My little empire with the Iazyges, or should I say the Shahanshah of the west. I converted to Zalmoxism because I wanted my Sarmatian empire to be centred on Dacia, the bolghar didn't reunite the holy sites, and I didn't had a missionary with a "fun" religion or heresy.
The Western part of the world seems very messy and the Byzantine Empire weak. But trust me, two century ago the Kingdom of Soissons expanded from the northern coast of Gallia to the southern part of Italy. Then the Eastern Roman empire vasselized the romano-gallic exarchate and it expanded from Brittania to Alexandria under the rule of the Constantenopleites. But the descendant of Zeno where not happy with these new emperors, and the western vassals grew more and more independent...
Finally, Armenia, pontus, and Egypt took their independence under the rule of a descendant of Zeno... In the same time, the west retake it's independence but the mighty Exarchate of the sons of Syagrus was no more, Annonaria, Lugdunensis and the Septem Provincia were fighting to retake the glory of their ancestors. But Gallia finally fell to an ephemeral thuringian kingdom and this is how it became this mess full of warlords.
On the island, the once strong Rheged kingdom was very diminished by the Byzantine invasion, and the western pagans destroyed the last britons kingdoms, but it takes a while for them to be united under the rule of a strong Angle warlord.
Then, the Arabian Empire under the rule of the descendant of the Prophet went for the weak frontier of the Empire, the Oriens Exarchate and the holy city of Jerusalem quickly fell even if with times, the byzantine retake some part of it.
It was after all this setback that a young Emperor tried to change the destiny of the Empire, he decided to renounce the cross and to follow the teaching of Mani. For some decades, the Empire was ruled by a Manichean Emperor. With this conversion, the diplomacy with the Sassanid Empire was reopen, and with time the Emperor change is way of life... He became not only Zoroastrian but also a Priest, and renamed himself Moaban-Moabad. He wanted to lead the Zoroastrian in the west, to bring an era of peace between the two Empire and maybe put an end to the Muslim threat. But he was quickly overthrown by his vassals who wanted to put an end to his "madness"... But some lands are still loyal to the King-Priest of the West.
