And All Nations Shall Gather To It - Volume I: The Abode of Peace
- Thread starter Ricard (i.e. Rdffigueira)
- Start date
How will the reconquista turn out in this timeline? The northern crusades? They probably are still going to happen, but with the success of the Middle East crusades, these would be more considered more in people's minds, and might happen earlier.
Am I the only one worried by some vikings sailing to Constantinople? At least they are not Venetians.
TBH you guys are making to much of this. King Sigurd is OTL, nothing is different.
The Viking age is practically at it's end at this stage, with the last nail in the coffing being in 1066 in stanford bridge. maybe some Nords will venture out in europe for a little longer, but I doubt that any expedition this scale will happen in the future by the Norwegians, or any scandenavian country, in fact. The Byzantine Varginian guards will probably come from Russia in the future.
I think that at this point the strength of the Varangian Guard is Anglo-Saxon...
It is? I heard some varginian guard member came from the kievan rus.
My understanding is that they first started as Rus with many danish and swedish members, however after the Norman invasion of England many Angles would find work in the varangian guard until they were a sizable portion if not the outright majority. In fact I remember reading something about a battle in Sicily (Not necessarily the island) that was particularly fierce due to the Norman settlers of the region and the perceived rivalry the Anglo varangians had with the Norman knights.
Sorry I meant naples, but to much ck2 has led me to call all of that Sicily.
Friends, sorry for not answering here. I'm on a trip with my GF and her family and away from a PC. I'll be back tomorrow night.
With maps!
With maps!
From what I remember reading at one time, the basis of the Varangian Guard was built when a large group Scandinavian settlers reached Novgorod (or Kiev, I forgot which) and the Lord of the city 'persuaded' them to head South to Constantinopole, where he presented them as a gift to the Emperor (to underline, as skilled mercenaries, not as slaves), basically achieving a hattrick: closer relations with Constatinopole, getting rid of some troublesome complications, and getting to keep the ships that the Scandinavians arrived on.
Drawn Map (1114 A.D.)
Ok, so, that's six readers calling for a map. I think I've written this somewhere else, but when I get to map-making, I usually paint over blank Paradox Games' maps (I simply don't know how to work on a real-life map). Victoria 2 has the most detailed world map, but, considering the scope of TTL, I preferred to use the blank map of the Somewhat More Historical Mod (SMHM), which is more comprehensive than the vanilla map.
So, here goes my half-assed attempt of depicting the situation before the arrival of the Norwegians:
Here we have:
- Dark Purple = Rhomanía/"Byzantium"
- Lilac and Mauve = Cilicia and Trebizond - both are vassals of Byzantium, but I opted to depict them in different color to emphasize the fact that they were until recently independent
- Red = County of Edessa
- Lime = Radwanite dominion [Sultanate of Syria]
- Orange = Lebanese metropolises [from south to north: Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli and Tortosa). I put them all of the same color to emphasize their political autonomy in relation to the other Near Eastern powers, but they are separate from one another
- Dark Green = Toghtekinid dominion [Emirate of Baalbek]
- Grey = The Crusader State
- Aqua Blue = Damascus [Emirate of Damascus]
- Yellow = Fatimid Egypt [Shiite Caliphate]
- Light Green = Seljuk Sultanate and the Abbasid Caliphate
Very nice map! The Byzantines are looking pretty good and after this most recent part with the Norwegians I'm thinking the Crusaders will be looking relatively strong as well.
I had completely forgotten about the County of Edessa considering how hectic things were to the South. I'm curious how Baldwin of Bolougne is doing and whether his continued presence in Edessa will change its early demise or not.
I had completely forgotten about the County of Edessa considering how hectic things were to the South. I'm curious how Baldwin of Bolougne is doing and whether his continued presence in Edessa will change its early demise or not.
Useful Maps for Reference
Anyways, still on the subject of maps, I'll present you all the maps I found online that I use for reference besides Google Earth.
For the Levant as a whole, the following maps are very useful:
For Jerusalem proper, I've found this awesome piece of work by Zaleszky (a member of this forum, actually) in his DeviantArt. So, all credit is due to him. It depicts a part of southern Lebanon as well as the whole of Crusader Palestine.
EDIT: The spoiler box above reduced the overall size of the image, so the names are hard to read, but you can check it in its full glory here.
For the Lebanon Region, I use the following:
For the County of Edessa, this one is the definitive map (depicting is territorial growth):
I hope these suffice for the time being, until I'm able to find or do something better. Regards!
For the Levant as a whole, the following maps are very useful:
For Jerusalem proper, I've found this awesome piece of work by Zaleszky (a member of this forum, actually) in his DeviantArt. So, all credit is due to him. It depicts a part of southern Lebanon as well as the whole of Crusader Palestine.
EDIT: The spoiler box above reduced the overall size of the image, so the names are hard to read, but you can check it in its full glory here.
For the Lebanon Region, I use the following:
For the County of Edessa, this one is the definitive map (depicting is territorial growth):
I hope these suffice for the time being, until I'm able to find or do something better. Regards!
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Edessa will in fact fall a bit earlier than OTL. I mean, Baldwin I is a very capable statesman and military commander, but he is facing unsurmountable odds. Radwan's ascension in northwestern Syria jeopardized its geopolitical situation, and the Turkish beyliks in the Al-Jazira and Armenia are ever dangerous. The collapse of Syria will give it only a brief respite before another threat comes from the east. Now, with the Toghtekinids firmly stablished in Mosul, they will be a prime target for "Jihad"; it being the weakest link in the proverbial Levantine-Crusader chain, Edessa will be constantly shrinking in size. A symptom of this is the fact that Count Baldwin's prefered court will be in Turbessel, which, despite being smaller and poorer in comparison to Edessa, it is also better protected and closer to Byzantine Antioch. In time, as Baldwin gets old and less able to fight, he'll simply retire to a more convenient home in Crusader Lebanon itself, even if retaining his defunct title as "Count of Edessa".