Diamond said:
Good thoughts, Carlton. Especially Greater Frisia.
I like the Mauretanians better. Germanic warlords are Germanic warlords, except in the Frisian case, better dressed.
But since you liked it, here's the beta version of that roleplaying setting (as yet incomplete):
Alternate Earth: Dorestad
Thaer aet hythe stod hringedstefna
Isig ond utfus, aethelingas faer
In spite of being solidly medieval, in the worst sense of the word, Dorestad is a vibrant and dynamic parallel. Its complex politics are dominated by a rejuvenated Byzantium and a newly risen Chinese empire. In Europe and the Americas, great changes are afoot. Very soon, nothing will be as it was. Glory and riches await...
History
Dorestad deviates from Homeline at some point in the latter third century AD. A subtle swing in mood kept Constantine from meddling in doctrine, disgusted with the ferocity of internal Church dispute. Arius secured a narrow majority at the Council of Nicaea, and Arianism became the orthodox creed throughout the empire for the next century - long enough to allow it to put down roots in the West. When, at the end of the reign of Theodosius' sons, the orthodox Athanasian creed was restored, Arians had developed a powerful presence on the ground, and, through the offices of bishop Wulfilas and his successors, converted most Germanic nations. Arian Romans, oppressed by the brutal persecutions undertaken by Honorius and Arcadius, readily welcomed the Germanic invaders as their deliverers. The Visigoths established their rule in Gaul and Spain, the Vandals in Africa, and the Ostrogoths in Italy to the acclaim of their coreligionists. Symmachus, the last orthodox bishop of Rome, died under the swords of Theoderic's saiones after launching a vitriolic attack on the 'heretic king'. King Clovis fell ingloriously at the battle of Tolbiacum after pledging his baptism in the event of victory, giving paganism a boost among the Franks.
Martin, Honoratus, Patrick - Dorestad Monasticism
Homeline monasticism is dominated by the Benedictine rule and its developments through later reform orders. In Dorestad, St. Benedict dies before his twentieth birthday. Monasticism, started by the Desert Fathers of Egypt, took roots in the west through two foundations, both in Gaul. St. Martin, an Arian soldier-turned-missionary, founded the monastery at Tours on the basis of a strict, charismatic asceticism and near-military discipline. His followers, the Martinian 'black monks' of the Arian kingdoms, are fierce missionaries and mystics, not given to quiet contemplation or scholarly pursuits. Many of them are commoners, frequently illiterates and often quite blunt. By contrast, the 'white monks' following the orthodox tradition of St. Honoratus' monastery of Lérins, are devoted to the vita contemplativa, a life of religious devotion in genteel retreat. Honoratians are often noblemen, well-educated and near the end of their lives, retiring to a monastery to accrue heavenly credit.
During the 5th century the Martinian tradition came to Ireland through Patrick and his followers. The monasteries of the island soon took on a distinctive characteristic of their own, becoming homes of learning and literary culture on par with the Honoratians. While the Martinian and Irish monks, both Arians, profess mutual respect, both regard the other as straying from the spirit of monastic discipline.
Both Martinian and Irish monks are devoted missionaries, seeding monasteries and preaching to the heathen wherever they go. They are often at odds with authority (such as there is, in the Arian kingdoms), but highly respected by the Christian populace. Honoratians, on the other hand, tend towards introspection and rarely leave their monastic retreats.
From St. Gelimer to Heraclius (426-628)
In Homeline, St. Gelimer was killed during the purges following the death of Stilicho. Here he lived to become the apostle of the Frisians and Saxons. His journeys took him from the mouth of the Rhine to the Elbe and the boundaries of Denmark between 428 and 472, seeding churches and leaving convert nobles wherever he went. His translations of the Bible into Frisian and Saxon, following Wulfila's Gothic model, stand as some of the finest literary works of his day, and his rendering of the life of Jesus as an epic poem, Drihten Krist, is still recited by Saxon church scops at high holidays.
Around the same time Ireland submitted to the ministrations of St. Patricius, a Romano-Briton who felt it his duty to convert the heathen Hibernians. The particular Celtic variant of monastic Christianity that developed eventually came to spread over much of the British Isles and Northern Europe, though the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon invaders came from their continental brethren soon after they arrived on the shores of Britain.
At the end of the tumultuous 5th century in northern Gaul a young Frisian king, Hariovald, united his people and established himself as heir to the rising star of Clovis. After sharp fighting he conquered the Salian Franks, the former kingdom of Syagrius, the Thuringians and the western Saxons. Having acepted baptism he enjoyed the support of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy while pursuing a policy of toleration earned him the respect of his pagan followers, themselves quickly becoming Christian. By the time of his death in 534 he had established a durable local hegemony and entered into marriage alliances with the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain. Greater Frisia was born and, due to the principle of primogeniture being observed in the royal succession, maintained its territorial integrity for centuries.
After a century of receding, culminating in the deposition of the last Western emperor in 476, the Roman Empire returned to the offensive after Justinian acceded to the throne in 527. His invasions of Ostrogothic Italy and Vandal Africa failed, but Byzantine troops gained a foothold in Sicily, Sardinia and the Balearic Islands before he turned his attentions to the East. A number of indecisive battles against Persian troops led to an invasion of Arabia by sea, establishing Byzantine control along the coasts of the peninsula. Most of the Arabs had already been converted to Christianity, though of the Monophysite variety, and Byzantine military power established a Christian Arabia for good. The remainder of Justinian's reign, as well as those of his successors, were mired in doctrinal disputes between orthodox and Monophysite groups in the empire.
Only after the Persian attacks of 616-24 drove the Byzantine army out of Syria, Palestine and Egypt could emperor Heraclius see his way to proclaiming a policy of toleration for Monophysites, freeing military assets for the war and regaining the support of most of his Eastern subjects. Fittingly it was the fervor of his Arab and Armenian troops before all else that made this emperor's subsequent triumph over the Persian kingdom, capturing Ctesiphon in 628 and establishing Byzantine control over all of Persia by 635. Carried by the impetus of success, outriders of Byzantium's conquering army reached Kabul and Samarkand by 650, though they established little more than nominal rule.
Saxons, Frisians, Angles, Norse, Varangians
It is difficult to find a common name for the people of the northern seas, as they never bothered to give themselves one. Frisians, after the kingdom of Hariovald, is still applied to the inhabitants of Northwestern Europe, though some may insist they are Franks, Saxons, Danes or Slavs. Angles are the inhabitants of England and Scotland, and again they may insist on finer gradations others are unaware of. The Scandinavians are collectively called Norse, those who settled in Eastern Europe being known as Varangians to their neighbors. The European settlers of the Americas collectively call themselves Saxons.
To the Irish and Picts all Germanic peoples are Sassenach (Saxon), while the Gothic kingdoms know the northmen as Fresi (Frisians). To the Byzantine they are Varangians (Saxons to traditionalists), to the Arabs and Syrians Ifris - Frisian. In most Amerindian languages their name is derived from 'Danes'.
Since none of these terms refers to a specific ethnic group it is hard to pin any of them down. A man may call himself a Saxon, a Dane and a Norse in one day, indeed in one breath, without seeing any contradiction in this. Magyars, Russians, Indians and West Africans have joined the cities and warbands of the northmen and equally call themselves Saxon or Varangian. By now many people use all these names interchangeably.
The Conquest of the East and the Conversion of the North (628-719)
Byzantine power, having reached its apex in 650, waned again under the onslaught of Central Asian nomads, but Nestorian and Monophysite Christianity had taken root and spread far and wide. The Turks welcomed missionaries from Armenia while Arabian traders and adventurers spread their particular version of the faith, developed by Muhammad ibn Abdallah, Metropolite of Mecca and Patriarch of all Arabia. Most of East Africa and northern India eventually came to embrace Muhammedite Christianity.
As Byzantium turned east the emperors neglected their western frontiers, tolerating the establishment of the Lombard and Slavonic kingdoms in Raetia and Pannonia and accepting the permanent loss of Italy and Africa to their Germanic kings. Their upper classes merged into the Roman population quickly, making the kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy, Visigothic Spain, Burgundy, and Aquitaine into ethnically homogenous nations. The old Roman aristocracy of these areas and their clergy, Arian and orthodox, preserved their Latin culture and urban lifestyle and taught it to the German aristocrats. Arian Bible translations were circulated widely. Rustic as they must have appeared to a sophisticated Byzantine, these men established a literate vernacular lay culture that was to become the model for all of Europe.
While the Frisian kingdom went through a severe crisis after the death of Hariovald's last direct descendant king Hugo in 584, losing control of almost all its subject nations, monastic missionaries from Saxony and Ireland began what entered history as the third or Danish evangelisation (the first having been the Roman Empire, and the second the conversion of Ireland, Frisia, Saxony and Aengland). Saxon missionaries moved into Denmark from the monastic center of Hammaburg, founding the daughter houses of Roskilde (612) and Hedeby (619). From here the conversion of Scandinavia began its fitful progress. Irish monks reached the coasts of Norway by 610, but were less than fully successful in converting the natives. They did, however, travel out into the north Atlantic, establishing monastic settlements on several newly discovered islands.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain had progressed considerably since the first landings in the 5th century. Many of the invaders being Christian, they established their rule over the Romano-British population more easily. Ambrosius Aurelianus, known by his nom de guerre Artus, or Bruin to his king Oswiu, became an important factor in the merging of the two ethnic groups. As the Franks on the continent in Homeline so did the Angles in Dorestad lend their name to the resulting blend.
In 658, the Wessex ealdorman Wulfstan heeded the call of a noble party of Saxony to contend the throne of the Frisian kingdom. He succeeded after three years of hard fighting, establishing himself as the ruler of the much reduced realm and cementing the old link between the Old Saxons and their Anglish brethren. His son Aethelhere, reigning from 689-719, even attained the title of bretwalda, high king of all Aengland, which from that time onwards was extended to denote the senior king of the North. Trade flourished in this realm, albeit on a small scale, and as Scandinavia joined the 'Mediterranean of the North' their goods found the interest even of the sophisticated Byzantine shoppers. In hindsight, perhaps the most significant development of the time was the exchange between Norse and Frisian shipbuilders and the Mediterranean tradition that produced the mycel ceol or storknarre, Dorestad's first oceangoing trade ship.
A New World Opens (742-913)
Legend has it that in 731 the Frisian sea captain Ranno, sailing from the trade settlement of Waleburh on Greenland, was driven southwest for two weeks by a violent storm and found himself facing a fertile, forested coast. After taking on water and repairing damage to his ship he made for home again, spreading the news as he passed. After returning to his home in Dorestad he brought news to Cnute, king of Wessex, Sussex and Kent and bretwalda of the North. The ambitious young ruler decided that this was too good an opportunity to let slip. He sent out a fleet of thirty keels, ten under the command of said Ranno, ten under the Norseman Hrolf and ten under the Aenglish earl Rothere. This is more likely to be a foundation myth designed to establish the joint claim of Norse, Aenglish and Frisians on America's shores rather than literal truth, but Cnute certainly sent large numbers of ships to explore and claim the unknown coasts.
The First Fleet, as it is known by now, ranged along the coast from Nova Scotia to Chesapeake Bay, meeting with Amerindian tribesmen and establishing a settlement in Manataburh (New York). In the decades following the First Fleet, thousands of settlers came over in search of easy wealth in furs, timber and arable. Relations with the natives were mostly amicable in the first years (a few settlers went a-viking, but there was little worth stealing from stone-age tribesmen). By 800, the settlers in many parts of the east coast were numerous and powerful enough to establish themselves as rulers over neighboring tribes by virtue of their monopoly of domestic cattle, horses, and metal weaponry. As ships ranged farther along the coastline the settlers made contact with the Toltec civilization in Mexico whose highly disciplined militaries repelled the occasional raiders with ease. The kings decided against all contact with the strange foreigners who had established themselves on numerous islands of the Caribbean. The Saxons soon learned that forays onto the mainland were lethal and avoided it.
Missepsrice: the Indian Principalities of the Mississippi Woodlands
While most coastal tribes were either absorbed into Saxon states or destroyed, the tribes to the west, especially those of the Mississippi valley, had more time to absorb the shock. Organised in stable, well-organised farming communities under hereditary rulers, they could incorporate the tools and techniques of the Saxons more easily. Indeed, as they casme by them mostly through trade and tribute they served to strengthen rather than disrupt the fabric of their society. When Saxon raiders entered the Great River they found cities and castles, well-built and stoutly defended, and wisely chose to settle among these people peacably rather than make war. To this day the southern Mississippi and its tributaries are dominated by the city-states of the various 'Saxon Indian' tribes, many of them Christian. Dominated by their distinctive platform churches raised on earthen mounds and painted with traditional, colorful designs the cities of Missepsrice are now home to a unique cultural blend of Mound Builder, Toltec, Mandan and Saxon.
In 817 the Danish nobleman Harald Klak came to Manataburh with a retinue of warriors and settlers. He moved south, establishing himself in Virginia and, after short, sharp fighting, became the high chief of several Amerindian tribes of the area. From this base he built his principality, the state that was to rule the Americas and to this day continues in the title of the bretwalda of Hammland.
The east thought little of the Hesperian Islands (as America was there called) as its own problems kept its rulers quite busy. In Europe, Byzantine troops clashed with Goths and Lombards on the Balkans and in Sicily. Long wars ensued as the firmly entrenched western nobility fought off repeated invasions. In Asia, religious tension resulted in a savage civil war between orthodox, Monophysite and Mohammedite faithful that fragmented the Byzantine domain established under Heraclius into warring principalities. To the emperors of the porphyry city command of Antioch and Ctesiphon was a far more pressing matter than the exploration of faraway, savage lands.
God Dogs of the Northern Plains
Perhaps the most profound change in the life patterns of the north American continent prior to the great plague and the most abiding one for the plains tribes was the introduction of the horse. These strange beasts first frightened the Indians, but they soon learned to master them. Settlers and raiders coming into the Great Lakes area first introduced them to the plains tribes who adopted them enthusiastically. Escaped pack ponies made up the earliest stock, but large warhorses were soon added by purchase, theft or plunder. Over the decades and centuries, horsemanship spread over the Great Plains.
It was the Mandan Sioux nation before all others that embraced the lifestyle of the horse nomad and established itself as the rulers of the plains. They more than the plague destroyed the agricultural cultures of the southwest. To this day, Mandan warriors (most Sioux-speaking nations of the plains were eventually absorbed into the Mandan) roam the wide land freely and the chiefs' council of their clans ranks equal with kings of the coastal principalities and sachems of Missepsrice. Ambitious young warriors often serve as mercenaries abroad while the more unscrupulous ones embark on raiding expeditions against their settled neighbors. Among many others, the Viceroy of the Sweet Sea, an official of the kingdom of Manataburh governing settlements along the shores of Lake Ontario, maintains a regular retinue of fifty Mandan light horse.
The Plague of 914
Whence it came or what it was none could say, but in 914 a terrible plague swept the civilised world. Starting in India and crossing the Byzantine east like wildfire it killed thousands in Constantinople before moving on into the cities of the Mediterranean. The stabilising efforts of emperor Maurice VI came to nothing as his army crumpled under its onslaught. It reached Frisia in 917 where fervent prayer and the intercession of holy abbots availed naught in its face. Monasteries were stormed and bishops driven out of their cities in its wake. Frisia, once a bastion of faith, had lost its trust in ascetic monasticism for good, and the Arian church of the realm should never recover from the blow. By 918 the epidemic had crossed the Atlantic and ravaged Manataburh.
If the plague had been bad in Europe and Asia - it had killed one in eight inhabitants in some areas of the old continent - it became catastrophic to the Amerindians. Already suffering from European diseases they had no immunity to the population was decimated horribly by the epidemic. In the coastal areas some cross-immunisation had taken place and while the Algonquin, Ojibway, Arawak and Cherokee peoples suffered worse than their white neighbors they retained their coherence as societies. Other fared worse - the Toltec empire disintegrated, allowing Arawak, Cherokee and Saxon raiders to take possession of its desolated cities almost without resistance. Throughout the continent the old cultures of the Pueblo, the Inca and the Northwestern nations collapsed, leaving much of the continent open to the Saxon settlers.
