Remnants of Rome (Complete)

The full, complete, Remnants of Rome.

The rest is in the second post.

[thread=162815]Link to discussion thread.[/thread]

THE FALL OF THE WEST

In mid 410, Alaric reopened negotiations with Honorius. However Sarus, a fellow Gothic commander who was allied to Honorius, attacked Alaric’s forces, and negotiations promptly failed. Alaric was victorious and Alaric laid siege to Rome a third time. On August 24, 410, Visigoths poured in the city and looted for three days. Honorius was killed. Alaric declared himself the Emperor of the Visigoths, and journeyed south to take ships to Africa.

In Arles, Constantine III, an usurper, was defeated and captured by Constantius III. Soon afterward, Constantius learned the news that Honorius was killed and Rome conquered. Constantius III declared himself the new Emperor. But there was another usurper, down in Hispania, Maximus Tiranus.

Alaric arrived in Carthage in May 411. The Visigothic troops poured into the city. There seemed to be no defenders. Almost everyone was attending the races at the hippodrome. The Visigoths easily took the city. Alaric died after the conquest due to a sudden, severe fever. Ataulf, his brother in law, became the new Emperor of the Visigoths and prepared to invade Corsica and Sardinia (well... arrive and declare it his own. After all, nearly all Roman resistance was gone.) after securing Africa. However what he didn’t know is that the Vandals were marching east through Mauretania.

Maximus Tiranus and Constantius III fought in Tarraco in late June 411. After 12 days of fighting, Constantius III was killed and his army defeated. Maximus Tiranus became the emperor of the Western Roman Empire. But now the only thing that remained of the Western Roman Empire was Hispania--and not even that, because of the Suevi in Gallaecia.

The Visigoths and Ataulf had just reached Leptis Magna when a messenger arrived. Apparently the Vandals were sieging Constantine. Ataulf headed west.

Ataulf reached the city of Constantine on September 25, 412. Coincidentally, Constantine had just surrendered to the sieging Vandals. The Visigoths rushed into the city and fighting occurred in the streets for 2 days. After that the Vandal army routed. The Vandals agreed to recognize Ataulf, Emperor of the Visigoths, as the ruler of Italia and Africa. The Vandals settled in Mauretania.

Meanwhile, Gaul had erupted into chaos and so did Britannia.
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AFTER THE FALL

With the absence of Roman power in Gaul and Britannia, came a plethora of ‘new’ states. A Roman general, named Nepotianus, led several thousand Roman troops and salvaged what remained of Lugdenensis and northern Aquitania. He founded the Kingdom of Aremorica. Meanwhile, barbarians flooded into Gaul. Clodio, a Frankish chief, invaded most of Belgica and Germania Inferior and became the first king of the Franks. Gundahar, a Burgundian chief, conquered the rest of Belgica and Germania Superior. Priarius II formed the Kingdom of the Alemanni consisting of parts of Lugdunensis, eastern Aquitania, and eastern Narbonensis.

Though Aremorica was founded by a Roman, the peninsula of Aremorica itself was settled by a significant amount of Brythons. Of course, the rest of Aremorica was nearly homogenously ‘Roman’. And vice versa, The Kingdom of the Franks, the Kingdom of Burgundia, and the Kingdom of the Alemanni had predominantly Roman populations, and Franks, Burgundians, and Alemanes were simply the ruling class.

The Suevi, Vandalic Kingdom, and Visigothic Empire also had predominantly Roman populations. The Romans were treated well, and actually preferred being under ‘barbarian’ rule because of lower taxes.

Maximus Tiranus and Nepotianus would have liked to call themselves rulers of Aquitania and southern Gaul, but in reality they had no control of the territory. Aquitania and Narbonensis’s main cities, Burdigala, Elusa, and Tolosa, were mainly self reliant, though, and had been for many years.

In Britannia, various Romans and Brythons created many tiny kingdoms and chiefdoms. Some of these kings claimed to be the rightful Roman Emperors.

In 413, Maximus Tiranus (called Flavius Maximus Tiranus after his ascension to the status of Emperor) established several legions and appointed generals for them. He stationed 3 of them of them in forts in the Pyrenees, 4 of them in forts in Septimania and 2 of them in forts near the Suevi. In 414, he founded the city of Tiranamaxima northwest of Toledo, and made it the new capital. Throughout the next few years he also commisioned the construction of new aqueducts and roads, mainly near the new capital, and the repair of existing ones that were damaged by the Vandals as they travelled to Mauretania.

In 416, Ataulf, Emperor of the Visigoths, died. He converted to Catholicism on his deathbed. Sigeric succeeded to the throne. Sigeric appointed many Arians, pagans, and Jews to important positions. However, it would have been wise for him to convert to and propagate Catholicism. In the east, Catholic Theodosius II eyed Italy and Africa, planning to regain them as part of his Eastern Roman Empire, using religious reasons as a cause for war.

But to the east, Sassanid Persia was scarier than ever...

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Rome is for Romans

In 417, Theodosius II declared war on the Visigothic Empire due to religious tensions. Well, and maybe because he wanted to recreate the Roman Empire, rule more land, and have more peasants to tax. Eastern Roman General Anthemius headed into Dalmatia. Eastern Roman General Marcellinus and Aemilius headed into Africa. And Generals Narsus and Julius led Eastern Roman troops in the naval invasion of Sicily and southern Italy. Nine years, more than one-and-a-half-million deaths, and too many solidi later, in 426 the Eastern Roman Empire had conquered Africa, Sardinia, southern Italy, and some of Dalmatia. The Vandals also attacked the Visigoths and conquered the rest of Mauretania, including the city of Constantine.

The war was a victory, but generally a loss to the Eastern Roman Empire. One couldn’t call it a Pyrrhic victory, but it was definitely not an ideal victory, except for the fact that Rome was reconquered. Shortly after the Visigothic War, the Sassanids declared war on the Eastern Roman Empire, taking advantage of weakness and instability caused by the Visigothic War.

The Franks continued to expand. They continued to push the Burgundians south, who in turn pushed the Allemani southwest. In January 418, the Franks invaded Aremorica. Throughout the following year the Franks made devastating advances, and Aremorica soon consisted only of the peninsula Aremorica itself. But a heroic advance led by Nepotianus reconquered much land by 420. However the Franks gained an area around the river Seine when peace was made.

In 419, Flavius Maximus Tiranus invaded the Suevi and led a legion of his own. By November 420, the Suevi had fallen to the Roman Empire... but Maximus died during the siege of Composita Tella (which coincidentally means Burial Ground). He was succeeded by his son, Flavius Maximus Tiranus the Second. Unlike Maximus the First, Maximus the Second was not exactly an exemplary ruler. In 421 the Alemanni, who had conquered most of Southern Gaul, invaded. Maximus the Second was just as bad as a general as he was an administrator. By 422 the Alemanni had almost reached Tarraco. Maximus the Second died in battle and his brother, Flavius Julius Tiranus, became the emperor and a general. Julius and the general Claudius regained most of Septimania only for Priarius III of the Alemanni to reconquer it. In 423 the war ended, the result being that the Romans had secured Hispania but lost much of Septimania.

Meanwhile, Charaton of the Huns expanded their domain. He died in 423, succeeded by Octar. Octar unified the Huns as an actual empire during his reign. His reign was generally peaceful. Octar died in 430. Rugila became the new king and unified all the Huns not only as a empire, but directly under his kingship.

Then Rugila of the Huns looked toward riches in the weakened Visigothic Empire and Eastern Roman Empire. ‘Germanius’ of the Hermunduri had much the same plan.

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IMPERIUM HUNNORUM ET IMPERIUM FRANCORUM

In early 432, Rugila invaded the Crimean Goths, and died in battle. Attila became the new King of the Huns. Attila ventured east, conquering Crimea, the Volga, and a sizable part of the steppe by January 433. Attila ventured west and conquered Illyricum from the Visigothic Empire, razing Sopianae, Mursa, Siscia, Tarsatica, Iader, Parentium, Emona, and more than a dozen other settlements. To the west, the Hermunduri passed through the eastern Alps and conquered much of northern Italy, razing many cities, among them Aquilea, Virunum, and Patavium. Germanius of the Hermunduri proclaimed himself a King of the Hermunduri. In November 434, once the Huns had conquered most of Illyricum, Attila and his horde invaded the Eastern Roman Empire.

The Eastern Roman-Sassanid War lasted from 427 to 435. The war was largely a stalemate in the Armenian Highlands from 427 to 432. In 433, the Persian general Shahrbaraz made a push to the Euphrates. Eastern Roman General Leo stopped the advance. There existed stalemate for another year. When Attila and his horde invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in November 434, Shahrbaraz was able to make another offensive and make a peace, gaining land up to the Euphrates.

Clodio III of the Franks invaded the kingdom of Aremorica in 430. Unlike the first Frankish-Aremorican war, there was no heroic reconquest by Aremorica. In the first month of the war, Nepotianus II sieged Lutetia. But Clodio III broke the siege and his troops pushed on for two years until reaching Portus Namnetus. The siege lasted a full year, but the Franks were victorious and Aremorica was destroyed. Without Aremorica to threaten the Franks, Clodio III moved his capital to Lutetia. On a related note, the Burgundians, Hermunduri, and some Germanic mercenaries fought a eight-month-war against Alemannia causing them to lose most of their territory in the Alps. Hundreds of thousands of people died on the battlefields, many due to the severe winter that most of the war was fought during.

Flavius Julius Tiranus made many reforms during his rule. He redivided the Roman Empire’s provinces into Gallaecia, Lusitania Nova, Olissipo, Baetica, Pyrenaei, Cartaginensis, Asturiae, and Hispania Interior. Flavius Julius Tiranus built the Sanctus Augustinus Cathedral in the capital Tiranamaxima. He built two new cities, Roma Nova, to become the new capital of Asturiae, and Iuliopolis, formerly a fort used in the Suevi War. He commissioned the construction of many roads, extensive fortifications along the Pyrenees, and an elaborate artificial harbour for Olissipo.

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FLAGELLUM DEI

The Huns under the leadership of Attila dominated Europe. In 437, Attila made peace with the Eastern Roman Empire after rampaging through Greece. Having secured most of the Balkans except Greece, Attila looked west. First he attacked his ‘allies’, the Hermunduri. In mid 438, the Hermunduri decided to offer the eastern and northeastern areas of their kingdom. Attila accepted because Hermunduri served as a good barrier against East Rome, and because Germania was weak and in a position to be conquered.

Meanwhile, in 436, the Western Roman Empire declared war on the Visigoths. Julius sent a fleet and three legions to conquer Corsica. Two legions attacked the east side and sieged Aleria and the other attacked the west side. Within three months Aleria and a sizable part of the western coast was Roman, and one month later Corsica was essentially conquered. After Attila made peace with the Eastern Roman Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire joined in on the war with the Visigoths. The Visigothic Empire was completely dissolved.

In early 439, the Horde began storming through Germania. Tribes were all massacred and enslaved. Cities were razed. By February 442, the Huns had reached the outskirts of the Saxon and Langobard chiefdoms. The Saxons and Langobards both fled west. But soon the Saxons and Langobards were cornered against the Frisians and Burgundians respectively. In April 442, the Huns invaded the cornered Frisians, Saxons, and Langobards. The Frisians and Saxons conducted a massive exodus to the west. Many Germanic kingdoms were established in Britannia. The Langobardi were not so lucky... or were much luckier, depending on how you look at it. The Huns made the Langobardi into a vassal state, controlling all lands that the Huns had and would conquer that happened to be west of the Rhine. Their independence was lost but their nation survived.

While chaos occurred on the borders of the rapidly expanding Hun empire, which had become as large as the Roman Empire in its heyday, prosperity and peaceful change occurred elsewhere. The city of Tiranamaxima continued to grow. Many nations made Latin a state language, including Alemannia, the Franks, and the Vandals. But these kingdoms’ Germanic languages undoubtedly had and would have tremendous effects on their regional varieties of Latin.

In addition, a man named Zohar Yehudah is said to have walked on the waters of the Tigris, turned water into wine and back again, gave bread to the poor, all while preaching his ideas about the supernatural. According to him, the Two Forces and the One God, Christ, Antichrist, and Ahura Mazda respectively, created the world thousands of years ago. Christ represents the good of the world, Antichrist represents evil, and Ahura Mazda is simply the neutral god. Zohar Yehudah had gathered up to ten thousand followers by 444.

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TRANSLATIO IMPERII

Ever since Britannia was lost by the Romans, the region divided itself into countless tribes, chiefdoms, and kingdoms. For four decades, fighting occurred between many of the political entities in the area. This led to consolidation of the area and the rise of new kingdoms. After the citizens of Corinium, Londinium, and many other Roman cities learned that the Roman Empire was collapsing and had abandoned Britannia, generals of standing legions in cities such as Eboracum, Corinium, Londinium, and Lugavallium declared themselves emperors with the support of most of their soldiers and city administrators. Other Roman successor states were also founded, but by the people themselves of various cities. Some of those states were conquered by Brython tribes, while others expanded, notably Corinium, Londinium, and Lugavallium. In 442 and 443, when the Frisians and Saxons arrived, Corinium and Londinium stood out among the Roman successor states, being the two largest.

Romans did not hold all the power, though. Some kingdoms were founded by Brythons and immediately or soon adopted Latin and/or Christianity. And some kingdoms were founded by Romans and soon devolved into tribes, due to having a small or nonexistent Roman or Brython-Roman populace.. In areas with little Roman power or influence, tribal rule returned immediately. Brigantes (later Brigantia) was a notable example of a Brython-Roman state in former Britannia. Its founder, Dubnovellaunus, was a Brython. Dubnovellaunus became the first Great Chief of Brigantes, and a year later decided to adopt Latin as the state language and Catholicism as the state religion to appease the Roman and Brython-Roman populace, while continuing to tolerate the Brythonic language and Paganism. His son, Dubnovellaunus II, after succeeding to the title of Great Chief, declared himself the King of Brigantia. In the northern areas of Britannia, the eastern coast, and the western tips of Wales and Cornwall, Brython states were established and remained that way.

When the Frisians and Saxons arrived in 442 and 443, their arrival had an significant effect on Britannia. The eastern coast was heavily populated by the Brythons, and it was dominated by the large empire of Trinovantes, and another similar Grand Chiefdom named Parisii. The arriving Frisians and Saxons massacred most Brython men and took the women for wives. One might even call the invaders ‘barbarian’. With Parisii and Trinovantes crippled, and in the case of the latter, destroyed, Londinium, Corinium, and a few other Roman and Brython-Roman states were able to expand their territory and influence greatly by invading the dying corpse of the Brython east.

In 448 Attila the Hun launched a campaign into Francia. The horde razed nearly all the cities it came across, though the Franks occasionally made heroic, but temporary, reconquests. By November 450 Attila and his army began to siege Lutetia. Francia offered the occupied land and a huge amount of gold and silver. Attila accepted the offer, granted the newly conquered lands to the vassal state of Langobardi, and invaded Burgundia. However, in February 451, Attila died.

The Hunnic Empire immediately fragmented. Ellac became the new king, but of a much smaller entity, consisting of the entire Illyrian coast but not much more. The Kingdom of Biohaemia was led by Dengizich. The Gepids, led by Ardaric, and the Ostrogoths, led by Odoacer, became independent. The vassal state Langobardi became fully independent and was led by King Ernakh. In the far east, the Taurigoths, named so because they were Goths in Taurica, became independent once again. The vast territories in the north and far east of the Hunnic empire were split once again into hundreds of tribes. By 454, the successor states of the Hunnic Empire had all made peace with one another, with small conquests by the Biohaemia from the Huns and by the Gepids from the Ostrogoths, but otherwise little changed since the inital fragmentation.

The number of followers of Zoharism increased five fold from 444 to 446. It is said Zohar himself was illiterate, so instead of writing a holy book, Zohar Yehudah’s followers all memorized his teachings which were called the Târikh (History). In 446, Yazdegerd II decided that by now this heresy was too popular and too heretical, and sent assassins to capture Zohar. They succeeded and on November 5th, 446, Zohar Yehudah was hanged.

This turned out to be a grave mistake. The execution made Zohar into a martyr. A group of Zoharists, including Zohar’s son, Khodadad Yehudah, wrote down the Târikh as a holy book and spread the faith in secret. By 449 there were more than a million Zoharists. In 450, Kohdadad ‘Son of the Prophet’ Yehudah founded the Yehudahid dynasty of the ‘Persian Rahbarate’ and an open rebellion was staged against the Sassanids. By 454, Ctesiphon, Babylon, Tigris, and Persepolis, as well as many minor cities, were firmly under Zoharist control.

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Here are some snippets from the Tarikh to show Zoharism's similarities to Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism. It has a bit less similarities to Islam than I'd like, though.
I'll post the next actual update soon.



Tarikh Book of Creation 1:1
“In the beginning, the Lord said, “let there be light,” and so light had cometh from thy emptiness. Next the Lord said “let there be” and so a barren world had cometh from the emptiness.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:2
“The Lord made rain for two hundred years and the world was filled with water.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:3
“The Lord placed Tree, Fish, and Beast upon thy earth.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:4
“The Lord placed the first man, Adam, upon the earth. “What be thine name?” Adam said. The Lord replied. “I am the Lord thy God, and my name is Ahura Mazda.””

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:7
“The Lord told Adam the names of all the things upon the Earth, and Adam recited them.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:20
“The Lord created the first woman, Nasreen, from Adam’s soul.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:23
““Eating fruit from thy Tree of Knowledge will give you knowledge of all things,” said the serpent. “Do not eat from thy Tree, else you shall die.” stated the Lord. But Adam and Nasreen each had taken fruit from thy Tree and they ate.”

Tarikh Book of Creation 1:24
““Thee have sinned by eating thy fruit of thy Tree of Knowledge, and man and woman shall be punished for eternity,” said the Lord.”

Tarikh The Life of Zohar Yehudah 3:1
“The Lord placed the Prophet, Son of God, Lord, and Savior himself, Zohar Yehudah, upon the earth.”

KHODADAD'S JIHĀD

In 455, Yazdegerd II, who had fled from the Zoharists when they captured Ctesiphon, was captured and executed. Hormizd III reigned for eight days until he, too, was captured and executed. Loyal Sassanids put up resistance until February 456, and then the war between the followers of Zohar and the Sassanids, which had seemed like such a struggle in the past years, was ended abruptly with the full establishment of the Rahbarate.

Khodadad Yehudah, the first Rahbar, son of the Prophet himself, finally controlled all of Persia. Just a year after the Rahbarate was fully established, Khodadad invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in February 457. Sensing an opportunity, the Ostrogoths and Huns invaded the Eastern Roman Empire as well.

Khodadad proved himself a skilled general against the Romans. Antioch, Damascus, Edessa, Trapezus, Petra, and Jerusalem fell to the Zoharists. However it was not just Khodadad’s excellent generalship. The troops were devout followers of Zoharism and were motivated by their faith, and morale was higher because they felt God was on their side. To the west, Ardaric of the Ostrogoths and Ellac II of the Huns led armies of their own and Greece was ravaged. The Rahbarate made peace with the Romans in January 465.

Meanwhile, Zoharism continued to spread. Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians were tolerated, though most of them had to pay a small tax. Khodadad renamed Jerusalem to Khodasahrestan (commonly called Khodasahr). Khodadad commissioned the construction of the giant Al-Maqdis kelisa (mosque/church) in Khodasahr. He also commissioned the construction of giant kelisas in Babylon and Ctesiphon. The three cities eventually became thought of as holy cities.

Meanwhile, kingdoms in Britannia expanded. The Chief of the Votadini founded a great Empire, which was enormous compared to most of the Brythonic states, but small compared to most kingdoms in Europe, including the Empires of Londinium and Corinium. Most of the Roman states in Britannia also expanded, Londinium especially. The Emperor of Londinium, after the conquest of several small bordering kingdoms and chiefdoms, changed the name of his empire to the Holy Londinian Empire (Imperium Londinium Sacrum). Soon afterward, St. Demetrius, Bishop of Londinium, declared himself a Pope in opposition to Bishop of Rome Leo II. This is thought to have begun the Schism of Britannia. All the Christian states in Britannia eventually supported St. Demetrius as the Pope.

In Gaul, the Langobards led by Ernakh conquered much of the barbarian lands to the north. According to Anglian, Mainland Frisian, and Mainland Saxon legends, the Langobards under Ernakh sent ‘a million men and a million demons’ and forged an empire. In reality Ernakh led 30,000 men, nearly all cavalry, but obviously no demons of any kind. The conquest was quite harsh. Everyone who wasn’t killed in battle was enslaved.

Flavius Julius II Tiranus planned to invade Alemannia in 463 and reconquer Septimania. This plan was soon prevented from coming to fruition. In the province of Baetica, Vandal and Alan landowners bribed the governor of the province. Ever since the creation of a Roman Empire in Iberia, the foederati status of the Vandals and Alans had gradually meant less and less as they assimilated into Roman society mostly as landowners, and the Romans began to once again use non-barbarian armies. In the 460s, only about eight percent of the Roman army was barbarian. But nearly half of Vandals and Alans remained as a separate culture, and Vandals and Alans who had partly or even fully assimilated into Roman culture still retained ties with family who refused to assimilate, which included the ten percent of the Roman army which did remain barbarian, mostly centered in Baetica.

Soon began the one-year Vandal-Alan War, delaying Julius’ plans. With the support of the governor of Baetica, one Roman legion constituted mostly of Vandals and Alans, mercenaries from Vandalania, and a large amount of armed Vandal and Alan peasants and landowners started a revolt in February 463. Five Roman legions attacked the rebels, two led by Julius himself, pushing to Gades, and the other three led by general Demetrius pushing to Carteia. Julius pushed east, Demetrius pushed west, and the legions combined into a massive army and attacked rebels to the east. In February 464, the war ended. The Vandals and Alans were all made slaves.

Julius II once again set his eyes upon Alemannian Septimania. However, he died due to a liver disease. His son Augustus became Emperor Flavius Augustus Tiranus. Augustus prepared for war, but not with Alemannia.

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HOLY EMPIRES

In January 466, Flavius Augustus Tiranus, 6 legions, and 5 other generals, crossed the strait of Gibraltar and invaded the coast of Vandalania near Tingis. After establishing a foothold, the troops set up camp and prepared to siege Tingis. Tingis was sieged for 7 months before it finally surrendered. The Romans were soon attacked by a large Vandalan army and fought for five days before the Vandalans were forced to retreat east. Augustus headed further east as the Roman army approached Caesarea, they were again engaged by the Vandalan army. Again the Vandal army lost and the Romans sieged Caesarea. They smashed the doors open and conquered the city. In February 467, the Romans fought yet again with what remained of the Vandalan army, mostly composed of hurriedly levied militia, and won the easiest victory of the war. Constantine was surrounded by Roman troops and the King of Vandalania surrendered in March 467.

In Britannia, more and more states rose to power. Isca Dumnonorium, Deva, Letocetum, and Eboracum became the centers of new empires. The Brython states were crushed by the Votadini empire. Corinium and Londinium allied and attacked neighboring states. In 470, Corinium, Londinium, Isca Dumnonorium, Deva, and Eboracum founded the Holy Roman Empire, which was not really an empire, rather a title that the emperors and kings of those nations held, and an ecclesiastical association. If a nation not within the Holy Roman Empire attacked one within, nations within were obligated but not required to defend it. By 473, every nation in Britannia that had Britannian Christianity as its state religion joined the Holy Roman Empire.

On the other side of the Mediterranean, barbarians continued to push into the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Romans were about to lead a counterattack, when the Zoharists again declared war in 468. The Ostrogoths made peace with the Eastern Romans for the conquered land and a large amount of gold and silver treasure, as the Eastern Romans were frantic to protect precious Constantinople once they were at war with three powerful enemies. But the Hun Horde pushed further and further into Greece.

To the east, Khodadad Yehudahid led an army of 80,000 into Anatolia, and general Ibrahim led an army of 120,000 into Egypt. The Zoharist armies combined with the barbarians overwhelmed the Eastern Romans; even with all their prosperity and power, they were just not prepared for such an abrupt attack. By 473, Alexandria, Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Petra, Ptolemais, and Sinope had fallen to the heathens.

In 473, Augustus decided that it would be imperative to recover Roman lands for his own empire before it was too late, and massed an army on the eastern border and a massive fleet in Corsica.

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IMBALANCE OF POWER

Hermundia’s king, Germanius III, planned to invade Eastern Roman Italy in 476. This was not only because he wanted to expand his kingdom with an easy war, but also so he could garner a few more supporters by having a victorious war--at the time, he wasn’t exactly a popular king. Many aristocrats, who themselves had been feuding for a while and divided into factions, would assassinate him and take the throne if they had the chance. And they did have the chance. Germanius III was assassinated by a part-Hermundian, part-Roman aristocrat named Acriacer Totilus on July 4th, 476. Acriacer, with the support of several aristocrats and generals, became the new king of Hermundia. But as mentioned, the aristocrats of Hermundia were divided into many factions. A succession crisis erupted for almost four years, and by 480, Hermundia had been broken into Hermundia, Etruria, Ravenia, Patava, and Alpicia.

Augustus invaded Eastern Roman Africa in late 473. The 6 Roman legions faced little resistance, as the majority of Eastern Roman troops were fighting in Egypt or Anatolia--and of course, they had not at all expected an attack from the West. North Africa fell quickly, and the most difficulty was in the capture of Carthage, which was the only city in the area with a sizable garrison. To the north, the Roman fleet in Corsica transported 4 legions to Sardinia, attacking from the west and east sides of the island. The Roman legions converged in the center of the island along the river Tirso, then pushed south. There was little resistance throughout the island. By January 476, Sardinia and the Africa province were totally conquered by the Western Romans. The Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno II made peace with the Western Roman Empire in February 476.

Further to the east, the Zoharists and Eastern Romans fought in Egypt and Anatolia, with much larger amounts of troops than in the west, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. In Egypt, the Zoharists continued to push down the Nile River, and a smaller army west along the Mediterranean coast. By 477, Egypt was essentially completely subjugated by the Zoharists. However, a force of 80,000 Eastern Roman troops held out in Cyrenaica. Many were gradually evacuated to Crete and then transported to Anatolia. But they could not escape fast enough and 40,000 troops were slaughtered by the Zoharist forces. Egypt had fallen. In Anatolia, the Emperor himself led a campaign of liberation. Zeno II and other generals led 150,000 soldiers from Anatolia east while the Zoharists commanded 200,000 soldiers in the area. Despite being somewhat outnumbered, the Eastern Romans continued to have victory after victory. The Zoharists brought soldiers from Egypt, but so did the Eastern Romans, and by 479, Anatolia was just as Roman as it was before the war began. In 480, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Yehudahid Rahbarate made peace.

Two months prior to Eastern Roman peace with the Zoharists, the Ostrogoths invaded the Eastern Roman Empire. They hoped to charge for Constantinople. But as unstable and weakened the Eastern Roman Empire was, they were still able to push back the Ostrogoths once the war ended. The Ostrogoths soon made peace with the Eastern Roman Empire and both sides gained and lost land.

Far to the north, in the lands of Britannia, the states of the Holy Roman Empire bickered between one another. It was Roman, it was a confederation, though a loose one, but it was in no way Holy as it claimed to be. Isca Dumnonorium conquered the neighboring Brython-Roman state. The Holy Roman Empire was in constant war until 479. The Kingdom of Friede quadrupled in size and unified the Saxon kingdoms with help of Londinium. Afterward they attacked many Brython-Roman states and the kingdom of Eboracum. Londinium annexed the Frisian kingdom of Aerun (leaving only the kingdom of Venteade) and a kingdom they assisted the Friede against, and Corinium conquered the kingdom of Isca Silurum. Even further north, outside of the borders of the Holy Roman Empire, the Votadini continued to expand.

With Egypt secured, the Zoharists looked to the South and the East.

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A POSSE AD ESSE

Britannia was exhausted. Decades of fighting itself made it weak, both outside and within the Holy Roman Empire. But to the north, the chief of the Votadini Empire, Rhodri, felt as if his empire was stronger than ever, and the Gods were on his side. And so in 484, he invaded the Brython-Roman states, massing an army of 130,000 raiders, many of them mercenaries because the Votadini’s own population had been somewhat depleted. But Rhodri was a megalomaniac, and so he carried on with the invasion anyway. The rest of the Holy Roman Empire declared war on Votadini, although only Friede contributed many troops. The massive army had initial success. In a year half of the Brython-Roman states had been occupied. But while Votadini had this success, Londinium, Corinium, and the other Holy Roman states built awe-inspiring armies of their own. In April 485, 210,000 troops from various Holy Roman nations arrived on the battlefield. To make matters worse (for the Votadini), the Brython-Roman states had united into a confederation led by a Grand Emperor, the first being named Gorlaconus. This confederation was known as Luguvales, or Luguvallia. Lastly, the Pict barbarians invaded from the North.

The Votadini Empire collapsed within 2 months. A chief and general named Talorc founded a united Pict kingdom from the land taken from the Votadini. He then made an agreement with the other Pict tribes and formed a Grand Chiefdom. The Grand Empire of Luguvales or Luguvallia captured a sizable portion of land, including the city of Luguvallium, upon which the region of Luguvallia, and the Grand Empire inhabiting it, was named. And the Friede too had conquered a sizable bit of land, including the city of Arbeia, which was renamed Ardrecken. The Votadini Empire remained in existence, but lost most of its land and even its capital. Rhodri was hanged by several officials, who were formerly his closest friends and supporters.

In addition, the Bishop of Londinium, the Pope of Britannia, Leo III, with support from the Emperors of Londinium and Corinium, declared the Edict of Londinium, establishing a system where each nation of the Holy Roman Empire would elect an Emperor from the leaders of the various kingdoms of the Empire. Only the states which had Latin as a state language (no statement was made about Christianity, however, as all the states were already Christian) would be electors or be eligible to become the Holy Roman Emperor. As a result the Brython-Roman states made Latin the state language (and now they were basically Roman states). Friede and Venteade made Latin into the second state language with Saxon and Frisian being used in non-diplomatic matters. But of course, the population of the formerly Brython-Roman states spoke primarily Brython or Latin, and the populations of Friede and Venteade mainly spoke Saxon and Frisian, with large minorities of Brython and Latin speakers.

Khodadad “the Great” died in April 480. His plans, however, did not die with him. His son, Khodadad II Yehudahid, three days after ascending to the throne, appointed himself as the Grand General Commander of the Faithful. In May, he, several generals, 135 other military officials, and 80,000 troops massed in Nabatea. Arabia was populated by dirty, heathen barbarians just like everywhere else that didn’t fly the flag of the Rahbarate. Therefore it needed to be taught the True Faith. Khodadad II found that swords were the best way to teach people the true way of Ahura God. According to the Târikh, to kill a man was Antichrist[1], but to kill an unbeliever in the name of Ahura God was Christ.

Khodadad II and his army marched southward along the coast of Arabia. Arabian tribes, were, for one, tribes, and also lived in the harsh Arabian desert. The Rahbar’s army outnumbered the entire population of many of the Arabian tribes it fought. The main challenge faced by Khodadad II and his army was the climate; Egypt and Mesopotamia were hot, but at least they had rivers. 30,000 troops died from thirst.

By January 481 the Rahbar’s army had conquered about half of the coast of western Arabia. Khodadad II and most of his army ceased the campaign, placing some of his officials to administrate the new region, and leaving 10,000 troops there, and ventured back north. Next time the Zoharists would be prepared. Khodadad II ordered his military and governmental officials to procure 50,000 camels and 2,000 elephants. In February 482, Khodadad II and an army of 80,000 troops, about 50,000 of them on camels, 15,000 on horses, and 15,000 on foot, were all equipped with hollowed-out gourds to store water along with their weapons and light armor. When tribes were conquered, mercenaries were hired and they provided an advantage, being skilled at desert warfare. In addition, reinforcements of men and supplies arrived from the Persian Gulf. Five months later, in July, the Zoharist army reached the southern tip of the peninsula. By now 30,000 of the original troops were left, 20,000 Arab mercenaries were in the army, and 20,000 were reinforcements. However most of the camels had survived from the beginning of the campaign.

Khodadad II described this region, the southern tip of Arabia, as ‘Lucky Arabia’. It was much greener and less dry than the rest of the peninsula. The greenness of the region couldn’t be savored for long and the army immediately headed northeast. From eastern Arabia, heading southwest, came an army of 40,000. In May 483 the armies met along the coast and returned to Nabatea, arriving in August.

Now that the barbarians were taken care of, it was now time to head east. Khodadad II assembled another massive army, this time 160,000 strong, 15,000 of those being from the newly conquered areas of Arabia. In June 485 Khodadad II invaded the Ahir Empire which prospered, having most of the Indus and Punjab. The battles were massive and the Ahir Empire fielded thousands of elephants. But the morale, fanaticism, and sheer numbers of the Zoharist soldiers led them to prevail within a year. In June 485, peace was made and all of the Ahir Empire’s land to the west of the Indus was ceded to the Rahbarate.

In the Balkans, the Venedi Slavs raged south into the Gepid Empire, starting in 483, with the capture of the Gepid capital, Gibidaz. Certainly a terrible way to start the war, from the Gepid perspective, anyway. 200,000 Venedi Slavs, every single one of them mounted on horses, rampaged through the land, sacking the towns and villages they found, where they could find them, though most Gepids were nomadic. However the Slavs even stole their tents. Within two years, in November 485, the Gepids were overthrown completely by the Venedi Slavs with the capture of Noviodunum.

The Eastern Roman Emperor Zeno II was impressed by the Venedi Slavs’ power. He formally created an alliance with them in January 486. Subsequently, both nations invaded the Ostrogothic Kingdom.



[1] In Zoharism, Christ and Antichrist are states of being. Like how ‘acceptable’ foods in Islam and Judaism are halal and kosher respectively, things can be either Christ or Antichrist. Good is Christ, Evil is Antichrist. According to the Zoharists, Ahura Mazda condones Christ actions and condemns Antichrist actions, however, his own actions are completely neutral.

The map in a separate post so the update isn't all stretched out.

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TIMENT VENEDI

The Slavic horde continued to push into the Ostrogothic kingdom. The Venedi Slavs were savages. Every town they conquered was looted and nearly completely destroyed. People conquered by the Venedi Slavs, well, at least the people who survived, had two choices.They could offer to join and fight for the Horde, which was probably their best option, or they could be sold into various types of slavery. However not all were lucky enough to receive a choice, and some were immediately sold into slavery. Eastern Roman accounts stated that the Venedi Slavs occasionally engaged in cannibalism. These accounts were most likely untrue.

By mid 487, the Slavs and Eastern Romans had completely conquered the Ostrogothic territories. The King of the Venedi Slavs, Vluku, died to be succeeded by his son Kunedzi. But not all approved Kunedzi as King of the Slavs and for two years a war of succession was fought. Notable pretenders included Rozedazi, Vlucezi, and Ruczeu. Ruczeu was the most successful claimant and he captured Dorostorum, Marcianopolis, Novae, and Ratiara before he was killed in battle and support disappeared.

When Kunedzi became the undisputed king of the Slavs, he invaded the Hunnic Empire. 120,000 troops poured in, including not only Slavs, but Gepids, Ostrogoths, Greeks, and even Huns. The Huns, the scourge of the Earth, masters of the horse, warriors from the East, conquerers of Europe, were not what they once were, and now lived a more sedentary, ‘civilized’ lifestyle. Horses played a large part in Hun life, being used for farm labor, and the Huns had a large army which consisted mostly of cavalry, but the Huns were, as the Ravenian philosopher Antoniuso put it, “a people, not a Horde”.

The Slavs led two main armies into Hun land. Kunedzi himself led 65,000 troops southward into Greece, while 45,000 troops headed westward, who were led by the general Vlad. Kunedzi’s troops had great success except at the Battle of Hadrianapolis (which actually took place quite a ways east of Hadrianopolis, in the mountains), when the Hun cavalry, cleverly using the terrain, literally jumped onto the Slavs, flanking them from both sides. Kunedzi was later (mis)quoted as saying, “it rained horses and men”, however, the phrase originated from an Eastern Roman historian of the time, Xanthippus, in his writings about the event. The Slavs were forced to retreat and significant casualties occured, however, they returned a week later with reinforcements and captured the area, including Hadrianopolis itself. Vlad’s army was also successful, reaching past the Dinaric Alps. The Eastern Romans also led armies in the south, but made many less gains due to most of their troops troops fighting slave revolts in Anatolia and Rhodes. In 492, the Huns made peace with the Slavs and Eastern Romans, giving up their territories in Greece and establishing a border partly on and partly around the Dinaric Alps.

After the Huns conquered much of Greece, a large exodus occurred as Greeks migrated to Anatolia, non-Hun Greece, and Italy. However, a sizable amount of Greeks remained. When the Slavs conquered the area, they all fled, every single one of them. Only the Huns remained--and they either joined the Slavic armies or were enslaved. Slavs, Gepids, and Ostrogoths settled the area heavily.

This era, at least in the Holy Roman Empire, was known as a time of peace. Votadini joined the Holy Roman Empire when its leader, Cryten, converted to Britannian Christianity. However to the north of the Holy Roman Empire, not all was peaceful. Gorteim of the Picts succeeded to the throne of Grand Chief after his father Talorc died. Talorc had united most of the Pict tribes, but to Gorteim that was not enough. Starting 488, Gorteim assembled a large army of many warbands and many mercenaries and ventured north, vassalizing and conquering the rest of the Pictish tribes in Britannia. In 493 all of the Picts were united under his rule, and the only other peoples in northern Britannia were the Goidels.

Judocus II of Biohaemia was an ambitious ruler. Most of the previous rulers of Biohaemia were occupied with keeping the kingdom together. However, his father, Judocus I, managed to finally crush most resistance. To stabilize the kingdom further he lowered taxes, which made the people happy, and he gave local rulers more power (but not too much power), which made them happy. This decreased his power, but assured that he would stay in power. Judocus II therefore, when he became king, had the perfect opportunity to bring Biohaemia the glory it always deserved. In early 487, he led an army of 50,000, and a general, Kotzuk, led another army of 30,000, to conquer barbarians to the north... who really weren’t much more barbarian than Biohaemia itself. Regardless, by November 490, Biohaemia had almost doubled in size. This was still not enough for Judocus II, and he invaded the Huns, seeing an opportunity, as the Huns were also being attacked by the Eastern Romans and Slavs. The Huns were focused on fighting the Slavs and Biohaemia occupied large swaths of territory, almost easily. Biohaemia made peace with the Huns just a few months before the Eastern Romans and Slavs did.

Biohaemia wasn’t the only nation with an ambitious ruler at this time. Azipar of Langobardia invaded Francia, hoping to take the capital itself, Lutetia Parisorium. A massive army intruded on Francian land, heading for Lutetia Parisorium... but Francia was prepared. In fact, they had built extensive fortifications a few years before. However, Athanarius of Alemannia and Fraduric of Burgundia saw opportunities, and declared war on the Kingdom of Francia. This was something that Francia was most definitely not prepared for. The Alemannian, Burgundian, and Langobard armies charged into Francia and the Franks simply could not beat the combined enemies. To make matters worse, for the Franks anyway, the governor of the Remorica province declared independence. Suffice to say, Francia collapsed in 494, after barely more than a year of fighting. However the siege of Lutetia Parisorium lasted until 496. Langobardia also conquered barbarian tribes to the east, and coincidentally, the siege of Lutetia Parisorium, and the conquest of those tribes, were both concluded on the same day.

The new nations of Remorica was technically a continuation of Francia, and also the spiritual successor to Aremorica. However, it took on a much more Brythonic flavor, as its core lands were the same ones settled by Brythons before, during, and after the fall of the Roman Empire. In the Remorican dialect of Brython, the nation was known as Areimorca or sometimes as Fhrainca.

Khodadad II had conquered most of the known world. But his hunger for power led him to desire land even further than the Indus. And so in 490, he declared war on the Ahir Empire, to ‘spread the faith’. The Gupta, seeing that if the Zoharists conquered the Ahir, they would go after the rest of India, came to Ahir’s aid. Like the last war, the Zoharists were victorious, but this time, even more so, because they utilized many skilled Indian warriors, and utilized a large amount of elephants. By 495 a fifth of the Indian subcontinent had been conquered by the Rahbarate.

The palace in Constantinople, January 5th, 497:
“Dear emperor...” said one of the Eastern Roman Emperor’s advisors
“Yes?” stated Zeno II.
“...the Venedi have laid siege to Dionysopolis...”
“...”
“...and the Persians to Adana.”


THE FALL?

The Eastern Roman Empire was stuck between a rock and a hard place. To their west and north were the Venedi Slavic barbarians, of course, and to the east were the fanatical and powerful heathen Zoharists of the Rahbarate. And their discontiguous territory in Italy was unstable, wounded from the war with the Visigoths and, though it was more Greek than it had been during the Roman Empire’s heyday, as well as when the Visigoths conquered it, it was not Greek enough.

The western edge of the eastern empire was completely unprepared for the attack. The Venedi Slavic barbarians charged in committing crimes just as barbaric as the ones they committed against the Gepids, Ostrogoths, and Huns, starting with Dionysopolis... it was a pile of rocks by the end of January. The eastern edge of the empire, however, had somewhat extensive fortifications and Zeno II had also developed a plan for effectively defending the Empire. Specifically, the fortifications included a wall spanning most of the border, which was similar to Hadrian’s and the Antonine Wall, 3 meters high, with occasional forts, each having a legeonas. But the huge Zoharist armies brought a prize from India--the elephant.

Elephants provided a significant advantage to the Yehudahids, because they could bash wooden gates, pull siege engines, and scare troops. One week prior to the siege of Adana, two Yehudahid elephants cooperatively bashed open the gate at a fort east of Adana. This literally opened the door to southern Anatolia. And the siege of Adana itself was, though done mostly by siege engines, and by waiting for the city to starve, culminated by the breach of the eastern gate by the same two elephants. It is believed that stories and jokes about the mythical character ‘Khodi, the Elephant who never remembers (because he hit his head on the gates one too many times)’, in Hunnic folklore, may be based on this.

Over the course of the war, elephants broke the gates of four forts and twenty settlements in the Eastern Roman Empire. The siege of Neocaesarea was perhaps the most notable, happening in the beginning of the war. A Yehudahid army of 40,000 infantry, 31,000 cavalry, and 50 elephants initially surrounded the city from three sides. When the city did not surrender after six months, ladders were set up on the walls, the elephants bashed the gates in, and the Yehudahids poured into the city.

When the Venedi Slavs conquered most of Greece from the Huns, Greeks who did not flee during the time of the Huns fled to Italy, the rest of Greece, and Anatolia. When the Venedi Slavs conquered the rest of Greece, those Greeks left too. Most fled to Italy, because the rest of Greece was also falling to the Slavs, and Anatolia seemed unsafe too. However some could not make it to Italy and were forced to flee to Anatolia or to stay, to either be enslaved or join the Horde.

During their time of isolation (at least from the perspective of state to the south--not to the small tribes to their north) and peace (again, only from the perspective of the states to the south), the Taurigoths had become a sea people. They excelled at both sea warfare and sea trade. Tribes to their north and northwest were in constant fear of the Taurigoths sailing up the Dneiper and raiding their cities. And there was a small section of the Golden Horn’s harbor, and a medium section of the markets of Constantinopolis and many other cities dedicated for Taurigoth traders and their ships. In addition, the Taurigoths were actually starting to become more civilized, despite their raids to the north, and actually their lands were starting to become slightly overpopulated. Aganaric of the Goths commissioned the creation of several settlements along the Black Sea coast and up several rivers, to function as trading centers, to consolidate control over tribes, and simply because Aganaric wanted to be the king of a bigger empire

When the Slavs migrated south they took everything with them, or abandoned what they couldn’t move. During the conquest of Greece, for example, Gebidaz, formerly the Gepid capital, was abandoned, and so was Noviodonum, a strategic city on agriculturally useful land on the Danube. All the stones in those settlements were taken to build new ones to the south. In the vacuum left by the Slavs, the Taurigoths created many settlements, though the ones which would grow the fastest were (New) Korsun on the site of Noviodunum, Buw, on the Southern Bug river, and Hus, on the Dneister/Nistru, a good deal upriver but nowhere near the site of former Gebidaz.

If things weren’t bad enough for the Eastern Romans, the governor Velusius of the Italia province of the Eastern Roman Empire declared independence--with Western Roman support. Velusius and Emperor Flavius Augustus II Tiranus made an agreement--Velusius would be the de jure ruler of Italia--it would be under de facto Roman control. Velusius wanted the riches of being a ruler more than the power. In reality Velusius had just barely more power than the governors of any of the existing provinces of the Western Roman Empire.

Velusius and Augustus II led a combined army and took Rome in November 498. Velusius’ army headed up the Tiber River, headed east to conquer Ancona, and travelled southeast. Augustus’ army of 6 legions headed southeast from Rome, along the coast. Cities such as Neapolis, Salernum, Thurii, Rhegium, and Messana fell to Western Roman control--some more willingly than others. By then, Italia was nearly completely controlled by the Western Romans and Velusius. Note however that the Eastern Romans had weakly defended Italia because of the threat to the lands to the east they saw as more important. In addition, some cities welcomed the Western Romans and Augustus.

In January 501, Constantinopolis itself was threatened, and the Horde stood just outside the walls. This siege would take some time, though... the walls built by Theodosius were perhaps the grandest and strongest walls in the world. And the Eastern Romans retained control of the Strait.


VOX POPULI

Constantinopolis, not only having the grandest and strongest walls in the worlds, but the supreme Eastern Roman navy on its side, did not easily fall to the Venedi Slavs;. If the Slavs broke into the city, they would face the largest Eastern Roman army they’d faced yet, as Constantinopolis was the most important of the Eastern Roman territories. The city of Constantinopolis could perhaps have had fallen if the Slavs had broken the gates and set up ladders on the walls, but that they did not do, and they waited for months, attempting to starve the city. The city was constantly resupplied and the Venedi could do nothing about it because their navy was pathetic to say the least, and they could not starve the inhabitants as they had planned.

Khodadad III, soon after succeeding to the throne in late 501, proposed a treaty and peace terms to Zeno II, which would force the Eastern Romans to cede most of their territory except the area around Constantinopolis, some Aegan islands, and Crete. In exchange the Zoharists would fight back the Slavs. Zeno II was not quite ready to abandon his nation and his territory in such a way and therefore he declined, as any Eastern Roman probably would have. The Zoharists advanced even further and won battle after battle, pushing towards Constantinopolis itself. In December 502 the Zoharists reached the eastern gate of Constantinople and, seeing that the treaty would actually lead to the Eastern Roman Empire gaining some land that had now been lost, Zeno II finally accepted the treaty. He was perhaps lucky that the Rahbarate still offered the terms, seeing as they were now giving up an opportunity to sack and conquer Constantinopolis.

The Venedi Slavs finally did attempt to assault Constantinopolis, on April 6th, 503, but they were surprised to discover that, when they rammed the gates open, Zoharists poured out of the gates and attacked the Slavs. The Venedi Slavs were quite surprised to see almost a hundred elephants and 90,000 troops. The Venedi army consisted of 120,000 troops (with the rest of the army keeping the slaves in line), but despite their numerical advantage the Zoharists were victorious. To the west, on the other side of the Sea of Marmara, the Zoharists crossed the Dardanelles Strait and attacked coastal Greece under Slavic control.

Two years, too many expenses, and hundreds of thousands of casualties later, the Zoharists forced the Slavs to make peace in June 505. After the war, all three nations involved were drastically changed, for better and for worse. The Slavs were thrown into a stability crisis and small uprisings occured as many pretenders desired to become King of the Slavs. The Zoharists, despite the cost of the war, generally benefited, not only because they gained land, but Greek culture would define the Rahbarate and Zoharism for centuries to come. Anatolian riches also almost made up for the cost of the war. Lastly, the Eastern Roman Empire had, obviously, lost most of its land and was greatly weakened. It did become more stable over time as a result of the war, though, with only a small amount of land which was under direct control by the Emperor--of course the gradual stability was not exactly worth the destruction of their empire. Even then the stability only came after a period of moderate instability, lasting the rest of Zeno II’s reign (which soon was, literally, cut short, as he was assassinated in 506).

Langobardia had been placed into a prime position to expand after it captured Lutetia, and this it finally did. In 502, Azipar II of Langobardia and his army charged north into the Jutland peninsula, attacking the somewhat-peaceful Angles. Villages were destroyed, people were enslaved, and bad things generally happened, at least from the non-Langobard perspective. By January 503, the Angles were completely subdued--although it seemed that many of them were just gone rather than killed or enslaved. Azipar decided to keep going and conquered some more barbarians to their north. When Jutland was completely conquered he celebrated by founding the city of Azipar, obviously named after himself.

Britannia had been a chaotic place after the fall of the Roman Empire, but after the fall of Votadini, it had become perhaps too peaceful. During the Langobard conquest of the Jutland peninsula, this had all changed. Angles took to the seas as the Frisians and Saxons did so many years ago, and arrived in Londinia, Venteade, and Friede. They pillaged towns, ransomed captured officials, and demanded that they be granted land in Britannia.

The Roman Empire under Augustus II was placed into a good position for expansion southward after the conquest of Italia. Augustus II himself and Velusius, who was now a Roman general, led armies composed of three legions each. They conquered up to the Atlas mountains. The campaign took slightly more than a year, lasting from January 502 to February 503. However the conquest of this area was perhaps the least important thing that happened to the Roman Empire at this time...

The Roman Empire called itself the SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and the Roman People. But this was merely a name. The Roman Empire was under the sole control of the Emperor, the Senate was powerless, and all the governors were generals, aristocrats, or members of the Senate. Throughout all of his life Augustus II had come up with a scheme to restore aspects of the Republic, but he would do it when he knew that his time as emperor was coming to an end. In 504, Augustus II was in ill health. He enacted his plan in June.

The Roman Empire-Consulate of the Senate and the Roman People would be led by two Emperor-Consuls, also called the Flavitirani, elected by the senators, governors, and generals of the Empire-Consulate. The senators were elected by Roman citizens. Governors were elected by Roman citizens from that province, but the candidates were picked by Senators from that province. Legislative assemblies were held, there being two types: Committees were an assembly of any Roman citizens, and Councils were assemblies of certain classes of Roman citizens. Augustus II died on January 2nd, 506. Augustus III plotted to kill his father and declare himself the Emperor, but he died mysteriously one day before his father did. A senator named Lusitanius became Flavius Lusitanius Tiranus, and the governor of Africa, Scipius, became Flavius Scipius Tiranus. They were the first Emperor-Consuls.

The Taurigoths continued to slowly become more civilized, the problem of overpopulation persisted, and Taurigoth traders and merchants brought money to the homeland. Combined with the barbarians’ weakness this created a perfect opportunity to settle yet more lands. New towns were founded along almost all of the rivers of the northern Black Sea, and more raids occured, some of them now from sea as well as from river and on land. Aganaric was later cherished as the Great Establisher of the Kingdom of the Taurigoths, however it was not really his doings that made the Taurigoths greatly expand, it was just the situation they were placed in. In fact he perhaps spent too much of the Kingdom’s finances on himself.

Besides their expansion, other interesting things occurred to the Taurigoths. Greek refugees arrived, some of them skilled artisans, clergy, etc., bringing with them a small piece of Greek culture, and expanding the Taurigoth upper classes, and literacy among them. There were few effects on the Gothic language, other than some Greek loanwords, because Gothic already possessed its own independent alphabet, which was already quite suited for the language, and the amount of Greek refugees was relatively small, so the spoken side of the language wasn’t very influenced either. Besides the Greek refugees, some Jews arrived in the Kingdom, presumably from the Rahbarate. They lived in peace, however, their faith would one day persuade Aganaric’s son Aganaric II.

In late 506, if one was in Langobardia or the Slavic lands, they could smell chaos in the air...


CHAO AB ORDO

The Taurigoths still had population to spare, were nearly completely ‘civilized’, and Aganaric II was ambitious. So they expanded even further, sometimes by conquest and sometimes by the founding of new cities. And sometimes they conquered barbarians and founded new cities on the barbarians’ old villages. In 512 the Taurigoths reached the peak of their territorial extent for many years, as previous policies and settling of new lands now left Crimea slightly underpopulated rather than with population to spare, in addition to the fact that they were now surrounded by barbarians that were a bit more hostile than the ones they were acquainted with.

In 507, the Venedi Slavic lands and Langobard lands collapsed. Azipar II of the Langobards was assassinated on January 27th, and Boikoz of the Venedi was assassinated some other day in late January, perhaps on the same day. Immediately after their deaths, their empires were deeply destabilized. Pretenders and foreign nations alike tore the empires apart.

The Venedi Slavs, during their rise to power, were great at ‘assimilating’ conquered peoples. As towns were deserted, massive amounts of Slavs migrated into the empire, and as Slav troops retired, if they survived to retire, or at the end of the war with the Zoharists, they settled in conquered towns. The men of conquered cultures who offered to join the Slavic horde as a warrior were forced to learn the Venedi language, not by the Slavs but simply out of practicality. And slaves of the Slavs sometimes learned a few words of the Venedi language, too, though usually only their children learned to speak Venedi fluently. As a result of the Venedis’ migration and settlement, and ‘assimilation’, forced or not, their territories all had at least a sizable minority of Slavs, and at best, a near total majority.

Rather than bringing stability to the Venedi lands, though, the abundance of Slavs perhaps made it more unstable. Many of these Slavs joined the horde to plunder loot and riches. After conquering all of Greece, the Venedis still wanted loot and riches. Many wanted to carve up empires for themselves. In combination with the fact that the Venedi army was rather disorganized, the fact that the Venedi empire had more than quintupled in less than three decades, and the fact that the Venedi empire was not actually an empire, the Slavic lands were ripe with strife.

In February 507, a general named Vlad, son of Boikoz, declared himself the emperor of the Venedi. By the start of March, several dozen other Slavs declared themselves either emperors of the Venedi, or of some new kingdom. Of course not all of these people were successful, and most of them weren’t. By 515, only a tiny remnant of the great Venedi horde remained, Vlad’s Kingdom of Venedja, a small little realm located north of the Slavs. Other pretenders were defeated by him, and eventually others gave up on restoring any sort of Venedi horde, settling with smallish kingdoms. The Venedi horde was attacked not only from the inside but also by foreign peoples... that is, if ‘attacked’ is even the proper term. The Taurigoths and Zoharists merely moved troops into some regions and took control of them with little resistance. Venedi successor states were too busy fighting each other to push the invaders out.

By January 516, all the successor states were at peace, at least in practice. Lands that formerly belonged to a single united horde were now split among the Rahbarate, the Taurigoths, Venedja, Dardanski, Epir, Makedonzja, Akaja, Atinija, Mozja and Gibidoijaz.

The situation in the Empire of Langobardia was very similar and yet very different. Little Turkic settlement of the area occurred, and not even the ruling classes and bureaucrats were completely Hunnic, with native Germanics and Latins given privileges as well. As a result none of the rebels claimed to be any sort of Langobardian Emperor except for Azipar III, the rightful heir. Instead native peoples affirmed their independence. By 512, Langobardian control only remained in northern Gaul, with the rest of their lands being split up by the Frisians in Frysklan, the Angles in Ange-Land, the Saxons in Sachsonland, and various groups of Germanic peoples in the Niedrhein kingdom. The Burgundians to the south also managed to carve out more territory of their own.

Zarin I of the Rahbarate, son of Khodadad III, succeeded to the throne in 509. Under his reign, the Rahbarate expanded to the Caucasus mountains. And the economy and culture of the Zoharist lands prospered. This would be the peak of the Yehudahid Rahbarate. Then, the Rahbarate began to decline.

Any attempt by the nations of the Holy Roman Empire to try and stop the Anglian invaders failed. The Frisian kingdom of Venteade quickly fell. Again and again an Anglian warlord would contact the emperor of Londinia and the emperor of Friede, demanding that the Angles be granted land in Britannia to settle. In 510, Londinium itself was under siege by the Angles. With a sword to his neck, the Emperor of Londinia, as the Holy Roman Emperor, granted the Angles a portion of land including and around the former kingdom of Venteade. In return, the new kingdom, called Ventiaddhen, would adopt Britannic Christianity and Latin and join the Holy Roman Empire.

In 517, the hinges of the Yehudahid dynasty began to break apart.


Well I'm not too pleased with the outcome but here you go:

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FISSURA

The Kingdom of Alemannia, after the collapse of Langobardia, was the largest and most powerful nation in Gaul. This, combined with the fact that it had been largely at peace for decades, allowing it to consolidate, put the kingdom in a ripe position for expansion. And expand it did.

Faramondus, they called him. He ascended to the throne of Alemannia in 516. Immediately he demanded 90,000 mostly horse-mounted troops. Faramondus commenced an invasion of Remorica in 517 with these troops and sizable portion preexisting forces, about 15,000 troops of the standing army. The Remoricans were unable to hold back invasion soon after their peak, and now, with most of their old empire gone, they were helpless. 18,000 troops were no match for 105,000, and the Alemannians surged into Remorica--at first. The ways of Francian warfare and the Celtic warband had not been forgotten. At least 30,000 troops were raised to fight back the Alemannians. That was still not enough to hold back the Alemannian forces, but it was enough to convince Faramondus to call off the attack, too many losses for too little gain. Due to this Remorica managed to retain its Celtic core. Now the kingdom was mostly Brythonic, and due to this the names Fhreinca and Areimorca now became the most common.

The invasion of Remorica was not as simple as Faramondus thought it would be, but in the end it was successful. Faramondus appointed his son, also named Faramondus, as a general. Both led armies of about 50,000 Alemannians and 10,000 Remorican mercenaries each. Like father like son, Faramondus I and Faramondus II attacked Burgundia, Faramondus I from the west and Faramondus II from the south. Burgundia was more prepared for the initial attack than Remorica, but Alemannia was now more powerful. After two years of fighting, the Burgundians were forced to cede all but a small region north of and including the Alps.

Aganaric II converted to the Jewish faith in 518. So did his sons, and his wife. In 519, Aganaric II made Judaism the official religion of the Taurigothic Kingdom, beginning a slow but steady spread of the religion throughout the Kingdom. By the end 526, about 20% of Taurigoths were Jews. These Jewish communities were spread about the entire Kingdom, but mostly concentrated along the coasts, delltas, and the Crimean peninsula itself.

Italia was not as Roman as the rest of the Empire-Consulate. Its inhabitants knew this and so did the people of the rest of the Empire-Consulate. Not even the city of Rome was Roman--in Iberia, it was called Graecia Parva, or Little Greece. Velusius was elected as one of the Flavitirani in 521, along with another patrician from Italia, Archeos, though he was Greek. The people of Italia were more difficult to tax, revolting when tax rates were raised to match that of most of the other provinces, and they were opposed to being conscripted into or volunteering to join the army. Quite un-Roman! Combined with the fact that the province of Italia was nearly independent anyway, and that Italians were the two Flavitirani, Italia was allowed independence in 522, on the conditions that it would assist the Empire-Consulate militarily if needed, and Roman merchants would be allowed in all of its ports.

Zarin I Yehudahid felt comfortable on the throne. His position was sanctioned by Ahura himself. But not all felt as if he was the rightful Rahbar. Ever since Zohar died, some claimed to be his rightful successor. Khodadad II Yehudahid succeeded to the throne after Khodadad I, but he was a bastard--and after that, the amount of claimants and pretenders increased, but they were never a large problem. However a man named Abas-Mashid Shapur, who always distrusted Zarin I, though never showed it, was one of these people. He claimed to be descended from Khodadad-Abd-Abas Yehudah (who was also son of Khodadad I, but according to Abas, not illegitimate).

Abas-Mashid Shapur was formerly a general and at this point was now the governor of Maqedunya. He had served in the war with the Eastern Romans and the war with the Caucasian kingdoms. He made little impact on the former war and was the chief general of the latter war, although the latter war was quick and largely insignificant. The last combat he saw as a general was putting down a revolt in the province of which he would then become governor. Abas-Mashid Shapur did, however, manage to garner the support of many Kehsi [1] whose beliefs did not align with those in the East. He also knew many adherents to western Zoharism and other claimants as well--who he conspired with.

Most Kehsi in predominantly non-Zoharist lands were ones whose beliefs did not align with those in the East. The Zoharist faith is considered to have officialy split in 519, into the eastern Yehud Zoharism and western Qanun Zoharism [2]. However the split was much more gradual and can be considered to have started as early as the coronation of Khodadad II in 480. In 520, Abas-Mashid Shapur declared himself the Rahbar of a new Shapurid Rahbarate.

Abas-Mashid Shapur initiated a revolt in Maqedunya immediately after the declaration. Soon, other Qunan Zoharist communities began revolting. The Rahbarate was thrown into chaos. Though in the West most Kehsi, and Zoharists in general, followed Qanun Zoharism, some were loyalists. And in the East, too, some were not Yehud Zoharists. Lastly, of course, there were large populations of Zoroastrians, Christians, and some Jews throughout the Rahbarate.

For the first year after the war, the western half of the Rahbarate was a battlefield between Qanun Zoharists, Yehud Zoharists, and small amounts of revolting Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Only one actual movement of armies occurred, a Yehudahid army pushing to Ctesiphon, which was surrounded by Qanuns. By mid 521, Qanuns had established hegemony in the west.

The Rahbarate had, since its inception, practiced a system of occasionally enslaving the children of revolting heathens, or heathens who had committed a crime, or conquered people during a war, training them to be skilled soldiers, and they were encouraged to become Zoharists. Abas-Mashid Shapur, during the war, expanded this system, doing it not just occasionally, but whenever possible--although the war did not last long enough for most of these soldiers, called Slakhalivas, meaning Slavs (even though most were Greeks or Copts), to compose a majority of the army.

Abas-Mashid Shapur gathered an army of 25,000 Slakhalivas and 30,000 conscripts and charged east to conquer Ctesiphon. Two other armies of 35,000 each defended northern Mesopotamia and Armenia, and one army of 10,000 defended western Arabia. The Yehudahid Rahbarate had numerical superiority almost everywhere. The attempt to conquer Ctesiphon failed and nearly all of Mesopotamia was conquered by the Yehudahids. The Yehudahids even pushed to Damascus. However the Shapurid Rahbarate, with 40,000 mercenaries from Makuria and Aksum, and 45,000 troops from the remnants of Abas’ army and the Mesopotamian army, broke the siege of Damascus. For two years fighting was rare and the war was a stalemate.

In November 525, peace was established between the Shapurid and Yehudahid Rehbarates. In the aftermath of the war, hundreds of thousands of Yehuds and Qanuns fled Shapurid and Yehudahid land respectively. 17,000 of the surviving mercenaries from Makuria and Aksum were given Greek and Persian slaves and allowed to settle in the new city of Sahr-Nuubi, built in a rather empty part of Maqedunya, as long as they converted to Qanun Zoharism. This is seen as the birth of the Nuubi ethnic group. Lastly, the inland Arab tribes, which were mostly solitary and not affected by the Rahbar’s decisions anyway, became mostly independent, not by any decree--control was simply lost.

Zoharism was split at the seams, though it would not be the only faith to undergo such a change.


[1] Kehsi are religious and communal leaders in Zoharism.
[2] Qanun referred to ‘law’. Qanun Zoharists called themselves many names at first, among them Shapurs and Dins (meaning religion). Later Kafar was used; ironically, it referred to a nonbeliever, and was a derogatory term used by Yehud Zoharists. It fell out of use because of this.


BIOHAEMICA RUPTIO

Christianity was largely united. In the 520s, the vast majority of Christians were Catholics or Britannic Christians, and Britannic Christians were relatively isolated from the Catholics. However, small rifts had opened up from time to time between Catholics in different regions. Relations between Western and Eastern Catholicism were sabotaged by the two wars between the Roman Empires, the first leading to the Western seizure of Sardina and the province of Africa, the second leading to the seizure of Italy; however, both involved the Western Roman Empire attacking the Eastern Roman Empire while it was not only weak, but also fighting heathens in defense of Christianity.

In 527, Rhomaion was attacked by the Shapurids. The Bishop of Constantinopolis, and the Eastern Roman Emperor, begged the Roman Empire-Consulate for assistance against the heathens. No such help was given. The Bishop of Rome commented on the issue that the East was being punished for their sins. That was it, the East had had enough. The Bishop of Constantinopolis excommunicated the Bishop of Rome, and when the Bishop of Rome heard of this, he, in turn, excommunicated the Bishop of Constantinopolis.

Christianity was now split into three (major, with more minor) divisions. Britannic Christianity was led by the Pope, or Papa, of Londinium. Catholic Christianity was led by the Pope, or Papa, of Rome. Lastly, the Nomitrope [1] Church (which called itself the Nomitrope Catholic Church) was led by the Pater [2] of Constantinople. The Huns, Christians in the Slavic states, Christians in the Taurigothic Kingdom, Eastern Romans, and Christians throughout the Shapurid Rahbarate adhered to the Pater, while the rest of the Catholic states adhered to the Pope.

Shapurid troops advanced from the west, easily conquering small towns, until they reached Constantinopolis itself and began a siege. Shapurid ships blockaded the Strait to East Roman ships, and supplied the troops around Constantinopolis. Meanwhile, the Huns showed the first sign that they would become a power once again, by invading Crete with a fleet of warships and an army of Hun cavalry and Germanic mercenaries. Prior to the invasion, Akariyar of the Huns made a deal with Abas-Mashid Shapur. The Shapurids eyed Crete as well as Constantinopolis, but with a small, quick, and tidy payment, Abas-Mashid would give up that claim. The Huns, after all, could afford it--a sizable class of Hunnic merchantry had emerged ever since the breakup of their great Horde, leading to an equally sizable increase in prosperity.

Shapurid troops and ships invaded various Aegan islands. By 529, Crete was entirely under Hunnic control and all of the Eastern Roman Aegan islands were occupied by the Shapurids. Constantinopolis had been under siege for a year and a half. Abas-Mashid was content with waiting for the city to surrender from starvation; the entire rest of their nation had fallen, so waiting inferred no risk--and the walls were nigh-impossible to penetrate anyway, they had been fully repaired since the last siege. Half a year later, after a total of two years of siege, slaves managed to open one of the gates and Shapurid troops poured in. Intense fighting occurred for an hour, a sizable portion of the city caught fire, and one hour after the breach of the gates, the city surrendered. It was February 3rd, 530, and the Eastern Roman Empire had fallen.

After the conquest of the Aegan Islands and Constantinopolis, the Shapurid Rahbarate entered a new era--the entire Mediterranean World entered a new era. Indeed, modern historians mark February 3rd, 530 as the end of the Classical Age and the beginning of the Mediatempene [3] Age. Two days after the surrender of Constantinopolis, Abas-Mashid Shapur renamed the moderately-damaged but significantly-crippled city, which now only harbored 200,000 people, after many poor souls were lost to battle or starvation. The new name was Shahrestan, or, in Greek, Xorapolis [4], and it was designated as the capital, and the construction of a Royal District and a palace was commissioned in the destroyed area of the city. Zoharist officials from across the Rahbarate settled in this district, and so did Abas-Mashid, his Greek but Zoharist consort Zoe, as well as his only son. However, just two days after moving into his new palace after construction had finished, he died, on July 2nd, 538, to be succeeded by his son, Abd-Xanthipos Shapurid [5]. The greatest change to the Shapurid Rahbarate after the conquest of Rhomaion was incited by Abd-Xanthipos--he established Greek as the new state language, not only because it was now the most-spoken language, but also, and actually mostly, for trading purposes--the Yehuds in the Yehudahid Rahbarate were now reluctant to trade with the Western heretics, and the Shapurids would have to look north, west, and south for trading partners.

Alemannia seemed unstoppable. Faramondus’s army grew after the conquest of Burgundians, as many Burgundians offered to join his army; they either had no opportunities other than farming, or they had no opportunities at all (because the Alemannians had burned down their farms). Faramondus, now known as Faramondus the Great, invaded Langobardia in 528. 80,000 Alemannians, 25,000 various mercenaries, and 30,000 former Burgundians attacked Langobardia from all sides. Much in the same way that Remorica, with its Francian warfare and Celtic military traditions, had been a formidable foe, Langobardia was also a formidable foe, inheriting the barbaric Hunnic style of warfare (which, ironically, the actual Huns now lacked). Langobardia defended itself with more than 70,000 horse-mounted troops. It took 2 years and 50,000 deaths merely for the Alemannians to reach Parici, and another year and 30,000 deaths to siege it--the Langobardians were, in retrospect, extremely lucky. After the Alemannian army was reinforced, however, it took a mere month to conquer the rest of Langobardia, as all organization was destroyed with the capture of Parici, and all of their greatest generals died defending the city.

In 531, by the end of November, the Langobardian lands were firmly under Alemannian control. Faramondus the Great set up a vassal state and headed northeast to attack Frysklan. The 80,000 or so surviving veterans of the war with Langobardia, and 15,000 more troops, invaded. The Frysklan troops had nowhere near the numbers and were nowhere near as effective in battle...they may have been skilled hunters, and there may have been infrequent disputes within Frysklan, but the Alemannians picked up on many military techniques their recent enemies had used. A little bit less than a year passed, most of the land up to the Rhine was conquered and annexed into the Langobardian satellite state, and peace was made.

Faramondus headed southeast into Niedrhein. A little bit more than a year passed, and Niedrhein became yet another satellite state of the Alemannian empire--however, not without Faramondus’s death. As Faramondus II succeeded to the throne in January 534, Langobardia, Niedrhein, Burgundia, and Fhreinca entered their Post-Faramondian period, sometimes called the Puppet Years, because the nations were dominated by Alemannia.

Biohaemia was a multiethnic empire. In the south lived Latin-speaking peoples who considered themselves Romans. The rest of the kingdom was filled with Germanic peoples, such as the Doringians in the northwest, the Juthungians in the center of the nation, and the Rygians in the northeast. Throughout the entire empire were officials who considered themselves Biohaemian, and spoke Hunnic, Germanic Biohaemian, Latin, or any combination of the three. In 534, the king of Biohaemia, Ayarizich, died. Throughout his entire life, his right to the throne was questioned, as he was accused of being a bastard, though this accusation was probably false. All of Ayarizich’s heirs were also accused of being illegitimate, although these claims were probably also untrue. His heir apparent, however, Ayarizich II, was known, without a doubt, to be illegitimate. Even though Biohaemian succession law permitted illegitimate heirs to become the King, a succession war broke out within the Kingdom after Ayarizich succeeded to the throne, and by 536, the kingdoms of Doringen, Rygaland, and Jutheland had emerged, with a small remnant of former Biohaemia. The Huns to the south also invaded, siezing a large area east and southeast of the Alps.

While Central Europe was ravaged, fractures began to emerge in the Yehudahid Rahbarate...

[1] ‘Nomitrope’ and ‘Nomitropo’ are from Greek ‘νόμιμο τρόπο’, or ‘nómimo trópo’, literally ‘legal way’.
[2] ‘Pater’ being from both Latin ‘pater’ and Greek ‘πατέρας’, or ‘patéras’.
[3] ‘Mediatempene’ derives from Latin ‘media tempestas’.
[4] ‘Shahrestan’ is Persian for ‘large city’ or literally, ‘place of city’, and is composed of the word for city (‘shahr’) and the word for a place of something (stan). ‘Xorapolis’ is the Greek version of this name, composed of ‘xora’ or ‘chora’ for ‘land’, and ‘polis’ for ‘city’.
[5] Abas-Mashid’s Greek wife insisted on giving their son and only heir an at least partly-Greek name.


BARBARI SEPTENTRIONALES

After the advent of Zoharism, and especially after the creation of the Yehudahid Rahbarate, Kehsi were sent throughout the known world to spread the faith. Central Asia happened to be a place where they were particularly successful. Large numbers of Hua (sometimes called White Huns by outsiders, or occasionally claiming to be White Huns, to frighten those outsiders) converted to Zoharism. This led to a prosperous trading relationship with the Yehudahids as a component of the Silk Road.

However, since the beginning of the 6th century, other nomadic groups passed through their lands, and small skirmishes occurred. For the first few decades of the 6th century, however, this was rare. In the late 520s, a group called the Qoktürüks began to migrate west, passing through the northernmost areas of the Hua’s lands. They passed through peacefully until they encountered the most northwestern, and also the least predominantly Zoharist, of the Hua tribes, the Uars.

The Uars already engaged in conflicts with another, very similar group, called the Avars. When the Qoktürüks arrived this increased exponentially. The Uars allied themselves with the Qoktürüks against the Avars. At this time the Avars were a group of approximately 16,000 horsemen. Two months later, their numbers were 4,200. Battles were bloody. The Avars were subjugated. Roughly 1,800 joined the Qoktürüks and 2,400 joined the Uars. The Qoktürüks and Uars migrated northwest. They reached the frontier of the Taurigothic Kingdom in 542. The Qoktürüks and Uars (by then, they were more often known as Vars) demanded tribute from the Taurigothic Kingdom, or else they would invade. The Taurigothic Kingdom obliged. However the barbarian threat still loomed to the east; its vengeance was simply delayed.

This snowballed into chaos for the other tribes of the Hua, too, as they began to fight each other. This entire chain of events significantly damaged trade along the branch of the Silk Road traversing most of the Hua lands--instead, traders returned to a southeasterly route. This led to less prosperity for the Hua, and they were forced into desperation.

The Gupta Empire had been unstable, and the states of Southern India stable and mostly at peace, ever since the Yehudahid Rahbarate conquered northwestern India. In June 541, the Gupta Empire collapsed save a small inland area, which did not even include the capital. The rest fell into chaos. A state to the southeast, Kalinga, conquered most of the southeast of the Gupta Empire. The entire west coast was subjugated by Rashtrakutas. The far north was conquered by the Kingdom of Licchavi, and the northeast was conquered by an Assamese state led by Narayanavarman, called the Varman Empire. The area of the former Gupta Empire was in chaos with refugees, warfare between kingdoms, warfare within kingdoms, and battles with tens of thousands, sometimes even a hundred thousand men fighting. However from 550 to 551 the various states made peace and the conflicts ended as quickly as they started.

The Yehudahid Rahbarate would have been in a perfect position to exploit the collapse of the Gupta Empire. But it was not so, because the Hua, in their desperation, attacked the Yehudahid Rahbarate in January 543. Toramana, Khan of the Xiyon (the largest Hua tribe), led the Xiyon as well as the rest of the Hua in a 70,000-man and 140,000-horse horde. He became known by his enemies as the Scourge of God.

The Yehudahid probably could have fought away this invasion. They had, in the past, commandeered massive armies. They had fought massive armies. They had defeated massive armies. Toramana’s army was not even nearly as massive as some of the armies they had fought. The Hua were, despite all this, one of the most formidable enemies the Yehudahid Rahbarate--or any Rahbarate, ever--would face.

Toramana conquered one city after another. Merw, Bactriana, Kandahar, Herat, Nischapur, Ben-Ardaschir... all were razed and conquered. Usually after each victory, the surviving men would join the Hua, to avoid their fate otherwise--enslavement, execution, and so on. Women and children were not so lucky. And after a man joined the Hua, he, too gained a thirst for blood. Toramana, with an army that increased, rather than decreased, in size after each battle, continued to zig-zag through Yehudahid territory, destroying all in his path.

But the Hua could not have been as successful as they were without the assistance of luck and coincidence. For internal feuds reached to a boiling point roughly at the time they invaded. Beginning decades before, sentiment was brewing, with the occasional small revolt, in Arabia, and in Ahirstan. Arabia at this point mostly adhered to Zoharism, and the cities that existed contained sizable amounts of Persian speakers, mostly the nobility. Arabs even spread themselves and their culture throughout the Rahbarate (for example: the adoption of the Arab name ‘Abd’ by the Persians as an ordinary name rather than a prefix to mean ‘the servant of’). However, with cultural brethren, came pretenders to the throne, and small power struggles. In addition, the Badw [1] in the desert, and many in the cities, retained their distinct Arab identity, they even still worshipped the old pagan gods along with Ahura Mazda and the essences of Christ and Antichrist, a practice not prohibited, but disliked, and which made the Badw eligible for the non-Zoharist tax. Recently, Rahbar Zarin II had demanded some new taxes, which, to the Badw, were overbearing when combined with the non-Zoharist tax. In Ahirstan, there was a large minority of Zoharists, and the province had a small, powerful Persian-speaking nobility. Like in Arabia, this did little for stability. Internal feuds happened often.

Abdahura ibn-Khaldun declared his own Rahbarate and became the most influential of the Arab rebels, not only because he, well, led the new Arab Abdahurid Rahbarate, but also because of his skills as a general. Little is known about his personal life, but he was a Zoharist Arab who knew Persian. According to Badawi legend, prior to his generalship, he went into the desert and lived with a tribe Badw for five years, even participating in their rituals, honoring the old gods as well as Ahura, and also fighting another tribe of Badw in a skirmish in the desert, during which he lost his left eye. Upon returning the city of Adan, he knew that the Arab people must be free, and he aspired to have the power to make that happen. To be a Rahbar fulfilled that aspiration.

Prior to the declaration of a new Rahbarate in March 543, Abdahura, and another former general, Mustafa Khodil, amassed an army of 28,000 Badw from the desert, and 5,000 mercenaries in an inland town in southwestern Arabia, Qarnawu. Abdahura declared himself Rahbar in this town, which had no garrisons. Around 3,000 men from the town volunteered to join Abdahura’s army. Abdahura, Mustafa, and their force of 34,000 troops headed south to Adan. Adan was defended by 3,000 Yehudahid soldiers.

These 3,000 men were easily defeated Abdahura’s forces. After roughly 2,000 of them were killed in battle, the remaining 1,000 offered to join Abdahura’s own army. Abdahura and Mustafa ventured northeast. They came upon Kindasahr, a town founded by the Yehudahids on the land of the Kindah after Arabia was conquered. There was a garrison of merely 500, who surrendered without a fight. Abdahura’s and Mustafa’s army of 33,500 marched into Kindasahr and managed to recruit 800 able men. The Abdahurids marched northeast and about 2 minutes after the army exited the gates of Kindah, they spotted a massive Yehudahid army.

The Yehudahid army was composed of about 40,000 men, most of them horsemen. The Yehudahid army charged at the Abdahurids while the Abdahurids retreated towards the gates. About 11,000 Badawi archers, 5,000 Badawi horsemen, 1,000 mercenary horsemen, and 500 of the volunteers made it inside the gates, while Abdahura, Mustafa, and 16,000 troops were left outside of the gate. Abdahura, Mustafa, and the 16,000 spread out and, if they had shields, held their shields in front of them. If not they held their weapons out in front of them and braced themselves. Their hearts were full to the brim with suspense and fear. The cavalry impacted the defenders with bone-crushing force while, simultaneously, the archers on the walls unleashed a rain of arrows on the ranks of cavalry in the back. Both sides took immense casualties. After this initial charge, 14,000 Abdahurids including Mustafa, as well as 13,500 Yehudahids, died.

The situation seemed grim for the Abdahurids. However they, blessed by Ahura Himself, were assisted by 14,000 Badawi camel archers from the north. After a day’s fighting, the Abdahurids were victorious. 12,000 Abdahurid-aligned troops remained and 500 of the Yehudahids joined Abdahura’s army. In addition 400 more able men from Kindah joined Abdahura’s forces because their homes were destroyed. The 12,900 troops marched northeast towards the city of Sohar. Sohar had liberated itself. Mercenaries were hired, more Badw joined Abdahurid forces, and men from Sohar volunteered. The size of Abdahura’s forces swelled to 30,000 and he marched northwest. Little resistance was encountered, as the Yehudahids were busy elsewhere.

Parekhlal Kardar was the governor of the Ahirstan province. He had always sought a chance to declare his province independent. He, ironically appointed as a governor primarily because of his perceived loyalty, saw an opportunity after the Hua invaded. In July 543, Parekhlal Kardar declared himself Rahbar. A new Kardarid Rahbarate of Ahirstan was born. Initially only a small area of Panjab, including the capital of the province, Yehudabad (former Kurukshetra), was loyal to Parekhlal. The rest of Ahirstan was firmly under Zoharist control. Parekhlal led an army of 40,000 troops and 30 elephants on a campaign southward. By December 547, he reached Vadodara and had totally conquered all settlements in Ahirstan. He fought a Yehudahid army in the surrounding countryside in early January 548, and had by then pacified Ahirstan completely. He would not see combat again for the rest of his life.

In 552, the Qoktürüks and Vars once again demanded tribute. The Taurigoths refused...


[1] Plural form of Badawi, which is the Arabic word for Bedouin.


RABARUM TORAMANUM

After the Taurigoths refused to pay tribute, the Qayan [1] of the Qoktürüks, Estemi Qayan, and the Qayan of the Vars, Mergül Qayan, led their barbarian hordes into the Taurigothic Kingdom, beginning a war which the Taurigoths considered a Heilagkrig, or a Milkhemet Mitzvah [2]. The Qoktürüks and Vars first set foot into Taurigothic lands on January 1st, 553.

The Var horde of 28,000 men and the Qoktürük horde of 37,000 men rushed westward into the lands of the Taurigoths. Hundreds of settlements were razed, and, like the Hua, the Huns, and the Venedi Slavs, the Vars and Qoktürüks offered survivors the choice of joining the horde or being enslaved. The East being ravaged, however, did not bring much ill to the Taurigoths. The Eastern, inland areas of their Kingdom were much less prosperous than the coasts, Crimea, and the West. But, of course, the Qoktürüks and Vars didn’t stop at the east. They still desired that tribute.

King Rek of the Taurigoths commissioned the construction of scores of forts along the coast of the mainland near Crimea, declared that each should have a few thousand men at the least to defend it, and initiated the refitting of almost a hundred ships to reinforce areas along the coast. He spent much of his prosperous nation’s treasury on this project and tens of thousands of mercenaries. The Qoktürüks and Vars could take the city of Buw, a magnificent city on the Southern Bug. They could take Hus, on the Nistru. They could even take magnificent New Korsun. But they would not take, they would never take, Crimea. Assured of this, Rek decreed that all ‘worthwile people’ to the Crown should escape to Crimea.

The plan succeeded, and failed, exactly when and where Rek predicted. The Vars took Buw, Hus, and even New Korsun, by 556. (The Qoktürüks and Vars had agreed to split the lands of the Taurigoths... the Qoktürüks were to receive the east and Crimea, so all captured Western cities fell into Var hands). But for seven years following, the Crimean peninsula and the coast around it would be untouched. Legends say that none of the forts were ever surmounted (in actuality, three were destroyed; nonetheless, the Taurigoths defended their lands effectively). In 563, peace was made. The Vars and Qoktürüks ended the war with two new empires--well, Qayanates. The Taurigoths were forced into the small, heavily defended area including Crimea and its immediate area. But the Taurigothic kingdom was still sovereign, independent, and paid no tribute. Its treasury was strained and almost emptied, but the Taurigoths would eventually regain and surpass their old empire in both power and prosperity.

For years, the Holy Roman Empire had been at peace. The polities within it, and even many of their people, prospered. Trade routes between states in the Empire and with foreign lands brought wealth to Britannia. A common faith, Britannic Christianity, bonded the people together. Road systems allowed easy transport within the Holy Roman Empire. But this couldn’t last forever. The leaders of the various states in the Holy Roman Empire hungered for war and their kingdoms were ripe with wealth and manpower with which to wage war. But this did not mean the Holy Roman Empire would break apart, nor that any of its states would engage into conflict with any other... for now, anyway. No, instead, they would use their alliance to full effect.

Bishop of Londinium, Britannic Pope, Leo V, and Regnant Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of Corinia, Genobephius II, in 554, told all the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire to donate troops for a Holy Cause. Leo V being the Pope, and Genobephius II being well-liked by the kings of the various states of the Holy Roman Empire (he was, after all, elected by them), all of the states’ rulers agreed and abided to the request, many sincerely, and the rest because they didn’t want to tarnish their reputation.

In 555, approximately 50,000 soldiers from various states of the Holy Roman Empire undertook a Sacrapede [3] into the pagan lands of the Picts and Goidels. The Picts and Goidels were fierce warriors, but they were in no way prepared for such a huge assault. The Holy Roman Emperor led about 20,000 troops up the west coast of Caledonia, the king of Ventiaddhen, Aeskric, led another 20,000 troops up the east coast of Caledonia, and 10,000 troops were transported by ship to conquer and assure control of the various islands of Caledonia. Over the following year, Holy Roman armies would often encounter a group of a few dozen Picts, the Picts would flee to the mountains, and return with a force of a few thousand. The Picts tended to be defeated, but that was primarily due to their numerical inferiority. Their fighting style, which Genobephius II said was “like that of a wild animal”, could have been able to trump the Holy Romans’ strategies, which were suited best to fighting other ‘civilized’ peoples, had the Picts and Goidels been more numerous.

In June 556, the Central Lowlands, all islands, and the entire coast had been conquered. The three armies then head inland to the mountain passes of Inner Caledonia to destroy any remaining resistance. The Picts seemed to have been defeated. In August 556, 39,000 Holy Roman troops passed through the central mountains of Caledonia, surrounded by three mountain passes. A wall of 9,000 troops came from each pass. A total of 27,000 Pict and Goidel troops ambushed the Sacrapeders. Despite their ambush, the Picts were defeated; however, massive casualties were inflicted. All of the Pict and Goidel troops were killed and so were all but 7,000 of the Holy Roman troops.

The Picts and Goidels surrendered in 557. Most surviving Picts and Goidels were enslaved, reinvigorating slavery throughout the Latin states in the Holy Roman Empire. Sizable southern territories of the Picts were annexed into Lugovallia and Votadini. The rest of Caledonia was organized into a united Kingdom of Caledonia led by Genobephius’s brother, Aimilio. The Kingdom’s official language was Britannic Latin, and its official religion was Britannic Christianity. Christians, Latin-speaking or not, were allowed to settle throughout Caledonia. The native customs and peoples of Caledonia were held in utter disregard and disrespect both by the settlers and by those who owned the Picts and Goidels as slaves.

The Hua led by Toramana continued to devastate the Yehudahid Rahbarate. Persepolis, Isfahan, Ekbatana, Susa, Babylon... the capital itself, Ctesiphon, fell to the Hua in 556. At this point, Toramana declared himself the Rahbar of a new, Toramanid Rahbarate. The Shapurids invaded the heretics at the last moment, too, seizing upper Mesopotamia. Placed in this new position of power, having completely usurped the Yehudahids, Toramana saw it fit to, in alliance with the Abdahurids, invade the the Shapurid Rahbarate, both for their heresy, and because he, as the rightful successor to the Yehudahids, was the rightful master of their land. And so in February 557, the Toramanid horde marched west.

During the invasion of the Yehudahid Rahbarate, a man named Sa’id Mohammed, formerly a Yehudahid general, defected to the Hua. During the latter part of the invasion of the Yehudahids, he distinguished himself as the Huas’ best general. He received the Qahremân [3].

He continued to distinguish himself as a general during the invasion of the Shapurid Rahbarate. Sa’id Mohammed was granted leadership of an army of 50,000 men, roughly half of them Huas, a third being Yehudahid defectors, and the rest being mercenaries or new recruits. He quickly subjugated Singara and Nisibis. To the north, Toramana’s army of 60,000 charged west starting in Artaxata. He was defeated slightly in Trapezus, and turned instead south, conquering Amida and Edessa, while another general, Mustafa Belut, held and defended Armenia. While Toramana and Mustafa prepared for an assault northwest, Sa’id Mohammed had subjugated Callinicum, Palmyra, Damascus, Khodasahr [5], and Petra.

The Abdahurids had, in the mean time, conquered Medina and Mecca. The Shapurid Rahbarate’s seemed like it would soon come to an end. Mustafa and Toramana sieged Trapezus and Antiochia respectively. The Abdahurids had liberated the Arab lands and defended their conquests. Sa’id Mohammed conquered Alexandria, Heliopolis, and advanced south up the Nile. Toramana was so pleased that he promised Sa’id an empire of his own in southern Anatolia.

While the Toramanids restored the great Rahbarate and the Taurigoths were ravaged by barbarians, more barbarians approached from the East...


[1] ‘Qayan’ is Old Türük for a ‘Khagan’, also called a ‘Qaghan’, a ‘Kagan’, or a ‘Kaan’.
[2] ‘Heilagkrig’ means ‘holy war’ in Old Taurigothic. 'Milkhemet Mitzvah' means ‘holy war’ as well, but in Hebrew, in addition to invoking a more defensive meaning than the word Heilagkrig.
[3] ‘Sacrapede’ comes from the Latin term, ‘Expeditio sacra’, for a holy expedition (a crusade). The Holy Roman Empire’s war against the Picts and Goidels was the first Sacrapede.
[4] ‘Qahremân’ is Persian for ‘war hero’ or ‘champion’. It was a military award given to distinguished generals of Zoharist states. During the time of Sa’id Mohammed, it was a golden helmet that looked similar to a Corinthian helmet. Typically Zoharist generals would, in battle, continue to wear the armor given to all generals, for the Qahremân helmet was uncomfortable for fighting in the desert, and its gold was not very protective and was easily damaged in the dusty weather.
[5] ‘Khodasahr’ is Jerusalem.

Map separately:

View attachment 116019

Should I write shorter updates?

ANNI TORAMANORUM

The Vars and Qoktürüks seemed nigh-unstoppable. But a new powerful horde emerged from the East--the Khazartürüks. In 560, 50,000 Bulgars [1], led by Abuğil Qayan, Qayan of the Khazartürüks, invaded the Qoktürük Qayanate. 25,000 Bulgars headed directly west, much like the Vars original path into the Taurigothic Empire, while 25,000 Bulgars swooped south. The Vars failed to assist the Qoktürüks in any way; the former alliance was not true of heart, but just out of convenience. This turned out to be a mistake. By April 563, the Qoktürük Qayanate was a small tributary state to the Khazartürüks. In addition, after recruiting defeated Qoktürüks, as well as garnering the support of the Taurigoths, who disliked Qoktürük rule to say the least, the Khazartürüks had amassed a horde of around 103,000, mostly Bulgars with some infantry.

Soon afterward, Abuğil commenced an invasion of the Var Qayanate. According to some sources, the very ground itself trembled when all 103,000 Khazartürüks charged into battle. City after city were ransacked. Buw, Hus, and New Korsun, stripped of their wealth by the Vars, were now completely destroyed. Less than two years later, in December 564, the Vars fell to the Khazartürüks like the Qoktürüks had before them. The great Qayanate of the Vars became a small tributary state centered on the ruins of New Korsun. To consolidate their rule over the new lands they had gained from their two former enemies, the Khazartürüks encouraged the immigration and settlement of the Utigur and Kutrigur peoples to the east and northeast, who were nearly identical, culturally and ethnically, to the Khazartürüks. The Vars and Qoktürüks were doomed, and all the Qayans’ horses and all the Qayans’ men could not put the two Hordes back together again.

Faramondus II was a largely peaceful ruler. His son was completely different. Just one day after he succeeded to the throne in 566, Faramondus III demanded that Fhreinca, Langobardia, Niedrhein, and Burgundia be integrated directly into the Alemannian Empire. According to some sources, they succumbed to the demand and their rulers were allowed to rule as Duçues [2] until their peaceful deaths. According to other sources, their rulers were assassinated and realms forcefully integrated. Regardless of whether the four kingdoms were converted to Duçuedoms or simply absorbed, after that occurred, Faramondus III began the conquest of Germania.

Frysklan was once again attacked by 95,000 Alemannians. Faramondus III called himself a messenger from God for spreading Catholic Christianity to Frysklan’s pagans and Arians. The Loot of Gimburh [4], ordered by Faramondus III himself, showed otherwise. Nearly all of the city’s residents were killed or enslaved, and everything of value was taken. The Vlevo See [5] is said to have become red with blood during the three-day massacre. Alemannian forces completed the conquest of Frysklan in March 567 with the capture of Dokkum.

Faramondus III’s army then advanced into Sachsonland. Like Frysklan, Sachsonland was simply too disorganized and small of a state to thwart the Alemannian attack. In October 567, only six months after the invasion began, Sachsonland ceased to exist. Alemannian troops were then stationed in new forts built across the conquered lands. Faramondus III noted that the Angelanders appeared to have seized the northeasternmost reaches of Sachson territory. He, surprisingly, pursued a peaceful trading relationship with them. Some historians have hypothesized various reasons for this. Most historians, however, agree that he simply either didn’t want the poor, barbarian lands of Ange-Land, or felt his massive empire was large enough as it was, and difficult to administrate. Until 573, revolts occurred often in former Frysklan and Sachsonland. They were all brutally put down with murder, enslavement, and torture. Revolts essentially ended after the largest of those revolts, the Ninuecivitas [6] Rebellion, failed miserably and ended in the enslavement of everyone in the city, unless they resisted, in which case they were killed, and the destruction of the city itself, which would not be rebuilt until about two decades later. However, even though the peasants of Germania were no longer a threat, the royal court had made quite a few enemies out Alemannia’s nobles.

Sa’id Mohammed and his army continued up the Nile River. Mustafa conquered Trapezus and Toramana conquered Antiochia. They then began an assault into Anatolia. Meanwhile in November 560, Sa’id Mohammed captured Syene, subjugating Egypt. The Toramanid fleet, composed mostly of captured and refitted vessels, or hastily-built galleys, transported Sa’id Mohammed and his army to Cyrenaica where Sa’id would then lay siege to Cyrene.

After a bit more than a year, Cyrene and the majority of Anatolia fell to the Toramanids. In December 561, Abd-Xanthipos II Shapurid ceded all Toramanid-occupied land. As promised, Sa’id Mohammed was granted his own realm to rule. After the war, however, Toramana declared himself The One Rahbar and demanded that other Zoharist states surrender that title. The Shapurid and Sa’id Mohammmedan Rahbarates became Vahshilates [7], while the Abdahurids and and Kardarids now ruled Malkadoms [8].

The Holy Roman Empire was still hungry for land and power after the conquest and subjugation of the Picts. Pagan Goidel tribes inhabited the land of Hibernia to the west. Leo V and the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Zynno of Votadini, elected in 561 after the death of Genobephius II, commenced another Sacrapede, this time against the Goidels. The Second Sacrapede, beginning in March 562, saw the revival of the Testudo formation by the Holy Romans, for the Goidels nearly always began battles with a massive rain of arrows that, according to the sources of the time, blackened the sky.

The war lasted for several years, and by March 568, Hibernia was brought fully under Holy Roman control. The Goidels suffered, but not nearly as badly as the Picts. During the war, captured Goidels were enslaved, but once the war was over, the Goidels were allowed to live without the fear of being enslaved. The Holy Romans did however enforce their way of life on the Goidels, religiously and otherwise, and to do this, they set up several colonies. The largest of these were Eblana Coloniae on the site of ruined Eblana [9], Colonia Fidei in the northeast, and Colonia Zynoae in the southwest. Some of the Goidels were already Christians; they called themselves Patrickites, and assimilated rather easily into Britannic Christianity and were given land in the Holy Roman colonies.

After the Toramanids established a Grand Rahbarate, Alemannia founded a great empire, and the Khazartürüks brought the other two Türükic Qayanates to their knees, Europe and the Mediterranean were brought into a short time of peace. However the land of Sērēs [10] was not at all in peace... not at all...


[1] Khazartürük horsemen were called ‘Bulgars’.
[2] ‘Duçue’ is Alemannian for ‘Duke’. Dukedom was initially non-hereditary. Note, however, that Alemannian was simply a variant of Latin at that time, and the term ‘Dux’ was used most often.
[3] ‘Duçuedom’ is Alemannian for ‘Dukedom’. Again, that term was used infrequently at that time.
[4] ‘Gymburg’ was the capital of Frysklan.
[5] ‘Vlevo See’ is the Frysk name for the Lacus Flevo (Zuiderzee).
[6] ‘Ninuecivitas’ is Latin and Alemannian for ‘Nymwegen’ (a formerly Frysk city).
[7] ‘Vahshil’ and ‘Vahshilate’ derive from Greek ‘basileus’.
[8] ‘Malka’ comes from Aramaic and means ‘king’.
[9] ‘Eblana’ is Latin for ‘Dublin’.
[10] ‘Sērēs’ is China.

Map will be in this post.

Also, the reason Ireland only has a tiny amount of Christians is because much of St. Patricks saintly deeds were butterflied away.

View attachment 117210

This isn’t an update.
This is for me, mostly; these are ATL names and words, or OTL ones that would be hard to re-find again, or fell out of use and are still used ITTL (that would also possibly be hard to re-find).

Place names:
Tiranamaxima: Capital of SPQR. NW of Toledo.
Composita Tella: Santiago de Compostela.
Roma Nova: Along the coast of Asturiae.
Iuliopolis: Former fort, now walled city, in southern Gallaecia.
Roman provinces in Iberia: Post #41.
Khodasahr: Also called Khodasahrestan. The city of Jerusalem.
Al-Maqdis: Huge kelisa in Khodasahr.
Isca Silurum: Isca Augusta.
Ardrecken: Arbeia.
Grand General Commander of the Faithful: Military title of Rahbars.
Lucky Arabia: Yemen and southern west-coast of the Arabian peninsula.
Gibidoijaz: Former Gepid capital, formerly called Gibidaz.
Parici, Lutetia, Lutetia Parisorium, and Parisorium: Four names for the same city.
Remorica: The Breizh peninsula plus a bit of Normandy.
Fhreinca: Most of the Breizh peninsula.
New Korsun: Noviodunum.
Buw: A city on the Southern Bug.
Hus: A city on the Dneiper/Nistru. Upriver, but not near Gibidoijaz.
Graecia Parva: Roman name for old Rome. Means ‘Little Greece’.
Nuubi-Sahr: City in Maqedunya with a primarily Nuubi population.
Kindasahr: City founded by the Yehudahids after the Zoharist conquest of Arabia. Lies on the lands of the former Badawi tribe of the Kindah.
Gymburg: Former capital of Frysklan.
Vlevo See: Zuiderzee/Lacus Flevo
Ninuecivitas: Alemannian name for the Frysk city of Nymwegen.
Sērēs: China
Eblana Coloniae: Holy Roman city. Built on the ruins of Eblana (Dublin).
Colonia Fidei: Holy Roman city in northeast Hibernia.
Colonia Zynoae: Holy Roman city in southwest Hibernia.
Dokkum: Frysk city.

Terms:
Târikh: Zoharist holy book...just to remember that the a has the little arrow above it.
Kelisa: A mosque in Zoharism.
Emperor-Consul: Also called the Flavitirani (singular Flavitiranus), these two people were the two most powerful elected officials in the SPQR.
Maqedunya: Zoharist name for the Zoharist-influenced areas in Europe. Completely separate from Makedonzja.
Kehsi: Religious and communal leader in Zoharism. Think ‘imam’.
Yehud Zoharism: Eastern Zoharism.
Qanun Zoharism: Western Zoharism. Sometimes called themselves Shapurs or Dins. Yehuds called them Kafars.
Slakhaliva: Zoharist slave-soldier. Means Slav, but most were Greeks or Copts.
Nuubi: An ethnic group. Descendants of the Makurian and Aksumite mercenaries who settled in Nuubi-Sahr and their intermingling with the local population.
Britannic Christianity: Led by a Papa/Pope who is the Bishop of Londinium. Practiced in the Holy Roman Empire.
Catholic Christianity: Led by a Papa/Pope who is the Bishop of Rome. Practiced throughout the Western Mediterranean and Europe.
Nomitrope Christianity: Also known as Nomitropo Christianity. Led by a Pater who is the Bishop of Constantinopolis (which is actually named Xorapolis and Shahrestan). Practiced throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and coexists with Zoharism. Calls itself the Nomitrope Catholic church.
Badw: Plural of Badawi, or Bedouin.
Vahshil: Leader of a Vahshilate.
Malka: Leader of a Malkadom.
Rahbar: Leader of a Rahbarate.
Mohammedan: Subject of the Mohammedan Vahshilate.
Qayan: Leader of a Qayanate.
Qahremân: Persian for ‘war hero’ or ‘champion’. It was a military award given to distinguished generals of Zoharist states. For most of the time it was granted, it was a golden helmet that looked similar to a Corinthian helmet.
Heilagkrig: Old Taurigothic for ‘holy war’. Its Hebrew form is Milkhemet Mitzvah.
Sacrapede: A crusade.
Bulgars: Khazartürük horsemen.
Duçue: Duke.
Patrickites: Small group of Goidel Christians that assimilated into Britannic Christianity.
Utigurs: Peoples related to the Khazartürüks.
Kutrigurs: Peoples related to the Khazartürüks.

Eras:
Classical Antiquity: Everything before February 3rd, 530.
The Mediatempene Period: From February 3rd, 530 to <undefined>

Widespread, personal names, some alternate, some not. Some surnames and Arab-name-parts:
Antoniuso: A North Italian name.
Kunedzi: A Slavic name.
Rozedazi: A Slavic name.
Vlucezi: A Slavic name.
Ruczeu: A Slavic name.
Vluku: A Slavic name.
Judocus: A Biohaemian name.
Azipar: A Langobard name.
Cryten: A Votadini name.
Gorteim: A Pict name.
Aganaric: A Taurigoth name.
Velusius: An Italiaion name.
Lusitanius: A Roman name.
Flavius ... Tiranus: New names that Emperor-Consuls/Flavitirani recieve.
Boikoz: A Slavic name.
Khodadad: A Persian name.
Zarin: A Zoharist name most common in Persia.
Faramondus: An Alemannian name.
Archeos: An Italaion name.
Xanthipos: A Greek-Zoharist name and Italaion name.
Akariyar: A Hunnic name.
Ayarizich: A Biohaemian name.
Toramana: A Toramanid name.
Parekhlal: An Ahirstani name.
Sa’id: An Arab name, but used mostly by Mohammedans.
Mohammed: An Arab name, but used mostly by Mohammedans. Can be a surname.
Yehudah: Jewish and Persian surname.
Abas-Mashid: Possible component of an Arab name.
Shapur: A Zoharist surname.
-varman: Suffix for Varman kings.
Abd-: In Arab surnames, a prefix meaning ‘servant of’. In Persian names, just a meaningless personal name.
Abdahura: An Arab name. Means ‘servant of Ahura’.
Kardar: Zoharist surname.
Mustafa: An Arab name.
Genobephius: A name used in the Holy Roman Empire.
Leo: A name used in the SPQR, Holy Roman Empire, and Alemannia. Especially prominent among Britannic Popes.
Rek: A Taurigothic name.
Aimilio: A Holy Roman name.
Belut: An Arab name.
Estemi: A Türükic name.
Mergül: A Türükic name.
Abuğil: A Türükic name.
Zynno: A Holy Roman name.

Misc:
Khodi the Elephant: Character in Hunnic folklore.
SPQR system of government: Senators, generals, governors elect the Flavitirani. Senators are elected by the people, governors are elected by people of the provinces but the candidates are Senate-picked, and generals are appointed by their superiors. There are two types of legislative assembly, committees by any Roman citizens, councils by certain classes.
Arabian Zoharism: De jure Yehud, but worship of and belief in the old gods persists.

FALL OF XIONG

Ever since the establishment of the Xiong Dynasty (熊朝) on the ruins of the collapsed Jin Dynasty (晉朝) in 422, it had absolutely dominated Sērēs. Ruled from the capital of Dongbeiziben (東北資本) [1], the Xiong Dynasty of Sērēs prospered. It commanded armies of hundreds of thousands of troops each due to its large population base. It possessed a vast interconnected trade network in addition to the lucrative trade with the west along the Silk Road. Not only was the nation powerful militarily, and prospering financially, but art and culture, too, thrived. The Xiong Dynasty was considered one of the high points of Seresian history, a parallel or successor to the Han dynasty many centuries before it, and the lands of Sērēs flourished for more than a century.

However, the Xiong Dynasty faced difficulties, though at first it was able to overcome these. From the 530s to the 550s, they were continuously attacked by Türükic hordes and related peoples, such as the Rourans, Eastern Qokürüks, Eastern Khazartürüks, and others. But the powerful central government and army of the Xiong Dynasty was able to fight them back. From the late 540s to the end of 568, the Xiong Dynasty even faced revolts from within Sērēs, of which certain rebellious generals were responsible. The Xiong were able to defeat these rebellions too. From December 568 to November 570, there was even a period called the Two Years’ Peace.

The Xiongs seemed insurmountable. But it was not so, as the Xiong had been gradually weakened by the difficulties faced previously, and the Two Years’ Peace was not enough time to fully recover. The Türükic tribes of the Qidan and Kyrghiz began a massive assault southward beginning late December 570. In January 571, the first battle of the war occurred, the Battle of Huaishibai (壞失敗), which was named not after any settlement, but out of the result of the battle. Huaishibai means ‘Bad Defeat’. Steppe cavalry devastated Seresian empires before the Xiong, and they again devastated the late Xiong. The Qayan of the Qidan, who is only known by the Seresians’ name for him, Burendao (不人道), meaning ‘inhuman’, reportedly said to the Xiong’s main general during the Battle of Huaishibai, Chen Peng (陳鵬), “You were lucky years prior. Now I am the Qayan, and we are the victors,” however, some say this is embellishment made several hundred years later by the Seresian historian Li Li (李李).

Challenges the Xiong could face previously would proceed to overcome them over the next decade. Several decades before, rebellious generals took advantage of the invasion of Türükic hordes General Kong Wei (孔偉) of the city Jiangling and General Fang Tao (方濤) of the city Nanhai declared the Kong and Fang dynasties respectively in central and southern Sērēs. Subsequently, 60,000 troops led by the Emperor, known as Xiong Chen Hao (熊陳浩), headed south to fight these rebels, attempting escape the terrible fate they would face if they fought the Wan Yeman Ren (萬野蠻人), or Million Barbarians (actually, there were only 150,000; of course, this was still a monstrous number). Xiong Chen Hao put the generals he disliked the most, Wu Zhuang (吳壯), Yang Ming (楊明), and Wang Dong (王東), in charge of fighting the northern invaders, while he fought Kong Wei and Fang Tao.

This turned out to be a quite disastrous measure. Not only did he dislike the three generals primarily because of their very incompetence as generals, but Emperor Xiong Chen Hao himself was a mediocre commander, to say the least. His collaborator, General Chen Peng, the best Xiong general, was shot in the heart with an arrow during the Battle of Wuchang, the first battle against the Kong, leaving the 60,000 troops under the command of Xiong Chen Hao and a general he picked from his troops, who was known as Lu (驢), which means ‘donkey’ in Seresian.

In July 579, the Qidan and Kyrghiz began to siege the capital Dongbeiziben. The Xiong Dynasty was crumbling...


[1] Dongbeiziben (東北資本) means ‘Northeast Capital’ in the Seresian languages. Dongbeiziben is located on the eastern coast of Sērēs, northeast of Jianye

MAPPITY MAPPITY MAP... mappa mapa map.

View attachment 117209

PAX

A period of peace in the Ocsidence [1], political at least, lasted from 569 to 581, the longest such period in the Early, or ‘Dark’, Mediatempene Period. This was a time of cultural development, peaceful political consolidation, and stabilization.

During this time of peace, the SPQR was blessed with the Three Excellent Flavitirani. Ironically, this occurred, at least initially, due to corruption. In the SPQR, two Flavitirani were supposed to serve a simultaneous one-year term. Tatianus Blandinus and Fabius Cyprianus, were elected in 570 and won due a combination of bribery and deceit. They were elected again and again, due to their excellence as leaders rather than due to bribery, until 576, when Flavius Fabius Cyprianus Tiranus died for unknown reasons. Flavius Tatianus Blandinus and colleague Drusius Fulvius were Flavitirani every year until the end of 580.

Flavius Tatianus Blandinus Tiranus and Flavius Fabius Cyprianus Tiranus made many reforms. The ‘Blandini’ and ‘Cypri’, as they were called, were several scores of new roads and new forts respectively, which were open to non-military use. At the same time, the old roads were also opened to non-military use, though if came a time of military emergency, civilians would have to leave the path clear for the troops. The cursus publicus [2] was also quite improved. Along the roads of the SPQR, roughly every 30 to 100 milipasi [3], existed a postal outpost with horses, mail, a small garrison (certainly less than a legion), and usually a rider. Riders, either on a single horse, or on a chariot carrying an extensive amount of mail, would travel station to station. Diplomats and transport-for-the-rich also followed the roads. After establishing many roads and forts and vastly improving the cursus publicus, the two Flavitirani commissioned the creation of highly accurate maps of trade routes and all roads, outposts, forts, and settlements, for the use of merchants, traders, generals, and others, with the help of some of the best Roman surveyors and cartographers.

The reign of Flavius Drusius Fulvius along with Flavius Tatianus Blandinus Tiranus, which occurred after the death of Fabius, continued the reforms. In addition, new reforms and constructions were made. The Drusian wall, which was not really a wall at all, just a series of forts, intended to halt a small invasion or severely forestall a large one, was installed in the Pyrenees. This sprawl of forts through the mountain passes supplemented a sizable amount of forts that were already there, most built by Maximus Tiranus himself. The Pyrenees were now Europe’s most defensible stronghold. The Drusian wall was not the only new reform or construction, however. In addition to the construction of yet another aqueduct for Tiranamaxima and two for Olissipo, four fortified outposts were established along the mainland African coast, and two on the Fortunatae Insulae [4], an archipelago that had been discovered by Greeks and Carthaginians, but left nearly untouched since then, at the recommendation of Drusius Fulvius’ close friend, the Latin-Punic merchant Aemilius Marinus. Natives were discovered on the islands, but they welcomed the settlements. Lastly, Drusius and Tatianus reorganized the provinces of the SPQR.

The Three Excellent Flavitirani spent much of the SPQR’s treasury, but these massive projects fueled Roman development and expansion for centuries to come.

Sa’id Mohammed, Grand General Commander of the Faithful, Vahshil of the Vahshilate named after himself, turned out to be a ruler who was simultaneously cruel, somewhat lawful, and somewhat merciful. He placed his sons, except Sa’id Mohammed II [5], who was to remain within the royal district of the capital city Adaleia [6], in command of some of the provinces of his Vahshilate. He had given them great power but warned them that, despite them being his sons, he would go to extreme measures if he discovered any misconduct. His son Fereydoun Navid ibn-Sa’id’Mohammed was caught embezzling tax funds, and as a result, Sa’id Mohammed ordered him be hanged. However, Sa’id Mohammed also showed mercy--after a fair deal of oppression first. The Christians of his lands, when they were ruled by the Shapurids, were treated well, with the only restrictions they really faced were the non-Zoharist tax, and, if they were criminals, they risked having their children captured and raised as Slakhalivas--but only if they were criminals. The Shapurids also supported the Pater and the Nomitrope Church--financially, even. When Sa’id Mohammed was granted the Anatolian lands the Toramanids captured from the Shapurids, he doubled the non-Zoharist tax, and made it common, and legal, for Christian children to be randomly captured and raised as Slakhalivas. In 578, at the sincere begging of almost the entire Christian population of Adaleia, he relented--though it may have simply been because there were, by then, 65,000 Slakhalivas in the army or training--and he stopped the Slakhaliva system entirely and decreased the non-Zoharist tax to 2 kespā [7] per year.

In the north Italian states, a new culture evolved. An early dominal [8] society developed, beginning during the Roman days, but most historians say that 573, the year that the usurper-King of Etruria established the Council of Duçues, a council composed of Etruria’s most powerful Duçues, who would elect the next King, was the true beginning of northern Italia’s dominal era. The King was lord of the Duçues, the Duçues were lords of the Comits [9], and the Comits were lords of the Tuctores [10]. Slaves slowly fell out of use. Replacing them were the clones [11], farmers who were, by law, bound to their Tuctory, or perhaps an even smaller area of land, designated by their Tuctor. In 576, the King of Ravenia proposed the creation of a Hermund [12] Roman League. This idea was quite liked by the kings of the other north Italian states, except Alpicia, but when the King of Ravenia died in November 577, the idea was discarded.

The period of peace ended in 581. Afterward, the face of Europe would change entirely...and, in the East, the Xiongs would draw their final breath.

[1] The Ocsidence is the western portion of the Old World; essentially, it is everything west of Persia and east of the New World. Often, however, Africa south of the Sahara is excluded.
[2] The cursus publicus, meaning ‘public course’ or ‘public road’, was the Roman postal and transportation system.
[3] A milipasus (from the older Latin term ‘mille passuum’) is a thousand paces, or 1481 meters (1620 yards).
[4] The Fortunatae Insulae are the Canarias Islands.
[5] The real/full name of Sa’id Mohammed II was Salah’Adel ibn-Sa'id’Mohammed; however because he was heir apparent, he is called Sa’id Mohammed II.
[6] Adaleia is Attaleia/Antalya.
[7] A kespā was the currency of many Zoharist states. It derives from the Aramaic word for ‘money’.
[8] Dominal derives from Latin ‘dominus’ meaning ‘lord’ or ‘master’. Dominal society was based on one’s vassalage to their lord.
[9] A Comit, from Latin ‘comes’ and its many conjugations which begin with ‘comit-’, was just under a Duçue in a dominal society.
[10] A Tuctor, from Latin ‘ductor’ was just under a Comit in a dominal society.
[11] From Latin ‘colonus’ and the plural form ‘coloni’, a ‘clone’ was a farmer tied to the land.
[12] All the north Italian states, not just Hermundia, were culturally, ethnically, and linguistically Hermund--a Latin derived group with sizable Germanic influences.

Mappitymap. Barely any changes.

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Last edited by a moderator:
Here's the rest of it.

Please note: the last update skipped many centuries.

IMPERIUM RESTITUO

Because the Etrurian king was elected by the Council of Duçues, he generally fulfilled the Duçues’ interests. At this time in particular, all of the Duçuedoms of Etruria were at peace with each other, and all traded with each other. Yet, they wanted to expand. This could be done by conquering neighboring Duçuedoms in other Kingdoms, of course. And with no one really willing to put the Hermund Roman League to the test with its proponent gone, Ravenia was a perfect, weak target. In June 585, King Antoniuso Beloso invaded Ravenia.

The Italaions struck a territorial deal with Antoniuso and declared war with Ravenia, promising that they would assist an Etrurian invasion of Hermundia if they received most of Ravenia. 35,000 Italaion troops led by General Xanthipos Archeos and 26,000 Etrurian troops led by their king Antoniuso entered Ravenia. Ravenia fell within six months, actually an amazing feat and one of the most legendary defenses in history, considering they only possessed 11,000 troops when the war began. Though Ravenia was crushed, their king, Georgio, as well as 5,000 elite troops, managed to escape to Hermundia--of course they didn’t expect that Hermundia would be attacked merely one month after the Etrurian-Italaion victory. Hermundia fell after a year and by February 587, Etruria dominated Northern Italy. The idea of a Hermund Roman League was dead, but it was then unnecessary.

Faramondus III was a very old and sickly man in 582. The succession was not determined; his twin sons, Lucio and Marcianuso, both claimed to be the rightful heir. Faramondus III, as a result, decided to preserve his legacy... by splitting it apart on the logic that two smaller kingdoms were more manageable than one. Marcianuso was to inherit a new Kingdom of Langubardia, composed of most of the more newly-conquered lands, while Lucio was to inherit the rest of the Kingdom of Alemannia.

Faramondus III died on January 4th, 583, and the two new kingdoms came into existence. And with the Alemannian Empire split, the resulting realms were more stable...but less powerful. And so the Kingdom of Alemannia was a perfect target for Roman expansionism. The Flavitirani, Julius Aegaeus and Arius Aurelius, declared war in November 586. Italia refused to help for one reason or another, whether it was merely because the ruler of Italia felt as if disobedience would make his realm seem more independent, or simply because they were embroiled in war with Hermundia. Regardless, Italia would pay for this later.

The Pyrenees were a nearly invincible wall, the SPQR was very stable, and Alemannia was weak. There was nothing to lose--well, for the Romans at least. An army of seven legions travelled from Asturiae into Aquitania, and another army of eight legions from Pyrenaei into Septimania. 40,000 Alemannian troops faced each army. As Julius Aegaeus said after the war, they “faced the might that is Rome”. Mightily indeed, and bloodily too. In addition, a Langubardian army of 55,000 attacked from the north under the command of King Marcianuso. By November 588, half of Alemannia was occupied by Roman or Langubardian forces.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Fortunatae Insulae were colonized by the Romans. Some natives offered to help build, and then join, the new settlements, as these strange new people were considered to be sent from the gods. Roman writer Johanis noted that their language had quite a few similarities with Punic.

Sa’id Mohammed died in 582. Salah’Adel ibn-Sa'id’Mohammed, or Sa’id Mohammed II, succeeded to the throne after him. He would be one of the Sa’id Mohammedan Vahshilates best Vahshils, with only the mysterious figure Kyrios [1] Konstantinos Xioktos surpassing him--but many, many years later. Sa’id Mohammed II was determined to make his title, Vahshil, equivalent to what it was derived from--Basileus. And so he invaded the Shapurid Vahshilate in January 583 in hopes of creating a holy and Qanun Zoharist, though tolerant, Roman Vahshilate.

Sa’id Mohammed II recruited his brothers, all of them governors, as generals. Interprovincial meddlings could wait--it was time to serve the Vahshilate! Arastu bin-Sa’id’Mohammed, Bahram abd-Ahura, Ali’ahmad Sa’id, and Adam’hadi ibn-Sa’id’Mohammed recruited around 24,000 men each from their provinces for their personal armies, and Sa’id Mohammed II recruited 30,000 from the entire Vahshilate to form an elite army. The great Greek Zoharist admiral, Vangelis Nikolas Nikodemos, was also appointed and was given control of about 36 medium-sized ships. Lastly, Sa’id Mohammed II bargained with the Toramanid Rahbarate and was granted an army of 50,000 expeditionaries in exchange for a medium-sized payment and the return of said troops after the war. The son of the Qahremân deserved it.

The Mohammedans planned to surround the capital and meanwhile develop naval supremacy by capturing Shapurid ships and constructing new ones. In retrospect, without the assistance of Vangelis Nikodemos, the Mohammedan invasion would have been a catastrophic failure. Vangelis captured ship after ship, and with reinforcements his fleet grew from about 36 ships to about 136. While Vangelis set about subjugating all the Aegean islands, Arastu and Bahram charged north and northeast respectively, Ali’ahmad and Adam’hadi charged west and north respectively, and, finally, Sa’id Mohammed II himself charged northwest and then northeast, to surround Xorapolis. By August 588, the Shapurid Vahshilate was split in two, with one chunk of land around the capital, and another isolated piece composed of most of Maqedunya. The Shapurid Vahshilate was coming to an end.

The land of Sērēs continued to sizzle in the chaos of war, and the Xiong Dynasty took its final breath. General Lu became known as Feng Lu (瘋驢), meaning ‘crazy donkey’. General Lu’s skills were unprecedented; Feng Lu was one of the best generals the world had ever seen. Sadly, every single other Xiong general was utterly incompetent, and the Dynasty was crumbling, anyway. The Kong and Fang dynasties gradually took over the corpse of the Xiong Dynasty.

In January 584, the siege of Dongbeiziben by the Qidan and Kyrghiz succeeded. Emperor Xiong Chen Hao, General Wu Zhuang, General Yang Ming, and General Wang Dong were captured by the Wan Yeman Ren [2]. The Emperor was forced to abdicate, and then all of them were executed after at least three full days of morbid torture. Meanwhile, much land simply fell into Kong and Fang hands. A year later, General Lu was the only Xiong general left and was forced north by the Fang and Kong armies. In January 585, Burendao, Qayan of the Qidan and Kyrghiz, told General Lu, “You [the Xiong Dynasty] were never lucky years prior. I am the Qayan. I have always been the Qayan. We are the victors.” General Lu was then stabbed to death. Sērēs was now split into the Qayan and Kirghiz Horde, the Kong Dynasty, and the Fang Dynasty. The Xiong Dynasty ceased to exist.

While the SPQR expanded into fractured Alemannia, Etruria became hegemon of Northern Italy, Sa’id Mohammed II began to reforge the Roman East, and the Xiong Dynasty finally died, the Taurikegutans [3] planned to restore the formerly vast empire of Taurikegutland [4], and the SPQR prepared to punish the Italaions for their betrayal.


[1] Kyrios in Greek is essentially the equivalent to ‘Mister’.
[2] Wan Yeman Ren, or Million Barbarians, would remain a common Seresian term for steppe invaders, sometimes even for Yamatese pirates, after the fall of Xiong.
[3] Taurikegutan is Taurigothic for ‘Taurigoth’.
[4] Taurikegutland is Taurigothic for ‘Taurigothia’.


NEA ROMI

While Türükic barbarians squabbled and skirmished over lands they had conquered, the stable lands of the Taurikegutans were in peace. King Sengen prepared for an epic reconquest of former possessions of Taurikegutland. He commissioned the construction of a massive navy, prepared the assembly of a massive army (which nearly exhausted the manpower of Taurikegutland), and in February 589, during a rebellion of the Taurikegutan (and some Alan) native population against the Khazartürüks, 40,000 troops charged north, 20,000 charged east, and 20,000 landed in Var territory as part of a massive naval invasion.

King Sengen led the northern army, General Valamers commanded the charge east, and Admiral Noe and General Demetrios gave their leadership, judgement, and military prowess to the invasion of the Var territory by sea. The Taurikegutans dominated all three Qayanates. The Khazartürüks and their puppet-tribes had fielded an army of 92,000, but most of this was consumed fighting the massive revolts by the non-Türükic population. Only about 47,000 of the Khazartürükic troops ever saw battle with the 80,000 Taurikegutan troops. By 591, the Vars and Qoktürüks were dissolved and integrated into Taurikegutland. By 595, the Khazartürüks only held inland territories. The cities of Buw, Hus, and New Korsun were founded on their ruins. For Taurikegutland, all was good. It seemed Judaism and Taurikegutic would soon reign supreme once again.

The SPQR and Langubardia had completely devoured Alemannia by January 590. “It is time to enact revenge on those who deserve it,” said Arius Aurelius in December 590. He planned to reconquer all of Italy, and the Empire-Consulate was fully able to do so. His “grand little experiment” as he called it was to invade Etruria first; “If Italia comes to Etruria’s aid, they’re undoubtedly traitors,” he declared in jest to the Senate. On January 1st, 591, without a declaration of war, seven legions charged east into Etruria while eight were stationed idle in Sicily. The Italaions came to the aid of Etruria as Arius Aurelius and co-Flavitiranus Julius Aegaeus simultaneously feared and hoped.

The Alps were crossed with relative ease by the Romans. Some small villages fell to the SPQR. In early February, the first actual battle of the war took place, outside the walls of Augutaurino [1]. 5,000 Etrurian troops were all killed in the battle. Afterward the town surrendered without a siege. The Battle of Augutaurino had a significant effect on Etrurian morale throughout the rest of the war, even though it barely compared to the size of some of the later battles in the war.

The Romans proceeded through Italia and Etruria with relative ease. In November 591, three legions invaded Ilva [2], conquering it in a few days. Ilva was then used as a base for a naval invasion of southern Etruria. Etruria could not withstand the two-pronged attack and Romans advanced into their lands. By 595, most of the population centers of Etruria were occupied by the SPQR. Italia, too, was not in good shape. The entirety of southern Italia was conquered. The Roman homeland was not as Roman as it once was, but, nonetheless, it would fall under Roman control.

The Hunnia Attilariquian [3] took advantage of the Roman invasion of Etruria and Italia. In 594, the city of Ravenna and the city of Ancona were each sieged by the Hunnian military, which attacked each city with about 20,000 soldiers and 40 ships each. By 595, the siege of the two cities was complete. The Huns did not do this for land gain, for conquest. No, Azigenariyar II commenced the invasion for loot and plunder. And much loot and plunder came out of Ancona and Ravenna. Almost the entire surviving populations of the two cities except for a few dozen of each city’s denizens were enslaved and sold across Hunnia and the Mediterranean, especially Crete, and all useful materials and any treasure were stolen. The dying husks of Ancona and Ravenna were renamed, respectively, Attilaeum and Fideraeriyar. In fear, the survivors succumbed to the Huns’ whims, including calling said settlements by their new names among other things, but Azigenariyar II did not expect to keep this new territory. The survivors in Attilaeum were treated significantly better than those of Fideraeriyar.

Sa’id Mohammed II, Vangelis, Arastu, Bahram, Ali’ahmad, and Adam’hadi continued their invasion of the Shapurid Vahshilate. Arastu and Bahram charged toward the capital from the east, Sa’id Mohammed II charged toward the capital from the west, and Ali’ahmad and Adam’hadi would focus on subjugating the rest of Maqedunya. Meanwhile, Vangelis blockaded the Bosporus.

By January 593, only Xorapolis remained in Shapurid hands. Sa’id Mohammed II said after the war, “I had no fear within me. I was confident that I would forge the empire I had always dreamed of forging. Each time I fired an arrow into the heart of a Shapurid, I was not filled with sorrow, I was not filled with guilt. I was joyous.” Many historians believe he suffered from megalomania. 115,000 soldiers surrounded Xorapolis, merely waiting. The straits were blockaded and the Mohammedans waited for the city to starve.

On June 25th, 593, the Shapurids lowered their flags and replaced them with white banners. The gates opened and Shapurid Vahshil, Abas-Zeno Shapur, stood in its archway. “I have tasted the sting of defeat. If you spare my life, Xorapolis is yours,” said Abas-Zeno Shapur. His life was spared, and Sa’id Mohammed II become the Vahshil of a rightful successor to the Eastern Roman Empire. In his admiration for everything Roman (Greek), he declared that he should then be called Salathelos ivon-Mouxamantos, the Greek version of his full name. Xorapolis became the capital and was renamed Nea Romi, Greek for ‘New Rome’. Salathelos declared himself, in addition to Vahshil, the Kaisaros [4].

The turmoil in Anatolia allowed the Slavic states in Greece to wage military campaigns that would have been risky had a large united empire been to their east. King Zpartak of Makedonzja and King Vladezmykuskyi of Akaja, Vladezmy for short, forged a secret alliance in late 590. They prepared for war and in March 591, they invaded Atinija. In one of the worst backfires in military history, the Atinijans absolutely crushed the Akajan or Makedonzjan armies, despite being outnumbered two-to-one at the very least. Historians are mostly unsure why the Atinijans managed to do this. The most common explanation is that the military prowess of Atinija’s king, Alezandrak, as a general, helped Atinija immensely. Accounts of the time corroborate this. Regardless of why, Atinija managed to conquer most of Makedonzja and Akaja and puppetize rump states that remained.

The Qidan and Kyrghiz were mostly united due to the fact that they had a common enemy--the Xiong. Once the Xiong Dynasty had disintegrated, instability and inner conflict raged within the Horde. In December 593, the Qayan of the Qidan, Dashi-Lug, declared that the Kyrghiz should be banished from his lands. Qayan of the Kyrghiz, Jyrghal, responded with all-out war. Every male Qidan and every male Kyrghiz was asked to serve their people. Two years and 84,000 deaths later, the Qidan mostly forced out the Kyrghiz, and the Kyrghiz began to migrate west in search of a new land.

The Romans would continued to conquer Italia and Etruria, and the Kyrghiz would continue west, coming in contact with new peoples...


[1] Augutaurino is the Hermund name for a town in northern Italy which was known to the Romans as Augusta Taurinorum.
[2] Ilva is also known as Aethalia, Elba, or Elvala.
[3] ‘Hunnia Attilariquian’ is Hunnic and means, roughly, ‘Attila-led kingdom of the Huns’. Ever since the breakup of the Hunnic Empire, the Huns’ remaining lands gradually evolved. Multiethnic influences had existed from before the fall. ‘Hun’ is a vague term. Huns could be Türükic, Germanic, and sometimes Slavic, Latin, or even Greek or Alan. After the fall, the Huns’ remaining territories consisted of a Türükic and Germanic aristocracy, an army composed of Türükic, Germanic, and Slavic soldiers, and a largely Latin and Germanic population. After more than a century of intermingling and interassimilation, the Huns were a new group developed from old cultures. This was reflected in their language. ‘Hunnia’ derives from the Latin term for the Hunnic lands. ‘Attila’ was the official title of the Hunnic king, derived from the name of the man who forged most of the Hunnic empire. ‘Riquian’ derives from Old Germanic ‘rikjan’, for ‘rich’ or ‘kingdom’.
[4] Kaisaros is Greek for ‘Caesar’.

Rejoice; thy map hath arrived.

View attachment 119367

KIRGIZIA CADIT

The Romans continued to ‘impose their glory’ upon Italy, in Etruria and Italia. Etruria essentially fell in July 596, and any Etrurian hope for resistance was crushed January the following year. Graecia Parva (Rome) was sieged starting November 596. The siege lasted for almost exactly one year and Rome fell in November 597. Meanwhile the rest of Italia was subjugated. By the end of December, Italia ceased to exist.

The Romans would not stop until they were in possession of all of Italy, however. The Huns were easily convinced to give up Attilaeum and Fideraeriyar (which were still refered to as Ancona and Ravenna by Romans, though the cities’ inhabitants called them by the new names), for they had taken all that was useful out of the cities. Then, the Romans assaulted Patava. Two months and they were destroyed; by March 1st, 598, all of Italy was owned by the SPQR.

In addition to making the newly conquered regions into territories, the Romans built yet more forts and villages on the coast of Africa, which became the province of Fortunatae Insulae et Africa Extra [1]. Roman territories were treated much differently than provinces. To put it briefly, all of the provinces were powerful entities in the Empire-Consulate and influenced the entire rest of the Empire-Consulate politically and otherwise, while the territories existed for the purpose of exploitation.

These were colonies, but not colonies like the Romans had known them. They were not for the purpose of assimilation, and they were not to be directly integrated into the SPQR unless the citizens of those territories chose to do so by their own free will. Romans did not move there to find a better life in a new, though culturally familiar, land, or move there after being granted land to reward their military service, as they did in the earlier days. They migrated there temporarily and made themselves lords of the teritores [2] be it politically as a territorial administrator, militarily as a general and commander of territorial troops, or financially as a merchant travelling the land.

However, even though the territories were not as influential and ‘important’ as the provinces, and the teritores were ruled by provincials, the teritores were not too much more rebellious than they were before the Roman conquest, and were not unreasonably dissatisfied. If one asked a Early Mediatempene teritore, their biggest complaint with the Romans would be the slightly-higher taxes--though that was, perhaps, compensated for by the fact that goods became cheaper, more numerous, and of higher quality, due to trade with the rest of the Empire-Consulate. Lastly, teritores who could manage to move to the provinces would receive all the rights of ‘true Romans’.

The Kyrghiz had heard stories that to the southwest, across the vast desert, existed a massive, rich empire, with cities made of gold that lay in between mountains. This seemed to good to not be true, and Jyrghal, Qayan of the Kyrghiz, commanded his people to cross the Garagum desert. And so they did. They encountered some bands of sizable, but never too large, Toramanid armies. After their trek across the desert and numerous small battles, the Kyrghiz, then numbered at about 89,000, found themselves in the first major battle of the war in January 600. 70,000 Toramanid troops defended Herat. After fourteen weeks of fighting, the Kyrghiz under Jyrghal emerged victorious. Herat was looted and many of its inhabitants enslaved. Most of the surviving Toramanids joined the Kyrghiz army. After the battle, 40,000 Kyrghiz troops headed southwest and 34,000 headed southeast. By November 601, much of Persia proper belonged to the Kyrghiz.

The Salathelans, after hearing of Jyrghal’s success, betrayed their ally, for the Toramanids were no longer useful to ‘Salathelan interests’, as Salathelos [3] had put it. 26,000 troops sieged Trapezus and 38,000 sieged Antiochia. The sieges lasted for about a year each, the former being complete in January 601 and the latter in February that same year. The two main Salathelan armies headed east and south and Mesopotamia would, soon afterward, feel the wrath of the Salathelan Vahshilate. Makuria, too, used this chain of events to their advantage. 40,000 Maakkors [4] attacked Syene. King Zakkar, ‘Disciple of Christ in War and Peace’, led the Makurian forces to victory.

The tens of thousands of Taurikegutan troops advanced further and further into Khazartürük territory. By the beginning of 600, the army led by King Sengen, General Valamers, and General Demetrios had managed to subjugate all of the former lands of the Taurikegutans, and then some. The Khazartürüks were no more--well, they were no longer independent. Türükic influences would remain for years to come. But for now, Judaism and the culture of the Taurikegutans would prevail. In addition, the treasure and bounty, which the Taurikegutans had used to pay off the earlier Türükic tribes, was now mostly back in their hands, for the Khazartürüks had used the treasure amongst themselves and their own markets and traded little with other peoples, and the money stayed in their lands. King Sengen declared himself Emperor of Taurikegutan Empire, and Taurikegutland was more powerful than ever, and quite prosperous.

The face of the Ocsidense had changed entirely. But the Toramanids continued to break apart, a people who called themselves ‘Magyars’ begin to travel west as they were displaced by the Kyrghiz, and India would see a fair bit of its own political evolution as well.

[1] ‘Fortunatae Insulae et Africa Extra’ means ‘The Fortunate Isles and Outer Africa’.
[2] ‘Teritores’ means ‘the inhabitants of a territory’.
[3] Sa’id Mohammed II became Salathelos I, as the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate was considered a brand-new state.
[4] Maakkors were Makurian (and later, simply Nubian) horsemen.

Map will be here.

EDIT: Here it is.

View attachment 120084

Updated ATL terms. Para mí. No es una excuse/replacement for an update.

Place names:
Tiranamaxima: Capital of SPQR. NW of Toledo.
Composita Tella: Santiago de Compostela.
Roma Nova: Along the coast of Asturiae.
Iuliopolis: Former fort, now walled city, in southern Gallaecia.
Roman provinces in Iberia: Post #41.
Khodasahr: Also called Khodasahrestan. The city of Jerusalem.
Al-Maqdis: Huge kelisa in Khodasahr.
Isca Silurum: Isca Augusta.
Ardrecken: Arbeia.
Lucky Arabia: Yemen and southern west-coast of the Arabian peninsula.
Gibidoijaz: Former Gepid capital, formerly called Gibidaz.
Parici, Lutetia, Lutetia Parisorium, and Parisorium: Four names for the same city.
Remorica: The Breizh peninsula plus a bit of Normandy.
Fhreinca: Most of the Breizh peninsula.
New Korsun: Noviodunum.
Buw: A city on the Southern Bug.
Hus: A city on the Dneiper/Nistru. Upriver, but not near Gibidoijaz.
Graecia Parva: Roman name for old Rome. Means ‘Little Greece’.
Nuubi-Sahr: City in Maqedunya with a primarily Nuubi population.
Kindasahr: City founded by the Yehudahids after the Zoharist conquest of Arabia. Lies on the lands of the former Badawi tribe of the Kindah.
Gymburg: Former capital of Frysklan.
Vlevo See: Zuiderzee/Lacus Flevo
Ninuecivitas: Alemannian name for the Frysk city of Nymwegen.
Sērēs: China
Eblana Coloniae: Holy Roman city. Built on the ruins of Eblana (Dublin).
Colonia Fidei: Holy Roman city in northeast Hibernia.
Colonia Zynoae: Holy Roman city in southwest Hibernia.
Dokkum: Frysk city.
Dongbeiziben: Means 'Northeast Capital'. Is northeast of Jianye.
Ocsidence: Everything west of Persia and east of the New World. Sub-Saharan Africa often excluded.
Fortunatae Insulae: Canarias.
Adaleia: Attaleia/Antalya
Ilva/Elvala: Elba/Aethalia
Augutaurino: Augusta Taurinorum
Nea Romi: KONSTANTINOUPOLIS
Fortunatae Insulae et Africa Extra: Fortunate Isles and Outer Africa
Garagum: Karakum
Attilaeum: Ancona
Fideraeriyar: Ravenna

Terms:
Grand General Commander of the Faithful: Military title of Rahbars.
Târikh: Zoharist holy book...just to remember that the a has the little arrow above it.
Kelisa: A mosque in Zoharism.
Emperor-Consul: Also called the Flavitirani (singular Flavitiranus), these two people were the two most powerful elected officials in the SPQR.
Maqedunya: Zoharist name for the Zoharist-influenced areas in Europe. Completely separate from Makedonzja.
Kehsi: Religious and communal leader in Zoharism. Think ‘imam’.
Yehud Zoharism: Eastern Zoharism.
Qanun Zoharism: Western Zoharism. Sometimes called themselves Shapurs or Dins. Yehuds called them Kafars.
Slakhaliva: Zoharist slave-soldier. Means Slav, but most were Greeks or Copts.
Nuubi: An ethnic group. Descendants of the Makurian and Aksumite mercenaries who settled in Nuubi-Sahr and their intermingling with the local population.
Britannic Christianity: Led by a Papa/Pope who is the Bishop of Londinium. Practiced in the Holy Roman Empire.
Catholic Christianity: Led by a Papa/Pope who is the Bishop of Rome. Practiced throughout the Western Mediterranean and Europe.
Nomitrope Christianity: Also known as Nomitropo Christianity. Led by a Pater who is the Bishop of Constantinopolis (which is actually named Xorapolis and Shahrestan). Practiced throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and coexists with Zoharism. Calls itself the Nomitrope Catholic church.
Badw: Plural of Badawi, or Bedouin.
Vahshil: Leader of a Vahshilate.
Malka: Leader of a Malkadom.
Rahbar: Leader of a Rahbarate.
Mohammedan: Subject of the Mohammedan Vahshilate.
Qayan: Leader of a Qayanate.
Qahremân: Persian for ‘war hero’ or ‘champion’. It was a military award given to distinguished generals of Zoharist states. For most of the time it was granted, it was a golden helmet that looked similar to a Corinthian helmet.
Heilagkrig: Old Taurigothic for ‘holy war’. Its Hebrew form is Milkhemet Mitzvah.
Sacrapede: A crusade.
Bulgars: Khazartürük horsemen.
Duçue: Duke.
Patrickites: Small group of Goidel Christians that assimilated into Britannic Christianity.
Utigurs: Peoples related to the Khazartürüks.
Kutrigurs: Peoples related to the Khazartürüks.
Wan Yeman Ren: Million Barbarians. Seresian term for a barbarian horde or pirates.
cursus publicus: Public course/road. Roman postal system.
Blandini: Roads.
Cypri: Forts.
Three Excellent Flavitirani: self-explanatory. Tatianus Blandinus and Fabius Cyprianus and Drusius Fulvius.
milipasus: A thousand paces. 1481 meters / 1620 yards
Kespā: Zoharist currency.
Dominal: Feudal.
clone: serf.
Hermund Romans: North Italians
Kaisaros: Greek for 'Caesar'.
teritores: inhabitants of a territory
Maakkors: Nubian horsemen.

DOMINAL LAND-OWNERSHIP RANKS:
King
Duçue
Comit
Tuctor
Everyone Else

Eras:
Classical Antiquity: Everything before February 3rd, 530.
The Mediatempene Period: From February 3rd, 530 to <undefined>

Widespread, personal names, some alternate, some not. Some surnames and Arab-name-parts:
Antoniuso: A North Italian name.
Kunedzi: A Slavic name.
Rozedazi: A Slavic name.
Vlucezi: A Slavic name.
Ruczeu: A Slavic name.
Vluku: A Slavic name.
Judocus: A Biohaemian name.
Azipar: A Langobard name.
Cryten: A Votadini name.
Gorteim: A Pict name.
Aganaric: A Taurigoth name.
Velusius: An Italiaion name.
Lusitanius: A Roman name.
Drusius: A Roman name.
Flavius ... Tiranus: New names that Emperor-Consuls/Flavitirani recieve.
Boikoz: A Slavic name.
Khodadad: A Persian name.
Zarin: A Zoharist name most common in Persia.
Faramondus: An Alemannian name.
Archeos: An Italaion name.
Xanthipos: A Greek-Zoharist name and Italaion name.
Akariyar: A Hunnic name.
Ayarizich: A Biohaemian name.
Toramana: A Toramanid name.
Parekhlal: An Ahirstani name.
Sa’id: An Arab name, but used mostly by Mohammedans.
Mohammed: An Arab name, but used mostly by Mohammedans. Can be a surname.
Yehudah: Jewish and Persian surname.
Abas-Mashid: Possible component of an Arab name.
Shapur: A Zoharist surname.
-varman: Suffix for Varman kings.
Abd-: In Arab surnames, a prefix meaning ‘servant of’. In Persian names, just a meaningless personal name.
Abdahura: An Arab name. Means ‘servant of Ahura’.
Kardar: Zoharist surname.
Mustafa: An Arab name.
Genobephius: A name used in the Holy Roman Empire.
Leo: A name used in the SPQR, Holy Roman Empire, and Alemannia. Especially prominent among Britannic Popes.
Rek: A Taurigothic name.
Aimilio: A Holy Roman name.
Belut: An Arab name.
Estemi: A Türükic name.
Mergül: A Türükic name.
Abuğil: A Türükic name.
Zynno: A Holy Roman name.
Antoniuso: A Hermund Roman name.
Beluso: A Hermund Roman surname.
Georgio: A Hermund Roman name.
Lucio: Alemannian name
Marcianuso: Alemannian name
Xioktos: Greek Zoharist surname
Arastu: Salathelan name
Bahram: Salathelan name
Ali'ahmad: Salathelan name
Adam'hadi: Salathelan name
Vangelis: Greek name
Valamers: Taurikegutan name.
Noe: Greek name.
Sengen: Taurikegutan name.
Arius: Roman name.
Zpartak: Slav name.
Vladezmykuskyi: Slav name.
Vladezmy: Slav name.
Alezandrak: Slav name.
Dashi-Lug: Qidan name.
Jyrghal: Kyrghiz name.
Abas-Zeno: Greek Zoharist name.
Zakkar: Makurian/Nubian name.

Misc:
Khodi the Elephant: Character in Hunnic folklore.
SPQR system of government: Senators, generals, governors elect the Flavitirani. Senators are elected by the people, governors are elected by people of the provinces but the candidates are Senate-picked, and generals are appointed by their superiors. There are two types of legislative assembly, committees by any Roman citizens, councils by certain classes.
Arabian Zoharism: De jure Yehud, but worship of and belief in the old gods persists.
Hunnia Attilariquian: Attila-led Kingdom of the Huns

A MIRACLE OF INHERITANCE

The Toramanids continued to fall apart. The 40,000 Maakkors, 74,000 Kyrghiz troops, and 64,000 Salathelan troops pushed into the Rahbarate. Makuria, the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate, and the Kyrghiz Horde all wanted to grab as much land as possible from the Toramanid Rahbarate--especially Rudkhânestan [1] and Yehudastan [2], not only for their holiness, but for their agricultural worth, and Eskendarestan [3] also had fertile land which made it valuable. Jyrghal procured 100 elephants from the Kardarids and rode with his army which converged into a single massive force, newly-coronated Vahshil Salathelos II rode south towards the Holy Land while the rest of the Salathelan army rode northeast, and King Zakkar led his force of Maakkors north.

Grand General Commander of the Faithful, Rahbar of all Rahbars, Abd Zarin Toramana Arastu bar-Abd’zarin’toraman’arastu, Abd II for short, undertook what he called ‘drastic measures’ in November 602. About 200,000 troops were levied from the civilian populace with little-to-no training and poor weapons, and 70,000 Slakhalivas who were not yet finished with their training were commanded to go to war. This supplemented an existing army of about 110,000.

The hurriedness of these ‘drastic measures’ as well as their forcefulness made them detrimental rather than beneficial to the war effort. The peasants rebelled, in dozens of cities, against what was essentially suicide. And the 200,000 peasant troops, with their poor or absent training and low-quality weapons, were steamrolled in battle. Both of these things were made worse by the fact that the peasant troops joined the Kyrghiz armies and were provided with weapons, and the peasants in the cities rebelled in favor of the Salathelans or Makurians--and in the case of the latter, especially the Christians. Lastly, some of the Slakhalivas sent to battle were not only not-trained-enough, but a few were, reportedly [4], mere children.

By August 609, King Zakkar and his Maakkors had conquered Ptolemais, Hermopolis, Heliopolis, and even Alexandria and Cyrene, Vahshil Salathelos II had conquered Damascus and pushed all the way through Yehudastan to the holy city of Khodasahr as well as Petra and the coastal city of Elat, while the northeastern army managed to conquer Upper Rudkhânestan and Armenia, and Qayan Jyrghal and the Kyrghiz pushed west, conquering Persepolis, Susa, Ekbatana, Isfahan, Ctesiphon, Babylon, and Ctesiphon, and ended up with control of all of Persia and most of Rudkhânestan. The Abdahurid Malkadom entered the war in July 609 just before its conclusion, and managed to conquer to the Gulf of Elat as well as part of Rudkhânestan and some desert areas that the Salathelans, Makurians, and Kyrghiz simply didn’t want. In December 609, the Toramanid Rahbarate ceased to exist. Abd II was hanged.

Taurikegutland, despite significant expenses during the war of both money and manpower, was reinvigorated by their conquests and the subsequent regain of all the money and treasure that was lost to the initial Türükic invasions. However, the latter was soon mitigated. In February 602, Qayan of the Magyars, Zsoltán Jebács, sent an envoy of 25 men to Emperor Sengen’s palace. They demanded tribute in the form of land, money, or treasure. Having exhausted itself finally subjugating Türüks, Taurikegutland was in no shape to try to fend off these barbarians. After some bargaining, the Taurikegutans paid the Magyars with gold and silver bullion, the amount being about half of what they regained from the Khazartürüks.

The Magyars stayed for about a month, during which they were persuaded by the Jewish faith. 25 Magyars and 5 Taurikegutan rabbis departed from Taurikegutland in April 602. The Magyars continued west, and within a few years, they all converted to Judaism. About a month after Sengen II succeeded to the Imperial throne in 605, he (according to a writer at the time, Ogülenic Ungelsch) proclaimed to a crowd around his palace, “My father has been criticized due to how willing he was to pay off the ‘barbarian’ Magyars. It is not only nearly treasonous to disgrace His Imperial Highness (or Mine) so soon after his death, but foolish. Look it it this way, my countrymen: We now have brothers in the Faith, allies against heresy, friends in worship of Adonai. If anyone still believes that this was a bad idea, please reveal yourselves now, so that I may order you stoned.”

In 603, the states of India were locked together in a system of royal marriages. How locked together? All of the rulers of all of the states on the eastern coast of India had names ending in ‘-varman’, and all the rulers throughout India (except the Kardarids, for the Hindu and Zoharist royal families did not typically intermarry) were, at the least, cousins. In what is called one of the most unlikely coincidences in history, and a miracle of inheritance, the ruler of the Varman Empire [5], Kambudravarman, inherited Kalinga on September 5th, after the death of Sarathesuvarman... which occurred only two days after Saryathesuvarman inherited the thrones of Ganges and Kalabhras.

Nearly immediately, the War of Varman Succession [6] broke out. Licchavi, Rashtrakutas, and the remnant of the Gupta Empire, did not, to say the least, enjoy the fact that the entire eastern coast of India was now one empire. They formed the Triple Alliance, and the three states, which had previously hated each other, each formed massive armies, with plenty of elephants. In total the Triple Alliance possessed about 255,000 troops and 1,030 elephants. On the other hand, Kambudravarman inherited an army of 385,000 men and 985 elephants from all of its constituent states, though faced about 50,000 well-trained rebels and many more untrained rebels.

In 604, on November 25th, the Triple Alliance declared war on the Varman Empire. Kambudravarman ordered that each member of the Triple Alliance be attacked by two massive armies, and much the border defended by a series of forts, which ranged from hastily-built and made of mud, to multiannual projects made of stone, some of which were not even completed by the end of the war. These forts were defended by garrisons of about 5,000 men each, and the massive armies were 50,000 men each.

By December 611, The Varman Empire had made gains up the Ganges, down the Narmada, and into Central Rashtrakutas; the Triple Alliance had managed to gain some land down the Cauveri and Godavari, but only border regions. The Triple Alliance seemed as if it would definitely not leave the war without at least minor losses, but would definitely have a chance to survive.

King Marcianuso II of Langubardia had set upon himself a mission to spread what he called ‘authentic Roman culture’, meaning the culture and language shared by the lands of ‘core’ Alemannia and ‘core’ Langubardia, across all of Langubardia. Then he realized, or one of his advisors realized and told him, that--what better way would there be to spread Langubardian-Alemannian culture into the Germanic lands, than sending the Frysks, Sachsons, Niedrheins, and other Germanics to war with the Holy Roman Empire to die for Langubardia, then settling the remainder in Britannia and resettling their old lands with ‘real Romans’?

And that is exactly what King Marcianuso II did. In June 602, he began to assemble a massive army and a massive fleet of transport ausinnes [7]. In February 609, at least 120,000 troops and on at least 1,000 ausinnes landed at three locations along the Holy Roman coast: Isca Dumnium [8], Ventiathum [9], and Duverisa [10], about 40,000 troops at each. Langubardian troops, who were mostly Germanic, as Marcianuso had arranged, fought so barbarously that even their commanding Langubardian-Alemannian or Burgundian generals, most of which were quite prejudiced of Germanics, perceiving them as animal-like, were surprised.

The Langubardians crushed the Holy Roman troops at Isca Dumnium and Ventiathbur and advanced further inland, though the main Holy Roman army of 60,000 managed to hold the force invading Duverisa at a standstill, only surviving due to constant resupplies, which slowly diminished because of naval harassment by the Holy Romans. The Isca Dumnium and Ventiathbur invasion force pushed to Duverisa. In March 610, 68,000 Langubardian troops converged at Duverisa, attacking the flanks of the 60,000 Holy Roman troops who were attacking the 25,000 remaining Langubardian troops. The massive, previously-drawn-out battle was ended in Langubardian favor after just three days. These troops headed north, and another Langubardian invasion force of about 30,000 arrived at Iscasilura [11]. By late 611, most of the southern Holy Roman Empire had been conquered. The Britannic Pope and Holy Roman Emperor had both been killed in battle, and the siege of Ratre [12] was underway.

The Magyars and Taurikegutans would ravage Eastern Europe in the name of Adonai, the Triple Alliance would not at all expect what would happen to them next, and Langubardia would continue to ravage the Holy Roman Empire...


[1] Rudkhânestan is Persian for ‘the land of river’. It is also called Mesopotamia.
[2] Yehudastan is the eastern coast of the eastern Mediterranean, named so after Zohar Yehudah himself. The region is also called Judaea, Yisrael, the Levant, the Sharq, or Mashreq.
[3] Eskendarstan is far northern Egypt, especially the Nile Delta.
[4] Sources of the time do not quite distinguish whether how young exactly they were...or if they were even children at all; they all mention ‘young Slakhalivas’ or ‘early/childlike/naive Slakhalivas’ which may have merely meant that they had barely started their Slakhaliva training, though they may not have been children.
[5] Some historians insist on the use of the term ‘Kamarupa’ instead of ‘Varman Empire’, because multiple states were of the Varman royal family, for the pre-mass-inheritance state. Others state that, because the proliferation of the Varman family across India began in 550, and because only by 587 were all the eastern-coast states of India ruled by a Varman, the distinction is unnecessary.
[6] The War of Varman Succession is also called the Varman War, the Indian War of the Triple Alliance, the First War of All-India, or, rarely, the Hindu Civil War or the Varman/Kamarupan Ascension.
[7] Ausinnes were ships widely used by Western European states from the late 500s to the early 900s. Their name derives from the Latin word ‘asinus’, meaning donkey; these ships were small, yet hardy, durable, and could hold many men and much cargo. It was also thought by the users of ausinnes, that naming them after donkeys would make them appear weak to enemies, only for those enemies to be surprised by the versatility of ausinnes.
[8] The name Isca Dumnoniorum gradually evolved to Isca Dumnium, much like how the name of the state it was the capital of became Iscadumnia.
[9] Ventiathum was the capital of Ventiaddhen.
[10] Duverisa was originally called Dubris and is sometimes called Dover.
[11] Iscasilura was previously known as Isca Silurum or Isca Augusta.
[12] Ratre was previously known as Ratae.

Map coming right up. (deleted post before update to move this update to all the same page; Berserker is not talking to himself)

EDIT: The map has arrived.

View attachment 120834

BRYTHANIA

The Magyars led by Qayan Zsoltán Jebács continued west. Rygaland and Doringen were first invaded in January and November 613 respectively--this became known as the Magyars’ first Milkhemet Mitzvah. This holy war, being, well, a holy war, was supported by 10,000 Taurikegutan expeditionaries, who were promised, about nine months into the war, in exchange for the repayment of a third of the tribute given to the Magyars by the Taurikegutans about a decade before the war.

Magyar troops numbering about 90,000 charged southwest in the name of Judaism. It is unknown how many Rygalanders served as defenders, but huge amounts of them, who were reportedly unarmed and clothed only in loincloths, were slaughtered. It is likely, however, that they in fact fought just as any other Germanic barbarian-warriors would have (meaning they all had weapons, even if they may have been makeshift, and wore at least a bit more than a loincloth), though merely because they were the (defeated) enemies of the Magyars, such stories arose. Regardless, ‘ryga’ became the Magyar word for ‘fool’.

After nine months of fighting in Rygaland, roughly 79,000 Magyars survived, 5,000 Rygalanders had been recruited after their defeat on the battlefield, and 10,000 Taurikegutan expeditionary forces arrived from the east. The Magyar army then split in two. One branch of about 49,000 headed west and would commence the invasion of Doringen and later into the less-civilized parts of Germania, while the other branch of about 45,000 crossed the mountains. Jutheland, Biohaemia, and Angeland, meanwhile, used the invasions that were occurring to their advantage. Juthelanders attacked Rygaland and pushed northeast... but this did not last long. Magyars mistook Juthelanders for Rygalanders, and ended up conquering them as well. Biohaemia attacked the Juthelanders and Doringians from the south, and forged an alliance with the Magyars. Lastly, Angeland pushed into the less-civilized parts of Germania, after their King, Advaerdh I, offered Langubardia the areas south of the Elbe (and all non-noble inhabitants of that area to be used however Marcianuso II wished they be used... almost every man was sent to war in the Holy Roman Empire, and almost every woman and child was enslaved, as Advaerdh had expected, but hoped against), offered assistance in the war against the Holy Roman Empire through the bestowment of troops and ships (which were very similar to the Langubardians’ ausinnes), and offered a lump sum, in exchange for the promise of no unwanted interference in any of Angeland’s activities outside of Langubardia and the promise of military alliance after the Holy Roman War was over.

By 616, Rygaland and Doringen had been dissolved and Jutheland mostly dissolved, and the face of eastern Germania had changed entirely. Zsoltán Jebács created two vassal states. Jutheland was one of them; it had Judaism as its state religion and Magyar as its administrative language, and had the most defensible borders of any state in the world, being surrounded by mountains. Nyugza [1] was another, located in the formerly less-civilized area of Germania and former Doringen, and, like Jutheland, would be converted to Judaism and administrated by Magyars. Both states would pay tribute to the Magyars and eventually be released. The Angelanders absorbed a large portion of the less-civilized area of Germania, though it was not as large as they had hoped and the Magyars had subjugated the area too quickly. Biohaemia had absorbed large areas of former Doringen and some areas of former Jutheland. Central Europe was now just how the Magyars and the Langubardians had wanted it, the home of several buffer states between the powers. Zsoltán Jebács declared himself Kaszer [2] of the Magyar Kaszerdom.

Langubardia continued its invasion of the Holy Roman Empire. Ratre was conquered. Reinforcements continued to arrive, and the Germanic areas of Langubardia were being more and more depopulated, and the formerly Angelander portion almost completely depopulated. After, roughly, the middle of 615, the Holy Roman Empire was in utter chaos. It was already hanging on a thread since the death of the Britannic Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, but generals managed to provide some semblance of order--this ended by the middle of 615 because most of said generals were dead.

Letoca [3], Veroco [4], Debbu [5], Mamusse [6], Lind [7], Ebra [8]... all fell to the Langubardians. They were eventually integrated into Langubardia. The Langubardian army, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, ventured north after all aforementioned cities had fallen. When the Langubardians reached Core [9] in early January 617, where all of the leaders of the surviving Holy Roman states and all remaining Holy Roman generals had converged, they made peace for most of the land they had occupied. Marcianuso II declared himself the new Holy Roman Emperor, and Langubardia became the Holy Roman Empire of Langubardia. The Roman Empire-Consulate was not exactly happy about this but as long as a Langubardian ruler did not claim to be a Roman Emperor-Consul or a Roman Flavitiranus, the SPQR would merely complain rather than respond with force.

The lands of the former Holy Roman Empire in Britannia were changed entirely. Throughout the war, ethnic Britannic Holy Romans escaped north, and if they owned them, brought their Goidel and Pict slaves. This happened mostly regardless of class and sub-ethnicity, though higher-ranking Britannic Holy Romans were more able to migrate north, and less Holy Romans in Venteaddhen migrated north. At the war’s end, only a quarter of the area’s ethnic Britannic Holy Roman population remained. Meanwhile, to the north, the remnants of the original Holy Roman Empire had become a new confederation of states called the Brythanian League. A new capital was built in a new state within the Brythanian League, Urb-Londincorium [10] in Vetoroma [11], both named and created as remnants of the Brythanians’ past and at the whim of the settlers from the south. A new Britannic... well, Brythanian, pope was elected, Quinctio I, and a Brythanian Legator [12] Zosimo I. Lastly, even though the requests of the settlers from the south were mostly granted, Legator Zosimo and Pope Quinctio declared that all slaves throughout Brythania were to be freed from slavery and put into clonedom instead.

To the south, Marcianuso II renamed Ventiathum/Ventiathbur to Ventada, and made it the capital of a new province of Brita. He began the very forced migration that the Holy Roman War began for. As many remaining Germanic peoples in the northeastern areas of Langubardia as could be found were sent to Brita. Meanwhile, incentives were given to Brythanian Holy Romans and Langubardian-Alemannians to settle in said Germanic lands.

The Triple Alliance was sure they had a chance to survive, even though they would definitely lose some land to the Varmans. This conviction was shown to be incorrect when Ahirstan declared war on the Triple Alliance in 613 and formed a temporary alliance with the Varman Empire. The Kardarid Malka, Parekhlal II Kardar, led 68,000 troops into Rashtrakutas, and another Kardarid general, Abdahura, led 40,00 troops into Licchavi and the remnant of the Gupta Empire. Meanwhile about 290,000 Varman troops pushed west.

The Triple Alliance ceased to exist in 619. India was split between two massive empires, both of different faiths.

Makuria had absorbed a huge amount of Zoharists. King Zakkar realized that some system would have to be implemented to ‘digest’ Makuria’s new conquests, while at the same time not irking the clergy by being too tolerant. Maakkors who assisted in the conquest of Egypt were allowed to settle in Egypt and were granted free land. In 614, Zakkar founded the city of Zakkamakouria in the Nile Delta, which would become the new capital. He established a program to move Nubians to Egypt. In early 615, Zakkar discovered a small Christian sect that was practiced in Alexandria, whose leaders believed that heathens should be tolerated but eventually converted, believed that the rich should give to the poor just as Jesus said, among many other things that were exactly what Zakkar wanted to legitimize Makurian rule over Egypt and make Zakkar seem a great man. It is not known what the original name of this Christian sect was, but it became known as Zakkarism and King Zakkar made it the state religion of Makuria in November 615, and adopted its policies, allowing Zoharists to (mostly) worship freely, and establishing the early predecessor to Christian socialism within Makuria.

After the ravaging of Germania and the former Holy Roman Empire, the Salathelan Vahshilate would enter the early stages of its Golden Age, Aksum and Alwa would be pitted against Makuria, and the Seresian states would bicker among one another and attempt to spread their influence outward.


[1] Nyugsza, meaning ‘west’, derives from the Magyar word for the setting of the sun.
[2] Kaszer derives from Caesar in some form or another.
[3] Letoca was formerly known as Letocetum.
[4] Veroco was formerly known as Viroconium.
[5] Debbu was formerly known as Deva.
[6] Mamuthum/Mamuthbur was formerly known as Mamucium.
[7] Lind was formerly known as Lindum.
[8] Ebra was formerly known as Eboracum.
[9] Core was formerly known as Coria.
[10] Urb-Londincorium derives from Latin ‘urbs’, and the names of the cities Londinium/Londinia and Corinium/Corinia.
[11] Vetoroma derives from Roma and the Latin word for ‘old’.
[12] Legator derives from Latin ‘lega’ and ‘-tor’. A Legator leads a league.

Reserved for map; I cannot put up the map right now. I probably have mistakes in the main post too but I must go now. Sorry if you have to actually read it :p.

EDIT:

View attachment 122191

I wonder who that Kosta fellow is based on :cool:?

BEGINNINGS OF GREAT EMPIRES

Vahshil Salathelos II wanted to expand his empire to include Crete and Dardanski. He deliberated with his advisors over which to invade first. He had no interests within the lands of the Huns, other than Crete, that is, and so he preferred not to get involved in a land war with Hunnia. He decided that he would invade and conquer Crete first, Dardanski being a mountainous buffer state preventing any land assaults from the skilled horsemen of civilized Hunnia (even though the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate could easily deal with them--he simply wanted to waste as little troops as possible), then attack and annex Dardanski once Crete had fallen and the war with Hunnia had ended.

In early 620, Salathelos II warned that all Salathelan merchants should refrain from visiting and trading in Crete. Until July, a massive fleet was assembled, composed of ships from around the entire Salathelan Roman Vahshilate as well as a few newly-constructed Cobterata [1]. In August, a horde of Salathelan ships headed around Greece to attack and ravage the coastline of mainland Hunnia and the ships that defended it, while a smaller, yet still large, contingent of ships, carrying about 30,000 troops total, surrounded Crete. The 30,000 troops disembarked and captured Crete by the end of November. Hunnia signed peace, giving up Crete, in early December.

Salathelos II only waited until February the next year before, troops massed at the border of Dardanski, he attacked. He claimed that his Vahshilate, rightful successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, deserved the land. Salathelan troops, numbering about 45,000, split into one contingent of 30,000 and one of 15,000. The former ravaged the valley-corridors of the mountainous Dardanski, and the latter secured one of the two highlands of Dardanski located in the southwest and northeast. The king was killed quite soon after Salathelan troops reached the capital city. The Salathelan Roman Vahshilate did not even need to occupy the entire nation before, in August 621, a coalition of peasants in the capital city of Dardanski surrendered.

During and after the conquest of Dardanski, Salathelos II made quite a few reforms to the Vahshilate. He reorganized the Vahshilate into kentropharmates [2]. He re-established a system to recruit non-Zoharists into the army, but it was not as forceful or unpopular as the Slakhalivas, and he called the recruits, who were mostly Christians, sarbai [3]. These were important, and there were many minor reforms as well, but one, however, would indirectly lead the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate to become of one of the largest and most powerful states of all time, and enter a Golden Age. This was simply the reclarification of who would inherit the title of Vahshil. Before the reform, the eldest son of the Vahshil would inherit the throne. After the reform, the Vahshil could choose who would succeed to the throne after his death. If he died before making it clear exactly who should succeed, the eldest son would become Vahshil. After Salathelos II made this reform, he adopted General Kyrios Konstantinos Xioktos as his successor. It is likely he did this because not only was Konstantinos Xioktos was a magnificent governor and general, serving in the Crete War, the Dardanski War, and leading troops against some small revolts before and after those wars leading to the swift defeat of the rebels--the greatest reason was that, if one of Salathelos II’s sons had succeeded, the rest of his sons (all of them being quite competitive between one another, and, due to the separated conditions in which they were raised and the moral corruption caused by power, not really having much familial affection for one another) would have begun a war of succession. Instead, with someone from outside the family, they were merely... irked.

Salathelos II died in 624, succeeded by Kyrios Konstantinos Xioktos, who would eventually come to be called, by admirers of this great leader, Vahshil Kaisaros (Kyrios) Konstantinos “the Great” “the Worthy” “the Protector of Christ” “the Destroyer of Antichrist” Xioktos Abdahura Abdzohar Abdiesous ivon-Salathelos. But he preferred, merely, “Kyrios Xioktos”.

Zakkar, King of Makuria, continued to attempt to further assimilate the new lands. But there were simply not enough loyal peoples, be they Makurian or Copt (The Copts, being also Christian, were supported)--well, there were, but Makuria would have to be depopulated and every Copt moved from their home for said groups to be the majority in every single area and be the groups which all other groups assimilate to. Eventually, after much consideration, Zakkar decided that, to bring more Christians and ethnic Nubians, he would invade the two other Nubian states of Alwa and Aksum.

Zakkar recruited 5,000 Makurians and 5,000 Copts as Maakkors, and 70,000 various Persians, Arabs, and other Zoharists as cheaply-armed-and-armored infantry, and assembled a small fleet out of merchant ships travelling the Nile. Zakkar declared war in late 623. About 10,000 of the infantry, embarking on the fleet, headed towards Soba, while 20,000 others as well as 2,000 of Maakkors headed towards Soba on foot (and/or horse). On the other hand, in the east, 40,000 infantry forces were ordered to charge chaotically--Zakkar also initiated the invasions as a test of different tactics Makuria could use in the future with their more ’expendable’ troops--into Aksum, pillaging any settlements they found for loot, but not killing too many people--rather, capturing or enslaving them (Zakkar actually didn’t want that either, but he realized that like all Mediatempene armies, especially non-professional Mediatempene armies, they would inevitably act barbaric and bring suffering to others to deal with the tragedy of war). 8,000 Maakkors followed after them and, once the force reached the city of Aksum, swerved around Aksum and attacked it from the other side.

Soba was conquered from within by mid 624, and Alwa essentially disintegrated as a result. Aksum was less easy for the Makurians to conquer. They sieged for 6 months until an appropriate amount of siege ladders could be brought from Egypt. Then the 48,000 troops stormed Aksum and Aksum surrendered--in this final battle however, Zakkar suffered wounds that would lead to him slowly dying--he heaved out his last breath in 627. But even though he was dying, he continued to rule the nation and enact his plans. It took until 636, quite some time after his death, but some million-and-a-half Nubians were settled in Egypt and about a million Persians, Arabs, and other Zoharists were settled in Nubia.

Qalidu Yaquuv succeeded to the throne of Makuria in 627. He changed the name of Makuria to the Zakkarist Dominions.

Sērēs would transform significantly during these years. Zhujiang (珠江), commonly known as the Pearl River, became a constant battleground, and, afterward, a border. This all began in 623. In late 620, the Fang Dynasty decided to expand its influence into Southeast Asia--with force. The emperor, Fang Tao Chen (方道陳), led at least 60,000 troops into Campadesan lands, soon conquering it. Chen advanced on with several tens of thousands more troops into the empire of Great Funan.

Chen was successful at first, taking more than half of the Funanese state, but in 623, Emperor Kong Wei Dong (孔衛董) of the Kong Dynasty invaded the Fang Dynasty. Chen made a quick peace with the Funan. He and the Dynasty received all lands north or east of the Funan River [4], and some to the south of its delta. It was not yet time to celebrate, however; up to 130,000 Kong troops participated in the invasion of Fang. The Fang Dynasty fought with the Kong for six years. At its conclusion in 630, with the capture of Nanhai and the execution of Fang Tao Chen, Kong Wei Dong demanded all lands north of Zhujiang.

The Fang Dynasty was now a state exiled from its own homeland. Seresian settlers both from the occupied territories and from the remaining lands flooded Fang-owned Southeast Asia. A new capital was founded, Xinjing (新京) [5], in the Red River Delta, and the son of Fang Tao Chen, Fang Tao Wei, became Emperor.

While Kong and Fang fought amongst each other, the largest of the states in Sērēs, and the only one that was not Seresian, the Qidan Qayanate/Dynasty, was faced with mass rebellion. Beginning in 621, the entirety of the south of the Qayanate fell into chaos as native Seresians rebelled against their Türükic overlords. Many rebels were defeated, but some succeeded. The southeast of the Qidan Qayanate won its independence and joined in 630, just shortly after the Kong conquest of much of Fang.

Kong Wei Dong declared himself Emperor of All Sērēs after these expansions of the Dynasty, and would begin his Immoral Reign. This is thought to have led to the character in Seresian folklore: Cruel King Kong, also called Greedy King Kong.

Ange-Land had made the deal they made previously with the Holy Roman Empire of Langubardia for several reasons, but Advaerdh I made the deal for one reason in particular--so Angelanders could conquer and settle parts of Northland [6] without any interference from other peoples. And so in 622, Advaerdh led a force of thousands of Angelanders to conquer Saeland [7]. They overcame the island, and advanced further to the surrounding small islands and then some of the coast of mainland Northland. They secured control over all aforementioned areas by 624, and began to settle it. Ange-Land was somewhat overpopulated before and this extra population diffused into Saeland and the surrounding regions quite quickly. By 630, the area was dominated culturally by Angelanders, even though the native Northmenn [8] continued to inhabit the region, and the large new settlements of Advaerdhburh and Northburh continued to expand. Advaerdh planned another wave of conquest into Northland soon.

The Salathelan Golden Age would continue with further conquests, new kingdoms would be founded in Northern Europe by various peoples, and the Roman Empire-Consulate would continue to colonize.


[1] Cobteras, deriving from Persian ‘cob’ meaning ‘wood’ and Greek ‘teras’ meaning ‘monster’, refers to a type of ship used by the Salathelans. Cobterata were used beginning in the early 600s and their use persisted until the end of the age of sail. Cobterata were monstrous ships holding hundreds of men, and were quite expensive to build.
[2] Kentropharmates derives from ‘kentropharmos’ (plural form kentropharmai), which itself derives from Greek ‘kentro’ (meaning center) and Persian ‘farman’ (meaning command/decree/order).
[3] Sarbos (plural form sarbai) derives from ‘sarbaz‘ (Persian for ‘soldier’).
[4] The Funan River is the Mekong River.
[5] Xinjing (新京) means ‘New Capital’.
[5] Northland is the Angelander term for Scandinavia.
[6] Saeland is Zealand/Sjaelland (the island).
[7] Northmenn--the inhabitants of Northland. (Vikings, basically)

Map here!

Constantine hears the plight of Sr. Ringo and presents him with el mapa mundial.

NORTHMENN

Prior to the settlement of far southern Northland by the Angelanders, the Northmenn were separated into hundreds of different clans and tribes, many of which were allied, in alliances containing dozens of tribes each, and quarreled and fought with bordering clans and tribes for the limited food resources of Northland. When the Angelanders arrived in Northland, the Northmenn--well, the leaders of the various clans and tribes, at least--realized that they could no longer fight amongst each other as frequently as they once did, and that they would have to work together against this new advanced foe from the south.

They inevitably fought and divided themselves, perhaps as much as they did before. But yet Northland was still changed forever. The aforementioned alliances became federations and the chiefs of the various tribes were candidates to be elected as High Kings who led the federations in their entirety. And so Northland, formerly split into countless chiefdoms, was then conglomerated into a few relatively-united political entities. By 638, Västgaötarland, Østgaötarland, Væringsvíarland, and the Kingdom of Nordheim existed as relatively-united confederations led by elected High Kings.

Northland was not the only land that would become the site of new civilizations and kingdoms. The lands to the east of Northland, across the Sea of Magyar [1], which had been the home of a people calling themselves the Zuomemi [2] for some time, saw the birth of two new Qayanates--of Zuomemi. One was known as the Qayanate of Poškanen Zuomemi [3], with its capital at Stuad, and the other was the Qayanate of Etelänen Zuomemi [4], with its capital at Ani. It is notable to know and consider, however, that the Poškanen Zuomemi were considerably more spread-out and pastoral than the Etelänen Zuomemi, due to their more northern location, and whether any Zuomemi were civilized was debated by outsiders for a century or two after the formation of the two Qayanates. (A sizable minority of modern historians also believe that the Qayanates may have come into existence much later than the 630s, perhaps even as late as the early 700s--and a much smaller minority believes the Qayanates may have been established much, much earlier, the earliest estimate being 570. However, the majority of historians concede that the two Zuomemi Qayanates were established in the 630s, and the writings of several Mediatempene historians support this.)

Ange-Land also settled further into Northland during the 630s and early 640s.

At this time, the SPQR’s African provinces were quite stable. Barbarians no longer lived north of the Atlas mountains or near the coast. But they still lived in the more arid regions to the south, and, by the 630s, these peoples had been pestering the Romans off-and-on for some time. They were defeated easily and consistently, and were actually probably useful, as new recruits in the African provinces could fight the barbarians to gain some battle experience before heading off to fight some rebellion elsewhere or fight in a possible war with one of the SPQR’s enemies. But the existence of these nomadic peoples had stunted the trans-Saharan trade for some time, and that gave Flavius Aemilius Lusitanius Tiranus and Flavius Aus Johanes Tiranus, the Flavitirani in the year 631, an excuse to waste some treasury money on conquest.

As a result, the two Flavitirani commenced an invasion in that year, and a dozen-and-a-half legions attacked said southern peoples. They were reelected as Flavitirani until 643, which is also when the war came to its completion. By the time it was completed, the SPQR had established a new political division, the serve [5], two such serves (Gaetulia and Garamantia) were annexed (the latter unfairly, for the Garamantes ‘minded their own business’, not disrupting Roman trade, and were not at all barbarians) into the Empire Consulate, and a new people, the Kingdom of Koumbi Saleh, known as Kumbisalia to the Romans, was contacted. Koumbi Saleh, a center of African civilization, would prosper for many years by trading to the Romans. In Gaetulia and Garamantia, forts were built to protect trade and secure the SPQR’s hold on those serves.

In his time, Kyrios Konstantinos Xioktos was not considered to be a new Alexander or a spiritual successor to Alexander or anything of the sort, mostly because Alexander was pagan and both the Zoharists and Nomitrope Christians did not like paganism, for it reminded them of the time, as Salathelan Roman poet and historian of the time wrote, “before Christianity, before Zoharism, before Rome, before Nea Romi, before glory, before civilization”. But Mégas Aléxandros, Alexander the Great, Alexander Magnus, however one would like to put it, is perhaps the most fitting name for that great Vahshil, other than, well, Kyrios Konstantinos Xioktos.

Indeed. A Salathelan legend tells of Kyrios Xioktos cutting the Knot of Zohar Yehudah’s Noose. The legend states that no one could untie the knot, but Kyrios Xioktos managed to slice it, and Ahura came down to him and decreed that, for his Christ, he would become the Vahshil of Persia. The legend is almost certainly false, but it has remarkable similarities with the legend of Alexander and the Gordian Knot. But there are numerous other similarities between Vahshil Kaisaros Xioktos and Alexander the Great, one being the direct conquest of most of Greece except for the far south. Another being the conquest of Persia.

In 631, the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate invaded Epir. 50,000 sarbai and 40,000 Zoharist troops charged into the small Slavic state, aiming to siege Dyrrhachion. After the invasion of both Dardanski and Epir, Atinija saw that the Salathelans aimed to conquer all of Greece; therefore, they came to the aid of Epir, in the hope that an alliance of all states in Greece could fight back the invaders. As soon as the Salathelans learned of the Atinijan declaration of war, 20,000 of the Zoharist troops and 10,000 of the sarbai who headed to Epir instead invaded Makedonzja. Meanwhile, a massive fleet carried 20,000 sarbai and 45,000 Zoharist troops across the Aegean to attack Atinija directly.

Epir, Makedonzja, and Atinija were devastated by the Vahshilate in only a few short years. Epir surrendered in mid 632, Makedonzja in early 633, and Atinija in late 633. Akaja, former puppet of Atinija, was now free, but not for long. A combined army of at least 120,000 troops charged into Akaja. Several towns were taken without a fight, for they were so fearful of the invaders. The king of Akaja, Vladezmykuskyi III, led an unknown number of Akajan troops into battle against the Vahshilate, but surrendered as soon as he saw the massive, almost endless army of the Salathelan Romans. Akaja was made into a puppet state rather than incorporated directly into the Vahshilate, and its size was increased to include the whole Peloponnese peninsula.

Throughout 634, Xioktos assembled a massive army and had his best generals plan a massive attack into the Kyrghiz Horde. Unfortunately for the Kyrghiz, and fortunately for the Salathelans, rebellions were breaking out across Persia. In 635, 155,000 Salathelan troops invaded Persia, split into three groups. General Abas-Zeno led the northern group of 30,000 Zoharist troops and charged east towards Baku, the central group of 50,000 sarbai and 20,000 Zoharist troops led by Kyrios Xioktos himself headed southeast and east to Ekbatana, and the southern group of 20,000 Zoharist troops led by general Bahram ventured southeast down Mesopotamia. Later, a fourth army of 15,000 sarbai and 20,000 Zoharist troops led by Anastasios Cosmatos followed the southern group.

The armies of Kyrios Xioktos and Bahram converged at Singara in November 635. Bahram’s army stayed to siege and Kyrios Xioktos headed east towards Ekbatana and the core of Persia. However the Kyrghiz had expected an immediate assault down Mesopotamia, and the Qayan of the Kyrghiz at the time, Jyrghal II, massed forces to fight Bahram and protect Singara. Battle raged for weeks and was mostly in Kyrghiz favor. Anastasios Cosmatos’ reinforcements turned the tide of the battle, however, and Jyrghal II’s forces were forced to retreat mere days after their arrival. The northern group of Salathelan forces fought small bands of mercenaries that the Kyrghiz had hired and easily made their way to Baku.

Xioktos conquered Ekbatana in 638 after a long siege and several attacks from Kyrghiz armies, including Jyrghal II’s horde. Baku was captured by Salathelans. Bahram’s army had conquered everything in surprisingly-weakly-defended Mesopotamia northwest of Ctesiphon. Two of the Salathelan army groups then charged east through Persia, and Bahram sieged Ctesiphon. Kyrios Xioktos made a heroic charge east all the way to Isfahan, Persepolis, Ben-Ardaschir, and Kandahar, then turned north and northwest to Herat and Nischapur, and finally northeast to Samarkand. Samarkand was captured in 645. Fighting continued for a few more years, and in December 647, the Kyrghiz Horde surrendered, and its territories in their entirety were annexed into the Salathelan Roman Vahshilate. By July 648, all resistance was defeated, even the rebels who had rebelled against the Kyrghiz before the Salathelan invasion had even began, and Persia was stabilized as a possession of the Vahshilate.

In following years, Kyrios Konstantinos Xioktos would expand his territories even further, barbarian peoples would raid Southeast Asia, and Yamato would fall into turmoil.


[1] The Sea of Magyar, or Magyaric Sea, is the Baltic Sea. It is also known as the East Sea or Northeast Sea.
[2] Zuomemi are basically the Finns--Suomi. Suomi derives from ‘suoniemi’ or ‘zeme’. Note however that the Zuomemi are not quite Finns, with sizable Estonian, Ugric, Slavic, Türükic, and Taurikegutan influences.
[3] Poškanen Zuomemi: North Zuomemi
[4] Etelänen Zuomemi: South Zuomemi
[5] The serve (servius in Latin) was basically a territory, but had not little but absolutely no political influence on the rest of the Empire-Consulate, existed not primarily but only for the purpose of exploitation, and was directly owned by one of the two Flavitirani.

Mappy mappy map sorry for the wait.

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RESPICE FINEM

The Pope, the Hermundaromanian president, and the largely ceremonial Council of Duçues stood on a rectangular concrete platform in the very center of Hermundaroma. Around them stood at least two million people.

The year was 1820 AD, and it was the fifth of February. Throughout the preceding few decades, the world had undergone enormous change. The global population had recently ballooned to 5.8 billion. Massive innovation occurred in all sciences, but especially the emerging field of robotics. However, by the fifth of February in the year 1820, all of this mattered not. It was a significantly simpler invention, one invented about half a century ago in 1767, that would make all of these technologies, and all this progress, useless.

“My countrymen, citizens of Hermundaromania, one of the foremost nations in the world” announced the president, “as you most likely already know, Türükegutland and the rest of the ANCD have declared war on the League and Commonwealth of Roman Nations, of which we are a part. And both the SPQR and Türükegutland contain nuclear capability.” The president sighed. “There is little we can do now but wait in this plaza with our loved ones and with the rest of the people of Hermundaroma until the end comes,” he continued, “I will now permit the Pope, the Council, or anyone near this platform to come up and speak.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of nuclear warheads from the ANCD targeted various LCRN cities, including Hermundaroma. LCRN warheads, too, had been launched, and they headed to various ANCD cities--including Türükestatir.

A Polytheist Apocalypsist priest from the crowd stepped up to the podium. He exercised the right of freedom and religion and speech: “The END IS NEAR. EMBRACE THE BOMB. WE WILL BE TAKEN TO A GREATER PLACE! WE WILL MEET THE GODS!” The crowd, however, outcried against the Apocalypsist--they didn’t want to listen to this lunatic on the last day of their lives!

The head Duçue requested a chance to speak. “I believe that the Pope, the Bishop of Hermundaroma-and-Graecia-Parva himself, should lead a prayer in this dire time.” The crowd, except for trace Zoharists and Knights of Reason, agreed. But the Pope looked ill. He was very old, and had been for a decade, but today he looked far worse than normal. He did not answer.
Suddenly, the nuclear alarm blared. Its sound radiated throughout Hermundaroma. It became impossible to hear anything but its piercing wail.

Then it stopped.

The Pope stepped up to the podium.

Wistfully, he said, “...God... is dead.”

All was silent. For one second that is.

Hermundaroma was destroyed in a nuclear blast. Within five minutes, all major cities throughout the entire world were destroyed. Ash, smoke, and soot surrounded the Earth’s skies. A decades-long winter had begun, and the world was thrown back into the Mediatempene Age.

RARI·NANTES·IN·GVRGITE·VASTO

Map is here in separate post.

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