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Many would have laughed if someone had said that a lowly Anatolian Beylik would one day hold the City of the World's Desire. That the
Byzantine Empire - long on of the world's most awe-inspiring and memorable nations, would cease to exist.
For centuries,
Byzantium had prevailed, battered by enemies, tortured, relieved, and besieged. But it had yet to totally relent. The last bastion of the
Roman Empire - or so it claimed - had gone through a steady decline following it's apex after the reign of
Justinian. "
Mare Nostrum" was a feint memory, a ghost.
After having it's
North African territories stolen by the
Moors, after the theme system failed it, after some of the worst religious strife it had seen in the East-West Schism, the
Byzantine Empire faced it's final threat.
For years, the
Sultanate of Seljuq, or the "
Sultanate of Rum," had been in decline. It had been dealt some considerable blows by the
Mongols, before being divided, and eventually pressed under the thumb of the
Mameluks, if only for a short while. All the while, the first of these Emirates began splitting off, and did not take orders from the
Mongols or the
Mameluks, even if they did observe the supremacy of
Konya.
The Ottomans were among them.
During six years of civil war in the
Byzantine Empire, the
Serbians established themselves over large amounts of the vestigial "
Roman Empire." This was not to last land, as the rising
Ottoman Empire took advantage of the turmoil and crossed into
Europe, vassalising the
Serbians and solidifying their position as a powerful nation.
The Byzantines, meanwhile struggled to get help from
Western Europe, and the in end got it, but only after they had reunited with the
Holy See in
Rome, leaving many resentful of the
Pope and the
Catholic Church. However it was in vain.
On the Second of April, Fourteen Fifty Three, the
Ottoman Empire laid siege to
Constantinople, a shrunken city. It was in a sorry state. The population had long since imploded, leaving nothing but villagers and farmland.
The walls of the
Constantinople were laid bare, the city reduced to a pitiful shadow of it's former self.
The Byzantines were stripped of it's territory, after living out it's last years as a small, minor state.
After one thousand, nine hundred and sixty two years of existence,
The Roman Empire was silent. And another empire lay in it's place.
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Everything thus far is OTL - Just a little taster of the style I'll be trying to use.
Do we like?
EDIT - And yeah, about the graphic... I was bored.
EDIT2 - Is this worth putting in a new thread?