Nonsense, it is the act of sanity against the insanity of an Emperor. I only hope some of the honour of Rome can be salvaged from this mess.
Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR
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Nonsense, it is the act of sanity against the insanity of an Emperor. I only hope some of the honour of Rome can be salvaged from this mess.
Yeah, but the reason the Emperor is insane is Gulliaume stopping him drinking his medicine.
He was well on his way even with the medicine, it only lessened the headaches, not his other issues. Plus you can hardly fault Guillaume for the lost fleet, ecclesiastical schisms and assassinated baselius(?) of Italy.
Hard to say who I'm rooting for here (except, of course, Sidorious), but it was suitably epic all the same!
I wonder how long it'll be for some Catholic-Hohenfranken alliance to take Italy/Rome while the Orthodox squabble.
Suddenly, I've got "The Final Countdown" song stuck in my head. Probably because this seems to be the final countdown for the Empire. Also, Andronikos seems to be vastly overestimating how powerful he is. If the church marches against him, he's going to lose his support very, very quickly.
This is probably one of the best updates and story arcs you've ever had, and you've had lots of good ones.
I think really the fundamental problem from both sides is, when the only tools you have are hammers, every problem becomes a nail. There's the Gospel, and there's the Army, and lots of nails to be hammered in. Just based on that fatal flaw of insight, which is really very very believable, we have probably the best tragedy in a classic sense that AARland has ever seen.
I rarely say this but today I stand in awe.
I think really the fundamental problem from both sides is, when the only tools you have are hammers, every problem becomes a nail. There's the Gospel, and there's the Army, and lots of nails to be hammered in. Just based on that fatal flaw of insight, which is really very very believable, we have probably the best tragedy in a classic sense that AARland has ever seen.
I rarely say this but today I stand in awe.
Truly awesome update. I wonder what will remain when the smoke clears. I hope at least an Orthodox Greek Empire composed of modern Greece and Turkey survives.
Noooooo...
Bloody Guilliame. Andronikos II was right God damn it, and he should've supported him. I hope Andronikos will manage to hold on to Greece and the Balkans. A Balkan Empire with the Emperor being the highest moral and spiritual authority would be nice.
Bloody Guilliame. Andronikos II was right God damn it, and he should've supported him. I hope Andronikos will manage to hold on to Greece and the Balkans. A Balkan Empire with the Emperor being the highest moral and spiritual authority would be nice.
It seems everyone wants a return to a Basil's empire. 
Asia Minor, Greece and Bulgaria, Antioch, southern tip of Italy and Sicily. A respectable state, hopefully with enough inner strengt and cohesion to last through post Komnenoi world.
Asia Minor, Greece and Bulgaria, Antioch, southern tip of Italy and Sicily. A respectable state, hopefully with enough inner strengt and cohesion to last through post Komnenoi world.
So yes, Thomas Beckett/Henry II, just instead of one execution and some disruption, there is now a civil war that rocks the foundations of the civilized world.
It's Guillaume's fault! And it's not! Andi was mad and abd-Hinnawi's treatments helped control it. But even under the treatment he showed signs of madness in his ever increasing tyranny. We will never know if, still under treatment he would have reacted differently to all that has happened, but I don't think so. His illness was as much of the mind as it was of the body. His thoughts had already been shaped, and no amount of pig's blood could change that.
In a way, and despite the madness at the heart of it all, Andi is a man way ahead of his time. He tried, in the Middle Ages, to secularize the state in a way never before seen. Unfortunately for him, he's a few hundred years too early for that. This unprecedented turn of events, the secession of the Church from the State, is a blow no Emperor can recover from. The dream of a united Empire is now forever dead.
It is sad to know that the story will soon turn to a history book format, but you have managed to make these final narrative chapters into the most epic in the story so far. Once again I congratulate you! You are truly one of the best writers I have ever read!
And of course, have a Happy New Year!
In a way, and despite the madness at the heart of it all, Andi is a man way ahead of his time. He tried, in the Middle Ages, to secularize the state in a way never before seen. Unfortunately for him, he's a few hundred years too early for that. This unprecedented turn of events, the secession of the Church from the State, is a blow no Emperor can recover from. The dream of a united Empire is now forever dead.
It is sad to know that the story will soon turn to a history book format, but you have managed to make these final narrative chapters into the most epic in the story so far. Once again I congratulate you! You are truly one of the best writers I have ever read!
And of course, have a Happy New Year!
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Sortmark and Hohenfrankens!
Nah, Sortmark is a bunch of losers and the von Frankens are punks.
I guess I would say that I'm tentatively in favor of Andronikos here. He's obsessed, yes, but obsessed with restoring unity to the empire. The Church is just whinging and setting themselves up as the architects of one of those religious wars that never works out for anyone.
Andi's dead. I doubt he'll even survive a month, looting Mount Athos, and using heathens against The Church... even if nothing can be proven, just the fact that it had happened on "his watch" were gonna turn more than a few people against him, but now he's comes out openly against The Church itself. I doubt even the army would support someone who picked a fight with The Church, hes already lost the nobility and the mob... ohhh boy, the mob of Constantinople is gonna have a field day tearing his few heathen guard apart, before they burn down his palace, and propperly half the city with it.
Nah, Andi isn't dead, he's only pissed of lots of people and isn't going to get anywhere politically in the next 10-15 years. He still has the army so they can't oust him from power, but they can refuse to pay taxes and that means he's not going to be able to do any of his planned campaigns, or reform the government in any meaningful way.
He got mad with power, and now the people he rules are coming to see the Comnenid empire as nothing but a rapacious oppression. Soon enough they'll prefer to cheer for local rulers who keep the oppressive empire off their backs, rather than the emperors who used to be the bringers of peace and protectors of the people. And then it's only a short step towards the fractured political map that BT once showed in a EU3 preview...
Meanwhile the church will not be affected at all, since its structures by now transcend political borders. The Comnenid dominion over all orthodox nations created an oecumene which it never achieved in OTL, with the result that the Orthodox church of this timeline is now much more like the Catholic church we know. The heathen kingdoms have been pushed to the edge of the known world, and if the church weathers this storm it should be strong enough to remain strong and organized regardless of how badly the empire fractures. Then the church no longer needs to care about political borders, and therefore has no more interest in supporting the Comnenid monarchy.
It's the end of an age, and the dawn of a new one
He got mad with power, and now the people he rules are coming to see the Comnenid empire as nothing but a rapacious oppression. Soon enough they'll prefer to cheer for local rulers who keep the oppressive empire off their backs, rather than the emperors who used to be the bringers of peace and protectors of the people. And then it's only a short step towards the fractured political map that BT once showed in a EU3 preview...
Meanwhile the church will not be affected at all, since its structures by now transcend political borders. The Comnenid dominion over all orthodox nations created an oecumene which it never achieved in OTL, with the result that the Orthodox church of this timeline is now much more like the Catholic church we know. The heathen kingdoms have been pushed to the edge of the known world, and if the church weathers this storm it should be strong enough to remain strong and organized regardless of how badly the empire fractures. Then the church no longer needs to care about political borders, and therefore has no more interest in supporting the Comnenid monarchy.
It's the end of an age, and the dawn of a new one