Cryostorm
Donor
The China update mentioned them as being annoying but relatively harmless raiders that are not worth the effort that it would take to conquer.
An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania
- Thread starter Basileus444
- Start date
I expect Skythia is going to have its own unique culture due to how directly the work with Rhome and would be influenced by them because Rhome needs their grain. I bet many Traders from Crimea could try to establish their own farms perhaps some could settle down and have children. If this Rhoman minority exists i expect it to have a noticeable impact on culture.
Evilprodigy
Donor
You're describing something that happened OTL in early-modern Novorossiya with its weird blend of Russians, Ukrainians, Cossacks, Tatars, Jews, and Georgians.
Evilprodigy
Donor
It's been independent for a long time and been culturally oriented southwards so it wouldn't be odd for that to happen. Though it'd still probably be mutually intelligible with Ukrainian in the 17th century. Crimean Gothic IOTL survived for quite some time but it's never been an important language.
Probably Kherson, since it has several excellent natural harbors.
Cryostorm
Donor
I figured that would be the case, though Azov is likely going to challenge it. The biggest security goal for Crimea will probably be working to convince Scythia to join the empire in order to secure the Dnieper and Don for trade and water supplies. That would also go a long way to securing the northern parts of the empire.
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Cryostorm
Donor
I just don't see Scythia staying completely independent, it is too small relative to it's neighbors and will be demographically swamped eventually so will almost assuredly reunite with Russia unless the are swayed by economics and possible cultural drift to join Rhomania. The other benefit of joining Rhomania is that they would likely have a lot more sway and autonomy as a Russian descended province in Rhomania rather than just another small province in a greater Russia.
The opposite is true too. Being the prime trade partner of Rhomania means that the average Scythian grandee would be much richer than the average Russian grandee, with greater access to higher education, more business opportunities, and higher credit. That means that the top jobs in a reunified Russian Empire will be staffed by a Scythian majority, and that their economic power will outweigh any two or even three other component kingdoms combined. IMO many Scythians will choose to become big fish inside the Russian Empire than stay as regional magnates in a greater Roman Empire, esp. as Egypt appears to be on an upward trajectory.
EDIT: Hell, we might see pushes to move the Russian capital city to Scythia, to be known from then on as "Novorossiya". A modernist movement based on a desire to reform Russia to be like Rhomania.
EDIT: Hell, we might see pushes to move the Russian capital city to Scythia, to be known from then on as "Novorossiya". A modernist movement based on a desire to reform Russia to be like Rhomania.
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Thats very interesting but also makes alot of sense. Could Russia possibly change to the greek alphabet? Or is that too far
Way too far. Cyrillic Alphabet was specifically created to allow Slavic priests to give Orthodox Church services in the local languages.
On that note, @Basileus444 do the TTL Serbians use Cyrillic? RL Serbs adopted both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets in the early 19th century, so it's a blank slate so far TTL.
Just want to make one correction. Serbs have been using Cyrillic since middle ages. It was reformed in the first half of 19th century. Latin script was introduced into Serbian language also in the 19th century, mostly because of unity with Croats, but it really didn't take off until second half of 20th century.
Given that Serbia is more or less independent since middle ages in TTL, I would say it would still keep Cyrillic and wouldn't adopt Latin at all. My guess is the middle ages Cyrillic would be reformed earlier than in OTL, maybe even in 17th century. Dacians would keep Cyrillic alphabet as well, and will not change it to Latin as Romania did in OTL.
It is even somewhat possible to see Croats adopting Cyrillic as their main alphabet in case they are separated from Hungarians and they are in Rhomanian/Serbian/(maybe even early Yugoslavian) sphere. It would really depend on if Serbia can expend north and /or west. My guess is maybe it would be tried in some time, especially it is only available path for expansion, east and south is Rhomania so no way to expend there. Will Serbia try something like that? Not sure if Rhomania would allow this. Only if Hungary tries to break off Rhomanian influence, which is in my opinion plausible, but not very likely.
And speaking of South Slavs, what is going on with Slovenians?
They cant expand anymore. Their options for expansions are all checked by their neighbors. Besides the treaty of belgrade is clearly a good deal on all the balkan powers, no one will want to break that treaty especially considering that if they did break it. They're only courting death.
My wife is from South-East Ukraine and her 23andme is a fascinating mix of Slavic, Anatolian, Greek, Iranian, Romanian and even 2% "Sicilian" that we have zero clue about
Evilprodigy
Donor
Sicilian probably comes from Italian traders that visited the region heavily in the medieval and early-modern period but I'm surprised to find it's specifically Sicilian rather than Ligurian or Venetian.