Imperial Hearts (Pt. 4 Austrian Image Heavy Mega campaign)

[TheCreator901]

Actually, they were.

geographically yes but culturally, no

 

[HIMDogson]

geographically yes but culturally, no

Well, the same can be said of the Greeks.

 

[TheCreator901]

Well, the same can be said of the Greeks.

I tend to think of the Greeks after the split as Greco-Roman.

 

[HIMDogson]

I tend to think of the Greeks after the split as Greco-Roman.

That wasn't really the case, though, is the issue. Not after Justinian, anyway.

 

[TheCreator901]

That wasn't really the case, though, is the issue. Not after Justinian, anyway.

After they became byzantium, the only thing Roman about them was the fact they saw themselves as Romans

 

[HIMDogson]

After they became byzantium, the only thing Roman about them was the fact they saw themselves as Romans

Exactly. So basically, the Roman Empire was never a concrete nation state, and has been claimed so much as to render it meaningless.

 

[TheCreator901]

Exactly. So basically, the Roman Empire was never a concrete nation state, and has been claimed so much as to render it meaningless.

True, if I were a post Roman leader, I would have claimed to be the successor to Rome despite being Berber

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Western and Eastern Roman Empires existed you know...in fact, that's exactly what the Byzantines here were called for much of the history of the AAR and what a lot of people referred to the old HRE to in previous instalments.

 

[TheCreator901]

Western and Eastern Roman Empires existed you know...in fact, that's exactly what the Byzantines here were called for much of the history of the AAR and what a lot of people referred to the old HRE to in previous instalments.

I know but I personally see the claim to be Western Roman Empire as a claim not as an actual succession.

 

[dragoon9105]

Epilogue Part 1: Whole lotta shaking going on

The 50's had been a continuation of old foreign policy and economics that had occurred before the war. The Holy Roman Empire, The Americans and the India more or less retreated back into their own spheres of influence and began to play thier own respective games for power yet again. Of course things could not simply go back to how they were before the world, a massive power vacuum had been created, and silently each Nation was rapidly trying to fill it.

​

Amidst a continuing economic boom from new Chinese and Eastern European Markets, the Americans had resumed their pre war economic boom times. Talk of taking the continental union a step further was open and blatant both in Templar and American circles, as a Federation of Nations was proposed that would include the entire North American Continent, and possibly New Anglia and Haiti as well.

​

There was a major obstacle to this however, The Californians and Arthur Macdunn. Macdunn was an elected government but had fancied himself more a Monarch than the elected officials of the United States of Templar Republic. Macdunn continually kept California out of the conversation, and due to his position as head of the Continental Union, that mean Unification in any form was an impossibility. Of course it was in the Holy Roman Empire's interest that no Dominion surrender it's sovereignty to a foreign power, and so Macdunn was quietly encouraged to keep the Americans disunified in exchange for assistance in re-election.

​

In Africa, greater levels of Education under the Dominion of Lindi had lead to rather predictable calls for independence in the nation's growing Urban centers. The Dominion of Africa was culturally more german and had remained relatively quiet,noise in Lindi, South Africa and Cameroon had caused officials within the Holy Roman Empire to grow nervous.

The Sheer Size of Lindi was the major problem as Lindi's administration covered hundreds of unique ethnic groups and languages across the continent some of which actively hated each other and others which had been set against each other so as not to bother the primarily white and german aristocracy that still ran the country.

What made the situation more complex is the rather poor and backwards People's republic of Mali had managed to pull itself together during the war years and return to it's status a lesser great power. From its advantageous position, the Mali started to sponsor communist and socialist revolutionaries both in Lindi but also Africa and Cameroon.​

(IF-112G delivers a Napalm attack outside of Cameroon, 1958 Colorized)
​

The Empire continued to do nothing, and soon these communist movements were armed, and started to gather support not for peaceful liberation but violent revolution. The National Guard of Lindi responded by violently trying to crush these revolutionaries, only succeeding in driving them underground. A year later the Holy Roman Empire would deploy limited numbers of Japanese and Imperial troops back to the dark continent.

​

In America, Holy Roman politicking had ignited a tinderbox of an entirely different type. In an effort to stall unification indefinitely, Arthur Macdunn stated that he would not go forward with any meetings unless California and the Templar and American republics had addressed the growing civil rights concerns in their country, mainly regarding blacks. Acknowledgement by a foreign Power had accelerated the movement dramatically, and by 1959 the United States of America and Templar republic were at odds both with a large percentage of their own peoples but also each other as they handled the issue differently.

​

In the United States, which had the most oppressive laws dating back to the Great American war resistance to the Civil Right's Movement was firm, marches were broken up, sometimes with the use of federal troops. By the Mid 1960's the movement had not died down as it had in the past but had only grown in strength as Television brought the struggle into people's homes, bringing activists from Canada, California and the Templar Republic.

​

In the Templar Republic, a preacher by the name of Abraham Green had used the country's deep religious connections to achieve equality relatively effortlessly. The Templar republic of course, being Templar had fallen in line with this message almost as quickly as it's people did, though it did help that outside of the growing Black centers in the Midwest Civil rights wasn't all to threatening to the Status quo. The great Irony of course was that the Knight's Transient back before it's democratization was a major supporter and defender of slavery and only stopped the practice due to it being inefficient and unsustainable with the Holy Roman Empire and virtually ever other major power denouncing the practice.

(Abraham Green and US President, Rodrigo van Tejas speaking, 1964)
​

Pressure from other countries in the Continental Union would eventually force American president, Rodrigo van Tejas to speak with civil right's representatives such as Green. Tejas did ultimately try to push some form of reform into law but would be blocked by his own Senate, and Civil rights reform would end up being delayed until the 70's when the Continental Union itself passed a uniform civil rights laws that all members must abide.

​

In China, efforts of reconstruction were continuing more or less as expected as the American and Holy Roman investments had started to produce results. Through the 40's and 50's China had already started to become unrecognizable, as thousand years of advancement and culture was swept away in favor of western Ideals, western construction. Though years of communist and then Fascist rule had already perverted or destroyed much of this culture already.

(Queen Wu Zetian of the Northern Kingdom of China, 1949)
​

What remained of the Old Chinese culture was being attacked on one front by American capitalism and on the other by good old fashioned Imperial assimilation. Wu Zetian, 'the last of the wu' had been protected underneath Union state rule by General Chiang Kai shek and had been now finally restored to her thrown, though at a price. Like Zetian's japanese counterpart centuries before, she was forced to marry a Royal Anniona, the Prince Siegfried Empress Octavia's second youngest.

(Statue of Empress Octavia 'The Steel Empress' on display in the Imperial Gardens, Vienna)
​

Such an arrangement would become very important in the following decades as Empress Octavia was already entering old age in in the 1950's and by 1962 would finally pass leaving quite the succession crisis in her wake. Octavia had four children in total, Elise, Gisela, Siegfried and finally Matthias.

Octavia herself had left no clear instructions for succession but had previously abolished primogeniture succession and had not put in a official replacement. Some media outlets began to scream that civil war was imminent but this was unlikely as the Siblings were all rather close and didn't feel a Nuclear Civil war was the best use of the Empire's time. Eventually a selection had to be made however, and it would fall down to a choice for Octavia's children between Elise, Siegfried and Gisela.

(Crown Princess Elise Anniona, 1958)​

Elise being the eldest had the most experience but Siegfried's marriage to Zetian had promised to bring China into the fold properly, as far as popularity with the people, most prefered Elise but Octavia's daughter was now nearly still unmarried, which didn't exactly bode well for the future.

(Emperor Siegfried 'Claudius' Anniona III, 1971)
​

Elise, Gisela and Siegfried met in secret a week after the Imperial funeral and agreed to give Siegfried the Crown in part likely becuase of his wife but also due to Gisela preferring not to abandon her life to rule the Empire. Siegfried, was, eccentric to say the least and followed in his mother's example by abandoning his German given name for the Mantle of Claudius, even going so far as to keep the Regnal numbering from ancient roman days.

Claudius was well liked by the people, and wasn't particularly camera shy like Gisela or had an heir of controversy floating around like Elise. He however fancied himself a 'New Age Renaissance man' having served in both the army and the air force and then later went on to take up an acting and music hobby after the war. During his time in the service he took extra care to learn both Chinese and Greek the former language of course helped greatly in his personal life with the fair Queen Zetian. Still the more established and conservative aristocracy in the capital felt once the energy of youth Left Claudius he could very well become his namesake and go mad.

​

Meanwhile by 1961 the Indian Socialist and Space academy had successfully launched a Satellite out of the atmosphere of the world. For both Imperial intelligence and the Empire's citizenry this was a major shock as nobody even knew that the Indians had a space program let alone a successful one.

Imperial leadership had of course dismissed the notion of a space program, it would be far too costly with no feasible gains. The Indian satellite changed that thinking, as Imperial pride would now allow the empire to be upstaged. Empress Octavia, who did not see the value of 'Flying little things' was cynical when such plans were originally proposed to her. Claudius however loved the idea and approved the creation of the Imperial Space and Air Department, or ISAD.

The Indians still had a dramatic head start on the Empire, who was starting basically from scratch. With a Satellite in orbit, they upgraded to manned flights and eventually would attempt a moon landing using revolutionary Shiva-10 rockets.​

(Indian moon Landing, 1964)
​

The Indian Moon landing however had been a rushed affair and was, a suicide mission. The main mystery that the Indians had failed to figure out was how to land a craft with sufficient fuel to be able to effectively return back to earth. The Imperial Space Center near Trinidad had confirmed that the Empire was indeed catching up quickly and so the Indians proceeded with a volunteer flight to send a man to the moon, permanently, they would succeed in this but the grim spectre of what could have been would continue to hang over the space agency.

(Nobody ever made a Holy Roman moon landing picture that I can find, so, let's just Pretend they did! )
​

The Empire's attempt three years later succeeded where the Indians had failed, sending two astronauts, Ruprecht Salzburg and Waldo Erzini to the moon and returning them safely to earth. Thanks to such great successes the Empire would eventually send over a dozen missions to the moon, landing the first Woman on the surface in 1968 as well as a cousin of the royal family Alexandros Anniona IV in 1969.​

​

The Americans and Scottish would follow in 1970 and 1971 using secondhand equipment purchased from the Indian space program. Scottish Astronaut, Lawrence Piddle even had the sense of humor to pack an umbrella, and pretend to have Tea for the folks at home, and while humorous at the time, his actions were said to have inspired thousands more potential scientists, astronomers and astronauts.

​

The Silver Age of Space exploration as it would later be called came to a sudden and abrupt halt in the 1970's when the Imperial Crusader II pod was due to perform a in orbit rondeview with the Indian shuttle 'Pacal'. The rondeview failed spectacularly when unanticipated space junk from an American flight collided with joined Crusader and Pacal, killing the entire complement of 12 astronauts and forcing the Nations of India, Holy Roman Empire, and the Joint Anglo Space Program to sign a treaty officially unifying all space programs into the United Nations Space Agency, or UNSA.
​

​

There was of course another and more important reason for the unification treaty. Early into the Silver Age of space travel the connection with rockets capable of launching into space and rockets capable of delivering a nuclear weapon virtually anywhere in the world wasn't hard to make. Nuclear tests in India, Mali and America had both been reported in increasing frequency since the end of the War and if rocket and nuclear research was allow to continue unfettered it could mean lesser more unpredictable powers could find and use the weapon on a great power, which wasn't in the interest of anyone besides radical groups and upstart nations still struggling for independence.

​

Outside of the Wide Eyed Idealism of the Space program there was still a major crisis brewing in the Empire. Resistance in Africa had come back tenfold which forced more troops to deploy into the region. By the late 60's Lindi was in a state of civil war between Rebels trying to achieve independence, Communists and the Holy Roman Empire's colonial regime.

With the Nation in Crisis, elections were postponed indefinitely, curfew's implemented and the Colonial nation had begun to look less like a legitimate government and more like an occupying force. Though Vienna didn't do much in regards to Lindi, as the orders had been given to suppress the rebellion by any means back in the forties, and now the government was at least pretending to be blissfully aware of more and more Holy Roman soldiers returning home in caskets,

The Empire was at war with its own people yet again but it either didn't realize it or simply didn't wish to admit it.
​

​

 

[zenphoenix]

You know, there is a difference between empires and nation-states. After the rise of nation-states multicultural empires (like Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans) started to fall apart, and the Holy Roman Empire collapsed in the face of Napoleon and nationalism. The only nations that actively attempted to "restore" the Roman Empire were the Italians under Mussolini and the Greeks with their Megali Idea.

Oh, and Vienna itself was actually a part of Rome, founded as the settlement of Vindobona.

Edit: and a good summary of the early postwar era. Can't wait to see how this translates into Stellaris.

 

[dragoon9105]

Indeed, no true 'Empire' survived into the modern day.

And Rome is an Ideal, The Original Roman Empire died when Constantine split the Empire and the original republic died when Caesar was named Dictator for life. Its less about 'being' the Roman Empire, its about having the prestige so great that you are considered an equal to it that you may bear its name.

Even China spent long periods of fracture and civil war where there was no true Emperor of China. The Han and Yuan are less alike than Byzantium and Rome but both Chinese dynasties reunified the Empire (more or less), Byzantium, not to much, Justinian tried, but ultimately failed.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

That Christopher Lee as the new emperor? Actually rather fitting when you think about it...

Well...Africa is going to go independent, unless the empire does something truly genocidal. At that point, the rebels will rip each other apart, possibly even worse than what happened in our timeline. North Africa might be okay, since there's loads of Germans there and Mali recovering as a power to keep things in line but everything south of the desert is going to be a warzone for the next decade or so.

Interesting about the North American Union thing being attempted again. They never say die, do they? That might be the thing that pushes the two big powers into a war, especially if California doesn't want in (and especially if they DO want in).

What's going on in Russia?

 

[TheAnguishedOne]

Ah, building the lore to Stellaris. Good so far, love that the space race ended up between the HRE and India.

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

Long has there been war between the Germans and Indians till one fine morn when a humble chef sat down at his bench and dared to combine the finest of sausages with curry, thus ending the feud. Peace reigned through the land and the united peoples took to the skies in order to spread the love of combination kitchen-craft to all races of the universe.

 

[zenphoenix]

Long has there been war between the Germans and Indians till one fine morn when a humble chef sat down at his bench and dared to combine the finest of sausages with curry, thus ending the feud. Peace reigned through the land and the united peoples took to the skies in order to spread the love of combination kitchen-craft to all races of the universe.

And then Gandhi was corrupted by the teachings of evil Nazi Gandhi and decided to replace his curry with nukes. He fulfills his destiny to conquer the universe and declares himself Gandhi, Conqueror of Worlds, Ruler of Everything, Keeper of the Atom.

 

[dragoon9105]

That's if someone else doesn't nuke the world first

 

[zenphoenix]

That's if someone else doesn't nuke the world first

Plot twist, Anatolios rises from the dead and activates the Annionas' nuclear arsenal.

 

[dragoon9105]

You have your angels, I have my zombie necromancers summoning the black death

 

[TheButterflyComposer]

You have your angels, I have my zombie necromancers summoning the black death

And we all apparently love to dick around with people at the opposite ends of morality curves