Different Empire Of Trebizond

This is my first posting although I have been reading and lurking for about a year.
WI a different Empire of Trebizond had come into existance. I am not talking about the post-fourth crusade Empire of Trebizond. I would like to develope something new and different. This New Empire of Trebizond(NET) would be based in Trebizond but would have expanded eastward and integrated the various Georgian, Armenian and Caucasian Albanian states. It would be an offshoot of the Byzantine Empire and would be Greek with Georgian and Armenian influences. The NET emperor would be the Autokrator of the East and would not be heir to the throne in Constantinople. Here are my reasons:
1) I believe the Comnenus family was from this area of the empire.
2)The Comnenus emperors of the OTL ET were intermarried with Georgian aristocracy.
3) My plan would be to somehow have this area be made independent of Constantinople with the Comnenoi as the hereditary ruling dynasty.
4) The Byzantine empire would have to be stronger in this ATL and still control Anatolia.
5)I read somewhere that Trebizond itself was surrounded by mountainS with only
one or two passes between it and the Anatolian interior. These passes could be heavily fortified to prevent invasion.
6)The NET would have pursued missionary diplomacy at a far earlier time. There might even be Christianized Turkic tribes on the eastern frontier of the NET.
I have more thoughts but this will do for now. What do y'all think about this? Is it totally ASB?
 
I like the idea. Perhaps John II could split off Trebizond as a semi-autonomous exarchate which would later enter some sort of personal union with Georgia?
 
For it to be the New Empire of Trebizond, the old one would have to have been destroyed by the Ottomans.

How likely is a second Trebizond empire to arise, and how would they defeat the Ottomans?
 
It's not ASB, but I'm not sure how such an empire would ever get formed if the Byzantines controlled Anatolia. The Komnenoi are a serious imperial dynasty - I can't imagine they would just sit around in Trebizond when they could have the whole shebang.

You are correct about its isolation from the interior - it's why it lasted so long in OTL, but it doesn't have much chance of surviving against a strong power in Anatolia, especially one that also controls the Caucasus, and thus all of Trebizond's trade.

Also, I think you might have a hard time imposing Greek rule over Armenia, since even it was nearly impossible to impose Armenian rule over Armenia, not to mention Georgia. Trebizond had a pretty small population - it's irrelevance was another reason for its long survival.

Still, stranger things have happened then you propose - maybe some sort of dynastic union - but it seems to me that the center of gravity of a state like yours would have to move East into Armenia or Georgia where all the population and wealth are.

Maybe another idea would be some sort of trade empire - the people of the Black Sea coast are famous for their seafaring - some event that causes a diaspora could cause the formation of a large and prosperous trade network.

This is my first posting although I have been reading and lurking for about a year.
WI a different Empire of Trebizond had come into existance. I am not talking about the post-fourth crusade Empire of Trebizond. I would like to develope something new and different. This New Empire of Trebizond(NET) would be based in Trebizond but would have expanded eastward and integrated the various Georgian, Armenian and Caucasian Albanian states. It would be an offshoot of the Byzantine Empire and would be Greek with Georgian and Armenian influences. The NET emperor would be the Autokrator of the East and would not be heir to the throne in Constantinople. Here are my reasons:
1) I believe the Comnenus family was from this area of the empire.
2)The Comnenus emperors of the OTL ET were intermarried with Georgian aristocracy.
3) My plan would be to somehow have this area be made independent of Constantinople with the Comnenoi as the hereditary ruling dynasty.
4) The Byzantine empire would have to be stronger in this ATL and still control Anatolia.
5)I read somewhere that Trebizond itself was surrounded by mountainS with only
one or two passes between it and the Anatolian interior. These passes could be heavily fortified to prevent invasion.
6)The NET would have pursued missionary diplomacy at a far earlier time. There might even be Christianized Turkic tribes on the eastern frontier of the NET.
I have more thoughts but this will do for now. What do y'all think about this? Is it totally ASB?
 
I guess I wasn't totally clear. In my timeline the post 4th crusade ET has never
existed. I call my state the NEW ET simply to distinguish it fromthe OTL ET.
There could be a dynastic union with the Georgian royality since there was a
"union" in the OTL ET. The Comenoi apparently married into the Georgian
royal house.
I could argue that Constantinople was removed from the Empire's true power base of Anatolia. So the capital city of Trebizond could "control" areas to the
east.
I could be stretching it when I say Armenia. My state could consist of the far eastern themes plus other OTL principalities.
I thought that my ATL ET could have been originally created as some sort of
super-theme or exarchate. The strategos could have become hereditary in the
Comenoi family and some member of that illustrious family decided to satisfy
their imperial cravings by turning the "old neighborhood" into an empire.
Sorry for the ATL stream of conciousness ramblings.
 
Top