So then,here's the promised update:
Twin Palaces of Rome,Victoria I of the WRE:
Victoria was ready to assume full control over the Western Roman Empire.Ever since her father,Romulus II,died at the age of 56 from food poisoning,the control over the Empire was handed over to the Roman Senate,as she was only 12 at that time;however,upon reaching her majority,the Senate plotted to keep themselves in power,and attempted a coup d'etat to overthrow Victoria as soon as she got power.
However,the coup failed miserably;the Empress' assailants were quickly captured by the guards,and privately executed.The Senate paid dearly for this;the whole body was dissolved,and instead replaced by a much smaller administrative body of government--a small council of wealthy patricians and the traditionial nobility,who were given great power and inherited their position from their predessecors.
Anyway,the Empress decided that enough money had been spent in beautifying Rome;the Twin Palaces,both being massive palaces with ivory,gold,and silver decorations and stained glass windows,was quite enough to show that Rome had been restored to its former glory.She would spend money on the military.
She had begun to strengthen the WRE's military,starting with its navy,which was in a horrible shape.Altough the Roman Army was a large,well-funded,and fearsome killing machine,ready for war at any time,the navy was exactly the opposite;it was tiny,suffered from a lack of funding,prehistoric in technology,and hardly to be feared.Victoria spent as much money as she could to update the Roman fleets,and devoted much funding to them.
She was also happy to know that she could marry one of her daughters,Maria,to Ioannes VIII of Byzantium.Of course,she was clearly distressed when Maria returned from Constantinople,having divorced her mentally-ill ex-husband,and she died at the age of 32 from an accident,in which she fell into the sea and drowned.
Victoria died at the age of 59 from a serious illness.Her crown was passed down to her eldest son,Romulus III.He would not be an able ruler,however...
Constantinople,Michael VIIII Palaelogus:
Michael was happy to hear news that the "Ottoman Sultanate",a heretical Turkish kingdom centered around Sivas,had been completely squashed,and all of its lands added to his realms.He was even happier to hear that his son,Ioannes VIII Palaelogus,had married Maria of Rome.He enjoyed friendly relations with Victoria of the WRE,until of course,Ioannes suffered from a mental illness,and his mind slowly began to slip out of the world.
This caused Maria to flee from the Palace at Constantinople.Ioannes was punished for "turning insane",but Michael didn't know that this would cause his son to go completely berserk.The two had a violent argument,which resulted in Ioannes leaving for the realms of Georgia;when he returned,he had miraculously recovered from his illness,and regained sanity.
Michael fortified Constantinople,having more men at guard at night,digging and filling up more moats,and further thickening the already-formidable walls of the city "in case of another Latin attack.",he claimed.
The rest of Michael's reign was relatively uneventful.He easily squashed the one revolt in his reign,the Turk Revolution,in Sivas--not that it gained much support,anyway.
Michael died at the age of 81 from his old age;upon his death,Ioannes succeded to his throne.However,shortly before his death,he could feel the envy of Konstantinos XI,Ioannes' 8th eldest son,and the bravest and one of the more ambitious of his possible heirs.
