Waiting For The Son

And now, for a little side-project. This starts, as most of my work does, in media res of a long TL. However, it lacks the multicultural focus of my other work (see sig) and will not jump forward to the modern era. The era corresponds with our European religious wars.

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British Protestantism had started as Christ had- humbly, from the common folk. It did not start in the high halls of the Catholic hierarchy, nor in the private chapels of the great lords. It was independent of Europe, as Britain itself was. And it did not come initially from a man of the cloth.

The man known as Black Leroy Broadus (named so because he was a bastard of a local woman and one of the King's curious African servants bought from Portugal) or "The Snooping Dog" had, as a young man, learned letters and reading, unlike many of his peers. He had been a rogue, with many of them, engaging in the banditry that helped the rural poor get by occasionally. But The Snooping Dog was more than just a common rogue. He could read not only English, but Latin. He was also more spiritually inclined- he often thought of God as a young man, even in the midst of his sinful youth. He had a gift for lyricism, a disregard for the Church hierarchy and the local sheriff, and several interesting theological points.

Snooping Dog living in the small, poor village of Compton, which had become the center of its parish due to a royal cathedral being built there in the 1200s. Snooping Dog wrote a series of poems and spoken hymns, all criticizing the Church, and nailed them to the Cathedral. These poems would start a firestorm.

But Broadus was not alone in his efforts. A common priest, a Matthew Mathers, met up with Broadus in the city of York, and discussed theology with him. Their initial debates would be recorded by an aide of Mathers.

The two became theological partners. Both of them were poets at heart, but Mathers had a more varied lyricism, vocabulary and ability to rhyme. Mathers also brought serious spiritual credentials. And so, the shared theology of Mathers and Broadus began to develop.

At Mathers' suggestion, the two toured the country, preaching to the common folk and avoiding the local law enforcement. Oral memory of their popular hymns, both bawdy and serious, disseminated amongst the people. The English Church was particularly corrupt, and the people were poor. The new theology played in to populist resentments at a corrupt church. The message of the new Protestant theology also appealed to the people- focus on virtuous gains and material success on Earth, combined with a faith through scripture alone, would get people to Heaven. A Protestant work ethic developed early in the English Protestant movement.

But the faith was not limited solely to the commoners. The Archbishop of York proved to be an early ally, and soon petty lords and their lieges were listening to the message. There was money and land to be gained from the monasteries and from the retention of the tithes once sent to Rome. And so, Mammon motivated where Christ could not.

The King eventually tried to crack down on the surging movement, arresting Protestant lords and executing the Archbishop of York. This only provided martyrs. The Protestants continue to grow under Mathers. Snooping Dog continued to write both religious and non-religious common songs, and his nickname was shortened to the Snoop Dog we know today. Mathers, who also wrote using a pseudonym, became The Slim Shade.

Eventually, however, the duo broke apart. Mathers had, after an tempestuous and stormy first marriage, found a more stable relationship with another woman. Broadus, on the other hand, transitioned back to writing poetry, fables and more common song. The two remained amicable, but it was Mathers who was now the face of the Protestants.

The King ordered both captured and executed. Broadus, a rogue by original trade, went to the Continent to enjoy women and travel. Mathers hid out with his followers, eventually finding a temporary home near Holyhead in Wales.

Some Protestants rose up in rebellion, and were crushed brutally. This inflamed their fellows, and many of the burghers and lords tired of a corrupt Church and the arrogant king. A new rebellion caught steam, and soon a mass army of Protestants was marching on London.

Even worse, some of the royal soldiers had themselves converted to the mass appeal of the English Protestants. And so, the capital ended up being besieged. A Catholic force of lords and faithful peasants attempted to dislodge the siege, but were defeated after a Catholic traitor revealed their plans for gold.

And so, the capital remained under siege. The King appealed for foreign help, from the Pope or his Spanish sister-in-law. This appeal failed- they were busy with the more developed continental Protestantism that had engulfed all of Europe west of Russia and north of the Komnenoi Sultans (descended from the Greco-Turkish Muslim branch of the family).

Eventually, a servant who had been converted to Protestantism kidnapped the King with some like-minded guards. In exchange for the life of him and his kin, the capital was opened. The claimant, the famous Robert III "the Quiet", was descendant of a bastard branch of the first English dynasty, and grandson of the sister of the deposed King's great-grandfather. In 1534, Robert III Nixon became King. Although his rule was comparatively tolerant (he only purged traitorous lords), the long rule of his paranoid son King Richard I "the Clever" would see the Catholic presence in England basically destroyed.

And so Protestantism had been imposed on England. Mathers was made the first Ecclesiarch of the new Church. St. Albans replaced St. George as a national saint, and the purging of the defeated Catholic lords began in earnest

Protestantism had come to England.
 
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Constantinople had fallen to the Christians. The Komnenoi Sultans had held it since 1357, when the Eastern Roman Empire, weakened after the Latin Perfidy in 1234 and the continuing Turkish onslaught, finally crumbled before the triumphant Komnenoi Sultans. In a way, that fall was fitting- Eastern Rome fell to a dynasty as Greek as it was Turkish, that had translated the Koran into the Greco-Turkish argot in open defiance of the language taboo, and that had brought many Roman traits into their rule.

But now, after 5 years of brutal war against the Kazimi Shi'a Persians and the Moravians, the Queen of Cities had fallen in 1683. The Rumi had fought well against the latest incarnation of a Persian enemy as old as Greek civilization, but had folded easy against the hussars and infantry of the Moravian Emperor John I. And, with Moravian success came the traitorous actions of the Vlachs, Bulgars, and Albanians. The Vlachs and Albanians, loyal Orthodox Christian vassals, broke their vassalage and marched with the Moravians. The Bulgars rose in rebellion, and seized all of their irredentist claims.

Only the Muslim Serbians, unified in their love of Allah and their hatred of their neighbors, stayed loyal to the Sultan. But they were overrun- the Albanians seized Kosovo, and the Moravians installed a vassal Emir in Serbia, being careful to keep their new puppet a Muslim.

Now Konstantiyye was Tsargrad, and the Aya Sofya was once again a church. The Sultanate had fallen in Europe- and the Moravians were quickly advancing into geographic Asia. The Persians had signed peace after taken Syria and the Levant, and the small Turkish portions of Mesopotamia. Their Armenian vassals had signed peace as well, but only after seizing both Trebizond and Antioch. Armenia was now a large country, exiling its Sunni Muslims just as the Bulgars were.

The paper dried on the desk. The Sultanate was now a rump, deprived of its former capital and of its jizya-rich European territories. In addition, a sliver of Asian territory was given to Bulgaria, so as to protect the Straits.

The Sultanate was not the only power that was disappointed. The opportunistic Latin-descended Reformed King of Greece had jumped into the
war in 1681, hoping to win Thessaloniki and Mt. Athos, at the least. Instead, their claims were rejected in the peace, and they returned home bitter.

The Muslim Serbs were as happy as they could be, under the circumstances- a moderate Turko-Serbian ruler was made Emir of Serbia, and was made a vassal of Moravia. Serbia would be the sole island of Islam in the entirety of Europe, surrounded by Christians. The Vlachs, Bulgars and Albanians were also Moravian protectorates. In fact, the status of the four kingdoms was remarkably similar to the old system of protectorates under the Sultanate.

The Sultanate would wait. The Europeans could get away with kicking out their Sunnis. But eventually, the Sunnis under the Persian and Armenian yokes would chafe. And the Sultanate, recovered from a disastrous war, would retake what belonged to it.

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Sultan Bayezid II of the Komnenoi had died after the Peace of Nikaea was signed. His youngest and sole surviving son, Mustafa, would take power. Mustafa, unlike his father, was a competent administrator and a warrior. He was also patient.

From 1687 to 1694, Mustafa fought the Greeks for various islands and against Greek claims on Ionia. Mustafa would win this war, sacking Athens and retaining not only most of the Aegean Islands, but Cyprus and Crete as well.

In 1700, the Sunnis in Armenia and Northern Syria erupted in revolt. The Kazimis and their Armenian puppet were at a weak point. And so, Mustafa struck. In a quick and brutal war, the Komnenoi regained much of their lost lands.

Although some of the Nicaean gains remained in Persian and Armenian hands (Persian rump Syria and the Levant, Armenian Trebizond), the Sultanate had proven that it was not "the dead man of Asia". It had shown that it was still a viable power- at least, against weaker powers like the Greeks, or against other Asian powers like Armenia and Persia.

Soon after the Perso-Turkish War, the Russians would sweep down from the Caucasus and defeat the Kazimis as well, taking Armenia as their vassal and seizing parts of Azerbaijan. This would be the Kazimi nadir.

After this victory, some advisors to Mustafa suggested a war against the Bulgarians. Mustafa disagreed. Although he missed Konstantiyye, he feared another war against the Moravians, who had most of Eastern Europe under their powerful thumb. Instead, Mustafa sought better relations with the Moravians, proving his diplomatic credentials.

To the Sunnis, he was a hero, even though he did not claim the vaunted mantle of Caliph. He had retaken Antakya and Aleppo, and had beaten the Christians and Shiites. Mustafa's advisors also advised a second war, to take the rest of Syria and the Levant. Mustafa considered it, but the recovery of the Kazimi under their Shahanshah Farhang I made him reject that possibility. Shi'a Islam was becoming more popular south of the Komnenoi, particularly in the Levant. Persian language and religion was spreading to the people therein, and Mustafa was not going to risk war to try and absorb the historically restless Levant.

 
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Eminem and Snoop Dogg born centuries early to spread Protestantism via proto-rap? And a Tsargrad? I'm loving this too much already. Obviously, with your structure, I can't exactly say much about plausibility, but I don't really care at this point :p
 
Glad to see you enjoy it. Also- its not proto-rap, but the names are meant to be obvious shoutouts to those two gentlemen. More coming eventually.
 
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The Moravian Empire was itself a descendant of the old Union of Pressburg and the united royal and ducal crowns of much of central Europe. Bohemia-Moravia, Poland, Prussia, rump Catholic Lithuania, Hungary, Lower Austria and Carinthia were all, over time, brought into union through dynastic means.

To understand the Union of Pressburg, we must first understand the fall of Poland. Poland had Catholicized in 1000, but suffered after the death of Boleslaw in 1067. In 1070, the Wendish hosts of Krutoj would conquer Poland outside of Silesia, which was left as a Piast branch, which would then by vassalized by the Bohemians. After Krutoj died, the Northern Crusades began in earnest. The Teutonic Order left the embattled Holy Land for the north, seizing over two centuries Prussia, Pommerania, Pomeralia, Memel and Neumark. Their Livonian rivals would conquer the Letts and Balts. The Lithuanian pagans would conquer their old Wendish rivals.

In the early 1100s, the Premsylids of Bohemia would inherit Lusatia and Duchy of Lower Austria from the Babenbergs (who took Lusatia and the lands near Dresden in the mid-11th century).

In 1196, the Kingdom of Bohemia would be inherited by the Knutlings, who had been displaced from Denmark by the Ylvings decades earlier. The new king, Valdemar the Great, would embark on a crusade to liberate most of Poland from the Lithuanians, aided by the Teutonic Order in the North. Valdemar would crown himself the King of Poland as well.

The Knutlings would pledge as vassals to the Mongols before war could occur, preventing the ravages that had devastated Russia and Hungary.

In 1337, after plague ravaged most of Europe but passed over the Bohemians (comparatively, at least), the Kingdom of Hungary fell into a war of succession. The young King Valdemar II pressed his own maternal claim to their throne, and won. He would split Croatia as a separate crown from Hungary. 8 years later, during the War of the Lithuanian Succession, the rump Catholic Lithuania, led by Valdemar's wife, would pledge themselves as vassals to the Knutlings. The capital was moved to Pressburg after this.

Eventually, the Teutons turned on Bohemia, and a war broke out in 1410. After the Peace of Thorn in 1414, the Teutonic Order were vassalized to Pressburg. The Union of Pressburg, declared during the reign of Valdemar II, had reached its maximal height. Stretching to Minsk and Pinsk in the East, and the Adriatic in the south, the Union dominated Eastern Europe.

When Continental Protestantism began in Vienna, the Knutlings and many of their vassals were interested in the anti-monastic and anti-Papal message. The new faith, helped along by the new printing press, would spread in all the languages of the Kingdom- the few Danish settlers, the much larger population of German settlers, the Hungarians, the Poles, the Czechs, the Sorbs and Wends, the Croats and the Lithuanians. A few Catholic holdouts remained, but the new Unified Protestant Church would bind the Kingdom together under the centralizing authority of Pressburg. When the last male Knutling died in 1529, his sole daughter's son, Casimir Albert I von Hohenzollern, Duke of Prussia, would take the throne.

Casimir would defeat a Komnenoi invasion, and would afterwards declare himself Emperor of Moravia, aping the legacy of the old Kingdom of Great Moravia. The various crowns and noble assemblies were abolished for a single crown and a large, centralized bureaucracy. In addition, the military was reformed- the Polish-Hungarian hussars would accompany Czech artillery and the feared Prussian-trained infantrymen. Moravia had re-appeared on the world stage, the great power of Central-Eastern Europe.
 
Moravia had re-appeared on the world stage, the great power of Central-Eastern Europe.

Pretty cool, though I question any state that size holding together in that region and time.

Also, a Reformation in such a state would I think lead to a formed church, but it wouldn't be named "Protestant". It would be hierarchical and strictly subordinate to the state, much like the Church of England. And like it, would become corrupt and decadent in a few generations, infested with time-serving parasites and cast-off scions of the upper classes. (Like the CoE it would still have some religious energy, and could revive.)
 
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