Java, Seram, Timor, and the Moluccas largely kept their populations, these three groupings of islands were particularly devastated and depopulated. The Hindu trade ports of Borneo were abandoned, found by the Shirokishi Kaizoku centuries later as they set up their own colonial fiefdoms in the island in the name of Christ and Emperor.

The Malay populations, on the other hand, would partially bounce back, although the cultural and linguistic diversity of the jungles was severely reduced. Particular areas, like Sulu, south Borneo and eastern Sulawesi would become what counted as population centers in the islands after the exodus.

In Khmer, Malay and Bharati histories, this “devils trio” of islands is generally referred to as devoid of goodness, cursed and forbidden. Although small Minyue settlements would dot all three island groups, the islands themselves would remain largely unimportant until the Shirokishi settlements later on.



The Genesis of Damizhao[10], Rantung Ukwa, Tecatninkarru University, 1985 AD

The history of Damizhao rightly begins with the expulsions of Basaraj Skandrashoka, known as devil to Tamils even to this day. In 579, the rebellious Tamils, numbering in the thousands, were exiled to the ocean, without any set course or destination. These Tamils included former nobility, especially the Kalabhras, Pallavas and Cheras of southern India. The ocean winds, legendarily “blessed by Buddha”, sent the ships to the southwestern tip of we now know as Hunaporoa [11].

These Tamil settlers originally stuck to their landing settlement, the city of Tecatninkarru [12]. This city soon grew as these exiles explored the surrounding areas, and the population began to grow. In 584, the first Buddhist temple was built in Tecatninkarru, later becoming the Great Stupa. From the beginning, the Hindu elements of society were generally cast off, seen as remnants of old India, and Theravada guidelines were instituted. Participation in the rigid Buddhist order was mandatory, and the settlement was tightly controlled by a council of oligarchic elders appointed for civic and religious purposes.

The city of Tecatninkarru soon encompassed surrounding environs, and three smaller coastal settlements connected by ship and eventually by road. Native tribes were assimilated into the Tamils, and the arrival of more exiles bolstered population. The settlements soon became a general collection of very small villages and other places, organized into a very loose league centered in Tecatninkarru. This league, largely oligarchical or monarchical, was largely undisturbed for about a century, allowing for the establishment of agriculture in the region. The Cheras, Pallavas and Kalabhras became major families in the new land, nobility once more despite a markedly lower amount of wealth or military power.

Sheep were imported from the Malays, the Persians and Northern India by trade so that they could be raised for meat, milk and wool. The resulting breed, the Rusty Sheep, became the main meat animal, while gayal were brought in as draft animals. Camels from Arabia were brought for transportation and milk by newer Tamil exiles. Major crops included barley, oats, lentils, some fruits (with the notable exception of grapes) and vegetables. With the establishment of agriculture and irrigation, the Tamils were able to survive. The southwestern corner of Hunaporoa was slowly dotted with monasteries and various remote villages, with most of the population living near the city or the major towns. Fishing became a major food industry on the coasts, and the small Tamil colony slowly gained population from not only the last exiles but their own growth.

This status quo was upset in the 710s by the arrival of traders from Minyue and other parts of Seres. These merchants and settlers came from a few key groups- the Miao, the Tanka, the Xiang, the remains of the previously rebellious Liao peoples, the Yao, the Kra, and the Tujia. Together, these are called the Nanzu, or “Southern Peoples”. These varied peoples started settling in the northern far west of Hunaporoa during that decade, and more traders would come after them. Settlement is considered to have stopped in the 780s. These peoples brought rice (after many died building the irrigation systems), millet, pork, and their folk religions.

The Theravada monasteries clustered in the north soon went out to convert these peoples, and had a rather easy time of it- by the time these settlers stopped coming in the late 780s, most of the people had become Theravada. Some of the settlers moved south from Nanluwan [13] and intermixed with the Tamil peoples. Other settlers sailed to the far south and settled in nominally Tamil regions. Although the Tamils outnumbered these new settlers, they could not forcibly subdue the new peoples, and the two groups of people began to trade and coexist peacefully. Crops and livestock were traded, and both groups began to build more villages as the population of far west Nostaroa began to grow. Eventually, there were rudimentary paths, known by the caravan traders, from Nanluwan down to the far southern settlements like Veldanil [14] and Shaoshan [15].

The people also began to share the fervent Theravada faith of the Tamil, mixing traditions and cultures until the faith across the settlements and remote monasteries was basically uniform. The merchants who traveled the camel routes across the deserts began to intermarry with the other groups, and even the natives who assimilated into the settlements.

The Tamil nobles were especially receptive of the new people, who had come without noble families. Although some were established, like the Mao or the Yang, other Serican settlers submitted to the rule of the Cheras, Pallavas or Kalabhras. With more population and greater cultivation of stone, iron, metal and timber resources, major cities began to grow in size as cosmopolitan centres.

This intermixing also produced a lingua franca across the vast landmass of far west Nostaroa, one with a different writing system and various influences from the settler peoples. Written in a simplified mix of Minyue writing and Tamil, the language soon spread to many of the monasteries, and then to all of the merchant communities. While the farming villages still kept to their old languages, increasing numbers of people started speaking this lingua franca as an economic necessity. Despite the de jure independence of every Tamil and Nanzu village and principality from each other, the trade economy and the need to defend from native raids often bonded these towns and villages together. A new culture and new people was emerging, from Tamil, Nanzu and native.

This increasing centralization and cultural merger went on for quite a while, until the de jure unification of all of far west Hunaporoa under one ruler. By that time, colonies had spread to the northern coast, and the trodden paths zigzagged across the landscape. The deserts were traversable by camel, and the descendants of the Tanka and Tamil fishermen ruled the seas. In the late 890s, a man, from Tamil and Nanzu (Xiang-Tanka, to be exact) noble descent rose to the throne of the defunct Kalabhra principality. He happened to be a devoted, if heterodox, Buddhist and scholar of both government and theology.

This man, Mao Zedong, came about at a time when the state of Damizhao was in flux. The noble families, bereft of the means of production, had long since become merchants in the major cities, growing wealthy in their urban homes. These cities, by and large, were interconnected, but rather disconnected from the settlements dotting the vast countryside. The agriculturally rich parts of the country also held the landed nobility, built on a system of feudalism and serfdom. Most of the population was concentrated in these regions.

There were also the rural towns and outposts. These settlements, by necessity and quirk, had slowly become communal over time, and practiced a form of direct democracy. Each town was independent, save for the larger ones that formed confederations, and they barely paid tax to the great cities of the coast. The monasteries rounded out the mix, surviving in the hardscrabble deserts. Driven from the large towns and even the cities, these warrior monks protected the communes from harm and spread the faith to natives, encouraging them to move to the communes. They largely ruled over the communes as a religious and military authority, independent of the traders and the caravan men who crossed the desert. It was from the farthest monastery in Honacattiram [16] that Mao Zedong emerged.

He was a idealistic man, who had come from the poor communes, searching for a sense of unity. The natives had slowly been growing more and more hostile, pushed from the richer east by new peoples, whom Mao did not know of. He sought to unify the communes and the warrior-monks into one state, even seizing the cities so as to create a nation. His particular brand of secular and religious though mobilized many followers in the communes, and he started his march across Damizhao.

His march from the desert monastery of Honacattiram to the city of Tecatninkarru is referred to as the Long March, which he accomplished with a small host of followers. Armed only with a book of his own reflections on the Buddha, a hammer and a sickle, Mao made his across the desert by foot, defeating natives and converting others to his cause.

He arrived in the capital in 898, and immediately began freeing the peasants and increasing the livelihoods of the craftsmen, as explained in his populist version of Theravada Buddhism. He also inspired the younger warrior-monks, who became his Red Guard. The hammer and sickle, newly covered in gold, became the symbols of his power, and he soon began consolidating power, saying he was on a quest for nirvana. This nirvana, he said, would be achieved through the unification of the settler states, the cowing of the merchants and the freeing of the oppressed workers and peasants of the settler states.

For 11 years, Mao and his nigh-indefatigable Red Guards conquered the other states, hoping to eliminate the cravings of the merchants, the unnecessary accumulation of wealth, and to free the people so that they could reach nirvana collectively, a principle Mao believed in passionately. Finally, in 909, the last settlements in the southeast were taken, and Mao Zedong created the state of Damizhao. His book was widely recopied and spread to every monastery and village in the new country, and his popular adaptation of Theravada principles of discipline and meditation became more widespread. The merchants were largely left alone, although guilds were formed and tithes were instituted so as to develop the vast rural wastes of Damizhao.


The resulting state was one governed by Mao’s followers, who were mainly rural Tamils, natives, Xiangs, Kra and Tujia. The Red Guards were the military, and after widespread recruitments, became an inherited position, one focused on scholarship and warfare. The officials were scholars from the new “High Monasteries” in the cities and some from the wilderness, including Honacattiram. The noble families stayed in power, but had little power in the apparatus of state, and focused completely on trade wealth. All the peasants and craftsmen were freed into the towns, and monasteries were streamlined with the teachings of Mao. This “Popular Buddhism”, one focused on equality and collective enlightenment (and the worship of Mao as a Second Great Buddha), became the state faith of Damizhao.

Despite the populism, land reforms and loss of noble power, the state still brought in a great deal of wealth. The sea merchants stayed lords of the ports, and the government of Damizhao, focused on the theocratic oligarchy of Mao Zedong, was not as centralized as one would think.

An Abridged History of the Deganbari, Audari Sond-Just, 1893 AD, Acadim Royau Gepidenna

The history of the Deganbari begins with the Bazrangids, a Persian noble family that went into exile in Africa after being defeated by the Sassanids. Their state, the Kilwa Empire, had a fairly short life, centered mainly in the city of Kilwa. When the Sassanids were defeated in the year 404, the last Shah, Ferdows, fled to the small Persian trade community in Zanzibar. Following him came the noble scions, the high Zoroastrian priests, and other important people. They set up capital in Zanzibar and Pemba, and soon swelled with people as Manichaeism was imposed on Africa. This swelling of people included craftsmen, merchants, and some more clergy, along with people loyal to the old Sassanid Shahs. These people settled on the coasts at Tanga, and other places. The remnants of the Sassanid army that came with the Shah also moved to the coasts.

Over the reign of Attila and Ernakh in Persia, thousands of people began to flee to Zanzibar and even Kilwa in search of free rule. During this chaotic time, much of the old institutions were changed by Ferdows, including the adoption of non-Zurvanite Zoroastrianism. Those who disagreed, mainly priests, were killed quietly in Zanzibar. By 476, the last people of the Sassanid Exodus had come to Africa, and people began to flow into the coastal settlements and the interior. The land was called Deganbar- or Coast of the Banished.

The Bazrangids in Kilwa were shocked, but also bolstered bynew exiles from Persia that helped bolster the city.

The histories of the two states are sketchy from about 476 to the 620s. By that point, the Sassanids had beaten down the interior tribes and intermarried with their nobility, and the Bazrangids had been become vassals, saved from the threat of hostile natives. The Deganbari Shah Kurosh is considered the start of the Empire itself, which before had been referred to as the Sassanid Empire.

Kurosh managed to conquer the coasts between Zanzibar and Kilwa, and the colonization of the interior by Zoroastrian tribes was begun in earnest. Fire temples penetrated the countryside, and tribes were destroyed or assimilated by settlers. He is considered the father of the nation- his reforms and defeat of natives led to the stability needed to expand the country. His successors, made heroes in the Zanameh of Mtumbe Ngoube, continued to conquer southward.

Their society was formed of the Zoroastrian culture abandoned in Persia and the influx of the Bantu into the coasts. The settlers and the natives intermarried, and the hybrid culture, by the 660s, had become a trade destination in the booming Indian Ocean networks. In the age of exploration and colonization, it also boomed as a slave port, selling rebellious tribes like the Acholi to prospective buyers across the Indian Ocean. Zanzibar became the glittering jewel of the Indian Ocean, a fact that remains to the present day.

Eventually extending down to Inhambane under the Erfani dynasty, these Persian exiles managed to create a lasting state in the lands of eastern Africa from little more than exilic might and native tribes. Their hegemony extends inward and into the islands off the coast, and the Zoroastrian faith considers Deganbar its holy land, officially renouncing Persia as holy in the reign of Shapur III Sassani.

……

[1] Bombay
[2] Those wacky Scythians!
[3] Basileus and Raja- bastardized.
[4] Area near Karachi
[5] Combination of Alexander and Askoha- common for early Basarajas.
[6] Name for India, adjective Bharati. Will be used as opposed to Indian most of the time.
[7] Sri Lanka. Note Greek name.
[8] Means son of a Raj.
[9] Phillipines.
[10] Far western bit of Australia, defined by slightly looser line from OTL Port Hedland to OTL Esperance.
[11] Australia. Guess where they get the name from…
[12] Perth
[13] Exmouth
[14] Bunbury
[15] Esperance
[16] Wiluna
 
Last edited:
In regards to the academic headings before the paragraphs- many of these may be edited as I go down the line, to either correct the time written or even the author (the amount of early native authors for many areas is probably not realistic).

For a bit of cultural butterflies in the Indian Ocean:

India notably has a standardized Hinduism forming around Shaktism and Nyaya, patronized by strong Basarajas like Skandrashoka. There is also a great Hellenic influence in art and architecture, notably in sculpture. The nonsense Greek used by the Sakas on their coinage has now been made proper again, although a hybrid alphabet is beginning to germinate as the Ellashas become more and more Indianized. Overall, not a huge amount of Hellenic influence, since India's culture is rich as it is, but a few things here and there, most notably a more organized religion. The lack of Buddhism is also pretty big- while it lingers in Southern India, it will slowly waste away, which is fairly important in both Hinduism and Buddhism.

Buddhism TTL is split into Popular (Mao) Buddhism, which is based on Theravada, Theravada in Malayalam and maybe one or two other countries, and the slowly dwindling Mahayana sects (which may be spread to other places, maybe not). My POD has eliminated such things as Xuanzang and the Journey to the West, so Buddhist culture will be affected by that. The shock of exile has organized the Buddhists, but has also made them more evangelical in Madagascar and in Damizhao.

Damizhao is an interesting place, where Tamil and parts of China can meet (the boat people, or Tanka, have particular sway). A hybrid culture has definitely developed among these people, and various influences are taken from each culture. Architecture, for example, will look rather Chinese on the outside, but the interior architecture of temples and palaces will look more Indianized, especially with trade influence from the north. The food is based on the local agriculture, and what a caravan man eats is vastly different than a coastal fishermen.

I imagine new traditions would arise simply because of the different climate- camels rather than horses, long rides across the desert, etc. I suppose the Tamil have an upper hand, simply from being there first, but influences from the Nanzu will slip into the culture. Tamil dancing will be prominent, but the instruments will change.

The Kilwa Empire existed in OTL, which is what prompted Sassanid Africa. I think a more dynamic Indian Ocean is interesting, and it will pose an interesting stage later on in the Era of Exploration. By keeping alive the Indian-to-Mediterranean trade, exploration, colonization and the developments borne of those processes will be altered. The trade system across the Indian Ocean will definitely have butterflies on these civilizations. For example, despite the campaigns of Skandrashoka, South India will remain rather important economically and culturally, and ports like Madras will rival ones like Bombay. It isn't a Western India-wank; in fact, I imagine that, with the stable border and prominence of seaborne trade, the Northwest regions of India will be a backwater, and Magadha will be centered in Varanasi (the capital).

The Indian domination of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Flores, Timor and those islands (and eventually Papua) is a nod to the excellent ideas and arguments of Flocc. That being said, the Japanese will probably have some influence in Southeast Asia, but only in Northern Indonesia/Phillipines. The Indian culture will even affect the Japanese, so great is their influence, and I think Indian culture will spread north (into the Himalayas) and the entirety of Indochina (a bit limited in the Lac Kinh states, but still there).

Madagascar will be rather marginal, but it will ferry India ideas to the Sassanids, who are rapidly diverging from isolated Persia.

Once again, if any or all of this is ASB- TELL ME. I am glad to rewrite it to make it more realistic, but I need input.
 

FDW

Banned
I feel you could've made the Japanese names a bit more divergent than OTL. Given the POD, Japanese could have more liquid consonants and also probably some vowel symmetry and retaining the w and y line of sounds, while have the h line remain as f, lastly, the "shi" sound in Japanese probably didn't emerge until after your POD.
 
Can you, like, rewrite the names for me so I can see exactly how they are changed (I'm not exactly an expert linguist...). I don't really know what liquid consonants are, so any further elaboration would be great- you're the language expert here.
 

FDW

Banned
Can you, like, rewrite the names for me so I can see exactly how they are changed (I'm not exactly an expert linguist...). I don't really know what liquid consonants are, so any further elaboration would be great- you're the language expert here.

I'm not really a language expert here, I just read a lot of stuff on wikipedia. Just go through the Language pages and you'll see the stuff I'm talking about. As for liquid consonant, I actually meant free consonants, not attached to vowels. I was also trying to imply that Japanese might have a structure more permissive to that of consonants than OTL.
 
I'm going with OTL names because that is what comes out of the translator, and trying to translate Japanese names as I write this is going to be hard. I am not enough of a linguist (and Wiki is too confusing), for me to try and successfully diverge the language. The actual language will have, paradoxically, less Chinese and Korean loanwords (the Toraijin assimilated rather quickly) and will draw from Satsugu and Shikoku dialects heavily, especially as the North is fully assimilated.

I am going to revert the changes already made. I will say that the POD allowed for parallel lingual developments. German will be German, Japanese will be Japanese, Greek will be Greek. To reinvent language is beyond my lacking capabilities. That being said, some names may be different in future updates (like Eronimo becoming Jeronmo), and I will try and incorporate free vowels.

Next update will be on random places that catch my fancy.
 
And now, some more intros and perspectives in non-Europe (the tales of the Goths and Gepids just aren’t speaking to me right now.) It’s a bit short, but we’ve already covered Asia (Indochina’s fate is mentioned- another sort of boring region for me right now) and part of Africa. I may not do history book for those, but just short little interludes on them (basically, the Goths and Gepids settle places, especially since we only have one sack of Rome with Geiseric).

The Migrations of the Polynesians, Sevrus Gunderfitz Fergels, University of Tara, 1874

The great Serican plague, which had originated in the late 4th century, spread through Seres and then Southeast Asia at many different times- first burning through Seres, then, after a long dormancy, through the Malay islands and Polynesia. In fact, the first wave is the one that hit Polynesia, distinct from the smaller, second wave that devastated Melanesia again. The effect this plague had on the Orient and Oceania was immense- societies rose and fell on the plague, and the depopulation of smaller islands was devastating. By the end of the plagues, the only major islands with large survivor populations were Fiji, Tahiti, and parts of Samoa, the rest having fled.

The many small Polynesian islands all caught the plague in the late 5th century, from Tahiti to Tonga, and the migrations spurred by the plague would cause great upheaval in the region. Much of what we now call Melanesia was nearly depopulated, and smaller islands eventually became devoid of all people until later settlement. The plague spurred apocalyptic cults on many islands- deforestation and cannibalism became huge issues amongst the Polynesians. In this time, two great exoduses occurred- the settlement of Hawaii in the early 500s, and the settlement of Hunaporoa [1] by the Maori in the 540s. Many smaller exoduses were made, bolstered later on by the Tongan, Kiribati and Vanuatu population booms that sent more Polynesians to the east in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries.

Great fleets set out from these islands, hoping to escape the ravenous plague that destroyed their old societies, often lacking all but the most basic livestock. The various fleets landed in various locations in eastern Hunaporoa, and made rudimentary villages there. They also interacted with natives, and gave them the plague, which decimated them. Legends from the period tell of great sickness among the natives, and the fleeing of the natives into the deserts and central Hunaporoa, away from the epicenter of the plague.

Tales also tell of northern men, believed to be Malays, teaching the Maori the secret of metalworking. Although told as a great, divine fable, metalworking became a niche for many Maori kingdoms, especially in the absence of other materials. Despite the advent of iron, the use of iron in weaponry and armor did not come until the consolidated period, due to the rarity of the art.

…………………………………………..

These coastal settlements soon took advantage of favorable agriculture to expand, and the Maori martial culture blossomed as resources were competed for. For about three centuries, the Maori set up chiefdoms across eastern Hunaporoa, intermarrying and assimilating natives and developing ironworking and other innovations. Some theories point to Maori-Damizhao contact, or Maori-Asia contact, neither of which is supported by the mass of academia.

By the year 900, there existed Maori petty kingdoms from the northern tip of Hunaporoa to the southern tip, drawing an arc of the arable lands into the far northern jungles. In the mid 800s, another island had been settled, known as Ningaroa [2] from a corruption of a small indigenous band in the north. Maori warriors soon subjugated these tribes and conquered Ningaroa for their own.

In the meantime, a written script had been created, due to the necessity for trade amongst the kingdoms. The vastly varied dialects of Hunaporoa, many of them not even Maori, slowly became one, and the towns began to grow into actual cities. The Maori were no longer oceanic nomads- they were a landed civilization. In the north, organized religion began to developed, based on the war god Tu, expanded to have hegemony over much of creation. Eventually, he would be the only god worshipped by the Maori, a vengeful god of war for a very martial people. The cult of Tu would eventually spread to all islands conquered by the Maori.

At some point, these settlers did have contact with Damizhao, but negative impressions from the natives, the impassable deserts of Hunaporoa and general isolation on the part of Damizhao prevented sustained contact. In Maori tradition, the land of the deserts was settled by sand devils, and the Damizhao became a semi-mythic kingdom of fishermen, desert sailors, and odd cults. In Damizhao, the people beyond the deserts, the people of the eastern realm and the islands, are known as the Yushpeikul [3], based off of descriptions of Maori war styles and weapons from the small native tribes.

In the early 10th century, horses, originally from the great steppes, were traded all the way down to the Maori, and bought by a curious trader. Even more horses were bought in the Malay markets by other traders, after the utility of such animals became apparent, and the northern kingdoms began using horses. Some escaped, and, for about a century, ran wild across eastern Hunaporoa. In the meantime, the kingdom in the north began using cavalry, taught by Malay traders, and soon began further consolidating its territory. The use of horses by the Maori is considered the start of the consolidation period.

By the mid-11th century, these kingdoms had been unified under one king from the far north. The northern kingdoms had consolidated earlier, but had less population than the great towns to the south. This man, Hone Heke, was a man of great military prowess, and managed to unite the fractured petty kingdoms of Hunaporoa into one, solid kingdom. The tribes were made into noble families, all subsumed to the power of Hone Heke and the royal succession. At Purariwhanga [4], a capital was made, and the innovations of the north, bought from the Asian traders of the Malay islands, were spread amongst all the Maori. After about 10 years of subduing and reorganizing Hunaporoa as the Empire of the Maori, he then invaded Ningaroa and instituted the same reforms.

His last major act was to colonize two islands to the southeast, called Aotearoa [5]. The large birds were brought back as livestock, and Maori settlers from the large towns (now small cities) moved to Aotearoa. A Maori imperium in Oceania had been created. By 1100, according to written record, the known parts of Hunaporoa, Aotearoa and Ningaroa all belonged to the Maori Empire.


The Conquering Lion- A History of Medieval Aksum, by Sezana Seyoum, University of Gondor, 1987 AD

Aksum, starting in the 6th century, began a campaign of expansion across east Africa and Arabia unrivaled in its history. Its control of the straits between Africa and Arabia gave it a great many tolls, and the frontier with Kemet was peaceful- the two Monophysite powers refused to fight each other. Rather, the Aksumite neguses looked towards other lands for expansion.

They first expanded southward, into the Horn of Africa, conquering local tribes. These conquests, which stopped around the year 515, are considered the stepping stone to later Aksumite expansions in Africa and elsewhere.

In the 520s, the wild lands of the northwest were conquered by the negus, and the empire expanded once more. When Negus Negast Nezana died in 537, the lands of Aksum stretched from the tip of the horn up the coast to the northwest and farther inward. The kingdom slowly centralized as these conquests came under the nascent imperial administration, and the 18 year rule of Kaleb I was largely one of putting down noble rebellions, building the administration and guarding against Himyar.

In 555, the Negus Negast Zergaz I, third son of the fifth son of Nezana, rose to the throne after plague and brutal assassination eliminated greater rivals. After 18 years of administration, pacification and overall consolidation, Aksum’s African territories were peaceful, and Zergaz, along with the remaining nobles, wanted conquest.

In that year, Socotra was conquered by Zergaz, and plans were made to cross the Bab al-Mandeb. In the year 558, those plans were enacted, and Himyar, in the midst of civil war, was conquered entirely. The southern tip of Arabia, in the course of three years, was conquered and pacified, and the capture of Mokka in the year 561 is considered the end of the Himyarite war.

For 6 years, Zergaz ruled over peace in Arabia and Africa, and the cowed people of Himyar didn’t stir for fear of reprisals and a renewal of the brutal conquest. However, a Bedouin raid in 565 enraged the king, and raids continued to flounce local rulers until Zergaz crossed into Arabia once more in 567. The armies went to the Bedouin camps, and slaughtered them wholesale, and sacked the towns and burnt and silted the oases. The deserts north of the south Arabian tip were also conquered, and the tribes would not recover for a long, long time. Aksum gained more land in Arabia, conquered north to the straits of Hormuz. These cities and towns of Arabia would be converted to Monophysitism and Aksumite culture over a long time, while Arabian practices of hookah and coffee made their way into Aksumite society. It was the beginning of the Aksumite reign in the Indian Ocean.

The unique geography of the region, along with control of the straits between Africa and Arabia, allowed for higher tolls and avoidance of land wars with rival Indian Ocean powers. The Aksumite Imperial Navy was built by Zergaz’s grandson, Kwestantinos, in the early 600s, and the Aksumites would become one of the great Indian Ocean powers.

In that time, they continued to slowly expand south, colonizing and conquering tribes to their south in Africa. In the reign of Yemrehana Krestos in the mid 600s, the tribes that extended south to the far border marches of the Sassanids were conquered in a series of small but brutal campaigns. Christian Arabs and northern Aksumite tribes were settled in these lands, and the local tribes were often sold as slaves to the Romanoi in the north. Aksum, by the 670s, extended on both coasts of the Red Sea and had a stretch of Indian Ocean coast from Mombasa to the straits of Hormuz. Its lands in the interior extended, with varying degrees of rule and taxation, to Lake Seyon [6].

It would continue to expand inland very, very gradually over time, while the coastal interests and urban areas continued to dominate Aksum. The neguses would look out towards the ocean, and the modern interior borders of Aksum would only be reached in the mid 17th century, after nearly a millennium of inward expansion from the borders of Yemrehana Krestos.

[1] Australia
[2] Tasmania
[3] Jade Demons
[4] Sydney
[5] New Zealand
[6] Lake Turkana
 
Last edited:
Awesome timeline, very will written and detailed! A few concerns about plausibility though. Would a Suez canal even be possible at this time even with massive slave labor? OTL it took a decade to construct, though probably with fewer workers. Also, maintenance of the canal would be difficult as well with constant dredging required to keep it open. Historically, Nile to the Red Sea canals seem to be more popular, though none were kept open very long. Whatever the case TTL suez will require a huge amount of upkeep, but provide massive economic benefits.

Another thing I'm curious about is the spread of diseases with the increase of East-West trade. China just got curbstomped by plauge, wouldn't wee see something akin to OTL black death happen much sooner in Europe? Say within a decade of the canal opening? Europe and maybe India would be at risk of a plauge carried by the new transcontinental trade.
 
Since it won't let me edit the first page, I will say that the canal is a system of canals, the main part of which focuses on wider rivers as one approaches the Nile Delta, making it a bit more natural. If I am ever able to update the first page of this thread, then I will change it officially. Consider the Julian Canal to be one that starts on the Red Sea (near Cairo) and goes down/up the Nile into the Delta, avoiding the Sinai altogether.


The thing is, the Julian Canal is built about two centuries after the plague in Seres. The plague begins to move to Indonesia-Polynesia, but trade from the Julian Canal focuses primarily on India. In Seres itself, it burns out by the 5th century. It's also not one of those recurring kind of deals- it burned itself out fairly well in Asia.

The plague didn't really spread to India- it never penetrated far enough into the Bengal, or into Central Asia, to really reach Romanion and then Europe.

The massive chaos prevents large amounts of trade, and powers like Nippon and the other, non-plague infected powers notably avoid trade with Seres during the plague.

Although I haven't written it as canon yet, the plague eventually travels into Central Asia and really, really hurts the Slavic peoples before burning itself out again, helped by very, very cold weather and the sheer lack of contact with the infected. The Black Plague spread well because of the massive Mongol Imperium and specific Mongol tactics in the Siege of Kaffa. The trade from the Julian Canal, at first, is largely rudimentary and sticks to Aksum and a few from coastal India and the African shahs. Trade will take a while to boom.


But also thank you for reading! Next update will be more Europe focused.
 
Last edited:
And now, friends, for Volkswanderung Part 2: Razed Cities Boogaloo!

Depredations of the Chaka Hordes, Sextus of Narbo, 476 AD

The Chaka hordes came from the lands of the farthest east, of lands beyond Sarmatia and the Transoxus, unknown to us. They caused migrations of many other great peoples, such as the hordes who ravage the Persians at this very time.

They first struck in Illyria, although we did not know the danger they posed. They scattered the German tribes, and made many slaves and vassals of the tribes above the Danube, and went and razed Singidunum [1] to the ground, and sacked Aquincum [2] in the year 397. They made much destruction in Noricum and Pannonia, and conquered Vindobona [3] for their own use. They then began to march into Italy, in order to conquer the Imperial holdings therein.

In 400, the Chaka slew the Emperor Theodosius in battle, and his host with him, and the Imperial split was made absolutely permanent. The East was divorced from the West, and the remaining pagan Romans, still unconverted after long years of Christian emperors, made efforts to move into the powerful East. The great general Stilicho fled to Africa, and became a Roman Emperor in Carthage after fleeing Rome. Honorius was also slain, and a new emperor rose in the West. In Gaul, Salian Franks invaded Aremorica, and dominated northern legions, and did serve the seceding Duchy of Aremorica declared in that year.

Later that year, the Chaka succeeded in their conquest of Mediolanum [4], and razed the city for its insolence, making slaves of its people and a fire of its edifices. They then beat a legion south of the city, and continued west, where Imperial resistance was weaker.

In late 401, the hordes captured Massalia [5], and vassalized that city, before moving north in campaign once more. They defeated the legions of southern Gaul in pitched battle, and in the forests, and no good resistance could be given to the hordes. In spring 402, the hordes crossed the Rhone, and razed Nemausus [6] and then made moves to go north and conquer our other cities.

In 404, they defeated the legions of northern Hispania, and continued to conquer our lands. They controlled, by then, a swath of land from Aquincum to the Atlantic, Burdigala [7] bypassed after tribute was paid to the Chaka kings. The Chaka defeated again many peoples, including Germanic tribes helping our legions; the rest of the Franks went north to Aremorica and became foederati in that peninsula, their hosts depleted and chiefs slain in battle.

In 405, Lugdunum [8] was razed in its entirety, and Gaul was defeated for a long time. The legions were cowed, and the Germanic tribes stayed east of the Rhine, fearful of the Chaka conquerors. Rather than go north once more, the Chaka decided to avenge the attacks of the Hispanic legions, and marched down to the Ebro. The city Tarraco, center of the again-defeated Hispanic legions, was burnt to the ground like many of the other conquered cities. The Chaka lords were called Flagellum Dei and The Fiery Pestilence by us after this last humiliation, and they conquered down to the Ebro. They then conquered all the way into Gallaecia, and settled their treasures and captives at Portus Cale [9], and in that moment ruled a mighty swath of land from the Hispanian coast of the Atlantic all the way to Noricum. The Vascones were made vassals of the mountains, unconquered by the Chaka; the Chaka moved their political capital to Narbo.

Gaul and Hispania were cleaved from each other, and the Western Empire was cleaved into pieces. Hispania was thrown into great chaos, spared only by loyal governors. Italy was fearful, fearful of the Chaka delivering their unholy wrath upon Italy.

In 408, those fears were confirmed as a new king rose to the great throne in Narbo. He moved back into Italy, and struck southward, sacking Arretium in his might. He then razed the rebellious Arelate [10], and moved the survivors to Massalia, his vassal, with the treasure going to Hispania. He did get concessions from our emperor, and a right to rule his lands. The emperor was sacked for his cowardice. He was afterwards peaceful, hoping to consolidate his great realm.

He did not account for, however, the machinations of his vassal lords. He was killed in 410, and by then the eastern Chaka dominions in Noricum and Pannonia had become independent once more, ruled by a mix of Sarmatic, Roman and other nobles as a weak confederation. The Chaka realm, in that year, did stretch only to Mediolanum from the Hispanian coast. For five years, peace reigned over the Chaka realm, and the empire did not stir. In 411, Olissipo declared its independence from Rome under Naso, and was left alone, for the Chaka by this point were weakened.

In 423, yet another lord became king of the Chaka, second son of the second son of the great conquering king, after making slaughter of all of his rivals. He was a foolhardy king, and struck into the north of Gaul, where the Empire had consolidated its remaining legions, helped by Taifals and other tribes like the Gepids. And at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields in 424, that king was slain, and his empire fell to pieces, reconquered by the vengeful empire. The remaining Chaka lords fled with their treasure to the hills of Gallaecia, where they could not easily be fought, and in Portus Cale lay the treasure of the many conquered towns and cities of Gaul and Italy and Hispania. The dialect of Latin there, it is said, was altered by the influx of captives, and was said to resemble a mix of Gallaecian dialects and those of Pannonia and Noricum. Northwest Hispania belonged still to the Chaka, and with them much of the treasure of northern Italy, southern Gaul and northeast Hispania.

The Vandals marched into Africa in 425, and did conquer Carthage in 427, with the Prince of the Vandals Gento marrying the third daughter of Stilicho. Gento, the first-born [11], was above all a genius of the waves, and a great administrative mind. His father Geiseric, who even now still lives, made Carthage his capital, and did break Africa from Rome. They carried with them the treasure of Valentia, Merita and Carthago Nova, the latter two razed to the ground as the Vandals marched out of Hispania.

In Italy and Gaul, however, the Western Empire enjoyed peace for a time, free of the attacks of Germans and Chaka hordes.

Commentaries on a Backwater: Gaul from the Fall to Donadin I Sade, by Jule de Julibonna, Acadim Royau Gepidenna, 1897 AD

The fall of Rome had adverse effects across the breadth of the empire, from the razed cities to the depopulated cities and burnt countryside. Of course, these effects were largely limited to Africa and what was considered the Western Empire- the East, through fortuitous luck and military strength, beat back the Chaka and other comers, while the Arbanazoi beat back many of the later peoples that could have visited destruction on Hellas or Thrake.

In Africa, the Vandals rebuilt Carthage and other cities with spoils and slaves of the cities they captured, from Rome to Athens. They were able to revitalize Africa just as western Europa became poorer and poorer. Albion kept a Roman state, and would see its fortunes fall long after the continent.

The Chaka, while conceived as conquerors largely in the south and in Hispania, did have a disruptive effect on the Germanic tribes- the northward thrust undertaken by Chaka before their invasion of Rome weakened or disrupted many of the tribes, and prompted the migration of tribes like the Gepids, Vandals, Goths and others.

The Chaka were instrumental in weakening Gaul, the south in particular. After the initial campaigns of Italy and Gaul, the Chaka Khan went into Hispania, and sacked Tarraco, before moving into the northwest and making capital at the Portus Cale. This is where the treasure and the valuable captives of the razed cities were kept. The capital, however, was moved to Narbo, and there was a period of great chaos amongst the Chaka, left unabated by the weak and divided Empire. Eventually, the Chaka wanted more conquest, and decided to strike north, going to the Catalaunian Fields, awaited by a Gallic Roman army.

This battle introduced many of the German peoples into Gaul; helping the Romans were the Taifals, the Salian Franks, the Gepids and many other Germanic tribes like the Goths and the Vandals. In the end, many of these supplementary peoples died in the fight, including much of the Salian host. However, the Chaka Khan was killed in battle, and, after the Chaka reconsolidated in northwest Hispania, the entirety of Gaul and much of Hispania was technically still Roman.

Of course, the Romans had to pay these barbarian peoples, and some settled in Roman Gaul. Breakaway states began to form- the Salian Franks united with the Roman army in Aremorica to form the Duchy of Aremorica in 400, conquering bits of land around the peninsula. The Gepids were settled, under Roman suzerainty, in central Gaul, controlling lands around Aurelianum [12]. The Vandals moved southward, razing many recalcitrant Hispanian cities before moving into Africa, which they swiftly conquered. The Alans, Sarmatic peoples who had marched with the Vandals, stayed and ruled in Hispania.

The Taifals, by and large, had died in the initial attacks of the Chaka, and so took only a small bit of land near Parisium. The final people to be granted land were the Goths, who took land from Burdigala to the Ebro, including the cities of Barca and Narbo. Of all of the foederati in Gaul, it was the Goths who benefited the most.

Gaul and northeast Hispania (mainly Tarraconensis) had become the frontier by the year 430- the Alans, Chaka and Dominion of Olissipo controlled the rest of the peninsula. Africa had been conquered all the way to Cyrene by the great Vandals, who had also seized the Balearics, Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia.

Gaul was generally unaffected by these Vandal raids- the Goths defended the coasts viciously. However, the Vandal Sack of Rome in 432 would affect Gaul most negatively. With the imperial administration destroyed, and with centuries of wealth taken back to Carthage, the legitimacy off the state had been destroyed.

The Aremoricans had already rebelled by the point in time, run mainly by their legions, the locals and the Salian Franks. However, the other Germanic peoples of Gaul now saw their own opportunity to rebel.

Much of Northern Gaul, including Belgica and the west bank of the Rhine, had fallen to Germanic tribes after the death of Theodosius. Central Gaul was settled and seized by the Gepid foederati in 434, and a capital was made at Aurelianum. They quickly consolidated lands around them, under their king, and conquered northern Gaul after burning Lutece/Parisiorum [13] and winning a battle outside the ruins.

In southern Gaul, the Goths had had nine years of consolidation and heavy settlement- the Goth population was larger than that of many other tribes, and the local, Arianized population supported them as strong protectors of their wellbeing. They rebelled, assimilating the local Roman army (which they dominated) and declaring their chief King of the Goths, Lord of Septimania.

In the north, general unrest and chaos ruled for about 10 years as the Duchy of Aremorica fought the Gepids. Finally, in 444, Ardaric, second official King of the Gepids, conquered Aremorica and brought its people to heel. He then turned south to fight the Goths for the rest of Gaul.

For about 11 years, these two groups fought, Rome contained at the Rhodanum [14]. In 455, a stalemate was accorded- the border between North and South would leave the Goths in control of the Atlantic route of the Via Agrippa on both sides, but north of that road was Gepid land. The Gepid border also lay on the banks of the Seine; the east bank was ruled by various Germanic tribes. The Goth border allowed it to cross the Rhodanum, which gave it control of Massalia, but the Romans controlled the banks of the Rhone from a point 50 miles north of Arausio [15] all the way to the ruins of Lugdunum, after which lay the Via Agrippa. The Roman empire had no land north of the Via Agrippa, or to the west of the Rhone- Gaul was out of their grasp for the first time since the days before Caesar and therefore before the Empire itself.

In that same year, Geiseric sacked Rome for the second time, weakening Rome and preventing the reconquest of Gaul planned by the slain emperor and his generals… This prevention would allow the chaos of the north, including raids by the Belgican tribes, to weaken Gaul. Northern Gaul would be a backwater for another millennium, mired in feudalism and ignorance. The south would suffer revolts and periodic civil wars, but never foreign invasion- an alliance with the Vandals after the ascension of Godigisel protected Gothic trade and cemented Arianism in its people.


[1] Belgrade
[2] Budapest
[3] Vienna, Austria
[4] Milan
[5] Marseilles
[6] Nimes
[7] Bordeaux
[8] Lyon
[9] Porto
[10] Arles
[11] In OTL, last-born; here, first of two sons, Gento and Huneric
[12] Orleans
[13] Paris
[14] Rhone
[15] Orange
 
I have more redactions (since I infuriatingly can't correct the actual updates).

Anything having to do with Popular Buddhism/Mao Zedong is officially verkakte, gone, eliminated. In addition, Shapur III Sassani does not declare Deganbar holy- he just allows the religion to be more internationalist in scope by recognizing the Manichaean rule from Hirmiz (OTL Hormuz). In addition, Sulawesi is no longer a "forsaken" island, and will be part of the aforementioned First Indian Domination. Instead, the forsaken islands are Borneo and the OTL Phillipines.

Next update will feature a Semitic exodus, slave soldiers, Turkish migrations and maybe finally some elaboration on the Germanies. Oh, and maybe some Church stuff.

I also have a question for the few (if any) readers I have: should I make a new thread. The amount of redactions is growing, and I can't edit the updates to fix them, which means I should fix them in Word.
 
I have more redactions (since I infuriatingly can't correct the actual updates).

I also have a question for the few (if any) readers I have: should I make a new thread. The amount of redactions is growing, and I can't edit the updates to fix them, which means I should fix them in Word.

Honestly, it would help but I don't think it is essential. How you feel about this is more important than what we think :)
 
It's really a matter of convenience- I'd like to have "clean updates", and the only other people affected are the readers. I am considering doing it if only to reorganize the updates, eliminate the scholarly titles (seems a bit ridiculous to have book titles when I am making this up as I go), and fix the various continuity/redaction errors. Having a new thread allows me to fix all these errors.

I'd like at least to be considerate- if other people answer affirmative, then a new thread (with a tweaked title- Into the Bloody Twilight) will come. However, I also have a two-month summer job with limited Internet access coming up starting on the 19th- I am wondering if it would be better to just start it then. If I create a new thread now, I can probably edit/pump out a few new updates (some will be overhauled, new content added etc.)
 
Interesting,but is their any reason Kim Ill Sung and Gong Ill and Mao Zedong were born a millennium and a half early?
 
Because I wrote this three years ago when I was terrible at plausibility and what not :D

Also because same name, totally different person. Never, ever expected to see this bumped or necro'd gotta be honest... it's kinda crap, and by that I mean its terrible
 
Top