vanin - Only a few more minutes and then you have it! The older characters fading also tends to be me trying to keep things fresh for myself... I usually get REALLY excited when a new generation comes of age, I write a bunch about them, I'm overbrimming with ideas... then they get older, and I get tired of writing about them, so I switch to the next new generation. Stylistically, I guess it prepares you all as readers for the hand-off of power, but I admit, most of it comes from me being a selfish writer.
Deamon - Well, Thomas certainly showed him up. Maybe not at the best time though...
Ksim3000 - These Byzantines certainly would have oodles of tragedy and even some comedy in them. Just like the real Byzantines... which makes me think, why is there such a dearth of good Byzantine movies out there?
asd21593 - Succinct and profound... as well as correct.
Qorten - Chaos you mean...though that chaos is nothing compared to what happens this update...
Calipah - Thanks for you help with cultural tidbits I would have otherwise glossed over through ignorance! Maybe you should do a CK AAR at some point, from a Muslim perspective... It'd be a lovely counterpoint to mine!
von Sachsen - Well, if the blue triangular flag can get its act together to take advantage...
Kirsch27 - The Empire does have huge armies. Yet how many of the thematakoi, especially from places like Egypt, are Muslim levies? Suddenly things get more interesting when that little equation comes up...
Fulcrumvale - I doubt Thomas would care much so long as he got to play architect. That said, how exactly did the unknown man 'know' there was going to be some major event requiring the Patriarch to perform a solemn duty? And what solemn duty would it be?
Nikolai - City stormings are usually tragedies... I've tried to keep that as the tone here. Should Thomas II storm Mecca, it'd likely be an immense tragedy for more than just the inhabitants.
Enewald - At least Thomas didn't kill Gabriel--he's crazy enough he could have. As for Theodora, she's just a facet of how far his mind has slid. As for Helene... simply put, her husband's too far gone...
“And behold, angels did lift the cradle above the torrent, holding the Aionios safe through the flood tide of God’s wrath. For the flood shall cleanse the earth, while the Aionios shall cleanse our souls.” –
The Eternal Tablet
March 19th, 1238
Just outside of Alexandria, Egypt
“Papa! Look! There are fish flopping!” five year old Georgios yelled.
“Fishies?” young Isaakios, barely three, looked up. “Fishes!” he happily burbled.
Sharif al-Hinnawi grunted, as his master Nikolaios Komnenos sighed and picked up his middle son.
“What what?” Nikolaios complained, ambling his bulk over a small rise in the dunes on the Mediterranean coast. The
Katepanos of Egypt, Regent in the name of his brother Theodoros, hadn’t
wanted to take his household on this excursion outside of Alexandria. However, as Sharif had seen firsthand, the whining of children could have an immense effect on the will of their parents.
“Papa! The sea!” eight year old Stephanos added. The two brothers each took one of their father’s pudgy hands, and began to tow the bulky Nikolaios up the dune. The most powerful man in Egypt sighed, looked to his personal bodyservant Matthias with a shrug, and let his children tug him up the hill.
“You were saying, My Lord?” Sharif forced himself to hide a smile at his lord’s predicament. By the look Nikolaios gave when he turned around to his
logothetes, al-Hinnawi knew he hadn’t succeeded.
“I was saying,” Nikolaios grunted as small hands pushed and shoved him forwards, “that… gah! That these calls about…”
Nikolaios’ voice dropped off into nothing, not that Sharif was paying attention. His own eyes were riveted on the fast retreating shore. Water frothed and roiled, as the mass of the Mediterranean receded into the distance of its own accord.
“That’s bloody strange,” Nikolaios blurted out to no one in particular.
“See papa! Look at all the fish!” Stephanos erupted, jumping up and down. Indeed, the mudflats now wet and sticky under a sun they’d never seen were alive with flopping fish, creeping mollusks, and all other manner of sea creatures never seen in the light of day.
“Can we go fetch some?” Georgios whined in that voice only five year olds can master.
“Please?” Stephanos added the eight year old equivalent.
For the
Katepanos, the decision was over in an instant.
“Yes! Of course!” he waved his hands off towards the exposed sand below. “Don’t get yourselves too dirty, or the laundress will be cross!” he shouted after their already running forms. Nikolaios sighed, then looked at his bodyman. “Keep an eye on them,” he nodded off towards the running children. At Isaakios’ whine, he added, “Take the little one too.”
As the three children splashed and played, Sharif allowed himself a momentary smile before the huff from his master told him he needed to come back to business.
“As you were saying?” the
logothetes prompted.
“Oh? Ah yes,” the
Katepanos re-found his train of thought. Free of children’s voices, it was now a far easier task. “Alexandria. Mosques. There’ve been rumors of some kind of uproar going on in the Muslim community about the Emperor’s campaign in the Hejaz.”
Sharif snorted. Rumors of an uproar? Just rumors?
“What?” Nikolaios asked, brow furrowed. “Well, what? I don’t pay you to snort sarcastically while I’m ignorant of what is happening, I pay you to tell me. Out with it.”
“The area around Mecca is
haram. Only Muslims are supposed to come close to the Holy City—yet now it is surrounded by your Emperor and twenty thousand men. I’m surprised there haven’t been riots in the street yet.”
“Do you think it will come to that?” Nikolaios asked quietly. Sharif turned, and saw the
logothetes eyes—soft and worried, yet revealing a steel soul within. Al-Hinnawi knew his master wouldn’t
want to unleash his
thematakoi on a horde of unarmed people, but if the Muslims took to the streets…
“
Inshallah, I hope it does not,” Sharif said quietly. Chaos in the streets? Knives out, blades drawn? Sharif had heard stories of what Roman Emperors did to rebellious subjects, and far too much blood spilled at the end of those tales. Muslim he might be, but al-Hinnawi knew he was a subject as well.
“I’m just worried,” Nikolaios said. Pudgy hands found their place on his hips. “Then again, I’m always worried. It’s my job!” A thin smile formed on the
Katepanos’ lips. “Heavens knows my brother does so little he needs three men to worry for him!”
“I’ll agree to that,” Sharif said distantly, his eyes drifting back out towards the sea. Matthias was busily giving young Lord Isaakios a piggyback ride through the mudflats, while Georgios and Stephanos were busily grabbing fish, snails, and all other manner of strange creatures and stuffing them into their trousers. Al-Hinnawi winced—Nikolaios would undoubtedly explode at seeing those fine trousers ruined, and the
logothetes could only imagine what the laundress would say.
Yet Al-Hinnawi’s eyes drifted past the child and their mayhem, and further out to the now distant lapping waves of the ocean. Despite the fact he heard words coming from his lord’s mouth, he couldn’t turn his eyes away. Why had the sea so suddenly surrendered her lands? The Saracen’s brow furrowed, as he saw a thin, distant line of white on the far horizon. He squinted. What was that?
“…are you listening?” Nikolaios’ angry complaint drew him back to the real world.
“Um… sorry, my lord,” he bowed his head in a hurried apology, even as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. From somewhere, he heard seagulls screeching, then taking flight. Something was not right.
“I said we need to do something about all of these demagogues and charlatans in the Delta,” the
Katepanos grumbled, fidgeting angrily with his hands. “They’re saying the reason the Emperor hasn’t taken Mecca is because that blasted place…” the
Katepanos halted momentarily, before a slight look of shame came over his face. “Apologies, Sharif, I intend no offense.”
“None taken,” al-Hinnawi murmured, his mind only half listening.
“They’re saying it can’t be taken, because God protects it,” the
Katepanos finished far more respectfully. “And for the life of me, I’m starting to wonder. Sharif, do you know how many times the Emperor has tried to take those walls? Theodoros says five!” The
Katepanos began his pacing again, “Five times! Six, now, probably, considering how long it takes for news to get here from Hejaz!”
“Nikolaios,” Sharif said, forcing his mind to come back to the problem at hand, “you know what I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again. If the
Romani don’t want an issue with these mullahs and imams…”
“…we shouldn’t have laid siege to Mecca and Medina, yes I know!” Nikolaios waved his hand dismissively. “Believe me, in a perfect world, where I was in charge, we wouldn’t have—I would’ve taken the
Sharif’s head, an annual tribute and been done with it. But the Emperor
is down there, as is my brother, and for the sake of Christ, it’s just
one town! It’s not as if we’re burning every mosque, and…”
“You Christians will never understand,” Sharif said quietly, shaking his head.
“…they’re… what?” Nikolaios’ line of complaints drew to a strange halt.
“You Christians have no single location like Mecca in your faith,” al-Hinnawi finished his thought, anger rising in his voice. “You have holy places, yes, but your holy places aren’t inviolate, they’ve changed hands again and again. Look at Jerusalem! First the pagan Romans, then the Christian Romans, then the pagan Persians, Romans again, Arabs, Turks, then Romans once more! Mecca has always been inviolate, always revered, and… what is that?” Sharif’s angry tirade slid to a halt, as a distant rumble greeted his ears.
“I…I don’t know…” Nikolaios’ his own anger long forgotten. Al-Hinnawi’s gaze returned back to the sea. The line of white was much larger, and obviously closer—the distant rumble was coming from its direction. For a split second, the
logothete’s mind hung confused as to what he was witnessing, before he made a chilling conclusion.
The roar was the sea.
“Matthias!” he screamed, without even thinking of consulting Nikolaios first, “Get the children back up here! Now!”
“Is…is that?” he heard Nikolaios ask, his voice flushed with panic.
“It’s the water!” Sharif yelled, the roar now ominous, the ground trembling slightly underfoot. Already Matthias had hefted little Isaakios onto his shoulder, one hand grabbing Georgios as Stephanos jogged alongside through the muck and mire. Already, though, the thick stab of white had coalesced into a frothing, seething wall of water, towering 30 feet, rushing towards shore as the sea eager retook what it previously had owned. Matthias only had a moment to turn, and above the roar and shout of disaster, Sharif thought he could hear the servant scream.
And then the water was upon them.
From Summation of Risks of a Recurrent Eastern Mediterranean Tsunami, by Dr. Ismail Skleros, presented at the World League Disaster Prevention Commission, 2002
…The island of Crete and its environs are also a potential threat area for the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean. While I assume you all have read the preliminary studies on the “Day of Horror” tsunami of 365 A.D., we can at this juncture delve into a far more complete account of the events of March 19th, 1238. Unlike the previous disaster, recorded with sparing detail by ancient historians, the entire Roman world was aghast at the tragedy of 1238—an event that would have great repercussions in the years to come. First, I’ll begin this presentation with a brief summation of the event itself, as well as its repercussions, and then we’ll delve into the scientific modeling my colleagues and I have been using to simulate this quake, and our results which show that the Eastern Mediterranean is long overdue for another disaster of this scale.
First, the tsunami itself. The cause of this disaster was an earthquake centered just off the shore of southern Crete, with an estimated magnitude of 8.2 on the Solomades scale. Crete, as you know, lies just north of the convergent boundary between the Aegean plate and the African plate. By the descriptions left behind—Eugenios Tachymides’ being the most complete from Crete itself—the shaking lasted many minutes, which is indicative that the entire plate boundary, several hundred kilometers, came unhinged, or to use my colleagues’ nomenclature, unzipped. This released an enormous amount of energy, enough that parts of the island of Crete were uplifted by as much as 7 meters. This massive uplift itself generated an enormous disturbance in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, but massive underwater landsides shown here, and here, added to the enormous volume of water placed into motion.
The 1238, like the 365 quake, was center south of Crete, where the African plate dives deep underneath the lighter Aegean plate. The shaking caused portions of the Cretan mainland, as well as the slops of several offshore islands to slump into the sea, in effect amplifying existing tsunamis.
The end result, ladies and gentleman, was an enormous tsunami, the likes of which had not been seen in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin for a thousand years, and has not been seen since in this region. The Aegean itself was protected by the bulk of the island of Crete itself, and wave runups were comparatively small—at the extreme end, a wave of roughly 1.5 meters came ashore at Smyrna, causing moderate damage. To the south, however, the full energy of this massive shift had no intervening barriers to block its fury.
Waves on the southern side of Crete were absolutely enormous—the village of Sephardion, we are told, was among those wiped out. In years past, it was simply assumed Sephardion was just another coastal community. However, thanks to archeological work by Lady Edessa, among others, we now know that the remains of Sephardion lie on a 17 meter high bluff, which implies truly enormous waves! Further to the south, waves did not reach such biblical proportions, but nonetheless waves at least 8 meters high struck most of Egypt and the Levant, in some cases depositing ships two or three kilometers inland, as well as devastating the Roman port cities of Alexandria, Damietta, Cyrene, Tripoli, Gaza, Acre, and Beirut.
A guesstimate from historical descriptions as to the tsunami run up caused by the 1238 earthquake. The extreme runup along the southern coast of Crete was likely found in two causes—first, the islands extremely close location to the quake epicenter, so the strength of the tsunamis were undiminished by distance, and two, local landslides amplifying the disaster.
The toll that this disaster placed on the Roman world cannot be underestimated. In economic and human terms, the disaster likely took well over 200,000 lives… we are told some 30,000 in Alexandria alone. Ports from Acre and Gaza to Damietta and Alexandria itself were devastated. In particular, the damage to shipping and ports along the Egyptian coast caused a temporary, yet major disruption in Imperial grain shipping through 1239, which would have major political consequences of its own in Konstantinopolis. Yet the social ramifications of this event go beyond simply a shortage of grain, or the devastation of cities.
Alexandria, the chief victim of both the tsunami of 365 and the 1238 disaster, was a major commercial hub, regional capital, and the center of one of the most ancient and revered Patriarchates in the Christian world. Its devastation, especially the inordinate amount of destruction amongst the Greek quarters of the city (which tended to lie closer to the waterfront than the Muslim sectors crowded away from the shoreline), and the destruction of the Basilica to St. Demetrius, headquarters of the Patriarch of Alexandria, caused a ripple effect amongst Christian theologians throughout the Roman world. In essence, the question of Komnenid religion changed from “How has God blessed us?” to “How did God let this happen?” For the results of that, I only think we need to turn to the works of St. Hypatios, or Adhid al-Hinnawi, or Ibn-Tamiyya, to see how different peoples answer this fundamental change of thought in different ways, as well as the profound effect this change had on history.
An aside to this—amongst the survivors of the catastrophe in Alexandria was a young Adhid al-Hinnawi, barely 2 years old. While, of course, we can’t find any evidence that he rode through the flood tide in his crib, as attested in
The Eternal Tablet, we can say his father’s villa was on one of the few rises close to the shoreline of the city. This, more than any water-tight crib construction, probably ensured his survival.
Co-current with Mother Nature’s upheaval, the spring of 1238 also saw major political upheaval as well. Recall that this was the time period when the Roman army under Thomas II was besieging the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and that 1238 is only a year removed from the chaos that would be 1239. When news of the disaster finally reached the Hejaz…
==========*==========
I originally got the idea for this from reading about the actual 365 earthquake that sent a tsunami down to the Egyptian coast and had an amazing effect on the ancient Roman world (to the point that as late as the 6th century, citizens of Alexandria commemorated the anniversary of the “Day of Horror.”). Added to this was that the Komnenid Empire in this timeline did not have to deal with two major earthquake disasters that happened in our timeline—the devastating 1138 Aleppo earthquake, and the similarly deadly earthquake in Cilicia, both of which leveled whole regions and killed tens of thousands. So, our Komnenids were overdue for having to deal with a major natural disaster, and this seemed as good as any to toss their way.
That all said, one thing I think CK misses is an event for some kind of major disaster in a realm—a kingdom level event. Very low probability of firing, but if it does, one province gets a loss of a building, and income. Daughter events could fire for the liege of the afflicted lord, giving the opportunity to offer help, or reject, with consequences. Other daughter events could also fire saying people think the disaster was a sign against the ruling lord, etc. etc. The possibilities are endless…
..that all said, our Roman 'heroes' have another huge crisis on their hands... possible Muslim rebellions, cities that need rebuilding, what is next to pile on their heads?