The Undying Empire: A Trebizond Timeline
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Part LXXIV: Dueling Patriarchs (1545-1547)
Eparkhos
Banned
Hey, you know what's interesting? Not this.
Part LXXIV: Dueling Patriarchs (1545-1547)
As always in the 16th century, religion and politics in the Trapezuntine-turn-Roman Empire were deeply intertwined. With three separate patriarchates incorporated under one banner in that most Orthodox empire, not to mention the Latins, Apostolics and the Muslims, keeping the balance of power within the realm would be a daunting task for even the most experienced rulers. David, however, had absolutely no intention of doing so. Instead, throughout the 1540s and 1550s he would strive to play the different religious groups and jurisdictions off each other for the benefit of all the empire and the Megalokomnenos, even as he himself began to spiral into insane delusions about a prophecy describing the coming end of the world….
Like their imperial forebears, the Roman/Trapezuntine Empire and the Orthodox Church were effectively partners in governance. Despite a sizable number of religious minorities of both Christian and heathen persuasions, the Orthodox faith was both the most numerous and the state religion of the Empire, and its followers were awarded certain privileges above all other populations within the realm. Many churches were built with state funding, were guarded with state resources in many parts of the realm, and in some cases members of the church’s hierarchy were treated as effectively being part of the government. In exchange, the Church provided a strong source of legitimacy beyond the general populace’s support for the Megalokomnenoi, legitimized David’s de facto annexation of Kartvelia as well as allowing its branches to operate as an effective extension of the Trapezuntine bureaucracy in some of the more far-flung parts of the empire. The fact that the two went hand in hand also had many diplomatic benefits, helping the Trapezuntines wield greater influences over their neighbors to the west and north-east, with the missionaries of the Caucasus and beyond also helping spread Pontic influence in those regions.
However, this was a somewhat….simplified….view of events. The presence of Orthodoxy as the state religion had knock-on effects within the minorities of the Empire--for instance, how the other Christian groups, primarily Italian and German Latins and Armenian Apostolics, occupied a notch between the Orthodox and the Sunnis, who were by far the largest minority within--but moreover it had a serious impact on how the lands beneath the Megalokomnenos Throne[1] were governed. The Orthodox Church was not a monolithic block, and in fact the Orthodox Church within the Roman/Trapezuntine Empire was in one of its most divided forms across its entire existence. The reason was simple: The unprecedented state of having three separate de jure patriarchates, one of them the Ecumenical first-among-equals Patriarchate and the other two being legally completely independent autocephalous patriarchates, those of Pontos and Kartvelia. With these three organizations forced to share not only an umbrella but jurisdictions within the same country and under the same ruler at the same time, tensions were bound to rise and the only thing David (and the patriarchs themselves) could do was try to manage the outbursts and conflicts which would result as best they could.
That was, assuming they had any intention of doing so. Even moreso than their Latin counterpart, the Orthodox Church was a meritocratic institution, with men being promoted to the high offices of the organization through a mixture of competence, ambition and backroom politicking. In theory, this meant that only those who were most able (and thus more favored by God) could attain power, but in practice this meant that the patriarchal seats were occupied by either uncompromising fanatics and ambitious, manipulative politickers, both of which had a tendency towards egomania. Had the three patriarchs--Ieremias II in Constantinople, Eugenios II in Trapezous, and Shio III in Kutaisi--been willing to work with David to establish a mutually beneficial system, the problems caused by this unusual situation could have been resolved fairly easily. Unfortunately, there were two major problems to this, mainly Ieremias’ and Eugenios’ swelled heads. Eugenios would’ve been a doge if he was born in Venice, possessing a talent for persuasion and rather cynical power-dealing, and was very much intent on preserving the power which his predecessors had held as the sole patriarch in the Empire, no matter what it cost his nominal brothers. Ieremias, on the other hand, had become patriarch only with Ottoman support--in this case, a literal army crowded around the Church of the Holy Savior in Khora[2]--and had been chosen by the vizier for his vacillating nature, short-temperedness and general paranoia. Ieremias couldn’t be sure that his own subordinates weren’t plotting to remove him, how much less could he trust his rivals, er, equals? He had to secure both his own position and the power of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the true first-among-equals. Only Shio was more concerned with spiritual than secular issues, and was willing to go along with most of David’s plans so long as the rights of his flock, the Kartvelians, were given their proper due. David, meanwhile, well, more on what David wanted later.
The simmering tensions between the three patriarchates came to a head in April 1545, over, of course, Gothia. Despite its small size, Crimea was one of the most legally complicated parts of the Empire, divided between the semi-autonomous vassal state of the Grey Horde on the northern plains, the Principality of Gothia in personal union with Trapezous in the south-central highlands, the formerly Genoese colonies along the coast which were governed under their own specialized eparkhoi, mostly descendants of the Genoese governors which had sworn fealty to Alexandros II, and which were subject to Old Genoese law, and finally the parts which were ruled as bandonoi of Trapezous proper. Traditionally, all of Crimea was within Trapezous’ jurisdiction, but in May 1545 Ieremias sent an embassy to the Hagia Sophia of Trapezous demanding that Ghazaria and Gothia be put under Ecumenical authority, citing the fact that the bull creating the Patriarchate of Pontos only gave Basileios of Funa authority over the borders of the Trapezuntine Empire, and as Gothia and Ghazaria were in personal union and in stewardship for the no longer existant Republic of Genoa, respectively, they did not fall under Eugenios’ control. Eugenios refused to do so, then refused to do so again under the threat of excommunication, supposedly even daring Ieremias to do so. In June, Eugenios appealed to David to settle the issue, citing Constantine the Great’s intervention in church affairs, and David quickly recognized that this was going to go south very quickly if he didn’t stop it now. He ordered Eugenios to transfer Ghazaria to Constantinople’s purview--it was ‘Genoese’, and Genoa was under the ersatz Patriarchate of Rome, so really Ieremias ought to have it anyway--but refused to do so with Gothia. Ieremias was partially satisfied and decided to bide his time, while Eugenios grumbled but did nothing. This resolved things for about four months.
In October, Eugenios demanded that the Bishop of Vatoume pay homage to Trapezous once more. Previously, Vatoume had remained under Kutaisi’s jurisdiction despite its decades within Trapezous’ political and spiritual control, as David hadn’t wanted to rock the boat so soon after acquiring all of Kartvelia. David found it hard to disagree, but forced Eugenios to conclude an agreement with Shio over what ought to be done so no further disputes could arise. Things seemed to be getting along well until January 1546, when Eugenios decided to push his luck and demand the Metropolitanate of Khuzakh be transferred to him, citing its foundation by Basileios I as his justification. Shio refused, and Eugenios appealed to David, threatening to void their agreement over Vatoume if his demands were not met. As this was a transparent power grab, both Ieremias and Shio threatened to excommunicate him if he did so, and David essentially told him to give up Avaria or give up his position on the Patriarchal throne. Vatoume was transferred to Pontos, but nothing else was.
The Armenian population of the Trapezuntine Empire made up about an eighth of the Empire’s total population by 1545, but held an outsize political and economic importance due to their majority population centers being clustered along the borderlands and their role as merchants and bankers across the Black Sea and the Middle East at large. According to the existing legal code, which had existed since the reign of Alexandros I and which David had been preparing to reform for years, the Armenians paid a slightly higher tax rate than the Orthodox population did, as well as being subject to greater restrictions on what they could and couldn’t own, especially in regards to the Apostolic Church. In David’s mind, these distinctions were an important reminder to the Armenians of the fact that they were in the wrong, spiritually speaking, but they also had the potential to handicap the spread of the True Faith in the lands around the Empire by handicapping its conquest of lands from the Sunni. As such, in the Lex Davidikon law code, which officially became law in 1546, the restrictions on non-priestly Armenians were struck down and those on the Apostolic Church itself greatly reduced.
This alone would have ruffled feathers in the Church, but even worse (from their perspective), David used it to get his foot in the door with the Apostolic Church itself. The Catholicos, Sarkis III, was pressingly aware of the dire straits that his flock found itself in the middle of the 1540s, with Kardashian’s forces barely able to keep increasing numbers of raiders away from the walls of Holy Etchmiadzin itself, and even with that aside was inclined to support the liberation of Armenia from rule by the Muslims at just about any price short of outright union beneath the Orthodox Church. Through a secret (and often gap-ridden, thanks to the Kurds) correspondence, the two agreed that the Trapezuntine Apostolics would be given equal rights and treatment under the law if the Catholicos supported the integration of the region into the Roman domain. This was decided by the summer of 1546, but before David could intervene there was the slight problem of informing the patriarchs of this agreement.
It went over fairly well, at least at first. David approached Shio first, knowing he was the friendliest, and emphasized the fact that he was not trying to force a church union but instead providing the basis for a united front to presented against the hostile Muslims which surrounded Rome and Kartvelia, as well as emphasizing the fact that many of the Armenian refugees created by the ongoing war might be sufficiently shaken to embrace the true faith. Next he went to Eugenios, speaking of how the Apostolics would be bound to drift further into the Orthodox (and implied Trapezuntine) orbit once they were physically integrated, and how this would open thousands of new souls to conversion and help add a massive buffer to predominantly Orthodox territories within the Empire already. If nothing else, Eugenios was a staunch Pontic nationalist, and the thought of finally turning the tide against the Persians[3] was enough for him to overlook his misgivings about the plan. Finally, Ieremias was brought onside by David telling him that the other two refused to do it; Naturally, he took this as a chance to prove his superiority as Ecumenical Patriarch and to save tens of thousands from the fires below, and agreed. As the winter of 1546 approached and preparations for war began, David must have thought that that had been surprisingly easy.
Then someone asked whose jurisdiction Armenia would fall under.
Obviously, Eugenios said, it ought to be Trapezuntine, as it would be (it was assumed) be under direct control from the capital. Obviously, Shio said, it ought to be Kartvelian, as the region had last been under Kartvelian control before it was conquered by the heathens, and it would be impossible for Trapezous to administer it when the winter passes froze. Obvious, Ieremias said, it should be controlled by a Metropolitan subservient to Constantinople. Then the Patriarch of Antioch (Greek Rite), Sabbagh II, wrote to them all, demanding that governance be given to him. With the state funding and tithes from the new swathes of land on the line, none of them were willing to back down, and it seemed as if another crisis was brewing.
By this point David was on the verge of losing it, and refused to sit by and twiddle his thumbs as these self-righteous idiots cost him Armenia and thus the salvation of all Christendom. He personally took a walk down to the Hagia Sophia with several hundred eleutheroi and had them drill on the courtyard outside while he gave Eugenios a lecture on the teachings of Christ and bluntly told him to drop the matter or be deposed. Missives to similar effects were sent to Kutaisi and Constantinople, and David successfully coerced the patriarchs into agreeing that the Orthodox Armenians would stand under Antioch’s jurisdiction until exactly 3 PM on 4 April--Easter Sunday--1554, at which point it would be ‘permanently decided’. None of them were quite sure why this exact date and time had been chosen, but David specifically demanded that they do so, and none of them were inclined to argue with him after his show of force.
The true reason behind the date was known only to David….
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] I meant to write this earlier but forgot about it, so let’s say that it’s an ornate throne created by Alexandros II in the 1490s.
[2] Alternative seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate during the Ottoman rule, and temporary seat until the Hagia Sophia is patched back together
[3] The Byzantines (and likely the Trapezuntines) had a habit of conflating the Turks and Persians together under one umbrella.
Part LXXIV: Dueling Patriarchs (1545-1547)
As always in the 16th century, religion and politics in the Trapezuntine-turn-Roman Empire were deeply intertwined. With three separate patriarchates incorporated under one banner in that most Orthodox empire, not to mention the Latins, Apostolics and the Muslims, keeping the balance of power within the realm would be a daunting task for even the most experienced rulers. David, however, had absolutely no intention of doing so. Instead, throughout the 1540s and 1550s he would strive to play the different religious groups and jurisdictions off each other for the benefit of all the empire and the Megalokomnenos, even as he himself began to spiral into insane delusions about a prophecy describing the coming end of the world….
Like their imperial forebears, the Roman/Trapezuntine Empire and the Orthodox Church were effectively partners in governance. Despite a sizable number of religious minorities of both Christian and heathen persuasions, the Orthodox faith was both the most numerous and the state religion of the Empire, and its followers were awarded certain privileges above all other populations within the realm. Many churches were built with state funding, were guarded with state resources in many parts of the realm, and in some cases members of the church’s hierarchy were treated as effectively being part of the government. In exchange, the Church provided a strong source of legitimacy beyond the general populace’s support for the Megalokomnenoi, legitimized David’s de facto annexation of Kartvelia as well as allowing its branches to operate as an effective extension of the Trapezuntine bureaucracy in some of the more far-flung parts of the empire. The fact that the two went hand in hand also had many diplomatic benefits, helping the Trapezuntines wield greater influences over their neighbors to the west and north-east, with the missionaries of the Caucasus and beyond also helping spread Pontic influence in those regions.
However, this was a somewhat….simplified….view of events. The presence of Orthodoxy as the state religion had knock-on effects within the minorities of the Empire--for instance, how the other Christian groups, primarily Italian and German Latins and Armenian Apostolics, occupied a notch between the Orthodox and the Sunnis, who were by far the largest minority within--but moreover it had a serious impact on how the lands beneath the Megalokomnenos Throne[1] were governed. The Orthodox Church was not a monolithic block, and in fact the Orthodox Church within the Roman/Trapezuntine Empire was in one of its most divided forms across its entire existence. The reason was simple: The unprecedented state of having three separate de jure patriarchates, one of them the Ecumenical first-among-equals Patriarchate and the other two being legally completely independent autocephalous patriarchates, those of Pontos and Kartvelia. With these three organizations forced to share not only an umbrella but jurisdictions within the same country and under the same ruler at the same time, tensions were bound to rise and the only thing David (and the patriarchs themselves) could do was try to manage the outbursts and conflicts which would result as best they could.
That was, assuming they had any intention of doing so. Even moreso than their Latin counterpart, the Orthodox Church was a meritocratic institution, with men being promoted to the high offices of the organization through a mixture of competence, ambition and backroom politicking. In theory, this meant that only those who were most able (and thus more favored by God) could attain power, but in practice this meant that the patriarchal seats were occupied by either uncompromising fanatics and ambitious, manipulative politickers, both of which had a tendency towards egomania. Had the three patriarchs--Ieremias II in Constantinople, Eugenios II in Trapezous, and Shio III in Kutaisi--been willing to work with David to establish a mutually beneficial system, the problems caused by this unusual situation could have been resolved fairly easily. Unfortunately, there were two major problems to this, mainly Ieremias’ and Eugenios’ swelled heads. Eugenios would’ve been a doge if he was born in Venice, possessing a talent for persuasion and rather cynical power-dealing, and was very much intent on preserving the power which his predecessors had held as the sole patriarch in the Empire, no matter what it cost his nominal brothers. Ieremias, on the other hand, had become patriarch only with Ottoman support--in this case, a literal army crowded around the Church of the Holy Savior in Khora[2]--and had been chosen by the vizier for his vacillating nature, short-temperedness and general paranoia. Ieremias couldn’t be sure that his own subordinates weren’t plotting to remove him, how much less could he trust his rivals, er, equals? He had to secure both his own position and the power of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the true first-among-equals. Only Shio was more concerned with spiritual than secular issues, and was willing to go along with most of David’s plans so long as the rights of his flock, the Kartvelians, were given their proper due. David, meanwhile, well, more on what David wanted later.
The simmering tensions between the three patriarchates came to a head in April 1545, over, of course, Gothia. Despite its small size, Crimea was one of the most legally complicated parts of the Empire, divided between the semi-autonomous vassal state of the Grey Horde on the northern plains, the Principality of Gothia in personal union with Trapezous in the south-central highlands, the formerly Genoese colonies along the coast which were governed under their own specialized eparkhoi, mostly descendants of the Genoese governors which had sworn fealty to Alexandros II, and which were subject to Old Genoese law, and finally the parts which were ruled as bandonoi of Trapezous proper. Traditionally, all of Crimea was within Trapezous’ jurisdiction, but in May 1545 Ieremias sent an embassy to the Hagia Sophia of Trapezous demanding that Ghazaria and Gothia be put under Ecumenical authority, citing the fact that the bull creating the Patriarchate of Pontos only gave Basileios of Funa authority over the borders of the Trapezuntine Empire, and as Gothia and Ghazaria were in personal union and in stewardship for the no longer existant Republic of Genoa, respectively, they did not fall under Eugenios’ control. Eugenios refused to do so, then refused to do so again under the threat of excommunication, supposedly even daring Ieremias to do so. In June, Eugenios appealed to David to settle the issue, citing Constantine the Great’s intervention in church affairs, and David quickly recognized that this was going to go south very quickly if he didn’t stop it now. He ordered Eugenios to transfer Ghazaria to Constantinople’s purview--it was ‘Genoese’, and Genoa was under the ersatz Patriarchate of Rome, so really Ieremias ought to have it anyway--but refused to do so with Gothia. Ieremias was partially satisfied and decided to bide his time, while Eugenios grumbled but did nothing. This resolved things for about four months.
In October, Eugenios demanded that the Bishop of Vatoume pay homage to Trapezous once more. Previously, Vatoume had remained under Kutaisi’s jurisdiction despite its decades within Trapezous’ political and spiritual control, as David hadn’t wanted to rock the boat so soon after acquiring all of Kartvelia. David found it hard to disagree, but forced Eugenios to conclude an agreement with Shio over what ought to be done so no further disputes could arise. Things seemed to be getting along well until January 1546, when Eugenios decided to push his luck and demand the Metropolitanate of Khuzakh be transferred to him, citing its foundation by Basileios I as his justification. Shio refused, and Eugenios appealed to David, threatening to void their agreement over Vatoume if his demands were not met. As this was a transparent power grab, both Ieremias and Shio threatened to excommunicate him if he did so, and David essentially told him to give up Avaria or give up his position on the Patriarchal throne. Vatoume was transferred to Pontos, but nothing else was.
The Armenian population of the Trapezuntine Empire made up about an eighth of the Empire’s total population by 1545, but held an outsize political and economic importance due to their majority population centers being clustered along the borderlands and their role as merchants and bankers across the Black Sea and the Middle East at large. According to the existing legal code, which had existed since the reign of Alexandros I and which David had been preparing to reform for years, the Armenians paid a slightly higher tax rate than the Orthodox population did, as well as being subject to greater restrictions on what they could and couldn’t own, especially in regards to the Apostolic Church. In David’s mind, these distinctions were an important reminder to the Armenians of the fact that they were in the wrong, spiritually speaking, but they also had the potential to handicap the spread of the True Faith in the lands around the Empire by handicapping its conquest of lands from the Sunni. As such, in the Lex Davidikon law code, which officially became law in 1546, the restrictions on non-priestly Armenians were struck down and those on the Apostolic Church itself greatly reduced.
This alone would have ruffled feathers in the Church, but even worse (from their perspective), David used it to get his foot in the door with the Apostolic Church itself. The Catholicos, Sarkis III, was pressingly aware of the dire straits that his flock found itself in the middle of the 1540s, with Kardashian’s forces barely able to keep increasing numbers of raiders away from the walls of Holy Etchmiadzin itself, and even with that aside was inclined to support the liberation of Armenia from rule by the Muslims at just about any price short of outright union beneath the Orthodox Church. Through a secret (and often gap-ridden, thanks to the Kurds) correspondence, the two agreed that the Trapezuntine Apostolics would be given equal rights and treatment under the law if the Catholicos supported the integration of the region into the Roman domain. This was decided by the summer of 1546, but before David could intervene there was the slight problem of informing the patriarchs of this agreement.
It went over fairly well, at least at first. David approached Shio first, knowing he was the friendliest, and emphasized the fact that he was not trying to force a church union but instead providing the basis for a united front to presented against the hostile Muslims which surrounded Rome and Kartvelia, as well as emphasizing the fact that many of the Armenian refugees created by the ongoing war might be sufficiently shaken to embrace the true faith. Next he went to Eugenios, speaking of how the Apostolics would be bound to drift further into the Orthodox (and implied Trapezuntine) orbit once they were physically integrated, and how this would open thousands of new souls to conversion and help add a massive buffer to predominantly Orthodox territories within the Empire already. If nothing else, Eugenios was a staunch Pontic nationalist, and the thought of finally turning the tide against the Persians[3] was enough for him to overlook his misgivings about the plan. Finally, Ieremias was brought onside by David telling him that the other two refused to do it; Naturally, he took this as a chance to prove his superiority as Ecumenical Patriarch and to save tens of thousands from the fires below, and agreed. As the winter of 1546 approached and preparations for war began, David must have thought that that had been surprisingly easy.
Then someone asked whose jurisdiction Armenia would fall under.
Obviously, Eugenios said, it ought to be Trapezuntine, as it would be (it was assumed) be under direct control from the capital. Obviously, Shio said, it ought to be Kartvelian, as the region had last been under Kartvelian control before it was conquered by the heathens, and it would be impossible for Trapezous to administer it when the winter passes froze. Obvious, Ieremias said, it should be controlled by a Metropolitan subservient to Constantinople. Then the Patriarch of Antioch (Greek Rite), Sabbagh II, wrote to them all, demanding that governance be given to him. With the state funding and tithes from the new swathes of land on the line, none of them were willing to back down, and it seemed as if another crisis was brewing.
By this point David was on the verge of losing it, and refused to sit by and twiddle his thumbs as these self-righteous idiots cost him Armenia and thus the salvation of all Christendom. He personally took a walk down to the Hagia Sophia with several hundred eleutheroi and had them drill on the courtyard outside while he gave Eugenios a lecture on the teachings of Christ and bluntly told him to drop the matter or be deposed. Missives to similar effects were sent to Kutaisi and Constantinople, and David successfully coerced the patriarchs into agreeing that the Orthodox Armenians would stand under Antioch’s jurisdiction until exactly 3 PM on 4 April--Easter Sunday--1554, at which point it would be ‘permanently decided’. None of them were quite sure why this exact date and time had been chosen, but David specifically demanded that they do so, and none of them were inclined to argue with him after his show of force.
The true reason behind the date was known only to David….
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] I meant to write this earlier but forgot about it, so let’s say that it’s an ornate throne created by Alexandros II in the 1490s.
[2] Alternative seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate during the Ottoman rule, and temporary seat until the Hagia Sophia is patched back together
[3] The Byzantines (and likely the Trapezuntines) had a habit of conflating the Turks and Persians together under one umbrella.
You said Patriarchal disputes are not interesting? Politicking is always interesting whether Religious or not!
The date is interesting indeed. My guess either David plans to blowup a church with all 3 patriach inside like its GoT. Or maybe he plan to die/go into exile on that day so its not his business anymore. Or maybe a date for a massive invasion?
Considering the hints that David is going to march into Syria, this seems the most likely outcome.
I think it is more likely that David believes there is going to be the end of the world at that date.
I agree with the end of the world theory. After the burning of Constantinople, we've seen several instances of David talking about the end of the world with people, saying stuff like "You gotta be prepared in a world where apocalypse and the war against the antichrist can happen at any time".
Eparkhos
Banned
I'll take that.
Hey man, no need to be rude. Also, my name's not Sherlock.
Yeah, I'll be honest that was a typo. Although, now that I think about it, there are two seperate wars, one with the Jaziran Kurds in 1552, and then the blankety blank of blank in 1553 and 1555.
*hiss* Burn it! Cleanse the thread!
A photo of the present day Queen of Armenia. Or Rhoman Empress Consort depending how the timeline goes. I'd also be interested to know how the son of a stonemason founded his own petty kindgdom.
I think just about anything is better than hearing voices, no? Isaac II might be better.
b. I might not have made this clear in the docu--thanks for the revision suggestion, I guess-but Mgeli's sort of faded away, leaving other voices in the peanut galley.
c. Evangelos was chosen mostly because of the schizo delusions David's having, but at least he's a fairly good pick, all things considered.
Yes.
True, although there might be a couple of cities near the mountains that could be taken and held. But a raid for the Mandylion this is not.
Thank you.
420 2 hi
I think that in the end it won't be any of these. I don't think I can say more than that.
Eparkhos
Banned
As a foreward: I'm kind of afraid this section will piss some people off. The writing is intentionally sloppy and incoherent, and probably sounds like the ramblings of a schizo scrawling what the voices in his head say on his basement walls with diarrhea because that's what I'm trying to get it to sound like. I'll welcome any and all questions, and though I hope it won't drive anyone away I'd like to ask that you wait until after this arc is over, because then it's going to go back to 'normal'.
Appendix: The Apocalypse of David
Eparkhos
Banned
Thanks
Appendix: The Apocalypse of David
….And, though I am hesitant to shatter the fourth wall in such a manner, the audience. By the 1540s, after nearly a dozen major battles and having been witness to and even committed innumerable killings and atrocities, having seen nearly everyone he’d ever cared for killed, even seeing his father dying right in front of him, and having been reduced to confiding in and eventually relying entirely upon the voices in his head, David had, in scientific terms, started to lose it. Unfortunately for many in the Near East, this had not taken the form of insane ramblings that would have seen him packed off to a monastery, but instead in a fundamental and apocalyptic change in his thinking that left the hard, calculating edge that had allowed him to rise this far intact. For all his faults, David was quite good at compartmentalization, to the extent that many historians in-timeline have (incorrectly) postulated that he had multiple personality disorder. Like I said, he didn’t have that, he was just really good at compartmentalization (which was probably worsened by one of his mental illnesses. When exactly this descent began is impossible to say, but the events in Constantinople, as well as the massacres against the Armenians, certainly didn’t help, likely being the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
This period of emotional turmoil caused a dramatic shift within David, as for the first time in around twenty years the ‘ghost’ of Mgeli within his mind suddenly disappeared. With his constant companion and steadying factor gone, David was left alone in a profound silence, one that left him increasingly adrift from reality, but in such a way that he was still somewhat grounded, his deluded fantasies feeding upon what he saw in the real world in a bizarre feedback loop. And when the voices came back, he would be more than willing to listen to what they had to say.
After years pouring over old religious (and often apocryphal) texts, David had come to the conclusion that he was Antichrist. It was a grim and solemn realization for him, but it was the only way in which his calculation of the true millennium could be true. The Byzantine calendar, which the Romans and Trapezuntines used, marked 5509 BC (0 EK) as the beginning of the world, and thus AD 1491 was 7000 EK, a number of great significance which could mark the beginning of the end of days. A wave of hysteria had passed through the empire during that year, which Alexandros II had dealt with admirably, but David was sure that the septmillenium was in fact a date of great significance: However, Christ’s lifespan (32 years) would extend this date to 1523--but Christ was God incarnate, but not from the Holy Spirit, which meant that God had also spent thirty-two years on the earth, for a true millennium date of 1555 (7064 EK). David was sure of this, but Christ had clearly said “As for the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36), so this couldn’t be the true date, unless David’s knowledge came not from God, but from the Devil, or rather that God had allowed Satan to tell David the date for some nefarious reason. The only explanation was that he was Antichrist, and Satan was preparing him as his vessel for the Tribulation and the Millenium and the Apocalypse, and God had allowed him to do it. It made sense: Katsarina had been a whore in the literal sense, and had she been from Iraq, or Babylon? He didn’t know, but she might have been, an ironic foreshadowing of the war for the soul of the world. As for the Antichrist’s allies, well, the Beast of the Sea had to mean the Trapezuntines, a naval power, and in ancient times he thought the dragon had been a symbol of Kartvelia!
But back to God and the Devil: Why would God allow Satan, and thus David, to know the date? Simple--because it didn’t have to be the end of the world. All of history since the Birth of Muhammed had seen the Christians driven back in all directions, and even when there were occasional victories, such as his own reconquest of Constantinople, they were tainted and set ups for later failures. In particular, the Greek Muslims stuck with him: But for a few generations, they would have been Christians, part of the elect and bound for salvation rather than doomed and damned as they were. It was becoming clear: God would not allow His people to perish, but he would allow those who feared to be martyred, who were lukewarm, to be spit out of His mouth and thus be doomed and damned like the Greek Muslims had been. If things kept going as they had, all of Christendom, or nearly all of it would be destroyed, especially Pontos and Kartvelia as shown in their role in the end of days as servants and allies of Satan. But if he struck now, if he could force Satan’s hand while they were still righteous among the nations and while the Greeks and Kartvelians stood in the light of Christ, then millions of souls that would otherwise be lost could be saved. It was the only future for the nations he ruled, the Greeks and the Lazes and the Goths and the Kartvelians and the Svans and all the others! GOD HAD MADE HIM ANTICHRIST SO HE COULD SAVE HIS PEOPLE!
It was an incredible notion, so engrasping but so terrifying that he knew that it had to be true. He spent countless nights grasped by a fever of his own creation, pacing back and forth across the shuttered halls of his palace and making frantic notes in languages he neither spoke nor understood. He knew what he had to do, God knew it, and He would not put a task before him which he couldn’t do, but he wasn’t sure, he didn’t think he could knowingly damn himself, and surely the God who so loved the world that He gave His only Son wouldn’t make him do it, would He? After hours of meditation and countless thoughts on the terrible future which must lay in store for him, David realized that like everything else there was only one way to escape the fires of hell. He would trust in God and the plan which He had made for him and fulfill his predestined role, the one that would earn him an eternity in the Lake of Fire through no fault of his own, and he would pray that Christ had seen he had done this because it was his duty to Him and all the Christians and the souls of the world, and knowing this he would be restored to the New Jerusalem. Or not. After all, God had said that it would be bad for the pregnant women and those with children, and many of the philosophy and priests believed that a ruler ought to act as if his subjects were his children. He ought not to doubt God, of course, or test him or tempt the Enemy, but it was the only way. It would be a sacrifice, as close as that to His which any mere mortal could make, and he would do it for the sake of all the world and hope against hope that he was right to trust God in such a way and escape Gehenna.
It was becoming clear, like he was emerging from a fog, but he still could not understand.e There was another prophecy, he knew, said to be from Saint Ioannes of Patmos, called the Emperor of the Last Days, which said the last Roman Emperor would go to Golgotha and throw down his crown and be killed so the tribulation could begin and the world finally be saved. Time and however many retellings had distorted it, though, but he could understand the truth of its message, and he realized how Rome as it was in the Bible could be reconciled with the Rome he knew and loved, and indeed a new voice spoke in his mind like a clarion, that which he primally knew to be the best since Mgeli had fallen silent, the voice of Gabriel. He would gather a host of every Christian nation, Latin and their splinters, the Orthodox and the Apostolic and the Nestorian, and he would lead them to Armageddon, so that they may wait with Evangelos--truly God was wise to have named him so--the true Last Roman Emperor, while he himself went on to Jerusalem, the City of David--truly, God was wise to have named it so--to cast down his crown and accept his fate as Christ and God and the Holy Spirit had ordained it. And then the Four Horsemen would come down from Heaven, but the King of Kings would come down with them upon a white horse to meet the armies of the Whore and the Beast and David, and he would take the army of Evangelos and march against them and shatter them so that the Tribulation might be hastened and countless souls saved. And the gates of the New Jerusalem might be opened….
In 1567, more than a decade after David’s death, a primmerikos named Ioannis Theodoridis would happen upon the ledger in which David wrote his vision of the End Times languishing in a dark corner of the palace complex. Not realizing the significance of it, he dismissed it as the ravings of a madman and took it back to his home intending to show it to one of his children as a warning against smoking opium. Instead, he would set it down, forget about it, rediscover it a few months later and decide to write about his possession of it on a note tacked to the front, then put it in his basement and never touch it again. A few decades later, in 1632, his great-grandson Iakobos Theodoridis would stumble upon it, realize parts were written in the same kind of purple ink as the imperial monograph was, and then piece together that David had written it. After editing out the spelling mistakes, revising it into a coherent order and writing a preface describing the document’s history, he would publish it in 1634 as the Apocalypse of David. The government would deny that this text was anything more than a collection of insane ramblings not even worth the justification of blinding Theodoridis, but it would gain a degree of popular interest. Especially once it fell into the hands of one Sabbatai Zevi as much of the heartland was swept with internal turmoil. But that’s a story for a different time. Let’s jump back to 1552, as David leads an army of Romans and Armenians, the spearhead of his great crusade, across the mountains and into Syria, and their date with destiny….
Honestly, it’s believable, since this is the 16th Century, and David seems to be a very religious person
Well at the very least we know the Roman Empire survives until the 1700s, which seems to be the next big crisis ala Manzikert.
Considering the painful experience of dealing with the numerous Patriarchs and other Orthodox authorities in Constantinople, Trebizond, and Kartvelia....not surprised he went off the deep end there.
David has officially gone insane with this Antichrist shtick and it's clear he's going to plunge Trebizond into this whole mess. Not a very good sign for Trebizond whose position is already precarious but hey, at least he has an heir with Evangelos.
I'm really curious as to what Sabbatai Zevi makes of the Apocalypse of David. I don't think that this ITTL counterpart will do exactly the same as the Jewish Messiah that we know of, since the document will influence his ideology. I envision that since David created such a dark and twisted prophecy and message, Zevi will also create a far more sinister counterpart to the Kabbalistic Jewish doctrine that he spread as the Messiah. Perhaps it'd be something related to Armageddon in this case.
en.wikipedia.org
David has officially gone insane with this Antichrist shtick and it's clear he's going to plunge Trebizond into this whole mess. Not a very good sign for Trebizond whose position is already precarious but hey, at least he has an heir with Evangelos.
I'm really curious as to what Sabbatai Zevi makes of the Apocalypse of David. I don't think that this ITTL counterpart will do exactly the same as the Jewish Messiah that we know of, since the document will influence his ideology. I envision that since David created such a dark and twisted prophecy and message, Zevi will also create a far more sinister counterpart to the Kabbalistic Jewish doctrine that he spread as the Messiah. Perhaps it'd be something related to Armageddon in this case.
Armageddon - Wikipedia
I swear, if you don't call the next Armenia post "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", I'll be sorely disappointed.
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