Which Byzantine Alternate History AH should I do?
1106 : The Empire was at a crossroads then, many interesting scenarios could play out..
The Alexios Komnenos that I was talking about wouldn't be Emperor until 1143. Alexios was in ill health for his whole life and died in 1142, it would be interesting seeing someone much more older and experienced than Manuel on the throne, which would mean less mercenaries and no draining wars in Italy and no Myriokephalon.
Instead of Constantinople being sacked, in that timeline it would be Venice.
Voted for Romanos IV but I'd like to make a suggestion: instead of Romanos winning at Manzikert, he still loses but doesn't give up hope and comes back to reclaim the throne from the Doukas. You know, good old-fashioned civil war.
Voted for Basil because that’s a good era for a Byzantine “wank” while keeping the country recognizably “Byzantine” as opposed to “Roman” or “a dead man walking” (looking at you, Morea).
The TL I’d really like to see someone do someday is a Bulgarian conquest of Tsarigrad that has the conquerors assimilate and become just another dynasty of the Empire, but that is very different from most Byzantine TL concepts.
The TL I’d really like to see someone do someday is a Bulgarian conquest of Tsarigrad that has the conquerors assimilate and become just another dynasty of the Empire, but that is very different from most Byzantine TL concepts.
not really with out the extra 10 years of chaos faced by terrible emperors he can lose less of Anatolia, while romanos is hated he was at least a competent commander, in 1073 the empire failed to contain turkish advances as seen by Isaac and Alexios as seen by his 1068 campaign Romanos could have done better here even if the normans decide to make a mess i don't think a disaster like the zombos bridge occurs as after manzikert i don't think romanos would ever trust a doukas in the rear or trust to anyone who doesn't belive his very loyal still the doukas family would make civil war and i see them loosing all of central anatolia but western anatolia given away by Nikephoros III doesn't have to fall , even in a worse case scenario for him i still see more of Anatolia surviving
Rome AARisen is the best Byzantine AH TL I've ever read and it was mostly ASB after a certain point, being based on the Crusader Kings engine. So the key is making it interesting
The idea of a Late Byzantine survival has appeal but it's POD has to be before 1341 at the latest and probably should be before 1295 or so
The idea of a Late Byzantine survival has appeal but it's POD has to be before 1341 at the latest and probably should be before 1295 or so
Pretty much yes, here he manages to gather enough men to oust the Doukas (you can have the civil war drag out longer to make things interesting, maybe have Romanos literally strike a deal with the devil in order to succeed). From there it would interesting to see how Romanos would deal with the following rise of rebellious generals, mercenaries, Normans and again Turks. I think he would do a better job at damage control during the decade following Manzikert (compared to Michael VII), and it would still not be a Roman-wank (which would make the TL more interesting in my opinion)
Went for Justinian as that would certainly have some interesting effects and could allow Justinian to have an even better legacy if Italy was a success and incorporated properly and allowed him to focus elsewhere.
Basil II was my runner up as him having a capable heir and not shooting his dynasty in the foot would make for an interesting TL. A wank but a unique one!
Other ones of interest would be Manzikert. Diogenes would have more than a few issues to deal with so it would be interesting to follow and wouldn’t have been a wank.
1204 would be cool too, where does the rotting empire go from here?
Also surprised there was nothing for Michael VIII or the laskarids? If he’d one a few battles that should’ve gone his way all of Greece would’ve been secure early on and he could’ve gone east by 1265.
Basil II was my runner up as him having a capable heir and not shooting his dynasty in the foot would make for an interesting TL. A wank but a unique one!
Other ones of interest would be Manzikert. Diogenes would have more than a few issues to deal with so it would be interesting to follow and wouldn’t have been a wank.
1204 would be cool too, where does the rotting empire go from here?
Also surprised there was nothing for Michael VIII or the laskarids? If he’d one a few battles that should’ve gone his way all of Greece would’ve been secure early on and he could’ve gone east by 1265.