MarshalBraginsky
Banned
I had this discussion with Von Adler through PM and one of my threads which also talked about the survival of the Kalmar Union. I'll provide the link if you wish.
Before I start drowning myself in books and, to my shame, Wikipedia articles, does anyone happen to have a good rule of thumb concerning how much of a butterfly net one can reasonably place? It doesn't make particularly much sense for events up to and including the fall of Byzantium to take place exactly as IOTL - even though the fall itself will happen, sooner or later - but on the other hand, Byzantine politics are not in and of themselves the focus of this TL, and I'm worried that I might kill it before I get going, if I try to go into too much depth.
What would you guys do?
Aand, just to keep using this thread, having written an initial draft of the opening note for the TL, I now find myself faced with the fact that, beginning, as I do, in 1375, I have to handle not only Scandinavian history, but also the fall of Byzantium, the rise of the Ottomans, the conquests of Timur, the Western Schism, the Hundred Years War and whether or not the Sphinx will have its nose chopped off. Some of these, like the Schism, I was prepared to handle - the Holy Roman Empire too, for that matter, though I suspect that few can find any semblance of reason there - but with some of the others, not so much.
Before I start drowning myself in books and, to my shame, Wikipedia articles, does anyone happen to have a good rule of thumb concerning how much of a butterfly net one can reasonably place? It doesn't make particularly much sense for events up to and including the fall of Byzantium to take place exactly as IOTL - even though the fall itself will happen, sooner or later - but on the other hand, Byzantine politics are not in and of themselves the focus of this TL, and I'm worried that I might kill it before I get going, if I try to go into too much depth.
What would you guys do?
EDIT: This is, of course, not to say that I am averse to doing research. Far from. The crux of the trouble lies more in the way these major diversions take place almost simultaneously with those bringing about the focus of the timeline - while doing a timeline on the Ottoman Empire with a PoD in 1375 would doubtlessly also be interesting, it just wouldn't be the same. And yet, I cannot afford to ignore the events, for if two things during this period can be said to have laid the foundations for the later Europe, then surely, the Western Schism and the fall of the last bastion of the Roman Empire must be promising candidates.