For the current map contest: could be prettier, but I am going to be busy the next few days...
Attila doesn’t die on a wedding night, lives on to consolidate his Empire a bit more and produce a son with actual talent.
The Huns converted to the Arian brand of Christianity. Islam has been butterflied away. The Byzantine Empire survived as an Anatolian rump while the Persians conquered Syria and Egypt and ruled them for a while, until smashed up by Turkish invasions from the east and Arab ones from the west, to revive again under an eastern Iranic dynasty. A Papacy of sort rallied in the west after Italy fell to the Hun, and developed into an international state-within-a-state even more powerful than its OTL equivalent. Turks, deflected northward, pushed Slavs west and south.
By the 13th century, the Slavic language of the bulk of the population has filtered up to the nobility of the Holy Hunnic Empire, Hunnic being mostly a language of court ritual and military terminology and isn’t really all that holy, (“One out of three at least”, as a later historian would note) but is still most definitely an Empire. Efforts to reunify the Roman Empire under its rule haven’t been too successful, although the current Emperor/Kayzar can at least be happy with the fact he holds both of the former Imperial capitals. (And the Franks got smashed up pretty good)
Invasions out of Asia have always been a distraction. Founded by a horse-nomad people, and still producing the most formidable cavalry in Europe, the Empire beat the Avars, deflected the Bulgars and various Turkic groups, and at least managed to tie the Magyars and later incorporate them into the Empire, if admittedly retaining certain traditional rights and freedoms.
But now the Empire faces the gravest threat in their history. From the East, the Orok Hordes (a Tungusid people playing the historical role of OTL Mongols) are advancing west, sweeping all before them. Before the storm from the east is over, the lands of western Eurasia will be deeply changed…
Bruce
Attila doesn’t die on a wedding night, lives on to consolidate his Empire a bit more and produce a son with actual talent.
The Huns converted to the Arian brand of Christianity. Islam has been butterflied away. The Byzantine Empire survived as an Anatolian rump while the Persians conquered Syria and Egypt and ruled them for a while, until smashed up by Turkish invasions from the east and Arab ones from the west, to revive again under an eastern Iranic dynasty. A Papacy of sort rallied in the west after Italy fell to the Hun, and developed into an international state-within-a-state even more powerful than its OTL equivalent. Turks, deflected northward, pushed Slavs west and south.
By the 13th century, the Slavic language of the bulk of the population has filtered up to the nobility of the Holy Hunnic Empire, Hunnic being mostly a language of court ritual and military terminology and isn’t really all that holy, (“One out of three at least”, as a later historian would note) but is still most definitely an Empire. Efforts to reunify the Roman Empire under its rule haven’t been too successful, although the current Emperor/Kayzar can at least be happy with the fact he holds both of the former Imperial capitals. (And the Franks got smashed up pretty good)
Invasions out of Asia have always been a distraction. Founded by a horse-nomad people, and still producing the most formidable cavalry in Europe, the Empire beat the Avars, deflected the Bulgars and various Turkic groups, and at least managed to tie the Magyars and later incorporate them into the Empire, if admittedly retaining certain traditional rights and freedoms.
But now the Empire faces the gravest threat in their history. From the East, the Orok Hordes (a Tungusid people playing the historical role of OTL Mongols) are advancing west, sweeping all before them. Before the storm from the east is over, the lands of western Eurasia will be deeply changed…
Bruce
