Beginning of the 9th Century: The Big Switch
By Geoffrey Haraldsson
The 9th Century saw the final collapse of not just one but two dynasties but also a host of new changes.
In Northern Europe the Viking Age had begun with the ever increasing raids of the Northmen. Perhaps had there been a strong central power such as the Roman Empire to stop them or even a large Germanic Kingdom the influence of the Norsemen on the face of Western Europe would have been minor, repelled by a strong and organized Empire. Unfortunately that was not the case, by this time no major Kingdom or state had been able to form North of the Danube and Alps. Briefly the Franks had managed one but divisions and a series of puppet Kings had torn the Frankish Kingdom into division. The Northmen sailed across the North Sea and pounced on the coastal holdings of the many counts and kings of the British Isles, the Northern Coast, and the Iberian Peninsula. As time wore on they would eventually turn their raids into full scale invasions as adventurers turned to colonizers setting up dozens of small holdings from the Orkney Islands to Lusitania. While in time it would eventually be the impetus for unified Kingdoms in most of these places (except for Iberia) at the start of the century the people were just learning to fear the Longship.
More importantly further south and east as the Ptolemaic Dynasty in Romania was dieing the ailing Tapurianis had gotten their second (and final wind). From the shores of Hycarnia, what the ancient Greeks referred to as a land of Wolves, the Tapuriani's last Emperor would be crowned in 801. Vergsu the III also known as The Wolf. The Grandson of Shahanshah Adela who had died in 787 the Tapurani Dynasty had quickly been taken over by court ministers who held power and did not choose an official successor to Adela immediately. Quite likely they disposed of Adela's original will and hemmed and hawed as a Sucessor among the royal family was decided. Vergsu was one of the candidates they did not favor, too independent but ruling from Hycarnia as Shahzada they could not challenge his power directly. Unfortunately for them an invasion by Emperor Marcus Ptoleamus, eager to cement his popularity through foreign adventure, decided to punch the Roman's ancient enemy. Weakened by internal conflicts the Diqans and the Imperial Army in Assuristan were unable to stand against the Romans who sacked Ctesphion and incorporated most of Assuristan in a shockingly short war. For the first time the Tapuriani court was forced to completely abandon Ctesphion.
If Marcus had not attacked the Tapurianis the dynasty would have lingered on longer and quite likely torn itself apart in civil conflict that was not too far on the horizon between the many claimants for the position of Shahanshah. By defeating the Tapuranis though Marcus opened the way for Vergsu to seize power for himself. He quickly declared himself Shahanshah and the new capital to be Reyy. In a brilliant game of political maneuvering he positioned himself as a beacon of hope and won the allegiance of most of the Diqans and crushed his rivals in a short war. From Reyy he quickly went to work establishing a new administration and cutting the power of the ministers of his court. Instead of launching himself into a war with the Romans he waited patiently for them to act first. He was rewarded when the Lombards launched a new war of conquest to throw the Romans out from the Italian Peninsula for good. Marcus responded immediately by turning toward Italy which in a similar fashion to the Gothic War the Romans were bogged down in fighting.
Of course it was not to the West that the lands felt the feet of the Northmen, their traders and raiders found more than serviceable waterways to the east, from the shores of the eastern Baltic the Norse traveled amongst the Slavic farmers that inhabited the region, following trade routes to the Black Sea and trade with the Romans. They however were not the only ones who had ventured into the Slavic hinterlands along the Dneiper. From even farther east nomadic tribes from broken Khazars and various Turkic tribes had drifted ever westward, into the steppe of the lower Dneipier they met Slav and Norseman in equal amounts trade and warfare. What would coalesce would be a unique culture and an eventual power in its own right...