Hi everyone!
Well, this is it. The final regular update. After this, however, there will still be many things to do! I plan on posting EU3 maps for each section of Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East and East Asia that are different that IRL, along with descriptions of the major powers in each region. In addition, I'm going to try to do regnal summaries for Nikephoros V, Alexandros II, Manuel II, Andronikos II, Petros I, Timur, Isaakios II and lastly Anastasios III (oh, and Alexios II, Thomas IV, and Konstantinos XI in the West). I also want to do a least a simple post about what happened in game, and how the empire fell apart
in game (it's alot like my Mongol tale... the AAR version is far more interesting than the in game version). Finally, I also want to do a final post on things I'd hoped to include in the story, but ran out of time to do (the personalities of some of these major characters in the history book, an a few concepts and items I didn't get to flesh out as well as I wanted).
I'll say it now and say it again... if anyone wants to start work on an EU3 mod, please, by all means begin! I'd be more than happy to help, I just don't think right after finishing this (or for a while) I'll be wanting to code anything. That, in fact, is part of the reason I want to post the maps--so I can give a jump start to anyone who would want to try to tackle this.
I know I'm being bad, and haven't replied yet, but I promise tomorrow or this weekend I'll have a giant list of replies before I start putting up maps next week! For right now... the finale...
“All things must end. It is the way of nature, as God intended. For the end nothing to be feared. It is nothing more than a new beginning.” - Jean Froissart.
These being the words of Jean Froissart, Esquire, clerk and chronicler to the Court of the High King of Alba,
So continues this work, rushed and haphazard it may be. I had planned to put many and good more hours into this work, dear reader, but alas, events at court have forced me to cut my study short. Cicero once said that the sinew of war is money, and a King at war needs men to count his money. Thus, this humble clerk is to be dragged away from his scribbles, and alas, forced into more practical applications of his talents.
But I digress, with little time left. Ioannes Thrakesiokomnenos was a just and good man, and spent the better part of a decade making wrongs to rights and smoothing out the Iberian nobility. He compiled a new legal code, reformed the tax system, and greatly supported the efforts of the Patriarch of Santiago. For these and more, he was universally loved by the peasantry, applauded by the Church, and afforded respect and honor by all the Iberian nobility. Indeed, so great was his stature that the Emperor Konstantinos deferred to his judgment in all affairs. Iberia was peaceful and prosperous, as Thrakesiokomnenos intended.
However, this idyllic situation would not last. So begins a story. A merchant from Genoa named Amadeo Sforza, I am told, made sail for Konstantinopolis in 1385. Sforza was a resourceful man, and by such terms I mean he was a scoundrel, who conducted piracy when his regular business grew tiresome. On this voyage, he spotted a great trading ship, called the
Pantokrator, and he and his men did surprise it and lay their hands upon its cargo. Yet amongst the casks of Cretan wine, they discovered a letter, sent in secret from the Emperor in the East, Anastasios, to his commanders in Italy, telling them to prepare for a Western campaign once the invasion of the Persian Miransha was defeated. Sforza, being such a resourceful man, saw such information might be valuable, and sold the letter to a Pisan named Vespucci, who fortunately was a good and loyal friend of Iberia. Vespucci sent the letter forthwith to Cordoba.
Thrakesiokomnenos and Emperor Konstantinos were both greatly wroth, for Anastasios had signed a treaty of peace with them, and promised to recognize their crowns. Filled with vengeance, I am told Thrakesiokomnenos spent day and night in the Chuch of St. Basil, seeking advice and guidance. I am disinclined to believe this, for Thrakesiokomnenos was a resourceful man as well, and spent all those hours no doubt consulting with his Master of Whispers. By means spiritual or temporal, Thrakesiokomnenos came into possession of the knowledge that Edmund Godwinson, Prince of Karthagion, was greatly displeased with his lord Anastasios, and inclined to revolt, along with Anastasios’ younger brother David.
Thrakesiokomnenos sent envoys to both Karthagion and Palermo, and promised both men the same thing—a crown as King of Africa should they rise and overthrow their lord emperor. David rashly declared first—half of his men, however, were loyal to Anastasios, and refused to march with him. Godwinson was far more shrewd, and waited until Anastasios landed in Sicily with his host and lost many a man defeating David by sieges. Then he, with his brother Harold and his cousin Godwin, landed with a great host at Agrigento, and made fast for Anastasios’ army on the slopes of Mount Etna.
The armies were almost equal in size, for the Godwinsons brought forth all their levies, mercenaries and professional men, while Anastasios’ force was almost all mercenaries. Godwinson made his formation plain on the high ground, according to many leaving his flank open as a ruse to lure Anastasios into a crude assault, which the Emperor obliged to do. Godwinson’s axemen, covered in mail, then sprang from behind rocks and ravines and fell on Anastasios’ surprised horsemen, and put them to flight. Then, Godwinson’s own horse took the unprotected flank of Anastasios and overthrew and destroyed his army. Anastasios fled to Siracusa, where he was holed up by siege, and died.
Thrakesiokomnenos was pleased by the efforts of his new ally, and rewarded Edmund Godwinson with the title
Edmund, Lord of Karthagion, King of Africa and Sicily in the Name of Konstantinos XII, Emperor of the Romans in the West. For his part and incompetence, the Godwinsons did lay their hands on David, and locked him in a tower. What became of him I do not know.
With the threat from Anastasios abated and Iberia recovered, Thrakesiokomnenos turned his attention to the north, for the Burgundians were in a state of discord. King Gottfried III had died in 1374, and with him died the line of Dietmar the Great. A contest arose between Gottfried’s nephew by his sister, Heinrich, Duke of Lower Lorraine, and his cousin, Peyt, Duke of Holland. The contest was sharp, and while Heinrich won in the field, bad feelings remained even twenty years later. Thrakesiokomnenos was sure that the Burgundians would be unable to intervene if the Iberians marched into France, and thus he sought to bring back together what had fallen asunder almost 70 years before with the death of the last
Hypatos ton Gallikon.
These grand plans were postponed in 1390, when Konstantinos XI left this world, leaving the throne to his twelve year old son, Ioannes, named for Thrakesiokomnenos. The
Megaslogothetes spent four precious years consolidating the rule of his young godson, before he too was called away unto the Lord. Without his guidance, Iberia fell into chaos. Few had known a time without his rule, none knew what to do without his word. Emperor Ioannes was but a teen, thin of beard and experience, a young man few expected to amount to much.
It is always history that at such times, ambitious men strike forth to make their fortune, and this time was no different. Thrakesiokomnenos’ body was not even cold when evil men sent murderers to the home of his eldest son Georgios, rightful Despotes of Galicia. David Orsini, of the House of the same, took over the claims of Thrakesiokomnenos in Galicia, and now rules Galicia and Girona as a joint fief. The poor young emperor, unready as he was for taking the reins of power, was unable to lift his finger, and according to the witnesses at hand, is all but a prisoner in the Palace at Cordoba. The Thrakesiokomnenos family was shattered, and those who were not killed fled out of Iberia, and settled unto Alba. They came here to ask help of their distant cousins, the House Comnen, lately Stewards of Scotland, Ireland and Wales, in freeing their lands and regaining their rightful place in Iberia.
But their pleas fell on deaf ears. For two years earlier, in 1388, good King Caunstantin VI, last of the House of Dunkeld, had fallen ill and died without issue. The crown then passed to Artair Comnen, Steward of the Realm, as nephew of the late King. There were many of the highland barons who were displeased with the new king, and good King Artair spent his first decade of rule setting them arights. Now that he is secure, Artair has seen fit to muster his levies and is preparing to make war to the south—the Capets, too, have suffered their own succession problems, and have had far less success in fording those treacherous waters than Alba. It is, has been, and no doubt will be the stated goal of King Artair to become the first High King Britain has seen since the days of his immortal namesake, as recorded in story and song. If even half of that blessed man's success should fall on our good King’s shoulder, I shall spend every day thanking God I was witness to such events of historical portent…
EDIT - I think I deserve a glass of wine now.
EDIT 2 - It'd help if Artair's name didn't magically change to Robert twice!
(a byproduct of a previous version that I missed...)
