An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania

[CalBear]

Use Google Translate, as the rest of us do.

Nope.

Life is too short.

English language based Board.

 

[Basileus444]

And that's why I was calling for a Greek or Ethiopian colony there. Well nothing that a couple squadrons of liners and a few regiments, can't take care of with extreme prejudice in the next war, declared or undeclared...

You aren't wrong but an issue is that if Rome takes South Africa then the Triunes can easily take the Caribbean colonies in retribution. Rome cares about those colonies far in excess of their economic importance so they may be leery to lose them to gain South Africa. That may not be a trade Rome wants to do.

Remember, we know of the gold and diamonds there, 17th/18th Century leaders ITTL probably don't.

South Africa is by itself much more important than a couple rocks in the Caribbean. When also taking into account it's position interdicting Triune communications to India it becomes immensely more important. The next Triune war and there will be one will be over control of India in all probability after all.

The Cape Colony is incredibly vulnerable to an alliance that can likely project a lot of power down East Africa, which is a much shorter supply route than around West Africa.

I understand that. The question is do the Roman leaders understand that? Those rocks in the Caribbean are useful as well from the Roman perspective between the sugar and the fact that they can be used to keep an eye on Western interests in Terranova.

The Romans are just starting to take more of an interest in East/South Africa. The battle of Madagascar where a young Leo Kalomeros first showed up as a young midshipman was the start of the process whereby the Romans are beginning to pay more interest. The establishment of a Triune colony on the Cape will definitely draw even more attention and as Latin pressure increases more on the Romans, establishing at least an eye on the round-Africa route will become more important.

Attacking the Triunes would risk reprisal against the Caribbean islands, but that is a risk the Romans would take if they thought it was worth it. The Caribbean islands are useful, but they’re much less important than Rhomania-in-the-East.

New and improved map is finished! if anybody has more info on China and India’s borders that would be appreciated

Edit: I forgot to attach the file lmao

Looking nice. I’m planning a series of regional updates that should help clarify things in other parts of the world.

What is the religion distribution in Europe and in world? I'm a bit confused abour Central and Baltic regions. For example, what are the major religions in Prussia? Also, are there still 2 Popes in Rome and Avignon?

IIRC -
Avignon: Arles, Spain & Aragon, K of the Islands, Catholics under Despot of Sicily/Naples & Despot of Carthage, and Empire of Mexico (incl. Inca). (possibly Bernese League)

Rome: N. Italy, Germany/HRE (incl. Lotharingia), EAN, Poland & Hungary, and probably 1/2 population of K. of Prussia.

Bohamist: Triunes, some Northern Italians

E. Orthodox: Russian States. Vlachia, Georgia, Roman Empire, roughly 1/3 of population of Despot of Sicily, Serbia, and Japan.

O. Orthodox (miaphysite): Despotate of Egypt, roughly 2/3 of Armenians in Roman Empire, Ethiopian Empire, Kongo, and a small percentage of Syrians and Indians.

Unclear Christian allegiance: Illyria (possibly Avignon)

Sunni Islam: Berber Maghreb Megablob (Almohavids?), Some West Africans, some Spanish in former Andalus, Muslim Egypt/Sudan nation, Arabia, Yemen, Hadramut, Ottoman Empire, Sindh, some N. Indian States, Aceh, Brunei and Sulu. Possible that Chinese Dynasty is still nominally Muslim.

Ibadi Islam: Oman

Shia Islam: ??

Hinduism: Most Indian states and many Indonesian/SE Asian states.

Native Religions: unconquered natives in N. America, S. America, Africa, Australia, Polynesia, Siberia & New Zealand.

Church of the East/Nestorianism: Small communities in mesopotamia, central asia, tarim basin, India & large community in Kashmir.

Judaism: large community in Calabria, spread across Europe, ME and Central Asia much like OTL

Zoroastrianism: largely non-existent, possibly a few in India

Edit: Buddhism: probably Tibet, Myanmar/Burma nation, Mongolia and Korea. large populations in SE Asia, China and Ceylon.

@Coyote_Waits covered most of it. Thanks for answering the question. Some comments though.

Croatia, as part of Hungary, follows the Roman Papacy. The Catholics in Dalmatia though follow the Avignon Papacy. (Catholics in Dalmatia have many more rights than Catholics in Rhomania proper.)

North African blob are the Marinids. The nominally Muslim Tieh dynasty has been destroyed and has been replaced by the nativist Zeng dynasty.

Shia Islam has large communities amongst the Arabs of southern Mesopotamia but there aren’t any Shia states.

Prussia is a mix of Roman Catholic and Orthodox (mostly Russian), with neither being truly dominant.

Did Prussia have some carrbiean islands or did I dream that?

They do have a couple of small ones, comparable in size and significance to the Roman ones. I haven’t specified which ones since on a broad scale they aren’t important.

If I can ask, what's the current status of the Varangian Guard? Have they been updated with modern weaponry and all that? Are they still serving as the bodyguard of the Emperor?

They’re the second guard tagma, fully equipped with modern weaponry, although the double-headed axes come out for some ceremonial occasions and the dekarchos that guards the standard-bearer wields a double-headed axe rather than a halberd as the other formations do. They’ve lost out their bodyguard status though to the Vigla, which are the regular bodyguards, and the Athanatoi. Only Vigla and Athanatoi can carry weapons on the White Palace grounds.

I wonder if any Rhomans still trace their roots back to Aneas, specifically those from Anatolia? It could be interesting to see a Trojan rebirth in western Anatolians to draw a distinction from their Greek cousins.

Ps. Shoot I wonder when they’re gonna find the supposed ruins of Troy ittl I bet that’s gonna cause a stir

Well Western Anatolia is greek as greece so it's a bit unlikely

Should anything akin to OTL Romantic nationalism arise, I can imagine some sort of Aeneist strain arising in that vein, perhaps to try and out-Roman the Latins, but as mentioned above Western Anatolia has been Greek for the better part of 2,000 years by the present in the narrative. That being said, nationalist romantic history can manifest in unexpected ways (see: Sarmatianism in Poland), so I'd say it's not totally out of the question for a Greek-speaking Roman state to claim at least some descent from Troy in its national mythology.

That would be really weird though. Aeneas and his people left with him to found Rome. The east Romans would be nominally descendents of those who were left behind.

It's a bit more likely that the Romans will get more Greeky and use the old classics, the Hellenistic period, and other less Roman elements. They would treat Romans as a cultural development of their own civilization. Aeneas founded Rome in a Greek image, building upon Greek heritage of great achievements already which were made by the actual victors of the Trojan War, which would include Alexander and all associated Hellenistic era greatness.

I'd note that the Greek army motto is... from Hector. The Trojans in the Iliad are speaking the same language, have the same gods and several of them even have family on the other side of the fight, Teucer, Ajax brother, and Hector are first cousins for example. In other words the Trojans are... Greek!

As has been pointed out, the Trojan/Roman connections with Greeks are very strong. There might be some sort of regional identity here with the inhabitants of Opsikia playing up supposed Trojan connections, but it’d be a sense of “we’re Trojan Greeks”.

Interestingly IOTL “in 1204 the French knight Pierre of Bracheux justified the conquest of Byzantine territory by asserting that escaped Trojans had settled in France and were the direct ancestors of the crusaders.” (Quote from Gerstel, Sharon E. J. “Art and Identity in the Medieval Morea.” In The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, edited by Angeliki E. Laiou and Roy Parviz Mottahedeh. Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2001, pg. 265.)

 

[Deleted member 94708]

Nope.

Life is too short.

English language based Board.

This is completely ridiculous.

There are extremely few foreign-language posts, and most are short and relevant...

What rational basis do you or anyone else have for blithely assuming that they’re the worst possible content?

The issue arises, what, maybe twice a month? And requires 14 seconds on Google to resolve.

Bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake.

 

[Grammar Kaiser]

This is completely ridiculous.

There are extremely few foreign-language posts, and most are short and relevant...

What rational basis do you or anyone else have for blithely assuming that they’re the worst possible content?

The issue arises, what, maybe twice a month? And requires 14 seconds on Google to resolve.

Bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake.

He doesn't make the rules; @Ian the Admin does.

 

[Frame]

I can’t stop thinking about the imperial march playing while Rhoman armies pillage German cities with their banners dancing. Down with the barbarian pretenders!

On another note I wonder if the Rhomans see this war as sort of a reprisal for the shameful loss at Teutoberg all those years ago

 

[RogueTraderEnthusiast]

I can’t stop thinking about the imperial march playing while Rhoman armies pillage German cities with their banners dancing. Down with the barbarian pretenders!

On another note I wonder if the Rhomans see this war as sort of a reprisal for the shameful loss at Teutoberg all those years ago

I'm curious about that too, but I think generally that it's more of a reprisal against the Latins for their aggression historically.

 

[Frame]

I'm curious about that too, but I think generally that it's more of a reprisal against the Latins for their aggression historically.

Yeah those wounds are much more fresh. The general lesson of History Ittl is don’t fuck with Rhome. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but they will pay back those who threatened the peace and prosperity of their mighty empire.

 

[RogueTraderEnthusiast]

Yeah those wounds are much more fresh. The general lesson of History Ittl is don’t fuck with Rhome. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but they will pay back those who threatened the peace and prosperity of their mighty empire.

I believe this is the lesson that is being taught.

I've proposed a more aggressive conquest (notably the destruction of Hungary and the resettlement of Vienna) - but that ship has sailed. The good thing is the lesson is being taught and the Romans are framing geopolitics in Europe, rather than reacting to it.

 

[Ian the Admin]

This is completely ridiculous.

There are extremely few foreign-language posts, and most are short and relevant...

What rational basis do you or anyone else have for blithely assuming that they’re the worst possible content?

The issue arises, what, maybe twice a month? And requires 14 seconds on Google to resolve.

Bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake.

Nobody was kicked for posting in a foreign language. CalBear just pointed out that it’s kind of an inconsiderate thing to do.

Some people can be really stupid about this. I had one guy trying to dispute a kick who had trouble expressing himself in English, so he just started messaging me in French...

 

[emperor joe]

I think that we should just move on...after all they were just 3 greek words..

 

[Frame]

I wonder when the Rosetta Stone will be discovered. It’ll be interesting to see the historiography of this timeline unfold. Maybe the Rhomans will make some discoveries about ancient Mesopotamia assuming they aren’t too busy killing everything that moves during the war of the wrath...

 

[Curtain Jerker]

I wonder when the Rosetta Stone will be discovered. It’ll be interesting to see the historiography of this timeline unfold. Maybe the Rhomans will make some discoveries about ancient Mesopotamia assuming they aren’t too busy killing everything that moves during the war of the wrath...

It already was discovered during the War of Roman Succession.

At the same time, the Rosetta stone, discovered by Egyptian soldiers during the war, is being examined in Constantinople with the hopes of translating the mysterious and now lost written language of ancient Egypt. This takes much longer to bear fruit, with many scholars trying their luck but none succeeding until 1649.​

 

[Frame]

Oh geez haha can’t believe I forgot that

 

[Deleted member 94708]

Nobody was kicked for posting in a foreign language. CalBear just pointed out that it’s kind of an inconsiderate thing to do.

Some people can be really stupid about this. I had one guy trying to dispute a kick who had trouble expressing himself in English, so he just started messaging me in French...

I’ve seen, on several occasions, phrases like “If someone accused you of bigotry, I would have no choice but to believe them” used by mods on this issue. Something similar happened here. This contention is patently ridiculous.

这真是特别夸张。用谷歌翻译理解这句话的意思到底要多长时间呢？

 

[Frame]

This world of this tl is so friggin captivating I tried drawing the world map on the back of my classwork instead of actually doing it lmao

 

[floppy_seal99]

[QUOTE="Ian the Admin”]
Some people can be really stupid about this. I had one guy trying to dispute a kick who had trouble expressing himself in English, so he just started messaging me in French...[/QUOTE]

*argues in surrenderese*

 

[DracoLazarus]

*argues in surrenderese*

Sorry, I don't speak German.

 

[Curtain Jerker]

We're losing the thread everyone.

Back on topic: Given the brand-new colonization of the Cape, what is Rhomania's response? Subsidizing some Indians to attack Triune Bengal?

 

[Evilprodigy]

We're losing the thread everyone.

Back on topic: Given the brand-new colonization of the Cape, what is Rhomania's response? Subsidizing some Indians to attack Triune Bengal?

Do what the British did to the Cape Colony IOTL.

Colonize Natal instead.

 

[Frame]

Hopefully Rhomania and Spain stop scrapping and Focus on their shared threat of the Triunes