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##A Everything about the Ming faction system is stupid.
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Jul 28, 2014 16:10
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That's 4 votes entered since the vote closed, there.
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Jul 28, 2014 16:11
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Cestrian posted:That's 4 votes entered since the vote closed, there. What a worthless rear end in a top hat.
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Jul 28, 2014 16:18
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 PART 36: Doukes? Nuke 'em. (1453-1458) Excerpts from the diary of Bosporios Gobroon. The youngest son of one of the stakeholders in Constantinople's famed House of Gobroon, Bosporios, having no hope of inheriting a share in the merchant enterprise, instead enrolled in the civil service program, excelled at his exams, and joined the Committee of Venice. He quickly rose through the ranks of the understaffed ministry, and became one of the leading foreign policy advisors to the Senate. The Byzantine Senate declined to accept Heraklios of Paphlagonia's ultimatum. Shocking, I know! Why wouldn't the Senate want to destroy two of the pillars of the Byzantine state (the imperial throne, the civil service) and empower their most implacable enemies, the feudal nobility? Well, I can think of one reason: their own worthless hides. Altuntekin promised that the Senate's lives, offices, and dignity would be respected in the new regime if they deposed Yaroslavovna. Fortunately, they were aware that their offices and dignity would mean very little with a Branas emperor on the throne, that it would destroy the whole Monternos project.  And so the dispute would have to be settled through strength of arms. The rebellion broke out in Greece, the traditional stronghold of support for the old feudal order. Doux Heraklios has taken the field in person. He had a candidate of marginally imperial pedigree lined up to serve as a puppet emperor should Basillike have abdicated, but-- apparently-- plans on taking control of the empire personally if his forces take Constantinople.  His army is made up of levies from all the doukes of Greece and the Greek sections of Anatolia. Apparently his troops hoisted him on their shields and proclaimed him the true emperor of Rome. It's all very crisis of the third century. Very barracks emperor. The rebel forces march under a strange red and black flag. Most of them are unadorned, ad-hoc affairs, but "Emperor" Heraklios' personal standard combines the old Greek Cross used by Komitas Branas with the arms of Paphlagonia on a field of black (rather than the traditional green)  While Heraklios runs rampant in Greece, however, the western side of the Adriatic remains solidly in our hands. My colleagues in the Phanariote Committee has continued its work to restore civil Byzantine government to the former territories of Venice.  I've heard that some of Heraklios' supporters have stooped so low as to secretly send money to the Pope, in hopes that a sudden offensive by the Church Militant could keep imperial forces tied up in Byzantine Italy. I'm sure the Pope was happy to simply deposit their gold in Orbetello and do absolutely nothing, though.  The King of Sicily remained the most potent force in Italy, however-- and they have taken pains to tie themselves in ever closer to the imperial family, marrying one of their younger sons to some de Mowbray cousin or other. All those Anglo-Norman brats look the same to me, I'm sorry to say.  The Varangian Committee has had immense difficulty rebuilding the military after the horrendous losses it suffered at the hands of the French. Intervening in the Savoyard affair was their idea, though. So if Heraklios wins and we all get put to the sword, I'm going to blame them. Posthumously. Now, though, in December of 1454-- more than a year after Heraklios' ultimatum-- we finally have an army ready to take the field. An army from Italy arrived here in Constantinople, and, reinforced by mercenaries recruited in Anatolia, has marched overland to Adrianople, with a forward detachment stationed in Macedonia. I do hope that the army that marches back carries the white and red banners of the Yaroslavoviches, and not the black and red banners of the Altunekins. But Monastir has fallen. And I am told we do not have the military strength to launch an offensive.  We've continued work as normal at the Committee of Venice. With the Varangian Committee currently in favor, and the empire at war, there is very little we can do except continue work on our existing projects, and hope we shall live long enough to see them bear fruit.  The empress did some diplomacy of her own, concluding a deal to formally integrate the Kingdom of Sicily into the centralized imperial government. The di Chios have always been the closest of allies to the Empress and her forebears, and the prospect of going it alone as a quasi-independent vassal seemed especially dicey given Italy's proximity to France. And now, more than ever, the empress needed all the support they could muster.  Momentous developments at the front! It's very difficult to keep up with exactly what is happening, even just two provinces away, but I shall try to set it all down here: The Alutekins continued to consolidate their hold on Greece, taking the all-important city of Athens in June, 1455, and more or less bringing administration of the imperial exams to a screeching halt.  Heraklios realized, however, that sooner or later he'd need to march on Constantinople-- and the longer he waited, the more time the Varangians would have to knit the shattered imperial armies back together. He ordered his main army into Macedonia. Hugh de Mowbray rushed to relieve the forward guard before they were overwhelmed by the rebels.  The resulting battle could have gone either way-- the imperials had the advantage of being on the defensive, but Hugh's competence as a commander was questionable given his repeated defeats at the hands of King Martin de Valois-Vexin in the Savoyard affair. But then, apparently, a miracle happend-- another 13,000 soldiers (mostly cavalry, I'm told) arrived from the Republic of Ragusa.  The timely arrival of the Ragusans changed a closely-fought slugfest into an utter rout for Altunekin.  His army fled southwards, to what it hoped would be the relative safety of Greece. His other armies were continuing to consolidate their hold on the region, with rebels taking Achaea even as their emperor was beating a hasty retreat from Macedonia.  Before Heraklios could reunite with his other armies, however, he was caught by Hugh, and his army was totally destroyed.  The body of Heraklios Altunekin was found on the fields of Thessaly the next day, still clutching his sword in one hand and his black and red banner in the other, an arrow lodged in his heart. And as he had made the fateful choice to have himself crowned emperor, rather than a puppet, the entire rebellion fell apart following his death.  A minor rebellion in Belgorod, instigated by opportunistic feudal nobles against the vassal republic and banking on imperial troops being tied down fighting Altunekin was instead put down by Belgorod's own troops before Hugh could even arrive with a relief force. After this last footnote to the Altunekin Rebellion, the empire was finally at peace. While there was some agitation among the Senate-- and the Phanariote Committee-- to dissolve the theme system entirely, Basillike ultimately decided this was still unfeasible. Still, the decisive defeat suffered by the rebellion meant that relatively harsh conditions could be enforced: I. Iouliana the Great's reforms to the theme system, in abeyance since the overthrow of Dobrava Yaroslavovna, were restored. Doukes once again served at the empress' pleasure, with imperial government free to revoke or dole out themes as it pleased. II. Doukes would no longer be responsible for raising levies for the imperial army, which would instead be fully centrally administered. As the standing army had been steadily growing throughout Basillike's reign, levies from the themes were less important to the military than they had been even a few decades ago, but by depriving the doukes of the right to raise levies on their own authority, she cut them off from a major source of their power.  III. All doukes would now execute the powers of their offices with the help of civil servants from the Committees of State-- hopefully, the first step in a transition from feudal themes to proper provincial governments.  Meanwhile, my committee initiated an ambitious project to develop the trade infrastructure around Byzantion by building new marketplaces.  And with the military crisis over, the Varangian Committee fell from favor among the civil service. The Committee of Venice was now the most prestigious of all the committees of state.   And, together with the Senate, we'll lead the empire out of the morass of feudalism and into something new. Something better. Change is in the air. Well, change is always in the air. Everything is always changing. Humans are fascinating creatures, seldom content with the status quo. Some states might appear inert-- but so does a barrel of Chinese gunpowder before it catches aflame. But I have a very real sense that one era is ending and another is beginning-- that the Near West is on the precipice of a great rebirth of cultural, political, artistic, and philosophical life.   Of course, not everyone in the empire realizes this.  And many of the great names which defined the old world are likely to be snuffed out before they can join the new one.   Rome is among the oldest and greatest names of all. In antiquity, Romans strode the Mediterranean like giants, with an empire stretching from Lai Ang to Da Qin. More recently, the Komnenoi stitched an empire on the precipice of utter annihilation at the hands of Rum, restored Anatolia and Italy to the empire, and encircled the Black Sea. St. Valeria single-handedly rearranged the religious map of Europe in ways I'm sure were quite important to Christians, even if they're none of my concern. And then, under the Yaroslavoviches, Rome endured through centuries of chaos, plague, war, and destruction, avoided destruction at the hands of the Ming Frontier Army, and played a key role in the liberation struggle of the Hungarian League. A past any people can be proud of.  But the future lies ahead, full of possibilities we can scarcely even imagine. Ours for the taking, if we're bold enough.  OOC Notes This update is being split into two (or maybe three?) parts-- this is just the first. In the future, we'll be voting on our ideas, but I just picked Humanism here because a.) I didn't want to stop playing after like three years, and b.) Humanism is pretty much ByzLP: The Idea Set, so it'd be strange not to take it-- especially with those forward-thinkers in Monternos in charge of the Senate. So I just picked it and kept things moving. Empress Theonora fucked around with this message at 14:12 on Jul 29, 2014 |
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Jul 29, 2014 04:03
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 Three cheers for the Empire! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Centralization and Modernization, here we come!
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Jul 29, 2014 04:10
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 I said "Death or glory" but I still have to breathe a sigh of relief that we ended up with glory. I'm glad to see my concerns were unfounded. God bless the Ragusans.
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Jul 29, 2014 04:22
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  Of Mongols and Merchants Novus Mercator Coalition Silver does indeed rule the world(as does Gold but that is a different matter altogether) and it is good to see those vile Douxes being put in their place.
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Jul 29, 2014 04:28
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 Time moves once more for our beloved Rome.
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Jul 29, 2014 04:37
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The House of Alutekin still stands, and many of the doukes who undeniably stood behind the traitor still live and hold power. We'll regret that mercy, I'm sure of it.
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Jul 29, 2014 04:38
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Gentlemen, did I not say that this would be the day? I was right! The end of the vestigial old nobility has come and a brave new world dawns! On an unrelated matter: To the estate of senator Cybrhax a box is delivered. Contained within is the moldering, severed head of Heraklios Altunekin and a note, which reads: "The Marian Family does not make idle boasts, nor do we make idle threats. We will remember everything you have done to Rome."
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Jul 29, 2014 05:00
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NewMars posted:
A reminder that the official Unitas line was strongly anti-Doux. I would hate for the mistakes of my colleague to somehow taint our organization at large. Anyway, we should certainly seize the momentum to continue centralization efforts. While I regret that we could not abolish the office of Doux entirely, I trust the Empress when she says it was not feasible at the time.
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Jul 29, 2014 05:04
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Hmph. So sorry I thought not fighting a civil war might be in our best interests. We were lucky Da Qin decided to filch the honor of destroying the Seljuks instead of invading Anatolia. It hardly matters now. What I'm really excited about is the final destruction of the barbarian despotate, Sicily! At last, we have avenged ourselves on the vile Norman! Now that we have diplomatic breathing room, though, we must add Jerusalem to our list of client states! We must save her from foreign depravity! Lord Cyrahzax fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Jul 29, 2014 |
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Jul 29, 2014 05:13
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 AHAHAAHAHAHAHA, eat it you uppity pricks - My family's wanted your heads since the Ming invasions!
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Jul 29, 2014 05:32
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 Good for nothing dukes, that civil war should have dragged on for years. They didn't even kill the heir! Che cazzo, Heraklios, you blew it.
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Jul 29, 2014 07:46
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Rincewind posted:Of course, not everyone in the empire realizes this. Oh you assholes! Open rebellion wasn't enough, the lot of you are hoarding promising young innovators! 
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Jul 29, 2014 08:15
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StrifeHira posted:
 Let them. This is a necessary evil. If no-one oversees the Doukes they will be able to amass wealth and power as they have before and start up trouble again. This helps keep them weak, paying their dues, and being dependent on patronage to the Emperor. There are few ways to make a Doux more compliant and end his dreams of autonomy than to deprive him of his capacity for independent action.
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Jul 29, 2014 10:12
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Just as an aside... It's spelled maintaining and responsible :U
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Jul 29, 2014 18:09
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Speaking of which, the Varangian banner really needs to be a pair of bearded-axes crossed under a viking helmet! I would do it myself, but I can't art to save my life!
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Jul 29, 2014 19:43
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 PART 37: gently caress ROME, gently caress DE MOWBRAY, gently caress YOU (1458-1491) Correspondence of Wolfgang Shen, general in the army of Ao Di Li The Byzantines are kind of assholes, aren't they? The main business of the Venetian Committee was to try to trick everyone they weren't. So, with the impending annexation of Sicily giving them some diplomatic wiggle room, they concluded alliances and royal marriages with Poland and Hungary. The core of the old Hungarian League. The first one. The one that lost horribly, resulting in the conquest of Hungary by the Frontier Army. Anyway, the houses of de Mowbray, Dunin, and Radziwiłł duly rotated their extra royalty one country to the right, since I guess that's how they do things out here in the Near West.     Hugh de Mowbray celebrated the marriage of his sister to a Radziwiłł prince by personally slaughtering 3700 Venetian peasants who had the temerity to think that the tax they were being charged to pay for the bloody conquest of their city state was perhaps a tad high. rear end in a top hat.  Everyone was impressed by the whole gruesome spectacle, though. Even the loving Pope. Even us. Allah have mercy.  Rome promptly decided that the best thing to do with their sterling reputation was to sic the vaunted Black Chamber on France. How do I know about this, you ask? Aren't the actions of the Black Chamber the darkest of secrets? Surely even setting their name down in ink on paper is enough for them to find my lifeless body slumped over my brushstand and inkpad, throat slit. Right? I submit for your approval the following dramaturgical work: The Horrors of the Black Chamber: A Play in Three Acts Act I:  Act II:  Act III:  They decided to go after softer targets instead.  Yes, yes, our own spies are hardly more competent. But unlike Rome, we do not portray ourselves as devilish schemers who brought the Seljuks, Saimids, Baytasids, et al. down with the assassin's blade and skullduggerer's bag of tricks. Also, our government is run by morons.  Rome also continued to use the Orthodox Church as its personal piggy bank. Nothing wrong with that in my eyes, but perhaps a tad hypocritical given that it was their own Empress Valeria that kicked off a wave of the worst religious persecution Europe had seen since the reign of Theodosius. While the kings of France, England, Poland, et al were persecuting Catholics out of existence, the Romans just sat around not giving a poo poo. I guess Valeria thought mending the schism would make a nice bullet point for her CV. Or whatever.  At least the Sicilians liked them, anyway.  In the wake of the defeat of Heraklios Altunekin, the doukes of the empire-- the ones who didn't all wind up dead in a ditch in Macedonia-- all blamed one another for the failure of the revolt. Since Basillike had relieved them of their right to raise levies for their own personal little intra-empire wars, they settled on assassinating one another. Eventually, though, it was determined that assassinating vassals was an imperial prerogative and the Black Chamber put a halt to it by assassinating all the assassins.  Around this time, Hugh embarked on a grand tour of the empire's new Italian possessions-- Sicily and the restored Venice. Well, that's what he told everyone. He was actually seeing all his pretty Italian mistresses.  It was determined that the best way to distract everyone from this would be to annex some poor Italian city state that had the misfortune to be located between the Greek and Italian sections of the empire. Poland was all like, "We'll sit this one out, thanks."  Hungary was all like, "Um, we're allied with Ferrara? What the gently caress, dudes?" But Rome was pretty much addicted to annexing helpless Italians, and was perfectly willing to stab Hungary in the back to do so.  Thus ended the Third League of Hungary.  Hugh made short work of Ferrara itself, of course.  Hungary was a tougher target, but hardly the equal of Rome.  But the rest of the world remembered what the Dunins had done for the Near West. Rome's only allies were its puppet republics and Kartli, which was a sort of pigpen for all of the Orthodox churchmen who felt a calling to something higher than being glorified tax collectors for the imperial government.  The entry of Crimea into the war kept Kartli's soldiers out of Hungary. Crimea's army was totally ineffective, of course, but its geography was big enough to slow down the exarch's men.  Ragusa's contributions were more direct, as the republic's armies happily assisted the Romans in soaking Hungarian soil with Hungarian blood.  That implacable enemy of Rome, Martin de Valois-Vexin of France, died in 1463. But his younger brother, Raimbaut II, watched the war over Ferrara with interest. Because it was proof that the Romans were a bunch of backstabbing morons who needed to be erased from the Near West and pronto.  The Hungarians did their best, taking advantage of their intimate knowledge of the rugged and defensible Carpathian Mountains and the fact that the Romans are really bad at commanding their armies to stymie Roman attempts to goad them into battle on favorable ground.   And when the Romans did win-- as they did in the Battle of Temes, when the sons of the leaders of the great Second Hungarian League faced one another in battle-- it was at a terrible cost. Well, a terrible cost for the Romans. It was a pretty awesome cost, as far as I'm concerned.  The Romans had some things going for them, though. They continued to benefit from the gradual transition away from medieval barbarisms like levies and peasants armed with sticks in favor of a more professional army. And while they still lagged far behind proper civilized militaries, it was better than anything Hungary could field.   And-- I'll give them this-- their government was genuinely tolerant of the many peoples of many faiths within its borders. Which encouraged them not to make a fuss when the government needed them to, say, die in the Carpathian mountains fighting a former ally just to sack some random Italian city state.  But while Rome was winning the war, it was a slow, grinding quagmire of a war, and the Committee of Venice took the rap for it.  Hugh's army continued to ravage Hungarian countryside, but more and more he was having to rely on mercenaries to replace the regular soldiers he had gotten killed in costly victories on unfavorable ground.   Finally, at the ripe old age of 70, Basillike decided she'd had enough of this and dropped dead. This whole war was Hugh's fault, anyway-- Hugh could clean up the mess.   EMPEROR HUGH I DE MOWBRAY Hugh's first official act was to claim the mantle of defender of the Orthodox faith. Which is basically the exact opposite of everything else he did as emperor.  Hungary finally sued for peace, and the empire was able to extract itself from a costly and totally unnecessary war. It only gained a single province from Ferrara, rather than the total annexation it had hoped for-- but at least it was a victory. Technically.  Oh. I guess Raimbaut II won't get a chance to become an implacable enemy of Rome. Oh well...  The France of Margot II de Valois-Vexin continued to wax in power, however, aggressively pushing into the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire in souther Germany. That is to say, aggressively pushing into our backyard.  France also concluded an alliance with the most feared and powerful nation in the entire world. Oh, sorry, I wrote the wrong thing there. France concluded an alliance with a tiny, dysfunctional military dictatorship that just randomly happened to control the main corridor any Roman offensive against French territory was likely to take.  Oh, and they killed all the Bretons at some point, too.  The Roman civil service continued to defy all attempts by the central administration to steer it in one direction or another, as exam-takers all decided that a military career was a recipe for falling off a mountain and dying. Just proof Westerners can't run a proper civil service without Hui guidance, I suppose.  Hugh, meanwhile, dismissed most of the mercenaries he had hired in hopes of rebuilding the proper army. He would not get the chance to do so, however. We declared war on Ragusa. And, therefore, on Rome.  You might think this was an exceptionally stupid idea. Even having suffered appalling losses fighting Hungary, Ao Di Li was a minor power compared to its imperial neighbors. Here's the thing, though: We were not alone.  An alliance with Da Qin? Perhaps it strikes you as unlikely. Isn't Da Qin one of the successor states doled out to the generals of the Ming Frontier Army? Isn't Ao Di Li an amalgamation of Hui and German states which liberated itself during the revolt of the Hungarian League? Both true. But the Hungarian League meant very little. And we were surrounded by hostile Orthodox powers that were starting to forget the difference between the Chinese and Sinicized vassals they fought and the Chinese and Sinicized vassals they fought with. Da Qin was Sunni, technologically advanced, and they could read letters written in Chinese. I led my army into Ragusa.  The Romans scrambled to relieve their allies, but to no avail.  Emperor Hugh de Mowbray was in such a hurry he fell out of his saddle and got trampled to death by his own horse, which was pretty funny.   EMPRESS HYPATIA I DE MOWBRAY Rome had lost its "best" general (for a certain value of "best", anyway) and was now being led by a six year old girl and a regency council full of incompetents.  My men and women and I advanced deeper into Ragusa. Whatever resistance we encountered was shattered under withering arquebus fire.  The banu Riyahs joined the war, which I'm pretty sure is the first noteworthy thing they've done in the last 400 years. Noting a nationalist revolt by Sicilians who weren't super thrilled about the di Chios kings selling them to Rome, they launched made a feint towards Sicily, hoping to draw the Romans away from Ragusa and Ao Di Li.  The regents hired back all the mercenaries the late emperor had just released from service and prepared to retake the island of Sicily.  The people of Constantinople apparently rioted over the extortionate taxes it took to fund this army. The regents just started killing people until they went away. This was probably not the best idea.  For, while the Romans were able to easily take back Sicily...  ...Da Qin was steadily overwhelming the eastern frontiers of the empire...  ...and our own armies continued to make short work of the Ragusans and Pechenegs.  But we couldn't keep it up forever. After months, the Romans were finally able to ship enough of their army back from Italy to relieve the beleaguered Republics.    But all hope was not lost! The scattered defenders of the east were in full retreat as Da Qin steadily pushed west.  We'd forgotten Poland, however. Since this war was theoretically Rome defending one of its loyal vassals, the Radziwill queen readily accepted her annoying in-laws' call to arms. With a large Polish army active on the western front, Rome was free to send its main force east to fight Da Qin.   Send its "main force" east to "fight" Da Qin, rather. Because really, who were they trying to kid?  The strategic situation in Ao Di Li was rapidly deteriorating, of course-- the Romans themselves were busy being massacred in Anatolia, but the Poles and Croats were holding down the fort.  But in the meantime, 40,000 Da Qin soldiers pretty much had the run of Anatolia, the few Romans who had survived their encounter were sulking in Greece and hoping nobody noticed them hiding there, and the empire was flying apart at the seams.     The state was so strapped for cash that they could not even afford to hire a doctor for little Hypatia de Mowbray, who dropped dead in 1468. The Roman line of de Mowbray was extinct.  The throne of the Roman Empire sat vacant. I just want to reiterate that. There was no emperor or empress. The only thing standing between the empire and total anarchy were Hypatia's old regents, who-- I guess-- thought they could just hold onto power if they didn't bother crowning a successor.   COUNCIL OF IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT, 1468 If my government had just been a little more patient, a little more willing to wait for the revolts all over the Roman Empire to do their work, willing to give Da Qin a little more time to complete their advance to Constantinople itself... But alas, they had little faith in their allies, and threw in the towel. Rome had "won" the war. A pyrrhic victory.  The regents scrambled to restore some semblance of order to the empire.  They did their best to portray themselves as competent administers, even though not a single one of them had even glanced at a civil service exam, so much as actually deigned to take one.  They were palace functionaries, not professional bureaucrats. Everyone knew it. Nobody was fooled.  Da Qin was not the only claimant to the legacy of Rome who saw an opening.  Finally, the regents realized that there had to be an emperor or empress. They offered the throne to whoever made them bet offer who had even the vaguest of connections to the imperial family. And so in 1470 the House of Radziwiłł-- a noble line of Lithuanian origin elected to the throne of Poland-- inherited the empire on the basis of the royal marriage between the Radziwiłłs and de Mowbrays. Oh, the new empress wasn't actually related to anybody in that marriage. She didn't have a drop of de Mowbray, or Yaroslavovich, or Branas, or Komnenos, or any Roman blood in her body. But her father did bring the regents a big pile of silver, and silver rules the world. And now an eighteen year old Polish-Lithuanian princess who'd never set foot in Constantinople ruled Rome. Mostly everyone was just glad the Regents finally went away.    THEOCHARISTE I RADZIWILL • CROWNED 1470 As had become customary in Rome since the accession of Tsar Yaroslav, the dynastic shift led to a change in the flag of the empire. Out went the three Tuscan lilies of the Yaroslavovich-de Mowbrays, in came the three horns of the Radziwiłłs.  (OOC: But I didn't stop playing to go make and install this flag, so it won't actually show up in-game until the next update. Whoops!) Theochariste had little patience for anything but the military, which she excelled at. "Oh great," said everyone, "another teenage warrior empress who will die in a duel or something." Unfortunately, monarchs fighting duels had gone out of style with the knight and plate armor, so although the young empress took a keen interest in the quashing of a series of revolts that had broken out in northern Italy, she never rode out to try to personally stick a sword in the eye of the opposing general. Meanwhile, Fortress Habsburg tightened the grip Catholicism had on Northern Germany.  And, in far-off China, the last vestiges of civility between the Ming Empire and the successors of its Near West frontier finally broke down.  The Pecheneg Republic of Belgorod was formally reintegrated into the empire. Ragusa, however, due to its decisive contributions to Rome's various military adventures, would be allowed to retain its autonomy for now. And nobody wanted all those Kartli guys back in the empire proper, where they might infect the ecumenical patriarchate with ideas like the church having interests separate from that of the imperial government.  All Belgorod had to offer, however, was a fleet of amusingly-named ships, which were duly appropriated by the imperial navy.  Then a letter arrived in Constantinople. It was from the kingdom of Vëstergötland, one of the fragmented Orthodox states which emerged from the shattered remnants of Sweden, reminding the Roman Empire that they were still technically the Defender of the Orthodox Faith, so please could they come and stop Catholic Norway from killing them all and taking their stuff?  (OOC: I had literally no idea that being defender of the faith could persist through monarch death like this. So hey, the thread's getting the empress defender of the faith it always wanted) The militant young empress jumped at the chance to prove her mettle by planning a complicated maritime assault on the heretics of Norway.  But when both sides called in their allies (Rome had repaired relations with Hungary, but Poland was involved in a war of its own and unable to help defend the Vëstergötlanders) the odds didn't look quite so favorable.  The Habsburgs only had a scattering of non-contiguous holdings remaining in Italy, and the Romans easily overwhelmed the German garrisons.  They even fended off the initial counter-attack.  But it turns out the Germans can fight quite well even without the advantage of Hui weapons and tactics, and defeating a Roman army at Verona before the Ragusans could relieve them, the Roman's strategy to hold off the Habsburgs at Verona fell apart.   The Roman attempt to reinforce Verona was met with overwhelming force.  The result was a massacre.  Having to desire to bleed the empire dry on behalf of some Swedish petty king, the Romans bought peace with silver. The Catholics had challenged the vaunted defender of the Orthodox faith, and won.  Theochariste would remember this insult.  Rome, for a time, concentrated on pursuits other than war while it waited to mend its broken military...      The Radziwiłłs even took the opportunity to devise a more suitably Roman pedigree for themselves.  The military was never far from Theochariste's mind, however. Her Rome was not peaceful by choice. She was determined to ride forth in triumph at somebody's expense.  The Habsburgs continued to grow in stature within the Catholic world, inheriting the throne of Catholic Scotland from the Kyles who had long dominated the British Isles.  New Bulgaria unwisely broke its alliance with France, and the Papal State and its Church Militant were quick to seize the opportunity and further encircle Roman Italy.  But this victory, too, bore the Habsburg stamp.  In 1483, the Imperial Examination system the Senate had created nearly 40 years earlier was finally entrenched enough to function as a useful tool of the state, rather than simply yet another off-kilter center of power within a Byzantine system of governance. From now on, the imperial government would control which Committee of State was most prominent, without interference from civil servants with short attention spans.  They also issued a new decree bestowing additional privileges on the Muslim subjects of the empire. The Catholics were still right out, though.  (OOC: I switched around heathen/heretics in humanist for ByzLP, since the setting is filled with big multicultural empires which are way madder at heretics than heathens who are just minding their own business.) Meanwhile, a terrific blow was dealt to us-- Ao Di Li was sacked by France and forced to release the state of Treviso, leaving us nearly landlocked.  Te Lei Wei Suo, only just granted independence, was small, disorganized, and totally friendless in a hostile world.  The Romans, meanwhile, had finally gotten the hang of the whole gunpowder thing enough to produce some crude artillery.  And so Theochariste finally found a war the Roman Empire could actually win.    But then Rome, the vulture, caught the scent of a much more delectable carcass...   WORLD MAP, 1491 
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Jul 30, 2014 06:53
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Oh goddammit we lost another dynasty.
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Jul 30, 2014 07:05
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Looks like Abyssinia is getting close to reunifying Great Somalia. Go them. Also, I know it isn't mod-bug talk anymore, but I want to note my amusement at Bavaria having the English ideas. Especially with being landlocked and all. I kinda want to try a Bavaria -> England game.
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Jul 30, 2014 07:25
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GSD posted:Looks like Abyssinia is getting close to reunifying Great Somalia. Go them. Oh, dang it, I thought I tracked down all the countries with weird primary cultures like that. I think I'll leave Bavaria English just so somebody can try to form England as it, though :V
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Jul 30, 2014 07:29
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A fitting end for the Yaroslavoviches, but I am horrified by the regents' choice! How could the Senate not be consulted about something of such grave importance?! This is an insult to us all, an outrage that cannot stand! However, I do like their dynastic flag far more than the arms of Tuscany. On to other matters: the Hui and Hui-influenced states of Europe and the Middle East must be conquered, destroyed, annihilated! These heathen stains on Christendom have proven themselves dangerous, arrogant, and unworthy of existence! They must go! For that to happen, though, we must have unity, not just Roman unity, but Orthodox unity! We must stop antagonizing France, we must ally with the Valois to establish Orthodox hegemony, indeed, Orthodox domination, here in the so-called Near West. OOC: Um, what happened to the Valerian Order? Weren't they our vassals? Lord Cyrahzax fucked around with this message at 08:01 on Jul 30, 2014 |
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Jul 30, 2014 07:54
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OOC: No, they weren't. They were actually independent and so got annexed with no one to defend them.
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Jul 30, 2014 08:08
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Yeah, the Banu Riyahs ate them while I wasn't paying attention.
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Jul 30, 2014 08:09
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 It's just like His Holiness always says, these heretics are all cowards.
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Jul 30, 2014 08:14
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The time has come to put an end to the Carolingian pretenders and their lap-dog papacy, to arms, Men of Rome! The True Rome! The only one that matters!
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Jul 30, 2014 08:19
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I must hand it to this Empress, she has the common sense to not try to personally stab her foes in the face from the frontlines. I'm further impressed that the line of Radziwiłł descends of that from Caesar himself, surely a sign of Providence. I'd hope that she and any heirs keep the consideration of modernizing Rome close at heart, even if it is to make sure pointy sticks end up in the hearts of enemies. (OOC: Hahaa the Caesar descendant event, talk about lucky.)
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Jul 30, 2014 08:19
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Ghetto Prince posted:
You rabble! Spout your heretical filth to the cursed Chinese, not in this august chamber! And for all the complaining about Komitas I, the Yaroslavoviches lost Egypt. They allowed Jerusalem to fall into heathen hands. They have led our armies to defeat after defeat after defeat! They slaughtered Orthodox sons and daughters in the name of absolutely nothing, butchered faithful armies that should have been our closest friends! Basilike Yaroslavovich and Hugh de Mowbray. Names that will, that must, live in infamy!
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Jul 30, 2014 08:20
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quote:It's a good thing you haven't modded it in yet, because there is a grave mistake in this image. The horns are turning the wrong way!
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Jul 30, 2014 08:44
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We desperately need counterbalances against France, Da Qin, and Kiev. Every direction we could potentially expand into is just occupied by yet another great power. By counterbalances, I do of course mean allies. Hail Somalia!
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Jul 30, 2014 09:16
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DentedLamp posted:We desperately need counterbalances against France, Da Qin, and Kiev. Every direction we could potentially expand into is just occupied by yet another great power. No, because Egypt must be reclaimed. Death to Somalia!
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Jul 30, 2014 09:31
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quote:Oh, and they killed all the Bretons at some point, too. They are doing God's work.
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Jul 30, 2014 10:45
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This must not happen again. The church must be able to act freely. And we all saw how things went after this - for as long as the Emperors and Empresses do not respect the Holy Ecumenical Church they will suffer, and the realm will suffer. We have all seen the grave mismanagement of the past decades. The Roman State was put to the test and was found wanting. A stronger, more independent Church will be able to support, and complement state function. A weak Church, which cannot act freely, leashed to the churches and monasteries, will be powerless, only able to watch as things break down. I strongly urge the new Empress, may Her Majesty's wisdom be eternal, to dwell long and hard into the role of the Church in this new era of statescraft, and to give it the opportunity to properly offer its services in the running of the realm in this hour of need.
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Jul 30, 2014 11:10
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 Were there really no Komnenos heirs around? Because this seems like it would have been a good time for a Komnenos heir. 
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Jul 30, 2014 11:56
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Lord Cyrahzax posted:
Basilike Yaroslavovich will be remembered solely as the woman who broke the Ming Frontier. Nothing that she did after that is half as important.
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Jul 30, 2014 12:07
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I'm glad to see Yilang and Ming at each others throats. If we're lucky maybe they'll kill each other off and the Persians can get Persia back. And I think one day, a long ways away from now, we're going to have to pay Chinese Austria another visit, just to humble this smug Wolfgang fellow.  Long live Empress Theochariste, et cetera and so forth. Whatever sort of ruler she may prove herself to be, at least she can't do much worse than the last few emperors and empresses since the Ming Frontier was shattered.
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Jul 30, 2014 14:58
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No joke, the "heir falls ill" event is the shittiest thing in the game.
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Jul 30, 2014 16:05
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Duckbag posted:
We weren't in a Royal Marriage with the Komnenos, were we?
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Jul 30, 2014 17:20
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| # ? May 24, 2024 07:24 |
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 Now do you see? The House de Mowbray may have survived the civil war, but in the end, it fell. What other conclusion can we draw but their loss of Heaven's favor? The Lord works in mysterious ways, as some would say. Though they managed to stave off destruction for a heartbeat, House de Mowbray met the fate Heaven ordained for them. May the House Radziwiłł retain her mandate for longer than the others in these years of strife. / 
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Jul 30, 2014 21:48
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