"When I was pressed by a Magyar trader from the north on what business a Bulgarian had speaking Greek I found myself rather offended. I would educate the man in quick order that I was Roman, and that it was Romaic. He seemed surprised, more than anything else," Emporos [1] Stavrakios Ivanos
1235 - The fact that Bulgaria, with its 2 million people and enough land to house twice that [2], seemed to simply drop in John's lap proved a match for the Emperor and his skills at management within the Empire. He was forced to detach much of the bureaucracy his father, and then he, had built up--spreading them out to gather news on populations, resources and infrastructure within the Empire.
What truly caused the most problems, at least within earshot, was the introduction of the infant Maria Asen and her retinue to the court. She was a political prisoner, yes, but she was also a young child who had been the heir to the now defunct Bulgarian Empire. Regardless of this, the Empress Theodora effectively took her in as her own--the weakly framed Bulgarian looking to her kin as the daughter she and her husband could never have [3]. For his own part the Emperor gave her what little attention he could spare between his own wife and son, and the Empire--pushing Heraclius, who was only a year younger than her, to interact and play with her.
When the information he needed was collected by April of 1235 the Emperor was hit with the full wave of the complexity of managing the addition of so much territory all at once; outright wondering to himself how he could pull this sort of thing off. However, he had precedents to lean back on, carving Bulgaria itself up into several Astithematic provinces and shifting in loyal bureaucrats, alongside skilled soldier-officers handpicked from the east by Theodore Laskaris just for this purpose. It was a surprisingly easy affair, as much of the Bulgarian nobility had been wiped out alongside their Tsar outside of Plovdiv, which had forced most of the population to look to the clergy for guidance--which had been how the Bulgarian Patriarch Joachim had seen to it that the state was peacefully disbanded.
Within the half-year point John's attention would abruptly yanked elsewhere, as it would come to him that after having sent those officers for use in the new Astithema that Theodore Laskaris, the great general, had died. Laskaris had been 61 years old, and the last surviving member of Romanos' original allies. Behind him the skilled general left two children, Manuel and Irene Laskaris--his wife having died some years back. Manuel himself would take his position as the new second-in-command of the East, as the eccentric John Komnenos [4] took command, as was by now practice.
What would draw John's attention however was not the death of a family friend, but the sudden arrival of his brother back at Constantinople. Theodore was quite forceful, the one-eyed general effectively pressing his brother, again and again, over a several weak period for one thing; the right to command the Empire's full soldiery stock. Theodore saw it as his duty to be the military arm his brother could not, and thus he demanded control over said army so that he could give it much needed reform.
John held out however, outright leaving Theodore wide-eyed when the Emperor's cold and calculated demeanor came to full view for the Prefect. John was no longer a child who could be pushed around by his much stronger, if younger, brother. He was a near-detached and outright hardened Emperor of 34 years of age, and one who's coldness caused many to fear that he might have them hurt should they press their luck too much.
Yet, in a sign of the fact that--despite his coldness--he still had love and trust with him, the Emperor created the title of 'Megas Prefect' for his sibling. It was noted within the edict used to create it that the role would die with Theodore, no one else would wield it. Said title gave the one-eyed General what he wanted, even if it would later see John Komnenos send angry letters to Theodore questioning his motives.
Thus, throughout the year, the two brothers pushed forward with their plans--although Theodore had been humbled from his experiences with his elder sibling. While John worked on the integration of the Bulgarian state through allowing taxes-in-kind from those settlements who had yet to maintain their own coin stores, Theodore would reform the army from the ground up--integrating many Bulgarian survivors as the cavalry core of the new army who's reforms spread from west to east.
The economy would be stimulated by the draw of new coins to Bulgaria, and its armies would be empowered with hardy stock drawn from the Haemus and Bulgaria proper--even as what little was left of its nobility were carted off to serve in Anatolia (as was precedent) as minor magnates and nobility. Into the Empire's storehouses flowed goods such as wood, iron, grain and much more, as it was the first time the Empire had integrated non-devastated lands that did not need much rebuilding [5].
Such was the scale of this that the Emperor could contemplate something truly Roman, as the Christmas Celebrations began in earnest. Yet, such thoughts would be interrupted by a section of letters--each marked with the seal of the Seljuk Sultan.
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[1] The native Roman merchant-class would expand considerably following the annexation of Bulgaria--several of these new 'Roman' merchants would be ethnic Bulgarians who grew up as Romans, and made their income trading between the client states of the Empire, as well as minor Hungaria imports and exports from the north.
[2] Bulgaria had, roughly, a population of just over 2 million by this point in its history. With its size it could likely house 4 million peoples, within the medieval period. As it stands this would push the population up to that of the Komnenian Golden Age under John II Komnenos--i.e 12 million.
[3] Theodora nearly died during the birthing of Heraclius, who himself barely survived his first week. She was simply not strong enough to have more children without potential death in childbirth--and the controlling John refused to let his wife risk her life in such a way.
[4] John Komnenos still has a reputation as someone rather 'creepy' after his escapades during the Islamic rebellion that had occurred during the late-middle-years of Romanos V's reign. His tendency to simply indulge in wines and foods following a battle, regardless of how bloody it had been, saw him mislabeled as a cannibal and blood-drinker by many survivors of the rebellion, and such a thing still has an impact now--as he has yet to curb these tendencies.
[5] As you can recall, Anatolia was both inadvertently, and very advertently, decimated during the campaigns of reconquest in order to make it harder for the populations to rebel, or for the Turks to retake it. While the former did eventually occur anyway, the latter is yet to occur--as the Seljuks and Romans have had a tense peace for near a half century.
