Rome AARisen - a Byzantine AAR

Hey everyone!

First of all, I'd like to make little confession - the by now infamous "rot" line was a last minute edition to the update. I had little idea it would spark such a furor! At first what Thomas said to his father was more eloquent, but then I decided Thomas' rough and brutish manner would be just summed up by that one word...

I'm just starting the next update, where (if it goes according to plan) we'll meet Christina of Dau, as well as see more of Heraklios' perspective as Thomas' promised war against the Turk unfolds...

RGB - True, its not a wise choice, but we all can agree Thomas is not necessarily a wise ruler. Considering the Turks are weak and their backs are turned on Romanion, they should be easy to break, but as the saying goes, all plans in war are thrown out at first contact with the enemy.

Leviathan07 - I have a feeling Thomas might not be so lighthearted if he really knew how Mehtar felt. Thomas seems to be of the type that could react angrily, even violently, if the wrong person expressed such feelings...

Enewald - How is it gayish? I'd say oblivious is a better description of Thomas with regards to Mehtar! :rofl: As for the armies, Leviathan07 is right. In game the armies were split up... so there were 50,000 people heading into the areas around Azerbijian and Tabriz, split into about 5 smaller forces. It can be assumed that these five forces were the ones that would report to Isaakios Vataczes in the AAR.

Deamon - Thomas is on the rise, and at his father's deathbed saw his dream within reach. So, like any fool, he's going to crow his success before the success is in hand. Did he crow too soon?

Nikolai - Thomas is a mean, callous bastard. There's no other way to sum things up. Unfortunately, he's a mean, callous, shortsighted, foolish bastard that happens to have capable help beside him. It remains to be seen what might happen if that help failed or deserted him. If he should discover Mehtar's feelings, he likely wouldn't react well, and if he didn't have Mehtar to do his scheming, you could see diplomatic and political disaster...

Lord Valentine - Christina is definitely going to have a major role to play in the future... with such lovely Byzantine traits and skills, she most definitely won't go quietly in the night. However, she's on a collision course with a great many people in Konstantinopolis, simply by marrying Thomas - Sophie (who still wants some power and not be shoved into the background as a Dowager Empress), not to mention Mehtar...

Estonianzulu - Romanion has a massive military (the game at this point claimed a full mobilization would have given me roughly 650,000 troops), but keep in mind, aside from the Imperial guard units and the Apulian thematakoi, most of these units have not seen actual warfare in two decades - some longer. Equipment is out of date, officers are ill-prepared... numbers might not mean much should they run into a veteran opponent...

The_Archduke - What do you mean? Thomas is the paragon of a philosopher king, and Mehtar is a wise and dutiful sage! Right now, both have the pillars of power centered around them - aristocracy, military and the church. It would take a shattering defeat to shake this setup, or sufficient mismanagement. Either are significant possibilites.

Carach - Mehtar's plan is definitely shooting for the moon. If it works, Thomas get Drogo to let the East take Rome, the threat of Drogo pins Alexios in Spain, away from Konstantinopolis, and the army is pleased because the Turks are beaten. If any part of it goes awry, the whole house of cards they've built during the succession mess could come undone. Then you'd have boorish Thomas as an unpopular ruler... and it'd be a matter of time before he was unseated.

AlexanderPrimus - As any one of the Latins at this point might have said - "A Greek tragedy for a Greek Empire." The really ironic part of the affair is that part of Thomas' megalomania is the fact he considers himself a 'true Roman' and deems other Romanoi as nothing more than 'Greeks.'

Fulcrumvale - Nice, blunt, and to the point. While Thomas is on one of the thrones, rough won't begin to describe things...

asd21593 - I have yet to hear one person say they liked how Thomas treated Basil. Even amongst my friends here that have read the AAR, the common response has been along the lines of what Deamon and Fulcrumvale have eloquently said...

TC Pilot - Great strategists usually look at a map and see similar strategies! Unlike your Bataczes emperors, though, Thomas did not come up with this plan - that fell on the strategoi. Coincidentally though, I think the Bataczes might be appearing in my AAR more than I first suspected. I'm suspecting that the surname "Vataczes" I'm using is a more modern transliteration of the medieval Greek "Bataczes," just like "Vasilii" is a transliteration of "Basil." If that's the case, House Bataczes has already produced one of my personal favorite characters so far (profane and rude as he might have been), and that character's son helped develop the Turkish invasion plan. Maybe it was a Bataczes plan after all.

Servius Magnus - I don't know about that, but by his mother getting him out of Konstantinopolis, he's definitely going to live longer and get a chance to grow up. With Lusitania and Mauretania he'll also dominate the other exarchates as well. There's still plenty of time for the development of Alexius Comnenus, Imperator et Augustus Romanorum Occidentalis...

Ksim300 - Someone defending Thomas! For now, yes, the two have a fantastic partnership. Sophie and Heraklios have so far definitely been shoved to the sideline. However, there's always a chance this could have been their plan all along. "I, Claudius" shows that bending to the wind can be a viable political survival tactic. If Sophie especially is approaching the question with an attitude that Thomas will eventually screw up, she could just be biding her and Heraklios' time in the background...

Plushie - Mehtar has definitely shown he can "lose it" when his jealousy becomes inflamed. Last time it happened he fortunately was able to pin the blame on David long enough to escape notice. If he flips out this time, one - there isn't a ready strawman to pin the crime on, and two - Christina is going to be far harder to take on that the Kosaca girl...

kalenderee - I miss Drogo too... he's still kicking around, though he's in his early 60s by this point, without many years left. But he's been bested by the Romans before - he'll not just be older, but wiser too...

vanin - The prospect of Rome being conquered raises an interesting question - what happens to the Pope? Perhaps there will be a 1204 Constantinople in reverse... a puppet Patriarch of Rome taking the fore while the real Pope flees? But where to? If the Pope is driven out of Rome, history in the future suddenly becomes radically and unalterably skewed...

80,000 views!

Holy mackerel alot of people don't have lives out there! Above all me! :rofl: Thank you all for continuing to read and support this story, through its ups and downs over the past year! In honor of this milestone, I thought I'd offer another sample of 'lost posts,' as well as a summary of those often overlooked but critical women in this long family saga - the Empresses of the Romans.

For this first interim, I'm going to offer the juicy parts of what was originally going to be an interim a long time ago (I think around 50,000 posts). It's a continuation of the Eirene Komnenos-Kaukadenos spoiler, so be forewarned, if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading here! If you do, however, read on...

This also will give everyone an insight into how I write these updates - very very chaotically. I might start with one scene, get a few sentences in, then switch to another, and slowly the gaps narrow between all the disparate parts till it comes together. In some cases, like the following, that doesn't necessarily work. Nonetheless, those among you who want a taste of the radical changes to the world down the line will certainly find a great deal to sink your teeth into. So, without further ado, excerpts from "Eirene Komnenos-Kaukadenos, Empress of Persia..."



"“He’ll come over the mountains, here,” Eirene growled.

The Persios had faced the Mongols before. Alexandros II Megas only 30 years before had utterly decimated an invading army from the Chagtai Horde near Herat. Some 25,000 Mongols perished that day, for only 7,500 Persios and their native subjects. Even Eirene’s uncle Ioannis had done so repeatedly.

But this time, things were different.

It seemed there were no more lions in the Komnenid line. Any Komnenid line.


Her “dear cousin” Andronikos II, Emperor of the Romans, was a fool. On paper the Basilieus of Persia knelt before the Autokrator of the Romans, just as the Basilioi of Egypt, Hispania, and Italy. That meant, on paper at least, the Roman Empire and all of its allies and vassals, were bound to march to Persia’s aid – yet no legions moved because of – once again – politics.

Eirene’s father Ioannes was old – he’d seen 59 winters, and was not likely to see any more. In his youth he’d been a fearsome warrior who rode with his uncle Alexandros II Megas to the Oxus and Konstantinopolis. Now, that once proud man laid broken, dying of plague in amidst the splendor and squalor of Baghdad. While now would have been the time for a strong son to take the reins of power, Eirene’s cousin Michael was a weak and simpering fool, a sad byproduct of breeding within the Komnenoi familial lines. The situation was ripe for politicking to no end. The Peacock Throne lay weak, vulnerable, just waiting for a strong hand to take it from the feeble Komnenid grip.

And Eirene, if she had her way, would force her husband’s fingers to grab and take the throne.


Andronikos, like his father, was jealous of Persia’s power. The simple fact that while Persia titularly knelt before the Throne of the Caesars, the Peacock Throne was, in its own right, nearly as powerful as the personal territories of the Roman Emperor. Andronikos, despite being her distant cousin, despite having a blood oath to protect his clients, would not likely lift a finger to stop the Mongols of Central Asia from reducing Isfahan to a ruin like they’d destroyed Bukhara and Samarkand. In one fell swoop, the Mongols would be bloodied to the point the Empire could handle them, and Persia would be knocked to size.

Two birds, killed by a single stone…



So, she reflected, it was a sad day when a lioness had to take the role of the lion.





Eirene’s husband was the titular commander of the army, and Ioannis Kaukadenos had shown himself to be… weak willed, at best. In another world where she could have ruled alone, Eirene would have tossed the pathetic fool aside – but in the world of Hellenic Persia, he was her only access to power. So, for now, the Megos Strategos of Persia on paper led the Persios armies, and acted as Regent over the state, while his wife actually commanded the legions and dictated affairs.


If she’d been fighting against even a moderately gifted commander like the Varangian Godwinson who faced off against Alexandros II Megas, she had no doubt she would have emerged victorious. But this young whelp, this Timur…

…he was different.

The way his horsemen moved was like water, effortlessly flowing where it pleased. Even in the midst of battle, it seemed he merely had to snap his fingers and his men would instantly obey whatever command, no matter how intricate or complex the maneuver. To cap it all off - he was only 18..."