Famous last words
Great update. Always fun to check in on the more peripheral parts of this world.
I’m looking forward to the next series of updates. It’s nice to explore outer areas and flesh them out a bit, even though Rhomania is the focus. Plus by establishing something of a framework I may get more ideas for them in the future.
Amazing update as always!!!
Good to see the copts not completely embarrassing themselves for once.
Here's the updated map
Thanks.
That pretty well neutralizes Idwait for the foreseeable future, almost every bit of productive and resource rich land has been taken and even that part of the Nile it controls is in many ways the worst section. Not to mention that any threatening moves would see them surrounded and embargoed to death without the Egyptians or Ethiopians needing to actually fight.
Yup. OOC, this is a nice way to put the Idwaits in a box since after I’m not sure what to do with them anymore, without destroying them like Al-Andalus or Wu Australia.
I just wanted to thank
@Basileus444 for creating this wonderful world. An Age of Miracles is on of the main reasons that made me join this community.
Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate them.
Makes me wonder where the center of power of Russia is ITTL. Pronsk as OTL? Maybe even a stronger challenge from Khazaria with a stronger Asian presence. Should depend too on the demographics of each state. Are they ranked in this order? Pronsk, Lithuania, Khazaria and Novgorod?
I felt the Ethiopians and Egyptians could have taken some sterner measures to prevent the Idwaits from surging past the cataracts again every time the Ottomans attack. Maybe a requirement for the children of the Malik to be sent to Axum or Tanta to be raised as wards or potential disruptors. On that note, maybe the Egyptian capital will be moving in a few years time to Marienburg once the southern lands are better integrated.
Are those directions the same way as the Great Lakes and Lake Chad? Contact with Kongo has been made but has Ethiopia done anything similar in Western Africa? Diffusion of religion, Trade or simply raids?
The Comorians gangsta until the Romans show up.
That’s the right order, although a lot of Khazaria’s population are variously-integrated native peoples, so how much of those demographics are available to the King is questionable. Great Pronsk is definitely the big boy of the principalities. I’m planning on some Russia-specific updates in the future where I’ll be retconning Russian population figures, but 1 out of every 2 inhabitants of the Principalities is from Pronsk.
Those directions are towards both Lake Chad and the Great Lakes, depending on the regional base that hosts the expeditionary forces. There’s trading and raiding, depending on what works best at the moment. There’s no Ethiopian presence in West Africa.
Is there a large amount of Immigration to Carthage? If so where are they coming from and how are they affecting the culture?
Not much. They’re a small island in a sea of Berbers, so it’s not a popular relocation site.
this was great. would love to know more about the Triune and EAN colonies in North America.
I probably will, at some point, focus on the Terranova colonies, although that will likely be down the road once they’ve developed more. (I’m currently brainstorming ideas for how they react and interact with the upcoming Triune troubles later in the century.) But right now my focus is definitely on the nations of the east.
I forget, do the Ottomans have any overseas territories? If so where are they?
Unless you count Persian Gulf islands like Hormuz, they do not.
Wow. After over a year of reading and one complete restart, I’ve reached the latest update.
@Basileus444 , thank you so much — it’s been a wild and exhilarating ride, and I can’t wait to read the next update. Is there any set schedule for them?
On another note, I’m going to have to find something new to read now that I’m all caught up! Are there any other timelines of this quality I could check out?
Thank you very much for your kind words.
My current schedule is to release regular updates on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of every month, with the special Patreon update on the 20th.
So the Egyptians have recovered their lands and pride. When they recover, the question is whether or not they'll grow restless as the Romans control them much more closely than the Sicilians IIRC.
The humiliation of losing Alexandria must still sting, and would be a permanent reminder of the Great Uprising, but recovering it seems highly unlikely.
I find the Despotates more and more fascinanting. Initially I didn't like them, but now I look forward to see how they develop in the future.
Trying to recover Alexandria seems like a quick way to lose way more than that. Free transit through that (and in the future the Suez canal) makes is impossible the Romans ever loosen their grip.
By contrast the Sicilians are kinda in a weird place. The recent roman conquests make them practically the hegemon of the peninsula. Bit strange to be both the upper dog and the underdog.
It's possible, but unlikely IMO, that Alexandria will remain in Roman hands past the 19th century even with the Despotate still around. Functionally speaking the Despotate acts as a marcher lordship to protect the real prize of Egypt: Trade. In the pre-modern era most royal revenues came from port dues and customs. However with recent changes to the tax system in Romania to target income of all forms that port dues will become less important. Functionally it now becomes more valuable for the Romans to increase the wealth and number of their citizens in order to increase their taxes. Transportation and trade in Egypt accomplishes that but the Romans no longer need to own the port to directly benefit from the trade it provides as a staple to collect customs dues. I could we'll see Alexandria come to be administered by the Despotate once it ceases to be as profitable for the crown as it has been in the past. It will likely be traded for a Suez Canal zone. But so long as trade flows to the heartland Romania wins no matter who administers it.
Maybe they end up trading Alexandria for the whole of Sinai up to the canal zone since the peninsula is largely unpopulated and not worth much overall. End up with a Province of Palestine looking like post Six Day War Israel and both theoretically coming out ahead, Egypt gets the second or third largest city of the region and doesn't need to pay for the canal and Rhomania gets full control of said canal and land access to it, also giving the empire all of Mediterranean Asia and putting Egypt solely in Africa, maybe sweeten the deal by offering Cyrenaica as well.
An alternative might be that we see that, or maybe a move to a form of Imperial Federalisation (unless I forgotten that being ruled out). With the move to more income types being taxed, it isn't a huge stretch to trade Alexandria for the Sinai and a "Imperial" tax rate that gets levied on top of a Despotate rate. If we assume the alt-Suez becomes Imperial-Owned-Operated-and-Protected, then that tax rate becomes a nice repayment for Alexandria. I'd be curious to see how the Egyptian and Roman economies are going to evolve over that period. I assume Egypt is still currently a food exporter, but now it imports it as it focuses on cotton exports (and oil goods, to be fair). With that be a similar pattern?
I'm also very curious as to what the Idawaits and Ethiopians do in the future. The Nile's water is economically and politically contentious in that region today - could that be an Idawait or Ethiopian strategy? Effectively limit the Nile flow downstream, or try some method to siphon off the silt? Or even just to create lakes like Nasser and the Meroe Reservoir.
Why trade anything when both are effectively part of the same country? The despotates can be seen in a similar light to the OTL British dominions probably...
I am very thrilled to see Egypt recovering, but I would still prefer if this was under the full mantle of the empire (and I would like the same for Italy and Carthage). Willing cooperation is nice, but we've seen with the british dominions how far the friendship takes you when your interests diverge (and we see how weak the EU is geopolitically).
So, still rooting for some form of unitary empire or imperial federation. Local autonomy yes, but no separate army, fiscal or foreign policy.
Yeah, I think what Basileus is aiming for something in between the modern US and EU.
There’s a good chance Alexandria might end up being ceded back to Egypt again, particularly after an alt-Suez canal proper opens. Right now, goods go up the Pharaoh’s Canal to Marienburg am Nil, then up the Nile typically to Alexandria, where the goods are transferred to ships for the Mediterranean run. So it’s a very important trade nexus now, but its significance would decline substantially once a Suez Canal bypassed it.
Haven’t pinned down yet precisely what I’ll be doing with the Despotates. OOC, they were created as a model for eastern territories so that they’d get enough autonomy to not want to bolt but at the same time still be part of the Roman Empire, even if in a fuzzy way.
Certain tensions will develop in Egypt though directly because of Alexandria being Roman. The Imperial Bank has a branch office in Alexandria, making capital in the form of loans much more readily available to enterprising Copts. As Coptic interest in manufacturing and commerce develops, they’ll butt heads with the Romans as Egypt is very much a colony of Rhomania economically. Egypt grows raw cotton, ships it to Rhomania where it is worked into cloth, and then sold back to Egyptians. Romans like this setup; Egyptians don’t.
Egypt strikes back!
I don't really remember, but what's the reason why the Despotates can conduct foreign affairs themselves? Internal autonomy etc I get but Constantinople should really be taking the reigns if they're going to remain part of the Empire.
The reason why is that when the terms of the Despotate system were being placed was right at the end of the Time of Troubles, when Constantinople was in absolutely no position to drive a hard bargain.
B444 just released another installment of his rework of the early timeline on Patreon. The Patreon entries have been nice additions to the story and I just want to encourage anyone who is a fan to support the author there. You can also choose to fund him every time he releases an entry instead of just once a month if you want to encourage him to churn out more entries.
Thanks for the plug. I appreciate it.
As
@Coyote_Waits pointed out, the next update of Not the End has been posted as the monthly update on Patreon. It takes a look at the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the first half of the 1200s, particularly at the important decade of the 1240s, when the heterogeneous society of Rum begins to fracture under the stresses imposed by the arrival of the Mongols.
