The Third Odyssey - An Elysian Tale

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 48: Mauretania Ascendant (1664-1666)

With the Imperium dominating the lands to the east, the ambitions of the Empress and the Senate started to turn towards the West. With the East secured under Exarch control, the former lands of the Western Empire had grown prosperous and powerful, and its strength was not to be ignored. France and Spain, once known as Gaul and Hispania in the times of the ancient empire, had created powerful kingdoms of their own before their fall from grace. As Elysian control started to be expanded into Southern Italy, one important region from the West was largely kept out of the attention of the Empire. North Africa

The former Roman provinces of Mauretania and Africa became largely independent when the Vandals arrived in North Africa in 429, breaking Roman control over their southern coastline. Christianity had also spread rapidly in the region in the centuries forth and fifth centuries before being violently extinguished by the Islamic conquests. From what was the heartland of Carthage, the region was divided across Arab Kingdoms and Berber realms.

With the intention to reconquer the west, the Elysians concentrated their armies to break the backs of the Islamic kingdoms and tribes that dominated the landscape of North Africa. The Exarchate of Mauritania largely served an original purpose from securing Elysian control across the Pillar of Hercules, largely as a buffer state, and served with zeal in fighting against the enemies of the Empire.

It was now that the time that, under the will of the Empire, that Mauritania was to ascend from the small exarch that had served as a buffer to the large sultantates of the south and become something greater. It was through the will of the Empress and the Senate that North Africa was to be transformed into an Elysian kingdom. In time, the Muslim lords of the region would be brought to bend the knee, but the Elysian intentions for the Moors were to break their back by stripping them of their most valuable asset. The sea.

With the declaration of war against Morocco during the spring of 1664, fifty thousand of the Empire’s finest would cross the Pillars of Hercules and start to break into northern Morocco. The Imperial Thema would soon be reinforced by Hispanian involvement into the war, and the climate had favored the Elysians during the early stages of the war. The Moorish army was nowhere to be seen, and within days, the Sultanate’s coastline would be blockaded entire by the seemingly endless fleets of the Empire and the exarch.

In the new two months, with the Sultanate’s army still not being seen for quite some time, the Elysians carefully sieged down the urbanised cities of Fez and Gharb, focusing on being costly with attrition. Fighting along the mountainous steppe, southern deserts and valleys of the Atlas mountains was considered a great issue of concern to the Elysian commanders, who would cautiously siege and focus onto maintaining their soldiers without the loss of attrition. The Exarchs were much more reckless, sending tens of thousands of men at a time to siege the lands past the High Atlas. Many future wars would see an overwhelming loss due to attrition by the Elysian exarchs, while the Empire planned accordingly whenever possible.

With no hostile armies in sight, the Siege of Fez would continue uninterrupted for the remainder of the year. Fez would surrender after many months of siege and would open all of Northern Morocco to Imperial advancements.

Taking advantage of the fragile sultanates of the Maghreb, Tunis had no remaining friends and had their strength sapped from a disastrous war against its neighbours. Elysian commanders would immediately pressure the military council in the region to launch an invasion of Tunis from the east, something that would be unanimously agreed upon by the council. The objective of the Elysians was to seize the coastline along Tripolitania, but if possible, another goal was to seize Tunis itself.

After over a year of warfare, it would be Constantina that would engage against the Moroccan army, relocating past the Atlas mountains after the fall of Fez. While the Moroccans had the territorial advantage against the Hellenics, the Elysian armies would arrive to reinforce Constantina from its position after several days of fighting. The Moroccan commander, not wanting to risk destruction, would retreat from the south and head towards the coast, where in time the Moorish army would be trapped and destroyed by the large Hispanian army.

On the other side of the globe, the Otomo were leading the Japanese into experiencing a spiritual awakening of sorts. While economically self-sufficient, the Japanese church was becoming a powerful social institution along the archipelago. While many of the populace still adhered to the folk-religion of the region, many of the elite in this new Japanese society were Christians. The establishment of a Japanese church would accelerate missionary efforts in the region, something which horrified the Shogunate and Kyoto. Nagasaki, originally a small fishing village in a secluded harbour, would grow under a diverse port-city in the coming decades. Many Elysians would call Nagasaki as “The Rome of Japan”, where the centre of the Japanese church would be located. While some difficulties persisted in the evangelistic developments of Japan, especially among the north, growing tensions among the Shogunate and the Otomo ‘traitors’ would continue to threaten a fragile peace in the area.

Despite their efforts in safeguarding the southern territories, Morocco would be forced to lose the entire coastline to the Elysians and a separatist state that was forced to be granted its freedom. With the loss of the coastline, Morocco would be forced into the arid plains and the Altas Mountains, and suffer economically from losing two of its major cities.

The inflicted blow placed upon Morocco would come at the cost of tens of thousands of zealous lives, but the fallen soldiers did not die in vain, as the Sultanate would be neutered economically and would lack the manpower to retake its territories. With the defeat of the Moors in the West, Tunis would face the combined arms of the East.

Liberating the lands of the interior to prevent them from falling into Tunisian hands, the interior was focused to be liberated by the armies of the Empire. Slowly but methodically, the Elysians took their time by sieging the lands of the Sultanate but preventing recapture of them by the enemy. The Empire would give no quarter or surrender, be it on land or sea.

Over many years of construction, the Elysians would once again change the course of ships and of history through its ingenuity and genius. Connecting one sea with another, there had been multiple attempts across history to connect the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in some capacity, but it would not be until the Elysians would accomplish this feat. In a similar vein to the Panama Canal, the Empire would accomplish the impossible at the cost of human lives. Sailors would no longer need to sail around an entire continent to reach Europe or Asia. Once a barrier of land that was once considered impossible, the ingenious engineers of the Empire worked through hundreds of kilometers of desert to create a canal to merge two worlds with one another.

Much like the Panama project, many workers and slaves would die during the construction of what would come to be known as the Suez Canal. Working under the hot Egyptian sun and learning from the mistakes from Panama, the Empire had taken much more precautions in the building of the canal. Worker camps were stocked with necessities such as food and water, and the terrain of the planned Canal was significantly easier to build than the tropical nightmare that was known as Panama. While the overwhelming majority of the workers would largely be made up of workers from all sorts of backgrounds, a minority group were consisted of slaves and prisoners of war.

Excellent worker conditions, excellent leadership among project overseers and with settlements built to facilitate care for the workers, the Suez Canal was significantly safer to construct than Panama was. Some workers would die from heatstroke and a loss of lives still occurred due to unfortunate circumstances, but the grand project would be significantly safer than its predecessor project. On September 25th 1665, the Suez Canal would be opened to the world in an elaborate ceremony, where Empress Anastasia would use the ceremony to impress the rulers of Europe and the Near East, hoping to display the majesty of Imperial might and prestige. With a small ceremonial fleet of Elysian ships being to first to cross the canal, the Suez Canal would officially be opened to the wider world.

The economy of the Mediterranean would change overnight, and a new era of Elysian dominance would come to overshadow the market. The Suez Canal was the talk of all the merchants in Europe, and the coastal cities of nearby Aegyptus would thrive. Elysian dominance of the Mediterranean, both politically and economically, allowed the markets of Alexandria and Constantinople to thrive to new heights with the construction of the canal. Other regions of trade would come to see a significant increase of Elysian influence in the region, and Hispania would temporarily experience an economic boom within the Iberian markets.

The Elysians were now the masters of both the two exits of the Mediterranean. From the Pillars of Hercules to the Suez Canal, the Elysians held a monopoly on a majority of Mediterranean trade, particularly among the East. While still interested in fulfilling its ambitions along Western Europe, the Empire was achieving new heights one decade at a time.

The dominance of the Elysian Empire was growing to untold heights, and the Empire seemed it was only appropriate to look into the wealthy lands of India. India had long been divided almost by three by the major powers of the region, but remained politically and religiously divided for many centuries. With an interest in Asia, the Empress believed in the potential that could be utilised under a united India. Should the Empire claim dominion over India, Elysian Imperial rule would never falter. But the Empress expressed concern about overextending Imperial rule, which would lead it to collapse from unforeseen consequences. The Empress believed that the Empire should only attain a limited role in India, if possible, to safeguard the Indian Ocean.

National trade policies, along with the excellent timing of the opening of the Suez Canal, would prove unusually successful. While expected to succeed with the opening of the canal, Elysian merchants would receive a considerable boost across all the markets of the Empire. The Elysian economy, especially among the Exarchs, would start to thrive. Some even began to wonder if the beginnings of an economic golden age was upon them.

At the Battle of Annaba, the Tunisian army would be defeated by an overwhelmingly large Elysian force commanded by the King of Hispania. Alfons V de Borja would come shatter the Tunisian army, and while not attaining total victory, brought Tunis to its knees. Desperate, Mas’ud Badra would flee with his armies to the west, abandoning the core region and leaving it vulnerable.

Riding the success of the opening of the Suez Canal, the Senate would officially support Charter Trade Companies operating across the Mediterranean as a means to promote investment into the Empire and its exarchs as a whole. Wanting to invest into Aegyptus, the Empire would come to promote trade in the exarch and encourage investment to the exarch, much to the delight of the Coptic elite.

With almost the entirety of the Sultanate brought under the Empire, the broken remains of the Sultanate’s army and the blockade of the capital itself had left Tunis into an incredibly dire position. The last remaining fortress left under heavy bombardment and being completely surrounded, a message was to be sent to Tunis with a list of demands to the Sultan in exchange for peace. The Elysian general, Tiverios Diogenes, would make the demands for Tunis well-known and spoke to the Sultan about going along the terms willingly. Should the Sultan refuse, the general promised to ‘raze Carthage a second time’

Backed into a corner and with no possible way to fight back, the Sultan agreed to see reason and ended the war in exchange for peace. Realizing that continuing the war against the Elysians was a suicidal move, the Sultan would accept the terms only to protect the capital and his own family. The peace terms were devastating, with a vast majority of the coastline being seized to push the Sultanate into the Sahara and the interior. While not able to seize everything, the Empire would conquer a vast portion of the Maghreb and incorporate the new territory to Mauretania.

With the region dealt with for the time being, the Elysians continued to build infrastructure along the Eastern Exarchates with the aid of the newly blossoming economy. As the Elysians would continue focusing on developing and expanding their exarch kingdoms, the Elysians had been watching the Persians for quite some time. The Empire knew their capabilities, from their strengths and weaknesses and were growing accustomed to the 'Eastern Threat'. With the Persians never being quite the same after the Caucasus War, there was a new opportunity for expansion to the East.

It was time to reclaim Mesopotamia.

 

[Tom D.]

With the Empire closing in on the Europeans and now the Maghreb, we will soon be able to speak again of a true Elysian Mare Nostrum.

 

[stnylan]

The Med is slowly reverting to its proper owner.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Hello everyone! Due to a series of current commitments that had been occurring lately, updates will be posted at a less frequent rate than normal. Chapters are also going to be notably smaller as well, but I'm aiming to include plenty of writing still to compensate for a lack of visuals. I'm currently aiming to have a chapter posted at least one a week, and this is likely to last for a short while until I can return to my usual schedule. Thank you for you patience

 

[stnylan]

No worries

 

[Specialist290]

As above. Take care of your own needs first, and the rest shall follow

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 49: The Two Rivers (1666-1670)

Breaking the back of the Maghreb Sultans and those who dared to oppose Elysian rule, the Empire would come to focus on dismantling their enemies and breaking down the rule of Empire’s that dared to challenge the growing hegemony. With the West recovering from a brief period of warfare, Empress Anastasia would come to continue her highly expansionist policies across the Old World, showing mercy when it was acceptable to the conquered and bringing none to the vengeful enemies of Elysia.

In recent memory, a vast majority of the conquests have occurred predominantly against Islamic realms. From the Maghreb Sultans to the Egyptian remnants of the Mamluk Sultanate, the only real threat left within the Islamic world that could pose a threat to hegemony to the Empire was that coming from Persia. A fanatical feudal theocracy who’s hatred for the Elysians and the Christian ‘crusaders’ was only matched by their fanatical adherence to Islam, the Persians were completly hostile to the Elysians in every aspect of their society. From what was previously a disunited realm almost half a century ago, the sudden Persian ascendency and strength was something that scared Elysian commanders and regional governors. Politicians and Senators were scared of the Persians, and merchants were often wary of travelling to the great cities of because sympathetic Persian leaders could not guarantee their safety in the region dominated by fanaticism and dangerous zealots.

With what they perceived as the ‘collapse’ of the Islamic world on a political level, the Persian Empire took pride in remaining as the single largest and most significant Islamic realm in the world. It was through their loyalty to the Shah and Allah that Persia was united from a backwater realm previously dominated by warlords and transformed into the economic and military pride of Islam. The Timurid Shahanshah prided themselves as the defenders of the Islamic Faith, something that would gain significance after the Fall of Cairo, and earn the blessings from both the Sunni and Shia Caliphs.. Refugees would flow into Persia from across the world, and some would often serve as soldiers within the Persian 'holy armies' or Ghazi

It was because of this symbolic threat that Persia presented to the Empire was the reasoning to why the Persian Empire was destined to be destroyed. In both a religious and political sense, their existence was a threat to the Elysians and the entire Near East. In order to cripple Persia before they could become any more of a real threat, the Elysians had been planning a new campaign to neuter the Shahdom in a symbolic conquest.

Mesopotamia was the region that would serve a great Importance to the Empire, and was the region to which the Elysians must conquer in order to prevent Persian domination and ensuring that Islam lacked the strength needed to retake the Near East. Baghdad was the most important city that was to be taken, historically serving as a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. Should Baghdad be taken, the domino effect was expected to cripple the Arab world.

With the world being discovered and explored, the Elysians had charted the vast oceans of the Earth and explored all that there was. With little desire to colonize new territories, and having united the homeland of Elysium under one banner, there was a progressive shift from colonization towards religion among the principles of the Manifest Destiny. The Elysian Church would serve as a powerful institution, and the Empress herself encouraged the change from Elysia’s exiled and frontier heritage towards building an Empire designed around faith.

With the enemies of the Empire, almost all of whom served as heathens or heretics, the Empire was working vigorously to defend the Empire against those who sought to harm it. The Elysians themselves were devout Christians, and had built the new promised land along christian principles. While the more benevolent elements of society were focused upon building the new Kingdom of Heaven on the continent of Elysium, the more aggressive and zealot elements of Elysian society had embraced Crusader imagery. Only the most radical and dangerous of Imperial society sought to extinguish the dying light of Islam from Arabia, or to mend the schism that tore Christianity apart.

Elysian society was now focused on building a homeland of faith and reason, and the peoples of Elysium as a whole were focused onto building the homeland on the new promised land. In the rise of the Elysians across the continent, from rising demographics to prestige and wealth, the shift from creating the frontier towards creating a homeland was complete.

Destined to strike at the heart of Mesopotamia, the Elysians mobilized their Eastern Thema towards the borders of the Persians. The Senate believed that Mesopotamia should be given to Syria et Palestinia in the outcome of a victory in this war, and the Empress approved. As soon as the Imperium would mobilise, the Empire would declare war on March 25th 1666,

Almost immediately, the Elysian military would rapidly break through the Persian border and rapidly occupy Northern Mesopotamia. In just two weeks, the Empire was already breathing down the neck of Baghdad, something which deeply alarmed the Persians as they marched their armies to combat the Elysians to the West.

After just over ninety days, Mosul would fall to the Empire after its defenders were forced to surrender due to a loss of supplies. As Mosul would break, the first major step towards securing Mesopotamia was complete. In an act of mercy and benevolence, the Elysian commander would allow the Persian garrison were allowed to march out of the city, keeping their flags and arms at the cost of being malnourished and completely demoralized.

Just days later, Baghdad would fall to Imperial might. Elysian Commanders would occupy the city and threat the city and its occupants with success. Baghdad would surrender to the Elysians with no serious challenge, an underwhelming sense of victory would rush along the commanders and their soldiers for what would later become a historically significant moment.

It wasn’t until the summer that the first Persian soldiers would start arriving in Mesopotamia, but the region was considered lost until the core of the Persian armies would arrive later on. By that point, the Elysians were already making their way into the Zagros. A single Armenian army would even lay siege to the metropolis of Tehran as well, taking the Persians completely by surprise. With the fears that nothing was safe, the Persian forces regrouped and pushed into Mesopotamia with a hard assault, desperate to liberate the fallen territories.

During the middle of the war, news would come from Italy that the Papacy would start to fragment. With the disastrous defeat against the Austrians in the north and the Elysians in the South, the rule of the Church would be shattered as rebellion would be launched from along France. With no possible way to retain any control across the Alps and with the hollowed shell of what was once the Papal Legions were barely able to keep order against religious and political rebellions, Pope Clemens VII hesitantly abandoned all Papal control outside of Italy, leaving behind a fractured mess of Catholic realms in Southern France.

In spite of its advancements, the majority of the Imperial and Exarch-led command would focus onto the northern regions of Persia, exposing the south temporarily while all forces were to regroup. In this act of letting their guard down, the Persians immediately swarmed into Mesopotamia with everything they had. Engaging against a Constantinian Army and almost decisively destroying it that the Imperial forces had to frantically step in to prevent total disaster, throwing everything they could at the Persians.

In this desperate act, the Elysians had arrived to turn the tide of the battle at Karbala. Saving the Greeks from what could have been a disastrous defeat, the Persians fought with harsh ferocity and with terrifying zeal. As they fell by the thousands, it would not be until the Persian commander would order a withdrawal. While a Pyrrhic victory of sorts, it did allow time for the exarchs to regroup and assist the Empire. Persia, sustaining heavy losses, would be unable to recover for the remainder of the war.

With the potential disaster of Mesopotamia now relieved, it gave the Empire a chance as a single Persian army was spotted by scouts regrouping near Basara. Largely a heavily artillery based enemy army, Elysian commanders eagerly believed that they could eliminate the offensive capabilities of a recapture of Baghdad by destroying the army and its artillery. Tens of thousands of Elysians, marching as a single army after the Battle of Karbala, would march along the Euphrates and encircle the Persians while the Exarchs marched into the heartland of Persia itself.

In a difficult battle in its early stages, the Elysians would then surround the Persians at Basara once the enemy had run out of artillery ammunition, and then completely wipe them off the face of the earth. Mohammad Kodabanda and his entire army was given no mercy and no chance to breathe and the news of what would happen at Basra would flood into Persia. An entire army, comprised of a vast amount of artillery, was wiped out. From artillery fire raining onto Elysian soldiers, the Persians would be bathed in hellfire.

After another brutal war against the Persians, the Elysians would force the Shah to sue for peace or risk an invasion of Persia itself. The Shah would come to agree and begrudgingly accepted the Elysian terms, and was forced to surrender a sizeable amount of revenue to the new state.

Elysia would gain control of Mesopotamia, much to the horror of the Persian Empire. This would come to reverberate across the entire Muslim world, sending shockwaves to the heart of Islam itself. The Mashriq and the Levant were now fully under Elysian control, and with it, the perceived horrors of the growing christian hegemony could strike into the fractured territories of Arabia. Only time will tell if the Elysians would find interest into invading Arabia, but the goal of a Persian threat was truly accomplished. Leaving the ‘pride of Islam’ humiliated, the time to truly consolidate Egypt was at hand.

 

[Tom D.]

I think with the acquisition of Mesopotamia that we finally have achieved the Roman/Byzantine borders in the East! A beautiful sight and an important victory for the Empire.

 

[stnylan]

A proper drubbing of the Persians

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 50: Walking in Memphis (1670-1674)

Breaking with the Caucasus War breaking the back of the Persian Empire in the past and sapping their strength, what would come to be known as the Mesopotamian War would shatter the kneecaps of the Shahdom and effectively break their legs. The loss of Baghdad would serve as a disaster to the Islamic World and as a wakeup call to its collapsing state. As Mesopotamia was conquered, the Empire was satisfied in organizing the Exarchates within the Near East. Elysian generals, satisfied with their victories against the Persians, wanted to continue the campaign and destroy the entire Shahdom and ensure that they never threaten the Elysians again. The Empress would assure the generals that, while it may not happen now, there could be a chance within the future to dismantle the foundations of the Persian state.

As the Persians were left humiliated a second time, the Empire would avert its eyes from the Shahdom and towards the failed states that existed along North Africa. The Mamluk Sultanate, on its very last legs and kept isolated within the barren isolated deserts of the Nile and a fraction of land in Upper Egypt. The failed sultanate, which once held the prestige and envy of the Arab world, was left among the sands as nothing more than a degenerate realm for a bygone generation. It was constantly on the verge of death, and it was death that the Elysians were going to bring.

Towards the lands of Abyssinia, the growing Abyssinian Empire would forget about its friendship to the Elysians go their separate ways. Abyssinia had spent many decades expanding its impressive power and conquered everything from the Nubian kingdoms in the north to the Horn of Africa to the south, even being powerful enough to conquer portions of Yemen. As the last Coptic Christian nation in the world, Abyssinia took pride in this fact and used this fact to strengthen the authority of the Negusa Nagast, much like the Russians did with the Tsar in the north.

In the past, the Abyssinian Empire had conquered Aswan from the Mamluks but lacked the resources to conquer Upper Egypt for a long-term ambition to restore the rightful Coptic Pope. As the Elysians held claims on the entirety of Egypt, the Empire would come to threaten Abyssinia for a simple price. Hand over Aswan and experience peace, or face destruction and lose an Empire which took generations to build. Although prideful in holding the city, the reality would dawn that Abyssinia would find it impossible to implement their own plans to restore the Coptic Church in Aegyptus.

After the demand, Abyssinia would return with the message that they were not willing to face destruction and would hand over Aswan. Now rechristened in its ancient name of Syene, the frontier town of ancient Egypt would be transferred to Elysia, which would then be handed over to Aegyptus to incorporate the territory and start missionary efforts.

Pushed into the deserts and holding a fraction of the Nile as it once did, the Elysians prepare the Thema for one final push into the Mamluk Sultanate. The Elysian Commanders would rest the forces in the major cities across Egypt before preparing their invasion of the rest of the Mamluks. Commanders would stress importantly one single message to any their armies, one that would target the Mamluks at the very heart. Kill them all.

Unprepared and unmotivated, the first and only serious battle of the war would occur at Isna. Barsbay Ali and his eight thousand would be completely massacred to the last man at the hands of a vastly superior Thema. The bodies of the fallen Elysians were given a proper burial, while the army of the dead were simply left to rot under the blistering heat of the Egyptian sun. Mere days after the battle, Isna would surrender to the Imperial Thema and the River Nile would be forever secured by the Imperial Thema.

The Mamluk Sultanate would come to be dealt with the killing blow, and the snake of the dreaded serpent of the nile would be decapitated. Centuries of Muslim rule would come to a crashing end, and Christian rule would now completely return to Egypt. Major celebrations would take place along the Nile Delta, encouraged by the growing Coptic demographic and organised by the Aegyptian elites to celebrate the end of the Sultanate. Alexandrina would hold the largest mass in many centuries, while Cairo and Damietta would see celebrations that would last for days that was organised by the growing christian population of the cities.

Empress Anastasia, hearing the news that Egypt was finally liberated, would send her congratulations to the Aegyptian exarch. Empress Anastasia would proclaim an Imperial decree for the Elysian Empire’s plans for a new Egypt, focusing on rebuilding the damages done in upper egypt while strengthening the Aegyptian economy. In what was to be a new chapter of Aegyptian history, the metropolis of Cairo would be renamed to Memphis, in memory of the ancient city that was once the capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. As one chapter of Egyptian history ended, another would begin anew.

In midst of the celebrations occuring in Egypt, chaos would erupt across the Mediterranean. With the Papal State losing control of its territories across the Alps, a great rebellion would break the foundations of the Catholic Theocracy and threaten its very existence. Originating within religious roots, the rebellion would pick up traction among the poor or misguided and threaten to shatter the Papal Kingdom. With heretics on the verge of marching on Rome and with the Papacy on the verge of destruction, only a few capable men were able to temporarily slow down the chaos that was erupting in Italy.

As the largest empire in the world, the Elysian influence across it's surprisingly short yet incredible history was completely unlike anything the world had ever seen before. From building bridges between two oceans, to uniting a vast continent and ruling an Imperium larger than anything before it, the Empire’s rather humble if not traumatic origins within the odyssey never anticipated the level of greatness that was to be discovered. Even in Europe, the Elysian influence onto its history was immeasurable and affected everything on Christian and Islamic societies. Through its Exarchs, the Empire would bring order and peace to war torn or troubled regions and bring them salvation and peace. Through its influence as a promised land, people from all corners of the world were able to find peace in a dangerous period of uncertainty.

The impact of the Elysians was so tremendous that the very language that they spoke was held as the global lingua franca. Tribes from places that had never seen foreign civilization before were uplifted and admired to become Elysians themselves, such as the Pacific Islands. The Elysian economy was a major backbone to the global economy, and the wealth pouring into the Empire had transformed the continent into a unique economic miracle. The metropolis of Nea Konstantinopolis was the largest city in the world, and the world's richest, where it was held as the crown jewel of the new Kingdom of God. And in the centre of it all was the Imperial Dynasty, the Palaiologos, where were largely known to the ‘masters of mankind’ due to their unfathomable power and influence across the world.

As the Empire relaxed into its position as the world leader, it was powerful enough to shape the world into their image. They had far surpassed the Ancient Romans in their majesty and influence, and given the right conditions, the Empire could go much further. Empress Anastasia would, fittingly, adopt the motto Plus Ultra: “Further beyond”, as her own regal motto as a summary of her own ambitions and the ambitions of the Empire.

Incorporating all of the territories of the deceased Mamluk Sultanate, Aegyptus was united under Elysian rule after decades of periodic warfare. While the region had suffered much, it now had the opportunity to experience the benefits of the Pax Elysia that was being consolidated within the East. Investment into Aegyptus by the Empire would start rebuilding efforts on the local economy and infrastructure that had been destroyed or neglected in the years since the Elysian wars. Schools were being built, hospitals were being financed, and European and Elysian investment would bring the exarch back onto its feet.

With the aid of the nearby Suez Canal, where an incredible amount of trade would travel through en route, the economic boost that was occuring in the nation would be known as the ‘Egyptian Miracle’. Agriculture received a boost, workshops started to be built in several towns and cities, and the great ports of Aegyptus were being constructed. This economic period continue for several years, and for a temporary time in its history, Egypt was completely thriving.

Demographically, Aegyptus was perhaps the most diverse of the exarchs. While the Nile Delta was the home of a growing Christian population made up of Copts and other Christians, a significant Muslim population would still exist within the nation primarily in the south. Copts were only a majority population in a handful of places, largely Alexandrina and Memphis, while Islam would persist in upper Egypt but remained stagnant due to the declining nature of the faith traditionally losing its significance in power and influence. Only barely holding the demographic majority in terms of population, the Copts held all the power in Aegyptus, and time will tell where the destiny of the nation would take them.

Improved by a Dutch engineer by the name of Baron Van Coehoorn, an improved canon would be designed around a smaller mortar being fixed at a forty five degree angle. However, the only way to change the shot was by moving the piece itself or using different weighted charges. The new design would come to be incredibly useful within siege warfare.

In the years following the war against Tunis, the small realm of Algeria had been saved from its independence by previous intervention by the Empire to prevent their territories from falling into enemy hands. While it saved the small islamic nation in North Africa, there was no love between them and the Elysians. All the Empire did was prolong their existence by a few extra years, and now that they were looking down at Algeria, the Empire sought to destroy them .

The only battle of the war would occur at Dahra, where Algeria was in such a pitiful state that they couldn't barely raise any real opposition to the Empire. Ahmad Ilaes would be captured during the battle after his entire army had been vanquished, where unlike most enemy commanders, would simply be imprisoned rather than executed. Ahmad Ilaes would fade into obscurity in a prison in the middle of the maghreb, fading into forgotten memory and never being heard from again outside his prison.

Facing almost a decade of utter chaos, the Papacy was suffering on the verge of collapse as the theocracy was struggling both socially and economically. Famine and civil strife plagued the peoples of Italy and a growing opposition against the Catholic hierarchy that had gradually replaced the aristocracy in power. Amidst the rebellions that was ruining the Papacy, Pope Clemens VII would barely survive an assassination attempt on his life within the Vatican. As the Papacy world crumble before him, seemingly nowhere was safe in Italy.

Algiers would surrender to the Empire, and the small nations northern territories would be absorbed into Mauretania. Tunis and Morocco, both bitter rivals, were the two largest opposition towards Mauretania and the Elysian overlord that controls them. With the coastline of North Africa close to being under Imperial rule, the petty struggles of North Africa would pale in comparison for what was about to become the greatest achievement in the reign of the Velvet Empress….

 

[EmperorSimon]

Wonderful update. The Elysian are truly the hyper power.

 

[KaiserWilhelmI]

I sense that the conquest of the Eternal City is in the horizon.

 

[Tom D.]

Victory after victory, the Elysians have become near undefeatable, but if they would turn to Italy, would there be a chance that Europe would unite and throw the Elysians back in their land?

 

[stnylan]

Italy must be saved from itself.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 51: The Eternal City (1674-1676)

With the disunity that was causing chaos all across the Italian Peninsula, the Papal State had done everything within its remaining vestiges of power to put down the threat of rebellion and try and maintain their hold on Italy. In two decisive wars, the strength that the Papacy once held was suddenly shattered by the Elysian Invasion from the South and the Habsburgs dismantling their power for their own personal gain. In just little a few decades, the Vatican would watch in terror as their former kingdom was brought to its knees. Perceiving that Southern Italy was embracing the ‘heresy’ that was Elysian Orthodoxy, Pope Clemens VII would declare that the “South was lost”.

As Europe would watch the once great Papal kingdom of Italy start to crumble. Comparing the dying theocracy to a burning house, Empress Anastasia would watch as she prepared to add fuel to the fire that will burn down the Holy See. With the path to the eternal being open and exposed, the Empress would be driven to do the impossible. Mending the Schism.

Across the sea, the Senate remained divided among a new set of laws that was aimed to reduce the growing gap between the upper and lower classes. Populist factions within the Senate had made strong points during the long and vigorous debates, as these laws would provide welcome relief to families that were trying to make a living in this incredibly vast and inhospitable land. Wealthy Senators would refuse to budge and would only accept bribes as compensation for such measures. Empress Anastasia would come to later intervene into the situation and would make sure that the laws would pass, bringing aid to the farmers despite the wealthy believing that it simply wouldn’t be worthwhile.

Even among the Palaiologos monarchs, Anastasia was one of the few who could boast such a fervent supporter base. Despite her status as a popular monarch, her deputies were not always as fortunate, with some refusing to accept that a particular governor, tax collector or other government official is acting on behalf of the Empress. A petition would come from Nea Athenai about one such governor, who according to popular belief, was ruthless in abusing the good will of the monarchy and making the people suffer. Empress Anastasia would come to chastise the governor, strengthening imperial legitimacy in the eyes of the province at the expense of the grumbling of the governor.

In a violent war against their heretical neighbors, Gascony would dismantle the foundations of the Protestant Kingdom as many former territories became independent. As the Protestants suffered in the north, the Catholics in the south were thriving. Brittany and Normandy would notably become independent, severely weakening the northern coastline and sapping the power of the Kingdom. In this war, the Kingdom of France would lose its prestige and status as a Great Power of Europe, and was now a wealthy kingdom that was merely a shadow of its former glory. Had the French Kings of the past simply remain loyal to Catholicism and foolishly embrace heresy, then the chaotic century it had been experiencing might have never happened.

The Exarchate of Mauretania had been split into two leaving Tunis exposed in the possibility from an invasion on two separate fronts. While its administration relocated to Djerba, the remainder of the Sultanate was left to its own devices, where the Sultan prayed that such isolation from their subjects was temporary and that they remained loyal. Should the Elysians invade the coastline, Tunis would be faced in an impossible situation.

The Pope was forced to deal with the rebellions in the north, all the while assassination attempts were continually attempted, both from Elysia and the rebels. The Empire deployed a fifty thousand man army to face the Papacy, all of them experienced soldiers, as the Empress believed this would become the most important war of her reign. In charge of this army were her finest commanders, right down to the smallest units, for such a monumental task as retaking the Eternal City required only the finest men involved On April 28th 1674, the Empire would declare war for the Eternal City itself.

Almost immediately, an Elysian army pushed into Napoli while the remainder of the veteran forces marched into the Apennine Mountains and Abruzzi. As half of the army was focused on bring Napoli under occupation, a bold advancement was made by the Papal Armies to eliminate the threat of Imperial occupation. Sensing a trap, the siege of Napoli would be broken off for the time being as the army would come to Apennine Army.

Almost immediately, the Elysians were pinned down and were ruthlessly attacked. As their numbers dwindled, it would come to be a race against time. The Papal Army, under the command of the genius leadership of Baldovino Anconna, almost defeated the veteran army and came close to destroying it entirely. It was only under the strict leadership and extensive discipline of the Elysian army that total devastation was avoided, and bought time for the rest of the army to arrive from Napoli.

This would prove to be the advantage that the Elysians needed, as the Papal army would start to struggle. Heavy losses would start to be taken on both sides, and both armies would fight one another to a standstill in terms of combat prowess. After a chaotic battle that would rage for over a week, the Papal armies would withdraw from Abruzzi and retreat towards the north.

Breaking the resolve of the Papacy, the Elysians had achieved victory at Abruzzi after breaking Catholic resolve to keep fighting. Anconna would march towards Milan, effectively abandoning Central Italy in the process to the Elysians. With rebel strongholds persisting in the north, the path back towards Rome was becoming dangerous.

With the Empire now stood poised to march on Rome, Empress Anastasia and the Military council knew that the Pope would not vacate his claims and surrender the city to the Elysians without a fight. Pope Clemens VII believed that if the Papacy could hold off the Imperial Armies for long enough, the rest of the Catholic lords of Europe would see the chance to stop the rapid expansion of the Elysians and prevent the fall of Rome to a heretical power. Faced with no choice for the Papacy to understand reason, the Elysians marched on Rome

Sending reinforcements from Constantina, Hispanian and Roman troops would together land in Southern Italy and make short work in occupying Napoi. Fearing the worst, Pope Clemens VII would issue an evacuation of the city and ordered that all cardinals and the nobles of the city were to be relocated to Northern Italy. Clemens VII himself would remain behind in the city, and he prepared for a rapid preparation to make a last stand. Despite this, support behind Clemens VII was not universal, as Papal deserters and even rebel forces joined with the Elysians to lay siege to the city.

On the early hours of December 1st 1674, over fifty thousand Elysian soldiers would arrive on the outskirts of Rome with reinforcements along the way. The city’s fortifications, such as its massive walls and its own artillery forces within the walls, made a direct advance onto the walls dangerous. The Elysians were well prepared to bide their time, led under the command of Nikephoros Doukas, and held a considerable numerical and offensive advantage over the defenders of the city.

After the first two weeks of siege, and now having close to seventy thousand men taking their time to tighten the noose around the city, bombardments would begin to violently break down the impressive walls of the city. Breaking off his men into smaller units to surround the city, Doukas would begin to tighten the noose by strangling the defenders capacity to resist artillery fire or repair the cities defenses, delaying their capacity to maintain the defense. Doukas maintained strict orders as to not sack the city, maintaining tight discipline among the troops. Any soldier who broke the rules that the commander implemented was treated as a serious crime, ranging from flogging as a minor crime to being sentenced to death at the most extreme.

Doukas would continue to make assaults on the city almost every two weeks into the siege, ordering violent artillery bombardments to break down the defenses of the city while blockading the city in order to break the spirits of the defenders. Doukas would, from time to time, order a ceasefire as a means to break the siege and try and demand a surrender diplomatically, none of which would be accepted. As weeks turned into months, Doukas would start to lose his patience as time went on.

Pope Clemens VII, the last Pontiff to rule from Rome (1598-1675)​

On the morning of February 19th 1675, the Imperial Army attacked the walls of Rome and broke through. With the cardinals of the church evacuated from the city, only the Pope himself remained in the city. Doukas would march the Imperial Army into the city, where their sheer size would simply discourage any civilians from taking arms against them. With the Elysians mere miles away, Pope Clemens VII would finally abandoned the siege and would make an escape from the city. The Swiss Guard would notably serve in the finest hour, making a last stand on the steps of St Peter’s Basilica. The entire guard would be massacred to the very last man, but the bravery of the rearguard would allow Clemens VII to escape from Rome through the Passetto di Borgo, where the pontiff would escape the city and simply abandon his own people.

Rome would fall to the Elysians, and the Legions erupted into an earthshaking roar upon taking the city. In the days following the occupation of the city, loyalists within the city were hundred down or simply sent into exile. Pope Clemens VII, after his evacuation from the city, would collapse shortly after the Papal government made their way past Florence, and would die from stress and natural causes at the age of seventy seven. Throwing leadership into chaos during the evacuation, the Papacy would later find a successor to Clemens VII while their entire world fell into chaos

With the Empire going past Rome, the rebels within Northern Italy would come to prevent the Elysians from advancing further. With the roads to the north blocked and with entire towns being captured by rebels, the Elysians would put a violent end to the Papacy’s rebellion problem.

In Urbino, Nikephoros Doukas and the armies under his control would completely shatter a significant portion of the rebellion almost immediately. Cosimo Argenta and forty five thousand rebels would come to never stand a chance against the veteran forces of Nikephoros Doukas in an open battle outside of Urbino. Quickly encircling the large abit inexperienced army, largely made up of commoners and mercenaries, the entire rebellion was put to the sword. In what quickly turned into a massacre, Nikephoros slaughtered Argenta and his entire army simply because they got in his way.

Travelling towards Firenze, Doukas would bring Elysian and Spartan fury to the rebel army that held the wealthy city of Firenze. Although the rebel army was not overwhelmingly crushed like the one at Urbino, the heretics in Firenze would abandon the city after losing a substantial amount

The leadership of the Papacy had been decapitated, and with Imperial troops pushing towards Genoa and Milan, the Catholic Cardinals who so vividly through their anger towards the Elysians now cowering in fear at the mere sight of Imperial troops on the horizon. Central Italy up to Tuscany would be ceded into Imperial control, and the Exarchate of Rome would finally live up to its namesake by now holding the Eternal City. When news would reach Constantinople that Rome would be retaken by its rightful owners, the Orthodox world would erupt in a celebration. As news would travel across the Atlantic, the Imperial capital would explode into revelry. Parties and parades would last for days, and celebrations akin to Foundation Day would break out across the Empire as news of the momentous occasion spread.

Empress Anastasia’s personal reaction was unknown, but her actions following the war would speak louder than words. The Empress would commission vast public works to be organised in Rome to show that she was committed to restoring the city to its ancient glory. The Papacy would retreat to Milan, and a new College of Cardinals would elect a bishop to become the new Pope, but it would not occur in Rome. The new Pope, Paul VI, would claim to be the heir to Saint Peter but would prove to be deeply unpopular with the loss of the Apostle’s city. The Bishop of Rome was now just a bishop in name, and despite the loss of Rome, the Catholic Lords of Europe didn’t seem to care about the fate of the Church...

In the prestigious city, Rome’s Aqueducts and baths would be rebuilt quickly, and the Coliseum would undergo extensive restoration within the following years. But the Roman Forum, once the heart of the Ancient Empire, was perhaps the most expensive restoration project that would be commissioned. The restoration would almost bankrupt the Exarchate of Rome, but Elysian building techniques and a generous amount of resources would soothe the rebuilding process of a project that would come to last over a decade.

The next fourteen months were dedicated to be transform the entire city of Rome from the centre of the Catholic World into a truly reborn city. As restorative and building projects were suddenly underway, the most important part of the restoration of Rome would come to be that matter of the Vatican. St Peter’s Basilica would start to be redesigned into a grand Orthodox cathedral and was to be the seat of the Patriarch of Rome, while other Basilica’s across Rome was to be re-purposed into Elysian Orthodox centers of worship. The religious nature of Rome would be transformed to resemble the glories of its ancient past.

The shift in the nature of the city would not come without controversy. Upon the capture the city, many Papal loyalists were driven out of the city and sent into exile or were hunted down. Any remaining churches across the city that were not destroyed during the siege or were closed down from the Elysian occupation of the city were only far and few between. The Empire’s terms for the city were generous to the extreme upon its still overwhelming majority of Catholic inhabitants, and offered no new taxes upon the city or take any properties from its residents.

Up until the Siege of Rome, the strength of the Papal State had allowed its many Popes to rule Italy from the comfort of Rome. It wasn’t until the decline of Church Rule that the status of the Pope was officially endangered. With the Pope abandoning the city for the first time since the zenith of Papal power, loyalties towards the Holy Father were conflicting among its inhabitants. With the abandonment that would come to follow, a minority of Romans would quickly swear allegiance to the Empire. In time, the rest of the inhabitants would come to enjoy the benefits of Imperial rule as the Elysians would invest heavily into restoring the past glory of the city, just like the many Exarchs under the Empire. With the spread of Orthodoxy and the reunification of the Pentarchy, including the vital episcopal see of Rome, the Catholic faith would be crippled permanently. Many would cling to the faith, but with the Pentarchy now claiming universal rule over all of Christendom, it would never hold the power that it once had.

With the city under Elysian control, the Patriarchate of Rome would be properly restored as one of the ancient episcopal sees of the Pentarchy in the Orthodox Church. Empress Anastasia would make the journey across the ocean to tour the Exarchates, arriving on Rome on a very special day. On April 21st 1676, Empress Anastasia would make a speech that would come to echo across Rome and the rest of Europe. The Empress had unified the Orthodox Churches despite the different doctrines between the Russians and the rest of the Orthodox world, and with the Catholic world losing its most important city, the Elysian faith had evolved past simple reformation. The Elysian state would no longer just a pretender to the heir of Rome, but had evolved past the legendary glory of the ancient Empire. Anastasia proclaimed that despite ruling a united Elysian church, there was much work to be done. There was still territory to recover and ancient borders to reclaim.

As the news would come to pass following the “mending” of the Schism, many small states across Europe would abandon the Pope like he had abandoned Rome and openly converted to Elysian Orthodoxy. Small states across the Lowlands and France would convert to the faith, but what would rock the foundations of Central Europe was the number of German states abandoning Catholicism and converting to the true faith.

Once again, the religious nature of the Holy Roman Empire would be rocked to its foundation as close to half of the states in Central Europe would split the religion almost in half. Only the most powerful of Catholic states would stay true to Catholicism, even if it the faith and the legitimacy of the Pope was forever weakened.

 

[stnylan]

The Eternal City will be glorious once again.

 

[Tom D.]

The religious world in Europe has now truly broken down it seems...

 

[EmperorSimon]

At last Elysian orthodox the preferred faith. I sense it won't be too long before the exarch of Gallia and Germania are established.

 

[Nikolai]

Elysia truly is great, and her Empress even greater.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 52: The Cross and the Sun (1676-1682)

The Otomo Shogunate, concentrated in Kyushu and Shikoku, was a growing state among the Japanese archipelago, and it was a nation where Japanese Christians were protected under the rule of a like minded ruler. With a somewhat friendly nation within Asia, Europeans made a large presence among Southern Japan, but this presence was especially heavy among Elysian evangelists and merchants who would make the extremely long journey across the Pacific. With Christianisation now starting to become a regional phenomenon, the skepticism of Christianity was fading as it was becoming more and more ingrained in national identity, promoted by a growing Japanese Church and interests from the Otomo government itself.

Along the rest of the Archipelago, the Japanese Shogunate held nothing but hatred for the Otomo and their Elysian masters. Still holding rightful claims on the entirety of Japan, the ruling Yamana viewed the ‘southern heathens’ as nothing more than both cultural traitors who was seduced by foreign devils and abandoned the ways of their ancestors. Taking a more xenophobic treatment again towards the south, the Yamana would keep trade and interaction with the South to an absolute minimum. The Yamana would start preparing for an invasion of the South to reclaim Japan, with the intention to ruthlessly put down Christianity and foreign elements as a whole that sought to destroy the Japanese way of life.

With tensions starting to grow, the garrisoned Elysian armies in Japan would come to prepare for what would become an inevitable invasion from the north. With a heavy presence in Otomo, the Empire would come to motivate the locals in defending their home and their faith from the north. Until then, the Elysians would work hard in making friends elsewhere...

In Central Europe, a surprising friend would be made. The Teutonic Order, a Prussian monastic order with crusader origins, was one of the first nations to completely abandon Catholicism as a whole and embraced Elysian Orthodoxy. While many states across Europe would adopt the faith, with many concentrated within the Holy Roman Empire, it was the Prussians that both ignited interest in the Elysians due to their newfound zeal and their strategic position between the lands of East and West.

As well as having no ties to the Holy Roman Empire, the Elysians seen incredible interest in Prussia and sought to promote the Prussians. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Nea Konstantinopolis would grant autocephaly to the Teutonic Order, and it would become the first place outside of Elysian Europe where an independent church would be established on the continent, namely with designs with the establishment of a German Orthodox Church. An alliance was sent to the Teutonic Order following the Prussians embracing the faith, which was enthusiastically accepted upon.

Cementing this new friendship, the Empire would proclaim the guarantee of independence for the Teutonic Orders. Surrounded by larger neighbours, the Grand Master of the Order would become eternally grateful for the eyes of the Empire to bless their small realm.

Nikephoros I Palaiologos. With origins within the Imperial Army, Nikephoros would become one of the most notable of the Elysian Emperor's in the 17th century.​

After decades on the throne, the rule of the Velvet Empress would come to a close. Empress Anastasia Palaeologus would spend the last days of her life in the Imperial palace. In pain from ovarian cysts, the Empress would die on October 26th 1676, aged fifty eight. While Anastasia would come to have children herself, all of them suffered from physical or intellectual impairments. With a string of bad luck following her attempts to start a healthy family, the Empress would make the difficult choice to disinherit her own children for the betterment of the Empire.

The succession would come to pass onto a popular member of the Imperial family. Nikephoros Palaiologos, Anastasia’s younger brother, would succeed his sister to ascend to the Imperial Throne. With the religious activities and policies of the Empire during her reign, during of which the Empress was seen as responsible for mending the schism and uniting both the Orthodox Churches, Anastasia would be canonized as a Saint in the Elysian Orthodox Church.

With the militarisation that was occurring within the Yamana Shogunate, the Empire would come to discreetly finance the frustrations that had been occurring among the nobility on Honshu. With some of the most powerful clans underneath the Shogunate feeling ignored by the Shogun on his militant policies, the position of the nobility felt compromised on all fronts. Fearing another devastating war against the Elysians and the ‘misguided’ peoples under the Otomo, the nobility started to considering to betray their own leader if it would mean preventing a war with the Elysians.

Among the Protestant North and the Catholic South, the religious divide between the French realms would reveal a surprising development. Gascony, the driving force in Southern France, defeated the Northerners. In the Treaty of Toulouse, Gascony would acquire the entirety of the Catholic colony of Columbia, reuniting the French Retorians under the increasingly strong leadership of the Gascony Bishops.

With preparations going underway by the Shogunate to launch a wide-scale invasion of Southern Japan, it would be the Elysians that would come to launch the first move. The Christians of Japan would come to rally under the leadership of the Otomo and the garrisoned Elysians in the region. Should a devastating blow be inflicted upon the North, the Elysian commanders believed that it would be enough to pacify them aggressive shogunate. The Otomo and the converts were more careful, fearful of displacing the Imperial family and their importance in Japanese society. War would come to be declared, and Nikephoros would take personal attention in how the war would proceed.

The main invading force would be organised by Elysian led armies made up of Japanese conscripts but serving under Imperial command. Carefully making advancements as to not overextend themselves, the Empire would face harsh local resistance on advancement towards the north.

The Shogun himself, Yamana Morohito, would lead his men into battle at Izumo. Having studied the military doctrine and strategies of the Elysian commanders, Morohito took precautions and had spent time modernising his army to better combat the Elysian outsiders. At the battle of Izumo, the fierce discipline of the Shogunate forces had successfully displaced the Elysians and managed to defeat them, at the expense of heavy losses. Unable to push further, Morohito would march towards the north to boost his numbers with reinforcements.

In the time that Morohito had marched towards the north, the Elysians made a daring push towards the Imperial capital of Japan. With the evacuation of the Imperial family towards the north, Morohito would dislodge the Elysians from the Imperial capital, suffering heavy losses due to Elysian field artillery and the discipline of their soldiers. Despite achieving victory for the Shogunate, the Elysians would come to suffer heavy losses as the Thema fought until the very end.

Yamana Morohito, the third and final Shogun of the Yamana Shogunate and final Shinto Shogun of Japan.​

In a short amount of time, disaster would weaken the Elysian lines after suffering two defeats against the Shogunate. Unable to fight at maximum efficiency, a retreat was ordered among the generals to relocate to Shikoku and to sacrifice the gains that had been made to bide time to reinforce the two armies. It would be that, three months after the start of the war, that the first assistance from the Exarchs would begin to arrive in Kyushu.

With months of preparation, both armies would be combined to launch a main assault onto the Shogunate. With a numerical advantage and a difference in strategy and command, the Elysians would once again march with the goal of occupying Chugoku. The Shogunate would both combine their armies into a singular unit like the Elysians would, and the united armies would both meet one another in battle once again at Izumo.

With both sides ready to meet one another in battle, the Elysians would suffer from a numerical disadvantage but were notably more disciplined and had better equipment than the Shogunate. Yamana Morohito would not be present in the battle, instead sending his top lieutenant to defeat the Elysians. Kagawa Naomochi, a respected leader in his own right, would lead the Japanese into battle with unbreakable discipline and zeal.

The commanders on both sides would understand that whoever would win this battle would effectively seize control of Japan, and inspired their men to fight with absolutely everything they had.

The battle would continue for several hours, both sides fighting each other almost evenly as neither side was willing to let the other gain any advantage. In the height of the battle, a terrible tragedy would befall the Shinto ranks. Naomochi would be struck down while leading his troops, being shot and fatally wounded by a round from an arquebus. Seeing the chance, the Elysian Themas under the command of Ioustinos Kaukadenos, where the Japanese right flank would collapse and with the centre being pushed back. With the battle effectively being lost in the minds of the Shogunate, some lesser commanders began to scatter and flee, and the Shogunate’s army started to disintegrate under heavy pressure.

The Battle of Izumo would become the most important Elysian victory in the war. Despite moderate losses, the Shogunate would be crippled after a devastating loss, and the war would rapidly swing into an Elysian/Otomo favor. Forced to flee towards the north, all of central Japan was left for Elysians who would soon become reinforced by its exarch subjects. Morohito, despite his willingness to fight to the bitter end, would come to admit that a victory that was once so close for the Shogunate was now impossible to achieve.

Upon the victory, the Elysians would slowly force their way to occupy Chugoku. The Imperial Exarchs however, would arrive in Japan and violently make their way into the Shogunate by force. Tens of thousands of exotic soldiers, all coming from different regions of the world and speaking different languages and racial characteristics, would strike into the heart of the Shogunate. All the different nationalities of the Exarchs, all serving the Elysian Emperor, would strike fear into the hearts of the Shogunate. It would be Greeks that brought Kyoto under the Imperial banner, not the Elysians, and with the fall of the Imperial capital the Shogunate was effectively brought to its knees.

Within two and a half years, Yamana Morohito would surrender to the Elysians and the Shogunate would officially surrender against what was becoming an impossible fight against the Empire. The terms for peace would become incredibly tough, as half of Japan would be incorporated into Otomo control.

Kyoto would fall to the Empire, and the Emperor of Japan would no longer be protected by the Shogunate. The Emperor would instead return to Kyoto under Elysian protection and be reinstalled as a leader among the conquered Shinto majority, but the office of Shogun had lost all relevance and the legitimacy of the Shogunate would be completely crippled. The Emperor would come to be protected by a growing Christian population, and only continued to exist officially because the Elysians seen the usefulness of keeping him as a figurehead, effectively as a political prisoner under the service of the Empire.

With half of Japan now under the Otomo, evangelical missions would be conducted immediately and encouraged by the state. With the ‘spiritual awakening’ continuing to occur during Japan, many bishops within the Christian state estimated that entire regions could embrace the true faith on an annual basis, but would take many decades to transform Japan into a proper Christian state.

Towards the south, the Kingdom of Ryukyu would continue to exist as a tribute state to the Yamana Shogunate. Okinawa was weak and was cut off from the rest of the Shogunate that claimed to protect them. To expand Elysian influence overseas, the Empire would declare war over the tiny realm, unknowingly unaware of the consequence that would come with it.

Okinawa would come to fall within mere weeks, but a decisive battle on the island would completely eliminate any armed resistance that the kingdom could threaten the Elysians with. Ten thousand men would be completely annihilated, leaving an easy occupation to take place along the main island.

It would come that mere months after losing a devastating war against the Elysians, the Yamana Shogunate would declare war to protect their tribute even if it meant losing everything. Morohito seen the treaty that signed away half of the Shogunate as an extended ceasefire rather than a truce, and would resume hostilities against the Elysians. This would prove to be the decision that would end the Shogunate and the domination of the Shinto faith on the archipelago.

Northern Honshu would falter immediately under the pressure of the imperial invasion, and the main island would be abandoned by the Yamana Shogunate. Yamana Morohito would march the remaining forces to Ezo, leading them personally and fleeing to the safety of the north to delay the Elysians for as much as possible. With the Emperor and the Imperial family held under house arrest within the Imperial palace, morale among the Shogun’s armies was at its lowest. It was only through the Shogun’s iron will that convinced the drained army to fight for the Shogun’s cause, preventing wide-scale defections to the Elysians.

Morohito situation would become impossible, and the Shogun would gather all remaining forces to make a last stand on the Kuril Islands. With a naval blockade around the islands, the Japanese were blessed with strong winds that made landings difficult among the untamed islands. But it would simply not be enough to hold out forever.

Yamana Morohito and his land stand would end exactly as predicted, in defeat. An overwhelming Elysian invasion would devastate the much smaller army, ensuring that the enemy would be destroyed in detail. With the destruction of his army, Morohito would come to have earned the respect of Ioustinos Kaukadenos, who had come to seen him as a rival. Knowing that he was about to die, the Shogun was granted to an honourable death, and Morohito would commit ritual suicide through Seppuku rather than any other form of execution.

News would reach the Emperor across the Pacific that the important city of Kyoto would become known as an Elysian Orthodox city. Having been almost razed during the Constantinan siege of the city, Greek Fire caused apocalyptic damages on the infrastructure of the city. Almost destroyed and almost depopulated, the Imperial Palace would survive the inferno that almost burnt down the entire city, and the Imperial family would be relocated to the palace when it was safe.

Now with the chance to rebuild the city, the Otomo Shogunate would cooperate with the Elysians to rebuild Kyoto into a model city for a Christian Japan. Former Temples would be converted into churches, homes would be rebuilt, and the city would come to rise from the literal ashes to become a new city.

In just a matter of a few years, the Yamana Shogunate went from a powerful state to becoming completely dissolved and incorporated into the ‘puppet state’ of the Elysians. The Otomo would be incorporated into Elysia before being transferred to the Otomo, one piece at a time, after proving their loyalty to the new state. Loyal daimyo were rewarded generously by the Elysians and the Otomo for showing and keeping their loyalty, rewarded with new lands and riches, while those openly hostile to the new Shogunate were punished severely where death was considered a ‘light’ punishment.

The Yamana Clan, as a means to prevent another figure head to rise up in rebellion, would be hunted down and executed over the coming years. The Shinto faith would begin to lose its dominance, where Christ now ruled supreme over the lands of the rising sun.

With the complete destruction of the Yamana, Okinawa would surrender immediately to the Empire and its onslaught. Okinawa would become incorporated into the Otomo, where it would become directly ruled under the new Shogunate.

With Japan now completely under unified, the Otomo would relocate all official government matters in Kyoto. While the center of government would be focused in the old imperial city, the Elysians would come to build themselves a capital of their own from a small, little known fishing village in a place called Edo. While the Otomo would rule from Kyoto, the real seat of power would be based around this village, which in time would come to grow into a metropolis and one of the world's largest cities.

It would still take many years for the true faith to spread around Japan, and the situation within the Royal Family would remain tense, but Christ would rule the archipelago now. With the Otomo effectively unstoppable within their homeland, and backed with heavy Elysian investment, the ‘pagan’ elements of Japan were now shifting away. Emperor Nikephoros had made a strong impression on his critics, and once again, nothing was deemed impossible for the Empire...