Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR

Bagricula - This is just me trying to remember off the top of my head, but I think the only two smooth successions were Demetrios to Nikolaios (initially smooth, I might add), and Basil to Manuel. Thomas I to Thomas II was smooth in many respects, as in no one in Konstantinopolis was doubting Thomas II's succession, and most of the anger was directed at his mother. So yes, two normal successions it looks like, three if you're very liberal with your definition of 'normal.'

Unrepentent One - Well, by 177 in you haven't had a chance to see the absolute mess that has developed. I guess if someone was to make a CK mod of Romanion at it's height, there would be several possibilities. First, one could play one of the princely families... as shown above, there's numerous opportunities for intrigue and possible success (Kaukadenos did get himself crowned Emperor, for example), or simply forging your way to the top behind the scenes (the previously homeless von Franken, for example). Another reason to play a minor nation is that Romanion's borders, as you will see, aren't quite as solid and the empire isn't as formidable as it looks on the surface. Yes, the Romans have a mighty army, but logistics means that, barring something truly extraordinary, it's almost impossible to bring even a healthy fraction of it to bear on one single enemy. At it's greatest, the Roman army assigned to face Sortmark numbered 25,000 men directly, and was only distantly backed by another much larger army in the capital. If you bide your time as a player, there's BOUND to be some crisis somewhere that gets the imperial eye or shakes up the realm... that's when people like Sortmark can strike, take a chunk, and then deal to keep it while the Empire is busy...

That said, the only mod of this I bet you'll see is going to be EU3, whenever it gets made...

Panjer - It'd be ghastly trying to switch it to CK2... that and CK2's last start date is 1377, iirc...

Nikolai - You're right, at least initially it won't.

vadermath - I was thinking of doing a mod, but I've since decided I want to walk away from this for a couple months after it's done, give my brain some space away from it. Maybe then I'll start work on a mod. Until then...CK2

BraidsMAmma - You'll lose RA, but you'll gain an entire new game. Make your own Rome AARisen in a much better format. I call that a fair trade.

armoristan - Manuel and Andie I would've gotten along just fine, if only because they were both rotten bastards.


Well, I have the text for the first historical update done, as well as most of the second and part of the third. I'm going to pound away at these over the course of the next week, and hopefully I'll be able to post them in relatively quick succession. After they're done, I'm also planning a series of maps, using the EU3 map, to show how the world looks like at the end of the tale. Thank you for your patience!

Unrepentant One - Well, thank you for the advice, but it's a little late now considering there's four official updates left, and then some wrap up maps/reign summaries and such. I'll try to do better though in the next AAR I write. Incidentally, that's Lindsay Lohan... her showing up as Safiya was mostly for my (snorting) entertainment.

BraidsMAmma - It is. In fact, I have the first of the final updates below.

Saithis - I think the pro-Timur people will be pleased with how he turned out.

wolfcity - Oh, being a normal Mongol is so... 1250s! LOL

MajorStoffer - At this point, whatever EU3 version comes out will more than likely be in DW. Also, when I'm finished with the actual updates and such, I'm also going to post a series of maps of the world in 1399. Anyone who wants to start modding up their own version of this for EU3, be my guest. I'd be more than happy to be a contributor instead of an engine.

Bagricula - Down the line, maybe. I'd still be fascinated to play that one out. If only mods made themselves!



The following being excerpts from the History of the Reign of Timur the Great, known as Sidirios Megas, Lord of the World and Protector of the Faith:

These being the words of Abu Zayd ibn Khaldun, son of Rahman, loyal and true subject to the Lords of the World.

I write these words at the commission of Shahrukh, grandson of the great Sidirios Komnenos-Borigijin, known as Timur, a great and loyal patron of the arts and sciences, and lord of E-ran and Faraud. These words represent a complete and accurate recounting of the history of the deeds of Emperor Shahrukh’s grandfather, and his father, the illustrious Pir Shah. Many inaccurate and wholly false histories have already been commissioned regarding these great men and the events of their lives. It is my humble wish that my words might correct false assumptions, defeat false accusations, and buttress the readers mind against libelous words…

…was unknown.

The Split of the Apostate Church of Konstantinopolis does bear mention at this time. For a brief moment it had stood united in fear of the dreadful Andronikos II ‘Blooddrinker,’ but with the retreat of a number of the Patriarchs to Italy to support the claims of Anastasios Komnenos as sole Emperor, Patriarch Guillaume d’Ockham was left with but a rump of the Council in Nikaea. When the Patriarchs in Italy declared any who opposed their nomination of Anastasios as Emperor worthy of excommunication, the breach was complete. Petros quickly showed himself to be an unfortunate choice as well—the man was rash, quick to anger, and envious of his father holding the diadem so long upon his brow. Indeed, it was only through the support and popularity of a certain noble and general named Nikon that support could be secured for Petros as sole Emperor anyway. With Nikon’s sudden and unexpected death two weeks after the Church offered Petros a joint crown, it became apparent that the selection of the Ecumenical Patriarch would be wholly unsuited to sole rule, now that Anastasios had rejected any compromise that would have him share power.

It was truly a tragedy that so honorable a man as St. Guillaume, God bless his soul, had such trials thrust on his shoulders. Hoping for a united front and a peaceful, quick end to the conflict, the Ecumenical Patriarch did insist that Anastasios and Petros come to joint terms. Alas, his words of peace were for naught. Andronikos set out with 10,000 of his Mousolmanoi and devastated the countryside around Nikaea, briefly besieging the city with the Council inside. In their haste to save their own hides, many a pious Churchman eagerly offered to drop the excommunication of Andronikos, should he rescind his orders suppressing the monasteries and agree to a joint crown with his son. The voracious Andronikos promised he would not press for Aionite admission into the Church, but his promises were empty—the Council in all its might had broken itself, just as the Throne of Caesars had shattered asunder decades before. Patriarch d’Ockham alone righteously opposed the new emperor, but was chased from Ikonion to Antioch as a result, where men loyal to Anastasios did lay their hands on him and put him under arrest.

Lord Timur and the aforementioned Andronikos had an agreement, whereby when Lord Timur attacked Persia from the east, the Roman would fall on the Persian from the west, and thereby slay them and conquer their lands. However, Andronikos’ foolish behavior prevented him from upholding his part of the treaty until a concordat was reached between father and son in 1344, whereby both were declared joint Megas Komnenos, a stupefying and idiotic an arrangement as can be imagined. Thus united, they bound their forces together, and sought to campaign east in force in 1345. Many Persians were slain, and Mesopotamia fell to their might.

In 1348, just as the armies of the false usurper Eirene seemed nigh unto collapse, the Devil chose to intervene. Witnesses in Isfahan claim to have seen that foolish woman conducting dark and dangerous rites to summon the vile pestilence known as the Black Death, but I find these accounts scurrilous at best. In my capacity as Archon of the University of Samarkand, I took it upon myself to make a serious study of the nature of this terrible disease. While the results of my efforts took many years of inquiry, study, and compilation, they are inappropriate to place in the history laid herein. Those who wish to see my efforts should consult my Inquiries into the Nature of Disease, Known as the Black Death. My Lord Timur had at his call a vast host, and as is bound to happen, disease was prevalent. It was no act of God that caused the Black Death to savage his ranks, nor was it an act of Eirene—the disease savaged her own country as well, along with all the nations of the world as God poured his wrath upon mankind.

This great loss of life postponed the great Timur’s plans for conquest—in his good and Christian nature, Lord Timur returned to his city, and sought to cleanse the streets of the dead and sequest the living for their own health and well-being. Despite his efforts, God saw fit to claim nearly half the population of Samarkand—a blessing, in my mind, as I personally witnessed in my youth eight in ten of Konstantinopolis falling ill to the disease, and seven in ten of those to perish, leaving the Queen of the World empty save for the gnawing of rats on bone.


As quickly as it came, the pestilence vanished, leaving fallow fields and empty villages. The dark brother of pestilence—famine, then began to stalk the earth. For no less than five winters did this cycle persist, the plague coming in the spring and carrying off a goodly number of the people, and then famine coming in the winter and carrying off yet more. The people were ravaged, as the wrath of the Lord did pour upon the face of the earth.

Of interesting note is the lack of effect the plague had on the nomadic peoples of Faraud and the Hordes. While a goodly number became ill and many died—by my personal estimations, some one in four—the death toll did not compare to the rates by which souls were taken in the cities. Personally, I believe it is a combination of the greater concentration of persons within the bounds of a city wall, as well as the greater concentration of sin to attract the attention of God’s wrath. If the reader is curious as to my theories on why this occurred, I urge the reader to once again consult my Inquiries on the Nature of the Disease, Known as the Black Death. Any reputable university or private collection should have a copy.

By the Year of the Lord 1353, the cycle of plagues had ebbed somewhat, enough that the detestable Persians began their campaigning once again. My Lord Timur, bound by the love of his people, was compelled to respond, and he did call forth his bannermen, khans and amirs to make war on the Persian afresh. The hordes had seen the least of the plague compared to the plump and careless Persian, so the result was, of course, not in doubt. Within five years, Lord Timur broke the false queen no less than six times in the field. In 1357, he finally caught her in her den of inquity at Isfahan, and stormed the city, putting her and her progeny of sin to the sword.


Lord Timur thus became Shahanshah of Persia, as God had justly and rightly ordained he should be. For the next year, Timur set about removing the corrupt and elevating the just, replacing the whole of the Persian hierarchy and suppressing the foolish and ignorant. However, God was not yet done with Lord Timur, for The Lord desired more than just Persia to be swept clean, and God deigned that Lord Timur would be his righteous broom. For Timur, in a dream, witnessed that he was to claim the honors and titles of his ancestors, who sat upon the Throne of Caesars and were so rudely deposed almost a century before. Armed with the knowledge that God was with him, Timur began girding his realm for a great campaign to the West.

It will be briefly necessary to segue to the West, to explain the situation that faced the Great Timur. Opposing Lord Timur was Petros, First of That name, son of the hated and heretical Andronikos who so cruelly suppressed the Church and assaulted her representatives. Petros was but now one of two men that claimed to be the Master of Komnenos—the other was his cousin, named Anastasios, still supported by rump Patriarchs in Italy. The two had made war since Petros took Konstantinopolis from his father by force and trickery five years before.

In his fury, God had seen fit to strike the vile Andronikos with the plague in 1350, and while that evil man did not die, he languished in agony as diseased ravaged his body. He was compelled to quit his army and return to The City. The great lords of the Empire, along with his son Petros, saw an opening. Left as lone commander, Petros ordered his father’s bodyguard to disperse along the border to prepare to repel a Persian attack, while he and his much diminished army (for the plague did strike them hard as well), marched on the City of Death. Upon reaching the city, the Fathers of Konstantinopolis did let him and his host inside, so much had the diseased ravaged them, that they were powerless to resist. It was thus by deceit that Petros did take Konstantinopolis without a sword being drawn, and promptly put his sickly father to death. Appalled, the remaining churchmen of the Council sought to flee the city to Italy and Anastasios, while Petros declared the Great Council of Konstantinopolis ended for all time.


Thus being declared sole Emperor, Petros did then leave the city with all haste to make war on his cousin Anastasios. His lands being devastated by plague, Petros’ army was but small, but the man was impetuous. Many say he had chafed at being nearly 50 and not seeing the crown, and was as eager to prove himself as a young man would be. He spent a year and a half raising a host, the greatest he could make in his stricken lands, and a princely host indeed—they say its helms were brilliant, its spears glinting in the light. This grand army, however, would not avail him against God’s wrath—for the words of the clergy were against him, and many a noble saw him as an echo of his rude and avaricious father.

Anastasios, much his junior, was equally as determined to see the crown on his brow. While his lands were sickly as well, he made good use of his connections with sellsword companies to build an army of his own, and sailed across the Adriatic to land at Dyrrachion. It was here that his force, 20,000 by witnesses, did meet the forces of Petros, said to be 30,000 under arms. Some say that it was the wrath of God, infuriated at a patricidal son, that steeled Anastasios’ army to victory that day. While it would be my greatest desire write the full and complete truth about the deeds of that day, there are few people in Samarkand I can interview regarding that glorious day, I am not a man of martial bearing, and no doubt my descriptions would not do the event justice. For these reasons, I shall merely tell the reader that Anastasios and his host destroyed the host of Petros, and the Kinslayer did flee the field in stark terror, to the disgrace of his name evermore.

Petros made hard for Konstantinopolis, and locked himself behind the triple walls of the great city. Anastasios host was not great enough to break those defenses, and thus a great siege began. Many expected it to last years, but it did not, for God had a different plan in mind. Another wave of the plague came over Konstantinopolis in 1354, taking scores of thousands, including Emperor Petros himself. The defenses weakened by a great outpouring of disease, Petros’ son Isaakios did take to ship, and sailed to Egypt. It was thus that Anastasios marched into the Queen of Cities, and did claim the title Megas Komnenos in 1355.


On taking the throne, Anastasios did call forth to his minions, who dragged the poor Patriarch d’Ockham to Konstantinopolis. Anastasios demanded the Patriarch, who had supported a joint crown in the name of peace to his misfortune, immediately promise him the obeisance of the Church, as Jerusalem, Antioch and Santiago had promised. Guilllaume d’Ockham refused, according to witnesses crying, “Mother Church belongs to God, and no man.” Emperor Anastasios was very wroth, and ordered the Patriarch imprisoned, and many injuries done to his person to make him relent. Filled with the spirit of God, however, Patriarch d’Ockham did not. The Lord saw fit to end his sufferings, and took him from the dungeons of that decrepit city and into Paradise.


Many across the Christian world were aghast at the actions of this most un-Christian of emperors, and decried the death of the Patriarch. Even in Samarkand, God moved the spirit of Timur, causing him to realize that it was his Christian duty to free Konstantinopolis from the hands of so wicked a man. So in 1358, Sidirios, now Shahanshah of Persia as well as Shahkhan and Khan four times over, resolved that he would rid the world of that seed of perfidy and sin known as Konstantinopolis. Once, long ago, that city was graced by God with honor, power and glory like no city before, but as all things made by man are wont to do, the city and her people fell into sin. Greed, avarice, lust and murder stalked her streets. The covetous eyes of her neighbors turned to her riches, as her masters murdered each other in cold blood. My master, being a good and Christian ruler, was determined to save the holy relics of the Hagia Sophia from the clutches of those false Christians who would despoil them, even unto personal profit.

To this end, he issued a call to his nomad chiefs and his great lords, to assemble their host in the plains between the Two Rivers in the spring of 1359. Men came from the lands of the Danes, the Blue and White Horde, the Chagatai, India and China. The men of Faraud, proud and strong, and Persians, unbent and unbowed, added their swords to his call. With this mighty host did Lord Timur deign to intervene and save the Christian world, and marched into Anatolia with his vast host.

The Princes of Vaspurakan and Cilicia, fearing for their crowns, sent envoys to Timur at Kaiseria, declaring him Megas Komnenos and Protector of Anatolia. Shortly therafter, deputations from Lykia, Laodikeia, and Despotes Theophylaktos Angelos did the same. The vassalage vow of that old, decrepit snake brought the backbone of Anatolia to Timur’s banner—only Abydos and Nikaea stood with Emperor Anastasios, who cowardly fled Konstantinopolis only three years after he entered the city in triumph. He left the detestable Prince of Nikaea, Georgios Komnenikaea, as his Megas Domestikos with unlawful orders to resist Lord Timur, the most true and rightful lord of the city.

There are many legends concerning the following, many falsehoods and untruths that seek to besmirch the name of my lord and patron. The following is a true, and accurate account, one to which I can personally attest, as I was but a young student at the University of Konstantinopolis, trapped in the city while Komnenikaea continued his unfortunate and foolhardy resistance against Timur’s overwhelming and righteous armies.

After eight months siege, when it became apparent that the Walls of Thomas would not hold, Komnenikaea, on orders from his master Anastasios, began to burn the city, starting with the granaries. Many ascribe this to spite, but I do think there was more than anger to these actions—these men hoped to trap Timur’s army in the blazing inferno, before Anastasios marched with his Balkan armies to retake the city. Instead, Komnenikaea was caught in his own conflagration, and Timur’s men took Konstantinopolis on May 4th, 1361, a day truly hallowed and revered in the annals since. Unsatisfied that his efforts had caused the city destruction and chaos, as a last effort the despicable Komnenikaea ordered his men to hide in the alleyways, and ambush my Lord Timur’s men in the manner of bandits and outlaws. Because of these dastardly acts, my lord’s men were unable to put out the fire, which spread throughout the city. All Lord Timur’s men were able to accomplish, in fact, was save as many holy relics, artwork, and scholarly people as they were able to lay their hands upon—including my humble person…