Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR
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Considering that we were given a glimpse through Sophie's eyes of the old schemer Manuel pretending to be ill, I don't think it's improbable that he has just had Zeno offed!
Well, could Manuel have poisoned Zeno?
Would Zeno be alive and Manuel not... then Basil would not be alive.
So it must be Zeno who is dead.
Hopefully... or not.
Why do you keep us in pain General!
Plz tell something! :wacko:
Would Zeno be alive and Manuel not... then Basil would not be alive.
So it must be Zeno who is dead.
Hopefully... or not.
Why do you keep us in pain General!
Plz tell something!
:wacko:
I'm sorry to say it'll be a little while until the next update is posted - my boyfriend just graduated from college and moved in, so we've got a lot of unpacking and sorting left to do. Add to that, I need to find a summer job. So the update will probably be up sometime after Wednesday of this week.
In the meantime, some more replies:
canonized - Well thank you! As much as I enjoy praise, I'd like criticisms as well (this goes for everyone that reads this AAR). Part of my project here is improving my writing. Some things I know about (typos and such), but in terms of style and substance, is there anything to work on? If so what? I have thick skin, so please, dish it out!
AlexanderPrimus - Yes, Manuel's lying a bit, but also remember that Sophie was suspicious of his intentions. A big question is - did Manuel off Zeno, Zeno off Manuel, or did Sophie off Zeno, or did Sophie off both, or some strange combination thereof? Did the lion find himself replaced by a lioness? Did multiple lions bite the dust - or are all the lions dead, leaving Basil to pick up the pieces/
As for peace with the Turks, in the immediate term - time for Romanion's eastern provinces, especially Syria, to recover. If Basil and Sulieman can keep this tenuous peace going between them, both empires should have a chance, at least, to recover before the dark hordes of the East arrive. That is, assuming that the peace holds. There's plenty of time for that to not work!
Enewald - Co-Emperorship seems to be the most often way for a usurper (usually a strong general) to claim control while maintaining legitimacy. For example, Basil Bulgarontocus was Emperor from a very young age (3, if I remember right), but a succession of Regencies and usurpers (Nikephoros Phokas and John Tziminces) actually ran things and shuffled him off into the background. Often it was used as a tool as Nikolaios used it - to pass the crown from one generation to the next. In Zeno's case, it was more the former - shuffling aside a legitimate but weakened emperor in his own favor. As for the problem of descendants, Zeno has no children, so the point would be moot. IRL the problem was usually solved by castrating the children of rival claimants.
Fulcrumvale - No one said their heirs would be as intelligent or as wise as them. Murad won't be that bad - many of his problems have to do with the rashness of youth. Basil's children are extremely young, and still malleable. So all of that remains up in the air.
Nikolai - Indeed it will, as soon as I get some time to start writing it!
cegman - Thank you!~ Welcome to the AAR as well, I hope I can keep entertaining you
Irenicus - I really don't know who would have warned Sulieman - perhaps Arp Aslan himself, or Malik Shah. I haven't thought his end of things through completely. Chances are if they had come to blows, Sulieman would have lost, but would have taken the backbone of two more Roman armies with him, so really a lose lose for either side...
Avarri - First of all I'm not sure how to construct the Greek cognomen "the Turk Slayer." Turcorontocus? Second, with the military skill Basil has, you know in game he gets used more. He might not be the Turk slayer now, but he could easily earn the cognomen later on, or with another target. Second - I'm glad to hear that Manuel's descriptions consistently worked. He's supposed to elicit a feeling of skin-crawling almost - not a pleasant fellow.
Ksim3000 - Indeed, Sulieman is based heavily on Saladin. The chivalrous behavior, caring for his men and even his opponents, all were based on the Egyptian Sultan. In many ways, the meeting of Sulieman and Basil was mentally me playing out how a meeting between Saladin and the iconic Lionheart might have went (if all the legends of the two are to be believed)... a kind of uneasiness followed by mutual respect and graciousness.
asd21593 - YOU HAVE THE 1000th POST!
Oh, believe me, something epic is coming down the pipeline once the Mongols arrive...
Scotticus - Indeed. Backstabbing the Turk while the Mongols hit them from the other side would be an utterly Byzantine thing to do. Alot will depend on who is around when the Mongols arrive (whether its an extremely elderly Basil or some descendant of his), and the temperment of the ruler as well...
Estonianzulu - Many interesting and bloody events happened in Konstantinopolis, that's what.
Alfred Packer - You have to admit, if Manuel died by someone else's plot, it'd be a truly fitting end.
In the meantime, some more replies:
canonized - Well thank you! As much as I enjoy praise, I'd like criticisms as well (this goes for everyone that reads this AAR). Part of my project here is improving my writing. Some things I know about (typos and such), but in terms of style and substance, is there anything to work on? If so what? I have thick skin, so please, dish it out!
AlexanderPrimus - Yes, Manuel's lying a bit, but also remember that Sophie was suspicious of his intentions. A big question is - did Manuel off Zeno, Zeno off Manuel, or did Sophie off Zeno, or did Sophie off both, or some strange combination thereof? Did the lion find himself replaced by a lioness? Did multiple lions bite the dust - or are all the lions dead, leaving Basil to pick up the pieces/
As for peace with the Turks, in the immediate term - time for Romanion's eastern provinces, especially Syria, to recover. If Basil and Sulieman can keep this tenuous peace going between them, both empires should have a chance, at least, to recover before the dark hordes of the East arrive. That is, assuming that the peace holds. There's plenty of time for that to not work!
Enewald - Co-Emperorship seems to be the most often way for a usurper (usually a strong general) to claim control while maintaining legitimacy. For example, Basil Bulgarontocus was Emperor from a very young age (3, if I remember right), but a succession of Regencies and usurpers (Nikephoros Phokas and John Tziminces) actually ran things and shuffled him off into the background. Often it was used as a tool as Nikolaios used it - to pass the crown from one generation to the next. In Zeno's case, it was more the former - shuffling aside a legitimate but weakened emperor in his own favor. As for the problem of descendants, Zeno has no children, so the point would be moot. IRL the problem was usually solved by castrating the children of rival claimants.
Fulcrumvale - No one said their heirs would be as intelligent or as wise as them. Murad won't be that bad - many of his problems have to do with the rashness of youth. Basil's children are extremely young, and still malleable. So all of that remains up in the air.
Nikolai - Indeed it will, as soon as I get some time to start writing it!
cegman - Thank you!~ Welcome to the AAR as well, I hope I can keep entertaining you
Irenicus - I really don't know who would have warned Sulieman - perhaps Arp Aslan himself, or Malik Shah. I haven't thought his end of things through completely. Chances are if they had come to blows, Sulieman would have lost, but would have taken the backbone of two more Roman armies with him, so really a lose lose for either side...
Avarri - First of all I'm not sure how to construct the Greek cognomen "the Turk Slayer." Turcorontocus? Second, with the military skill Basil has, you know in game he gets used more. He might not be the Turk slayer now, but he could easily earn the cognomen later on, or with another target. Second - I'm glad to hear that Manuel's descriptions consistently worked. He's supposed to elicit a feeling of skin-crawling almost - not a pleasant fellow.
Ksim3000 - Indeed, Sulieman is based heavily on Saladin. The chivalrous behavior, caring for his men and even his opponents, all were based on the Egyptian Sultan. In many ways, the meeting of Sulieman and Basil was mentally me playing out how a meeting between Saladin and the iconic Lionheart might have went (if all the legends of the two are to be believed)... a kind of uneasiness followed by mutual respect and graciousness.
asd21593 - YOU HAVE THE 1000th POST!
Oh, believe me, something epic is coming down the pipeline once the Mongols arrive...
Scotticus - Indeed. Backstabbing the Turk while the Mongols hit them from the other side would be an utterly Byzantine thing to do. Alot will depend on who is around when the Mongols arrive (whether its an extremely elderly Basil or some descendant of his), and the temperment of the ruler as well...
Estonianzulu - Many interesting and bloody events happened in Konstantinopolis, that's what.
Alfred Packer - You have to admit, if Manuel died by someone else's plot, it'd be a truly fitting end.
General_BT said:
Huzzah! Post 1000! Didn't even realize it!
And damnit, hurry up with the next update, I want more Mongolian epicness!
asd
General_BT said:
Yay!
Alfred Packer - You have to admit, if Manuel died by someone else's plot, it'd be a truly fitting end.
That'd be Death by Irony for sure.
Nice history and nice empire!
Sorry for don't posting earlier,I was with little time for AARs
Sorry for don't posting earlier,I was with little time for AARs
VladAntlerkov said:
That'd be so ironic it'd show up on radar screens.
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Oh, yes. That would be an excellent “In the end, Tywin Lanniester did not, in fact, shit gold” moment.RGB said:
A cookie for anyone who gets the reference.
I believe that comes from George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire?
So, for some levity while everyone waits, I will submit for your approval some of the more hilarious responses from my students on the final examination. Most of these came from a select group of three or four students (out of 450) that never went to class, never did any work, and in general, earned the grades they received. Some of these errors were simple mistakes of spelling – a letter off can completely change things, while others were far more substantial...
As a final note, the professor that delivers the large class lectures for this course collects silly things students say on the exams – these all are going to be submitted to him. In later years (after removing the student’s name, etc of course) he reads them aloud to all the students the day before the final, with the hopeful statement, “You don’t need to worry, at least you won’t have some answers as these.” The idea is to set the students at ease before the exam and show them they can do well. Most do.
Sadly, every year a couple people prove him wrong…
First, one of the questions the students had to answer was to identify Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the man who’s assassination set in motion the events that a month later became World War One.
I didn’t know turn-of-the-century Austrians had access to sangria. And that sangria was so fatal.
No.
Firstly – you cannot trust those Finns and Estonians! They’ll kill your heir every chance they get! Second – ‘with bullets?’ Could they have loaded their pistols with lasers?
Uh oh. It appears the Belgians are just as uppity as the Baltic countries. Good thing Austria made everyone worry that war would happen, all the way to 1918.
The second ID people had issues with was the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi party members gathered and developed the ‘Final Solution.’ Unfortunately, students seemed to think anyone but the Nazis were there at some points:
This is all levels of wrong. I didn’t know where to begin putting red marks on this one.
*blink* I think you’re missing a sentence between those two. Unless you mean the Nazis planned on killing Nazis… :wacko:
Finally, people had severe issues with one Iosif Stalin. To the point where they assumed Stalin was bitterly opposed to those that didn’t like his brand of vodka:
To how he came to power:
Beware the communist textiles! Those pinko quilts and socialist bedsheets are out to get us too!
So I hope this has provided a little bit of entertainment while you all wait… I have an outline of the update done now, and hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll get some more work done on it!
So, for some levity while everyone waits, I will submit for your approval some of the more hilarious responses from my students on the final examination. Most of these came from a select group of three or four students (out of 450) that never went to class, never did any work, and in general, earned the grades they received. Some of these errors were simple mistakes of spelling – a letter off can completely change things, while others were far more substantial...
As a final note, the professor that delivers the large class lectures for this course collects silly things students say on the exams – these all are going to be submitted to him. In later years (after removing the student’s name, etc of course) he reads them aloud to all the students the day before the final, with the hopeful statement, “You don’t need to worry, at least you won’t have some answers as these.” The idea is to set the students at ease before the exam and show them they can do well. Most do.
Sadly, every year a couple people prove him wrong…
==========*===========
First, one of the questions the students had to answer was to identify Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the man who’s assassination set in motion the events that a month later became World War One.
I didn’t know turn-of-the-century Austrians had access to sangria. And that sangria was so fatal.
No.
Firstly – you cannot trust those Finns and Estonians! They’ll kill your heir every chance they get! Second – ‘with bullets?’ Could they have loaded their pistols with lasers?
Uh oh. It appears the Belgians are just as uppity as the Baltic countries. Good thing Austria made everyone worry that war would happen, all the way to 1918.
==========*===========
The second ID people had issues with was the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi party members gathered and developed the ‘Final Solution.’ Unfortunately, students seemed to think anyone but the Nazis were there at some points:
This is all levels of wrong. I didn’t know where to begin putting red marks on this one.
*blink* I think you’re missing a sentence between those two. Unless you mean the Nazis planned on killing Nazis… :wacko:
==========*===========
Finally, people had severe issues with one Iosif Stalin. To the point where they assumed Stalin was bitterly opposed to those that didn’t like his brand of vodka:
To how he came to power:
Beware the communist textiles! Those pinko quilts and socialist bedsheets are out to get us too!
==========*===========
So I hope this has provided a little bit of entertainment while you all wait… I have an outline of the update done now, and hopefully tomorrow or Wednesday I’ll get some more work done on it!
General_BT said:
A lot more common as a joke than I like. I distinctly remember sitting though Improv night at university, groaning through the interminable jokes about well-wrapped Linengrad, decadent naked Americans, vodka and baby bears.
RGB - I've been a bad panda and forgot to reply to your comments as well. First, thank you for the congratulations - its a big step, but I think it'll turn out well! Secondly - oh god, the irony of that would be delicious...
...can't say Manuel falling on his own deceitful sword will happen though.
...can't say Manuel falling on his own deceitful sword will happen though.
Btw, we finns are not baltic... nor are the estonians.
We are ugric.
Lithuanians, latvians, prussians would be baltic...
But anyways... people do not know as much as they think they do.
We are ugric.
Lithuanians, latvians, prussians would be baltic...
But anyways... people do not know as much as they think they do.
The Stalin answers wasn't that bad really. It was only a typo, and a little too basic understanding of the matter in the first case.
But the others.
But the others.
If I ever get into your position General_BT, I'm tempted to mark papers like that with a giant WTF? in red pen....
General_BT said:
And all this time I thought it was a series of alliances, super-nationalism and a long history of Balkan unrest that helped lead to the war. Now I know it was a fruity drink my girlfriend gets from Applebees. Between this and Vodka, I think I might become a prohibitionist!