Let's keep this shit on the front page with a meme
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/9sn7mY6.png[/IMG]
Never to be cucked again, sandraker scum.
This truly is the End of Eternity.
[[B]A sparse Book IV is out![/B]]
Hey lad im trying!!!!
This constitutes the last book of Turn 6, thus rendering it complete!
I will be posting the map once I get home. You can now start sending turns for turn 7. Remember: it's 50 years a turn until 1100.
[editline]23rd March 2017[/editline]
Oh and turns are due next friday or as soon as I get them all in! [B]Do not miss this deadline[/B].
[QUOTE=From the writings of historian Malven Deodatet; he]
With the sudden appearance of the Mohammedan Saracen, many faithful wondered what was going to happen next. It could be a matter of time until the pentarchal cities of Alexandria, Antioch, and most importantly, Jerusalem, fell in the hands of heathens. In the West, following the Merovingian takeover of Italy, the Papal State was formed, distancing the Bishop of Rome away from his equals. While no one questioned it in the west, in the east, people wondered what the bishop might do with the rise of a new emperor in the region, a title only the Roman Emperor could claim. Many factors led to the Roman Emperor contacting the heir of the Franconian Emperor, the King of Low Germania; the Emperor, along with the patriarchates, were getting suspicious of the Bishop of Rome's power, and offered a chance to not only increase faith in the region, but give the King more freedom faith-wise. The Franconian lent his ear and listened to his offer: to maintain the stability of the Church in these sad times, new patriarchates should be established in the West, as to not only unsuspectingly limit the Bishop of Rome's power (through the enforcement of conciliarity), but to allow for greater local representation and diversity within the faith, effectively organizing the church against the expansionist forces of the Saracen. The Franconian liked the idea, and sent his church men to meet with those of the Empire - this would effectively lead to the First Council of the Lateran in 876, once the Pope was pressured by the other Catholic kingdoms joining in (at least in spirit), such as with Brittania.
Through the writings of several chroniclers, and several members of the wider clergy of the time, such as those by the Briton monk known as Tremorus, the Greek deacon known as Vassilios, the Franconian presbyter known as Thankmarus, and the Carthaginian prelate known as Leonius, we can easily identify the intricacies of the First Lateran Council.
Alongside the five ancient Patriarchates, the Pentarchy, whose order of preeminence was ranked by the Quinisext Council in 692, four new 'junior' Patriarchates were created, in correspondence to the former Roman dioceses. They are as followed:
• The Patriarchate of Hispania, based in Compostela, holding jurisdiction over all of Iberia
• The Patriarchate of Gallia, based in Lugdunum, holding jurisdiction over all of Gaul
• The Patriarchate of Greater Germania, based in Mogontiacum, holding jurisdiction over the following lands: Low Germania, Middle Germania, High Germania, and the rest of Magna Germania, including Frisia and Cimbria
• The Patriarchate of all Albion, based in Mincip/Mencipit/Verulam (the name fluctuated between sources), holding jurisdiction over all of Albion, consisting of the islands of Pretan and Hibernia
Along with the foundation of Junior Patriarchates, the council also established the Ecumenical Ecclesiarchy, the governing body of the Church that would maintain regular jobs of appointing archbishops, protecting pilgrimage routes and sites, the creation of new Patriarchates, and large scale missionary projects into foreign lands.
---
Through writings of the time, we can also identify the rites used in this time, along with the titles of who followed them, which I have written down below;
• Bishop of Rome, Patriarch of Italia, Primate of Hestia, Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Rome, and First Among Equals Patriarch: Lateran Rite* (Benedictine/Lateran Rite derivative [Hestian Rite] for Hestia)
• Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Greece, and of Haemus, Pannonia, and Anatolia: Constantinopolitan* Rite
• Patriarch of Antioch, and of Syria, and all the East: Antiochene Rite
• His Most Divine Beatitude the Pope and Patriarch of the Great City of Alexandria, Libya, Pentapolis, Ethiopia, all the land of Egypt, and all Africa, Father of Fathers, Shepherd of Shepherds, Prelate of Prelates, Thirteenth of the Apostles, and Judge of the Œcumene: Alexandrian Rite (African Rite for Carthage/Africa)
• Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and all Palestine, and of Arabia, beyond the Jordan River, Cana of Galilee, and Sacred Zion: Liturgy of Saint James
• Archbishop of Compostela, and Patriarch of Hispania: Hispanian Rite (Gallican rite derivative)
• Archbishop of Lugdunum, and Patriarch of Gallia: Gallican Rite
• Archbishop of Mogontiacum, and Patriarch of Magna Germania and Cimbria: Lateran Rite
• Archbishop of Mencipit, and Patriarch of all Albion: Albanic Rite (Celtic/Lateran rite derivative)
*Lateran referring to the Pre-Tridentine Roman Rite, and Constantinopolitan referring to the Byzantine Rite
---
Using the writings of Brittonic clergy men, we can map out the origins of the Albanic Rite, also known as the Mencipitic/Armaghic Rite. The royal family of Brittania, the Padulli, helped set its foundation after one of their kings had the various abbots and bishops go through Albion and collect info on the various diverse forms of the Celtic Rites that existed on the island, uniting them into one rite. Alongside the Patriarch of Mencipit [Verulamium] and all of Albion, and the Bishop of Patricium [Downpatrick], there was also the Irish Archabbot of Armagh, whose particular church, in the form of a territorial abbacy, spanned all of Hibernia and Caledonia, akin to the Patrician Bishop, as the Irish at the time focused more on powerful abbots and monasteries, rather than the episcopal structure of the wider Brittonic Church. This development helped preserve the form of the faith practiced in those areas for a little longer, keeping its distinct elements such as the Culdees and lunar dating for Easter intact.
---
To understand the origins of the Hestian Rite, and its position under the Bishop of Rome rather than the Archbishop of Lugdunum, one must consider the introduction of Christianity into the region. Whilst the ancestors of the Hestians have a history with the faith, having followed the teachings of Arius, as well as introducing them to their new pagan subjects, it wouldn't be long before Rome once more attempted to stomp out the heresy.
As such, Pope Gregory I organized groups of Italian monks and priests to be sent not only to Hestia, but to the now-organized Cimbria. The Gregorian Mission, as it is known, had mixed results depending on the region. The group sent to Cimbria suffered harsh resistance, and many of them perished as they attempted to flee to the group sent to Hestia. Contrasting their failure, the slow but relative success of the Hestian group, consisting of Augustine of Hestia, Paulinus, Rufinianus, Iacomus, and Justus, among others, helping the push towards the followings of Rome. Many of those who perished in Cimbria, such as Laurentius, Petrus, and Mellitus, would later be named martyrs. Those that survived, such as Honorius and Gratiosus, would join in the success of those first sent to the kingdom on the coast of the Suebic Sea.
The Apostle to the Hestians, and the proper founder of the Hestian church, Augustine would establish the first Hestian Benedictine monastery soon after their arrival. Other foundations quickly followed, and through the influence of several important characters in the reforming clergy, the Benedictine Rule would spread with extraordinary rapidity, leading to the Benedictine Rite influencing the wider Hestian rite. The evangelization of Hestia by Benedictines would be an important milestone in the history of the faith in the region.
---
It goes without saying that the influence of the First Council of the Lateran cannot be understated. However, it was only one of many Councils of the Lateran that would be held, seeing as the first only covered one of the major issues of the faith at this time. The Second Council would be as influential as the first...[/QUOTE]
Good to get this out finally. If anyone wants to know more about Tremorus, just ask and I'll do a write up. I wonder if anyone will find the joke I wrote here.
Maps are now posted for turn 6!
I have:
Constantinopolitan State of """""""""rome"""""""" (native)
Those khazzar dudes (Trebgarta)
Senate and King and maybe even the people of Brittania (Damian)
Nagorno-Karabakh bait train (Jsoldier)
I need:
al-qaeda in the middle east and north africa (griff)
Hestia is Bestia (Pezgod)
Kingdom of the right angles (broguts)
Wanna-be Western Roman Empire (Skalduna)
Game of Thrones simulator: Gaelic Boogaloo (Shisno)
Woah holy shit this is still happening?
Ye my dude it was just on hiatus while I was pre-occupied with other things.
Work on the turn has started.
Turn progress metrics coming toon tee em.
TURN PROGRESS
[B]To-do[/B]
Kingdom of Brittania (Damian)
Kingdom of Sweden (Joshuadim)
[B]Done[/B]:
Faction headers (3/6)
Main map
British Isles map
Kingdom of Spain & Electorate of Burgundy (Jsoldier)
Roman Empire (Native Hunter)
The Caliphate (Griff)
Despotate of Africa (Skalduna)
[B]Skipped[/B]:
N/A
[B][video=youtube;yQdxPxJW68M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQdxPxJW68M[/video]
Turn VII Preview: Long Live the King, Slayer of Kings[/B]
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[I][B]In the coming times, all men South of Angland will know the name of Jósuá Heimskur Ragnarsson, for when they invoke him, it will be as king.[/B][/I]
[I]In the year of our Lord 885, Europe [B]bleeds[/B]. A once barbarous and godless people have found among them a great King, a man of power and ambition who brings a chill down the spine of the most powerful monarchs of Europa. Wherever the land meets the sea, the Varangians come forth in a deluge, united in the purpose of bringing the world to its knees. Nowhere is safe. No sanctuary is sacred. No man, woman, or child is left untouched by the hardships brought upon them by the Vikings. Villages burn and crops whittle and die. [B]Now is the age of the North.[/B]
Hestia. A Kingdom born of perseverance and strength crumbles against Varangian steel. The King bows at the feet of the House Ragnarsson, begging mercy of them. Mercy is given, but at a price. Hestia, the once-great kingdom becomes but a despotate. Lords are replaced with Jarls and sölderun with huscarls. The Varangians, in that year, eat banquets atop the graves of their enemies.
The only question now is...
[B]Who will be next?[/B]
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/Cs6c4H.jpg[/IMG]
Across the world, the great Empire of Sina will fight its last battle in the old world, struck true by the sword of Islam. Their enemies slain, the Caliphate of Al-Mu'tadid bi-llah is one born again. Arabs march the corners of the world, bringing Islam down upon the unenlightened like the skull-smashing swing of a mace.
In this new age, Emirs and Imams enter the courts of Kings as equals, and the mere mention of Arab soldiers brings cities to surrender. In Baghdad, the Caliph commands the swing of a million swords. His mere whim topples Empires and his word rewrites the fabric of history. A deep, endless ocean of vassals, allies, and lords stand ready to protect the interests of his Empire wherever it may go.
From the deserts of the Nile to the Oxus river, Al-Mu'tadid's grand caliphate incorporates a vast realm of different peoples and histories, and it may only continue to grow.
Indeed, the coming revival of Islam's golden age may be a telling sign of things to come.
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The Visigoths are no more.
The court of Burgundy, overshadowing the King's court in Paris, had little need for the monarch's approval before the Duke raised a great army of men, Burgundians and allies, to topple the decadent Hispania of the Visigothi. The Duke - no - the [B]King[/B] would prove once and for all that Frankish arms reigned supreme in the Lord's continent.
Their destruction was not without resistance, as a contingent of loyal men was brought to the fight against Burgundy, but this force too little and too late into the fray to save the Germanic elite of Hispania from defeat. The French Duke swept through the countryside unchallenged, and by the time he had chosen the capital from which he reigned, the cities of Hispania had already hailed him as King.
The King and his allies, now basking in the fruits of their conquest, looked toward the South. The distrust of Carthage was earning them no favors among the lords, and with the throne came the responsibility of dealing with one's neighbors.
So too did the Carthaginians realize that a new era was upon them, and that relations with Burgundy would now be paramount to the continuation of the status-quo. They watched the next steps of the King with bated breath...
[/I]
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[video=youtube;-rMdm1baAzs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rMdm1baAzs[/video]
[t]http://i.cubeupload.com/o1Fmed.png[/t][t]http://i.cubeupload.com/WM4jib.png[/t]
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A sunny morning in Constantinople. The streets bustle with urban life - pedestrians cram the roadways and side streets of the city, flanked by merchants screaming for their business.
In the palace, the Basileus waved the Arab delegation off. With a courteous bow, Hazim ibn Hedjaz and his retinue departed from the Emperor’s court and took to the streets for continued celebration and furnishment. The chief diplomat of the Caliph Al-Mu'tadid bi-llah had so far spent two weeks in the Romans’ grand capital, guest to lavish celebrations, dinners and races held on his behalf as part of negotiations for a lasting peace between the two great Empires. When the decorated diplomat left the Rumiyyat al-kubra and returned to the new capital of Baghdad to announce the successful forging of a non-aggression pact, he brought with him tales of a city of boundless wealth and splendor, where even the most impecunious peasant adorned himself with robes of silk and the lowliest of footsoldiers bore helms of silver, with precious gems adorning their crests. Suffice to say, Rumania was a land blessed, and the Caliph’s court came awash with gossip and rumoring of every sort.
Particularly nasty among them was the indication by some court notables that the Caliph and his family, for lack of the luxuries brazenly displayed in Constantinople, were on the brink of becoming beggars. Some courtiers, under cover of anonymity, went as far as to claim that this was the reason for which the Caliph made peace with the Empire, and that because of this spineless concession to the infidels he was now due to be replaced by someone of a stronger and more pious stature. The court in Baghdad fell into chaos when the Caliph did little to dispel these rumors, save for gathering his courtiers to announce that the Caliphate was “not bankrupt.” Thankfully, the Caliph’s steward acted diligently to out the perpetrators of these vile rumors, and the court returned to the status quo, save for some backroom floggings. As for the Caliph and his delicate balance of power, he lost nought but his honorable reputation, for despite the outing of their manufacturers, the allegations had done their damage.
Nonetheless, al-Mu’tadid bi-Ilah had no intentions to dwell on the consequences of court intrigue. He had an empire to run, and ambitions to fulfill. The whisperings of some veiled courtesan meant little to a man who intended to one day adorn the corners of the world with his black banner.
To start, he needed to increase the effectiveness of his vassals’ levies. The Abbasid military, while mighty, was in a state of sad affairs, and the emirs and sultans were terribly dependent on levying precious farmhands and herders who would normally furnish their tribute to Mu’tadid. This was all well and good in the context of today’s affairs, but requiring these men to equip themselves put a toll on the ability of vassal tributary levies in terms of equipment quality. Using wealth acquired from a much-hated new vassal tax, Mu’tadid furnished many of his vassals with cheap, but standard arms in exchange for an extension of their obligations to the Caliph. Mu’tadid’s potential levy size swelled, and he achieved the desired effect of seeing men come to him bearing the tools he required to get the job done. This increased homogeneity of equipment allowed the Caliph’s commanders to draw up more complicated and thorough battle plans now that they knew what the composition of their troops would entail.
With this adjustment in the military order made, the Caliph called up his vassals to war. His top general, Abu Rashid, would gather an army to invade Nubia while Mu’tadid himself would see to it that the Sericans did not advance further West. At the head of an army some 22,000 strong, the Caliph arrived later that same year in Sassania to gather levies for a pitched battle against a Tang army West of the Oxus river. The Shahanshah Bahram VI, in addition to his 3,000 man contribution to the Abbasid force, rallied 7,500 soldiers to fight alongside Mu’tadid.
In the following years, the campaigns in Transoxania and Nubia resulted in a drastic expansion of the Caliphate, with Mu’tadid securing his dynasty via the handing out of conquered lands to his vassals. The Tang was especially vanquished, as their army was massacred at the Oxus and a Serican army has not since tread West of the Oxus river.
After securing his position and returning home from years of campaigning, the Caliph set out to do some domestic work. Mu’tadid looked back at Rome with envy, and desired to make a “second Babylon” out of his capital in Baghdad. He commissioned the construction of houses, palaces, bazaars, and even a replica of Babylon’s hanging gardens (which would go on to mark his reign.) Construction of schools across the Caliphate was planned, but this “side-project” fell through and was never realized, due to the difficulty of dealing with the Emirs. However, the use of waterwheels in Baghdad’s new constructions led to the diffusion of the waterwheel throughout the Caliphate - an unintended, but much-welcome side effect of Baghdad’s rising prestige as the “capital of the East.”
After years of construction projects and development, Baghdad began to take on a certain splendor, with even Romans commenting on its similarity to Constantinople in terms of its glamour and grandiosity. The Hanging Gardens of Baghdad were especially noted as a rival to the great Hagia Sophia, and a sort of “war of prestige” began to boil between the courts in Constantinople and Baghdad.
Though he was, without a doubt now the undisputed Caliph of the Islamic world, Mu’tadid thought ahead and decided that he should ensure the Abbasid would have staying power of the ages. To do so, the established Al-Majlis al-A'la, the Grand Council, in Baghdad which served as a sort of advisory council to the Caliph - a parliament, which served to give the Abbasid vassals a say in the governance of the great empire, as well as to give them the power to choose the Caliph from amongst themselves - an indispensable tool in the effort to maintain the empire’s solvency amongst rival power groups.
The final years of Caliph Mu’tadid’s reign were marked with the introduction of thorough law codes, further cementing the rule of law over tyranny - even Emirs were now bound by secular laws, something some did not like. Upon Caliph Mu’tadid’s death, the Grand Council convened for its first appointment of a Caliph. Expectedly, they chose the son of the great Caliph, Al-Muktafi.
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A sunny morning in Constantinople. The streets bustle with urban life - pedestrians cram the roadways and side streets of the city, flanked by merchants screaming for their business.
In the palace, the Basileus waved the Arab delegation off. With a courteous bow, Hazim ibn Hedjaz and his retinue departed from the Emperor’s court and took to the streets for continued celebration and furnishment. The chief diplomat of the Caliph Al-Mu'tadid bi-llah had so far spent two weeks in the Romans’ grand capital, guest to lavish celebrations, dinners and races held on his behalf as part of negotiations for a lasting peace between the two great Empires. When the diplomat left the city to inform his master of the last few weeks’ events, he left the Emperor Theodosius with a smile on his face, and he left the senate puzzled about the Caliphate’s intentions. A non-aggression pact they would have, and just like that the two empires ceased to raid each other. Anatolia became serene and quiet once more, and the residents of the Roman levant began to rebuild, ever-worried of a Muslim raiding party coming for them. With this somewhat miraculous development came a sense of relief, and for the Emperor, a sense of the freedom to finally live out his ambitions. It was time for Rome to rise.
Here came the time that the Romans would finally attempt to reclaim Moesia from the Bulgarians. A health amount of bribes and secret letters were set aside to court Bulgaria’s enemies, and, when the time came, Rome struck. Theodosius led the main force of Comitatenses himself, a healthy sum of 10,000 well-armed professional troops accompanied by 25,000 poorer soldiers. Avars and Wallachians joined the fight and attacked the Bulgarians from all sides, leading to the eventual capitulation of virtually all lands South of the Danube. The war with Bulgaria was additionally blessed in that it resulted in two developments: First, an Empire wide postal service, with resting stations along the roads to provide fresh horses, food, and water for messengers was developed to provide effective resistance against Bulgarian counter-attacks. Secondly, laminata plate armor saw a revival across professional armies in a modified form. Originally developed to save costs on manufacturing and repairing armor, the segmented cuirass was brought back for that same reason now, leading to significantly reduced equipment costs in furnishing Constantinople’s professional comitatenses. The armor was cheaper such that even some irregular forces could now be found furnished with armor, rather than their usual padded fabric or leather. Despite a botched campaign in Illyria, Theodosius returned home to cheering crowds, and feasts and games were held in abundance to celebrate Constantinople’s fortunes. Coin and wine flowed aplenty, and the grand city was held in awe for weeks.
After the celebrations died down ,Theodosius returned to the imperial palace to get down to important business. Firstly was Theodosius aware of the growing power of his subordinates - the landowning, aristocratic senate owned much of the Empire’s land, and their estates were only growing. To combat their growing eminence, he introduced tax cuts to all freeholding small farmers, allowing them some leeway in their incomes. The rate of freeholder bankruptcy thus was cut by a large share, and the further acquisition of freeman farms by aristocratic estates dropped, though still remained prevalent due to factors of coercion. The senate, of course, was livid and demanded that the Emperor scale back these taxes, claiming that the provinces, and thus the armies were being starved of much-needed coin and supply. Technically they were not wrong, but Theodosius thought this a worthy sacrifice in the face of potential threats to his throne and dynasty. He would keep the aristocracy below him at all costs.
Theodosius, later in his reign oversaw the inclusion of the Empire in the Council of the Lateran in Roma, and, later, the dispatch of a delegation to the eminent Sericans. Unfortunately for the latter, the Roman delegate later returned, saying he had been turned away from the Oxus by Muslim troops. Merchants in the area had informed him that the Sericans were some time ago vanquished by the Caliphate, and, were they any longer for this world, there was no sign of them to confirm that notion, save for the continued flow of their goods Westward. In the meantime, his delegate informed him of the great transformation of Baghdad, and how it had gained a reputation to rival Constantinople. Theodosius was furious at this notion, and began thinking of how to beat out the Caliph in this new “war of prestige” that had erupted between them.
Theodosius ended the latter half of the century in old age, still atop the throne and wearing the purple.
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The latter half of the century began with the formation of the Kingdom of Francia, and with it, the consolidation of power to its vassals. The strongest among them was the Duke of Burgundy, who held disconnect holdings across the Kingdom. Indeed, the Duke’s court in Burgundy in many ways outshone the King’s court in Paris, and Burgundy was now going to walk their walk.
Cue the Short March. The Duke, raising his vassals and allies to war, gathered a force to rival the King’s and marched on Hispania in force, citing claims of continuity on the throne of Hispania.
Dubious as these claims were, the Visigoth Royal Army fell quickly to the Burgundian Short March, and before the Duke had even settled into his new throne the lords of Hispania hailed him King. He moved quickly to install and please his old vassals, and was operating as a King, indeed a rival to Francia itself, by the third quarter of the century.
As a first order of business, the Duke, now King, ordered the furnishing of the landed poor with stimulatory funds and supply to help their farms stay productive. Indeed, the ongoing efforts of the King to help the poor earned him the scornful title of “King of the Wheat” among his vassals, but the poor hailed him as the one true King of Hispania as the Francian King looked on in horror.
He did not, however, forget his lords back home, and invested significant amounts of his new treasury towards the development of the Duchy’s ports, with a great amount of expansion and building of new wharfs occurring in the passing years. Trade increased massively, and with the King’s Carthaginian neighbors especially.
With his vassal rightly pissed about his caring for the poor, and increased contact with new civilizations, the King dispatched missives to identify potential allies for the future. The obvious suggestion of his advisors was to seek friends in Carthage, who were kept firmly in the loop on Roman affairs. It seemed that through the Despotate he might be able to secure valuable allies against the Karlings to his North and East - allies he would need desperately even if the Francian King was currently shitting his trousers at the prospect of a vassal with twice his riches in gold and the title of a proper monarch.
And he did not sit on these riches either. The reign of the Hispano-Burgundians was marked with a massive campaign of patronage to different inventors and artists - of particular note was the Venetian painter, Luca di Lucci, who became the King’s premier producer of portraits and propagandistic scenes of peasant foot-kissing which would be displayed in the halls of his palace and, much to the dismay of his vassals, their bedchambers. By decree.
Additionally to the massive patronage of well-intentioned art, the King’s sponsorship of thinkers resulted in more than a few prestigious plays and gimmick inventions which diffused themselves across the realm. Of more useful note was the writings of Burgundian general Karl Allaire. His works, subsidized by the crown’s coin, resulted in the creation and diffusion of the “Manifeste à la guerre,” a series of military manuscripts on tactics, training, and conduct. Finding readers as far as Constantinople, the manual bore comparisons to the Roman “strategikon” of the same subject. It would go on to become standard reading material for the well-learned Burgundian martial lords of the Realm, and neighboring Dukes even took up the book for a read.
All-in-all, the last fifty years of the 9th century had treated Burgundy extremely well, and there was much to look forward to and much to worry about in the future.
But that? That’s a tale for another time.
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The latter half of the century saw the expansion of Carthage’s borders and the reduction of Carthage’s arable land, with the Sahara slowly creeping up on the once-prosperous breadbasket. While the Carthaginians made successful conquests of Libya and put the Western Muslims on the defensive, they too had become victims of raids by the forces of nature and the abuses of over-farming. North Africa was becoming wasteland, and it was displacing thousands. While the magnificent and powerful port cities were cushioned from this force through the support of Sicily’s rich harvests, the cities were now becoming swollen an increasing trend of urbanization. The Carthaginian realm was tightening, with or without the Jihad to compel them.
As less and less arable land became available, the crafty Carthaginians were forced to make due with what they had - previously untilled hill terrain and other land of less-than-suitable elevation became prime real estate for the cultivation of grain. What made this possible was the rising use of terrace farming, allowing hill farmers to cultivate grain in otherwise steep slopes. Support for this commandeering of farmland was well-supported by the Carthaginian senate, who furnished significant amounts of manpower and coin to prepare land for use in agriculture.
In this period, the grain stores of major settlements were also expanded to compensate for the increasing volatility of the Despotate’s food supply. Much less grain was sold in surplus and much more was levied for storage in silos across the state.
By the third quarter of the ninth century, the realm began to stabilize, its hungry peoples satiated for now. However, Carthage still stood at an ever-increasing risk of losing its readily available grains, and so the protection of the Despotate’s breadbaskets became an issue brought up more and more frequently in the Senate, with many lords withholding levies in order to protect their dear food supplies. Conversely, the amount of soldiers increased as the Senate levied swathes Carthage’s poor in light of renewed offensives by the Saracens, both in the East and West and in the sea. The Senate launched a massive campaign of “righteous redemption,” which, much to the dismay of the Despotate’s privileged urban pops, preached the elevation of all to citizenship status regardless of faith or creed if they took up the Carthaginian banner. While successful in countering the drop in levies caused by the reluctance and fear of the landed aristocracy, the effort was controversial across all levels of society. The resulting controversy sent waves through local Christendom, and was instrumental in the failure of Carthage’s negotiations at the Council of the Lateran in Rome, where the Carthaginian delegates were welcomed coldly by their ultra-orthodox brethren, who saw the domestic campaign as an embrace of heretics and non-believers.
In reaction to the increasing pressure of Saracen counter-attacks, the stock of Carthage’s library was ordered to be moved to Sardinia, where there was a heavy, well-fortified military presence. Likewise, the Senate convened its final meeting within Carthage on the eve of 877, then relocating all operations to Palermo, where a significant presence of professional troops was permanently stationed. Island ports across the realm were seeing rapid growth of military presence and fortification, and many aristocrats feared that despite Carthage’s fortunes, the fate of the realm was only delayed by the reconquests of Saint Skalder some 70 years earlier.
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At the half-turn of the century, the Kingdom of Brittania was largely in ruin. However, the desperate and weak position that the Kingdom found itself in was no deterrent for the ever-resilient Romano-Britons, who picked up where they had left off and began to rebuild. The reconstruction and repatriation of subordinate realms (including the combination of Dobunnia’s governorship with the office in Durotrigia to form the province of Cornubia.) led to a massive shortage of coin, which was in turn counteracted by a re-intensification of trade conducted outside the realm. Delegates sent to all of Albion’s former trade partners re-secured trade rights for Brittanian merchants, and soon enough the crown-sponsored tradesmen began to bring in well-deserved taxes, especially Carthaginian silver, which was one of the most valuable forms of currency available to a contemporary lord. Of particular priority to the High King was repayment of debts to the House Karling, who furnished Brittania with significant amounts of solid coin during the succession crisis, and the preceding years saw major shipments of coin sent forth to Germania.
Along with the need for manpower to rebuild Brittania, the increasing presence of Viking raids and the eminence of the new Swedish King led to the rapid reconstitution of Legio II, who, at great cost to the King, saw their permanent manpower swell from a merry band of 700 to a grand force of 11,000. Aside from working permanent fortifications along Brittania’s Eastern shores, the legion undertook a major civil engineering campaign, resulting in the rapid reconstruction and expansion of major urbs across Albion, as well as the commissioning of new forts and stations. With a fresh start, and new prospective generals, the Legio II adopted among into its lexicon the Manifeste à la guerre of Burgundian origin, which resulted in the synthesis of various military manuals to create the legion’s new fighting style for the new age. The new general of the second legion, Gaius Emilton, applied these concepts extensively in his dealings with varangian raid parties, and to that end the legion regained its reputation as a force to be reckoned with.
The latter years of Gervase Aurelian Padullus’s reign as High King were marked with significant development of Brittania’s external presence, with a major delegation attending and successfully negotiating at the First Council of the Lateran in 876. Relations with Carthage, though intense through trade, were markedly cold as the delegation to the council directed a not-so-insignificant amount of insults and inflammatory language toward the Carthaginian delegates, who had just recently engaged in what amounted to a minor heresy in the eyes of the Brittanian bishops. Upon the delegation’s return from the council, they were welcomed angrily by the High King, who scolded them for their hostility towards the Carthaginians. The High King thus looked ahead, thinking how he would now mend this wound in the relationship between the High King and the Senate in Palermo.
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/4ZRWc7.png[/IMG]
Varangian. Men across Europe whisper the word with shaky breath, shuddering in the face of the pagan heretic. The faceless menace that stands against all that is holy and right. But they were that - barbarian heathen, and they could never stand to actually challenge the supremacy of God’s chosen kingdoms.
Until now.
It all started when the powerful Jarl Harold Anundsson, a distant relative of the Rurik dynasty, defeated a confederation of tribes in the heart of Southern Scandinavia. His power at the half-point of the century was such that he was declared a King among Jarls, and so he became. Harold the Great went on to carve out a massive realm which would have the Europeans to his South rightfully shitting their trousers.
All that would be Svíþjóð today was built and championed by the great Varangian King, whose extended family would go on to conquer much of Northern Europe. Anundsson created a complicated and rich system of obligations through which he maintained power among his Jarls, all of whom quietly contended to succeed or overthrow him - he courted powerful allies through the assignment of titles and landed wealth, and formed the precursor of a common Varangian culture and religious creed that would serve to culturally and religiously unite the disparate peoples of Southern Scandinavia. Those who left the frozen homeland to carve out their own realms still paid homage to Anundsson, who was their patron and guarantor of legitimacy, for every Varangian man and woman acknowledged the great King as the “Father of all Nords.”
When Anundsson passed of age, an age of mourning swept the realm. Jarls looked on with delight, but the great King had established a strong base of loyal vassals who would immediately support his successor. With no heirs of his own to pass on his title, he left his Kingdom to his nephew, the young Jarl Jósuá Heimskur Ragnarsson.
Jarl Heimskur was youthful, but his enemies feared him. At the age of twenty-six, just a year from his ascension to the throne, he led a vast army of vassals and his own men on a conquest against the grand Kingdom of Hestia, bringing the Germanic crown to its knees. Later, he commissioned and backed the Varangian conquest of Normandy against the House Karling, leading to the miraculous defeat of the Francian army at Caen. The resulting conquests and Jarldoms only served to further cement the power of the King, who basked in the prestige and riches of war.
Having not seen his palace for years, King Ragnarsson returned to Svíþjóð in late 896, much to delight of his subjects, and was given a hero’s welcome. Following a decisive “reconquest” against the Anglish Realm, the King committed vast amounts of wealth to the rebuilding and development of his conquests. In this period, trade expanded drastically, as did the many port settlements of the realm, who saw their humble communes evolve into sprawling power bases of commerce and military might. The King’s capital of Stockholm benefitted especially from this growth, becoming the preeminent settlement of the realm. The Jarls of Svíþjóð too benefitted greatly from this rapid growth which saw their capitals rise to prestigious statust, and King Ragnarsson was duly credited.
At the turn of the century, Ragnarsson once more slept in the cabin of a longship, making preparations for a new conquest abroad…. Now was the age of the Varangian.
[B]That's it folks. Next turn due when I have time. Hope you enjoyed it![/B]
[B]Update:[/B] Turn VIII, AD 900-950 [B]is due Friday, July 14th [/B]
I hereby oath on my momma's name that if all turns are in by this deadline, the turn will be out on time so pls dont be late.
[QUOTE=From the writings of historian Malven Deodatet; he ]The fate of the Saxon people is as tragic as it is hopeful. Following the Saxon War and the collapse of the Kingdom of the Saxons, their people were frightened. The numbers reduced, yet some continued the slaughter even after. Childeric's systematic purge was often over-exaggerated by many later historians, such as the ever-mentioned Flavius Alypius, and that was assuredly a case of them never encountering a single Saxon in their life. However, the purge did reduce the number of the Saxon people even further. Formerly reaching as south as Hanover, they were pushed north passed Bremen.
Despite these, in some ways, ineffectual purges (if only because it led to the deaths of non-Saxons too, because of their allegiance to them), many Saxons escaped and settled north across the border into the lands of the Anglo-Jutish. Everyone non-Saxon south of the regions of North Frisia and Anglia had been now completely displaced by the Saxons, and those in the area moved north, displacing the Varines between the Angles and the Jutish, ensuring the creation of the Anglo-Jutish, and later helping in the defense against the Danish invaders. The Saxons, former allies of the Anglo-Jutish, were seen as second-rate citizens, only slightly better than the third-rate status the Danish received once they became a part of the Kingdom of Angland. As the Kingdom expanded further to support its population, they would adapt a more autonomous, "extended" rule to those outside of the Cimbric Peninsula, which is why many historians refer to this period of Anglish history as the "Anglish Confederation", despite Cimbria proper and its south still being a kingdom.
Meanwhile, while the Angles and the Jutes had largely given up their invasion of Britain, others such as the Frisians continued. Bolstered by the Varines and many Saxons joining them, they finally managed to establish a foothold on the island, north of the kingdom of Linda. While they would have numerous conflicts with Linda over what they considered de jure land, they choose to bide their time, slowly expanding as opportunities arose. The formation of Friso-Saxon would be a curiosity in history, and their continued survival was only assured by Brittania's attempted fraternization with Angland before the age of the Vikings. While Northumbria, or as some would call it Northsax, would eventually succumb to the Romanization all Germanic invaders suffered entering the lands of the former Western Roman Empire, their tongue and writing, the futhorc, survived for long enough that we can easily reconstruct it today, and it has even seen a resurgence of use in recent years by ancestors of those Romanized.
---
The Germanization of the Western Empire, known today as Germania, is a controversial topic in the history of Western Europe. The Franks, later becoming the Franconians, would aggressively push towards German glorification in the first era of the Empire, prior to its fracturing by Salic law and during the reign of Lothar I.
In an other world, the Franks would've heavily relied on the Gallo-Roman aristocracy that had survived the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but various factors, such as Merovingian supremacy following the Saxon War and the way the fall of Rome had affected the region, would ensure that they, along with House Karling later on, would have no initial use for the Latin-speaking folk, eschewing their influences for what they saw as proper German, leading into the development of Old Franconian.
One of the most controversial moments in this brief period was the retreat of the Gallo-Romans from the northern, northeastern and eastern sections of Low Germania, otherwise known as (actual) West Germania by some scholars. Regions populated with Latin-speaking folk, such as formerly Roman [I]Gallia Belgica[/I] and [I]Germania Inferior[/I], either voluntarily left the area or were forced out, making way for Germanic settlers to repopulate. However, this would have dire consequences for the local kingdom, with its Gallo-Roman population increasing a good bit, pressuring the ruling Karling branch to reconsider its options. Indeed, Lothar's son and heir, Louis the Roman, would end up breaking away from the Empire of Germania to form his own independent kingdom, known today as Francia, gaining the support of the population and consolidating his power to his vassals, most powerful of which being the family from Bourbonnais, House Bourbon, who ruled the Duchy of Burgundy and, later, the Kingdom of Hispania.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=From the writings of historian Comitin Taillefer; he ]Tremorus is a fascinating figure in the history of Brittania. A low class monk from the north, he had always wanted to travel outside of his home island to discover what further truths were there about the faith he loved dearly. After hearing rumors of the King sending Brittanian church men off-island, he followed every lead he could to find out where they were heading off from, before reaching south into Brerding, where he discovered the ship the church men were using, sneaking in.
Many of his early writings, written in a Brythonic-Brittanian pidgin, using the Irish-created Insular script, mostly spoke of menial things at first. His boat trip was one of a tense nature, as Varangian raiders had risen in the region, seemingly helping Northsax in the meantime, with adventurers arriving for glory. He spent his time playing an early Brittanian variant on the game backgammon, socializing with the Romance and Celtic people on the ship and just keeping himself calm.
Arriving in Armorica for a stop, Tremorus mentions the rise of tension here as well, which was semi-related to the tensions of those in Brittania. Rumors related to their neighbors, the newly risen Jarldom of Normandy, as well as worries over proper Gallo-Roman intrusion into the region, led to fears of invasion, political and/or cultural, and thus the Armorican Gauls, the last of their kind on the mainland, had been preparing defenses in case that happened. Interactions were limited, but Tremorus' comments on their language would help linguists in their quest to reconstruct Old Armorican.
From Armorica, the trip continued by ship, and tensions had simmered as they left the possible reach of Germanic raiders, at least in their opinion. Arriving in Gades for another stop, Tremorus would write about the differences between Betican Garum, considered the best in the entire Roman world, and Brittanian Garum, or as he referred to it, Liquamen, stating that he preferred his homeland's variant more. One would wonder what he would think of caveach. He would also discuss the views of the faith as displayed in Betica, and comment on the cosmopolitan nature of the region, from Romanized folk such as the Moors, the Beticans and the Africans to the non-Romanized, such as the Berbers and the two Bedouin merchants he encountered.
Soon, they left by ship once more and crossed the strait of Gades, and it would be during this ship trip that Tremorus would be discovered, but the church men allowed him to stay, as one of them recognized Tremorus and embraced him in brotherly love. Arriving in Italia, Tremorus would part ways with the group, now headed on his own faithful adventure. He would spend some time in Roma before heading south from Parthenope, or Napoli, through what was known in ancient times as Magna Graecia. As he commented on their faith and language as well, noting the increasing amount of Greek the more south he went, he commented on their food too. A proper foodie, if one could call a monk that. Focaccia would be a dish he would enjoy very much.
Arriving in Hydronton, he crossed the strait of the same name by boat and landed in Corcyra, from where he arrived in the Hellad. He would traverse many of the monasteries in the region, discovering more and more of the faith in its most orthodox form. He would stop at Mount Athos, or as he called it, the Holy Mountain, and spend some time there, before continuing on his journey. It would be around this time that he would discover the classical philosophy of cynicism, its later incarnations and the stories of many of its philosophers, from Crates of Thebes and Peregrinus Proteus, to Sallustius of Emesa and Diogenes of Sinope.
As he traveled across the Aegean into Asia Minor, he would also discover many Hellenic terms, such as Hesperia ultima for Hispania, as well as quirky devices, such as the aeolipile, which demonstrates the physical properties of the weather. Along with his own discoveries in the faith, he had so much to share with those back home. He carried many documents, many of which are now displayed in the Museum of Cavelot, containing them.
With lasting peace achieved between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Abbasid Caliphate, Tremorus would be astounded by the cosmopolitan nature of the region of Syria, commenting how it in some ways eclipsed what he had seen in Betica. His tales exploring the many different types of Christianity, the awkward story of him attempting to discuss with an Arabic-speaker by using an Arabic Bible he gained in Gades, and visiting the Holy City, among the Pentarchal cities, are just many of the things he wrote about. He would even encounter a man of the East, speaking of an enlightened man named "Buddas".
His time would come to an end in the region, and he soon arrived south in Egypt, where he would visit its many rich towns, including the last Pentarchal city of Alexandria. It would be about here when he would express that he was getting homesick, and feeling as though he had finally seen the greatness of his faith upclose, he left the region by merchant boat in order to finally return home. He would make comments as the ship stopped in Sicily and Sardinia, expressing his opinions of the areas, before reaching Bourbon-owned Hispania, which he began referring to as Hesperia. He would travel north, first by foot, and then by horse, before once more reaching Armorica, discussing his encounters with the local Gallo-Romans, including when he haggled with a merchant over the price of food he was offering.
Once in Armorica, he would start reflecting on his journey, with his writings ending before his boat trip back to his home island. His travels are currently assumed to have lasted from about 876 to 883, with many references to them found by local writings commenting on "the foreigner who spoke Latin weirdly." While his discoveries would at first be only local knowledge to the north he was from, some aspects would spread among Brittanian culture in the period, including classical cynicism and the introduction of Greek terms he brought along. The town near the monastery he inhabited would end up having a public aeolipile as well.
Tremorus' re-emergance in popular Brittanian culture during the times of romanticism would be indicative of the era he came from, one of growing development under High King Gervase, a time when spirits were high and the threat of the Varangians was still decently far away. Unlike other characters who became popular in the time, Tremorus' stories, whilst possibly slightly exaggerated at times, were based in reality, whilst the previously mentioned characters were imaginary. As such, many adaptations of his stories exist today.[/QUOTE]
Based on the countless discussions had in the Discord, I present to you more officially approved canon!
[B]Religion in the known world as of AD 900[/B]
[t]http://i.cubeupload.com/vwkpX7.png[/t]
Stripes indicate mixed populations. View full image in a new tab for best experience.
[B]Rankings of realms by military manpower[/B]
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[QUOTE=From the writings of historian Malven Deodatet; he]The influence of the First Council of the Lateran resonated throughout Europe, with those who orchestrated it celebrating a minor theological and geopolitical victory, as those two went hand in hand around this time. However, the opponents to the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome knew they needed to seal the coffin and ensure that he is, as his title says, only the First Among Equals. But something that they hadn't considered was what the Patriarch himself was organizing. In the time between the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and the First Council of the Lateran, the Pope had weaved a strong web of connection throughout the former provinces of the West, both with the bishops (and the common folk consequently) and with the kings that inhabited the region. It helped not that Pope Adrian approved of Carolus Magnus' crowning as Imperator as well.
Combining what we've stated with the fact that, unlike the other patriarchs, the Bishop of Rome controlled his own lands, and one would quickly realize that he had ensured his popularity, power and prestige in the West, excluding Brittania for reasons we will get to. While unnoticed during the First Council, the Pope's so-called lobbying group, colloquially named the Adrian Group, would stand toe-to-toe with those who threatened to reduce the Bishop of Rome any further than he already has, de jure or de facto. Not even their local patriarchs could challenge the might held in the Pope's hands. This is the position the Catholic world had found itself in as it began the Second Council of the Lateran in 910.
The main initial points of discussion were that of the title of Pope, which generally referred to a bishop or patriarch, just being a colloquialized term borrowed from Greek, and the stance on Unisedism, or Monosedism as some insist, referring to the belief and promotion of a see's superiority over others within the church. Those standing against the Adrian Group hoped to adopt the title of Pope as an endearing title for all patriarchs, not just the Bishop of Rome, and attempted to see the idea of Unisedism declared a heresy, for it stood against the equality between the patriarchs, among other things. Both of these were inevitably blocked by those within the Adrian Group, and as such ended up on the cutting board.
To most, this may make the council a failure, but some things were achieved and recognized. Carthage's actions prior to the First Council were addressed, and as such, they had to prove their loyalty to the faith by intensifying its actions against the heretics which still laid in its lands, acknowledging the First Council at the same time. With Arianist holdouts discovered in Western Hispania, a similar demand was made to the King of Hispania, and to make sure they followed their local patriarch, as they should. The general state of the Catholic world was also discussed, with regions being examined to discuss what heresies may still muck about where, and the threat of the Varangians being discussed as well. Due to the insistence of the several parties, including the Brittanian delegation, several church figures were sent to the region where Hestia was located, to inspect and report the state of the faith there.
The influence of the Second Council resonated just as strongly as the First, but not for the success it had made in uniting the faith even further and ensuring the conciliarity of the church, but by displaying the true strength of the Bishop of Rome. It was going to be a long battle, if one could call it that, and the most resilient would be the victor.[/QUOTE]
Here comes some more approved canon, displaying some interesting facts on this Europe's history.
It's now Thursday, July 13th.
[B]I have:[/B]
Burgundy (Jsoldier)
Svitjod (Joshuadim)
Abbasid (Griff)
Roman Empire (Native Hunter)
Brittania (Damian)
Despotate of Africa (Skalduna)
[B]I need:[/B]
[B]TURN PREVIEW 8[/B]
[B]THE FIRST DOMINO FALLS[/B]
[video=youtube;2rnJ-9Oosv0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rnJ-9Oosv0[/video]
[IMG]http://i.cubeupload.com/QNpEK3.png[/IMG]
[I]For long has a reign of peace and prosperity cloaked the lands of the East as the Roman Empire of Constantinople lay dormant, holding its own amidst the ever-changing backdrop of the known world.
A precarious balance held in place by the powers that be.
But when the right man takes the purple, angered by past transgressions, how will the world react as iron meets flesh?
The mobile legions of Emperor Varazes, the first Arabic-speaking emperor, march northwards toward the reaches of Preslav...[/I]
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[I]Away from the Roman sphere lies the grand city of Baghdad - a place of splendor, but one that is gilded. Between the Tigris and Euphrates, decadence is a virtue.
Long has the strong arm of the Caliph wielded unimaginable holy power, but now disrupted by boiling religious feuds. A rebellion crushed with the help of Greek arms, and vassals that grow stronger every day.
Chief among the Caliph's vassals is the Sasanian dynasty - the Iranian empire of old has long dominated the lands of the East, in strife but forever eternal in the minds and hearts of its subjects. As the bond between empire and land has grown stronger, all forms of identity have been co-opted to conform as-well. Now, men and women convert to the new, imperial cult of Zoroaster - an old faith, evolved to adapt in new, tumultuous times.
So long as tribute has been paid, the tolerant Caliphs of Baghdad have not minded the Iranian heresies being spawned in the East.
But now, the coin no longer flows West. No tribute paid. No emissaries dispatched.
A storm brews in the East.[/I]
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[I]A gust of wind. A skip in the hearts of men.
Bells ringing.
Horns sounding.
Drums thumping.
From sheer cliffs the lords of Cavelot look on toward a picturesque scene.
The most intricate waves, flutting about. Ocean spray crashes against the shore. A hundred sails or more dot this dark blue backdrop.
Just another Saxon raid, like those of old, the lords of the West concluded.
But how times have changed, that these were no Saxons.
The Brittanians would forever remember their first real introduction with the men of what they call Seucia.[/I]
Hastily-built turn tracker, stable as Elective Gavelkind:
Map [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
Headers [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
Constantinopolitan Empire [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
The Swedelaw [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
Islamic Caliphate in Iraq and Syria [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
kingdom of the [action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property] [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
Red Spain, Tovarisch [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
Kingdom of Notch [IMG]https://facepunch.com/fp/ratings/tick.png[/IMG]
We use to play Cricket series these days on Ipad
[QUOTE=tedsmith;52945718]We use to play Cricket series these days on Ipad[/QUOTE]
Hey, are you sure you posted this in the right thread?
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[video=youtube;2e32uF8NPZ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e32uF8NPZ0[/video]
[I]The known world, Anno Domini 950[/I]
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[QUOTE][B]Notable Events[/B]
-Their Southern-Danube lands occupied by the Romans, the Bulgarian empire collapses and the Wallachian lords swear fealty to the new Hungarian emperor.
-The Pecheneg tribe is pushed West by Rurikid aggression, settling North of Wallachia.
-Ravenna is annexed by the King of Italy through treaty, leaving the Papal States smaller than it previously was.
-The Polish tribes of Hestia unite into a single kingdom, throwing off the Hestian yoke.
-The succeeding kings of France now take on the title of "Emperor" of Francia.
-Due to a succession crisis between the Karling emperors, Italia splits off from Imperial Germania to form its own kingdom.
-The death of the Duke of Benevento results in the fracturing of his realm.
[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE][B]Long live the Basileus Varazes Sebastos, King of the Romans, Imperator of the Western and Eastern Legions, Most holy guardian of the Christian faith, and most magnificent patron of Constantinople. May God bless him and all his descendants.[/B]
The ascent of the Emperor Varazes, many said, would mark the beginning of a new era for the Eastern Roman empire. He was a man of ambition and faith - a man of the whole world, assembled into a single whole.
The turn of the century would inevitably see the Bulgarian kingdom fall, dissolved into dust as its Southern-Danube holds fell back under the authority of the Romans.
It was this idea - that all of Rome's former territories would sooner or later return to the fold, that drove Varazes to draw up and combine the Armies of the West and East, and enter into a long and hard reconquest of Illyria.
the Kingdom of Croatia bowed and buckled under the pressure of Imperial invasion. Not even the deadly, vast, hills of Illyria and the incredible predictability of a Westward Roman army could stop Varazes from attaining his victory.
By the year 909, Illyria was once again submitted to the authority of Constantinople, perhaps for good.
The Roman armies, rich and experienced from the conquest, returned to their garrisons with much learned, and much of the adaptations made in the Illyrian reconquest would go to paper in the Empire's next great military manual. Varazes , with the help of his scribes, wrote the "Legionary Lexicon", which would be rapidly picked up and studied in Carthage, and consequently, would find itself studied and diffused by the Brittanian general Tridamus. The manual in particular called for the use of massed crossbows, as well as pike formations to secure flanks.
Following a large and extravagant triumph, coupled with a large ceremony to commemorate the marriage between the Abbasid and Macedonian dynasties, Varazes ordered the construction of a huge wall on the North side of the Danube, spanning from the Carpathian mountains, to the shore of the Black Sea. The wall would take many years to complete, and would barely be finished when Varazes was on his death bed in 952.
To fund this and the continued provisioning of the army of the West, taxes for freeholders were raised to unprecedented levels, not seen since the reign of Justinian. However, these taxes came in a time of unbroken peace and growth - Anatolia, and Thrace had not seen raids for a century or more, and so with the help of his Exarchs and local governors, Varazes was able to put these new tax laws in place. The senate too assented, as they saw kickbacks from the Imperial office as well as a modest drawing up of imperial salaries.
Of the more absurd projects undertaken by Varazes was the beautification of Constantinople, which involved the construction of new, ornate buildings and decorations, as well as the formation of a rubbish-collection squad. Varazes also passed a law through the senate which required incense to be burned throughout the city, in order to give it a fresh smell - the reactions of the aristocracy and denizens were mixed. Certainly mixed.
In the final years of his reign, Varazes establishes the Red Sea trading post of Nova Antioch in attempts to bypass the silk-road routes going through the Caliphate. Trade quickly starts up, but many exotic goods are locked away behind exorbitant prices and exclusive deals, more than likely held up through renewed Persian influence in India.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE]The great raid on Cavelot would leave a scar on Brittania - an open wound which would take years to heal. It was on that fateful day that Brittanians' perceptions of the world would change drastically. Many thought the arrival of the old heathen king Heimskur signaled the end times.
Brittania as it they knew it did not end, but a new era of rising conflict was just upon them.
It was no surprise, then, that the turn of the ninth century would see significant changes in how Brittania's military affairs were handled - of the most prime was the division of the Second Brittanian Legion to form the new Cavelite Third Legion, commanded by no other than the well-known Londinian politician-general, Tridamus. The council of Cavelot put into his hands the defense of Eastern Brittania against the new heathen threat, for they'd already seen the havoc and destruction that the King Heimskur wreaked on Cavelot in his siege on the city. The need to advance and stay ontop of military affairs was only further spurred by the defeat of the Northumbrian kingdom in the North, which now crowned a norseman, Leif Ragnarsson as King - the brother of King Josua of Svedia, no less.
Even with new threats on the horizon, the wealth of the Brittanian kingdom continued to swell as external trade with the Carthaginians, and now the Francians, continued. Enough coin was accrued to pay off the Karling debt through the next few decades, and the Brittanians, through their trade with Carthage, acquired much knowledge diffused from the Roman world. A military manual authored by the Roman basileus Varazes was passed on through Brittanian traders, and had recently come into the possession of legate Tridamus, who has been spearheading efforts to reform the legions kingdom-wide. Indeed, the Brittanian council in Cavelot began seeing an upshoot of requests from commanders for the purchase Francian 'crossbows', which were in heavy demand due to a successful record of employment in the Tridamus's Legio III Cavela.
Civil engineering projects conducted by the legions intensified throughout the first half of the new century, but were hampered heavily by intensified raiding from across the seas. Participation in the Second Lateran Council was not at all hampered by the viking raids, but the threat of pagans shifted to become a major talking point of the Brittanian delegation.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE]The turn of the century would see the great Caliphate contract and expand wildly, signifying volatile yet surging times for the Islamic world.
The Caliph first ordered Islamic armies down East Africa, subjugating the Ethiopians, Somalis, and Swahili in sweeping blows and leaving vassal emirates and sultanates in their wake, among them the eminent Azanid Sultanate, stretching from the Western reaches of Somalia to all the way down the Swahili coast.
After a long period of conquest, some successful (and conquests in the East less-so) the Caliph shifted to focus on economic and internal affairs, including a concerted effort to colonize the island of Socotra and set up a line of trading posts down the Persian gulf - the effort saw modest success but was hampered by Roman competition and the dominance of Persian influence in India.
As tribute and plunder swelled the treasuries, the Caliph decided to put this loot to good use by way of irrigating Mesopotamia - he hoped to return it to its former status as the 'fertile crescent,' and indeed it could one day return to being the agricultural heart of the levant - after several decades of dedicated irrigation, crop yields were already up significantly.
The Caliph's reign would certainly be remarkable if it had not been for the latter-year civil war which significantly weakened the state of the Caliphate - what started as a court dispute in Baghdad over the tolerance of Shia Muslims quickly erupted into a full-blown, city-wide riot. As the Caliph lost control over his capital and anarchy reigned, the great Emirs of Aleppo and Damascus declared a full-on revolt.
Thanks to the help of the Basileus Varazes and his armies, however, the Caliph was able to quell the rebellions and restore order. Even so, tensions boiled underneath the surface, of which the Caliph's use of Christian arms to kill Muslims was a key point. Even as order was restored, irreparable damage was done to the present order - the Romans and Carthaginians took advantage of the chaos in order to retake Cyrenaica, while the Azanid Sultanate freed itself from the Abbasid yoke, retaining a regular tribute but otherwise being completely independent of the Caliph's whims. Over in the East, the Sasanian Shahanshah, growing more powerful with each passing day, declared full independence from the Abbasid - not a coin of tribute flowed in from Isfahan, and the Caliph was powerless to enforce his will on them. Indeed, it seemed that the Caliphate had lost its key vassals, and was now in a more vulnerable position than ever - as the next Caliph took the throne, the very fate of the unified Islamic realm rested on his shoulders.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE]The decisive defeat of the Caliphate in Africa was followed by the enacting of a tentative ceasefire, which the Senate has now taken advantage of to stockpile monies and consolidate their professional retinues.
Doubly, the Senate moved their focus toward civil affairs as an era of warfare and instability died down. With the existence of the Carthaginian realm no longer in question, patrols to the marches of Numidia once more resumed, as did the rolling land reforms and agricultural projects that would see the encroachment of the Sahara slow - indeed, even with the defeat of Islamic armies, the land itself still threatened to devour once-prosperous Africa. The Senate came down hard on exploitation of soil and introduced several mandates which required by law the rejuvenation and rotation of lands, public and private. These new mandates gave life to a budding new bureaucratic class of "overseers" - officials dispatched by the senate to overlook (and account for the land, for tax purposes) the proper management of African estates and tenant-farms, some of which had grown to magnificent sizes. Strings were pulled across the pond to have Nova Carthago and its dependencies enact the mandates to apply to Southern Hispania, which too was not as lush as its Northern counterpart. All of these new laws came with allotments of money and manpower to create vast irrigation projects inlands of Africa and the Numidian marches.
Much of these new projects, including the repair and rebuilding of many Roman-era aqueducts, were funded through the institution of a new 'redemption' tax - the first of its kind in the Christian world, and much-celebrated within the Senate of Carthage. Seen as a reverse-imposition of tithes as well as a penance for Islamic aggression, the 'redemption' is a tax levied on non-christians, namely muslims, who reside within Carthage's realm, as an alternative to conversion to Christianity. Indeed, the new income is a boon for the Senate's coffers as well as the Carthaginian clergy, who are quick to see any incentive to gain more followers as a triumph. However, as the tax sweeps the realm both in Africa and Hispania Inferior, there is an underlying tension that grips the still-numerous muslim populations of the Carthaginian realm. Many fewer men show up to the muster, and even fewer can be bothered to give credence to the state's pluralist stance, now little more than a joke told by bards.
The latter decades of the century see another expansion of Carthage's already vast wealth through the exacting of tariffs on the growing trade from the North - as the traffic of merchant ships from Brittania and Hispania Superior intensified, so did the fees extracted from their activities on the Mediterranean. Indeed, Carthaginian authority has become so absolute as to have given all waters West of Palermo a new name among those that fare them - the Sea of Africa. Tales of its riches and splendor would reach as far as the lands from where varangians hailed, proliferated after the island of Malta was leased to men of King Josua Ragnarsson for reasons unknown to any but the Senate in Carthage. The varangians' intentions were clear, though, and these vikings made their presence known throughout Italy with incessant raiding and plundering from Naples to Genoa, while Carthaginian holdings in Sicily and throughout the Western Mediterranean were conveniently spared. Suffice to say, incoming trade from the sea routes around Sicily dropped significantly, and instead routed West along the coast of the Duchy of Burgundy, and then South past Nova Carthago. It wouldn't be until after the first half of the century that the norse presence on Malta ceased to be, and upon its conclusion Sicilian sea traffic would rise once more. Even with the interruption in Southern-flowing trade, however, the Senate's profits were mysteriously uninterrupted, and many new tomes of knowledge and artifacts were bought from the Maltese varangians, some for virtually nothing.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE]To appease the Francian emperor and focus on his new kingdom, the former-duke, now-king had handed off the great Burgundian duchy to his nephew, Louis. His marriage to the Duke of Toulouse's daughter solidified the Occitan alliance and formed a new cadet branch of the Burgundian dynasty, in order to secure the succession of Hispania to the king's son.
While the king paid close attention to affairs in Francia, and often visited Paris to court the emperor, there was little contention as to his status of vassalage to the emperor now. King Philip was his own man - sovereign and supreme in his own right, though the Burgundian duchy of his nephew would remain a constituent electorate of the Francian empire, and his nephew (and most of his family) too vassal of the emperor.
Philip was no stranger to foreign invasion - he had seized Visigothic Spain through force of arms himself, and now he focused his efforts on ending the trend at himself - he provisioned an extensive line of castles along the Pyrenees, securing the mountain passes for himself and preempting any attempts by the emperor, present or future to infringe on his independence. The erection of castles along the border of Hispania obviously did not sit well with the Marquises of Southern Aquitaine, who threatened pre-emptive invasion of the Pyrenees to stop the fortresses being built. The counts of Aquitaine were quieted, however, when King Philip raised an army and marched to garrison the North Pyrenees during the period of construction. Still, future proceedings at the emperor's court in Paris were understandably cold.
King Philip would pass before the castles were fully completed, but his son, Carlos, would resume the fortification of the Pyrenees, all the while massively expanding the Eastern ports around Barcelona. Carlos enacted several tax reforms in Aragon which mandated tax be paid in African coinage. Carlos saw his treasury swell with 'Roman' currency which he used to pay and expand his royal retinue, whose loyalty would only be strengthened as the king became a unique source of salary - that which could provide valuable, widely-traded numismata which were preferred over the native Hispanian denarii.
On the civil side of things, Carlos copied reforms and mandates enacted by the government of Nova Carthago in the South, and furnished a significant amount of money towards projects involving the enforcement of agricultural standards and irrigation - such things which were highly beneficial to the mountainous, semiarid kingdom.
Lastly, Carlos enlisted the help of Carthaginian artisans to create a new symbol for the Hispanian Kingdom to rally around - what resulted was a vexilloid which would adorn the royal banners and battle-standards of Carlos's armies - the "Aquila de Rosas"
In the latter years, the King enlisted a group of merchants to travel East and seek audience with the so-called Emperor of the Romans, having heard much of his power and influence throughout the Christian world - indeed, he might make a decent ally. At the half-turn of the century, King Carlos tentatively awaited the return of the merchants with his diplomat in tow.[/QUOTE]
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[QUOTE]By the turn of the century, the great Swedish king Josua Ragnarsson had indeed begun to age beyond his youthful days. But, he was far from done building his legacy - that which the poets would sing of and the runestones tell of. The great raid on Bretannaland would culminate in all he has ever strived for - the greatest of which to be viking, and the chief among them in the sagas retelling the histories of Scandinavia. Indeed, he would go down as such a man that many after him would find it doubtful he had even existed, or perhaps that he had been several men, combined into one magnificent king. Whatever the case may have been, it is said that in the year 903 of our Lord, the King of Svitjod sent men across the vast country, from the flatlands of Anglaland, to the fjords of Norway, and to the furthest, snowiest reaches of Norrland to gather a great raiding party. Alliances forged and deals made with other kings - this would be the greatest viking army to ever be witnessed by man - by 904 AD, King Heimskur and his allies in arms set off for the West.
Precious months were spent heading toward the Southern shores of Bretannaland before the fleet was blown off course, and landed at the vast coastal city which the norsemen called Kamlastad, but the native Brittanians called it Cavelot. Woefully unprepared for the surprise landing, which had arrived during a light storm, the men of Josua Heimskur led the climb over the walls of Kamlastad, overwhelming the small token garrison which had been left there in stead of the Londinian Legion, which drilled in the less-fortified South in preparation for the raiding season.
The city of Kamlastad was put to the torch, and anything within its walls not bolted down stolen, including precious artifacts of the Church, such as the fingerbone of Saint Glevicus and a wooden fragment of the true cross.
Just as quickly as they had come, the Norsemen retreated. the Londinian Legion swept down upon Cavelot but found only destruction and death aplenty. By the time defenses had been rebuilt and fortifications upped in the East, news had already come from the North that the Northumbrian King had been put to the sword, and now the brother of King Heimskur ruled in his place.
Throughout the first half of the century, Brittania, Cherson, and even the Karling realm of Italia would face incessant smaller raids, plagueing trade and stability. These raids would only decrease in their intensity after the reported passing of King Ragnarsson, and his succession by his son, Eirikr Josusson.
It is said that upon the house King Josua was born, a great temple not unlike that at uppsala was constructed for gods and mortals to share quarter, and within it a great runestone detailing the feats and accomplishments of the late king was constructed. Many hundreds are said to visit it to this day.[/QUOTE]
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[B]New turn deadline soon :^)[/B]
[B]The deadline will now be Saturday, 23rd of December! Please use no more than 8 command lines :^)[/B]
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