Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR

Ksim3000 – The present ruling family would probably be just “House Imperial” or the “Imperial Family.” Technically if you were going to name it after a progenitor, it’d have to be “House Thomas,” as Basil’s descendants hold two imperial thrones (Hispania and Romanion), and Manuel’s descendants are all over the place (Romanion, Hispania, southern Italy—Bardas, Egypt—Theodoros, Samos—Theophylaktos, Kappadokia—don’t remember his name off the top of my head, and if I remember right, Spoleto and Kairuoan as well….

Servius Magnus - So you have ESP-N too? I'll give you a hint--it's not about Thomas wanting to build palaces in Edessa... yet.

von Sachsen - This man is correct.

asd21593 - And yes, it works fine under Vista, my own rig is a Vista (against my will... it was the only OS available on a new machine. )

FlyingDutchie - They're like the Habsburgs, except more inclined to fratricide, madness, sleeping with anything that moves... in fact, they're like a made for TV soap opera version of the Habsburgs.

AlexanderPrimus - All sorts of things stick out once I look back at information like that.

Carach - Yup! The idea for such a canal has been very very old--but that's not what Silvagentios' crew was working on when he had his little run in with Tommy...

Enewald - That's a little beyond expensive. Nah, this was a much shorter canal to keep what happened IRL to Antioch from happening in this alternate history. The Orontes silted up, and Antioch became closed to shipping. Coupled with war devastation, it spelled the doom of the city as a major capital center...

Kirsch27 - Yes, there literally was a "ship of state" for Thomas II I guess!


Okay, I've been a really bad writer... I've only got a few lines of the next update done. However, I'm hoping to work on it more with my few days off starting today, so if all goes well there'll be a new update by Thursday of this week.

In the meantime, to celebrate nearing 250,000 views (which is a ridiculously large amount!), I thought I’d reveal some of the sections I had planned originally for the story that didn’t make it, due to time, authorial laziness, or changes in the story.

The first section was a part of the original way that Thomas II was going to usurp the crown from his mother. Initially, the plan was to have Mehtar himself get into secret contact with Thomas, and cajol the Prince into launching a palace coup with the backing of the army. However, this idea was dropped, simply because there’d be no reason for Thomas to trust Mehtar enough to listen to anything he said—which is where Albrecht and Sinan telling him came from. Though I do like Mehtar’s ending snappiness—five hundred thousand soldiers is indeed a very compelling argument.

“You need to be crowned immediately,” Mehtar whispered.




“But I’m…”

“You aren’t underage if you have five hundred thousand guardsmen and thematakoi saying you aren’t underage!” Mehtar cut off the young emperor. “You aren’t underage if the Church feels you are a relief from an oppressive empress, and the dynatoi are sure you will be laxer than their previous task master!”

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The second section came directly from all the reader speculation at Albrecht’s introduction and long friendship with Thomas that Albrecht was another Mehtar—in that way. I don’t quite remember why this section got axed—I think it was more I couldn’t find a scene to fit it into. More seriously, it also would’ve expressed some of the doubts and misgivings Mehtar had about having such a young protégé, before their rapport as Master Spy and, well, Master Administrator had developed.

“Are you…” Mehtar raised an eyebrow.

“No! No, no,” Albrecht raised his hands quickly. “Thomas is my friend, Kyrios Lainez! Nothing more!”

Part of the Spaniard’s soul wanted to laugh when he saw the appalled look on von Franken’s face. He could tell – there wasn’t the same thing he shared with Thomas’ father.


“Watch my lead, and learn, Albrecht,” Mehtar sighed. “For Thomas to survive, he is going to need someone sharper than Manuel Arachnos, and more trustworthy than Basil Megaloprepis. You,” Mehtar poked the young man in the chest, “will be that man.”

Mehtar hadn’t prayed to any form of the divine in years, not since fate had taken his Thomas away from him. As he watched the young son of the von Frankens disappear from view, he found himself bowing his head and muttering a few words, hoping his choice of man was right…

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This next part was from the original lead up to Neapolis. More than a word could be said about that little battle—considering I changed the end result of the battle halfway through writing it! In my actual game, those 140,000 Mongol soldiers that were in the screenie marched along the Volga for a few months, then disappeared to cause mayhem up north, never to be seen again. Like the incident at Rayy, that was a downer, so in the AAR I pretended it didn’t happen. My original idea was that like Rayy, the Romans emerged victorious, though after a three day long slugfest where Thomas was wounded in his moment of triumph (using his heavy cavalry to lure the tumen into a charge at the skoutatoi and archer line).

Yet as I started writing the battle, I realized several things—one, that ending was lame. Romanion was due for a nasty nasty defeat. In game I had a slew of rebellions in the 1220s, and it was an easy jump to lump the slow “death by liege lord” decisions the surviving non-Komnenoi made into one massive upheaval spawned by a Manzikert-like betrayal. Secondly, I also realized the Mongols losing didn’t do Genghis justice—the man was a world-class conqueror, he deserved to thrash the Roman army. Finally, a Roman victory at Neapolis would’ve built up Thomas II too much for someone who was supposed to be, fundamentally, a very flawed character. If he’d beaten Genghis, what he did afterwards would not have mattered… he was still the Conqueror of the Mongol Khan. That wouldn’t have done for someone that was supposed to go bonkers…

This first section was from a deleted scene where Thomas and Helene are talking the night before the battle, and where Thomas shares with her (and you all), exactly how scared he is. In retrospect, it’s a scene I wish I’d kept in, both because it would’ve made Thomas all the more human, and would’ve given Helene some badly needed story-time…

“I’m afraid,” Thomas muttered to the only person in whose presence he dared utter those words. Even then, the Emperor winced. He was the grandson of the Megaloprepis, the bravest of the brave, great-great grandson of the Megas! For him to admit being afraid…

…Thomas knew how his father would’ve reacted. He would’ve smacked the Emperor across the face and told him to stop sniveling, get on his feet, and kill his enemies. Acheron’s mocking voice seemed to carry those exact words across space and time, as if channeling Thomas I for his imperial son.

“I’m afraid too,” Helene whispered back calmly.

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This second ‘lost part of Neapolis’ was from the narrative description of Thomas’ great charge which was dropped due to the length—the battle was already three updates long, including this part would’ve extended it to a fourth. This particular scene was the moment when Georgios Donauri “won his spurs” as a commander par excellence. With the terrified, defeated cataphracts galloping back to his lines, Donauri manages to rally his men into holding off the Mongol counterattack, saving the army and Thomas’ life.

“Something’s wrong…”




“Open the lines!” Donauri screamed as the panicking cataphracts thundered closer. “Open the lines!”

For several horrific seconds, the Roman spearline hung still, slow, sluggish, as the shock held the men in place. Finally, like a giant awakening from a torturous slumber, the mailed line shuddered to life—kentarchoi began to bellow, men began to move, as the Aftokratoroi tagma broke from line into columns. Seconds later, the cream of the Imperial cavalry galloped back through the gap.


“Where’s the Emperor?” Donauri screamed. The Imperial charger, nor its rider, were anywhere in sight.



“He’s wounded!”



The smoke parted, revealing thousands of riders and men.

“Skoutatoi!” Donauri cried, sword aloft. This time, training erupted into movement, as the massive line of men closed into an impenetrable wall of spearpoints. Officers bellowed for the men to kneel, and with an enormous shake of mail and wood, thousands of men knelt in the bloody ground of Neapolis.

As the alien horsemen reined up, Donauri smiled—slowly, viciously.

“Basilikoi! Loose!”

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And this final missing part was from the original version of Kaukadenos’ betrayal, where the snake himself doesn’t visit Albrecht, only his minions do. I dropped this idea, preferring to reveal to everyone exactly how smarmy Andreas was. I think, in the end, it was a much better section because of it—especially from the howls of protest and screaming and stomping that resulted.

By order Prince Andreas Kaukadenos, you, Albrecht von Franken, are hereby placed under house arrest!”



“What is this?” Albrecht shouted, “Where is the Emperor? Where is the rest of the army?!” The Megoskyriomachos started to rise, but before he could even come to his full height, the guardsman had a sword at his throat.

“Please, milord,” the man smiled mechanically, “remain seated.”


“Where are you going? Where is the army going?!”

“To Konstantinopolis, of course,” the kentarchos smiled.

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Now, time for me to get back to work on the next update! Ciao!

Hey everyone!

Work on the update is going swimmingly--I expect it should be done sometime tomorrow more than likely!

In the meantime, I thought I'd also add the stats for Gabriel and Thomas, since it appears I have yet to post either:


EDIT - I've also been thinking of doing another "What if Emperors were Gamers?" update, though I'm debating what kind of gamers Basil and the two Thomas' would have been. We already have:

Demetrios - likely a jock by day, gamer by night. Arrogant, confident.
Nikolaios - Stereotypical overweight, smelling not so great, sense of intellectual superiority
Manuel - For some reason I saw him as an emo/punk rock gamer
Basil - ?
Thomas I - ?
Thomas II - ?

Ksim3000 & Qorten - I LOVE the idea! Maybe something like a "behind the scenes" interview with the "cast" like on a DVD...

Interviewer - So, tell me, Clive, how did you prepare for playing a part like Thomas II?

Connie Nielsen - He acted crazier than normal!

*Laughter*

Enewald - With the number of times I've had to go back and crossreference things, I've likely read it several times over... and I've still found some... inconsistencies.