Empire of the Two Romanias
Imperiul celor Două Romanii
Βασίλειο των Δύο Ρομάνων
Andronikos II Palaiologos, the Eastern Roman Emperor, actively sort alliance with the Bulgarians, in an attempt to thwart the Serbian expansion. In one of the battles Bulgarian-Byzantine forces fought against the Serbs, Andronikos’ life was saved by the ruler of Wallachia, Basarab I, who was then a voivode under the Bulgarian King, from a Serb horseman. This proved to be the beginning of the Byzantine-Wallachian alliance.
In a dramatic turn of fortune, by 1295, Serbia was defeated and divided between the Byzantines and Bulgarians, in the same year, Constantinople then sent priests, craftsmen, stone masons, military trainers, gold coins and a princess to help establish Wallachia as a counterbalance to Bulgaria, and also to fend off the Hungarians. A Greek priest discovered the writings of Byzantine historian Kinnamos that the Vlachs spoke a variation of Latin, and invented an alphabet for Wallachia based on Latin Alphabet, replacing the Romanian Cyrillic, centuries before OTL. It was then they started calling their country Tara Romaneasca in diplomatic letters.
Basarab initiated far flung reforms, organizing his cavalry along the lines of the Mongols, and infantry that of the Crusaders. Serbs, Bulgarians, Cumens, Mongols and Vlachs were all organized into Ronan’s which formed his army. Strengthened, the young Basarab I developed ambitions for the Bulgarian throne. Basarab was able to defeat the Bulgarian army and make himself the Tsar of Bulgaria, after the death of Tsar Theodore Svetoslav in 1319.
Th sudden union of Bulgarian and Wallachian kingdoms shocked Andronikos II, but his Empire had descended into a civil war against his son. The army Tara Romaneasca marched unopposed into Constantinople, in the year 1322, to remove Andronikos III from his throne. A year later, Nicolae Alexanderu, son of Basarab I, TTL Byzantine educated, became the Eastern Roman Co-Emperor.
Barsarab I defeated Ottoman I in the Battle of Prousa in 1226. He was able to employ Muslim/Turkic auxiliaries in Europe as well as Christians troops in Asia Minor to quell rebellions. By his death in 1352, the entirety of Anatolia was back into Roman hands.
As the Empire of Two Romanias stabilized under Emperor Nicolae Alexandru, it the Roman elite class became once again bilingual. Instead of Latin and Classical Greek, Romanian and Koine Greek are spoken by the graduates of the University of Constantinople and the University of Constanta. Those graduates would man the empire‘s new officer corps and bureaucracy.
The flag reflects the dual-monarchy system of the Two Romania’s Empire, in the last phase of the empire, whereas a “Northern” Empire and a “Southern“ Empire we’re trying to federalize.
The cross-with-four-stars layout came from a coin during Vlad Tepes' reign, but the six-pointed star could be found on Wallachia coins as early as 14th century, so it's reasonable to assume that the design could be envasaged earlier.