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Just caught up with the latest updates and I must say - beautifully written as always General_BT! I really did enjoy the suspense of that last chapter and in a way, I am glad David is dead. Whilst I do support Heraklios for the throne, it'll be interesting to see what Thomas now does with David out of the picture.

Also, I hope Mehtar remains around for a bit longer! I do like him as a character.

And lastly, the picture you showed of David in the sixth generation and of Thomas. I saw that picture you used for Thomas being used for David a few posts back. Obviously looks alot more different from the one we see in gen six.

So, would that mean David looks more like the picture of him half naked or did he look more like Thomas? Sorry if the question is confusing. It's confusing to write.
 
I thought I'd post one last thing tonight.

Everyone is busy discussing the merits of Heraklios and Thomas in the succession with the death of David Komnenos. However, you all are forgetting one other potential player - David's now two year old son, Alexios. Just to illustrate the point (since the Exarchates are hereditary):

Alexiosinheritences.jpg

Alexios' current lands as Exarch of Mauretania
Lands Alexios will inherit should Enguerrand Komnenos due without issue
Lands Alexios will inherit should Drogo Capet and Louis Capet die without issue

This is not counting Alexios' potential claim to the throne of Romanion as well as son of David, and grandson of Basil. Even with just the lands of Enguerrand, he (or his guardians) would have the potential to completely upset the delicate exarchate system... should the inheritences fall in place and Alexios flex his muscle, even if Heraklios, Manuel or Thomas take the Byzantine throne, they could easily face this:

WesternEmpire.jpg

These are all hypotheticals, but the route between Alexios and the above hangs on three lives, really. Also keep in mind this does not include if some future Alexios Komnenos, King of Mauretania, Leon, Portugal, Aragon, Castile France and England doesn't lumber into the currently fractured Germanies as well. So, in the future, this little kid who probably has just learned to say "dada" truly has the power to rock the European continent... and look for his life (or death) to really shake European politics for the next... oh... few decades or so...
 
Yes if he lives Alexios might have a bright future. But if a ruthless person like Thomas takes the purple he might do a "King John" on him and cut his career short. ;)

But so far I doubt Thomas ability to pull off such a spectacular bid for the Roman throne. It all depends on Methar's future if you ask me...

~Lord Valentine~
 
Enewald - Imagine that... East versus West, just like the good old days of the 4th century... XD And considering Thomas' disposition, no, I doubt he'd hand his lands to Alexios... :rofl:

Dimmimar - Which is a scary thought. Should his two brothers die, as well as Enguerrand, Drogo and Louis, Alexios would basically inherit the entirety of the old Roman empire, save northern Italy. Now you can see why his mother, Alienor, will be appearing more in the story as time goes on. With David gone, who will be left to protect this little Imperial bundle?

Lord Valentine - Thomas' fortunes do depend on Mehtar, and Mehtar's good graces. Now, the thing is, does Mehtar realize Thomas needs his "good graces," or is he still sotten to the point he doesn't care? Add to the mix Rodrigo and Sophie... can they do anything about it? Will they, knowing Heraklios' heritage?

Ksim3000 - Someone who likes Mehtar! Everyone else seems to be calling for his blood! And no, I'm not sure how you thought that... that picture of David I used once tagged to him, I've used several different pictures of Commodus from Gladiator for Thomas, but not the pic I used for David (a very young Matt Dillon from about 20 years ago).

kalenderee - Drogo indeed has been very quiet - he's been filling up people's purse strings, but thats it. With Basil's health declining and David dead, we can only imagine the French King is licking his lips at the opportunities... and cringing a bit looking at Alexios as well...

RGB -Long time no see! Viper's nest doesn't even begin to describe this family. Don't fear... more murder, mayhem, disasters and conquests are on the way!


basilromearisenbannercopy.jpg

February 21st, 1189

Heraklios Komnenos coughed.

It wasn’t the normal, light coughs he’d had seemingly since he could remember. This cough was so strong, it made him wince - a loud, deep, crouping noise, so loud it made the birds pecking at the seeds he’d tossed in the Imperial Gardens fly away with a squawk of alarm. The Prince sighed, and tossed aside the small plate of seeds in his hand. It was useless – he’d never see a European swallow if this kept up, and he’d never find out the answer to the mathematical riddle his mother had proposed that morning. He looked up at his companion in answering the question, annoyance in his eyes.

“They’ll come back, Heraklios,” she said. Anastasia Bataczes’s bright blue eyes were filled with promise, and despite his sour demeanor, Heraklios could not help but smile. She was good for one thing – she made him smile when he felt down.

Which seemed often. Heraklios knew his father was the most renowned swordsman in the world, the greatest general in history, if his tutors were to be believed – and yet he could not even swing a sword. By sight, he should have been able to – he’d inherited a frame that was thin, but so had Basil. His father had tried all sorts of martial training with him – he’d shown him the Varangian grip, the Italian grip, the Turkish grip, tried to teach him the staff, the mace, the bow – all to no avail. When his sickness took him, which happened far too often, Heraklios could hardly lift a sword, let alone conduct drills.

Basil Komnenos was far too good a man to disparage his son for something he once, long ago, could not do, but that hurt Heraklios even more. He constantly praised Heraklios’ abilities with his mind, his knowledge of Roman law, his ability to memorize names and faces far better than anyone in his family. Yet the ten year old boy wasn’t stupid, and despite all the encouraging noises his father made, he could read the disappointment in the old man’s eyes. Heraklios might become a formidable statesman, but he would always depend on another to wield the sword for him.

“I hope so,” the prince murmured, before coughing lightly this time. He looked over at the closest thing he had to a best friend. Anastasia Batazces was the daughter of Ioannis, head of the Batazces family and prince of Lykia, one of the most powerful of the old dynatoi. Also ten, she’d been brought to Konstantinopolis to specifically meet the children of the other great families of the Empire. By coincidence, she, like Heraklios, was shy, and by chance the two hit it off. Whereas other children played polo and raced about together after lessons at the prestigious Palace School, Heraklios and Anastasia went off on their own.

“We should find something to do to pass the time till the birds come back,” Anastasia offered. Heraklios nodded.

anastasiabataczes.jpg

Anastasia Batazces, Heraklios’ best friend

“Have you heard?” Anastasia hopped up on the stone bench next to Heraklios. “About your brother David?”

“I heard,” Heraklios looked down. One could hardly avoid hearing about it. It was the buzz of the court. Evidently this is what she took to mean ‘passing the time’ while the swallows came back – discussing something utterly morbid.

The Prince knew he should effect some emotion, but he couldn’t. He was too young to remember David at all. His elder brother had been posted to Italy when he was five – Heraklios remembered a handsome man that smiled some and occasionally played with him. He loved polo, and Heraklios could barely remember watching his brother ride, and watching his grace in the saddle, wishing he could do the same. Part of him was a little sad – he wouldn’t see that riding figure ever again. Beyond that, however, he felt little for a brother he’d hardly met.

“They’re saying your other brother did it,” Anastasia added.

Heraklios merely nodded. He’d heard this as well, and like David, he did not know Thomas well either. The young man had left for Spain four years before, when Heraklios was six. He had vague, fuzzy memories of a tall man with dark hair that scowled at him often, and played swords far too roughly. In the prince’s mind, he wasn’t a murderer, or a brother really, just a hazy acquaintance – someone he was supposed to know, but never knew.

“I doubt it,” Heraklios spoke up. He’d thought about it a lot in the two months since the news had arrived in Konstantinopolis, not as someone brooding over murder in his family, but as a problem, once that logic and the tools his mother had trained him to use could solve. “Thomas could gain a co-Emperorship through it, but they also say he’s a brute, and dimwitted,” Heraklios said bluntly, “brutes and dimwits aren’t clever enough to assassinate someone. They murder them in public. Besides, they found the snake there!”

“They did,” Anastasia scooted closer, as children are prone to do when they’re discussing the morbid, “but I heard it bit him seven times. Normal snakes don’t do that! And the snake somehow got into his room, which was up a fifty foot tower!”

“Maybe someone did murder him, but I don’t think it was a brute or a dimwit,” Heraklios was forced to agree. Snakes didn’t climb, at least that far. He didn’t know that little fact – it meant someone must have placed it there. Thomas, though, was in Barcelona, and Heraklios doubted his brother would order a mere courtier to…

“Well, there’s your brother’s friend… that one Lainez fellow…”

“Who has repeatedly produced evidence he was in Barcelona at the time,” Heraklios rolled his eyes. Heraklios had jumped to the same conclusion at first, then dismissed it. Lainez was the easiest to blame – he wasn’t a dimwit or a brute, had an axe to grind with David, and the skill and means to do such an assassination. Yet, there were no fewer than eighteen different people who verified he was in Barcelona when David was attacked, roughing up malcontent merchants, to be exact. “If he had one or two alibis, I could be persuaded he had bribed them. Eighteen though?” Heraklios shook his head.

heraklios2.jpg

Young Heraklios Komnenos

“Maybe he made them afraid? He threatened to kill them and their families if they didn’t say what he wanted?” Anastasia offered, eyes wide. Heraklios rolled his eyes again, and coughed.

“Ma and Da would do far worse to them if they lied,” Heraklios countered. Even an actual dimwit would know helping the assassin of the Emperor’s son would be as bad as actually committing the deed…

“If your father was healthier, they might fear that,” Anastasia said cautiously. Heraklios looked sharply at her. She had said the words as gently as possible – far more tactful than most children, who would have blurted the thought out without compunction. He looked down, biting his lower lip.

Heraklios knew what his father was supposed to look like – and the specter that returned from the Cuman campaignwas not the Basil he was used to. The Emperor had seemingly lost even more weight, his armor and clothes hung loosely over his shoulders, his eyes were sunken in and dark. He wheezed, something Heraklios had never seen before. As if these weren’t enough signs for the boy, he’d noticed his mother’s behavior had changed. She fretted even more over her husband, even if it was for him to play with the children. And her lessons to Heraklios especially had taken a turn towards affairs of state. All of this pointed to something dark happening – Heraklios might only be ten, but he was no fool.

“He’s sick, Anastasia,” he murmured.

“Yes, but how sick?” she said. She was not a complete gossip-fiend, so Heraklios wasn’t surprised she hadn’t heard some of the more lurid stories of the Emperor’s emaciated appearance. She’d likely overheard her parents or some of the other children talking about it.

“Momma says he will be fine, he just needs his strength after the campaign,” Heraklios said slowly. “I don’t know though…”

“Was he like this when he came back from Spain?” she asked. Heraklios shrugged.

“I don’t remember. I was too little. It’s just, if he is the great soldier they say he is… he shouldn’t…” Heraklios struggled for a moment for the proper words. “Momma said they had to carry him from the ship.”

“Carry?” Anastasia’s eyes went wide. Heraklios was surprised – the other children constantly talked about it.

Heraklios nodded emphatically. “Da was too weak to walk…”

“But he walks into the throne room now!” she protested. Everyone saw that every day. Sure, the Emperor walked slowly, but that was to be expected, after the man had suffered so many wounds in combat…

“But he is behind the purple veil when he holds court,” Heraklios countered. He didn’t say why – when his father had begun to use the veil again, many assumed it was just the Emperor returning to the traditions of his imperial forebearers. Heraklios, though, was clever - it meant his father could hide the pain and misery that long walk to the throne did behind that powerful purple veil.

Anastasia, for her part, didn’t get what Heraklios was hinting at.

“But didn’t those Italians come and bend their knee to him? If anyone noticed something amiss, the Italians would,” Anastasia noted. “My father says their merchants are very wily – they sold my father twenty stallions last year, ten of which refuse to breed…”

14kappadokiagenoaandcagliari.jpg

Fearful of renewed aggression by Drogo Capet, Genoa and the islands of Sardinia and Corsica formally placed themselves under imperial protection. Legally, their counts and magistrates would hold the rank of comes, even while reporting directly to the Emperor.

“There are fools among the Italians, just like any other people,” Heraklios countered. Momma would not have let his father look weak, like a fool, in front of the nobility. Better to resort to the veil than look weak in front of the “wolves,” as Sophie repeatedly called the dynatoi.

“Perhaps,” Anastasia granted. “But your father is young, much younger than my papa,” she added. “He’ll get better soon, just like papa did after the fighting in Italy.”

The young prince hoped she was right.

==========*==========​

EDIT - And finally, a happy ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY today to Rome AARisen! Goodness me, this thing has grown and grown and grown... I think only a few of the readers that witnessed the start are still reading the story, and to those die hards, as well as everyone else who reads, comments and encourages, I do thank you from the bottom of my heart! This thing seriously would not have worked without you all... be it just simply saying "Good job," to offering plot ideas, attempting to figure out intrigues I hadn't finished in my head (I borrowed a lot of ideas from you all. :D ), to in depth criticism and help with my writing, you all are great! Hopefully, this thing continues to roll onwards as we approach 1399 and In Nomine!
 
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Happy one year anniversay , old bean :D . Also I do wonder if perhaps Basil is going to suddenly pull a Manuel on us . That is , his sickness has actually gone but he's faking it all !!!

Also , I predict that the son of Rodrigo is going to die . Either from sickness or treachery , I think our young emperor to be is going to die and it'll avert war with the West . I just want Rodrigo and Sophie to run off together and have even more love children !

Hmm ... or on second thought .. Rodrigo run off with ... - whispers something about a secret storyline -
 
Another interesting update! I wonder how much time remains for Basil to put his affairs in order. Heraklios seems like a bright and good-hearted boy but a mere boy will have a hard time surviving a murderous byzantine succession crisis (unless of course he is lucky like Constantine VII ;) ).

Anyway I would like to congratulate you on the epic work you have done in just a year. It makes me proud to have been there from the very beginning and I can't express how excited I am to see it continue into the EU III time-span. :)

~Lord Valentine~
 
This one speaks like he's older than he looks.

Congratulations on the one year mark!

The wolves are circling, that's for sure.
 
Wow—a lot can happen in a week.

I’m trying to think of this situation in terms of the in-game universe, and I’m drawing a blank. Unless you’ve been modding successions, David’s son should be first in line for the crown, with Thomas in third (behind Manuel—the incompetent one—and any of his legitimate offspring) and Heraklios in distant fourth…but David’s son is looking like he’s being set up as an independent player, Manuel is nowhere to be seen and I don’t see how Heraklios could ever get his way to the Purple.
 
Fulcrumvale - The Komnenids, since the days of Alexios, have functioned under semisalic consanguinity, which means initially the throne goes to the ablest son, and failing that, his ablest brother, before it drops to the next generation. So in game, failing Heraklios gaining a huge desmense and title of his own, succession goes from David to Thomas (since Manuel's stats are horrid, and he rules a Principality, not a Kingdom), not to David's son as it would've under salic or semisalic primogeniture. I kept this with one modification later on (later on it became salic consanguinity), to keep with the Byzantine logic on succession - the ablest, not the eldest (or, even, a son) should succeed.

RGB - Heraklios is definitely quite smart, its just we're rapidly approaching a day where he'll need a sword. If he can't wield it himself, he'll need to find some powerful supporters to wield their blades for him... And thanks for the congratulations! I'm looking forward to seeing what writings you have in store!

TC Pilot - Hey! No usurping my dynasty in favor of yours! :rofl: If I remember right, Batatzes in this universe, in addition to being Princes of Lykia are also scattered all over the Empire as comes... so even if they do not have a single powerful prince within their number, collectively they are more powerful than most of the princely families.

Lord Valentine - That is definitely one possibility that could happen (he becomes a new Constantine VII) - Heraklios is a mere boy, with no martial skills. This is automatically going to hurt his standing in the eyes of the army, especially considering that while Thomas isn't a brilliant commander, he was brave and is 'capable.' Heraklios could always just get shoved in the background by successive Emperors. Alot will depend on how long Basil has left, and the way his health is turning, it looks like not for long...

canonized - Basil has the same intrigue as his father, but remember, he doesn't have those lovely traits like deceitful - he's genuinely sick. How would Heraklios dying avert war with the West? A lot will depend on Rodrigo - will he, after his friend's passing, go realpolitik and push for his bastard son to become co-Emperor or better? Will he back Thomas, whom he personally regards as dangerous? Or will he back Alexios, which according to Western, salic tradition, should be the rightful heir?

As for the secret storyline - you should seriously write that up, when you get the time. I'd find it entertaining. XD This goes for anyone out there who has an idea for an interim story, or wants to take a character (or even another family) in this timeline and run with it. Give me a PM... there's tons of interesting dynastic stories in this alternate history that, sadly, there's not enough time to even get to...

asd21593 - Thanks!

The_Archduke - Yes, there'll be a recap post like I did for Manuel, Nikolaios and Demetrios. Thats going to become a standard whenever a major ruling Emperor passes (part-time, minor emperors like Zeno get no such loving ;) ).

Enewald - In pre-DV CK, Cibyrhaeot was known as Lykia. DV pics occasionally pop up because I've transferred some of the saves onto my new computer, which has DV, not the vanilla. Lykia was originally ruled by another family (forget which), but they made the mistake and rose against Manuel in 1154 and were crushed. Batatzes were raised in their place, already having a comes in the theme since the days of Demetrios, if I remember right. So yes, they're a very old family, even though their princely title isn't that old.

At this point, Basil has been on the throne as Emperor for 24 years - 2 years as a co-Emperor with his father, and 22 as sole Emperor.
 
I enjoyed reading about Heraklios this update General_BT. It's interesting to read about a child that will hopefully grow up to be a successful Emperor. I do see him as being more a scholar type Emperor like Nikolaios but without the combat experiance.

However, from what I hinted in your writing and from what we've seen with Alexios, if Heraklios successfully inherits the purple, from his lack of personal relationship with his brothers or family out West, this could put a serious strain on the relationship between both East and West. I could very much see a split appearing like the first Roman Empire did, what with the Mongols approaching and all.

Which is another problem. If Heraklios isn't experianced in the art of war, this could lead to problems with dealing with Ghenghis Khan. Thomas and Alexios might want to cut their losses and leave Heraklios on a sinking ship. But we shall see.....

Also, thanks for the explanation about the pictures! Must have gotten a mixup somewhere along the lines. Yes, Thomas indeed looks a rather snidy fellow. I was thinking "Well David did look better younger then he does now" but least we know his appearance didn't vanish entirely. Even though, I don't think he looks very well now....

I hope Basil lasts a while long. How is Sulieman these days? Is Manuel still breathing? And I hope Drogo does something. By far he's been a good villain.

As for Mehtar? Well, I like him because he's torn between a love he'll never recieve (especially a homosexual relationship in those days) and Thomas would most likely have him hung or killed if he ever found out Mehtar had such feelings towards him. I could see him doing that, out of embarrassment. Plus killing his wife isn't going to earn him any brownie points.

Well, update soon! And enjoyed the chapter as always!
 
I am still somewhere back on the first few pages of this magnum opus, but still, I want to comment on your writing, if not on the events of the saga. Your knowledge of Byzantine politics and administrational structures shows through and does much to enrich the tapestry of your story. You also have quite a gift for the portrayal of well-rounded and believable characters, and the character portrays you provide help to make your cast even more memorable. I am looking forward to follow the exploits of your "generations" through the centuries.

Great piece of work.