• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
There's two things in this world that I can't Stand.

@wolfcity: I'm fairly certain the final end of the Ottoman Empire will suprise damn near everyone, I know it surprised me.
@Enewald: Patience

~~*~~

The World of 1600
Chapter 1: The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Regent's War

Part IV​

The remaining years of the century would be relatively quiet for the Ottoman Empire, however would all display the growing weakness of the Empire. In Arabia, the Empire's grip would slowly crumble over 1596 and 1597, with another attempted rebellion by the General of Najd. Although this rebellion would be defeated, it would allow the Egyptian General to claim further autonomy, becoming virtually independent. However this would be of less importance than the same being claimed by several Anatolian Generals, thus damaging the Empire's power in its own core territory.

However the rebellion would not proceed any further, and much of late 1597 would see a peaceful, if vastly weakenned, Ottoman Empire, roughly paralleling the calm experienced by much of Europe after the Terrible Devestation wrought in the wake of the War of the Fifth Coalition.

Much of early 1598 would see Jem attempt a series of far reaching and innovative financial reforms, many of which began to be successfully implemented as early as June of 1598 and concerned mostly the reorganization of the Ottoman Beaurocracy and Tax Districts, in addition to a complete reorganization and reduction of the Ottoman Army, redeploying many of the soldiers to new locations and seeing the army itself reorganized around a relatively small core of Elite Soldiers, most of whom had served directly under Jem in the Regent's War.

With these reforms completed, and the new group of Ottoman Governors and Generals instated into the newly reformed Ottoman Divan, the Empire experienced a brief period of prosperity which would be brought to a close by two short wars in 1599 and 1600, the first against the combined armies of Algiers and Morocco, and the second against the Polish Confederation.

The North African war primarily concerned the invasion of Ottoman Tunisia, still officially under the control of an Ottoman Appointed Governor-General, and still paying fealty to the Sultan. The Beylerbey of Algiers had long been pressuring the Governor to instead enter into his orbit. With Jem rapidly extending his control over the Empire, the Beylerbey began to grow bolder in his attempts, and after a few insults from the bey of Tunisia, relations reached the breaking point and Algiers invaded.

With the support of Morocco the Tunisian defenses were eaasily overwhelmed, and, growing more confident, the Beylerbey pushed onwards into Tripolitania, however this proved to be a mistake, as this would drive the Bey of Tripolitania back into Jem's orbit and overextended the Beylerbey's forces, allowing a combined army of Tripolitanian and Ottoman Forces, led by Jem himself, to defeat the armies of algiers and force a retreat back to Tunis itself. Despite this, a full victory for Jem was impossible, as once his forces moved into Southern Tunisia the Sultan of Morocco mobilized his armies in support of Algiers, and these armies now outnumbered the forces of Jem, thus forcing Jem to cede the city of Tunis and the surrounding lands.

Despite this defeat, Jem had secured the total allegiance of the Bey of Tripolitania, thus actually increasing the territory of the Empire and securing some sort of a victory, which would be repeated in the last war of the century the Ottoman Empire would find itself in, prompted by the Polish Confederation attempting to extend its influence into the Crimea, prompting Jem to respond with an invasion of the Zhaparozhie.

Although the war would last for several months throughout much of late, there was little actual combat, consisting entirely of a few large battles in the North of the Ottoman Crimea, and one battle near the city of Azow. Poland refrained from comitting any more of its forces, likely to keep read should its intervention be required in the looming War for Empire.

Despite this, hostilities continued until late in the year 1600, when peace would be signed seeing the northernmost extreme of the Zhaparozhie ceded to the Ottoman Empire.

OttomanEmpire1600-2.png

The Ottoman Empire following the last wars of the Century

~~*~~
Two Quotes from the same source? For Shame.
 
Last edited:
you said in the post VI instead of IV and how many posts more?
 
Eat your baby food and you'll grow up big and strong Like Frankenstein.

@Enewald: It's still got a decade or two left in it.
@wolfcity: DOH! And no more, that's all for the OE until the next book.
@Vandervecken: Moving on to Russia, from there we will move into Poland, then Scandinavia, then the British Isles, then France, then a brief interlude on the Iberian Colonial Empires, and finally back into Germany for the true shit meet fan moment. :)

~~*~~

The World of 1600
Chapter 4: The Empire of the Russias
The Empire of all the Russias​

The Russian Empire was officially born in 1548, however had been growing for quite some time before this. Given the speed with which the newly reigning Ivan IV was able to begin exerting his influence following his coronation in 1546, it is likely he had already been ruling in all but name under the regency of his uncle. Pyotr himself willing gave up control of the state, however remained behind as a valuable advisor and general. In addition, he would serve as a general over the armed forces, allowing Ivan to instead focus on the affairs of state, although he himself remained in control of the armies which remained near the capitol.

The first test of this duo would come quickly, with the Russo-Kazanite war. This war would last the rest of the year 1547, and would see the Hordes completely annexed after a relatively short campaign. The Hordes themselves had become increasingly unstable following the recent death of the Khan of the Golden Horde, and the Tribal Succession Crisis they found themselves in was now at its most chaotic moment. With most of the Kazanite armies in the territory of the Horde attempting to place their own candidate on the throne, both nations were exhausted.

Pyotr would lead a campaign of nearly 30 Thousand Russian soldiers to Astrakhan, where a stunning victory over the Kazanite Horde would see virtually the entire enemy army destroyed, leaving both states ripe for the picking. With the fall of the city of Astrakhan itself, the last strong point of the Horde would be lost, and the tribal government collapsed, freeing Ivan to formally annex the remains of the dying state into his new Empire.

Kazan would suffer a similar fate, although fully annexing the territory into the Empire would take nearly decades of persuing small bands of nomadic tribes, for all functional purposes the Kazanite Horde was no longer of free political entity.

With this stunning victory, Ivan would now have the political clout needed, and in 1548, he would formally adopt the title of Tsar, claiming his new Empire of all the Russias as the successor to the Eastern Roman Empire, with the city of Moscowvy as 'The Third Rome'.

1548-2.png
The Empire of all the Russias in 1548.

However not all would be content with this victory, as Ivan would refuse to distribute the territory gained to the nobles of the Empire, instead consolidating much of the seized territory into either his own control, in the case of the territory taken from the Golden Horde, or consolidating it into a large March under his Uncle Pyotr's control.

When the nobles learned of this, many of them rebelled, however not nearly enough of them to challenge Ivan, who had likely been preparing for this, as his response was quick and vicious. The combined armies brought against him were easily defeated outside the great city of Muscowvy itself. Thinking that the majority of the armies loyal to Ivan were away with Pyotr, the nobles had attacked without fully readying themselves, only to find a force similar in size and loyalty to that sent South and East, and the nobles were easily defeated, their lands stripped from them, and they made mere figureheads, were they to retain their heads at all.

This rebellion would prompt the first of several administrative reforms under Ivan IV. The stripping of nobles of their rights would strengthen the Empire of the Russias, roughly paralleling similar events in many of the growing Kingdoms of Europe, most notable the Kingdoms of England and Poland. With his own power growing rapidly, Ivan was quickly becoming Emperor absolutely in both name and power.

Paralleling this reform would be the shift in the economic power of the Empire. Although the city of Novgorod had been annexed the same as the Hordes, it had retained great autonomy, and remained the center of all trade within the Russias, granting it a massive amount of power. However with the acquisition of the great city of Astrakhan, itself a center of trade, and lying along routes to the rich Spice Lands of the East, Novgorod was no longer the greatest city of the Empire.

Although it would remain the center of trade in Western Russia, and would remain the most important Port of Call in the Empire, this could not stop Ivan from exerting his influence within its walls, and the rapid flight of all of its previously enjoyed autonomy.

BoyarRebellion-2.png
The Boyar Rebellion

With his own power secure, and not desiring to leave himself open to attack in the face of the Suleiman and Ibrahim's newfound control over the Ottoman Empire, Ivan instead turned further East, to yet another Horde of the Steppes, the horde of Sibir. However this horde would prove far more difficult to defeat than the Kazan Khanate, as they retained a strong and wise Khan, with no crisis of succession to weaken them.

Although numerous expeditions would be launched, few would see any lasting success due to the nature of the enemy they faced, and instead the Russian Empire would experience yet further troubles in exerting its influence into the lands of nomads, and this would only be made more difficult due to the necessarily fragmented nature of the Russian control over the former lands of Kazan. Unable to truly project his power further, Ivan would instead consolidate his control over the Kazan with the construction of a large network of fortresses along the Russo-Sibir border, and encouraging further settlement in the east.

The remains of Ivan's term would be largely peaceful, the only break to peace being the War with Poland, which would see Russia enter into alliance with the Ottoman Empire, largely upon the personalities of Suleiman and Ivan, who became good friends during the campaign together.

Like the territory taken from Kazan, the territory taken from Poland would become a March, though this land would be given not to Pyotr, but to his godchild, the younger son of Ivan, Fyodor. Fyodor would remain as administrator over this march until his death, and would be a constant supporter both of his father and his elder brother Boris, who would instead be given large amounts of land near the capitol to build his reputation with the nobles.

However Ivan's reign drew to a close in tragedy, as he would take his own life following the death of his wife in 1565, and thus plunge his Empire into what would become known as the Time of Troubles.

1565-2.png
The Russian Empire in 1565, shortly before Ivan's suicide.
This map also shows the Russian Fortresses constructed to prevent nomadic raids in Red.

~~*~~
 
Last edited:
Not Novgorod!
 
...

~~*~~

Narriatives

????
????
????​

Whatever it was, it was screaming in my ear. The voice was almost deep, but cracked into a shriek at several words. I couldn't make any of them out, but they filled me with hatred, as my eyes, no, my eye, only my right, began to focus.

Why couldn't I move?

Someone near me, the man from before, was babbling on. I could only catch a few brief parts of the conversation as I slipped tantalizingly close to unconsciousness. He continued on and on for what seemed like ages, and I wondered quietly to myself.

Is this my Purgatory?
Or my Hell?

And then his face was in mine, his beard almost brushing against my chin.

"Gooooooood morning little Maurice Welcome back shame about your missed opportunity I'm sure the Pearly Gates looked spect-ac-ular. Sadly you can't go there juuuuuuuuuust yet."

His face smiled, his eyes kept the same grin they had the entire time, and I wanted to punch him, oh how I wanted to punch him.
Why couldn't my arms move?

"We're almost done with Phase 1 Modifications you should feel groggy but that will pass quickly, by the morning tomorrow you might even be able to walk or you would if you still had your legs. Your Left arm is functioning at 38% efficiency and should be fully oporational within the hour, and then we'll see how you take to it."
"Doctor, final relay connection is nearly complete. ETC: Two Minutes 37 Seconds."

Her voice startled me, being so close, but she sounded calm, almost sedate compared to the shrill, thing, that continued to blather on. I spoke.

"Where am I?"

And everything in the room stopped. The 'Doctor's' grin grew wider as he turned towards me, and the silver gauntlet he wore on his right arm shone in the light of the candles hanging from the ceiling.
Wait. There were no candles. Their light didn't flicker like candles, and they hung straight down. They looked like little balls of fire, contained, restrained, controlled too perfectly to be of this world.

I asked my question again, more than a little panic in my voice now.
"You are home." Said the Doctor. "You are in my own personal little toy shop." He grinned manicly.
"Doctor." the female voice said from beside me, displeasure evident in her tone. I still couldn't see her. It annoyed me. "You are in an Order Facility, this is a Medical Workshop, and we are rebuilding you after your defeat at the hands of the Revolutionaries."

"Order. What Order, are you Knights Hospitaler?"
They laughed, even the woman laughed slightly before speaking. "No, the Knights Hospitaler work for Suleiman now, we are members of a different Order, one outside the bounds of the Church you know."
"Our Order is one from a different age. We swear loyalty in the name of our Mistress, and in her name we shall change everything."

The word echoed in my mind, and her face flashed into my memory, her smile shining as the fires consumed the city around the palace. No greater Purity ever walked this Earth, of that I knew.

"Will you serve the Mistress?" The female voice asked quietly. And my answer had not the slightest hesitation within it.

"My Loyalty is Absolute."

~~*~~
 
Last edited:
I'm Not Dead Yet!

I Feeeeel... Happy...

Really though, the AAR isn't Dead, its just on hold while I'm busy working on Magna Mundi the Game.

Take heart! Once the Game comes out, you too will be able to experience Civil Wars every bit as terrible as those in this AAR!

Fun!
 
Happy day! I'll be awaiting your return with something close to patience.