Rise of the Temporal Dragon
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As the 14th century ends and the 15th begins Europe has thus finally exited the era of the Middle Ages, history has seen the passing of an era, great historical events have transpired. The Eastern Roman Empire “Byzantium” successfully withstood the Seljuk juggernaut, the Russian Principalities United behind the banner of the Muscovite Nobles who with the financial support of the Novgordian Merchant Princes withstood the Mongol invasions, but also Prussian expansion at the expense of the Slavs. The small backwater Principality of Abkhazia had pulled off the impossible the complete conquest of the Middle East former environs and domains of the Seljuk Turks ending the Muslem threat to Christendom.
Norway startlingly so united Scandinavia under its banner defeating the superior numbers of Sweden and successfully established themselves in Scotland and furthermore displayed a great martial aptitude constantly and consistently displaying themselves to be the best trained, best led, and best equipped warriors of Northern Europe or all of the European mainland period, historians continue to scratch their heads in dismay at the sudden and startling advancements in military theory, training and leadership that took place in the region starting in the early 11th century. The history of post middle ages Europe will be defined by the two most significant events 1) the ratification of the Charter of the Roman Commonwealth and 2) the subsequent abdication of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. These two events will undeniably continue to effect the transpiring of European politics decades if not centuries to come. The collapse of the HRE allowed for the extension and encompassing of the Roman Commonwealth to all and the entirety of the continent sea to sea but led to its own weakening to encompass many new realms, within the Roman Commonwealth the Samoyeds Pact was formed by the founding members of the Roman Commonwealth Byzantium, Novgorod, and Abkhazia as a full military alliance to maintain the safety and security of their nations and the Orthodox peoples of Europe.
The De Cornwall Dukes of Brittany transformed themselves from tributary part of France to its own mighty empire encompassing France, Spain and Lusitania and for many large sections of the era showed every willingness to use its newly acquired strength to fight for its own Imperial interests. In the wake of the collapse of the HRE the early stirrings of Germanic nationalism appeared with the formation of the Kingdom of Germany outside and unrelated to the now defunct Holy Roman Empire. The Baltic peoples led by the Prussians established the Kingdom of Prussia and dismembered the Kingdom of Hungary, there attempt to expand southwards met with the resurgent strength of the Byzantines, and expansion east met would have met the full fury of the Roman Commonwealth, and expansion westwards would have isolated them. At this time for over 300 years the British Isles had known something akin to a curse, no monarch could ever fully establish or keep the islands unified again and again the English defied expectations, only the Isles partitioning between the Bretons and the Ynglings ended this curse and replaced it with occupation, these Anglo-Saxons were an interesting lot and one wonders what would have been like if given the chance to act with their own self interest and self determination but now the enevitable tide of history as we know is very cold and very harsh you only get one chance and now we will never know would would have become of the English.
Startlingly but not unstatisfyingly so the Italian city states reacting to the external threats east, west, north and south by also uniting into a unified Italian state.
At the dawn of the 15th century the major players in Europe were obviously Brittany, Germany, Prussia, Norway, Novgorod, Georgia, Italy and Byzantium with Egypt trailing behind. In Asia China stood strong a behemoth among nations surrounded by many intermediate powers, Malacca, Dai vet, Japan, Timmurids, and a coalition of Southern Indian states. Europe and by extension the world is our stage and the many nations merely actors upon that stage, but which actor is better than all the others? The analysis of a nations strength is clouded by the inherent truth that there strengths are relative to the strength and weaknesses of their neighbors. Of the European nations Brittany stands strong, encompassing nearly a third of the former Western Roman Empire, possesses a massive manpower and a large tax base, possessing amble coastlines and a direct route across the atlantic to North America. But it is not without its weaknesses, it neighbors no less than 3 countries Norway in England, Italy over the Alps and Germany across the Rhine. Not only this but the fact that it is strong will cause others to see Brittany with greedy eyes. That it will have to maintain a strong army AND a navy nearly simultaneously will undoubtedly stretch its resources, whether the future and present administrations of Brittany can efficiently and wisely use its resources we will have to see.
Italy as mentioned is perhaps in the most troubled position potential wise of all of the European states, it is in the center of the mediteranium and can potentially expand in all directions, but the reverse holds true it can equally easily be besieged from all directions as there is no doubt that the Byzantines harbor ambitions to refounding the Roman Empire, the Georgians are ever watchful of the West, the Germans and Prussians ever hungry for the Austrian alps and the Danube trade hubs, and obviously Brittany ever watchful of its borders to maintain both land and sea security. Italy thanks to its somewhat smaller land borders can potentially afford a relatively larger navy but whether Italy can use the ample resources and income to fund a navy capable of enforcing its will in the Mediteranium and of forcing the straits of Gibraltar (which will undoubtably be a herculean task to keep open) remains to be seen if Italy can utilize its potential Merchantile expertise to its fullest, but undoubtable with the highest per capita and purchasing power of Europe Italy has a very formidable strength.
Byzantium is next on our list, while Italy has the possibility of colonial expansion Byzantium has nearly no chance of any colonial endeavors, it is squished between Italy, Georgia and Prussia virtually no possibility of expansion its only advantage is that once its tributary vassals are consolidated under Imperial administration Byzantium will be a significant eastern European power but unfortunately will probably never amount to more than that.
Germany: They are in an equally good position as Norway and Brittany in their ability to colonize the Americas but lack Brittany’s positioning or manpower strength and lack both they’re relative isolation. Norway can afford a larger navy since it has no true land border against anyone except the Russians making diplomacy blithingly simple. They have the cramped Prussians to their east. The potentially paranoid Bretons to their West, militaristic Prussians to their north, and nervous Italians to their south, not a good or comforting foreign situation. But the Germanic peoples are extremely productive and what they lack in trade they can make up for in diligent innovation.
Novgorod Rus: Novgorod has many advantages, large manpower, huge swaths of territory so space can almost always be traded for time in a pinch, and nearly unlimited potential of expansion towards the pacific ocean gives Novgorod nearly limitless possibilities, this when coupled with narrow and inhospitable front in finland makes conflict with the Ynglings unlikely while the front is large and wide towards Prussia the Prussians being squeezed on all sides can hardly afford to make a mortal enemy of Novgorod Novgorod only needs one or two defencive alliances to secure its western border against Germanic and Prussian invasions, if anything its biggest strategic fear would be its long time ally the Bagrutuni led Georgian Empire.
Speaking of the devil the Seljuk-Georgian Empire is perhaps the single most powerful force to shake off the middle ages entering the Renaissance without further ado ahead of most of Europe by decades having preserved the cities worth of knowledge and protecting them from Mongol incursions, Georgia of all of the European powers has the largest empire, the largest manpower pool and greatest potential wealth of them all with virtually no natural enemies to keep them contained except for the ever fearful Timmurids to their East. In short the Georgians as they were for the latter 100 years of the Middle Ages will it will seem continue to be the arbitrators of European destiny for quite some time to come.
Norway: The Yngling Hird as noted above have one of the fiercest most well trained and disciplined armies of all Europe but they have inversely one of the smallest militaries and manpower pools of all of Europe, Norway is in an excellent and isolated position in which to colonize the New World and with the establishment of Iceland and Greenland as jumping off points there is little to stop them but they’re income is one of the lowest of Europe’s Great Powers so money will potentially be extremely tight and as Yngling ambitions take root they may find themselves dependent on far wealthier nations for support of those ambitions. As stated they’re territorial isolation (Baltic seaboard forcing only one suitable land route into Finland-Sweden) thus as stated above Norway only requires either friendly détente with Novgorod or they’re servitude to secure their border essentially securing Norway a broad naval predominant national strategy, where this falls apart is Yngling’s seemingly fixation on controlling and occupying the Baltic coastline and the North German states may very well compromise a simple strategy for a more delicate complex national goals.
Egypt: Not a Great Power by any means but are in a similar size and position as the Ynglings without the same military prowess, as such their relationship with Georgia is even more important to be stressed as for as long as they enjoy a combination of Georgian tolerance and Italian protection Egypt’s interests and safety remain secure, allowing the Egyptians to expand south into the dark unexplored continent of Africa.
China: The Middle Kingdom, China enters the new century rather dreamily rubbing her eyes wondering who all these crazy foreign devils are and where they come from. While it is true that China enjoyed important and lucrative trade with Europe via the Silk Road very little information was available in either civilization about the other, what absolutely perplexes historical analysis is that within the historical recorded Confucian bureaucratic and state missives there in the highest echelons of the Imperial Court appeared to be a huge understanding and comprehension of the potential rivalry to the Middle Kingdom from the Europeans should they ever develop ocean worthy vessels, as such China’s Imperial policy from the early 1400’s onwards seem to be entirely designed as preparatory in nature. China among its Asian neighbours is a behemoth, pure and simple while it is true that the more free trade oriented mercantile states of Japan, Malacca. And IndoChina provide a substaniative threat to Chinese economic predominance it is also true that the sheer productive and military Might of the Ming makes this for the near term moot, no single tributary state in the East could alone engage in a head on military struggle with the Ming and it is doubtful that even a skillfully led and prepared coalition of neighbouring states could potentially win either. But China has many weaknesses well known to historical scrutiny, the Confucian bureaucracy was starting to become notoriously rigid in its application of Confucian thought making any serious attempt of reform by leading statesmen of the time difficult to the point that the Emperor impatient with the foolishness of his civil servants called for Hindu advisors from India to take their positions! Not only that but the Chinese people themselves are highly restless even with benign Dynasties and could with any loss of prestige or natural disaster of any scope leading to the complete overthrow of the ruling Dynasty and its replacement by another. More troubling is the potential for the Europeans as we see, being far more innovative in the absence of a unified hostile bureaucracy and dead weight came up with many innovations and would without further ado exploit the resources of inferior peoples to speed up their own development at home in ways the Chinese even with their massive population could not hope to easily match in pitch. As such China’s stratagem would have to take in account the usefulness of its neighbours as part of a larger security plan to limit and restrict European influence in Asia.
Professor Isaac Pavel Rozhdestvensk of the University of St. Petersburg
Professor Yang walked down the quiet corridors of Zheng He’s Dream the Comintern Science And Chronology Station in orbit around Earth. What year was it now? He wondered. Ah, yes, 1399… It was easy to be absent minded recently, after all everyone had so much work to do, they had to maintain a ship for a purpose it was never originally meant to do, travel in space in time to any point in time in orbit around Earth. It seems like only yesterday to Professor Yang, Chairman of the Chronological Survey Committee and the leading Scientist (in both knowledge and administrative duties) of the Project they successfully conducted experiments in folding of space-time when in that instant the entirety of modern history was changed, for the Ynglings it seemed were not content to let the Chinese led Comintern colonize the known galaxy sitting down, they broke every single international treaty in a last ditch attempt to save victory. But they shall fail thought Yang. After all, by the most amazing accident ever contemplated the emissions from the experiment while harmless inside the station protected their perspective and frame of reference to the rest of the universe when the time line changed allowing them once they could abrest themselves of the information to reengineer their station (in under 3 hours) to make nearly blind hops through space in time to follow the Yngling time agents wherever they may be found. Finally, Professor Yang entered what constituted the “bridge” of the station, a large doomed room of concentric rings of control terminals, here the primary researchers of the project were waiting. “Comrade Chairman, we have successfully jumped from the year 1066 to 1399, we are getting better at this.” Doctor Zhou beamed, she was instrumental in getting all of this to work in application.
“Da! Good job girl! A few more jumps and a few more agents of our own and we can sleep soundly!” Exclaimed Yuri Federovich, or Yuri “Aleksandr” Rurikovich as he for the bulk of his life called himself. Dr. Yuri had volunteered to spend the majority of his life working among the Russian people of the Middle Ages to attempt to provide an adequate counter to perceived Yngling influence during the Middle Ages, his job was successful, a strong Russian state was in the works and while it is unfortunate that Poland will be forever disposed in the ash heap of history, Norway’s ambitions were effectively countered for the period. At the age of 70, a unheard of lifetime for the time he lived in, Yuri was scooped up and brough back aboard in preparation for the jump to the next available time frame. The station maintained a time dilation field to slowdown the passage of time onboard the station while it was speed up outside their reference, for while no more then a few years had gone by some 350 had gone by in the rest of the universe with Yuri of course being scooped up roughly in the early 1200’s. With Yrui aboard they made the successful jump to 1399.
Yang leaned against the chair infront of him pondering their next move. “Comrades, it is apparent that to maintain a consistent timeframe leading to a Comintern victory in the Great Wars of the 20th century, of all the nations China must survive and be strong, it is apparent that the Yngling’s and many other nations are growing much stronger then they did originally and as such we must send agents to China to steer them to prepare for the eventual coming of the Europeans, does anyone know what we should do here?” Everyone at their terminals were silent for many moments considering the situation, Yuri broke the silence. “Well Comrades, in my experience I think things would have been much better had I had someone watching my back, the agents we send to Europe and China should probably be paired up 2 people per team minimum.” Zhou immediately nodded her approval. “Alright” said Yang. “We must send at least 2 agents, my plan is that with our better understanding of physics it may be possible to reverse the aging process undergone by our “agents” allowing us to send the same agents multiple times, allowing a more fine modification to history. I am going to need volunteers…
2 days later … The team was assembled at the docking bay, a shuttle was prepped for use to bring the agent team to 1399 China, the team was made up of Dr. Zhou Ying ma, and Dr. Wei Mu. They were to travel as conspicuously as possible as husband and wife, their mission was to infiltrate the Imperial Court and reach the ear of the Emperor and give sound council. Both memorized traditional customs of the times to minimalize alienating the natives and have refreshed their knowledge of traditional Chinese calligraphy and regional pronunciations of Mandarin and Cantonese dialect. Both were well trained in hand to hand and martial combat and could handle themselves in a fight, and were well schooled in traditional Chinese classics, they both possessed everything required to pass themselves off as learned and wise Confucian scholars.
Professor Yang stood by as Zhou and Wei boarded the shuttle, and stated: “It was what? 19 months ago I was put in charge of this top secret project, 19 months of living and working together, yes Comrades the situation is shockingly grim for us, the Ynglings had succeeded in altering history, to what extant this holds for us we cannot even begin to fathom but we know this, if we stand by and do nothing then the Yngling’s will not rest nor stop until their dominate this planet! We know well their plans for us, as a lesson undoubtably they would commit genocide of our and any other “inferior” peoples that are too hard to control. We must not let this happen! The balance of this Time War is being tilted in our favour as we speak! We will succeed Comrades! For you see… Time… Is on our side!”.