The Third Odyssey - An Elysian Tale

[Crimson Lionheart]

State of the Empire: 1600

A hundred years of prosperity and expansion had transformed the Empire, and Imperial society as a whole, into something much greater. The Elysian Eagle had spread its wings. With the Imperial Census of 1600 completed, the new Elysian Emperor Basil I was presented with the new census and like his predecessors before him, wanted to know the capabilities of the Empire.

From sea to shining sea, the Empire ruled the civilized lands of the East and West. A century of explosive growth had seen the Empire’s size and population grow rapidly. With a couple of million citizens now under Imperial domain, the frontier to the northwest was ignored for now. Instead, a more attractive alternate existed within the islands of the Pacific Ocean. With Emperor Manuel speaking about the Mare Nostrum becoming the “Mare Nostrum” of Elysia, expansion efforts were currently focused on securing the bounty of islands in the pacific, and slowly taming the northerners of Vinland for their arrogance.

Imperial government, since the reformations undertaken by Emperor Manuel almost a century ago, had been characterised by the strength of the Elysian Senate and its Emperor. Since this reformation, the Empire was well known across Europe for its incredibly strong and stable Imperial government. With the traditions of the senate being retained from the times of Rome, the Senatorial Empire operated on both republican and monarchist characteristics and utilize them to its fullest extent.

While incredibly prosperous in its own right, the Empire had been overspending within the military in order to maintain their large presence in Europe, which was focused on protecting and aiding the Exarch states. Once conditions stabilized in Europe to safe-levels and the Exarchs were able to protect themselves, which could be many years away, the Empire couldn’t utilize the economy to the best of their ability.

All trade markets on the continent of Elysium was dominated by the Empire. Elysia held a monopoly on the goods that came from the continent which were sought after in Europe, such as Elysian silk. Although Vinland and Spartania had some involvement in the matters of trade, they couldn’t even come close to the levels that Elysia held over the market.

The Elysian army and navy, was, in a controversial aspect, the most powerful military in the world. Over a century of drilling had transformed the Elysian military from a drafted military to a professional standing army with intense and brutal training conditions comparable to the Legionaries of Ancient Rome. The advantages of new military technology had been largely responsible for Elysia to secure their dominance on the continent, as native armies were simply useless to combat a Thema. In order to maintain this dominance, the Empire must pay an extremely heavy price to finance the military.

Elysification of the continent was extremely effective as the Empire’s influence was felt from coast to coast. The Elysian Language, either as a main tongue, secondary language or a minority language, was the dominant language in the new world with immense cultural influence. Despite its regional dialects, the language had remained the same from its traditional Hellenic origins, but had diverged enough from the standard Hellenic that it was considered a separate language in its own right. Native languages, except in some isolated pockets around the Empire, were virtually extinct as many natives embraced the Elysian language after decades of integration.

As a culture, Elysia was unique in its very own right. It had a Hellenic heart but a Roman soul. Philosophers both from Europe and Elysia remarked on how on a societal aspect, Elysian culture shared more common characteristics Rome rather than Greek, and Elysia had been embracing this for quite some time. In comparison to the Spartan-esc hybrid culture of Spartania, Elysian culture was a hybrid culture that embraced the best of Hellenic and Roman culture.

During the previous century, the Empire had gained plenty of loyal subjects in both Europe and Elysium. With the establishment of the Exarchs and the Balkan shield, entire nations were now serving the Emperor and Elysia. Either by willingly wanting to serve the Empire for a greater good, protection, or any other means. With such loyal subjects, it was the duty of every Elysian monarch to show compassion to the growing realm.

Nea Konstantinopolis, the fabulously wealthy capital of the vast Imperium, had exploded in population within the previous hundred years. In part due to the population policies enacted by the Empire, drastically improved standards of living and a stable climate, the capital now had a population of just over 300,000 inhabitants. Interestingly, immigrants from Europe and elsewhere in the old world had slowly started to immigrate to the Empire, wishing to make new lives and opportunities in the crown jewel of of Elysium

From sea to sea, loyal allies and subjects and a rapidly growing nation, the next century presented the opportunities for the Empire to shine to levels that had it never reached before. The Golden Age of Elysia, for the time being, was over. The Empire had matured and was now entering a new phase of its life, where both the East and the West were now well within the possibility of Elysian rule. The last century was an Elysian century. The 17th century was to be a century of miracles.

Long live the Empire

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 32: The Elysian Lake (1600-1604)

With the dawn of a new century, the Elysian Empire was presented with a unique opportunity. The Pacific Ocean, ambitiously referred to the recently deceased Emperor Alexios I as the beginning of Elysia’s ‘Mare Nostrum’, never seemed to stop amazing explorers with the isolated tropical paradises they were surrounded in. Senators and other administrative members of government would encourage Elysia to settle the bounty of islands in the region out of simple necessity to secure the ocean and its pathway towards Asia, before any other great power took the Pacific for themselves. The other opportunity that was before Elysia in this century was to strengthen Elysian influence in Europe and ensure continued dominance of the Mediterranean, establishing more exarchates and bringing the light of true civilization to the old world.

The Exarchate of Constantina, the proud Hellenic exarchate, had made a strong foothold in Anatolia following the start of the Hellenic Reclamation of Anatolia. When the territory was ceded to the exarch, Western Anatolia was primarily dominated by Turks with small Hellenic minorities within the region. In horror of the defeat and the crippling of the Ottoman state, many Turks were immediately hostile to restored Hellenic-Elysian rule. Some embraced Elysian Orthodoxy and abandoned the teachings of Muhammad, and in time, Western Anatolia became a largely Christian region once more.

With the pacification of Western Anatolia, a resettlement act was established in repopulating the once traditionally Hellenic region once again with a stable Greek majority population. Some of the Christian Turks accepted this as an inevitability and simply continued their lives. However, the largely Islamic Turks had simply refused to take this laying down. Discrimination would occur by both Hellenic and Turkish settlements as the resettlement act was underway, and some violence would occur, only being stopped from escalating due to the heavy Elysian military presence in the region.

The large Mamluk Sultanate, perceived by Elysia to be the great power of the Islamic world, had fallen onto hard times. Ten years of stagnation and unrest had allowed small portions of the realm to break away, and economic and political stress in the wealthy lands of Egypt only made the situation worse. An disastrous invasion of Yemen, to which Mamluk leadership perceived to underestimate, had sent the Sultanate into decline. To make matters worse, the Sultanate had completely lost the entirety of Southern Arabia.

With years of warfare putting a severe drain on the economy and manpower of the Mamluk Sultanate, the Turks to the north mockingly referred to the Mamluks as a ‘fragile giant’.

Immediately following the disastrous invasion of Egypt, Aq Qoyunlu launched a lightning invasion of the Mashriq as the incredibly weak Mamluk Sultanate frantically tried to recover. Within five months, the Mashriq was lost, and reports from Cairo spoke of panic among its administration.

To the south, Spartania and Elysia would receive news from the Incan lands that a volcano in the region erupted in a massive explosion. The effects of the eruption were felt across the world, and the Inca in particular was devastated in the region. Temperatures dropped and the following summer was one of the coldest within centuries. Grain and Wine production was damaged extensively and caused panic among trade.

Following successful wars for the Empire, the system for national conscripts had been proving very successful in both the Empire and the foreign exarchs. The poor, desperate and the patriotic are flocking to the ranks and many were pleased with such a high turn-out.

With tensions on the rise once in Anatolia, time had passed for another campaign in the region to target the decaying Ottoman state. Focusing on Denizli, which was already close to the border, war was declared on February 25th 1600 with the intent to conquer as much as possible.

With the Portuguese weakened beyond repair in Europe, the French were more than eager to take advantage of the political situation in Brazil. France would establish a small colony between Portugal and Spain established colonies. Unlike Columbia in the north, which remained Catholic despite the overwhelming surge of heresy back in the homeland, this new colony was completely settled by Protestants. News would soon reach Elysia that, unsurprisingly, France was preparing to declare an invasion of Portuguese Brazil.

Towards the Mamluk Sultanate, their situation had turned from dire to worse. With revolt in Egypt, the Aq Qoyunlu had took the Mashriq with ease and were now suffocating Syria and the Levant. To the north, Anatolia continued to be retaken by Imperial forces with relative ease as the Turks put up a scattered resistance, isolating their forces away from their main armies to prevent overextending their control.

Austria, having served as the most powerful and prestigious of the Holy Roman Empire’s lands, had experienced the growth of a new industry. With a demanding social code among the nobility and the upper class, a growing merchant class helped develop an increased demand for perfume. Grand palaces were expected to have a likable scent to go along with a majestic decor. The surge for products such as frankincense, myrrh, and other scented products for the making of perfume had led to the beginnings of a rich industry, adding to the prestige of the Empire.

After military victory after victory, Ottoman offensive capabilities dwindled as Elysia inflicted defeat after defeat upon them. But the Empire’s greatest achievement in the war did not happen on the land, but on the sea. After months of scattered naval conflict along the Black Sea, the Turkish fleet was methodically damaged after each and every battle. With the Turkish ports of the Black Sea being occupied by Elysia, it would leave them with no safe haven to shelter their fleet. An exhausted Turkish fleet, damaged and barely seaworthy from the constant attacks on their fleet, was completely annihilated off the coast of Sinop. With the destruction of the Ottoman Fleet, an Elysian commander boasted that “No longer shall the Turk rule the waves”.

After a year and a half long conflict, the Ottoman Empire was soundly defeated and peace talks began immediately. With such dominance over their Turkish foe, Elysia led the negotiations to dismantle their enemy piece by peace. The demands made by Elysia were simple but enormous. Southwestern Anatolia and a considerable amount of Turkish Anatolia would be ceded, including the important city of Ankara. Half a century ago, the Ottoman Empire was seemingly invincible and in a position of complete dominance. Now the Turks were a pale shadow of their former selves.

The Papacy, led by its reinvigorated yet extremist thought of saving Italy from foreign threats and protecting Catholicism, had made drastic leaps and bounds within the previous twenty years. Almost all of Italy was brought under Theocratic rule from Rome, with princes everywhere on the peninsular swearing loyalty to the church or being stripped of their birthright. Led by religious and political nationalism, the Papacy had nearly accomplished the impossible. All that was stopping them was the immensely powerful Habsburg realm of Austria, who led a personal union with the powerful Kingdom of Hungary.

Pope Hadrianus VI, leader of the Papal State and head of the Catholic Church.​

While tensions between the Habsburgs and the Church were well known, the two powers did not openly enter warfare with one another out of fears of foreign intervention. Despite their bitter rivalry, the two leaders of the Catholic world both agreed that something must be done about the sensitive matter of a heretical French kingdom for the time being. Once the Papacy could deal with the matter of the heretics in France, only then could the Papacy challenge the Habsburgs in their dream to create a ‘Kingdom of God’.

Emperor Basil spoke towards the Imperial council and the senate about matters relating to the frontier. With the Pacific open for settlement, the Emperor made an interesting speech about its policies. Basil spoke about what made the settlement acts so successful in the early days of the Empire and argued to reimplement it. After some time, the Senate would agree on the Emperor’s proposal and go back to its roots. While this would constrict resources that would be used for settling more distant lands, this established a strong alternative that the colonies that were open for settlement were much more developed and organised than the ones in the far East.

With the results of the Ottoman defeat sending waves through the Islamic world, Aq Qoyunlu also made shockwaves after defeating the weakening Mamluk Sultanate. The Mamluks ceded the entirety of the Mashriq and most of Syria to the Turkomens, who now ruled almost everything from Mesopotamia to the Caucasus. It did not mean that the new realm was stable, as almost as soon as the war ended, the vastly different cultural makeup of the region threatened to completely undermine everything that had been gained.

The Empire would immediately capitalise on the situation, funding Mamlukean nobility who had been dissatisfied with their monarch. Knowing that Elysia could rely on their nobility due to their professional troops and calvary, Elysia was ready to capitalise on the declining Sultanate at any opportunity.

With the foundations of a strong network of islands in Pacific secured, the Emperor was already quite pleased with what he had made up for Elysian interests in the region. Due to a lack of presence that didn’t exist along any other major nation in the pacific, especially from European powers that deemed the region far too distant, it left the Empire completely unopposed in the great ocean..

In Europe, of particular note was the northern realms of Scandinavia. Sweden, having broken free from the Kalmar Union close to a century and a half ago, had been making a slow ascension to power within the region. Norway, which had been absorbed into Denmark within the 16th century, was lost to Sweden. A formidable power in their own right in the north, the Kings of Sweden was now spending their time intergrating their gains and preparing for their next goal, the Conquest of Denmark and the unification of Scandinavia.

With the Portuguese hold onto their crown colony of Brazil, and with French pressures in invading the colony, Portugal was in no serious shape to contest to a rising independence movement and French aggression. On March 26th 1603, Brazil became an independent nation and all former colonial measures of government was formally transferred to the new Retorian nation.

José de Marialva, the First Grand Consul of the Republic of Brazil (1571-1653)​

This would come with a price as France had now completely surrounded the new colony completely with French Columbia and a recently conquered strip of Brazil. The Republic was not prepared to fight a war against the French kingdom, and immediately went to work searching for allies. Elysia, unfortunately, was not one of them.

With cartographers returning to the Empire about recently discovered regions in the Pacific, the Empire was presented with extensive knowledge on where to settle. Some of the islands were either too distant, hostile to the Empire or were outright uninhabitable. Emperor Basil eagerly pushed for further exploration and the establishment of colonies in the Pacific.

With an interest in the region about learning about the native peoples of the Pacific, the Emperor would authorise the creation of a new organisation within the Colonial administration of the Empire. Starting from 1603 onwards, the Colonial administration would employ the use a Liaison. Within the colonial sense, a Liaison’s job required communication or cooperation to develop a close working relationship between settlers and native peoples. This would usually mean that an Elysian Liaison was bilingual, and often served as an ambassador and missionary to the native peoples. Due to the peaceful approach that Elysia took within sensitive colonal measures, Liaison’s would become an invaluable part of Pacific settlement.

In France, a new dynasty had come to the throne and secured their power against all odds. Jacques I de Valois, known as the ‘Heretic King’ among French Catholics, had died young with his young son as a toddler. With France entering a regency period, the matters of the Kingdom would be transferred to Jacques’s wife, Jeanne de Montfort. Jeanne herself was popular among protestant society, largely among the clergy and nobility who seen her as a stable protestant ruler who was able to govern France in such an important era in its history.

Queen Jeanne I de Montfort of France. Originally just a regent for her son, his unexpected death suddenly allowed Jeanne to ascend to throne of the most powerful nation in Western Europe. ​

While only planning to rule as a regent for her son, the last legitimate de Valois heir to the throne had died while young due to a fever, leaving no legitimate heir to the throne. Jeanne de Montfort, who was already the Queen-regent for the Kingdom, quickly filled in the succession gap. In a Protestant cathedral in Paris, she would be crowned as Queen Jeanne I de Montfort. Some skeptics of the new queen questioned on how she ascended to power, going as far as wondering if the young heir to the throne had truly died a natural death.

Within the Pacific Ocean, the main fleet of the Pacific conducted two major exploration missions alongside Asia and the Pacific. One of the fleets was to perform an exploration along the coastline of China and the islands within the Asian seas. The other was set along the south, tasked with discovering the lands of the south pacific.

After many years of integration into Elysia, the northerners of Vinland that resided within Imperial borders were granted full rights and were completely integrated within Elysia’s own borders. The Vinlandic population of Elysia, all of whom were overwhelmingly Christian in part to Elysian missionary and conversion efforts, enjoyed friendly treatment. Now given full rights, the Christian Vinlandic population rejoiced and openly praised both God and Emperor for his benevolence. Given their martial and trading history, Vinlanders would eagerly serve the Empire and believed that their people were given a new chance at life. Decades ago, they were bitter enemies. Today, and for all time, they were friends.

The Althing of Vinland, now seen as a delusional maniac and deeply unpopular with the Elysian people, openly made their statement on the Imperial treatment of Christian Vinlanders. The Althing and the Konugur flew into a rage upon hearing the news from the south, and sent their hostility to the Emperor and the Senate. Believing that their own people were abandoning Norse traditions and their ancestral faith for the false religion of christ to the south, relations plummeted between Vinland. The Empire, tired of their constant and almost senile-like rambling, ignored their hostile talk.

It was that, with matters of continued growth was settled in the Mediterranean and along the Pacific, it was time to deal with an old enemy of the Empire...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 33: The Fall of Portugal (1604-1606)

After another victory over the Ottoman Empire, Elysia had spent the previous few years keeping their distance from the domestic affairs of Western Europe. With the East pacified to some degree, it was time for the Empire to make their presence known across the west again, and to remind Europe why the Imperial Army and its Fleets should be feared across the old world

The Papal State, styling itself as the Defender of Catholicism, launched their invasion of Protestant France in an attempt to reverse the leading protestant heresy that had potential to threaten Catholic hegemony in Italy. While it would be impossible to force the overwhelmingly Lutheran kingdom to accept Catholicism into the region, any opportunity that was taken to weaken the French was seen in a positive light by the Elysians.

While being ravaged by separatist movements in the Islamic World, a notable one within the Eastern Ottoman expanse threatened to undo everything that the Turks had done for centuries. Armenians and Kurdish provinces gained their independence, and many years of occupation was taking its toll on both the Ottomans control. The Aq Qoyunlu, what had originally been a victorious realm was not transforming into a collapsing one, and many of their neighbours were incredibly keen to exploit this.

With the loss of Brazil, the Kingdom of Portugal had lost a major area of its territories simply overnight, and the effects of losing their Retorian crown jewel were simply devastating. Unable to cope with the loss, and with their holdings incredibly distant, the Elysian Empire was prepared to silence the Portuguese for good by finishing off their homeland. After a period of fifteen years, Elysia declared war with aim to conquer Northern Portugal.

After only fifty one days of siege, Porto fell to an overwhelming assault conducted by Elysia. With the capture of the city, the remainder of Portugal was left open for occupation by tens of thousands of Elysian and Hispanic forces

The results were almost instant, and Portugal would barely last for a couple of months. After the occupation of Northern Portugal and with the capture of Porto, the Portuguese royal family would flee into exile into one of their only holdings left in the world, the small loyalist trading settlement of Cape Town in Africa, far enough away from Europe and Elysia to never threaten the Empire again.

The remainder of Portugal would be absorbed into Hispania, and nobles who were willing to enter integration with the exarch usually were allowed to keep their land and titles on the condition that they pledged allegiance to the Pan-Iberian exarch and the Emperor of Elysia. Immediate efforts to transform the former Catholic realm into an Elysian Orthodox realm, with the Empire hoping that a united Iberian state could serve as the model for what the future of Europe could look like. A model that wont just be limited to just the Mediterranean, but simply a taste of things to come should the Empire reestablish order and harmony in Europe

Infuriated at the Papacy for supporting the Iberian realms despite being preoccupied with their war against France, the Empire sent diplomats to Rome with a message for his holiness. Break the alliance with Spain, and the Empire would conduct no offensive operations in Italy in the event of a war. The Papacy immediately refused, and the diplomats were immediately sent back home to report their faliure.

Despite the Papacy threatening to aid the Spanish in the next war, the Empire made plans to invade Spain regardless of intervention. On June 12th 1604, Elysia would declare war on Spain and immediately make tremendous gains during their campaign.

The homeland provinces are among the richest and most developed provinces within the Empire, with living standards comparable to that of the Old World. Much of the original Hellenic and European population resides along the eastern coastline or along the coastline, while barbaroi dominate the interior of the Empire. The further from the capital the barbaroi were, the less ‘civilized’ they acted. Emperor Basil implemented reforms on improving infrastructure and worked on the development of more inland cities, with new settlements or the development of preexisting ones to spread Elysian influence. It was time for Elysia to create a true homeland for all who come to its shores.

With the focus of Global Trade spreading along Europe, it would become embraced in the Empire after many european merchants were already embracing such new ideas. More merchants were interested with the idea of sailing across the seas and finding fame and fortune in distant lands. It allowed the Empire to expand into new markets, something that deeply interested the Elysians considerably.

The fight to secure the riches of the world was not an easy task, but merchants had managed to secure a preferential deal with local suppliers. Although the Empire will not be able to maintain this trade deal forever, it would bring more revenue to the Empire as overseas trade started to turn towards Elysia.

As the Pacific was explored and colonised, the Senate enacted the tradition of developing charter colonies. A practise that was best utilized under the reign Emperor Alexandros, charter colonies were now instead focused on settling the many islands of the pacific rather than the homeland.

Over a year into the campaign and the Spanish kingdom was brutally beaten by the elite troops of the Empire, backing them into a corner and destroying them. Decades ago, this would have been impossible as the odds of conducting a successful invasion of Iberia was impossible with such little resources. Now, fortune smiled on the Empire and it brought about a welcome change.

At the Battle of Jaén, all hopes for a Spanish attempt to fight against the impossible were completely obliterated. Elysian Commander Thomas Mikrulakes performed an encirclement around the Spanish army and wiped them out to the last man. Mikrulakes, for such an incredible victory over the Spanish, would be rewarded with land that would be given to him by the Empire in the Anthrios Penissular upon his retirement, should he live to see that day anyway.

With Papal involvement completely non-existent within Iberia, it would be the Kingdom who would surrender to the terrifying efficient Elysian forces. Aiming to subjugate the entirety of Iberia, terms of surrender always contained details about the surrender of a considerable amount of land from the Kingdom. Elysia, once again, had won a grand victory in Iberia.

A sizeable majority of Western Iberia would be surrendered to the Empire, from Galicia and Asturias in the northwest to the fabulously wealthy cities of Madrid and Toledo. Spain would be completely humiliated, and their one great kingdom was at risk of suffering from the terrible fate that Portugal once suffered.

With this incredible victory, it was believed that the Golden Era of Elysia had truly ended. It was thought to have ended with the death of Emperor Alexios, but with a victory over Spain in this war, it was well and truly considered over. Fifty years of prosperity had allowed the Empire to flourish, but dark times were ahead of the Empire...

Growing tensions between Europe was reignited, and the hostility between the European states threatened to boil over into great violence. Instead of remaining cautious and trying to prevent chaos in the realm, the Empire no longer feared them like they used to. If all of Europe was to unite against the Empire, the Elysia and her subjects was more than united against Europe. The Emperor and Senate were proudly boastful in their approach for the coming storm.

“Let them come…”

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 34: The Europa League (1606-1610)

The political climate of Europe was starting to turn against the expansion of Elysian influence and territorial conquest in the region. Decades of Imperialist conquest had done much to upset the balance of power in the old world, and dangerous and opportunistic eyes were looking towards the Imperium across the sea. Some had envy towards Elysia. Some hated the Empire for everything they represented. Some wanted to secure their own power in a changing world.

Elysia, in the eyes of the old world, represented Roman traditions and culture with a Hellenic mindset. Europe, as majestic as they were in power, was simply occupied by barbarians. A cultural and religious sentiment fueled this resentment. Catholics were terrified of Elysia and their form of orthodoxy, as the Papacy was the theological enemy of the faith. Protestants and reformists disliked the Elysians but were relieved that the Empire was focusing predominantly on the southern Catholic and Islamic realms.

History would be made on October 23rd 1606. Pacific expansion into the distant western ocean had discovered a coastline. Explorers had originally thought that the landmass was merely just a large island, only to be completely surprised as the coastline continued for several thousand miles. Despite the harsh landscape of the land, an Elysian explorer by the name of Leontius Vatatez had charted the area believed to be a completely new continent. He would call this distant land ‘Australia’, after the Latin word ‘Australis’ meaning southern.

Once news of Leontius discovery and exploration of the new untamed continent of ‘Australia’ was made public, news travelled quickly from the western ports of Hesperedia and made its way towards the east. With the eastern coast of this land charted, Emperor Basil would claim the entirety of the new continent under the Elysian Empire and worked towards plans of settlement of the incredibly distant land. Due to its hostile environment and its vast distance from Elysia, Basil I aspired to prioritise regions of the new land as a penal colony.

Across the ocean towards the east of Australia was another distinctive land, specifically two islands. Another Elysian explorer, Pegarius Lecapenas would chart the land. While not exploring inland, he established contact with some of the natives alongside the coastal territories. Pegarius would learn from a Liaison the native name of the islands was Aotearoa. Pegarius would name the two islands as Notia Edafi, meaning southernmost region.

With a lack of allies on the continent, the Empire would offer a hand in friendship to the realm of the Netherlands. For the offer of having a strong military alliance, Elysia would offer Dutch merchants financial deals within the Elysian markets as well as monetary assistance whenever the young realm requires it. The Dutch eagerly accepted, and Elysia gained a new ally in Europe.

In Hispania, Elysian Orthodox had been gaining in popularity since the foundation of the Iberian exarch. Although originally introduced upon the rediscovery of Europe early last century, more and more Catholics in Iberia had abandoned their faith and were converting to the Elysian faith with a sense of zeal. Cathedrals across the exarch were being reconverted, new priests were being brought into the peninsular to spread the true faith, church leadership was being reorganized and an exodus of Catholic bishops and members of the church from Iberia to the Papal State only acted to speed up the conversion period of Hispania. One Catholic noble in Madrid, Garcia Sastre, was not willing to accept Elysian hegemony and called upon the faithful to reassert Catholic dominance.

It would prove fruitless. Despite raising an army equal to that of Elysia’s, Sastre’s revolt would fail largely due to the experience and leadership of the elite Elysian thema. Thousands would break rank and flee from the battle, and Sastre himself would be knocked unconscious during the fighting. By the time he would awake, his armies were scattered into the wind. The Catholic revolt in Madrid had failed, and Sastre would be sentenced to death by hanging.

Madrid would be converted to Elysian Orthodoxy, and the center of Iberian Catholicism and Christendom would embrace the light of the One True Faith. To the growing adherence to Elysian Orthodoxy, this would prove to be a monumental moment in Iberian history. To Catholicism in the region, it was seen as a death sentence.

The Papal State of Italy had successfully won its war against the Protestants in France. While it was unable to eliminate the heresy brought upon them, the Pope inflicted a serious defeat upon the realm in Southern France. Protestants in Papal France would be dealt with a fate worse than death as heresy was violently expunged from the region. The reaction among the Catholic world was celebrated, while the French Queen and other protestants were threatened by the Papacy and their celebrated “Legions”.

In Bohemia, new methods were being created by glass-makers that were able to challenge the Venetian method. The new strand of Bohemian crystal was more durable, brilliant and distinctively different in its style then the Venetian glass to the south. Crystal chandeliers, glass jewellery and engraved glass was becoming common in Europe, and the Venetian glassmakers suffered in their market. Bohemian Glass would be ordered from Europe to be sent to the Empire.

With the prestige that the Empire was seen with among the world, Elysia did not have a recognisable symbol of its dominance. In a period of peace, fragile as it might be, Emperor Basil and the Senate would begin the construction of the greatest Orthodox cathedral in the world. It would be a costly investment, but one that would show the brilliance of the faithful across the world.

In ancient times, the Hagia Sophia was the crown jewel of Christianity in the times of the Roman Empire. In times of unrest, crisis or even with the declining strength of old world, there was none who could doubt its splendor. With the children of rome in a new world, it was time for the Empire to construct to construct something equally magnificent, if not much more impressive, then the ancient jewel of Christianity. The new cathedral would be dedicated to the Theotokos, the Mother of God.

As plans were being discussed about the location of the new cathedral, it would be planned to be constructed in the centreof the capital next to the Imperial Palace, just like Old Constantinople. Due to the space allocated to build the grand cathedral, it was planned to demolish many derelict homes within the area or pay the inhabitants to resettle elsewhere. The Hagia Theotoke, nicknamed as the Temple of the Marble Emperors prior to the naming process, would serve as a shining symbol of Elysian power and prestige in this grand new world, and serve as the power of the Imperial Monarchy. While the capital would suffer briefly from revenue during the construction process of the cathedral and the relocation of stubborn homeowners, it would would easily be replaced. The Hagia Theotoke would become the ultimate jewel of Elysian Orthodoxy, if not Catholicism as a whole, once it was completed.

In Western Europe, a spiritual battle between both Protestants and Catholics greatly influenced politics in the region. Despite a Catholic victory in the War of the Religious Leagues, France had still succumbed to a protestant takeover due to the bizarre endorsement of the faith by the French monarchy. With Catholicism once again threatened in the West by the actions of growing Protestant and Reformed realms, the Catholic world nervously took interest in the Holy Roman Empire, dreading the prospect of a second league war.

In the East, the fortunes of Catholicism were completely reversed. Central and Eastern Europe were completely dominated by Catholicism, while both Elysian Orthodoxy was busy as a majority faith in the Balkans and Western Anatolia. A declining Islam in the Near East, especially in Anatolia, would see Russia launch a conquest of the region against Elysian claims and wishes in the region. Russian Orthodoxy was referenced by Elysian Orthodox adherents as “Old Believers” after Russia refused to adopt the new Patriarchate. The Centers of Orthodoxy were now in Old and New Constantinople in both Europe and Elysium respectively, while Russian Orthodoxy was now centred in Moscow.

Claims in Anatolia, having been held by Elysia for many decades, were suddenly contested by the Elysian Empire and the Russian Tsardom. The entirety of the northern coastline of Anatolia was seized by Russia, angering the Elysians for having stolen integral region of the Hellenic world. Relations between Elysia and Russia plummeted, fragmenting the possibility for the survival of the long-standing Elysio-Russian Alliance that largely kept Eastern Europe under their interests.

As soon as the Pacific Ocean was chartered by the Elysian explorers, Asia would become the next priority for the Empire. China, having been somewhat of a distant yet curious fascination by Elysia due to the prestige and power it held in ancient times, was chartered by the Empire. While neighboring Korea expanded into neighboring Manchurian lands, China was still ruled by the powerful Ming Dynasty, which held tribute states all across Asia.

In a hostile Europe, it would not be a European state that would start the war. Morocco, who had been upset due to the acquisition of the northern Moroccan coastline and the Pillars of Hercules being seized decades ago, started a punitive war that would ravage across a majority of the continent. Notable powers that were not involved were the Papal State and France, who never joined the coalition against Elysia and instead focused on their own bitter rivalry. ,

Elysian power, alongside her stalwart allies, answered her call to defend Europe and turn the tide against Europe. The largest and most dangerous of these states was the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, who was able to field large armies. While the Habsburg monarchies of both Austria and Hungary were the two wealthiest nations in the coalition. The enemies of Elysia who have answered the call to defeat the Empire and allies united under what they called the ‘Europa League’, putting aside their cultural differences and using the pride of the European continent as their namesake mockingly against the foreign Elysian invaders. The two juggernauts of Europe would clash in the first war of its kind, and in time, would be remembered as the First Europa War on February 17th 1609

Wanting to prevent the distant lands of Australia into falling the hands of the Elysian Empire’s many enemies, the Empire promoted a new wave of establishing new frontiers on the continent. The native people of Australia, known simply as Aboriginals to the Elysian settlers, perceived the natives as extremely cautious of the towns that were being established along the bay. The penal colonies that were planned was to be established in remote or dangerous regions of the continent, interestingly looking towards an island along a strait in the south.

Settlement was settled alongside establishing free towns, built by Elysians, for settlers making a new life so far away from the Empire. Unlike the frontiers of Elysium, largely due to the distance between the homeland and the hostile lands of Australia, a census of the Empire projected that the population of Elysian settlers in the land was to be much smaller than expected. This was largely due to logistics and resources, along with Australian environment proving to be especially difficult to colonise due to its hostility.

The times of reformation, having long passed, were now all but over in Europe. A new era was beginning in Elysia as governments in the old world became interested with the concept of absolute power in their countries, committing themselves towards building an Empire of their own. As far as Emperor Basil believed, this was to be a new age of the state. Rulers and Armies played a bigger role than ever before, and it was a period where power was worth more than life or death. Basil believed in the words of his ancestor, Alexandros the Magnificent. Empire or Nothing.

The first major conflict in the First Europa War would occur in the Ragusan province of Hum. A combined European offensive against a defensive and entrenched Elysian presence in the region. While severely outnumbering the Elysians by tens of thousands of men, largely from allied forces, the Elysian lines proved to be incredibly difficult to break in the terrain. The Imperial command structure for the Elysian armies, who required only the best of commanders to lead the elite Thema, proved to outclass the European chain of command.

The Battle of Hum would be over after nearly three weeks of fighting. Alexios Diogenes, commander of the Eastern Armies, achieved a great victory over the Europeans. Despite the superiority of the Elysian armies in battle, transatlantic logistics were extremely difficult if not impossible to maintain. Reinforcing the grand armies of Elysia was even more difficult, as it was incredibly costly to reinforce the armies with a strong Elysian core. Due to the lack of direction from the mainland, the Thema largely acted independent in operations when fighting in Europe.

A 1630 painting of the Battle of Hum​

After several weeks of preparation and designs, the foundation of the great church had been laid. The sheer magnitude of the structure’s frame dominated the skyline of the capital, even if the building was but a skeleton of what it truly was. Hints of greatness can already be seen even in the shell, and all was going well in the capital.

Disaster would occur in the east, as a Polish army crossed the Pyrenees and surprised an Elysian thema set as a garrison to protect Hispania while a majority of the army was fighting in North Africa. The Elysians took heavy losses, and were forced to flee to Southern Iberia as Hispania was suddenly undefended.

But none would come close to the disaster that occured in Belgrade, known in the Hungarian tongue as Nándorfehérvár. Despite attempts to relieve the siege by the armies of the East, they were forced to abandon saving their own in attempts to reinforce the defences of the East, relocating to Old Constantinople and protecting the main city from a large bulk of the European forces. Well over half the army would be simply obliterated against a Bohemian led battle, and now, it was a fight for survival in the East.

Defeat was simply unacceptable, and as the Empire and its many subjects and allies worked to reverse this defeat, reinforcement of its armies during the war would surprise the Empire with one of its greatest heroes...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 35: The Demon of the East (1610-1615)

With the outbreak of the European conflict, the divide within Europe caused many to oppose or support the Elysian efforts. Despite two strong military victories early in the war, the following defeats suffered by the Empire had left entire regions undefended and left to the mercy of the Europa League. The Elysian allies in Europe, despite their valiant efforts, were expected to take the full force of the League while the Elysians prepared to reorganize their forces.

With the defeat in Belgrade, the Empire mobilized a vast Eastern army that would prepare to turn the tide of the war to the benefit of Elysia. Tens of thousands would be gathered in Old Constantinople under Elysian command by one of its experienced commanders. Unexpectedly, it wouldn’t be the commander that Elysia would be expecting….

With the growing global network for trade, internal trade had been strengthened at the cost of curtailed imports and increased state regulation. Alexandros Psellos, a well-known protectionist in the matters of the economy and trade, was the economic advisor to Emperor Basil. While decisions to improve infrastructure and Imperial trade have been appreciated, many influential people within the Empire believed that the Emperor took the advice of Psellos a little too eagerly and was not thinking of the consequences of his decisions. Some would argue that Psellos’s connection to the Empire was a little too close as an advisor. The Emperor would speak about this relationship and would prefer for Elysian dominance in foreign markets rather than creating mutually beneficial deals with other nations, a surprising development from having only accepted Dutch trade deals only a few years prior.

In Anatolia, the once seemingly sublime Ottoman state had fallen into complete bankruptcy. The weak minded Sultans has squandered the wealth of the state for their decadence and their prestige and legitimacy had decreased drastically. The Empire, known for its stability, had been dangerously close to the edge of collapse for quite some time. The future looked incredibly bleak for the Turks, especially due to being powerless to prevent the resettlement of Anatolia.

Forced to retreat back to Hellas and Old Constantinople, the Empire focused on binding their time and preparing a retaliatory force to punish the Europeans. All surviving soldiers of the Eastern Thema would gather in the queen of cities and would be reinforced by double their number. Just over eighty five thousand men were ready to push back the Europa League out of the Balkans, but command of the Elysian forces would not fall to any simple commander. The Eastern council would argue for days about who would lead the elite Thema. Some would argue for a commander that had already served with direct combat, some would argue of giving a pre-existing commander another chance to redeem himself and the Empire.

No commander would step up and accept the responsibility, except for one...

Artavasdos Rhangabe, The Demon of the East. (1532-1619)​

That man would be Artavasdos Rhangabe, an old but expert commander from the homeland. Artavasdos was a man in his seventies, but was incredibly experienced and had fought for the Empire for many campaigns as a lesser officer. Notably, as a young man, Artavasdos was a veteran of the Invasion of Hellas and fought against the Ottoman Empire at their peak, all under the command of the brilliant Konstas Botaneiates roughly sixty years prior, and would work his way up the ranks of the Imperial Army to become a lesser commander.

When no other man would accept to command the Thema, he was the only one that accepted the offer. A humble man who started with nothing in his name, he rejected any offers of a reward and instead wished for donations to the poor. On July 25th 1610, Artavasdos would leave Old Constantinople with the entire reorganized Thema behind him on his horse, marching like the Imperial Legions of Ancient Rome. When he left the city, he was known as an experienced if not elderly old commander in the military. After the war, the world would know him by a different name...

Immediately, Artavasdos would achieve tremendous results in Tarnovo and completely obliterate an entire enemy army to the last man. Over thirty thousand men in the Europa League would be massacred in battle, and Artavasdos would liberate Bulgaria from the terror of the League. Despite such a terrifying efficient victory, he would continue to lead a quick yet forced march to the north to relieve the pressure of allied Russian troops.

After a great battle between Commonwealth and Russian troops, Polish Lithuanian forces were tired from fighting. Resting for a month to await further reinforcements, Elysian forces would arrive weeks earlier than what was previously predicted by Polish command. Artavasdos would rest his men for one day after the march, allowing them to gather their strength and the will to fight, before engaging the large Commonwealth army at Podole.

Artavsdos would demonstrate his brilliance again to the world and utterly destroying the entire Commonwealth army, obliterating a vast majority of Polish Lithuanian force. Artavasdos did not just break the back of the Commonwealth, they snapped its spine in half, and the Military Council could not be happier at the news. Everything that Artavasdos touched had turned to gold, victory after victory went hand in hand. By now, the Europa League simply referred to the elderly commander as the ‘Demon of the East’, and were encouraged to avoid direct combat with him in battle at all costs.

But the Demon’s greatest achievement was yet to come. After the brilliant victory, Artavasdos would march back into Bulgaria before travelling to Serbia, cutting down small raiding forces that were sent by the League into enemy territory. Pushing hard into Temes, Artavasdos would engage the single largest enemy force in the entire war. Both Muslim and Christian worlds would temporarily unite against the him, something that the commander thought was amusing.

It would mean nothing. Temes would prove to be a military disaster within European forces, and Elysia would reign triumphant. While unable to destroy the opposing army, Rhangabe destroyed the enemy in a way that Europe would never forget. Out of almost a hundred thousand men in the army of the Europa League, only thirty thousand would ever survive. It was the greatest military achievement since the Battle of Athens, a battle that Rhangabe was personally involved in, and the Battle of Temes remembered for all time.

It was the battle that single-handedly won the Elysian Empire and her allies the entire war. On April 9th 1612, the war would be officially over after peace talks in Warsaw. Nearly a million souls would be lost in what was deemed to be a pointless war, a war that had no true accomplishment in the end. Elysia made no demands for territory, only a monetary sum to compensate the families on the homeland and in Europe who had lost their sons and fathers. It was bittersweet, and it only confirmed the continuation of Elysian hegemony in southern Europe.

Shortly after the end of the war, the Aq Qoyunlu would collapse completely under their own weight, and the balance of power was once again changed in the Near East. Once Christian nations, such as Armenia who had once fought against the tide of the Saracens for countless centuries, finally submitted to the false prophet and embraced Islam, something which horrified the Coptic peoples of the region.

With the victory in the war, the Elysian foothold in Europe was forever entrenched. If the Empire was to ever maintain that foothold, the mighty fleets must remain unhindered as they transferred supplies and troops to and from the new world. The Pillar of Hercules that separates the Mediterranean from the Atlantic had been the end of Mediterranean in ancient times, and Elysian control of the Pillars served as the major gateway between the Old world and the New one. Simply known as ‘The Rock’ by Elysian troops, Gibraltar would be reinforced as a major European port in the area and as a symbol of Elysian might.

It would be that after the legacy that the First Europa War would leave on Elysia that would completely change its perspective of the old world. Originally having interests within the East, the Empire gradually focused on securing the western lands of Iberia and Mauritania to safeguard passage into the Mediterranean. With a recent collapse of the Near East in a geopolitical sense, Elysia would drift their interests away from the powerful lands of Western Europe and start to commit completely to the East. Exarchs were desired to settle in the lands of what was once the Eastern Roman Empire, and the goal was simple. Pax Elysium.

This could be accomplished in many ways, but in order to make Pax Elysium a reality, it would need to reinvigorate itself in the conquest of the Holy Lands, Egypt and the lands of Anatolia and the Balkans. Every Exarch in the Eastern Mediterranean would represent a finger of an Elysian hand, where in time, the Empire wished to turn that hand into a fist aimed towards the West.

Through exploration across the world and the establishment of distant colonies and client states, Elysians were learning that the world was a very large place indeed. Imperial might was requested by more of the Imperialistic members of the Senate to return to the glorious days of old, when Rome’s legions conquered half of the known world in mere centuries. This doctrine was no longer seen as practical in an era of sail and cannon, and it allowed the Empire to place more emphasis on the Elysian navy. Rapid expansion would begin to occur that would ensure that Imperial power is projected well beyond its borders, and that Elysia would reap the benefits of being a true world power.

Close to the border of the Ming Dynasty, small outposts and fortresses were established on an island close to China. So distant from the Imperial homeland, the fortress outposts were to be Elysian ports that would serve operations in Asia. In time, no Elysian could predict the value of the island that would come to be known as Taiwan.

From Britain, the demand for tropical wood would rise and be selected for their beauty rather than their strength. As a result, the creation of beautiful cabinets and other prestigious furniture from the material would grow into a major business for the Isles.

After five years of construction, the Hagia Theotoke would be halfway finished. The overall framework and the outer walls have been built, and the grand structure’s greatness would become ever more apparent. The church was to honor God, the Saints and the Holy Virgin in the most prestigious way that the Empire could provide.

For their seizure of Anatolia, the Elysians tried to plead to the Tsardom to surrender the territories of Northern Anatolia in a land exchange. If Russia ceded Northern Anatolia, Elysia would recognise their claims over Eastern Europe. Russia refused and diplomatic talks broke down between the two parties. Tsarina Sophia I of Russia maintained Russia’s claim and spoke that Russia would no longer need Elysia for their interests. Emperor Basil of Elysia would order Elysian diplomats in the area to return to Constantina, and that the Elysio-Russian Alliance was officially dissolved.

With the conclusion of the Europa War, Elysia was still perfectly willing to expand into other regions. The Kingdom of Jolof was one such region, as Elysia had very little regions of control within Africa itself. As other European powers have established some level of influence in the region, notably the Spanish, Elysia would work to establish an Imperial Protectorate rather then simply conquering a region that has no real level of influence.

A single Elysian thema would be sent from Hispania to Cape Verde, before conducting a landing to the northern expanse of the Kingdom. The Elysian military severely outclassed any army that the Kingdom could muster, and one by one, the Kingdom would slowly start to fall from the Elysian campaign and distant talks of a revolt within its own borders.

By the autumn of 1614, the construction of the Hagia Theotoke was almost complete, and Emperor Basil assembled some of the empire’s finest craftsmen and artists to create a grand mosaic to rival the grand cathedrals of Europe. The mosaic was to depict scenes from the Roman flight from Europe to the current day. Prominent members of the Imperial family have requested that the mosaic prominently show celebrated Emperors and Empresses of the times past, including the two founding brothers of Elysia, Ioannes and Constantine.

While the clergy feel as if this would discount the role that the Saints of Elysia had played in ensuring the survival of the faith and nation, it was historically critical under the leadership of the ancestral Emperors. Caesar was prefered over Pope, as without the Emperor, the Empire wouldn't have ever gotten as far as it had today.

After a period of travelling around the Kingdom, Elysian Commanders ordered to keep the lives of civilians low to create the impression to the people of Jolof that they were liberators and not foreign conquerors. After seven months, the Empire would establish Jolof as an Imperial Protectorate and help develop the nation in its economy and government in exchange for providing slaves and service.

By the start of 1615, resettlement programs conducted by both Constantina would prove its worth. Western Anatolia was re-experiencing Hellenification once more, at the cost of the Turks in the region. Despite dangerous cultural and social interactions between both cultures, the numbers of the Turkish population were dwindling through emigration or through the incredibly harsh reality of Hellenic resettlement. Turkish families sold their livelihood to Hellenic settlers in exchange to travel to the West, leaving with nothing but the clothes on their back. A majority of the Turkish population in Anatolia largely integrated into Hellenic society, converting to Elysian Orthodoxy and slowly losing their culture as a means of integrating into a bigger one.

This was the start of a dark period in the Exarch, one where Elysia was in-directly responsible for a cultural genocide that angered the Islamic world deeply. If another Anatolian war was to start, it would be over what was the beginning of the ‘Turkish Genocide’.

Diamonds, long having been the most precious of all stones, was discovered in large quantities in inland Retoria. New World diamonds, desired not just by royalty and nobility, were also desired by wealthy burghers, magnates and other connoisseurs. Elysia’s southern neighbor of Spartania would benefit from this discovery, and its economy would notably seen an enormous temporary boost, at the cost for the price of gems plummeting worldwide.

After years of truce, Vinland would once again fall back into old habits and start conducting raids into Imperial territory. After decades of defeating the northerners, it seemed that Vinland was simply not getting the message that it needed to receive. Nearly a hundred thousand men in Elysia would be positioned close to the Imperial border, as well as a considerable majority of the Imperial fleet, to teach the heathens of the north a lesson they would never forget....

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

(Authors Note: Sorry for the slight delay everybody. From this chapter onwards, I will be experimenting with a new writing style and be focusing on making chapters much more detailed then per usual, hence why chapters are only lasting for a couple in-game years. I apologies in advance for my tardiness, I'm definitely hard at work! Also, I will point out that this chapter might be a little bit more gruesome then the other ones, so I will add a slight warning just incase anyone doesn't really like what happens with a horrible sack/siege in detail)

Chapter 36: The Kingdom of God (1615-1618)

With an Elysian victory against the coalition against them in the First Europa War, the time would come to turn the matters of the Empire back towards the Vinland. Having long been considered as the Empire’s first ally in this new world, the historical friendship between the two realms was replaced by a bitter hatred for one another. From the Norse Vinlanders to the Christian Elysians, what started as a hatred for both one another's culture and faith was becoming more and more brutal.

With the ascension of Elysia towards unparalleled prestige and power, Vinland had been entering into a slow decline. While it was still able to put up a fight against their southern enemy, they would prove that the arctic northerners were simply unable to compete. From the insanity of the Mad King, to the talented yet hostile Konungurs that held the realm since, Vinland as a state was collapsing as a whole. Yet despite this, both Christian and Norse Vinlanders would live among one another in a place where two worlds would meet.

Vinóss, having long been the capital of the north, was the political, spiritual and economic heart of Vinland. It was the wealthiest city located north of the Borealian Lakes, and it was extremely rich among the grand cities of the New World. It served as the seat of power of the Konungur, along with the higher echelon of the Norse Gothi. While retaining a large Norse majority, the demographics of the city would change among the decades as it had more contact with Elysia and the rest of the world. Christian Vinlanders, one a miniscule minority where practicing the faith openly was once a crime punishable by death, was now a very sizeable minority. Interestingly, the city also had a tiny collection of other spiritual groups from all corners of the globe, such as Jewish bankers and Islamic merchants, who wanted to make a life in the New World but couldn’t compete with the breakneck pace that occurred in Nea Konstantinopolis.

It was because of the significance of Vinóss that the Empire desired to end Norse hegemony in the North. After having occupied the capital in the last two previous wars, an enormous amount of territory would be ceded to the Elysians. First would be all of Thorfinn Bay, then the borderlands between Elysia and Vinland. Now, the Empire was mere miles away from the Jewel of the North. Despite Vinlandic agression, one that aggravated the Imperial government to no end, the north would not learn its lesson in provoking the Empire that had destroyed them in every single military conflict.

In a declaration of war to the Althing, the Empire remained incredibly determined to deliver a devastating blow to Vinland. The Emperor and Senate wished to deliver a blow so devastating, so decisive, that the Althing and the State would never recover.

The moment that the declaration of war had arrived, almost a hundred thousand soldiers would march into the frozen north and bring the entire northern realm to a complete standstill. Vinland was incredibly unprepared for a conflict with the Empire, and Elysia would do everything in its power to maintain that advantage for the time being. The Fleet would sail into the bay and launch a blockade of the main armada and several important locations, ideally the capital.

The Konungur, Lief IV Johanson, would not be in Vinóss when war was declared, but instead inspecting the main northern army in Burke. Once that information had arrived that Elysia had invaded the north, Lief would gather the unprepared yet large army and march as fast as possible to break an inevitable siege of Vinóss. Unfortunately, once they crossed into Timburtland, the northern army walked into a trap.

Led by the ever brave and skilled commander Alexios Diogenes, the elite Elysian forces took the marching northerners by complete surprise and launched a great ambush. The Elysian commander would use an unorthodox method of blending into the environment, having his own personal army blend into the trees and white snow during the middle of winter as the enemy passed them. Lief IV and his army tried to break the attack, but instead many Norsemen simply dropped like flies. The Konungur and several thousand survivors would march away from the ambush, but the damage had already been done. The Battle of Timburtland would become the Vinlandic Teutonburg, and caused immense psychological stress among the surviving army who escaped.

Across the bay, families and wives openly wept in the streets at about the disaster of Timburtland. A sense of hysteria and terror washed over the Norse in Helluland, Markland and other Vinlandic territories. The loss of a vast majority of the Vinlandic army had left the north wide open and weak. Lief IV, who survived the battle, would forever be a changed man after the battle. The Peninsular was left wide open, and while the remaining armies regrouped in the north, Alexios Diogenes would become nicknamed the “The White Ghost” by other Elysian commanders, and earn his place in history.

The situation among the Vinlandic Althing had deteriorated rapidly within simply months. Smaller enemy units attempted to raid the larger battle-hardened Elysian forces in a fools attempt to cover their comrades retreat and slow the Imperial army down. It would prove useless by the Norse, and it would leave them helpless as Elysia broke the Althing apart piece by piece.

Christians were given the opportunity to have safe passage out of the capital before the siege started, but the Althing largely refused escaping christians from leaving out of fears that it could undermine their siege efforts. Some sensed a betrayal by the Althing for abandoning them and sentenced them to die, which prompted a revolt among its walls as the Elysians spent the time preparing siege equipment and organizing a bombardment of the walls.

For just over a hundred days, Vinóss would hold its own until it would succumb to the Imperial Army. The northern capital, which held a population close to a hundred and fifty thousand, had panic among the streets in the religiously mixed city. Great Blots were apparently practised behind its walls, with countless animals being ritually sacrificed within moderation as a means to ward off the Elysians. Christian scouts outside of the city walls from a high altitude were able to spot the sacrifices taking place, where disturbingly, some scouts would mention talks of human sacrifice occurring behind its walls. An Elysian commander by the name of Manuel Bardanes would take command of the siege, a well-known siege specialist within the Imperial army.

Within the first few weeks of the siege, any help from the remaining Vinlandic armies in the north faded as Elysian forces completely surrounded the city and the surrounding area. Starvation and disease would spread rapidly throughout Vinóss, where bodies would be left to rot in the streets. Grain among the defenders would be rationed, and Bardanes would strangle any outside relief that would come towards the city, ordering a blockade at the mouth of the river.

Weeks of siege would cause the population of the capital to dwindle from disease and starvation. Civilians would fight among themselves for food as their rations dwindled from the continuing siege. Negotiations would take place routinely during the siege, where Elysia would offer reasonable terms of surrender. Week after week, the Empire would offer different terms to the Vinlanders, some more generous than others. The Althing, who was trapped within their city without the Konungur, still served as the leaders of the nation and refused any offer the Elysians made. The Althing council and the Norse elite, motivated and united by war and hatred of Elysians, held strong for the next several months

After three and a half months, Vinóss would be broken. Bardanes and his army would march through the city gates, where some of the defenders abandoned their brothers and sisters and opened the gates. For the next week, Vinóss would be sacked and razed for an entire week.

The Fall of Vinóss, depicted by an unknown Vinlandic painter who survived the siege.​

A vast majority of the great buildings of Vinóss would be ransacked and destroyed by the Elysian armies. Any and all movable goods were stolen all across the city. Norse Temples across the city were burnt to the ground, and structural damage across the city was widespread. The Althing, who had barricaded themselves inside of the Hvulvkiethi Kethsstala, the mighty Vinlandic whalebone palace that represented Vinlandic nobility and power, were then burnt alive as the Empire torched the palace they were in along with other innocents. The city's malnourished citizens were murdered en masse as they were defenseless against the Imperial army. Many citizens were taken captive, some citizens would be ransomed, others would be sold into slavery, and an unfortunate amount would be raped and killed. Fastvi, Leif IVs sister, would be captured and raped by Elysians over the next week of violence before being taken as a political hostage.

After a week of violence, the flames of the city along with the brutality of the sacking had taken its toll. The slaughter of most of the inhabitants of the city and the burning of a majority of the capital sent shockwaves across the entirety of Vinland. Vinóss would largely be razed by the Elysians, and the population would crash from a hundred to fifty thousand at the start of the siege to just barely over seventy thousand largely due to food and disease mismanagement alongside the slaughter that took place once the gates were opened. Land-taxes plummeted and the Vinlandic economy entered a dangerous spiral.

After the conquest of the city, the war would continue as planned, but the very heart of Vinóss was crushed in the iron fist of the Elysian Empire. Plans for reconstruction would be planned after the war, where Vinóss was to be rebuilt. Vinóss, in the mind of a normal Vinlander, was dead.

With the fall of the capital, Vinland was exposed and naked. News of the destruction of the capital quickly made its way up towards the north, and had completely broken the spirits of the Norsemen. Some were encouraged to fight on against the Christian invaders, some simply dropped their arms and surrendered, and some would even go as far as to end their lives before the Elysians did.

Any last chance to avenge the Althing was taken at Helluland, but it would prove futile as two combined Thema had grouped up to conduct separate invasions of Markland and Helluland. Ragnarr Hahn and the remaining Vinlandic Army would be obliterated from the face of the earth, with the Norsemen going with it.

After forcing a submission of the Althing, the Konungur would surrender completely to Elysian authorities and make terms of surrender. Attrition had taken the lives of the Elysians as they marched into the winter as Vinlandic defenders sabotaged their own homeland, but combat losses were incredibly small in comparison to the Norsemen. In just eleven months, Vinland was simply decimated.

It was a very harsh peace, and the North would pay for it severely. What remained of the great city of Vinóss and a large portion of the surrounding areas would be ceded to the Empire. Emperor Basil would hold a triumph for the commanders for the invasion in the capital, celebrating their accomplishments. The Emperor and the Senate proclaimed that with the destruction of Vinóss, that the city would be rebuilt as a northern capital for Christian Vinlanders. The city would rise from its ashes like the phoenix and be rebuilt a haven in the north. The Senate had agreed on renaming the destroyed former capital into Nea Pontus, and that work to rebuilt the city would begin immediately once unsavory elements of the city’s past had been removed.

Rather than direct integration, the region around Nea Pontus was to be enlightened by Christian missionaries heading towards the north, all the while the great Thema’s marched down from the north and made their way back home. Provinces would be renamed, and more varangian elements would make their way to the life of the Christian Vinlanders.

With the growth of the Empire across the Pacific, it had access towards the bountiful riches of Asia. Imperial bureaucracy and merchants, as plentiful as they were, simply couldn’t be everywhere at once. Elysian interest within Asia was based around the hopes and ambitious aroused by enormous revenues produced by similar European companies. The Emperor himself, Basil I, wanted Elysia to play a larger and more dominant role in world trade. While not seen wholeheartedly by the Empire’s own merchants, the shift away from the domestic markets towards foreign ones started to make a shift into Imperial policy. On March 23rd 1616, the Elysian Empire would establish the East India Trading Company to oversee financial interests overseas.

Alexandros Psellos, who had been a faithful servant to the Empire for quite some time, had grown insolent. The leading advisor denounced the Emperor’s policies and ridiculed the Emperor in public, and even under the presence of foreign ambassadors. The Emperor would be humiliated under the insolent advisor, something he would not allow for any public servant of the Empire to partake. Several days later in the middle of the night, Alexandros Psellos would be dragged out of his home by members of the Imperial Guard, never to be seen again...

After eight years of construction, the Hagia Theotoke was completed on July 7th 1616. The grandest church of God west of Hellas and Europe had been completed, and its design harkened back to the inspiration of the Hagia Sophia. A domed roof made of bronze, marble floors and a grand gate inspired the glory of the faith to all who had seen it. Every inch of wall was decorated with grand frescoes, statues of saints and seraphim lined every single corridor. On one of the walls, many celebrated Elysian Emperors of the past was celebrated with decorative pieces such as statues and icons.

The Cathedral inspired all the might and glory of God, the saints and the Emperor’s who had made this project so. Pilgrims from Europe and across Elysium flocked to the new church, and served as a beacon of Imperial power across an entire continent. On the coming sunday, the Church would be officially opened by Emperor Basil, the Imperial Family and the Eccumencial Patriarch where they would hold the first Divine Liturgy.

From the importance of Foundation Day all those years ago, Nea Konstantinopolis had always been the centre of Elysian Culture and commerce. Since then, it had grown into the most prosperous and largest city in the New World. Much was to be done by the Empire if it was to truly earn the respect and admiration of the nations of Europe and beyond.

Within two years, most of the new territories would embrace Elysian Orthodoxy. As the reconstruction of Nea Pontus was underplace, many of the previously Norse survivors in the region would start hesitantly converting to Christianity for various reasons. It would still take some time for Christianity to become a majority within the region.

The Inca, long having been the ally of the Empire, requested the Empire to share its knowledge of the region of Central Elysia. Given the excellent relations between the two states, the Empire agreed wholeheartedly and brought the knowledge to the Inca.

In Europe, the Papacy had united the whole of Italy under Catholic rule. The Pope, given his new prestige and legitimacy among the Catholic world, had declared the Papal State as ‘The Kingdom of God’ along its own borders. Other European states would simply refer to Theocratic Italy as the ‘Papal Kingdom’. Catholics from all over Europe flocked to its banner, eager to live in the model nation of Christian virtue. Due to its newfound power, it would also mean that foreign powers would no longer heed to any serious Papal Bulls nor be able to control the College of Cardinals.

Towards Iberia, the Hispanian monarch would establish a new system among the Exarch called ‘Sunday Schools’. With the aim to provide education in religious and moral matters of less fortunate children, it was primarily to teach moral matters to youth and perhaps make them more loyal to the state and faith as a whole. The Empire would plan to create a system of its own in the near future, but due to its overwhelming size, it was to be implemented on a much larger scale.

With the expiration of a truce, the Empire prepared its mighty Thema once more to deal a devastating blow to the Ottoman Empire. It had been brought to its knees following the previous war with Elysia, and it was now time to break the Turk’s back. With the Turks plagued by continued unrest, the main focus of the campaign was to seize one of the most important cities in the Orthodox Pentarchy, the ancient christian city of Antioch.

As European and Elysian forces crossed into Turkish anatolia, it became apparent that there was not a single group of Turkish defenders to be seen anywhere. Had the situation among the Ottoman Turks, one the undisputed masters of the East, grown so dire that they couldn’t even muster or inspire their own people?

Regardless of the situation, the campaign was to continue as usual. With the advancing age of Basil I, he wished to secure one important objective of his reign before he would die, strengthening the Exarch of Constantina and returning Hellenic Hegemony of Anatolia back to its rightful masters.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 37: The Capture of Pontus (1618-1621)

From the atrocities committed in Vinland, the Empire had achieved an important victory when it came from seizing the jewel of the north and the surrounding lands from the Norse. The Althing, along with most of the population of Vinóss, would go up in flames as the vast majority of the city would be razed. Despite such terrible suffering that had been brought upon the north, reconstruction efforts and the emergence of a new ruling elite among the Vinlandic population would start a long period of integration into the state.

The new ruling of the elite of the north would come from what had formerly been the most oppressed group within Vinlandic society. Christian Vinlanders, largely descendants of Varangian warriors who had returned home from their services in Elysia, were a small minority within the overwhelmingly Norse society. The Althing promoted discriminatory measures against the group, often calling them traitors to their ancestors. The previous century would harm the Christian northerners, yet despite the state-encouraged oppression, they had never faltered and kept strong with their faith.

Once the Elysians had started to launch their conquests of Vinlandic territory, starting with the reign of the Mad King, the tables had started to turn. More and more Vinlanders had started to convert to Christianity, and the older minority group was starting to become the leaders of a new community of Vinlandic Christendom. Vinlandic Christians worked with Imperial missionaries and the government to assist with the incorporation of the new territories. In what could be described as a miracle, the divine light of Christ was washing away the sins of the new believers and Norsedom was becoming more and more of a minority religion. From a small minority group, Christian Vinlanders were now becoming the majority. And following the chaos of the previous conquest, this new community would play an important part of Elysian life in the decades to come. But for now, they were given the time to rest and rebuild their livelihood, and to reshape the destroyed norse metropolis into a shining beacon of the north...

Across the vast Pacific, the territories of Australia were being organised within a more centralised colonial government, and after a decade of arrival onto this strange new continent the distant government was given self-rule as an overseas subject of the Empire. Officially known as Elysian Australia, the gigantic continent was unlike the stories that were told to encourage settlers to start lives there. Despite claiming such a tremendous amount territory and having claims on the entire continent, it was not the paradise that some claimed it to be.

It was of no wonder that the Imperial government would deliberately select Australia to be more of a penal colony in some regions. Imperial subjects and slaves who had acted against the Empire were expected to never return should they share the unfortunate fate of being sent to Australia.

Settlements were very far and few between, and the largest were no more than several thousand people strong at any given time. The natural environment, geography and the wildlife had made settlement incredibly difficult, and the native barbaroi of the continent were much more numerous and aggressive then the ones in the the homeland. Wildfires, poisonous and dangerous animals and the climate itself would prove to make Australia an untamed and exotic place. An Elysian settler would describe the lands as if he was stepping into another world. One official would make the comparison between the Elysians of Australia landing on this continent as a symbolic representation of what the exiled Romans had experienced during Foundation Day, and that in time, they would one day make a legacy on their own akin to their homeland.

Back in Europe, the pitiful campaign against the Ottoman Empire was more of an embarrassment rather than a fully fledged campaign. Elysian soldiers would march into the territories and find them deserted of Turkish soldiers. It was considered to have been a cakewalk, and rather then expecting another campaign where the Turks would consider putting up a fight, the Empire was sure to punish the Ottomans just the same.

Very large portions of Ottoman Anatolia would be ceded to the Empire, leaving the Ottoman Turks as a mere broken shadow of their former greatness. To add insult to injury, with no standing army nor the funds to raise them, Armenian separatists rose up in the East and broke free from Turkish rule. The Ottoman Turks now barely had control over their former homeland, and were not strangled between Elysian-Hellenic Anatolia and the Russian Anatolian coastline.

The Tsardom of Russia, declaring the Elysian Empire as an enemy of their interests and in many ways considering them a rival to test their own power, had launched a Trade Embargo in Anatolia. Elysian merchants along with their Exarch subjects were refused to partake in trade, drastically harming relations between the two Orthodox nations. From what had originally been two allied nations, the ambitions of Russia outweighed what they could realistically achieve, and their arrogance within the court had infuriated the Elysians to absolutely no end.

After the campaign with the Ottoman Empire, the Empire would make their presence known along the Islamic World and reassert regions that they had held claims over for decades. The Kurds and the Islamic Armenians, both of which had held border claim with the exarch, were threatened to hand over these provinces under the threat of war. Both would reluctantly agree out of fear for annihilation, and handing over these provinces would prevent the Elysians from turning towards the their lands. Armenia, who had just won the independence of Erzurum from the Turks in the first time in over a century, surrendered the territory to Constantina and Elysia overnight.

With the distant Pacific territories and the riches of Asia across the ocean, the creation of the East India Trading Company had helped Imperial merchants in greatly improving the value of the trade network from Elysian holdings in the Pacific and Asia. Seeing the potential within Asia, Emperor Basil would work to decentralize the trading companies of Asia away from the tight bureaucratic lordship that the Empire was known for. Instead, Trading Companies would largely have their own freedom in their organisation and duties, but were still subject to Imperial rule and Law. Sheer distance between the mainland and the distant holdings made transoceanic bureaucracy difficult, to the Pacific islands were given a reasonable degree of high autonomy to smooth the beginnings of the transition.

The Island of Taiwan, which was reasonably close to the lands of Southern China, would be the first of the decentralized trading companies of Asia. Colonization of the Islands and Lands of Asia would be subject to Imperial Rule largely, which focused on spreading Christianity among the natives to pacify any resistance to Elysian rule. Taiwan would be the first example, where the Island was to experience a slow but through conversion to Christianity that would take several years. The Island would then become the center of the Elysian South China Company, which greatly improved its value but severely decreased it as a source of reliable troops and taxes. Imperial ambitions was to transform the lands of Southeastern Asia and turn the Archipelagos into an Elysian trade empire within an Empire.

Watching Russian politics unfold carefully, a planned offensive to secure Pontus and the Anatolian coastline was one that needed to be timed carefully. Due to the sheer strength and manpower of the Russian forces, a drawn-out confrontation was largely against Imperial interests completely. Elysian and Hellenic commanders would jointly organise their plans to seize the region away from Russia, where they could only do so while the Tsardom was distracted with a major conflict.

The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the great powers of Eastern Europe, would provide Elysian the opportunity of a lifetime. The Commonwealth, which had successfully resisted Russian attempts of subjugation, had declared war against the Tsardom with the aims of seizing the Russian capital of Moscow. A confrontation between both Slavic realms would likely be a drawn out and lengthy campaign, with hundreds of thousands of lives to be lost along both sides. The Empire would simply not care about the war between the Commonwealth or the Tsardom, what mattered was securing Anatolia and ensuring that Russia would never see a strip of rightful Hellenic territory under their greedy claws again.

Elysian soldiers were prepared to launch a lightning campaign along the coastline, aimed to deliberately hurt the Tsardom and throw them across the Black Sea. The target was to capture the Trebizond, once the home for the Pontic Greeks before its conquest by the Ottoman Empire, where the Turks had violently evicted the Pontics out from their homeland and resettled them in Hellas. From there, the Turks had settled in Pontus and largely converted the area to Islam before Russia conquered the area, where it had remained under their control ever since. With the Russians distracted, the Empire would declare war against their former ally on March 17th 1619.

Almost immediately, the Anatolian coastline would be stormed by well over fifty thousand soldiers. The major port city of Sinop would be captured after a lengthy siege that lasted for over seven months. Elysian control of the port would give the Imperial navy a reliable location to resupply and maintain the blockade of the Eastern Black Sea. Russian Soldiers who had been located to the region to protect the Tsardom interests would suddenly find themselves outnumbered and outmaneuvered completely by aggressive Elysian soldiers.

After the capture of Canik, Turkish separatists would rise up in Kayseri and Bozok under the command of a local leader, Said Ohrilli. Despite the ongoing wad, Ohrilli was able to raise tens of thousands of rebels to his cause and were well led and equipped. Alarmed by the danger that this could pose to Elysian efforts in the war, one of the Thema was tasked to break off all official war actions and eliminate the Turkish rebellion.

After a quick battle at Bosok, Ohrilli would be chased back to Kayseri where him and his rebels would be completely outmaneuvered by the veteran Elysians. Encircling the rebel leader inside of the town, commander Mavrikios Argyros would tighten the noose around the town and strangle the rebels slowly and painfully, weakening them before brutally finishing them off completely. A vast majority of the Turkish rebels would perish, and Said Ohrilli would be captured and imprisoned in Constantinople. Once the flame of his rebellion was well and truly snuffed out, Said would sentenced to death and would be hanged.

With Russian armies trapped and destroyed whenever they marched into the Anatolian coastline, Trebizond would surrender to the Empire. Elysian Commanders would march their forces into the city, where they would receive a less then warm welcome from the city’s Turkish inhabitants. The remaining Hellenic civilians in the city that defied Ottoman law and remained into the city erupted into cheering, finally being liberated after so very long.

And in only a matter of two years, the Tsardom and the Empire would sign for peace on favourable Elysian terms. Russia would cede the entirety of the Anatolian coastline to Elysia, but be allowed to hold the port city of Batumi in neighboring Georgia. Not wanting to antagonist their former friend for any longer, Russian and Elysian diplomats agreed to the terms on January 10th 1621.

And with Russia kicked out of Anatolia by the Elysians, they were allowed to focus with their ongoing war with the Commonwealth. In the Balkans, the Empire had been making preparations to fully incorporate the Balkan subjects into Constantina for quite some time, while Anatolia was almost completely under Elysian rule. With the time coming to reinforce the region from any potential future threat, Elysian eyes started to dart towards the south, where trouble would occur near the Cradle of Christianity.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Do you happen to have link to this all missions version of the mod. Or is it just the normal mod itself. Because i have never been able to achieve two paths at once.

(It's on the workshop. Just search up Third Odyssey and it should be there, I can't link the mod on here but I can tell you where it is. Hope it helps)

(Authors note: Slight console modifications to the game have been used in this chapter simply for realism, and for the sake of good borders!)

Chapter 38: The Emerald Isle (1621-1625)

With the balance of power turning away from Elysia in the matters of European affairs, the Empire still maintained an incredibly strong hold within its exarchs. The hostility between Russia and Elysia had left the Empire with no ally in Eastern Europe, and what was once a friendship between the two Orthodox nations had turned into a violent rivalry. Russia feared an Elysian hegemony in the Black Sea and the East, while Elysia had grown fearful of Russian hegemony in Eastern Europe. Theological disputes would tear the Orthodox world into two, as Traditional orthodoxy and Elysian orthodoxy was a notable cause of separation that only fueled this hatred.

European Orthodoxy had been the traditional faith of the East, and had experienced plenty of problems during its long history. Largely led by the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, the Orthodox world was largely centered around the Eastern Roman Empire and the Slavic states of the north, where they would frequently enter conflict with the Latins and the Islamic realms. When the Romans had left Constantinople and their dying Empire behind for their grand odyssey, they took their faith along with them, leaving the Russian states as the de-facto leaders of the Orthodox world in the Old World.

When Elysia had rediscovered Europe and the rest of the Old World, it had shocked the entirety of the Old World. The Romans of the Odyssey had not just survived their perilous journey, but had thrived in the new world, and their faith had changed alongside with the former Romans. After the Conquest of Hellas and the reclamation of Constantinople, the Elysians would controversially turned the former Patriarchate into a new one with the ambitious goal of unifying the Orthodox world into a single church. As Orthodox nations would convert to the new church, Russia notably refused and re purposed European Orthodoxy into Russian Orthodoxy, with their Eccumencial Patriarch now located in Moscow. Elysia and the remainder of the Orthodox world would refer to the Russian church as the ‘Old Believers’, while the Empire and the Orthodox world would proudly hold their heads up high with the dream to unify Christendom. While it felt like an ambitious and increasingly unrealistic dream due to the newfound dominance of Catholicism, it was still a dream that was worth dreaming.

With the absence of the Russians in the alliance, the Empire would turn Imperial diplomacy towards a new direction. In an unlikely place, the Empire would offer an alliance to the African realm of Ethiopia. Referring to the realm as Abyssinia, the Christian realm was perhaps the most powerful state in all of Africa economically. Fortune had been smiling on Ethiopia as of recently, as Ethiopia had been taking advantage of the political turmoil in Egypt and retaking territory that had been lost for many centuries.

When Imperial ambassadors and diplomats would offer a hand of friendship to the Coptic realm, it would surprise the Elysians with the incredibly warm hospitality they would receive from Ethiopia. Elysia would bring gifts to their Emperors and offer an alliance, to which the Emperor seemed to enthusiastically agree upon. From the loss of a friend in the north, Elysia had gained a new one in the south.

Military reorganization would take place merely weeks after the conclusion of the war against Russia, with the Empire overseeing much of the organisation. Notably, Emperor Basil did not oversee this organisation due to a general disliking of military organisation, and left the task to the Military council. As firearms had become more and more common in the Imperial army, it had become more and more cost effective to supply the Themas with Elysian-built weaponry.

The infantry was reorganized into Battalions of lightly-armored soldiers armed with muskets and harquebusses, which made them extremely proficient as a skirmish force, but could be careful against enemy horsemen and pikemen. While the introduction of a lighter, mobile cannon enabled Elysians to maneuver their artillery to meet the movements of the enemy and give them a distinct tactical advantage against their foes. Unfortunately, the new design of artillery was highly impractical due to components that made the cannon overheat dangerously during continuous use. Regardless of such a weakness, the military council and the introduction of this new design marked the development of light field artillery and bringing the concept of heavy firepower to the enemy.

In the time of the Empire reaching new heights, a notable change had occurred during Emperor Basil’s reign that promoted the value of humanist ideas. Having developed during the Renaissance in Europe, the philosophical and ethical thinking that came along with it was becoming more and more valued by the Empire. As Elysia had always enjoyed a more liberal stance in law and politics than their European counterparts, the Empire started to diverge from classical Imperial law severely.

After centuries as a subject state of the Empire, the Kingdom of Kykladia had grown from the small realm of Creta Minor in an isolated sea into a tropical paradise that ruled over an increasingly prosperous archipelago. Enjoying their independence from the mainland due to the inability to implement an effective centralized government, the ruling Nostras dynasty and several leaders of the Imperial Palaiologos dynasty would together make an important meeting in Nea Syracuse on February 16th 1621.

On this momentous day, Despot Constantine II Nostras and Emperor Basil I Pailailogus would announce that the crown of Kykladia would formally become incorporated into the Empire. The reaction among Kykladian commoners was that of jubilation, and celebrations were organised for the next week as the tropical realm was annexed into the greater Empire. The Nostras dynasty, while no longer a ruling house of the realm, would retain their great influence in Kykladia and become regional rulers. Several major cities in Kykladia would immediately join the Senate, and Imperial rule had expanded from the north from Thorfinn Bay to the Kykladies and the edge of Retoria.

With several Kykladian settlements having been inherited on several sides, the Kykladian settlers in Retoria felt compromised in multiple fronts due to French Columbia’s settlement surrounding them. The Empire and French Columbia would enter talks for an exchange between the two realms, and the two would meet in Panama. Elysia would cede all former Kykladian territory to French Columbia up until the dangerous Darien Gap, and in exchange, grant monetary concessions.

Before talks would go through, the Emperor would speak to the Senate about this decision. While some would question this decision within the senate, along with the bureaucratic process of moving the Kykladian settlers around from their former homes, Emperor Basil would prove to provide his reason behind the relocation of the Retorian Kykladians. It was largely as to grant the Empire with strong defensive territory in Panama, speaking his mind in saying that the Empire would be in a much better position to defend these new territories then isolated and landlocked ones in the event of a war with Retorian states.

Representatives of French Columbia would agree to this proposal with Elysia and would come to an agreement. As the Empire prepared to relocate its subjects, Elysia would start to make good relations between the Catholic Columbia and the Protestant French homeland.

The incorporation of Kykladia into the Empire was seen as a giant step towards Imperial hegemony over their home continent. This would only leave the Empire with only the southern realm of Spartania to pose a threat to complete Imperial domination on the Elysian continent. Vinland was hardly a blimp on a radar anymore, and once all of Vinland was to bend the knee to the Empire, the south was next..

The former Kykladian Patriarchate petitioned for patriarchate status for the entire archipelago from their location on Nede. As they had already previously been a Patriarchate, they were easily integrated to the growing patriarchate and the Imperial bureaucracy that overseen the transition for the Patriarchate.

The Kykladian Islands, a tropical and exotic paradise that not even its own people had fully discovered, had undergone a dramatic shift within the recent decades from a cultural standpoint. From their unique adopting of some of the customs of the native Taino, to their form of nature and ancestor worship, the Kykladians were a unique and completely loyal people who proudly served the Empire. For the first time, a Kykladian commoner could look towards the future with a sense of hope. In the times past, they had grown from a small island into a great kingdom. From their origins in the Odyssey, they were split apart during the Great Storm. For the first time, as a people, they were now well and truly home.

With the political sensitivity that was occuring in Europe, the Empire turned towards another means to secure a political alliance. Both Russia and the Commonwealth had hostile relationships with the Elysians, but one former enemy would make ties with the Elysians, and it would come from an unlikely place.

Austria would come to surprise the Elysians with the offer of an alliance at the same time that the Habsburg realms were being visited by Elysian diplomats. While both parties were incredibly hesitant, they would both come to an agreement about common goals against their rivals. With the Elysians becoming less and less interested in the West, the Holy Roman Emperor was interested with securing a reliable ally that would secure his southern and eastern territories. Both Elysia and Austria would sign an alliance, and the power dynamics of Europe would change overnight as a result.

Almost two centuries of expansion, through diplomatic and militaristic means, had led to the dominance of Christendom among the continent of Elysium. Eager missionaries had tirelessly worked to promote the true faith, and the dual swords of Emperor and Church had made the faith of the Romans into what it was today. Elysia would sail across the great Atlantic with their faith, and return with an entirely new form of it. From Thorfinn Bay to Panama, Elysian Orthodoxy had reigned supreme.

The Mamluk Sultanate had been plagued with unrest for many years, ravaged by turmoil and uncertainty. From a realm that once was able to claim dominion over the Arab world, the dreams that carried the Mamluks to supremacy were now unfolding. Khusqadam II had made powerful enemies among the aristocracy, and the Sultanate was falling into Civil War among with what was left of the Sultanate. From the envy of the Islamic world, the Mamluks were now its laughing stock.

In China, the Ming Dynasty had been crumbling for the past few decades. A succession of relatively weak and disconnected emperors had neglected China as they retreated away from worldly affairs. Following the Dynasty’s founding centuries ago, the Ming had won China back from the Mongolian-led Yuan dynasty, and were largely complacent in safeguarding the West and Northern frontiers. But the real danger to the dynasty did not come outside of China but from within.

Irresponsible and incompetent Emperors were seen as an important factor to this unrest, but rampant corruption among government officials and a failing economy was making the matter worse. As the economy neared the verge of bankruptcy, soldiers were severely undercompensated. A shifting climate had caused devastating floods among the Yellow River, drowning livestock and people alike. Famine would then run rampant, and peasantry would start taking up arms against the extremely corrupt government that seemed to listen but never care about their own people.

Such conditions were so bad that the Emperor had lost all legitimacy and the Mandate of Heaven, and the smallest separatist movement had the potential to cause a civil war that could destroy the Ming. Elysia would watch the unrest in China with great interest safely from the merchant island of Taiwan, interested in how the matter would unfold in China.

The civil war that had unfolded in the Mamluk Sultanate seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for the reign of Khusqadam II, and the realm had simply shattered to a degree. The Sultanate would completely lose all control of their Arabian territories, and the Mamluks would only retain control of Egypt and the Levant proper. Left as a fraction of their former strength, the shattered state would be vulnerable for the time being.

Notia Edafi would see the first wave of Elysian settlement take place during this time. While Australia was seen as a more hostile and barren place to settle with, Notia Edafi would be completely different due to the more lush environment and climate in comparison. Notia Edafi would be settled as a civilian colony in comparison to Australia being a mixed citizen and penal colony. Interestingly, Liaisons were incredibly effective in the settlement of the northern island, especially among establishing a relationship with the natives of the region, the Maori.

Due to the sheer distance between the mainland and the islands, Elysian settlers were largely left on their own upon arrival. Notia Edafi’s sheer distance and geographic location away from Australia and Elysium allowed Notia Edafi to gain a reputation as the ‘end of the world’ within the southern hemisphere.

After a period of colonisation, Elysian Australia had grown large enough to establish its own administration. Along the eastern portion of the large colony, the government established its capital in the south surrounded by a large bay. A former banker from Hesperidia, Konstantinos Argyros, would become the first governor of Australia.

Over thousands of miles of land, all settlements were located close to the coastline, the population was little more than over the tens of thousands after two decades of settlement. The capital held over thirty percent of the population upon the foundation of the colonial government. Despite its reputation as ‘Hell on earth’, Australia would provide Elysia with plenty of strong and powerful figures in its optimistic future.

Konstantinos Argyros, the first Governor of Australia. (1578-1647)​

Nearby the important city of Antioch was a single state, an Islamic sultanate that recognized itself as the legitimate successor of Syria. Despite only holding the large city of Aleppo, the Syrian successor state had strong claims on the entirety of the region. It was something that Elysia would not allow, and war would be declared to conquer Aleppo. Should the city be taken, it would leave Elysia in an incredibly strong position for future campaigns along the Levant, and helped reinforce Constantinia’s hold along Anatolia.

From what was expected to be a fight, the reality was completely different. Elysian soldiers would barely encounter a fight, and the entire Syrian army would be annihilated under the leadership of Thomas Gabras. From there, the Empire would need to deal with Syrian allies, where resistance would be much more organised.

Anatolia, once the Turkish heartland, was almost completely under Imperial rule. Decades of conquests had left a strong impact on the political and cultural landscape of the realm, resulting in an Hellenified West and a Turkish and Armenian East. Surrounded on all sides, the once great power that was the Ottoman Empire had fallen into a dying shadow of its former self. From the master of the East, it had been pushed back and isolated.

The Ottoman Empire was now where the story of Turkish greatness and prestige had begun, Rum. Fate had a sick sense of humor, as centuries ago, they threatened the Romans with destruction by conquering Constantinople and Hellas. Now, the children of Rome were about to finish the job.

The conquest of Aleppo would come, and Elysia would easily conquer the city and put an end to Syrian ambitions. While suffering an armed resistance to the Kurds, Elysia dedicated all efforts into conquering Aleppo and making peace with the Kurds. With Aleppo taken, Elysia planned for an ambitious campaign of the Levant, bringing the full might of the Empire down onto the necks of the Mamluks.

In the previous decades, a Turkish majority had ruled over Anatolia. Now, decades later, Hellenic rule was slowly being restored over Anatolia. Tensions between both ethnic groups had remained high due to Imperial-led campaigns of Hellenic resettlement and a Turkish diaspora from the heavy-handed approach to the situation. Many Turks had simply assimilated overtime, but many would go on and provide the Empire with plenty of problems, including a previous revolt against Imperial rule. The damage was already done, and Turks from across Anatolia were now leaving the region to settle into new lives.

The rebuilding of Nea Pontus had commenced since the conquest of the city, but legacy of Vinóss still remained. Many of the once iconic Vinlandic buildings were becoming ruins, filled with nothing more then beggars, rats and overgrown flora. The destruction of Vinóss and the currently ruined state of the new city could be considered a representation of the once proud realm.

The once mighty whalebone palace, the Hvulwkiethi Kethsstala, the very symbol of Vinlandic nobility and power was nothing more than a burnt out ruin. The port city and nearby district, the Mekilt Hufr, had become a nest of corruption and violence and a shelter for thugs and the homeless. But perhaps the most devastating loss was the destruction of the Irminsul, considered a pagan shrine and the symbolic representation of the Norse faith. With its destruction, the former shrine had been left into decay and the spirit of the north were broken.

With the Empire focusing on consolidating its Pacific territories along the Atlantic, Elysian might and prestige could be felt across an entire continent. Yet at the same time, Elysia still had a very long way to go. There was an entire world that Elysia available to the Empire, and it was time that Elysia decided to leave its mark on it...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 39: The Tenth Crusade (1625-1630)

After the festivities of Christmas, Eastern Europe and the Near East would be reshaped by the neighboring powers around them. Despite the season of festivities and joy, the Empire had ceaselessly worked to strengthen their exarchs and to establish a Pax Elysia in the Eastern World. From the mountainous lands of Hellas to the ancient cities of the Levant, order and stability had come to lands that had been suffering under the subjugation of tyrants or were divided among warlords. As the Empire conquered new lands, the new citizens had found that the newfound stability had come at the cost of living under new laws, government, and were under threat from constant warfare.

The Pax Elysia, known as the Imperial Peace, was something that was promoted but was not found. The Empire was frequently at war with neighboring powers, from isolated warlord states to the great powers of Europe, or even all at once. This was done in order to establish a long-lasting peace at the cost of changing the power dynamic of an entire continent, and with the cost of the Empire’s own humanity. Some expected that this Pax Elysia would not be immediate, despite the end of the many wars the Empire had fought.

Emperor Basil, now having become an increasingly frail and elderly man, faced a problem of making peace as an acceptable mode of life for all Elysians and her exarchs. The Empire had been at war with one power or another continuously for nearly two centuries. Like the Romans before them, the Elysians regarded peace not as an absence of war but a rare situation that existed when all of her enemies had been defeated and lost the ability to resist. The Emperor believed that, once order had been established in Europe, only then would a true Pax Elysium be established.

After decades of service under the Empire, the ‘Balkan Shield’ would be integrated into the Exarchate of Constantina. Full civil rights would be granted to Albanian, Serbians and Bulgarian for their long-term commitment and would become recognised and accepted ethnicities. Croatians and Bosnians would, due to being under the heel of the Habsburgs and under the Ragusan Republic, not be included.

The integration would serve to boost Constantina’s economy and their defenses in the Balkans, and would secure a safer area of control within the Balkans. In time, should the Habsburgs act disloyal to the Elysians, the Empire had made their eyes to secure the Northern Balkans and seize Bosnia and Croatia from the Austrian Emperors.

As Elysia had remained concentrated among European affairs, frightening news would come from the former Persian states. For the first time since the Muslim conquests of the region in the seventh century, a new and powerful Persian Empire would emerge. United by one of the descendants of Timur, this Persia would adopt Shia Islam as the official state religion, something that would be seen as a turning point in Islamic history.

Almost immediately, Persia was working to consolidate their new Empire from opposing threats. New territories were being integrated into the administration, the Shia faith was aggressively promoted and the new Persian Shahanshah was redesigning his as a Feudal Theocratic state, blending Imperial and Church rule into one. Like the Persian realms before them, the Elysians expected this Persia to be a dangerous regional threat that should be treated with caution with all interactions.

With the wealthy city of Aleppo seized from the tiny Syrian state, the Empire had been planning for years about a military campaign to seize the Levant. With the decline of the Mamluks, the Sultanate had been weakened by inner turmoil and simply didn’t have the finances to raise and maintain a sizable military. In comparison to the Elysian Thema’s positioned around the Mediterranean alone, the Egyptians had simply nothing to hold the region yet alone from their own rebels and opportunists.

The Empire’s main focus was to seize the important city of Damascus, but none could deny about the opportunity of seizing the Holy City itself, Jerusalem. Everything from Antioch to Ascalon was to be taken under the Imperial banner and that of Christendom itself. This was to be not just a simple war of conquest, but a Holy War in its own right. It was to be a Crusade against the Saracen, and on November 11th 1625, the Tenth Crusade would begin.

In just two weeks, the Imperial Army would make rapid pace along the dusty landscape and seize everything to Damascus. As soon as they made it to the walls of Damascus, it would become apparent that no Muhammadian force would approach the Elysians, leaving the Imperial army confused. Some would question if they would even experience any armed combat at all, and some of the more zealous soldiers quickly entered prayer and gave thanks to God.

Attrition would consist as a problem, as it had always been something that the Empire had suffered against. While not experiencing any professional Mamluk military response to the Crusade, Muslim civilians would harass the Elysians as much as possible. Some would burn their own crops to starve the armies out, poison water supplies, or simply scream and curse at them. As this did seem to have an effect on the Elysian army, as some men would die from the weather, the Empire would make a more aggressive approach in making their campaign. The Military Council of the campaign would order an assault on Damascus, with the intent of breaking Muslim lines and wishing to seize Jerusalem as soon as possible.

Damascus, after experiencing a month of siege, would last mere hours during the assault. With the capture of the important city, the Empire would march south towards Jerusalem at incredible speed, covering a tremendous amount of distance due to smaller yet more mobile units. Should an enemy force enter Jerusalem, it would leave the Empire in a more difficult position to assault the city.

Coffee, a drink associated with the Muslim world, had become more and more commonplace among Christians in Europe. In an increasingly connected world, acquiring coffee was no longer as difficult as it used to be. Largely as a result, coffeehouses are being established in Europe and exotic beans were more and more in demand.

This would also include Elysium and Retoria. Coffee was becoming more and more in demand to cope with the cold winters in Vinland and Northern Elysia, and the tropical forests of French Columbia and Brazil were the perfect place to produce the exotic beans, as well as the more dense tropical regions of Spartania. The drink would become popular among the Elysian aristocracy, and it was incredibly popular among the Imperial Family where more than one member would proclaim their love for the drink.

Andronikos I Palaiologos. Formerly the Prince of Hespredia, Andronikos was fascinated with the cultures of Asia.​

Life around the capital and the Empire at large would come to an abrupt stop on June 1st 1626. Emperor Basil I, Emperor of the Elysian Empire, would pass away at the age of sixty six from natural causes. As the Empire would enter a period of three days of mourning, Basil was be the father of eight children, most of whom were well into adulthood and held their own titles within the Empire such as Doukas and Doukissa. Only one of the eight children of Basil would succeed him and sit upon the throne as Emperor, his eldest son Andronikos.

From the beginning of the century, the Ming Dynasty had been in decline. The largest and most powerful state of its era, the Ming would crumble under an economic collapse, administrative mismanagement, famine caused by a shifting climate and rampant corruption. With an underpaid army, the military was openly defecting to the rebel cause and outside realms took the opportunity to cause chaos. With the dying dynasty, the end of the Ming was in sight.

Shortly after the ascension of Emperor Andronikos, Elysian soldiers had captured Jerusalem on June 15th 1626. There was no resistance among its inhabitants and the birthplace of Christianity was captured. It was a blessed day that would go down in history forever. The Pope and the rest of the Christian world would envy Elysian success, for where him and his catholic legions had failed over and over, the Orthodox Thema had succeeded.

Elysian commanders, under the order of Emperor Andronikos, would immediately spend the rest of the campaign restoring the holy city to its status as the centre of Christianity while the rest of the Levant would be seized. All Muslim in the city would be thrown out of the city, and their homes would be sacked along with sacred sites dedicated to the false prophet. Throughout the city, some opposition had arisen to the desecration of such places but were easily resolved with force. The Emperor would order that the Jewish regions of Jerusalem was to be untouched, for Andronikos had his own desires for them

The entire Muslim quarter of the city would be burnt, and all places of worship was to be destroyed. The Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, sacred temples among the Islamic world, would be completely destroyed. The Islamic World would recoil in horror as the Elysians ransacked their quarter of the holy city, and the burning of some of the faiths most sacred places was an unforgivable insult to the faith. Despite the horror that occurred, the Elysians were incredibly vengeful towards Islam during the campaign, making some question and noting the hypocrisy the Elysians had about the means of embracing the peaceful humanist teachings it had only recently adopted.

With not a single army in sight, the Mamluk Sultanate would be forced to surrender to the Elysians only a month after Jerusalem was liberated from the Egyptians. It was an incredibly punishing treaty among the Muslims, as virtually the entirety of the Levant was taken and kept under Elysian control. While the Sultanate would retain the Sinai and small portion of Arabia, their internal problems and lack of strength had made a reconquest of the region virtually impossible as long as Elysia maintained a presence in the holy lands.

The Levant would be returned under Christian control for the first time in centuries, and all but a few important territories across the region would be under the imperial banner. Due to the religious makeup of the region, the Levant had been overwhelmingly Muslim for centuries and had lost some of its Jewish and Christian roots. Even with the full backing of the Church, it would still take many years to re-introduce the true faith as a majority religion in the Levant. With the backing of the entire Elysian Orthodox church, the most sacred areas was to experience extensive missionary work, with the holy land becoming a primary focus.

After the weeks following the conquest, the administration of the new area was centralized under a new Elysian Exarchate. Syria et Palaestina would be founded on July 28th 1626, where the new exarch would include much of the land taken from the Sassanian Empire at the Roman Empire’s greatest extent, as well as the large urbanized cities of the Levant. With the area being retaken by Elysia, the area would be ruled by an Elysian-led Syrian exarch in cooperation with the ruling elite

Unsurprisingly, the Persians had openly announced the Elysian Empire as their rival within the Near East and an enemy of the Islamic faith. While nowhere near as powerful as the Elysians they had declared their hatred against, Persia did pose a serious threat to regional interests, especially due to the establishment of a new exarch that haven't been completely integrated into the new administration yet.

Among the lands of Asia was an archipelago, which despite having been explored by the Empire for several decades now, had never seen any real serious settlement attempted by the Elysians. Largely populated by established realms in the area, the region had never interested Elysia as much as the lands of Australia and Taiwan did. With these lands under the Empire, the Empire had turned towards the spice islands.

The Elysians had believed that they had discovered Maniolas, a name used by Ptolemy to refer to a group of islands to the south of China, along with another island known to the Empire as Baroussai. Explorers would speak that that the country was recorded to Ptolemy's maps when a sailor named Hippalus had told him the existence of "beautiful islands" in southeastern Far East. While it was not the true name of the island, the name had stuck among the explorers and Imperial settlement of Maniolas would start to begin.

On the borderlands of Syria et Palaestina, a neighbouring warlord state known as the Fadl were conquered and incorporated into the exarch. Ruled by a group of Arabian nobility known as the Sauds, they were crushed under Imperial might.

Despite having lost almost everything within the previous couple of decades, the pirates of Vinland were still conducting raiding operations along the Elysian coastline. Previously kept dormant for years, the Empire was both enraged and amused that the Althing still had the tenacity to maintain continued hostility. With this raid however, it would be the largest of its kind within a generation, and the Empire was eager to soak the frozen north with the blood of the foolish Vinlandic people.

As religious efforts proceeded in Syria et Palaestina, some regions were adapting to the true faith better than other states. The significance of Jerusalem once again being under the banner of the Empire helped accelerate this growing process, as the willing and the brave started to embrace Christianity.

With Islamic dominance of the Levant after many many centuries, Muslims across the region were not ready to accept Elysian political and religious supremacy by peaceful means and erupted into open rebellion. A Jihad was launched among the Levant by the zealous and the completely fanatical, targeting any Christian ‘crusader’ they seen.

In response, the Empire would respond with just as much zeal as the Jihadists and prove the Muhammadians with the might of Imperial steel. The Jihad would be put down with extreme force and almost instantly, where thousands of zealots would be massacred by the Imperial army. Husayn Nasuh, one of the pivotal leaders of this Jihad against Elysian rule, would be captured after the Battle of Sayda and executed in Damascus, where the central position of the large city was being selected as the Exarch’s capital.

In the campaign to consolidate the remainder of the Levant and secure it within Imperial rule, the Empire organised a campaign against the Anizah to conquer Transjordan from them. While investigating the tribe, the Empire would make a surprising breakthrough that the Ottoman Empire had signed an alliance with them, providing Elysia with the ability to kill two birds with one stone. With one half of the Imperial army surrounding the Ottoman lands, and the other positioned close to the Jordan river, the Empire declared war on March 21st 1628.

In what would become the final battle that the Ottoman Empire would ever face, the Turkish forces were wiped out to the last man and completely humiliated. With the completely annihilation of the once fearsome Ottoman army, all that the Empire had to do was to seize their capital.

With an Anizah army failing to break through the Elysian assault, it had left their defenses open. Unfortunately suffering heavy losses during an attempt to relieve the siege of Kerak castle, it had left the Empire to concentrate on breaking the defense of the enemy. Unexpectedly, Kerak would put up much more of a resistance then initially thought due to an well-supplied and entrenched enemy, leaving the siege to last much much longer then expected

After decades of siege, the breakthrough on the Siege of Amasya would occur on the sixty ninth day. It’s fall to Elysia would send shock waves across the entire Islamic world, and would signal the complete end of Turkish and Islamic rule in Anatolia. No longer would the Turkish menace ever threaten Christian Europe again, and not longer would they pose a threat to the people of Anatolia. The Elysian Empire and her Exarchs now stood as the undisputed power in the East.

The Ottoman Empire was over.

With new developments within metalwork and glassmaking, more refined scientific instruments were being created that magnify the incredibly distant and the incredibly small. These would prove invaluable to the Empire’s astronomers and natural philosophers, and chemists had began to hone their craft with more complex tools. This recent breakthrough had given Elysian Empire an incredible edge in the production of the scientific equipment, and intelecturals across the Empire eagerly awaited the discoveries that could now be made possible.

After a lengthy siege, the defenders of Al Karak surrendered after succumbing to hunger and disease. The defenders of the castle would surrender to Imperial forces and become prisoners of war, while the Empire would take the castle and the area around it.

The conclusion of the siege of Al Karak would be what was needed to enforce a surrender of Anizah, and the war would come to a decisive conclusion. The remainder of Transjordan would be seized by the Empire, where only the Mamlukean held southwest of the country would be safe due to the truce between Elysia an the Sultanate.

After months of preparation and negotiating with the natives, Elysian settlement of Maniolas arrived on the eastern portion of the Island. At first the interactions between the peoples of the archipelago were dealt with by diplomatic means, largely by Liaison interactions and native curiosity. After several months on the island, once the Empire had established the a foothold among the archipelago, the Empire seemed interested in granting decentralized rule to the island or conquering the region outright.

Christianity would spread among the island through the territories that the Empire held an influence over. Through interaction with one of the many tribes in the region, one of the Elysian settlers was able to cure the son of an influential tribal chief. In gratitude, the tribal chief and his entire village would convert to Elysian Orthodoxy. The Empire had seemed interested in the spice trade among the islands, and once that should be secured, the financial gain from Asian trade would finance religious missions among the region.

After years of chaos in China, the Ming Dynasty would completely collapse following the capture of Beijing by rebel forces. On August 5th 1628, the Ming would completely shatter and new warlord realms would appear overnight. The Mandate of Heaven was now available to anyone who could unite China, and new violent period in the long history of China was about to take place. The Second Warring States period had begun.

Within Vienna, the Habsburg Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire had implemented more of their reforms to centralise Imperial rule. The Ewiger Landfriede, one of many Imperial reforms, declared that member states were forced to solve their disputes in courts of law rather than a battlefield. This would make all internal warfare among the member states of the Empire come to a complete stop, only strengthening Austrian authority even further.

After decades of Imperial rule, Elysia had claimed the entirety of the Pacific Islands under Imperial Rule. The Mare Nostrum of the Pacific, as incredible of a feat that it was, was not completed. It did however, bring a new meaning to the Elysian meaning of ‘Our Sea’.

With the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and all of Anatolia restored to Hellenic-Elysian rule, the Empire had re-established the Theme System. The Empire had recovered from the brink of destruction, and many called for the reestablishment of the old Imperial administrative system to ensure that this would never happen again. Greek naming would be restored across all of Anatolia, all the while Hellenic rule would be cemented along Anatolia during the process of Hellenization in Anatolia.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Basil I Palaiologos
Lived: March 10th 1560 - June 1st 1626
Emperor of Elysia: 1598-1626

The reign of Basil I of Elysia would become a reign that was largely responsible for establishing its future ambitions and goals within the century. With an outward focused reign, the Emperor himself did not play a direct role within the growing changes and instead largely acted as a guiding force instead of interfering with them. Many important things would occur during his reign, and by the time of his death, Elysian power was strengthened tremendously worldwide.

Basil was the only son of Alexios I, who himself led a long reign and played a key role in European affairs. Basil was the only male among his siblings, who were all girls, and was the eldest among them. At a young age, Basil would develop a keen interest within the flourishing cultural aspect of the Empire, growing up with a taste for the arts. The future Emperor himself would find himself fascinated with artists, especially painters, and would start to pursue it as a hobby in his teenage years. Future Elysian historians would believe that Basil himself had quite an effeminate personality, and being surrounded and growing up around his many sisters and other female figures had contributed to this.

While becoming an capable artist himself, Basil would find himself more and more preoccupied with government life and preparing himself for his future reign. Growing apart from his passionate interests, the future Emperor would occasionally get time to paint and would become a patron of the arts during his younger years. As the heir to the throne, he held an incredible amount of power and influence among the Imperial government. On the death of his father many decades later, Basil would ascend to the throne close to his fortieth birthday.

Upon ascending to the throne, Emperor Basil immediately went straight to work in conquering territories along Eastern Europe and the Near East. Taking advantage of the political instability of the Islamic world, the Ottoman Empire would be crippled by the Imperial armies. During this time, Elysia would fight its first coalition in the First Europa War, where it would barely achieve victory within the East. Among overseas expansion, the most devastating events during his reign was the destruction of Vinóss and the complete humiliation of the Vinlandic peoples.

Despite the warfare that had occurred during his reign, the Empire had achieved many grand achievements. The ongoing exploration of the Pacific had led to the discovery of the continent of Australia, Notia Edafi and the many lands around Asia that had left Elysia having explored all of the world's oceans. Colonization had occurred at an effective pace and more of the Pacific was claimed for the growing Empire. As well as exploring the seas, Elysian Orthodoxy had been adopted by many of the former Norse and the power of the church would be extended to the far north.

The Empire would continue to prosper under the leadership of Basil I, who had expanded the Imperial borders considerably. As a patron of the arts himself, the Empire was highly responsible for the construction for the Hagia Theotoke and leading a period of culture and architecture in both Elysium. Despite all the achievements that had occurred under the reign of Emperor Basil, it would come at the price as former friends turned to enemies. Russia would cut ties with the Elysians and declare their hostility against them.

As Basil had declared the desires of securing Elysian and Christian dominance within the Islamic world, Basil would unfortunately die from natural causes before the city of Jerusalem could be captured. Having a long and fulfilling life, he would leave behind eight children and would be remembered as one of the better Emperor’s during the new era of the Empire. His eldest, Andronikos, would succeed him. As per the Emperor’s wishes, Basil would not be buried within the capital, instead having a tomb constructed for him in Rontos, along the Borealian Lakes.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 40: Ragnarök (1630-1632)

With the campaign along the Levant continuing with the ongoing Christianization of the region, the Elysian Emperor, Andronikos, had given orders specifically to his commanders to spare the Jewish and Christian sections of Jerusalem while the Islamic section of the city was sacked. The Emperor would come into a difficult problem with securing the Levant and the holy land, faced with the treatment of the diverse region. While he would come to support the christian populace in the region and including them into the new nobility of the Levantine exarch, he would find a more difficult problem. The status of Judea and, more importantly, Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was held as a sacred city among the Abrahamic faiths, and creating a new status-quo would come to prove difficult. Zealous senators would argue to the Emperor about transitioning Jerusalem into a completely Christian city, excluding the Jews who had a very long and difficult history within Judea. Some senators would become more sympathetic to the Jews and wish to hand over the city to the Jews while Christians would hold the rest of the Holy Land. Andronikos would, in the end, come up with a completely different solution.

The Emperor would make a bold offer towards the Jewish people and aimed to appease the Jewish people. He sent out an invitation to the kingdoms and republics of Europe, inviting their respective Jewish populations to return to the Holy Land. For the price of loyalty to Elysia and, the Emperor would lift the ancient ban imposed upon them by the Romans and allow them to return to Jerusalem, while promising them standard rights and autonomy within Syria et Palestinia. Should the Jews become a loyal populace within the Empire and assist the Elysian Empire in securing the East, the Elysian Emperor would all but guarantee his support in the building of the Third Temple. Of course, to appease the growing Christian elite of the exarch, the Jews were only permitted to serve within the local government and had to pay slightly higher taxes than Christians, akin to the Islamic Jizya system but to a lesser extent. To sweeten the deal, there would be no taxation of any churches across the entire exarch.

Instead of antagonizing them, the Elysian Emperor wanted to militarize the Jews and turn them into a loyal populace. He dreamed of Christian and Jew, fighting side by side against the Muhammadians and creating a prosperous and stable Near East, with Jerusalem as the center of the Christian and Jewish worlds. In his mind, a Pax Elysium of the East would secure Imperial hegemony in perpetuity. After some debating among the senate and the eastern exarch, both sides would come to a conclusion and agree upon the Emperor’s plan. Jews from across Europe would start to migrate from their homelands and started to make the long journey to their homeland, all the while the Christian elites were assured of their dominance within government.

Along the Maniolas archipelago, looking for a means to decentralize the island rule, the Elysians would encounter the northern realm of Pangasinan. Relations between the two was to be built upon immediately, and Liaisons would serve as translators between both Maniolian and Elysian groups, while also teaching Elysian to the kingdoms inhabitants. In time, the relations would begin to blossom.

As the monarchy granted trading companies exclusive rights to traffic goods within a region, some companies had achieved a monopoly status and dominated the markets. These monopolies would be granted in exchange for a lump-sum payment and continuing revenues. Emperor Andronikos would make a long-term investment into the monopolies, aiming to strength the Imperial market by promoting Elysian-based companies.

Akin to the rivalry of old, the new Persian Empire would become the founder of a military coalition against the Sons of Rome. Dominating the Persian Plateau and Mesopotamia, Persian military right was strengthened regionally by having recently conquered Baghdad and most of Mesopotamia. The Feudal Theocracy, dominated by the Shia clergy, threw their support behind the Shahanshah, who declared themselves the leader of the Islamic world and ‘eternal enemy’ to the Elysian Empire. With the destructive ways achieved during the Levant, including the destruction of two sacred sites, Muslims flocked to the Persian banner from across the Islamic world, keen for vengeance against the ‘Bastard Greeks’

The Vinlandic Althing, long having been an enemy to the Elysian Empire, was on its very last legs. Decades of devastating wars against the Elysians, alongside a stagnant and decaying government had led to an unpopular government within the North. Long-standing persecution of Christians from the south, especially along Vinlandic Christians, was inflamed by the reign of the megalomaniacal Mad King. War would be declared on February 13th 1631. With Vinland now a shell of its former self, Elysia had viewed the Althing as a dying animal. It was now the Empire’s responsibility to put it down.

The state between the Vinlandic and Elysians armies was a sad sight. The Empire could raise hundreds of thousands of men, all who had been trained in the demanding training regimen that had led to the Elysians having one of the worlds most disciplined and effective land armies, with physical and mental training levels comparable to the ancient Legions of Rome. The Norse, having lost a large majority of its wealth and population, could barely raise several thousand. The North’s only effective force was its navy that sought to prolong the conflict, but it had only delayed the inevitable against the Imperial armada.

Despite being completely outnumbered and outgunned by a superior foe, the Althing had still conducted the barbaric pirate raids against the Empire with whatever they had left. Leaving the Elysians disgusted that the Norse would sink to such low levels, it only strengthened the resolve among the Elysians to destroy the North.

Tens of thousands would march into the north to overwhelm Vinland, easily occupying regions of the north with ease. With an Elysian core thema capable to easily overwhelm the Northern armies, entire towns in Vinland would surrender without a fight to the invading Elysians. News would leak from Vinland that entire towns who resisted against the Elysians were put to the sword.

Within the gulf, Elysia would completely destroy whatever had remained of the Vinlandic navy. The navy, the pride of the Norse who were renowned for their skills as sailors, was wiped out to the last man. As Elysia ruled the seas, the Empire would leave no survivors.

The only serious military engagement conducted by the Norse occurred at Fryslland, where the results were predictable to the Elysians. The core of the Norse had been devastated in the frozen snows of the north, and thousands would perish to the might of the Imperial army. The Elysian commanders did not even bother spending time to order a burial of the dead, instead leaving the dead Norse where they lie. The Elysian losses would be burnt, but the Norse losses would be sent as a grim reminder to VInland.

After some time marching across the north, Emperor Andronikos would lead the siege of the Vinlandic capital personally. Eirikströndir would be bombarded from the land by the mighty siege cannons, and from the sea. Despite being surrounded and facing destruction, the Norse still held on for as long as they possibly could. On the final day, the Konungur would march out from the ruins of the city on his own, surrendering himself completely to Emperor Andronikos.

As soon as the Konungur surrendered himself to the Emperor, a thunderous roar was yelled by the Elysian army. The sound of victory was carried across the winds and was heard for many miles. Due to surrendering to the Empire, Eirikströndir would be spared destruction like Vinóss had been, and the Konungur would be placed under house arrest.

The Empire would win a historic victory against the North, once that echoed across the entire world. Despite the low amount of casualties within the war, the Empire’s real victory had occured in its territory. This would prove to become the Althings final war, as the Konungur and the Althing would meet the Emperor and his close followers in person.

The Emperor, as a way to humiliate the Norse, decided to hold the signing of the treaty in their former capital of Vinóss, which was now known as Nea Pontus. The Treaty of Nea Pontus would be signed on October 26th 1632, ending the war as well as the Vinlandic state.The entirety of the north would be ceded, including Greenland. Several days after the signing of the treaty, the Althing would be disbanded completely. The Konungur, stripped of his royal privileges, would return to life in the north as a normal man.

With the annexation of Vinland, the Empire had defeated their long-time rival and delivered a death blow towards Norsedom. While not apart of official policy, Christian Vinlanders treated the faith of their forefathers as illegal worship. Politically, Imperial rule was brought to the north and the new Norse populace of the Empire were now subject to Imperial law. With the Althing completely dissolved, the next generation growing up within the north would know little about the former nation.

The Church, rather than intervene with political affairs, would have their hands full with missionary efforts across the Pacific in Asia and in the arctic north along Vinland. The Emperor and Senate would grant the church with more funding for missionary efforts concentrated towards the north, and would help with introducing and spreading the true faith in the most remote vinlandic regions. To accelerate this, the Empire would officially declare Norse worship illegal to accelerate missionary efforts and declared worship a punishable offense carrying the death penalty in the most extreme cases.

Norse Temples would be closed down for future conversions into Christian churches, burnt down or simply demolished. In a sense of irony, the law would not be passed by Elysian senators, but would be passed overwhelmingly by the Vinlandic Christian senators with the backing of the northern population.

The people of the north, long having been a hindrance and a pest to the Empire, had long had a history of plundering Elysian shores for wealth and then turning around and pledging their ‘eternal allegiance’ to the Empire before conducting raids again, going on an on in a vicious cycle. No longer being reliant on flimsy treaties or promises of gold, Imperial rule would be forced upon the Norse once and for all.

With the North secured, there was another loose end that the Empire had to tie up. The Spartan Kingdom in the southern jungles had long disregarded Imperial authority for too long. Despite not wanting to admit it, the ruling dynasty has incredibly strong blood ties to the Emperors of times past. Leonidas, a relative of the Imperial house who was related to Emperor John and Manuel, sought to establish an independent state for those who wished to prove their martial worth. Centuries of maintaining their ‘supremacy’ over their own population had led the Spartan monarchy and nobility with extreme arrogance, believing that their legions were invincible in battle.

They were about to be proven completely wrong. It was time for Spartania to bend the knee...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 41: Rumble in the Jungle (1632-1636)

Upon the annexation of Vinland into the Empire, the northern administration would come to incorporate the former territories. Due to the territorial size within the north and the isolation between communities that became more and more distinguishable the further north they were located, Imperial bureaucracy within Vinland was largely focused on pacification of the north. Governors of the northern states, especially in the former Norse homelands of Markland and Helluland, were Christians. More influential governors within the states worked along the noble classes in the region to allow as smooth of a transition as possible, but didn’t let political opportunities get in the way of bringing their own authority over that of the State.

With Norse worship having effectively been criminalized by the Imperial Senate, opportunistic governors within Vinland decided to take this further. Non-Christians and Norse followers started to be completely excluded within day to day life, where governors purposely strangled their opportunities for careers. Discrimination would occur over northern traders where former Norse trading companies were forced to be shut down by matters of the state and their assets transfer to a growing imperial monopoly. Norse temples were closed down, demolished or burnt down by local authorities. Norse worshipers were being marginalized from a poorer life, the only solace within the dwindling followers of their ancestors were among the farmers, who were typically left alone by the Empire.

Despite that, it didn’t stop the decline of the Norse faith within the North, who had started to become more and more christian overtime due to the influence of the Empire and the faith personally appealing to many former Norse worshipers. As administration was concentrated onto the north, the Imperial government was about to concentrate completely onto the south, eager to deal with an old rival of theirs.

Helene I Spartakon (1592-1635). The cruel and malevolent Kyriarchos of Spartania, she rules with absolute control over the country much to her subjects displeasure. ​

The Kingdom of Spartania, having origins from the Empire itself, ruled a kingdom from the northern deserts to the southern jungles. It’s legendary leader, Leonidas, was closely related to the Palaiologos dynasty of Elysia. Despite the connection between the two royal families, Spartan distrust and egotistical ambition soon overshadowed what was once a sense of friendship between their relative nations. As the decades past, as Spartania grew bigger from brutal conquests against Barbaroi within the region, their government became more and more hostile to the Imperial government. From jealousy, to being landlocked by its larger and wealthier cousin, Spartania was a nation with a deep disliking to Elysia but remained isolationist and kept interaction with the Empire to an absolute minimum.

Due to the extremely close blood ties between the monarchy of Elysia and Spartania, the Empire had a perfect reason behind claiming the throne of Spartania. Aside from dynastic matters, Spartania was a cultural cousin to the Elysians and sat in the perfect geographic position. Emperor Andronikos would openly declare his ambition to unite the two crowns and centralise the entirety of the continent of Elysium under Imperial rule.

War would be declared on August 3rd 1633, and the Imperial army stormed from the northern border with force. With a small army focusing on creating a two front war to the south, tens of thousands of Tagmata would cross the northern desert and easily break through the weak northern lines.

In the Maniolas, relationships between the Pangasinan and the Empire had continued to blossom. Elysia would start to work alongside the kingdom, bringing them closely under their influence and assisting the Kingdom with whatever they needed. Alliances were established, gifts and pleasantries were exchanged, and Maniolian Kingdom would swiftly fall in love with the foreign Elysians. In time, their King was encouraged by his own court to convert to Christianity, and the Empire made Pangasinan an offer they could not refuse. Become a Vassal of the Empire and fully convert to Christianity, and Elysia would give them the entire archipelago. Immediately, the king accepted the offer, establishing a long relationship within the realm.

Known as the Unification War in Elysium, the capabilities between the Imperial Armies and Spartan ‘might’ was completely different. Despite the Spartans claiming to have the better military, it was claimed during a time before the Elysian armies transformed into what they are now. Times had changed, and the Empire now held the advantage over their southern rival in both numbers and capability.

As firearms had become more common within the Elysian troops, old regiments of elite soliders no longer filled the same function as skilled sharpshooters and pioneers. While they had done much to develop the Imperial army, they would be dispersed among the other regiments to bring the Spartans to kneel.

In just a few months, the Empire had made gains within the north and brought a large amount of enemy territory under occupation in the north. Alarmed by losing against what should have been a weaker opponent, Spartan leadership was incredibly displeased and sent their forces to the north to attempt to break Imperial lines directly, sacrificing the south in an attempt to relieve pressures in the north.

Spartan soldiers, in what would be an attempt to liberate the north, would make a terrible mistake. Having completely underestimated Elysia command and troops, the would become quickly broken and disorganized in a place which would become a symbol of their greatest defeat, Leiondiopolis.

With the Elysians soon being reinforced by a neighboring army, Imperial military supremacy was more then prevalent as the Elysians achieved little losses during the battle. Spartania would be completely decimated at Leiondiopolis, being completely humiliated by an enemy that was previously perceived as weak. Morale among the Spartans after the battle would plummet, and panic started to spread among their own infantry. The image of Spartan might and supremacy, a sense of national pride among the Kingdom, was utterly shattered.

The Battle of Leiondiopolis, painted by an Spartanian painter during the 17th century. The Battle would be regarded as the one the destroyer of Spartanian 'supremacy'. ​

The crushing victory at Leiondiopolis would free mobility among the Elysian troops, able to expose the entirety of the mountainous central region of Spartania and placed Tenochtitlan under direct threat from the Empire. Spartania, despite the disastrous defeat, would regroup in their capital of Laconya.

After facing against the Spartan forces for a year and a half, it would not be until the middle of 1634 that the Empire would see the arrival of their exarchs from across the Atlantic. Now outmaneuvering and destroying their armies at any given opportunity, trapped Spartan forces would be forced into entrenched positions where the Elysians held a defensive advantage.

From what was once an extreme minority within Vinland had transformed into an overwhelming majority, and the Church couldn’t be happier. The Ecumenical Patriarch believed that the Norse had experienced a spiritual awakening, and that conversion rates were occurring so quickly that the Empire almost couldn't keep up. Christ had won in Vinland, and the Norse were about to fall into the annals of history.

With the central portion of the Kingdom completely exposed to the Empire, the populous city of Tenochtitlan fell to Imperial troops after a lengthy period of siege. Elysian commanders were shocked to find a metropolis on an island near the shore of a great lake, and were even more surprised to see the unique blend between native and spartan architecture dotted along its buildings. Dumbfounded by the beauty of the city, the Elysian commanders and their troops understood why the Spartans had decided to rebuild the metropolis to even more spectacular levels. The sky was as blue as the water of the lake, the colors of both native and spartan art and agriculture were incredibly mesmerizing and exotic, and the nights were cold. With the city conquered by the Elysians, the commanders ordered that the city was treated with the utmost respect and care, a feeling that was shared by the troops that were mesmerized by her beauty...

Another grand battle occurred at Uaymil, where Elysian troops outclassed the ferocious abilities of Spartania’s finest men. Uaymil, which was within several days marching distance from the capital, was one of the last sites of a serious Spartanian defeat. The path to the capital was now open, and thousands would march across the jungles to lay siege of Laconya

Emperor Romanos I Palaiologos. The Judge, Jury and Executioner.
(Ignore the 'V' part in his name. That is a bug, he is supposed to be Romanos I) ​

Disaster would strike at the heart of the Empire during the war. Emperor Andronikos would meet his fate at the hands of an assassin, who had managed to slip past the Epilektoi and assassinate the Emperor with a blade to the heart during what was supposed to have been a period of festivities. Andronikos would die from his fatal wounds on April 1st 1635, moments after his assassin would be caught. Never having children of his own, the line of succession would pass to his older brother, the newly crowned Romanos I of Elysia

The assassin would be captured by the Epilektoi and brutally brought to justice, where the assassin would be tortured into revealing his motives. The new Emperor Romanos would personally lead the investigation, soon discovering that the assassin was a Spartan man who was tasked by the Kyriarchos herself to kill the most powerful ruler on the planet for the reward for unimaginable wealth. Sickened by the truth, Romanos would order the immediate execution of the assassin once he got the information he needed. This would only strengthen the Empire’s resolve during the war, and Romanos’s personal vendetta against the Kyriarchos.

Taking advantage of the loss of an Emperor, news would come from Europe that Russia had joined a coalition against the Elysians. Despite the coalitions growing, all of its members were terrifying of going to war against the Empire following the disaster of the First Europa War. With both sides at an impasse, and coalition members being indecisive or incredibly hesitant against the Empire, it allowed Elysia to maintain the breathing room it needed to safeguard their interests in the East.

Laconya would be surrounded by the Elysians, who had emerged from the jungles within the peninsular, and would bring hellfire with them. Artillery fire, both from gunpowder cannons and specialised Greek Fire weaponry, would devastate the walls of Laconya and its defenders. The city, the largest in the region, was well prepared for an inevitable siege and took the necessary precautions to last for as long as they could. The capital was almost self sufficient on its own in terms of agriculture, as farming was encouraged behind the safety of the strong walls of the city rather than outside them, a legacy that came from the early days of the founding of Laconya as a means to defend them from the savage barbaroi in the region.

It would not be the relentless firepower from the siege that the Elysians had brought with them, but instead, it would be crop failure that would break Laconya. Despite being excellent farmers, the weather turned against the Spartans and torrential rain would ruin the crops of the city. Food shortages began to occur, and the Kyriarchos tried to maintain order within the capital and keep the news to a minimum. Once Elysian commanders had heard rumors of a food shortage, Imperial troops launched an assault on the walls of the city. Unable to maintain the defense for much longer, the strict discipline of the spartan troops gave way and they started to surrender to the Empire in exchange for their lives. Once the city began to fell, the Kyriarchos attempted to flee the city. She would be discovered hours later by Elysian forces, having discovered that she had died during her attempt to flee the capital.

The war would come to a close after the Siege of Laconya, and peace would be signed in the Spartan Palace, which had survived the bombardment. Now seen as the official leader of the Empire, Spartan succession fell to Helene’s daughter, Princess Hercuba. While her mother was seen as a wicked woman who valued Spartanian strength, Hercuba was the complete opposite. She was much more a prisoner to her mother instead of being a true Spartanian princess.

Through many many decades of arranged strategic marriages among Spartan and native nobility, the House of Spartakon was genetically completely separated from the Imperial house of Palaiologos. Emperor Romanos would visit Hercuba following the fall of the city. Rather than treat them as an enemy for the sins of their mother, Emperor Romanos would embrace Hercuba like she was his own daughter and hugged her tightly, to which Hercuba broke down in happiness. In this act of compassion, Romanos had reunited the houses. The Emperor could have done anything with the house of Spartakon, such as sentencing them to a cruel fate, instead he gave them a new opportunity in life.

Upon their victory over Spartania, the Empire would come to form a personal union with Spartania and Emperor Romanos would rule both nations. From Panama to Vinland, the New World was under the rule of the Emperor. It would take time to mend the bond between the realms, but in time, the former hostile relationship was to be turned into an unbreakable bond.

Hercuba Spartakon would surrender all claims on the Spartanian throne, and in turn, so would the remainder of her family. Emperor Romanos, out of gratitude and sensing the kindness in this young woman, would grant them a new life among the nobility of the Elysian Empire. The House of Spartakon would move to the Hesperidian Plains, wishing to distance themselves from the capital, where Hercuba and the rest of the former dynasty would happily spend her days. In time, she would fall in love with a young nobleman in the region, and she would find her happy ending in the years to come.

In the years since the foundation of Elysia, the Empire had grown incredibly powerful over the years, and it had come time to reintegrate the renegade Spartan Kingdom into the fold. The entire region would be brought to heel, including any remaining barbaroi tribes and kingdoms in the region. Only would it be under the complete domination of the continent of Elysium that its inhabitants would accept Imperial authority as the true rulers of the continent.

Despite the Empire securing its rule over the former Spartan kingdom, the nobility in the region had lost their power. It is within the Empire’s best interest and the will of their new subjects to regain and restore Imperial rule across the subcontinent. With the combined might of Elysia and Sparta upon them, the Empire would find interest in unleashing this combined might against the decadent Europeans.

From the furthest corners of Greenland to the tropical hell that was the Darien Gap, from the Hesperidian Fields to the Kyklandian Archipelago, the Empire had defeated all her her enemies to the south and the north. Ruling an Imperium that stretched for thousands of miles, combined with the beginnings of a tremendous population boom, there was very few who could protest against Imperial might.

It would be the Yupik, a barbaroi kingdom on the Imperial border, and an extremely isolated tribe to the far frozen north that escaped the rule of the Empire. With the enemies of the Empire now under complete Imperial rule, it was now time to turn the attention of the Empire towards the frozen north once more.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Andronikos I Palaiologos
Lived: March 10th 1597 - April 1st 1635
Emperor of Elysia: 1626-1635

An Emperor who was not afraid of controversy, Andronikos I was a gifted man who led the Empire into a difficult yet historic time in its history. It would be under his reign that the Empire had vanquished their long-time enemies, and despite his life tragically coming to a close, his influence would be felt long after his death. Elysian society, and perhaps Christian culture as a whole, would forever be changed by him.

The eldest son of Basil I, Andronikos was born in the purple in the Imperial Palace. His childhood came with a unique fascination among the cultures of the world, learning about life outside of the Empire. His fascination with culture would allow him to learn about many places, from the cosmopolitan and the distant kingdoms and republics of Europe, to the exotic realms of Africa and beyond. One region of the world in particular that would leave an impact on him would be Asia, an ancient region of the world that fascinated Andronikos. Its culture, history, warfare and wealth were something that interested the Empire.

Usually somewhat of an unknown figure along the Imperial family, Andronikos would ascend to the throne after the death of his father Basil I. He would immediately get to work in continuing the Imperial ambition of an Eastern Pax Elysia. His aggressive approach towards the treatment of the Muslim population would earn him infamy in the Islamic World, while receiving praise among both the ultra-conservative christian realms for returning Jerusalem and the Levant to Christian control. Despite this aggression towards Islam, the Jews of the Empire would show a great deal of respect to Andronikos for lifting the ancient Roman ban of them upon the city, solidifying Christian and Jewish relations and even proposed construction of the Third Temple. It would be because of mending ties between the two abrahamic faiths, that Andronikos would unite them under Imperial rule. Although both faiths did not trust one another, the Elysian Emperor promoted a sense of peace between them.

In Asia, the Ming Dynasty collapsed into many smaller warlord states, something which would start the Second Warring State period. Watching developments in Asia closely, the island of Taiwan would see development as a refuge for both merchants and former Ming loyalists, providing an immigration boost to the island. As the Europeans remain interested in the tropical islands of the indies, the Empire held complete sovereignty over Australia and the Pacific. Prior to his untimely death, the Emperor appeared fascinated about Chinese history, and seeing the largest power of its era collapse in such a spectacular fashion was something that made a deep impression on the Emperor.

Notably, it was under Andronikos I that Elysia would destroy one of their greatest enemies. After many decades of aggression, the Vinlandic Althing would be destroyed and the entirety of the arctic north would be brought under Imperial rule. The Norse faith, long having endured much hardship, would finally start to be destroyed as many Vinlanders embraced Christianity. It would be that, despite being at the height of their power in the era, that Andronikos would be assassinated by a Spartanian Assassin working for the Kyriarchos. The Empire would avenge their beloved Emperor in time, bringing the murderous Kyriarchos and the collaborators of the assassination to justice, but they could not bring Andronikos back.

With a nation entering mourning, the Emperor who had ruled for so little had done so much for the Empire and her subjects. Succession would pass to his brother, Romanos. Although he was simply a mortal man, the achievements that Andronikos had passed down for the future were immortal. As the first assassinated head of state in Elysian history, the funeral was made public to a grieving crowd in Nea Konstantinople. He would be buried in Aloulon, where a small church would be built in his honor.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 42: Tears of the Nile (1636-1640)

With the end of the Unification War, the renegade Kingdom of Spartania was eventually brought into Imperial rule. The spirit and mindset of Spartan ‘supremacy’ was completely shattered, and the two-headed eagle would come to rule over their exotic, if not aggressive, southern neighbors. Elements in Spartan society, such as the nobility, now had to abide to new laws and regulations that they had once prided themselves as being above. Some of the nobility would immediately submit to the personal union between the two crowns, but some were much more hesitant and less vocal about the personal union.

Elysia would, on purpose, not enforce any serious laws upon Spartania once the union went into effect. Only the most basic of Imperial law would be implemented, such as allowing free trade between the two realms and relaxing the once tense border. Spartania itself had been modified on a modified version of Roman, and later Elysian law, something that gave the Empire an incredible benefit of simplifying what could have been an incredible headache that was Spartan administration. The clergy was left virtually untouched, largely left independent by the Spartan monarchy, and the Elysian government would not interfere with the matters of the holy church of the south.

With Spartania brought into Imperial rule, the Elysians were reunited with their Southern cousins. Relations between the once hostile government would take time to mend, and it was a wound that only time could heal. It was no longer a time for the two to remain enemies, as it was now time to allow the world to witness the glory of a Elysian discipline and the might of Spartan steel.

Shortly after the end of the Unification War, the area what was once Vinland was unrecognizable from what it was only a couple of years ago. The Norse Faith, once the dominant faith north of the Borealian Lakes, had rapidly fallen into obscurity. A spiritual awakening among the Vinlanders, extensive missionary work and the criminalisation of Norsedom had led to the region becoming rapidly Christian within such a small amount of time. By the end of 1636, the last enclave of the Norse Faith had vanished in Markland, leading to the complete end of Norsedom within the New World and the end of Norse history as a whole. Christ had ruled supreme in Vinland.

In the far west, there was only a single large realm among the Barbaroi. The Chiefdom of Yupik, along the coastline of the north, was the largest among the remaining barbaroi of Elysium. Yupik had eliminated their neighbouring rivals through a series of conquests as the Elysians were settling along the Hespredia plains, and with the Empire focusing on securing the Pacific Ocean, the Yupik took the time to consolidate their new gains and unite the northern tribes.

As the decades would come to pass, the Empire turned their attention back towards Yupik and the north. From what was once the Empire reaching from sea to sea during the reign of Emperor Alexandros, Emperor Romanos wished to reach the most northern extent of the continent from the frozen north to the tropical south.

The Empire would come to hold claims on the entirety of Elysium, and settlers would come to embrace a belief that Elysia was destined to unite and rule what they believed was a new Promised Land, awarded to the the former Romans for staying faithful to Christ following the traumatic experience of the Odyssey and the Great Storm, giving them their new homeland. The belief of Elysian expansion across the continent during the centuries would form the basis of a belief known as the ‘Manifest Destiny’, a concept that was held that Elysia was destined to rule the entire continent. Later conquests after the settlement of the Hesperidian Plains would see the settlers become more religiously motivated in settlement, eager to seek the wealth of the east.

Demographically, the entire Empire was changing. At the start of the century, the Elysian Empire itself was home to several million subjects. As the Empire started to settle across the enormous continent, the settlers would come to include more educated men, such as many skilled farmers, tradesmen and craftsmen. Most communities would be comprised of families in small settlements in the interior, while coastal communities would be dotted with Shipbuilding, commerce, and fisheries settlements. Elysium’s healthy climate and abundant food supply resulted in the lowest death rate and highest birth rates of any place in the world at the time, and the population of the Empire was ballooning. From just several million subjects at the start of the 17th century, the population had tripled in almost forty years, and with no rate of slowing down.

With a desire to unite the promised land, the Elysian Empire would mobilize for a major campaign to settle the distant lands of the northwest. With plans organised among the military for a rapid military campaign into the north, war would be declared against the Yupik.

The Empire would allow no quarter or any form of mercy against the Yupik, sending two entire Thema towards the north and dividing them to allow for faster movement. Almost immediately, the border territories were under occupation by the feared Imperial legions. Stories would be spread among the Elysian military that the Yupik armies would actually flee the moment that they had seen the Imperial army. Despite the Yupik having modernized itself considerably due to the neighboring influence of the Empire, with their armies carrying modern Elysian carbines, they simply couldn’t compete against the firepower and numerical superiority that the Empire brought to the north.

The Yupik capital of Siuslaw, close to the border of the Empire, would be occupied with relative ease. With the capital under occupation, some Imperial troops would be stationed to maintain the city and the neighboring area under garrison. As the armies would move to the north, the garrisoned troops would take the standard ‘no nonsense’ approach to their duties, arresting or executing anyone that even dared to make trouble.

In just two months, the Empire broke through the south and made their way towards the frozen north. As winter would come to pass, Elysian commanders would march their troops into the north with caution, not wishing to lose the incredible momentum that had been made so far. At the same time, the arctic conditions were harsh, and some of the unprepared soldiers would unfortunately die from hypothermia despite the best efforts to save them.

The Empire would attain an impressive victory at Kainawa, eliminating half of the Yupik army after they had abandoned their homeland to deal with a distant rebellion that drained their numbers. With thousands being killed, the barbaroi would march towards the far north in an attempt to regroup. Mavrikios Zarides would become a local hero among the Elysian military for his impressive victory.

The summer of 1636 would come to be remembered as a cold one, which made conditions dangerous within the agricultural areas. The farming community of Epipotam and the neighboring provinces were seriously damaged by the cold weather, and people were worried about a food shortage.

The Battle of Nisga’a would destroy the rest of the Yupik, leaving devastation beyond belief as their entire army would be killed. The battle lasted for less then what was previously expected, as it took longer to bury and burn the bodies of the death rather than actually kill them.

The Yupik would submit to the Empire, and they would be completely wiped from the map. Their entire Chiefdom would be annexed into the Empire, and settlement and religious efforts would begin immediately following the end of the war. The defeat of the Yupik would signal the last serious opposition to the Elysian efforts to settle the new promised land.

With the annexation of such a large region, the Empire would come to dominate a large portion of the northwestern coastline. Elysification efforts would begin immediately, where barbaroi were slowly but quickly civilised and new settlements would begin to be constructed.

Over the decades, whale based products such as its oil, fat and meat are being more and more sought over among the nobility and the plebs alike. Several companies would be created due to this increase of interest focused exclusively on whale hunting, and due to their exceptional work, were able to sell exotic products to previously unreachable markets. The price of whaling would increase dramatically, and both Elysian and Vinlandic sailors would take pride in their hunting skills.

With Elysian dominance over the continent completely uncontested by any other major power, Emperor Romanos and the Imperial government would proudly send out the call that Elysia would be open to people of all nations. It is in Elysium, the new promised land, that they would find true salvation regardless of their culture or religious beliefs. While Elysia would claim the entirety of the continent of Elysium under the Empire, some would doubt that Elysian interests were finished after the continent was united .

Uniforms that were in use within the Imperial armies were largely dependent on regiment commanders to provide and pay for them. This would lead to a great variety in colors and styles on the battlefield and made identifying friend from foe confusing. It would be under the reign of Emperor Romanos that a standardized military uniform would be created by the Empire. The Empire would come to create uniforms for the soldiers of the Empire, providing a sense of loyalty and patriotism among the Elysian forces. The new uniform would be unique among the Elysian nation and its identity. Wishing to embrace its Roman heritage, the uniforms would be colored in a shade of red, akin to the great Legions of Ancient Rome.

The reasoning behind the choice of color would come to various reasons for the Empire. It was financially cheap for the Empire to produce, and culturally came to be one of the Imperial colors alongside Tyrian Purple. Such a bright color did, however, provide a tactical reasoning as musket smoke would allow the Elysian soldier to easily identify friend and foe. Among the military itself, the soldiers of the Empire preferred the color red over any other color, believing that it inspired fear into their enemies and that they were, themselves, akin to the Legionaries of Rome.

While the new uniforms would be created for the army, Purple would be reserved for the colors of royalty. Even with an Empire being as powerful as it was, the dye needed to create Purple was still incredibly expensive. The Epilektoi, the ultra elite bodyguards of the Emperor, were given purple uniforms as symbol of their status.

Developments of bottle making had allowed wine produces in Italy to create bottles in more standardized sizes, and as a result, the bottle cork was reintroduced. This would prove to be a much more efficient way to seal in the wine then the old cloth straps. This would allow wine to be transported over much farther distances than possible.

The Northwestern Coast would see a direct focus for settlement along the colonial institution. The colder temperatures would drive away some settlers, but some would thrive and love the atmosphere of the far north. With a majority of the coast settled, the remainder of the interior would be focused upon by the Empire in time. With the coastline becoming a popular region to settle down upon, only the brave or the foolish would wonder past the territories to migrate to the extreme north.

Away from the matters of the New World, the Empire would turn its attention towards the rich lands of Egypt. Although having recovered from their problems, the Mamluk Sultanate lost their lands in the Levant and Arabia, being confined to only Egypt proper. The Elysians, eager for conquest, would launch a new wave of conquest. While wishing to take the Sinai and as much of Egypt as possible, the Emperor and the exarchs were more interested in conquering two of the region's most important cities. Alexandrina, the port city with a long history and a seat of the old Patriarchate. And Cairo, the political and economic heart of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Conquering these two cities and the Nile Delta for Emperor and Christ would bring a death blow to the Sultanate, and severely strength Elysian and Christian influence in the region.

War would be declared, and the Elysians would meet no resistance across the Sinai and close to the Red Sea. The Empire would meet no resistance until Sharqiya, where the entire Egyptian army would come to engage what they believed was a small portion of the Elysian invading force.

It would prove to be a foolish choice, as the Elysians were quickly reinforced. This would completely break Egyptian morale to the point of leaving Cairo completely open to an Elysian advance. With the defenses of the Delta weakened, two entire Thema would come to focus on capturing Cairo. Should Cairo fall, the entire Delta would be open.

Cairo would prove to be a much harder to seize than previously thought. Despite the Egyptian forces being pushed out of Sharqiya, the defenses of the grand city were much more difficult to capture than previously expected. Elysian cannon fire would bombard Cairo with hellfire, and when the crown jewel of Egypt was eventually captured, the back of the Mamluks were completely broken.

The Fall of Cairo would lead to a disaster among the Egyptians. Upon hearing the fall of the city, many within the Sultanate’s army had thought about desertion. Those who were from the city broke into hysteria, believing that their families had been killed by the Christians. Trapped at Rashid, the Mamluks would attempt to flee to Alexandrina in an attempt to raise a defense of the city. Their commander, Jabir Kansur, did not expect the speed of the Elysian troops had moved at. Nor could he ever predict that the Elysians would bring the wrath of god onto them...

The Battle of Rosetta, as it would come to be known, was simply not a battle but as a massacre. The entire Egyptian army would be completely wiped out to the last man, eradicating any armed resistance to the Elysian conquest. Due to an Elysian history of capturing enemy commanders for future executions, Jabir Kansur would end up taking his own life and retaining his honor instead of surrendering. His body would be thrown into the Mediterranean.

A few months later, the Empire would come to seize Alexandrina along with the remainder of Lower Egypt. The Sultan himself, who had evaded capture by abandoning Cairo, would surrender to the Elysian Empire and their commanders. Being forced to sign the terms of surrender while being disgraced, the Sultan would sign away almost the majority of Lower Egypt with the exception of some of the coastal strips and the poorer regions. However, both Alexandrina and Cairo would be lost to the Elysian Empire. The Sultan, despite his powerful title, was barely a fraction of the powerful ruler he once was.

On April 6th 1639, the Elysian Empire would create the Exarchate of Aegyptus. Once the breadbasket of the Ancient Roman Empire, and once of its wealthiest provinces before being lost to Muslim conquest, the lands of the pharaohs would come to be ruled by an Elysian-led exarch. Interestingly, the new exarch would come up with new plans of its own. The Copts, long having suffered from Muslim persecution and under centuries of mistreatment, were liberated by the Elysians. The Copts would become the new ruling elite of the exarchate, displacing the former Muslim nobility that once ruled. With the liberation of Alexandrina, along with the emergence of the Copts as a ruling class among an Elysian-led Egypt, many Copts in diaspora would start to return back to Egypt, causing a slow shift among the demographics within the coming decades.

With the Empire holding almost all of the seats of the old Pentarchy, time would come where the Empire would turn its attention back towards the West, specifically the brilliance that was Rome herself. Until it would come time to focus on Europa herself, the Empire would continue spreading its dominance within the East, where a special opportunity would arise...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 43: The Promised Land (1640-1645)

With the fall of Cairo and the Nile Delta, the dominance of the East was all but assured. From Constantinople to Alexandrina, the Mediterranean world was firmly under the rule of the Elysian Empire and her exarchs. From what was centuries of decline, the legacy of Imperial rule had been restored almost to its fullest extent. From the rule from Ancient Rome, to Eastern Roman rule, the new chapter within the legacy of Rome was to be completed with the Elysian rule on the distant territories. All that separated the great powers of Persia and Elysia between one another was a strip of independent realms from the Caucasus to Mesopotamia.

The Elysians were, simply, not interested in the conquest of Arabia. Rather than provoke the entire Islamic world against the Empire, the Elysians were content with ensuring containment of the Muhammadians and allowing them to squabble with one another. The Empire was restoring the ‘organic’ borders of the East, reconquering territories that had been held by Ancient Rome within one point of its history. This desire to conquer and unite the East was driven with the dream of a Pax Elysium, and to bring peace and stability to a region that the Elysians seen as ‘lawless’.

With the desire to unite the East, the Empire had long term ambitions to reconquer the West and to mend the horrible schism that split Christianity into two. It would not be until the East was brought under the Elysians that any real attempts to conquer the West could be made. It would be in the Caucasus that the Empire had an advantage to significantly strengthen its Eastern defenses.

Batum, held by the Russian Tsardom, was the only territory that remained on what was formerly the Russian Black Sea. After the conquest of the Turkish coastline, Batum was the only city that the Tsardom was allowed to retain following the battle. Serving as their only port to the South of Crimea and the Caucasus, it was in an incredibly vulnerable yet strategic position. It would, unfortunately, make the city incredibly hard to defend. It was only due to the strength of Russia and their vassal, the Kingdom of Imereti, that nobody would dare oppose the Russian claim on the city.

The Elysians would wait for decades for the perfect time to strike the Russians, and the opportunity would come while the Tsardom would be preoccupied in a war against the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. While the Polish had made gains in the war, the momentum was slowly starting to turn against the Commonwealth. The Elysians organised an invasion force to deal with Batum and Imereti. War would come to be declared against the Tsardom while it was most vulnerable, striking against the Russians and the soft underbelly that it held in the Caucasus.

Batum and Imereti would fall almost immediately to the Empire, and it would soon become apparent that the Russians had not been defending the Caucasus. While the Empire would carefully march across the Caucasus. The Exarchs would do most of the heavy lifting, marching their entire armies into the North, where their overzealous behavior would cause their commanders to not consider the harsh reality of warfare among the Caucasus.

It would be a very quick war, and one where Elysia wished to make as little gains as possible. Batum and Imereti would be annexed into the Empire, and whatever remained of the vassal state of Imereti would become independent from Russian control. Despite its insignificant gains, the consequences of the war would become long lasting. Russia had lost all influence south of the Caucasus, and the Elysians would be in a prime position to conquer the crossroads between Eastern Europe and Western Asia.

Despite the gains that had been acquired by the Empire, the reality of their new territories would to surprise the Elysian administrators. Both the Kingdoms of Georgia and Armenia, known for their long history as faithful Christian realms, had abandoned Christ and adopted the faith of their Islamic conquerors. The royalty and the nobility of both Armenia and Georgia would encourage conversion with zeal, despite many true believers living within the borders.

Feeling disgusted for the Caucasian kingdoms abandoning Christ, Emperor Romanos felt even worse about the force conversions taking place by the monarchs to sway them away from the light of the lord. Romanos would request the Exarchs to liberate the faithful Christians within the Islamic kingdoms, and to bring the Islamic monarchs of Armenia and Georgia to justice.

The Islamic Kingdoms of Georgia and Armenia were, in the eyes of the Elysians, sentenced to death for abandoning Orthodoxy and Christianity as a whole. Knowing that Armenia would come to the defense of Georgia, Emperor Romanos would start to brainstorm how to proceed with the war against the Kingdoms, and decided that the old traditions of the monarchs in the region was corrupted. Division among the realm had destroyed European Orthodoxy in the Caucasus Kingdoms, and the Emperor decided that the slate must be wiped clean.

The Elysians would storm into Georgia, immediately laying siege to a portion of the Kingdom. Elysian Thema would vanquish whatever resistance could be made up against the Empire, and slowly but surely made the Caucasus Kingdoms bleed.

Odishi would be the site of a crushing victory by the Imperial forces. Under the leadership of Konstantios Rhadinos, the commander would completely destroy the remainder of the Georgian army and lose none of his men in the process. The victory would be a symbolic tombstone for the Islamic era of Georgia, and Rhadinos would receive considerable praise for his incredible victory.

On the other side of the world, news would come from the lands of Japan. The Yamana clan, one of the major powers in the region, would bring an end to the rule of the Ashikaga Shogunate by seizing Kyoto. Toyohisa I would utterly defeat the Ashikaga, and would be crowned by having the Emperor name him as the new Shogun, becoming the hereditary military dictator of Japan. A long period of conflict would come to an end in Japan, and only time will tell whether the new Yamana Shogunate will be more successful than its predecessor when it came to the difficult task of bringing the warring clans under their control.

With the end of their lordship to Russia, the last fragment of the Imereti would come under the invasion of the Persians. The Imereti would barely stand a chance against the might of the Persian Empire. The sight of smoke could be spotted by the Elysians as far as neighbouring Tbilisi, and news would spread quickly of the Shahenshah wanting to gain any leverage that he could against the Elysians.

The War against the Caucasus Kingdoms would come to an end, and the Empire would deliberately make the terms for peace extremely harsh. The entirety of Georgia would be annexed, and Armenia was forced into a shadow of its former self. Due to overzealous military actions among the exarchs, the casualty rate among the Elysian kingdoms was high, while the Empire itself had minimal losses..

With the Northwest settled, the Empire had almost achieved its dream of uniting the continent. While the coastline was being pacified by military forces stationed within the region, alongside Elysification occurring among the natives, it had left a notable region in the interior and the far north of Elysium itself as the frontier. Thousands would begin to make the journey to the north, eager to build towns and future cities and give their families a chance for a better life.

Due to the extreme climate of the north, the overwhelming majority of the Elysians would settle along the southern half of the far north among the forests and the coastal regions. Elysian settlers would start calling this region Hyperborea, and in this region was the only remaining Barbaroi left in Elysium, the Aleut.

With the conquest of the Western Caucasus, the Empire would integrate the newly conquered territories. On January 1st 1644, the Exarchate of Armenia would be established. Originally a independent client kingdom often divided between and fought over by the Ancient Roman and Persian Empires, the new Exarchate was perhaps the most culturally diverse exarch yet. While European Orthodoxy existed within the north of the exarch, the south was dominated by Islam as the former centers of the Georgian and Armenian Kingdoms.

With the creation of the new Exarch, the Empire would deal with the matters of the “traitors” that belonged to the former Kingdom of Georgia, and the remainder of the Armenian territories in the Exarch itself. The Empire would come to see an organised series of trials aimed at bringing the nobility, clergy and even royalty to justice. The commoners themselves were spared, as many of them were still faithful Christians, while the ‘traitors’ among the nobility were dealt with. Some members of the royal family, including the former King of Georgia, would be executed. Due to a relatively light level of proper Muslim influence within the governments, the church had relative ease in working among loyal nobility and the commoners in restoring Christ to its former glory among the Exarch. It would take years to bring the entire exarch back into the light, but despite everything, the true believers had never lost their faith.

A new cannon would be incorporated into the Elysian arsenal, a highly maneuverable and portable gun that was rather small but designed for short range warfare. With its maneuverability, its firepower would not be underestimated and would give the Elysians a tactical advantage.

With the coastline of the north starting to see the first wave of Elysian settlers, the Empire worked to conquer the Aleut by sending a small army to the north. A small military presence would be needed, and upon making the long march along the north just as the first Elysians arrived in the region, the Empire worked to finally unite the continent.

The Battle of Aleut would result in an overwhelming Elysian victory, led by a relative of the Imperial house that shared the name with one of Elysia’s great emperors. Losing just under sixty men, the appearance of the Imperial army was something that the extremely isolated Aleut peoples had never encountered before. Unable to compete against the extreme firepower and discipline that the Elysian armies were famous for, the Aleut would be annihilated and then annexed

Almost two centuries of expansion along the New World had led Elysia to reach an incredible point in its history. With just mere weeks before its bicentennial anniversary of Foundation Day, the entire continent of Elysium would be united. Within two centuries, the Empire had accomplished the impossible and had thrived within the new world around them. As festivities were planned to celebrate the founding of Elysia, Emperor Romanos openly proclaimed that a new era of the Elysian Empire was about to begin.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 44: The Lions Den (1645-1650)

With the bicentennial of Foundation Day, life in the Elysian Empire came to a halt for a single day for an event that came around only once per century. The celebration of the national holiday would come in a special time in the Empire’s lifetime, where the northern realms were settled and conquered, bringing the entire continent under Imperial rule in one form or another. With the colossal economy and prestige that the Empire had held on the world economy, the festivities that the Empire was able to afford was truly on a different scale. February 25th 1645, two centuries to the day that Emperor Constantine and the Great Fleet arrived in the new world, would throw of the the largest parties in the world.

Festivities were planned by every single major city within the Empire. Smaller towns, villages and remote regions of the Empire would celebrate with local traditions and with more modest forms of celebration. In the wealthy cities of Seagate, Nea Atheni and Tenochtitlan., festivals were held and were much more extravagant and grand in scale. Although paid for by the state, wealthy individuals contributed towards throwing larger parties for the special occasion. Parades and carnivals were held everywhere, grand feasts were organised, and a more humble means of celebration occurred across the Empire.

Although celebrations occurred across the Empire, the original Elysian Heartlands across the Elysian Bay were the most committed to the celebration and perhaps had the most fun. The Capital itself celebrated with grandeur and intensity that dwarfed the most grand triumphs of Ancient Rome. The celebration for the Bicentennial of Foundation Day was, purposely, extremely extravagant and drawn-out, where entertainment and public games were drawn out for another week after the celebration. The Statues of the Marble Emperors were adorned with flowers within the Forum, and trouble was kept to a minimum due to the presence of the City Guard. Wine and alcohol was the drink of choice among the nobility and commoners who could afford it, and was cheap due to the economic power of the Empire. Within the first twenty four hours, the capital had celebrated so much, the entire city had run out of alcohol.

The celebration would, in time, come to a close and life would slow down and return back to normal. After the hangovers had passed over, and the mess would be cleaned up, the Empire would return to the long yet fruitful process of expanding its influence across the Old World. While facing difficulties against the Ottoman Empire during the earliest period of expansion in the Old World, the Empire had faced little threats to the Eastern hegemony...until now.

Emperor Romanos would be received as a popular Emperor, but his popularity would be greatly supported by his own personal benevolence. Having a just outlook towards life and how to reign, the Empire would enjoy the benefits of having an Emperor who held a fair hand into what was right and wrong. Unrest was notably lower during his reign, which was especially important due to the infancy of the Personal Union with Spartania.

The short Isthmus of Suez both sat in a valuable strategic geographic position while also being in a potentially dangerous one .Seeing the value in the Isthmus, the Elysians would seize the region and maintain the region under direct Imperial organisation, planning to create strong defences in the region.

While the Elysians were incredibly powerful within the East, the unexpected rise of a new Persian Empire proved to be an unexpected obstacle to the growing Christian dominance of the East. As a serious regional power, the Persians had proven themselves in regional conquests to be much more powerful than originally expected, conquering the once fractured Mesopotamia in just a few years. If the Empire was to remain dominance of the East, and curb Islamic influence and power in the region, the Elysians had to neuter the Persians and push them back to the Zagros.

Strategically, the Empire would declare a war to conquer the Eastern Caucasus. A wealthy region in its own right, the Empire would mobilize near a hundred thousand soldiers to invade the region, being supported by the Imperial exarchs. Persia was known for being stronger then it looked, and was more than capable to stand up to the Elysian Empire.

The Western borders were largely unprotected, and the Elysians would quickly rush into the region to seize as much land as they could before Persia could organise a response. Two major armies would separately work to fight against the Persians, one focusing on occupying Mesopotamia while the core of the army focused in the Caucasus.

Within the wide array of hills and mountains between Persia and Mesopotamia, the Empire was successfully entrenching themselves within any of the new lands that they occupied. After two months of warfare, the core of the Persian army would arrive, close to a hundred thousand strong. Completely outnumbered, the Persian Shah himself boldly led his men into battle, preparing to crush the Elysian invasion in its infancy.

What would instead happen was the opposite of what would be expected. Hosayn IV and his army would engage the much smaller Elysian army at Ardelan, but was forced into an offensive position and hadn’t expected the sheer prowess and elite commanders that the Elysian were infamous for. What would have been an easy battle for the Persians was instead drastically different, and every passing day would place the Persians in a much poorer position. Able to be rapidly reinforced by their Exarchs, the numerical tide of the Battle of Ardelan would change overtime, with both sides suffering considerable losses.

Hosayn IV Timurid, Shahanshah of Persia. Despite the Turco-Mongol origins of the dynasty, the Southern Timurids were completely Persian unlike their northern cousins. ​

When it became clear that Persia was not going to achieve a victory in Ardelan without suffering a terrible defeat, the Shah would withdraw his army and retreat from the battlefield, licking their wounds at the expense of the thousands lost. Hosayn’s own tactical skills and his leadership would make him a respected military commander, and it was his leadership that prevent the battle from turning into a rout.

The Battle of Ardalan would come to result in an Elysian victory against the Persians. While it would not come to represent a significant turning point in the war, it was an important first battle in the war, where defeat could have easily spelt disaster for Elysia.

It was during the battle against Transoxianan forces that the military lifestyle that the Elysians had largely lived, along with the battle itself, led to the development of a fighting spirit of belonging and cooperation that greatly strengthened the armed forces. Commanders noticed clear signs that Elysian troops were working better together and that they had formed strong bonds of loyalty and duty to the Crown and Empire, something that would have been incredibly difficult just a few years ago. It separated the Elysian troops from all the others, and it showed.

A more liberal understanding of the place of the civilian in the state was becoming more clear, and Elysia’s neighbours and own exarchs had branded the Empire as a rogue nation. The Emperor believed that none of these other nations had the same mindset as the Empire did, and was cautious about who to trust. If Elysia wanted to fight the past, the Past fights back.

A great victory would occur at Haditha, where the entire Transoxianan army would be completely destroyed due to Elysian brilliance and combat power. The entire army would be wiped out, strengthening Elysian positions within the front line.

The Persian Empire would gather all of their men and allies together to crush the Elysians at Ardalan, using all of their combined might to push the Empire out of Mesopotamia. They would be led by a new commander, Ebrahim Dalwand, a famous commander within the Persian Army who was responsible for conquering Mesopotamia many years prior. Knowing the terrain like the back of his hand, along with an incredibly precise and sharp tactical mind, the Muslims would make an assault onto Ardalan.

Ebrahim Dalwand, commander of the Persian army. (1602-1648)​

Unfortunately, the Elysians had predicted that the Muslims would have attempted this strategy and were within the area, entrenching their position and strengthening their forces. When the Persians and their allies united to retake the strategic position of Ardalan, the Elysians were more then ready for them, and would come to be reinforced rapidly. Despite the defensive advantage, it did little to help the Elysians due to the brilliant leadership of Ebrahim Dalwand, who almost crushed the Elysian combined armies. It would be an incredibly close battle, but the Elysians had just snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

Flushed with their victory, the Elysians would pursue the Persians across the desert in an attempt to catch them with their guard down. It was due to the overzealous push to destroy the enemy that would change the war...

In both Wasit and Samawat, the Elysians would prove to suffer two terrible defeats under Dalwand. An entire Elysian army would be destroyed in Wasit, and the Empire would regroup and still lose a battle at Samawat. While the Persians would lose much more at Samawat, a lack of morale along the Elysian lines would make it difficult to keep the Imperial troops in formation. Before any further damage could be done, the Elysians would simply give up to throw away more lives and retreat from the area. For the next six months, the Elysians would regroup and regain their numbers in the Caucasus, leaving Mesopotamia completely open.

Back in the new world, Spartania held a border dispute with Elysia regarding the status of Manactl, viewing the land as rightfully theirs. Due to no prior existing claim on the territory, along with the province being overwhelming Elysian and not Spartan influenced in any way, the Elysians simply refused the demands that Spartania made

The Elysians would, in time, regain their momentum and numbers and move along Mesopotamia. With the Persians funneled into the narrow region around Basra, the Elysians would surround an unprepared Dalwand and his army. The Persian commander, moving his army in an attempt to break the Elysian offensive before it reached the capital of Isfahan. During the proceeding battle, Dalwand had lacked any of the forward momentum that had been carrying him to victory, and was not truly in his element.

The commander would then come to die during the middle of the battle, and with the death of their leader, the Persians attempted to break their ranks and flee. The Elysians took the opportunity to tighten the noose, and utterly destroyed them.

With the destruction of the Persian army in Basara, combined with enormous losses, the Persians were unable to maintained a continued war against the Elysians. With the Elysians only a few days away from Isfahan and Tehran, the Persians would surrender to the Elysians, ending the war. The Shah would not take place within the talks, and instead the Elysians would not focus on taking much territory. The war would come to be the bloodiest in the Near East for over a century.

Persia would cede the entirety of the Eastern Caucasus to Elysia, while annulling their treaty to Transoxiana. Enormous reparations would come to be paid to the Elysians, leaving the Persian economy weakened for quite some time.

With the Exarchate of Armenia now holding dominion over the Caucasus, plans to expand the regional economy by the Elysians were discussed immediately, along with the building of defensive forts. Between the three exharchates would exist the realm of Hisn Kayfa, ruled by the ancient Ayyubids. Originally a weak realm, it had grown surprisingly large through opportunism and the fall of their neighbours. The state would originally serve as a useful buffer state between the Exarchs and Persians, but the Ayyubids had outlived their usefulness, and Hisn Kayfa was destined to be conquered.

The Ayyubid realm would barely stand a chance against the combined might of the Elysians, crumpling immediately once the Empire crossed into their territory. From a land that was ruled by the former leaders of the Islamic world centuries ago, the sad state of affairs for the Ayyubids would make the Elysians feel pity onto their house. Some members of the Ayyubids had actually abandoned their relatives, siding with the Elysians and even assisting them in their invasion of the region.

The nobility would come to demand their old rights again, recalling the days when the King was just the first among the nobility. The Emperor would reject their demands, seeing the nobility wishing to undermine Imperial authority to regain lost rights or privileges that they never had to begin with.

In the distant lands of Asia, the Yamana Shogunate had reorganised its government, reinventing itself as the Shogunate of Japan by centralising the feudal government of the islands. This sudden centralization by the Shogun would deeply upset most of the former nobility, who only a few decades held their own independent realms. Able to sense the tense political environment, the Elysians would discretely fund rebels who were upset at the Shoguns new reign. This would be the first time that the Empire would interfere with Japan, and it wouldn’t be the last time.

After only six months, the Empire would completely overwhelm Hisn Kayfa, annexing the entire region and dividing its territory among the Exarchates. The Ayyubids who had worked with the Elysian Empire would be granted as the new governors of the region, to which in time the Ayyubids would convert to Elysian Orthodoxy and have a sizeable regional influence among the Kurdish populations of the Exarchates.

With the number of technical innovations during the previous two centuries, the increased output for production of products such as iron or cloth had came to develop into its own field within forms of organisation. Manufactories, often outside city limits, would be organised by merchant capitalists who can both bypass ancient guild laws that prevent mass production while also become pioneers through means to increase production in organizing specialist labor in one place. The new methods would come as a huge change over the heavily regulated methods of old, and together with later technical advances, the new means of production will come to revolutionize society.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 45: Pearl of the Orient (1650-1656)
(Authors note: I have lost images relating to the Tunis War, I have written down the events that have transpired from memory to the best of my ability. My apologies.

A victorious Empire in a world that had many of them, the Elysians had inflicted a terrible blow against a resurgent Persian Empire. Despite the terrible cost that the victory had brought, the outcome of the war would strengthen the Elysians regionally. The Persians had lost the Caucasus, and it was something that the Elysians were interested in never allowing them to fall into Muslim hands again.

With the Persians currently weakened, the Empire would continue to build its growing influence across the Near East. Egypt was weak and divided, and the Emperors of Elysia were more than content in allowing Arabia to suffer in seeming perpetual warfare and torment along the emirates and tribes. Mesopotamia, while still in the grip of the Persians, was a future target that the Empire was more than interested in.

With the Elysians feeling flushed in their victory for now, matters would turn towards to Asia. But as cultures, faith and borders of the exarchs would change, so would the world around the Empire.

Shortly after the victory against Persia, the three kingdoms of Scandinavia would be formally united into a single realm. Sweden, which broke free from Danish rule in a few decades following the Odyssey, had carved out an incredibly powerful Kingdom of their own and had spent the following centuries consolidating their territories in Finland and the Baltic, while turning the tide against their former oppressors. Led from Stockholm, the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway hold an incredible amount of autonomy from the crown but remain firmly under Swedish administration, making sure that loyalty to the crown comes before anything else.

Remaining steadfast as a Catholic nation while the remainder of the peninsular would fall to heresy and betrayal, the new twenty year old King, Johan IV Trolle, declared the unification of Scandinavia and the birth of a new Kalmar Union among the three crowns. and would establish the Kingdom of Scandinavia on January 5th 1650. As the nations of Europe would take interest, the Imperial court would ponder over the usefulness of a possible northern ally.

After another disastrous war against the Papal Juggernaut, the Protestant realm would fracture under their own weight and lose nearly the entirety of Southern France. With the Papacy expanding to conquer Southern France, the French Catholics would break away from the heresy of the north and create their own nation with the backing of the Pope. The Bishopric of Gascony, led by the former Diocese of Dax, would work to remove all protestant influences from Southern France and become a beacon to the remaining Catholics of France. The Empire would come to watch developments along Western Europe with a watchful eye.

Along the divided lands of the East Indies, largely ruled by the colonial powers of Europe, the western portion of the archipelago would receive special attention under the Elysian Empire. While most of the East Indies would be ruled by the British, the Elysians would dominate the large island of what would be known as Papua. Elysian Liaisons would discover the diverse cultural and rural nature of the large island, although process would occur slowly due to the islands size. Elysian settlements were seen as a low priority due to geographic location and the economic feasibility of neighbouring Australia, and the Empire would only commit a miniscule amount of resources to the island, while the remainder was largely concentrated along Australia and Maniolas.

The Kingdom of Spain, once the undisputed master of Iberia, was now a broken realm that fractured into multiple states. The Spanish crown had lost all authority, and was a mere shadow of its former power. The Kingdom was seen as dead nation, and when a revolt along the Spanish nobility soon spread to occupy the rest of the kingdom, it caused the collapse of whatever was left.

As the winters had been getting longer and colder, the ice and snow would start creeping further south with the ongoing season. Crops are becoming ruined, wine is spoiled and fish have begun migrating to warmer waters. As the Elysians would migrate to the south for more comfortable living during the winter, the Vinlanders and Borealians would thrive within the cold temperatures, truly earning their reputation as the people of the north. As the price of crops would decrease, the demand for materials such as fur, seals and salt would rise considerably.

Having been under an Elysian vassalship for several years, Pangasinan would serve to govern the entirety of the Maniolian Archipelago for the Elysian Empire. Upon converting to Christianity and being granted the Elysian holdings in the region, Pangasinan would neighbour both a local power in the region, and a threat to its own interests. The Sultanate of Brunei, one of the major powers of the East Indies, had largely encourage the smaller realms of Maniolas that it conquered to convert to Islam through its dominance of the sea and through trade. Confrontation between Brunei and Pangasinan would be inevitable, and it would be Elysia that would make the first moves on behalf of Pangasinan, declaring war on the Sultanate with the backing of the Imperial navy.

In Bohemia, glassmakers in Rudohori had started to create new methods for glass production, creating a clear and easily worked product with flawless results. The new method was to rapidly challenge the existing major glass producing centres in the world as markets across the world were soon flooded with the new and popular product. Bohemia would enjoy its newfound dominance, benefiting the economy which was transforming Prague into one of the world's wealthiest cities and the richest in Central Europe.

What would come to Brunei was nothing they had quite expected. Caraga would be a site of a small land battle where the Bruneian military presence on Maniolas was wiped out. The Elysian Armada would strategically prevent the much larger Bruneian navy to make landings onto Maniolas proper. Exarchs and Pangasinan would make foolhardy attempts to defeat the Bruneian armies on their main territories with limited success, inflicting damages on both sides, but the core of the Elysian involvement of the war was focused on preventing the large Bruneian navy to gain an advantage for landing forces on the archipelago while blockading the coastline.

The Sultanate of Sulu, ruling the Sulu Archipelago between Brunai and Maniolas, had been involved in the war but had made an incredibly limited effort to contribute to the war effort out of necessity to protect their core territory. This would come back to haunt them as Maniolas was secured by the Christians, and Elysia would launch an invasion of Sulu itself once Brunai was thrown back to the ports. By the end of the month, Elysian commander Demetrios Phouskarnaki ordered a large assault along the Sultanate, bringing the entire archipelago to surrender and bend the knee just before the end of the month. They would be annexed by Maniolas by the end of the war.

Having completely lost its ability to project its own thalassocracy, Brunei was forced to surrender to the Elysians, surrendering the entirety of their Maniolian holdings to the vassal rule of Pangasinan, uniting the entirety of the civilized lands of Maniolas under semi-imperial rule. To ensure that Brunei did not aggressively break the demands of the treaty that was imposed upon them, the Sultanate would be forced to transfer half of their trade power to Maniolas for war reparations.

After several years of funding rebel interactions across Japan, the islands of Ryukyu would find themselves at the mercy of a peasant uprising. While the Japanese Shogunate was their overlord, Ryukyu acted independently as a distant vassal and enforced crippling taxes on their peasantry, to which the Elysians secretly financed the peasantry to vent their anger against their rulers, launching an open revolt that started on Okinawa and spread across the rest of the island chain. By the time that the Shogunate could respond to the uprising, the rebel army had overwhelmed the Okinawan army and held the entire region hostage.

The Ryukyu Islands would come to serve as an important practice for what the Elysians would come to prepare for in later years. With the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, it had left the Japanese Shogunate as the dominant power within Asia. With a strong Elysian presence along the Pacific Ocean, tensions between the xenophobic nature of the Japanese shogunate and Elysian merchants were slowly growing. A weak Japan served the interests of the Empire greater than a broken China, and the Empire would come to embrace that. But one element between the two cultures would come to cause problems between the distant powers, the slow introduction of Christianity into Japan.

While Europe would start embracing manufactories across their nation, it did not reach the shores of Elysia until many months later. Emperor Romanos would come to embrace manufactories across Elysia, to which due to its incredible size and overwhelming economy, aspired to transform the Imperial continent into the ‘workshop of the world’. The Elysian economy was easily the strongest in the world, although some cities across Europe rivaled the great metropolis cities of the New World.

Imperial cartographers would chart the lands of the Shogunate of Japan, keeping their distance from the shoreline of Japan and instead exploring across the ruined lands of China. Interestingly, Korean rule would collapse in Manchuria, resulting in the creation of a Manchurian Kingdom that seemed interested in claiming the Mandate of Heaven.

Anastasia I Palaiologos, the Velvet Empress.
​

It would come as an incredible surprise that despite ruling an Empire as a capable Emperor, that Romanos would meet his fate. Suffering from frailty brought on from his advanced age, along with ongoing insomnia, Romanos fell ill and would be confined to his quarters. On April 11th 1653, Emperor Romanos would die at the age of sixty eight, surrounded by only a handful of his closest advisers, friends and family.

Interestingly, succession to the Imperial Throne would pass to a unique member of the Imperial family. While the Elysian monarchy was largely based around Primogeniture lines, where the firstborn son would inherit the throne in preference to daughters, illegitimate sons, younger sons and other relatives, Emperor Romanos would never have a son during his reign. Instead, in the absence of male descendants of the Imperial line, the throne would be inherited by Romanos’s daughter, Anastasia. This would mark the first time that a woman would ascend to the Imperial throne, and her coronation would be well received by the commoners and the nobility.

In the time since the devastating defeat against the Empire, the Mamluk Sultanate had ignored the lessons that it would have learnt. With the seizure of the Nile Delta and the Sinai, the crippled Egyptians would lose be completely crippled from the loss of its economic and political centers. From what was formerly a great power in the Islamic world, Muslim rule in Egypt was on the verge of collapse. Empress Anastasia would make an explosive first impression into her reign, kicking the Egyptians while they are down. The goal was simple, take no prisoners and kill anyone who resists.

What would come to follow for the the Egyptians was humiliation. Already distracted by an opportunistic war by the Sultanate of Tunis and having no means to access the coastline, the Mamluks would fail to even set foot in the Nile Delta. As Elysia would move into Upper Egypt with force, the Elysians would barely encounter any resistance, facing small raiding groups and armed militias that only numbered a few thousand at any one time. Egypt was a husk of its former self, and the loss of the Nile Delta had bled the Sultanate dry.

The conclusion of the war was nothing short of an embarrassment for Egypt and to Islam as a whole, with the Mamluks being forced into the great western desert while Aegyptus would incorporate the new lands. The Coptic ruling class of the exarch would begin efforts to make Christianity into a majority-led religion in the new territories in time, and would only continue to strengthen the Elysian hold on the region. Under the first actions of the Empress, she had already made an explosive impact on Old World. But she was far from done.

With the collapse of Spanish rule in southern Retoria, the Dutch were incredibly eager to make their presence known in the southern corners of the continents. With the collapse of their homeland, rebellious elements quickly overwhelmed the colonial administration of Spanish La Platia. One nobleman would gather support to overthrow the dying colonial administration, and declare the independence from the Spanish crown to proclaim the Kingdom of La Plata. Spain continue to hold claims on the region, while the new Kingdom would claim the entirety of the south as their own claimed territories. With a small British territory, and the Dutch cutting the territories of loyalist and separatist La Plata in half, Elysian senators and nobility would mock the Retorians for their pitiful state

While Tunis would prey on the Mamluks like a vulture, the Sultanate had only accelerated Elysian interests in the Mediterranean by seizing the former Egyptian coastline. With a rapid mobilisation of the Thema in the region, the Elysians were keen to take the coastline that they perceived as rightfully theirs, declaring war against Tunis and the North African realms before they realised what would happen next.

The Hellenization of Anatolia would be one of the primary goals that the Exarchate of Constantina had focused upon ever since the Elysians arrived in their old homeland. In the first few decades following victorious wars in Western Anatolia, Elysia and Constantina would implement harsh laws aiming to Hellenize all non-hellenic peoples in Anatolia. These laws would come to include a ban on speaking any non-hellenic or Imperial approved languages.

While a level of emigration would take place along the Turk to other Islamic realms, or fleeing into still other Ottoman lands as refuges, the Elysians would still try and sooth relations between the Hellenic and Turkish populations despite the aggressive and racist approach that was taken by the Exarch, which aimed to aggressively Hellenize its minorities. A sharp decline among Turkish culture, resulting with the collapse and conquest of the Ottoman Empire, would accelerate Hellenization. Western Anatolia, in twenty five years following the conquest of the area, would be almost completely homogeneous into Hellenic culture and society.

Although a largely peaceful if not aggressive approach was taken to reassert Hellenic dominance over Anatolia, it would still be a violent era. Ethnic violence would occur on a daily occurrence by Turkish militias, and uprisings would be brutally put down. Borrowing a Roman-esc approach to dealing with uprisings, Constantina’s methods to putting down the uprisings were largely seen as genocide.

Almost a century after the great victory against the Ottoman Empire during the Invasion of Hellas, and decades of Imperial-led resettlement and aggressive pro-assimilate policies, Anatolia itself was largely Hellenised. Over half of the population of Anatolia were Greeks or Hellenised Turks, and while many Turks still lived in Anatolia, they were no longer a majority in any region of Constantina. Hellenic rule was restored on Anatolia, but at a great cost, and Constantina would do anything it takes to ensure that another Manzikert would never happen again.

Morocco, sitting in an unfortunate geographic position next to Hispania, was not prepared for war against the Elysians and its exarchs. Simply being swamped by the untold thousands of eager Hispanic soldiers and commanders, Morocco would surrender early and separately for the cost of an early peace at the cost of abandoning their alliance with Tunis.

This would force Tunis to fight against the Elysians on their own, and having been overextended with their easy victory against the Mamluks, the Empire would swarmed the coastline of North Africa. It would be a simple yet costly peace for Tunis, where they would surrender their newly acquired Egyptian coastline. Most dauntingly, Tunis would be forced to surrender their lordship of Fezzan and transfer their vassal to the Elysians. It would be an incredibly quick war, and one where the Sultanate of Tunis had found swords and teeth at their necks from a dozen places.

As the Elysians had retaken much of their former homeland and even new territories, Empress Anastasia knew that the Empire could go further in their conquests. With the Pax Elysia being all but restored along the East, the Empress was ready to restore control over more than just the lands of the East. The Empire was ready to usher in a new age of conquests. With the entirety of the East behind them, Western dreams of grandeur were about to come crumbling down...

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Romanos I Palaiologos
Lived: October 26th 1585 - April 11th 1653
Emperor of Elysia: 1635 - 1653
Kyriarchos of Spartania: 1636 - 1653

The First Emperor to hold two thrones simultaneously, Romanos’s early reign would be marked by unification and bloodshed. Although ascending to the throne under unfortunate circumstances, Romanos was unique among the Imperial Family in that he never originally wanted to rule. Being nearly twelve years older than Andronikos, Romanos was disinterested as a young man when it came to governance of a Empire that stretched across thousands of miles. Wanting to live more of a quiet life, Romanos convinced his father Emperor Basil to transfer his succession rights to Andronikos, believing that the younger sibling was more capable than he was. Pragmatically allowing himself to transfer succession rights, Andronikos would ‘retire’ to an island along the Kykladies, enjoying a position of moderate power along the isles as a local governor.

It would be the assassination of Andronikos that would cause Romanos’s world to come crashing down. Despite the distance between the capital and the Kykladies, Romanos was distraught upon hearing the news of his brothers death. Having shared a close relationship despite the age gap, Romanos would come to grip with reality. With the strongest claim to the throne among his siblings despite his efforts to rid himself of succession, Romanos would finally return to Nea Konstantinopolis during the late stages of the Unification War with Spartania. Upon being crowned as Emperor Romanos I of Elysia during his coronation, the now middle-aged man would bring fire and fury to the Empire’s enemies on a scale never seen before.

Bringing the rogue Spartan nation to Imperial rule, Romanos’s reign immediately kicked off with a noteworthy accomplishment by unifying the two nations into a single political entity. Merging the two crowns into one, the Emperor would greatly strengthen domestic rule over the Empire while the demographics sharply increased in a population boom over various decades. With the advent of the Manifest Destiny along the Elysian people, Romanos I would lead the Empire towards the north, destroying the Yupik and slowly bringing Imperial rule towards the north. The timing would be important, as the entire continent of Elysium was united and settled shortly before the bicentennial of Foundation Day. For an Emperor who never wanted to rule or have the responsibility of the throne, Romanos I was incredibly popular.

From what was promising to be a good reign under a benevolent Emperor, natural disasters would cause havoc across the landscape. Famine and drought would strike the breadbaskets of the Empire, and colder winters would devastate farming communities. The Emperor would come to help relieve some of the stress that farmers had been enduring, at the cost of a lower crop yields for that year. While wanting to help maintain self-sufficiency on an agricultural and economic point, the emergence of manufactories would allow the crown to help finance Elysian companies and monopolies, allowing the Empire to reach markets it was never able to get to before.

The unification of the continent would come to make Elysia as the shining jewel of the globe, a place where people would find true salvation regardless of their beliefs and culture. Elysia was seen among the downtrodden peoples of the old world as a utopia among civilization, where its imperial majesty and prestige dwarfed anything that ever came before it. It was in this position as the world's leading power that Romanos would concentrate efforts onto foreign conflicts to further the cause of an Elysian peace within the East. The Mamluk Sultanate would suffer a death blow after the loss of the Nile Delta, and a bloody but successful war against Persia would bring the Caucasus under Imperial rule. Hellenic influence would come to change the face of Anatolia, where after many decades of state-led act, Turkish rule would never oppose Christian Europe again.

Having only ascended to the throne at a much later date than anticipated, Romanos would display surprising vigor despite his advancing age. While not ruling for as long as the greatest of Emperor’s, Romanos would be the last of the children of Basil to rule onto the Imperial throne. His death at the age of sixty eight would allow his daughter, Anastasia, to ascend to the throne. Unlike most Elysian Emperors, Romanos knew that he was near the end of his life and would invest within the creation of an Imperial crypt for his family members, built away from the capital and roughly half a day’s travel from Nea Konstantinopolis. Romanos would be the first Elysian Emperor to be entombed in the Imperial crypt, where the House of Palaiologos would be buried in future generations. The Imperial crypt would become a popular tourist site in future generations.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 46: The Tip of the Spear (1656-1660)

With the majority of the Eastern lands secured under Imperial control, the Pax Elysium in the region had already started to reap the rewards that the Eastern Peace would bring. Dominion under the numerous Exarchs within the region would leave the Elysian Empire in a position of complete dominance, focused on reasserting Christian dominance in the lands of the former Eastern Empire and maintaining peace and stability, all at the cost of the Islamic world and the fractured powers fighting among one another.

After many decades, the Empire had taken the lands formerly held by the Eastern Roman Empire and allowed its exarchs to govern them. As the Exarchs served as an extension of the state, every regional Exarch served as its own semi-independent Kingdom under heavy Elysian influence and to promote Imperial interests in the region. Every exarch was able to create its own policies, engage within their own political and economic interactions with neighboring states, create their own militaries and helped promote Elysian interests in the region. With the East secured, the Empire would prepare to make plans for continued conquest, where the monarchs of the Exarchs openly swore their complete allegiance to the Emperor and the Elysian Empire. The Elysians had built and given them everything, and the exarchs were more than eager to serve the desires of the Emperor and Senate.

Empress Anastasia would personally make a journey to Europe under very heavy naval guard, and heavier guard by the Epilektoi bodyguard. Arriving in Old Constantinople, the Empress would summon the reigning monarchs of all the Elysian exarchs to gather in the former capital of the Eastern Romans. Within a month, they were assembled and the Empress would address them on future plans for Elysian-led rule of the Old World. Before returning to the new world after a month of touring the exarchs and with the East brought back into the fold, it was time for the West to tremble...

A northern alliance would be offered to the new realm of Scandinavia, where the Empire wished to project some of its influence along the Baltic while wanting to contain German expansionism within the Holy Roman Empire, and both Russian expansionism in Eastern Europe. The Scandinavians would agree to an alliance, leaving the Empire’s position within Northern Europe considerably stronger

Upon its completion, the Panama Canal stood as both an accomplishment to Elysian and human engineering and would come to change the world. Despite many claiming the project to be impossible, the canal was considered centuries ahead of its time and served not just as a gateway but as a monument to Elysian resilience and ingenuity in the New World.

Changing the course of ships and history, the Elysians would come to implement the designs of a new canal to separate Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. In a new mammoth and ambitious project for an Empire that was perhaps more ambitious, the project to connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea was an ambition that can change the future of world trade. With a sizeable investment by the Empire itself, along with the region being heavily fortified, construction would begin on the second great canal project.

In Constantinople, an invasion force was organised for the conquest of Southern Italy. Over fifty thousand of the Empire’s finest would come to be rigorously trained in the old city, and would be filled largely by veterans from former campaigns, most of them being from the Caucasus campaign. Another fifty thousand, made up from regulars from Elysian forces in the Levant and Egypt, would be sent to Varangian Malta in preparation for an invasion.

The leader of the campaign would be Basil Choniates, an experienced commander among the Elysian military who had made an impact through the development of reorganizing the Elysian core military through the implementation of new tactics, drilling and the implementation of new rules and regulations to further professionalize the army. Responsible for the organisation of a new army of professional soldiers based on proficiency and not based on social merit, the harsh discipline of Choniates and his expert organisation had turned his fifty thousand strong army into the strongest in Europe. As a brilliant commander in his own right, it would be him that would lead the Empire into Italy

The timing for the the war would come at a perfect opportunity. The Habsburgs would come to engage in a war against the Papal State, seeking to weaken what they perceived as a threat coming from their Eastern lands. With the Papal armies distracted to the north, the Empire organised their armies to the south and prepared for the most important region for the start of the many conquests planned for Italia.

Sicily, having experienced a turbulent history by being occupied by many foreign powers, was the most important jewel of the Elysian ambitions to conquer Italia. Papal rule had done much to improve the island, where decades of economic investment and immigration had come to make Sicily into one of the richest places in the Mediterranean, where the church had tried to industrialize the area. While many were content under the leadership in Rome, many were against theocratic rule. With fifty thousand veterans ready to launch the landing, and another fifty thousand prepared in reserve on Malta, the Elysians were prepared to take Southern Italy by storm

Palmero was selected to be the major focus of the war for Southern Italy, sitting as the wealthiest city located south of Naples. Surprisingly, the Inca would come to the assistance to the Papacy, destroying the fragile alliance between the two Empire’s. War would be declared on February 15th 1656, starting the war for the conquest of Sicily.

The veterans would surprise the Italians by making a landing along Calabria, with the Papal armata nowhere to be found to protect the south. With the veterans securing several towns along the ports as they spread across the region, the regulars would be transported to the occupied towns. From there, Elysians commanders would start to expand across the mountainous and high terrain region, while Choniates and the veterans would cross the Strait of Messina under heavy resistance for the conquest of Sicily.

Breaking into Messina and giving the Imperial navy a chance to recover from the landing, the Constantinan navy would trap the Papal Armada in the Gulf of Taranto. Sensing the opportunity before them, Elysian commanders would lead the push north into Southern Italy to place pressure onto the enemy navy. Fearful for losing an offensive position, the Elysians would return back to Calabria to regroup with Choniates and the Veterans, burning crops within the region to slow down any advance that the Papacy could make. Unfortunately for the Elysian forces, major resistance coming from the north would never arrive, as the Papacy was distracted fighting against the Habsburgs with their full forces, leaving France and Southern Italy wide open.

In several more months, the veterancy of the elite army would bring the remainder of Sicily under Imperial occupation. Local resistance would come to provide a distraction for the Elysians for a time, but the Empire would see a number of collaborators and sympathists who ensured that Sicily was largely pacified by the time that the Empire could fully push into Southern Italy with force.

With the designs and other plans of what would be known simply as the Suez Canal, a wealthy group of investors and merchants who became incredibly interested in the economic prospects of the planned canal had formed a commercial company in order to support the construction. While predominantly based in Aegyptus, the investors and merchants came from all across Europe and created a cosmopolitan company, where Elysian would be the spoken language for business.

In a matter of weeks, the Elysians would rapidly break into Southern Italy. Town after town would be occupied by the advancing Elysians, and cities would surrender on-sight to the advancing Elysians out of fears for punishment for if they resisted. Entire towns would be occupied on a daily basis, and the Elysian advance seemed unstoppable. It would not be until that the Elysians reached Naples that the advanced suddenly stopped dead in its tracks,

Among the pacific islands, trading profits within the region of West Micronesia had brought the attention of merchants willing to cross the vast ocean. The province of Palau had managed to greatly increase the output of lacquerware and exotic woodwork featuring native artwork would find a new market within the capital. While not proving to be particularly popular at first among the capital, lacquerware would come to grow into a successful regional business among the Elysian pacific.

The entire Elysian military would focus their collective efforts to break Napoli and force their way into Central Italy. Despite being surrounded by a hundred thousand Elysian soldiers, Naples would continue to hold onto its strong defences for the next several months until finally surrendering. The Archbishop of Naples, who refused to allow the city to fall to the Elysians and was partially seen as a leader against the Elysian siege, would be executed under the orders of Basil Choniates. With the fall of Naples, the city was not an Elysian priority, and the frustrated Elysian soldiers would continue towards a much more important target. Rome.

With the entirety of the south brought under the Elysian boot, the Papacy would find itself unable to sustain itself against a prolonged war for much longer and decided to surrender while they could hold their heads up high instead of losing honour. The Empire, delighted with the results, would immediately stop their armies from advancing in Europe and order them to protect the South.

The Treaty of Syracuse would be signed on April 19th 1658, and the Elysians would gain a considerable foothold onto Southern Italy. Sicily, Sardinia and a majority of the lands south of Naples would be incorporated into the Elysian Empire, where plans for an Italian-led Exarch were immediately put into play.

While the Papacy would come to find itself against a Habsburg army, the growing war exhaustion along its citizens had many frustrated against Papal rule. With the Habsburgs achieving victory in its war against the Papacy, it had left the Vatican weakened financially and placed them in a dangerous position which could spark rebellion if not dealt with correctly. The first spark of rebellion would be lit when Venetian separatists would rise up in revolt against the Church, in the middle between a German-occupied north and an Elysian south. Finding itself too weak against the Habsburgs, the Venetians would successfully break free from Papal yoke. To the surprise of the courts of Europe, this new Venice would not be a republic…

Almost immediately, the Habsburgs approached the Empire with a proposal. Austria would conquer the mainland territories of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Venice, giving the Habsburgs a reliable buffer to protect Austria itself. In reward, the Austrians would grant the Elysians the city of Venice, and recognise the claim of the city for as long as the alliance between the two realms would prove fruitful. Agreeing to this proposal, the Elysians would join the Austrians in their war, launching an amphibious assault onto Venice itself while the Habsburgs would fight to conquer the mainland.

After some integration into the new state, a new exarch would be established. On May 8th 1659, the Exarch of Roma would be established. As the former political, cultural and economic centre of the Ancient Roman Empire, the Italians had developed a distinct culture far from the Elysians and the Hellenics. While not owning the eternal city itself, the Empire named the exarch after the city itself, aspiring to conquer Italy and restore the lost prestige and honor of the ancient Empire back into the peninsula. Missionary work and political integration would begin immediately to mend the schism in Southern Italy, with Elysian missionaries focusing on the island of Sardinia while Southern Italy was being consolidated into the exarch.

Venice would come to be quickly conquered by the Elysians after blockade of the lagoon city, where their makeshift army and navy were no match for the Empire. Eager to avenge the legendary betrayal that occurred during the fourth crusade, the Elysians avenged their Byzantine ancestors and spared no-one as they descended upon the once-great city of Venice. The Imperial generals made it clear towards their men, all patrician families were to be stripped of their property and honors, and the treasures that were once stolen from the Fourth Crusade were to be retaken by force.

When the time came for retribution, things quickly turned violent. Kindness was never shown, as the Elysians sacked Venice and almost razed the wealthy city. Several days would pass where Elysian soldiers embarked on a campaign of devastation and plunder. Palaces were burned after being sacked, and churches would be set aflame. Patrician families were targeted by Elysian soldiers after being stripped of their property and wealth, and those who fought back were brutally slain to the last women and child before the bodies were dumped into the Venetian canals along the buildings. The King of Venice, who was previously just another elected Doge of the city, was hung from the walls of the Doge’s Palace for all to see.

Atrocities were being committed left and right during what would become the Sack of Venice, a vengeful act of Elysian wrath upon an ancestral enemy in a great chastening of the city. Despite being eager to see the city burn, the city was partially destroyed and the treasures that were stolen from Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade were returned. While Venice would be conquered and incorporated into the Exarchate of Roma, it would never again reach its ancient peak.

With the Papal defeat during the invasions of the north and the south, its territories would rise up in revolt across the Alps. French Catholics would take up arms against the Church, aspiring for freedom against what they perceived to be an ineffective pope.

Fezzan would, after years of vassalship to the Elysians, adopt Elysian Orthodoxy and start phasing out Islam. Under Elysian influence, the Fezzan conversions drew enormous criticism amongst the Islamic community from what they perceived to see as a forced conversion, although no further action would be taken. Salah Taher Hafsid would become the first Christian ruler of Fezzan, and at the age of seventy one, succession among the duchy seemed uncertain.

Victorious after the war against the Papacy, the Holy Roman Emperor would progress with his continued reforms and proclaim Erbkaisertum, abolishing the elective monarchy of the Holy Roman Empire and bring the electors to swear complete fealty to Vienna. While the Habsburgs had never felt more powerful, their ascension to power was starting to alarm their neighboring states, including the Elysians and even the Commonwealth. While perceiving the political climate to be stronger than recently thought, the Habsburgs would gradually be ignored for the time being as the Empire focused on overseas expansion once again, where something would catch the eye for the ambitious Empress.

 

[Crimson Lionheart]

Chapter 47: The Rising Sun (1660-1664)

With the creation of the Exarchate of Rome, the Elysian Empire was given a strategically valuable location through its rule along Southern Italy. With the Pax Elysium all but established within the East, the West proved to be more vulnerable and fragile than previously thought. Papal Italy was losing their French lands to a people that were originally grateful from liberating from the Protestant north, and two disastrous wars would weaken Theocratic rule in the peninsular.

To make matters worse, the reigning Pope died several days after the defeat in both of the wars, adding to the terrible luck that the Papacy was experiencing. From a state that united Italy in a matter of decades, the Elysians predicted that the Papacy could collapse just as suddenly if the Empire was to strike them in their most vulnerable spots. The Military Council among Europe would gather in Europe, discussing campaign plans for wars that were not yet waged, invasion tactics that would secure Elysian rule as soon as possible. The Empire was always making sure that it was prepared for anything, especially in a hostile Europe where the major powers were largely seeing the Westerners as overstaying their welcome considerably.

With the plans for the future put into motion, the Elysians would come to turn back towards the Orient and focus along interacting within Asia. It would be while surveying Asia that the Empire would discover that something troublesome was occuring in Asia...

While the humble soldier was sometimes looked down upon by the cavalryman, the infantry was the backbone of the Elysian army. In recent times, the Elysian infantry would demonstrate that a strong infantry attack can prove almost as devastating as a cavalry charge. The Elysian Thema, which was largely professionalised and made up of intense training and drilling, would have the common Elysian legionary as the greatest infantryman in the world, and the infantry knew it. It was their time to bask in the sun and relish in the glory that they themselves have created.

Japanese Christians, known as Kirishitan in Japanese terms, were often heavily influenced by European and Elysian trade and culture. Christianity and outside influence would come to be perceived as a foreign threat in the coming years by the Yamana Shogunate​

Christian missionaries had arrived in Japan during the late 16th century after contact was made with the Elysians and Europeans, where some feudal lords sought to establish a trade relationship with them during the Japanese warring state period. Elysian missionaries would arrive in the mid 1590’s along the coast of Kyūshū. Within ten years, trade with the Elysians was fairly regular and common on the island. Some clan members were more eager than others to maintain this trade and contact with the Elysians, seeing the economic and technological benefits that can be brought with it.

While appearing harmless, Christianity started to thrive in some regions of Kyūshū, and led local officials to believe that the Elysians were acting as foreign agents working to subvert or destroy social order in Japan. During the 17th century, the missionaries were treated with respect but kept under a watchful eye by suspicious daimyos. As the Japanese Christian community started to grow, Christianisation was a regional phenomenon and had a national impact.

The situation would change after Yamana Toyohisa reunified Japan, where as ruler, Toyohisa started to focus on external threats. Skepticism of Christianity and the perception of the foreign religion as a malevolent one led to Shogun to start repressing the thriving Christian community. Starting with a ban on Elysian missionaries, claiming that Christianity was a threat to national unity, Shinto hegemony would be held over the remainder of Japan.

It would not be till after the death of Toyohisa in 1654 that his son and new Shogun, Yamana Kanamori, that Christianity would be banned as a whole under the Shogunate. Believing that the converts were loyal to their new god rather than the Shogunate and the faith of their ancestors, along with concerns that divided loyalties could lead to dangerous rebellion and the fracturing of Japanese society once again, anti-christian edicts were enforced. Missionaries were forcefully expelled out of the Shogunate, acts of loyalty were demanded among the Christian daimyos, and violent acts of persecution would appear on sporadic but effective periods. By the time of the ban, several hundred thousand Christians would exist in Japan, but Shogunate actions would cause Christians followers in Japan to plummet.

The Thirty Two Martyrs, wood-graving from the 1680's​

On April 10th 1656, a group of influential Elysian Orthodox worshippers would be captured and executed en-masse. Thirty two of them would be crucified in Nagasaki, including six Elysian missionaries and their small but devout group of followers. Dying as martyrs of the faith, this act would come to completely horrify the Elysians across the ocean. The suppression of Christianity would come to be significant in Japanese history, as the act of aggression had significantly angered the Christian community.

When news reached the capital, the entire Elysian ecclesiarchy was enraged. The Elysian Church pressured the Empress and the Imperial Senate to promote war against the Shogunate, and threw their weight behind the more Imperialistic elements of the Senate. Citing that Elysia had held interests in Asia for many decades, the rogue elements of the Japanese Shogunate attacking the faithful was an slap to the cheek of god and that it demanded correction. As time would come to pass, the anger seemed to deepen and the desire to save the faithful only intensified. Once Empress Anastasia openly supported a war against Japan, Elysian society was becoming more militarized against the Japanese. In the act of brutal martyrdom, the Japanese government had awoken a sleeping giant from its slumber.

Holding suspicions that Japan would threaten Elysian interests within Asia, the Empire had manufactured claims to conquer Kyūshū, where Elysian Orthodoxy was the strongest in Japan. From what the Japanese had perceived to be foreign agents working to conquer the Shogunate, their acts of persecution onto the Christians in the region would only encourage the Empire to conquer the rogue Shogunate.

Gathering fifty thousand men from Maniolas, the Elysians gathered the Western Fleet in a large-scale invasion of Kyūshū, intent of conquering Satsuma. It was that in this anger following execution of the martyrs that the Elysians were prepared to bring the Shogunate to its knees. As the Christian community went underground in the years following the martyrdom, the Empire would make themselves known as the Western Fleet was sighted in the Amakusa Sea. Well prepared and armed to the teeth, the Elysians invaded Japan on March 19th 1660.

In the start of the invasion, a small fleet under the Shogunate would be completely obliterated in the Amakusa Sea. Rather than launching the invasion directly into more populated areas, the Elysians would invade from Satsuma.

To the west, the Liang had conquered the Qi and claimed the mandate of heaven. As the most powerful of the Ming successor states, the Liang were well prepared for the long and difficult period to reunite the lands of the middle kingdom. Despite being the strongest state in China, other claimants to the Mandate of Heaven would come to the north in the form of a united Manchu state.

With a successful landing, Imperial forces swept through Satsuma and southern Kyūshū in a matter of weeks. Christian communities within the island went to show their support of the Elysian invasion, coming to support the Empire by providing them materials such as food and water, and even acting as scouts and navigators to help the large armies cross the mountainous terrain of Kyūshū.

Within two months, Chikuzen was brought under occupation after being sieged by relentless artillery fire and brought under Imperial rule. With Kyūshū now under Imperial occupation, the Imperial Thema would move towards the northeast, capturing provinces with the assistance of Christian volunteers.

As the Empire prepared to move into Shikoku and Honshu, the Shogunate's main army would move into the island to liberate the Northern coastline of Shikoku. Rather than attacking the Japanese army directly, the Elysian armies prepared to regroup for a combined invasion. The army along Honshu would be reorganised to retreat back to Kyūshū and regroup to surround and destroy the Japanese army while it was focused in Iyo.

With the Western Navy moving into position, a combined Elysian army would move into position and move across the terrain with the assistance of scouts. When the time would come to engage the Japanese army, the Elysians found themselves in the offensive but inflicted horrific damage onto the Japanese army. As the battle continued to rage on, Shogunate reinforcements started to arrive in a desperate move to reinforce the already devastated attack.

By the time that another Shogunate army had arrived to relieve the pressure placed upon them, the Shogunate was being torn apart. With thousands dying on an hourly basis, the Shinto generals were being increasingly torn to ribbons by the Elysian army.

Retreating from the area while they still had an army, the Shogunate would abandon Shikoku to the Elysians. Only suffering light losses, the damage inflicted onto the Shogunate would paralyze them for the remainder of the war. Although still holding the numerical advantage, the Shogun refused any proposals of surrender and demanded that loyal armies of Japan would fight to the death in order to defeat the western armies, especially on their homeland.

The Battle of Aki would come result in an astonishing victory over the Japanese army, where the entire army would be destroyed after being completely surrounded and methodically crushed. Yoshinobu Ashikaga and his bodyguard would flee the battle, at the cost of an entire army being destroyed. Despite his noble intentions, fled the battle after the horrendous loss of life and was perceived as a coward. The Battle would come to break the back of the Shogunate, but the worst was yet to come.

A second battle would occur in Iyo, and would result in a second devastating victory for the Elysians. Hideyoshi Aso and the entire northern army of the Shogunate would be completely wiped out to the last man. Upon hearing of a second terrible defeat, the Shogun was reportedly believed to experience a panic attack at the news. Fearing an attack on the Imperial capital, Kanamori ordered the Imperial family to abandon Kyoto and seek refuge in the north. While an attack onto Kyoto would never come, the Elysians had all but destroyed the entire Shogunate military.

The final battle of the war would commence in Suo, where Yoshinobu Ashikaga would would lead a small force made up of the surviving warriors of the destroyed Shogunate armies. Once more, total destruction would devastate the last army of the Shogunate. Yoshinobu would be captured following the battle and, as a means to retain his honour, was granted the privilege to commit sepuku.

Completely devastated by the obliteration of their armies, the Shogun and the Japanese Shogunate would surrender to the Imperial army. A treaty would be signed in Nagasaki, where the entirety of Kyūshū and Shikoku would be surrendered to the Elysian government. The Shogun would be allowed to retain the remainder of Honshu and the remainder of the Japanese lands, but elements within Japanese society would question his leadership in allowing foreigners to conquer Japan. Christendom in Japan would be concentrated within the south, where designs were planned to establish an Elysian-led Christian realm in Japan.

The Otomo, one of the first clans to make contact with Christians and one of the friendliest to western influence, would side with the Elysians against the Shogunate once eastern Kyūshū was pacified. During the late 16th century, they converted to Christianity and would be one of the most powerful clans on the island, and were powerful enough to keep their faith despite being under the Shogunate. The Empire would never forget their invaluable assistance during the war, and the Empress herself would grant the clan their freedom and reward them.

Relations between the Otomo and the Elysians blossomed quickly, and the Elysians would work closely with the Otomo and reward them lavishly for their assistance. Within a year and a half, the Otomo was under heavy Elysian influence, and the damiyo would come to be offered vassalship under the Empire. The Empire would offer the Otomo the chance to establish a Christian Japanese state under their realm and experience all the benefits that vassalship under the Empire rewards, which would include being all but guaranteed independence from hostile powers. With the Otomo agreeing to become a vassalship, the Empire would grant the Otomo complete sovereignty of their new lands, believing in self-rule to allow their subjects to rule foreign lands better.

Importantly, the Elysian Empire would work with the Otomo clan and re-establish their status to allow the new sovereignty to become a March state. The Elysians would allow the Otomo to not pay any taxes to the Empire and held little to no desire to annex them, as with most Asian realms. While not like an exarch in any particular way, the Otomo were held with signifigant status among the various subjects.

In what would be known simply as the Kyūshū War, Christianity had won within Southern Japan, much to the horror of the traditional Shinto religion of the home islands. The underground Christian community would come out of hiding and help build the foundations of a Christian Japan. As the Yamana Shogunate would lick its wounds, life prior to the persecutions would continue. The local economy would recover quickly with Elysian investment, and the new Otomo daimyo would continue westernization efforts. Missionaries would return back to Kyūshū, where the previously underground community would start to recover. As the Elysians worked to entrench their influence onto another continent, the back and forth struggle between two different worlds would bring Imperial attention back and forth for a golden opportunity across the Mediterranean.