And then the Mongols are reunited...under a Hindu. I don't even know what's going on in Karakorum.
The Hohenzollern Empire: A Roman Reich Megacampaign (Image Heavy)
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Soon the Aztecs will be forced back across the Atlantic! Pushing the Mongols back may be more difficult.
Chapter 4: The Wrath of (Temur) Khan
“Once, there were two great empires, vastly different from each other, which dominated Eurasia, one in the west and one in the east. They had two things in common. They both thought they were the center of civilization. And they were both crushed by barbarians.”
-Me, introducing my students to History of Medieval Europe 131: Understanding the Thirteenth Century Crisis
“What is best in life, my horde? The greatest joy for a true Mongol man is to crush his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all that they possess, to see those they love in pieces, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.”
-Attributed to Genghis Khan, sometimes to his sons Temur Khan or Chagatai Khan, but as this quote was not documented until the late 14th century (long after all three of them had died), it is highly likely that none of them ever uttered these words
“I am the Lord of Asia. I am the Chongzheng Emperor of Da Yuan, destroyer of the Jin and Xia. I am the Khagan of the Mongols and Khazars and the Padishah of the Turks and Tartars. I am the Khan of the Russians and Finns. I am the rightful ruler of the civilized world, and you, Khagan of Rome, will submit to my power, whether you want to or not, just as the Khagans of the Far East have.”
-Temur Khan (and there is no dispute he said this) in his declaration of war on the Reich
Like the Mexica, the Mongols could easily field armies of over a hundred thousand men each. Unlike the Mexica, however, such armies were almost completely composed of the dreaded keshiks, the steppe horse archer feared for his skill with the bow and with riding. Refugees from Russia claimed that the keshiks could shoot an arrow while galloping at full speed and hit their target dead on, while another arrow was in the air and they were preparing to fire another arrow.
Siegfried knew very well how deadly the keshiks were. He ordered every single legion to be raised and marched to Crimea, as his father and grandfather had did during the Tengri Crusade. Marching them overland, though, was a huge mistake, for when they arrived in Taurica from places as far away as Hispania, Gallia, and Afrika their numbers had dwindled so dramatically that they were quickly and easily annihilated by Mongol forces. By the time Siegfried ordered the survivors to be transported on the Imperial Navy instead, much of Alania had been crushed and subjugated, with its inhabitants being butchered and slaughtered like ants. Instead of attacking Georgia and marching down through the Caucasus to Baghdad, Temur ordered his hordes to drive westwards into Taurica. Crimea and much of Taurica fell, with Wallachia next. There was nothing stopping Temur Khan from marching into Constantinople and burning the whole place down. The Reich was close to its breaking point (-98 score at the worst), and should the Mongols seize and sack Constantinople, Siegfried would have no choice but to surrender to Temur Khan.
Then a miracle occurred. Siegfried’s armies managed to capture Temur’s heir, which boosted the morale of the Reich long enough for Legion XX von Afrika, Legion I von Germania, Legion X von Britannia, and Legion III von Gallia to launch an amphibious assault on Temur’s personal army, which was sieging the city of Olvia.
Siegfried looked around. His armor was covered in blood, and he gripped his sword so tightly he did not know where his arm ended and the sword began. His bad leg and his bad fever were acting up again, and he could barely run.
Around him, imperial forces were desperately holding off the Mongol hordes. Knights were charging the Mongol infantry, only for the keshiks to cut them down with volley after volley of perfectly aimed arrows. The shield wall formed by the Roman infantry barely held against the onslaught of seemingly endless Mongols.
“Hey!” shouted someone behind him.
Siegfried turned and found himself facing none other than Temur Khan, the Lord of Asia himself.
“Fight me, Khagan of the Romans!” shouted Temur Khan in broken Greek. “Prove yourself a worthy challenger of the Lord of Asia himself!”
Siegfried didn’t respond. Instead, he just raised his sword and ran at the Khagan.
Temur Khan easily dodged Siegfried’s lunge and attacked him, his sword ruthlessly rising and descending towards the Kaiser. Each time, Siegfried managed to dodge the Mongol’s strikes.
Then he tripped on a body, and his bad leg gave out. He collapsed on the hard blood-stained Crimean ground. Temur Khan pointed his sword at Siegfried’s head, the tip of the blade almost touching the Kaiser’s nose.
Just when it seemed Siegfried was dead, Temur Khan withdrew his sword and laughed.
“It would be unfair and dishonorable to kill a man with such disadvantages right now,” Temur Khan said, “I was surprised that you were able to fight me with your injuries and illnesses. You are a worthy opponent and an honorable warrior. Farewell, Khagan of Rome, and may we never meet again face-to-face.”
With that, the Mongol leader vanished behind his keshiks.
Siegfried, too tired to get up and chase after him, simply stared. “Seriously?” he coughed.
He returned to his tent that night, and his messengers told him that the Mongol hordes had been driven back with heavy casualties.
Over the next few days, Siegfried led his armies in a pursuit of the survivors, only to run into a second large horde under the command of Khutula Borjigin.
Siegfried charged through the chaos as arrows shot through the air towards both the keshiks and his knights. His illness was getting worse now, and he knew that if he didn’t stop and rest it would only get worse.
All around him, the forces of Christendom and barbarism clashed in a colossal battle far larger than any of the battles with the Mexica.
A keshik galloped toward him, sword drawn. Siegfried raised his own sword in response. The two blades connected for a brief second before the Mongol toppled from his horse.
His vision was getting cloudy as he approached the Mongol lines. His knights were shouting something at him, but he couldn’t hear them.
Siegfried raised his sword and lunged at the nearest keshik, cutting through his body easily. He felt unstoppable.
There was a thud in his chest, and he was briefly thrown back. What was that? Surely it wasn’t anything serious, as he felt no pain…why was his armor dented like that? Why was there blood on his horse and armor? What was that metallic taste in his mouth?
He suddenly realized that there was an arrow sticking in his stomach. Pain exploded, and he fell off his horse, blood flying from his mouth and wounds.
The knights screamed and surrounded him, defending him from the many keshiks trying to finish him off. Some dismounted and tried to help him to his feet, but it was no use. Already he could feel his lower body go numb. He continued to grip his sword with his right hand, but his left hand was becoming numb as well. His legs collapsed again, and he fell on the ground, sunlight streaming into his eyes.
“Your Imperial Majesty!” shouted a soldier.
“The Kaiser is down!” other soldiers said. The Mongols began cheering loudly, but by then they were heavily outnumbered by the Reich forces; they likely would not last the next few days. And then all of the shouting and chaos began to fade away, until they sounded like they were many distances away.
“I…never thought…it would end like…this,” said Siegfried, weakly, as his vision began to fade.
“Everybody must die at some point,” said a voice above him, “I included.”
The sun was blocked out by a man with a crown and a large bloody hole in his armor and chest where his heart should have been.
“Father…is that…you?” said Siegfried.
The dead Kaiser nodded silently. Behind Wilhelm III stood an old woman in 12th century-style imperial regalia, a sword at her side—the legendary sword of Friedrich the Great. Her expression was completely serene and tranquil. Though Siegfried knew that Saint Wilhelmina was over eighty when she died, she still looked like she was twenty or thirty.
“Did…did I do okay?” Siegfried asked his ancestor.
“My child, that is up to you to decide,” said Wilhelmina, “But it is time now. Your part is over. The cycle is beginning again.”
“Son, I am proud of you,” said Wilhelm III, “It is time to go now.”
“…where?” Siegfried asked.
“You will find out, just as you found the White Stag,” said Wilhelmina, “You are a hunter. And you hunted the enemies of the Reich down.”
Everything began fading away.
“Goodbye, my son,” said Wilhelm III, “I will see you soon.”
On October 9, 1261, Siegfried the Hunter was no more.
Ouch, losing a king in battle is always rough, especially when a child takes his place.
I feel like the Aztecs will return the moment the Mongols are beaten back.
I feel like the Aztecs will return the moment the Mongols are beaten back.
Sad to see the Kaiser die, but you're still pulling this war back from a failure to a success. I liked the interaction between Siegfried and Temur Khan.
Very nicely writtern zen,
and looking forward to what you can offer next. Gl on hoardes and possibl Mezicans, and see you next update.
and looking forward to what you can offer next. Gl on hoardes and possibl Mezicans, and see you next update.
Chapter 5: Protection through Victory
“Why do regents always have to scheme? Do they not know that if they increase their own power at my expense they are only dooming themselves to destruction and that I cannot defend them because they took away that ability?”
-Sigismund I, exasperated by the actions done by King Innocentios I of Greece while serving as his regent
“Ist reich zeit.”
-A Greek soldier in horrible German, just before the Reich liberation of northern Hibernia
Despite the death of their Kaiser, the Romans managed to not only halt the Mongol advance but also destroyed the second invasion force and captured its commander, Khutula Borjigin. At one point Temur Khan sent a peace offer to Sigismund demanding the Reich’s complete surrender and annexation, even as the Lord of Asia’s armies had been utterly annihilated and the imperial legions had liberated much of Provincia Taurica-Alania from the barbarians. The regent simply laughed and dismissed the diplomat.
Eventually, it was Temur Khan who was forced to surrender, and status quo was enforced.
Soon after Siegfried’s funeral, eleven-year-old Sigismund was crowned Kaiser of Rome in Constantinople by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Around that time, the Slavic High Priest called a crusade for Poland, though almost nobody wanted to join him.
Sigismund had been raised by his uncle Wilhelm. The succession would have gone smoothly in the five years he needed a regent had there not been any schemers. The one that he and his father picked out, one who was proven to be utterly loyal to Siegfried and Sigismund, was quickly disposed of by malicious forces within the imperial government; Siegfried’s spymaster, who was sent to replace the regent, was disposed of in a similar fashion, and the next spymaster refused to become regent. A Jewish man named Amram was appointed as regent. Soon after his appointment to the regency, Sigismund noticed money disappearing from the treasury, though there was no proof linking Amram to the thefts.
Uncle Wilhelm was then appointed regent after Amram was dismissed, but he was similarly dismissed by more powerful members of the administration, though he was not killed, and ordered to command the invasion force sent to liberate Hibernia and Caledonia from the Mexica. The man who replaced him was King Innocentios I “the Gentle” of Greece, a known schemer. Once regent, he proceeded to reduce the authority of the throne and increased his own power. Some protested this, but none dared to act against him.
Some modern historians argue that had the Queen Mother not intervened at that moment and dismissed Innocentios from his position as regent, Innocentios likely would have seized the throne for himself after fully reducing the power of the Kaiser and assassinating Sigismund, whom he referred to in his private diaries as “that little rascal who always gets in the way of my rightful ambitions—and the throne.” The result would have been disastrous—the vassals would be rulers in their own right, with their obligations to the Kaiser minimal. This would allow the Reich to easily fall apart from internal and external pressures.
On 1264, Ocuil Acatl agreed to a surrender, and Caledonia and half of Hibernia were liberated from the Mexica barbarians. A week after the surrender, the Persians invaded Mesopotamia. Four months later, the Norse invaded Provincia Germania. The Reich legions, though they had suffered heavy casualties from the liberation of Caledonia, managed to destroy the small Persian forces sent to seize Baghdad, and the Zoroastrian Moabadan-Moabad was forced to agree to a white peace. A month later, the Slavic High Priest agreed to a white peace as well, with almost no battles having occurred.
Alarmed at the Queen Mother inability to prevent Sigismund from declaring such suicidal wars, the government dismissed her from the regency, replacing her with Amram, who was now spymaster as well. Peace was signed with the Persians.
The Ecumenical Patriarch, Tryphon III, died on 10 August 1265.
While much of the imperial legions were busy fighting the Norse, who had already pushed into central Germany and threatened the imperial capital of Berlin itself, the West African High Priest called a crusade for Andalusia. The Malian Empire immediately launched an invasion of Provincia Mauretania, which was ruled by a Malian West African king loyal to the Reich.
Finally, Sigismund came of age on 21 November 1267. His first course of action was to convene the Imperial Diet, where the kings, dukes, patriarchs, caliphs, and popes of the Reich gathered to vote on things, thought their power was severely limited. All Reich vassals (except Innocentios) supported a motion to repeal Innocentios’s reduction of imperial authority, once again granting the Kaiser complete power over the Reich and his vassals. He forgave Amram for his embezzlement of funds from the imperial treasury, but he was less forgiving towards King Innocentios of Greece. The selfish king had his royal titles revoked, reducing him to a duke, and the Kingdoms of Greece and Cyprus were granted to a member of the Palaiologos family, which was shown to be more loyal to Sigismund.
In the summer of 1267, Sigismund managed to secure peace deals with both the Norse and the Malians. Status quo was enforced. Sigismund ordered triumphs to be held in Constantinople and Berlin to celebrate the victories over the pagans.
In the summer of 1268, Sigismund married Irmgard, a noblewoman, and ordered a grand tournament to be held.
The next year, Sigismund embarked on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, which was a rite of passage for all Kaisers upon ascending the throne.
In 1273, a son was born to Sigismund, and he was named Friedrich Augustin. Later that year, Sigismund and his steward ordered a trading expedition to be set up with Abyssinia, allowing him to normalize relations with the Jewish empire. He and Emperor Oromo I became close friends during the trade negotiations.
Sigismund returned from Abyssinia with an alliance and a trade route established. The new trade route would help revive the older one established by Saint Wilhelmina over a hundred years ago when she befriended Samrat Chakravartin Jayasimha I “Rama,” the founder of the modern united Indian nation.
Once home, he noticed that the Norse had launched an invasion of Ulster under the justification of a “holy war,” meaning that if the Norse defeated the Mexica first they would seize a significant portion of Hibernia for themselves and regain a foothold in the British Isles, something which they had not accomplished in two hundred years. Sigismund had been taught of the days of the Third Crusade, when Friedrich the Great and his Catholic Holy Roman Empire had invaded England after the Norseman Harald Hardrada subjugated it, William I de Normandie conquered it from Harald (and then converted to the Norse faith), and the Fylkir conquered the whole thing in the chaos and converted all of the English and Anglo-Saxons to Norse. Nobody wanted a return to those days. So Sigismund ordered an invasion of occupied Hibernia to begin at once.
The British legions, commanded by King Wolfgang I von Habsburg of Bavaria and Sigismund’s Uncle Wilhelm were deployed to Ireland. Attacking from Wales, Caledonia, and liberated Hibernia, the legions attacked everything remotely Mexica they could find, laying siege to Dublin before the Norse attacked the legion there, wanting to claim Dublin for themselves. Technically, the Norse and Germans were also at war with each other, but an actual war was never declared between them.
The war lasted a few months, with the Norse having already done much of the hard work by destroying much of the Mexica defense force but preventing the Romans from seizing total victory by attacking the legions. Eventually, Ocuil Acatl surrendered to Sigismund; he was getting old and could not command troops as effectively as he did twenty years ago. Both the Norse and Mexica were expelled from Ulster, leaving just Leinster and Dublin under direct Mexica control. Some commanders in the imperial legions wanted to finish off the Mexica once and for all and break the truce, but Sigismund convinced then not to, as “Romans are the civilized ones.”
Immediately after the liberation of Ulster was completed, the Slavic High Priest called another crusade for Poland. Nobody helped him, as expected.
A year later, the Slavic “crusade” was crushed, with minimal casualties on either side. To prevent such a pointless war from breaking out again, Sigismund forced the Slavic High Priest to swear fealty to him and gave him the city of Tirgoviste to “rule” over (though under effective house arrest like the Kohen Gadol).
Meanwhile in Dublin…
Zipactonal rushed to his father’s personal quarters with all of the best Mexica physicians he could find following him.
His father, Ocuil Acatl, the mighty conqueror who once defeated the Reich’s legions at will, was finally dying.
He made his way to the bedside, where Ocuil Acatl lay dying. The old conquistador was scarred from the many battles he had fought against the Reich and the Norse. His breathing was labored. Several times Zipactonal thought he was dead before he was.
“My son,” gasped Ocuil Acatl.
“Yes, father?” replied Zipactonal.
“Promise me you will fulfill our ancestor’s vows—to crush the Norsemen. Promise me that you will make the Fylkir tremble in fear at your name. Promise me that my legacy will be continued.”
“Yes, father.”
Ocuil Acatl smiled weakly. “Good.”
He pushed a piece of paper towards Zipactonal. “The Norse faith is much different from the one our ancestors encountered in the frozen north centuries ago. They are more united and strong. We must do the same with our faith, lest we abandon the old ways and lose that which makes us truly Mexica. On this piece of paper is a dispatch from the High Priest of the Temple of Huitzilopochtli in Tenochtitlan, which details numerous reforms to our faith. They will make our beliefs and our gods stronger, strong enough to defeat the Norsemen we were sent here by the Huey-tlatoani to destroy.”
“I will do as you command, father.”
Ocuil Acatl spoke no more. He closed his eyes and passed on into the afterlife.
Meanwhile in Cemanahuac…
Zolin trudged through the thick jungle, his jaguar pelt used as crude camouflage. His battalion was supposed to attack a Tawatinsuyu military base in Darien and free the Nahua prisoners there, in the process helping to halt the Quechua advance into southern Cemanahuac. The air was hot and heavy, and he could barely breathe. His sword felt heavier than usual.
Of course, the Quechuas had to attack at that moment.
There was a shout, and the man in front of him collapsed, a thunder-stick projectile embedded in his heart.
As the rest of his battalion collapsed and the Quechuas moved to capture him, Zolin sensed there was something different about this Tawatinsuyu force. For one, there were among them yellow-skinned men from a tribe he did not know. They spoke an unknown language, and their thunder-sticks looked slightly more advanced than the Tawatinsuyu ones. They made frequent references to “Da Jin,” which was probably the name of their tribe.
Then they hit him on the head, and he blacked out.
Attachments
Ooooooh, exciting, asians in Americas, exciting, but am surprised the Aztecs/ mesoamericans have 'thunder sticks', seeing as the technology, IOTA, only came about in china around this time, unless the mesoamericans are being supplied by china.... o_0.
Anyhow, very nice update, and well done in Ireland, keep up the good work Zen
Anyhow, very nice update, and well done in Ireland, keep up the good work Zen
It seems that every time one war ends, another begins. Your neighbours are relentless.
The Aztec and nearly kicked out of Europe, though it sounds like you're going to reform their faith to make them stronger in EU4. Love the tease of what's going on in the New World.
Oh, about that, I did, I just forgot to include the picture in the update.
And the Aztecs aren't quite dead yet...
It's either thirty years of almost constant warfare or thirty years of almost constant peace. At least I can do something when at war.It seems that every time one war ends, another begins. Your neighbours are relentless.
Chapter 6: The Holy Kaiser
“There is a saga among the Norse that tells of a hero named Sigurd and his son Sigmund. We have our own living saga, embodied by our Kaisers Siegfried and Sigismund. The father fought to keep his empire together, and his son fought to protect his empire’s honor and integrity.”
-King Augustin I von Hohenzollern of France (no relation to imperial dynasty; his Hohenzollern dynasty ((the RL one)) is descended from the Bavarian counts of Zollern and Hohenburg, not Friedrich the Great of Brandenburg)
“It was Wilhelm I’s reign that began the Thirteenth Century Crisis. It was Sigismund the Holy’s reign that began its end.”
-Queen Christine I von Habsburg “the Ill-Ruler” of Bavaria, Sigismund’s daughter-in-law and author of The Sigiad
The Thirteenth Century Crisis, or the Crisis of the Thirteenth Century as some call it, is the generally accepted term for the period after the Wilhelminan Renaissance in which the Reich nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of barbarian invasions, threats of civil war, plague, economic inflation, humiliating political scandals, and bad regents. It is divided into two halves: the Three Wilhelms Period and the rest of the 13th century. It was caused by the numerous extramarital affairs of Kaiser Wilhelm I “the Lionheart,” the grandson and successor of Saint Wilhelmina (who managed to during his brief reign to secure an alliance with Persia).
One such affair was exposed by an angry count when an illegitimate child named Hermann was born, and when that count died of an illness, a friend of his, the Count of Oberbayern, challenged Wilhelm to a duel.
Wilhelm I’s seven-year reign was cut short in late 1199 when the Count mercilessly killed him in single combat, almost plunging the Reich into complete chaos. Wilhelm II managed to avoid outright civil war by quietly assassinating the Count of Oberbayern and declaring his death a natural one. From 1200 to 1238, he attempted to restore the honor of the Hohenzollern dynasty and fix the corruption brought on by Wilhelm I’s many decadent parties with the Pope, Caliph, Ecumenical Patriarch, Kings of France, Bavaria, and Afrika, and the Kohen Gadol (most of whom refused to attend).
Wilhelm II died naturally in 1238, with the Mexica and Mongol threat looming in the distance, thought it was Wilhelm III that felt the full fury of the Mexica, Siegfried who defeated the Mexica and felt the full fury of the Mongols, and Sigismund who defeated the Mongols. By the late 1260s, the Reich had reasserted its dominance over Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Reinforcements from the Mexica homeland had arrived, but they arrived too late. Ocuil Acatl, the scourge of Hibernia and Caledonia, died of old age in 1279, succeeded by his son Zipactonal Acatl as Huey-tlatoani of the Eastern Lands. In his will and on his deathbed, the conquistador urged his son Zipactonal to invade Norway and seek vengeance on the Norse as well as reform the Mexica faith so that it could survive against the Norse. Zipactonal honored his father’s last wishes and proclaimed sweeping reforms to centralize and formalize the structure of the Mexica church, followed by an invasion of Norway.
Meanwhile, Sigismund led troops through the harsh Sahara Desert to strike at the Malian invasion forces sent into Provincia Mauretania. He quickly became a master of desert warfare, though the victories came slowly and at great cost.
By 17 April 1281, the Fylkir was defeated by the sheer numbers of Mexica that Zipactonal sent at him. Zipactonal was victorious in subjugating Iceland and Norway. He immediately set to work building a new stronghold in the newly conquered Shetlands, selling Dublin back to the Reich at no cost.
(Some borders were adjusted in northern Sweden to make the name placement better)
Flush from his victory over the Norse, Zipactonal ordered an invasion of Caledonia just as Sigismund had signed a peace with the Malians. The imperial legions were sent to strategic locations in Caledonia and easily picked off the Mexica forces which landed on the coast. They came by the tens of thousands, but the Reich forces had the advantage. By June of 1282, the Mexica reinforcements had been so weakened that the Fylkir declared a Norse crusade for the liberation of Norway.
On 2 February 1283, Zipactonal sued for peace and was forced to pay a large indemnity to Sigismund for his part in the war. At the end of that year, rumors reached Sigismund that the Mexica had subjugated much of the continent across the ocean.
Friedrich Augustin came of age on 8 July 1289 and was quickly betrothed to Queen Christine I von Habsburg “the Ill-Ruler” of Bavaria, securing an alliance with the Reich’s oldest and most loyal vassal and dynasty, their ancestor the Count of Aargau having been uplifted to kingship by Friedrich the Great in the 11th century.
A little over two years later, the West Africans attacked the Reich again, with the Malian High Priest calling for a pagan crusade to conquer Provincia Mauretania. Siegfried commanded the imperial legions sent to defend against the West Africans.
In Scandinavia, the Norse advance into Mexica-occupied Norway was stalled and then reversed by the arrival of hundreds of thousands of reinforcements from the Mexica homeland. However, these would be the last reinforcements to arrive, for in 1291 Reich intelligence reported that the massive Mexica fleet which was Zipactonal’s only method of transporting troops from the mainland was ordered to return home, the Huey-tlatoani in Tenochtitlan declaring that too many men had been wasted on the conquest of "Europzin" and that the war with Tawatinsuyu was more important than the wars against the “Eastern savages.”
This, Sigismund did not know. What he did know was that the Norse crusade ended in failure for the Fylkir.
Zipactonal died during the war while commanding an army of Norse berserkers and was succeeded by his son Snorri, whose name ironically was a Norse one. The Mexica regents quickly ordered an invasion of Caledonia, as they believed they had a chance of winning.
Sigismund negotiated yet another peace with the West Africans and turned his attention towards the Mexica launching amphibious invasions of the Caledonian coast. The armies deployed to Caledonia proper were quickly annihilated by Legion X von Britannia and the newly reestablished Caledonian and Hibernian legions. Sigismund personally led an army to attack the Mexica stronghold on the Shetlands, where he suffered crippling injuries. Despite this setback, the Mexica were quickly pushed out of Caledonia, and the imperial legions managed to capture and reverse-engineer some Mexica technology.
Snorri’s regent was forced to sue for peace in 1296. Sigismund was victorious again, cementing the Reich’s position as the dominant power in Europe.
In the steppes, the descendants of Genghis Khan were desperately trying to hold on to the empire they had carved out on horseback in blood and fire. The frequent changes in state religion annoyed many powerful clans within the empire, and when Temur Khan’s successor switched between Hinduism, Zunism, and Judaism at least once per day the clans rose up in revolution. By 1297 the Second Mongol Civil War was over, with five khanates declaring their independence from the Mongols. The Yavdi Khanate in northwestern Siberia was a Suomenusko state which found itself ruled by a Turk (who quickly adopted Finnish culture). The Saray Khaganate regained its independence, although its khans alternated between the traditional Tengri faith and Judaism. Wedged into the steppes were the Zunist Batu Khanate, the firmly Jewish Monkhbat Khanate, and the Hindu Onggirat Khanate. Eventually the Mongol Empire grew so weak that the Onggirat Khanate subjugated them, ending the empire of Genghis Khan forever (though his descendants eventually seized control of the Onggirat Khanate).
How the mighty have fallen...(also ignore the Scandinavian enclave)
Thus ended the 13th century.
The Known World in 1300
“A hundred years ago, the Afghan Turks were Zunists, and the steppes had been united under one single khan, a Jewish one. Now, the Afghan Turks are worshippers of Perun, and the steppes are a mess. This is what happens when the faithful abandon Allah and then get conquered by the Mongols. At least Baghdad is intact…although the majority of the population is now Ashkenazi and Jewish.”
-The Shia Caliph
“An imperial soldier should know Greek. An imperial sailor should know Norse. An imperial merchant should know Lombard. An imperial scholar should know Latin. An imperial citizen, however, must know German.”
-Proverb from around the turn of the 14th century
No century has seen more change than the 13th century. Empires rose and fell and rose again. Like during the third century, the Reich had its political instabilities, but they were eventually resolved with little loss of life. As with over a millennia ago, barbarians invaded from off the edges of the map, but unlike the dark decades which ushered in the medieval world from which the Reich was reborn, the barbarians were driven back. True, the Mexica still hold Norway and the Mongol Empire still clings on to power in Mongolia proper, but their power has long been shattered by the forces of civilization.
Scandinavia, a thoroughly Norse empire, is still Norse, except for the portions of Norway under Mexica control, where many have begun worshipping barbarian gods like Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli and Quetzalcoatl after Huey-tlatoani Zipactonal ordered the founding of the Cult of Huitzilopochtli as a military order (and Inquisition force). In the middle of the 11th century, it had been divided into three different kingdoms, all of which were on the verge of forsaking their old ways and embracing Catholicism: Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, each with its own culture. When the King of Denmark resisted conversion, reformed the Norse faith, and became the first Norse Fylkir, he quickly declared a Norse crusade for Germany, then under the control of Kaiser Heinrich I Salian and his Catholic Holy Roman Empire, with King Friedrich the Great of Prussia, the victorious crusader and Heinrich’s most loyal vassal, waiting to inherit the Empire. To be able to match the most powerful Catholic nation in Europe in an all-out war, the Fylkir had convinced the Kings of Sweden and Norway, which had already abandoned Catholicism in favor of the worship of Odin, to swear fealty to him, establishing the Scandinavian Empire; he later seized the two crowns for himself, as he could not trust the other two men. To maintain his rule over this new empire, the Fylkir ordered the promotion of the ancient Norse culture from which Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian were derived. It took several decades, but by the time the Reich was proclaimed in the early 12th century the majority of the population was firmly Norse.
Russia was a mess of independent Orthodox and pagan states in the 11th century, each ruled by a member of the Rurikovich family. One Rurikid, a Slavic pagan, managed to conquer many of his other siblings and cousins and became King of Rus’-Ruthenia. Only when the Finnish Suomenusko Yavdi Khaganate threatened to invade from Perm did his descendent, the Queen of Rus’-Ruthenia, proclaim herself Tsar of All the Russias. The vast majority of the population of Russia is Russian and Slavic, though there is a small Mongol minority in the south left over from the Mongol conquests and when a Tsar was educated in Karakorum as a Mongol.
Religions
United under the Jewish Saray Khaganate in the 1100s, the steppes have been utterly fragmented by the collapse of the Mongol Empire. In the west, on the border with Russia and the Reich, the Saray Khaganate has resurrected itself, though its state religion is still alternating between Tengriism and Judaism. In Central Asia rule several khanates, which are alternatively Jewish, Tengri, Zunist, and Hindu. Finally, Mongolia proper is divided between the Onggirats and the pitiful remnants of the Mongol Empire.
The Ghaznavid Khaganate, a haven of the Turks, was once fully Zunist; its lands stretched from Baluchistan to the Tarim Basin and still do. The Mongol invasions left their possessions intact but made the Padishah a vassal of the Great Khan. Eventually a Slav ended up as Padishah, and by the time the Ghaznavids regained their independence all of the formerly Zunist lands were fully Slavic. Where once the Sun was praised Perun is praised instead. The ancient Temple of the Sun in Kabul was converted into a temple to Perun.
(Only the Jews had player interference)
Persia remains strong, having rebounded from the devastating Mongol conquest of Khorasan in the mid-13th century. In fact, they have even managed to expand by subjugating the Hashshashin Order, the Reich’s buffer state with Persia. The Zoroastrian faith remains strong as ever, though it is only a matter of time before heresies began appearing. The Seljuks still sit on the Peacock Throne in Esfahan, having converted from Islam to Zoroastrianism in the 11th century and accidentally triggering the Muslim jihads when they conquered Baghdad.
India has been relatively untouched by the events of the 13th century. The Mongols never bothered to invade India, instead preferring Persia. There was one civil war which resulted in the entire south seceding from the empire, but that was put down after ten years of brutal warfare. Otherwise India remains the same as it has always been since its founding in the 12th century by Jayasimha I “Rama” Paramara.
Mali and Abyssinia are unchanged as well; Mali because its only direction of expansion is into the Reich, and Abyssinia because it is surrounded by the Reich and ocean on all sides. The Empire of Abyssinia was established by the Jewish dukes of Axum in the 12th century, while Mali was united by a pagan chief who rallied the many West African tribes against Islam’s push into Africa.
Wedged between Russia, Scandinavia, and the Reich is Lithuania, the last bastion of the ancient Baltic Romuva faith. For decades, the Norse had tried to conquer the small kingdom, only for the Reich to intervene and push them back. The Baltics are usually quiet, except for the occasional war between two of the three Baltic powers.
The Reich’s borders remain unchanged, but its people had changed dramatically. German culture dominates from northern France to western Poland to northern Italy, with many Germans also settling in Provincia Afrika, Aegyptus, and Syria-Palestrina. Orthodoxy is by far the dominant faith in the Reich, followed closely by Judaism.
Arabia has changed dramatically since the early 12th century. Originally the center of Islam, Islam has been all but eliminated from the peninsula. The Arabs themselves are gone, assimilated into the Reich; in Hispania they adopted Norse, Norman, and Sephardi traditions; in Mauretania they adopted Malian culture; in Afrika and Aegyptus they intermarried extensively with German settlers; in Arabia itself they were slowly replaced with the Ashkenazi Jews, who were settled there by Friedrich the Glorious as a way of solving Europe’s problem with anti-Semitism while also eradicating Islam at the same time.
It was said that Mecca was the last city in the world with a majority Muslim population. When Friedrich the Great found out about this, he ordered the Pope to proselytize the Catholic faith in the city, while the Caliph was ordered to suppress any revolts and resistance against the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch was sent to collect taxes. Once most of the population was converted to Catholicism, Friedrich simply had everybody deported and the city resettled with Jews.
Hispania is among the most culturally diverse of the Reich’s provinces. In Andalusia and Leon the Norse culture and faith dominate, while in Galicia and northern Portugal Noman culture and Norse faith dominate, and Castile, Aragon, and Navarra are firmly Orthodox but have undergone similar Jewish resettlement as Arabia did, becoming fully Sephardi in decades.
Italy is slowly being divided into a German north and a Lombard south. This has been accelerated by the promotion of German culture by the kings and queens of Italia-Afrika, ruling from Carthage.
French culture has been completely eradicated, thanks to the efforts of the not so tolerant Hohenzollern kings of France. Occitan, though, is left alone.
After extensive Germanization programs, the Hungarians under Habsburg rule were fully assimilated into the German culture. The Eastern Slavs were similarly assimilated.
Greek is the Reich’s second-most widespread culture, and as such it is an official language and given protected status. This does not stop the accidental and unintended Germanization of most of the Balkans north of Albania and in Wallachia, or the spread of the (also tolerated) Armenian culture into central Anatolia.
The Reich was built on tolerance, as stated in Friedrich the Glorious’s numerous decrees while he was Kaiser. The pagans of Hispania and Mauretania are given special protection and ruled over by pagan kings loyal to Berlin. The Jews are given more special protection, with the Jewish King of Israel-Arabia controlling all areas predominantly Jewish. Officially, anti-Semitism is discouraged by the government, but this is hard to enforce.
Muslims are given some degree of protection, but most have decided to migrate to Azerbaijan, where the Shia Caliph held court. The imperial censuses never reported the number of Muslims reaching over ten thousand, though.
Aegyptus was once a haven for Romuva pagans, where southern Egypt worshipped Perkunas under the leadership of the Republic of Aswan. This lasted until an Orthodox man was elected leader of the republic and the republic was absorbed into the Kingdom of Afrika.
Heresies, especially Catholicism, are given no protection outside of the papal lands of Orbotello and are brutally suppressed by the imperial Inquisition. The Kaiser always keeps his personal Ecclesiarch stationed in Orbotello, ready to suppress any attempts at proselytization by the Pope (and there are a lot of them). The Kaisers ignores the proselytization the Kohen Gadol is doing next door in Orvieto or the Slavic High Priest is doing in Tirgoviste.
Provincia Britannia is split between two groups: the English and the Anglo-Saxons. The English were descendants of Normans who married Anglo-Saxons after Friedrich the Great conquered England from the Norse. The Anglo-Saxons fiercely resisted assimilation into the English culture, wanting to preserve their traditions. In southeastern England, which is under French control, most Englishmen have adopted German culture.
Trade in Northern Europe in 1300 is dominated by the Hanseatic League, which was founded in 1232 by German merchants in Bremen. The Republic of Pisa generally controls trade in the western Mediterranean, and the Republic of Socotra dominates trade in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea. The Silk Road also brings much revenue to the eastern portion of the Reich, with some proceeds going to Berlin.
Kaiser Sigismund I rules over the largest empire in the known world, far larger than the ancient Roman Empire, far more powerful than the Mongols, as populous as Cathay. What he didn’t know was how long he would continue to rule.
- 1
Ah, so the Aztecs have forged an empire in part of Scandinavia and Iceland. They'll be remaining a player in Europe, at least for now.
The world update was great. Nice seeing how things are at the start of the century. So many empires, all vying for more power.
The world update was great. Nice seeing how things are at the start of the century. So many empires, all vying for more power.
Very nice sequence of updates zen, looking forward to what happens to Sigi.
Good luck and can't wait till the next one.
Good luck and can't wait till the next one.
Chapter 7: The Silk Road and the Great Plague
“When the Two Brothers [Polo] got to the Great Khan, he received them with great honor and hospitality, and showed much pleasure at their visit, asking them a great number of questions. First, he asked about the emperors, how they maintained their dignity, and administered justice in their dominions; and how they went forth to battle, and so forth. And then he asked the like questions about the kings and princes and other potentates.”
-Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo (published 21 February 1300)
“Ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all fall DOWN!”
-Part of a popular children's game associated with the Black Death (but no connection has ever been found)
"Adieu, farewell earths blisse,
This world uncertaine is,
Fond are lifes lustful joyes,
Death proves them all but toyes,
None from his darts can flye;
I am sick, I must dye:
Lord, have mercy on us."
-"A Litany in Time of Plague"
In the early days of the 14th century, an Italian merchant returned from the Far East. His name was Marco Polo, and he claimed to have worked in the administration of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire for several years, publishing his personal diaries as proof. Some laughed him and his book off as false fabrications, as the Mongol Empire in the steppes had fully collapsed in on itself by then. Nonetheless, Sigismund summoned him to his court, where he questioned him on the status of the Far East. The merchant told tales of the Great Khan of Cathay and his many interesting exploits, who ruled an empire which was far larger than the Reich, both in terms of surface area and population. The Mongols may have been defeated in the steppes, but they still clung to power in the land of Cathay. Sigismund decided it was better not to cause another barbarian invasion and made Marco Polo wealthy by giving him large shares in the various Italian merchant republics.
In 1302, the Hashshashin, the Muslim military order which had converted to Zoroastrianism and had been a Reich protectorate for decades, renounced their status as a tributary state and swore fealty to the Persians, something which enraged Sigismund. Alas, he could do nothing about it.
Then it seemed that Heaven turned its backs on the Romans once again.
Note the extent of the Plague
In 1303, a deadly plague spread quickly throughout Europe, originating from the Far East and spread by the Mongols as an effective siege-breaking tactic. Within months the Black Death, as it became known by millions of horrified Romans, had completely permeated the Reich, with London, Paris, Rome, and Berlin all struck by waves of the horrible epidemic. Thousands of citizens died by the day, their bodies piled up on the sides of streets and in ditches by the sides of roads. Anybody who caught the illness was almost guaranteed a slow and painful death. Soon, the peasants’ suffering turned to anger against anybody who made a good scapegoat. The few Jews who had not migrated to Israel-Arabia, as well as Muslims outside of Azerbaijan and pagans outside of Hispania and Mauretania, were brutally massacred by angry mobs.
Antiquitates Flandriae (1303), depicting a massacre of Jews in Frisia
Two thousand German Jews were murdered in Strasbourg, before the local Habsburg nobility could intervene and arrest the mob leaders (and then got torn to shreds by the rest of the mobs). Two weeks later, mobs stormed the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne, and despite Queen Christine I’s orders to stand down they exterminated every single Jew; the two cities would be utterly depopulated of Jews for the next few decades. Muslims and Zoroastrians were murdered in the city of Baghdad before the Caliph intervened briefly (only to die of Great Pox and be succeeded by a young boy), while the Norse and West Africans in Hispania and Mauretania were exterminated by the hundreds before the King of Leon-Andalusia, himself a Norseman, cracked down harshly on the riots.
Flagellants flagellating themselves
Christians disillusioned with their faith, believing that God had abandoned them, embraced heresies, almost reviving Catholicism. All attempts at spreading their heresy, however, were quickly shut down by the Church.
Some peasants took up arms against the Reich itself, but they were quickly crushed by the imperial legions.
Constantinople miraculously was not affected by the plague; maybe it was because the city had already been hit centuries ago by Justinian's Plague, a similar plague to the Black Death, but nobody knows for sure. The royal family resided there for most of the epidemic, but even they were not spared from the plague. Both of Sigismund’s daughters were cut down in their youth, as well as numerous cousins and kinsmen; several children caught the plague but miraculously recovered. Sigismund was grieving for months afterwards and went to the local cathedral almost daily, praying for God to forgive the sins of Wilhelm I and the people of the Reich.
Self-explanatory.
By 1304, it seemed that God did show mercy. The plague subsided, having run its course, and moved on to Scandinavia and the occupied Mexica territories. Slowly, the Reich began to recover from the epidemic, but it would take time. Millions had died in that terrible year, and the imperial economy was trashed. But out of the plague came dramatic change, change that would take the Reich out of the Thirteenth Century Crisis for good.
Nobles and peasants alike were taken by the plague, though for every noble killed there were at least ten peasants killed. Social mobility was increased, as the fewer number of peasants caused a raise in wages and a weakening in obligations to remain on feudal holdings, allowing peasants to move between employers and estates in search of higher salaries. The concept of serfdom had completely disappeared when serf and master alike perished, though slavery itself persisted. For the first time, peasants found that they could make a better life for themselves and their families by finding better jobs and pay. Land was left empty and ripe for the taking; the severe population reduction allowed the price of land to drop sharply. Peasants bought up the land quickly using their new salaries, becoming landowners in their own right; such land became pasture for cows. They began eating more meat and dairy, which previously only nobles ate; the average Reich citizen began eating a more balanced meal. Beef and butter exports rose, bringing in more profits for the Hanseatic League, the Reich’s dominant trading organization and republican vassal state in northern Germany. The imperial economy eventually rebounded thanks to the Hansa’s increased revenue.
The Triumph of Death (1562)
Dutch citizens burying plague victims
The Black Plague’s toll on the peasantry encouraged some to innovate labor-saving technologies, which became widely used after the plague subsided. Farmers began using animal husbandry more extensively than traditional grain farming, which drove up productivity and reduced the amounts of labor needed. This was crucial to the continued success of landowners, as in the chaos of the plague many villagers migrated to the cities, in some cases so quickly that entire villages were depopulated not by the plague but by migration. At least 1300 villages were declared abandoned by the Reich government in that deadly year.
Though peasant wages shot up, so that it looked like peasants were making more than they did before 1303, inflation also went up, which more or less evened things out. There were so few peasants that nobles became obligated to give better terms of tenure, so rent costs fell. Serfdom eventually was replaced with copyhold tenure, in which a peasant and a noble made a deal where the peasant got use of the land and the noble got a fixed annual payment from the peasant.
Doktor Schanabel von Rom (1656), depicting a typical "plague doctor"
Medicinal alchemy as a practice slowly died out as peasant and doctor alike began realizing it did next to nothing to stop the progression of the plague, if not accelerate it instead. The University of Berlin began teaching classes on “anatomical investigations,” based not on alchemy but instead on experimentation with human cadavers. The Pandidiktarion (Imperial University) of Constantinople began training the first true surgeons during this time, though their techniques were quite crude and basic. More emphasis was placed on experimentation and on observations of the human body. The numerous medical treatises and books written by Greek and Arab scholars served to increase this trend. Some doctors began positing that the plague was not simply a punishment from God, but was also spread by tiny “demons” floating in the air and in rats. These demons had one goal: propagate themselves at all costs. This "early germ theory" was laughed at by many in the scientific community, but it over time gained a large following.
Danse Macabre
Man playing chess with Odin in the guise of Death (Sweden, 1480)
Architecture and art also changed. Greco-Roman architectural style was revived and used to rebuild churches, residents, and other buildings, especially the imperial palaces of Berlin. Italian and Lombard sculptors closely emulated the styles of the ancient Romans, while the Germans emphasized individuality and emotion. Literature also changed. Protagonists were now written with flaws and faults. Intense emotions were expressed throughout early novels, giving rise to early forms of realism.
All in all, the old order was coming down. European feudalism, which had suffered a blow when Friedrich the Glorious united the Eastern and Western Roman Empires and integrated Greek imperial administration into the old feudal Holy Roman Empire, was now falling apart. A new order was emerging, one without feudalism.
Attachments
An end to serfdom, a rise of medical understanding, new forms of art and literature... After the Black Death, you have entered a Renaissance period.
End of feudalism though, eh? Planning on changing your government upon conversion?
End of feudalism though, eh? Planning on changing your government upon conversion?
Very intersting, but anguished encapuslated those points. Very exciting, and wondering what could come next for the empire...