An Age of Miracles Continues: The Empire of Rhomania

[Frame]

Fantastic update! I can’t wait to see what “arrangements” Rome has in store for Italy. Also here’s the updated map. Lemme know what you guys think of the new Central European borders

 

[Cryostorm]

Elizabeth needs a husband. The cool play is to marry Zimmermann but no matter how popular he is with the masses it will be hard to overcome his peasant background.

Maybe she marries von Starhemburg instead, assuming he's a bachelor? Would shore up Munich and she's not exactly swimming in options right now.

She might wait till the end of the war since she already has an heir to both the duchy and empire. It would give her a chance to consolidate her power, I have a feeling she is getting really tired of not having control of her life at this point, and marry someone who performs well to give her more legitimacy and goodwill.

 

[Arrix85]

Fantastic update! I can’t wait to see what “arrangements” Rome has in store for Italy. Also here’s the updated map. Lemme know what you guys think of the new Central European borders

I don't thinks Arles has so much of Burgundy (that would defeat the purpose of southern prong of Henri's invasion of Lotharingia).

 

[Frame]

I don't thinks Arles has so much of Burgundy (that would defeat the purpose of southern prong of Henri's invasion of Lotharingia).

How’s this?

 

[Tomislav Addai]

How’s this?

Nice map. I wonder what is the name of Mexinca realm? Also steppe-Siberia appears to be in quite a funny shape. As for the Triune, I believe that the Angevins would be proud

 

[Aristomenes]

So, Spain turns against Rhomania. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some gold from Constantinople is diverted towards North Africa "encouraging" some Berber corsairs to attack Spanish ships...
Also, regarding Zimmermann, if I am not mistaken, the last we 've seen him he was somewhere in Anatolia, how did he end up in Austria?

 

[Frame]

Nice map. I wonder what is the name of Mexinca realm? Also steppe-Siberia appears to be in quite a funny shape. As for the Triune, I believe that the Angevins would be proud

I believe it's just called the empire of Mexico

 

[Frame]

Is Spain on track to annex Aragon? I remember seeing some people suggest that Arles and Aragon join together which would be amazing. Although it seems Spain has their hooks pretty deep into Aragon at this point.

 

[Lascaris]

So, Spain turns against Rhomania. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some gold from Constantinople is diverted towards North Africa "encouraging" some Berber corsairs to attack Spanish ships...
Also, regarding Zimmermann, if I am not mistaken, the last we 've seen him he was somewhere in Anatolia, how did he end up in Austria?

This

The one exception is a group of prisoners currently assigned to the Monastery of St Konstantinos. The Hegumen there, while certainly willing to take advantage of the cheap labor offered by the Allied prisoners, thought this would be a temporary affair. But it is now looking like many of the German prisoners will end up being of the permanent variety of cheap labor, and the Hegumen is a staunch opponent of slavery and this smells too much like that for his liking.

So at his request Friedrich Zimmermann and his men are released, although how they’ll pay to return home is up to them. Unaware of the political climate in the Holy Roman Empire, they wish to return to their former villages and lives. Johann Eck comes to the rescue, managing to smooth-talk some donations in Smyrna. He travels with Friedrich and his men as they take transport to Venetia, then walking up the Alpine road back into Germany. Alexios Asanes is allowed to accompany them, on condition he never returns to a Roman/Despotic domain.

 

[Lascaris]

That connection is not that surprising for a couple of reasons. One is the ancestry of the House of Sideros. The other is that Roman light cavalry, the ones doing most of the raiding and burning, are called turkopouloi, and are still in 1635 attired like Turkish light cavalry with the addition of gunpowder weaponry. (Their ethnicity is by no means restricted to Turks.)

Is it? I'd point to this as the primary model of imperial light cavalry https://byzantineoplomachia.wordpre...-of-fifteenth-and-sixteenth-century-in-italy/

Not that in practical terms tactics, composition or even appearance will be that much different granted...

 

[boringasian]

I think the Romans have inadvertingly made a lasting enemy/rival out of Germany/ the HRE out of this...

when you're about to crush a rival in a couple of years but its okay because you've made a new one to crush afterwards

 

[Evilprodigy]

Is it? I'd point to this as the primary model of imperial light cavalry https://byzantineoplomachia.wordpre...-of-fifteenth-and-sixteenth-century-in-italy/

Not that in practical terms tactics, composition or even appearance will be that much different granted...

Keep in mind that the POD was in the early 13th century. There has been significant divergence from OTL military technology, tradition, and dress.

 

[Coyote_Waits]

I really hope Aragon remains independent - I’ve always loved the name “Aragon.” Don’t really see how the Isles can make it long term though sadly.

 

[Frame]

The isles could always pull an Al Andalus and ask to become a Roman vassle to protect their independence

 

[HanEmpire]

That'd cause the Accord to flip out since it'd give the Romans staging grounds for military operations in the Western Mediterranean, and likely push Arles to seek closer Triune ties. For the sake of soft power, the Kingdom of the Isles should remain independent.

I'd rather see Aragon merge with the Arletians to force their strategic priority towards the south again, to distance Marseilles from King's Landing and give the Accord more unity and geopolitical weight.

 

[Frame]

It would be really interesting to see how the cultural identity would form around a Aragon-Arles Union

 

[Βοανηργές]

Kaisar Odysseus. While he is only coming on twenty-one, he now has some combat experience and his Imperial status is very useful in leading a force containing a Serbian king, a Lithuanian grandee, and Spanish and Arletian nobility.

And he blames the Romans. It was a Triune shot that killed Alfonso, but it was a good honorable death in battle. That Ferdinand can understand and accept. But that battle should not have taken place, would not have taken place, if those bloody-minded Romans hadn’t first distracted and then destroyed the Reichsarmee, giving the Triunes the opportunity to overwhelm the Army of Observation with far greater numbers.

Rich coming from Ferdinand, especially considering many of his own nobles were on the Roman side.

a red-bearded ex-sergeant named Friedrich Zimmermann

And thus the German eagle/Niketas arises

That said, a broken pot may be glued back together but it cannot truly be made whole, and while Munich may support her the wracked countryside is less forgiving. The contrast between Wittelsbach flight and Friedrich’s irregulars has been noted

• Resentment of royal absolutism - check
• Piles of debt from Theodor's delusions of grandeur - check
• Bad harvest after bad harvest - check

I'd say the population and environment are more than receptive to his ideas for some good ol' equality

there is no peace in sight for Germany

Once both Rhomania and the Triunes are done, Zimmermann will have free reign to spread his flames of revolution, especially considering most of the Imperial brass are gone. Germany first, the world next.

ransomed back by the Archbishop who retains the territories as a Roman vassal as well

Did the Hungarians object to the Roman annexation/vassalization? I thought it was one of the provisions of the failed treaty. Is the Archbishop now forced to switch his allegiance to Avignon or does he still retain ecclesiastical freedom. Maybe a new arrangement analogous to the genesis of the Greek Catholic churches in OTL - Western/German Orthodox Church which follows the Latin rite but is subject to the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Got me thinking about Johann Eck and the Mendicant Orders. Do all of the orders - Dominicans, Franciscans and Templars report to Rome or does Avignon have their own competing version of each?

Shia Islam has large communities amongst the Arabs of southern Mesopotamia but there aren’t any Shia states

BTW, are the Cham still Sunni? Or has Rhomania's missions been persuasive enough to sway them?

Treaty of Buda is signed between the Romans, Wittelsbachs, and Hungarians

Does this mean the Romans are still at a state of war with the Triunes?

Lemme know what you guys think of the new Central European borders

I just saw what you did with Hungarian-Vlach borders cheeky appendage sticking out into Hungary's backside.
I think Western Austria (County of Tyrol) was annexed too.

The Wittelsbachs furthermore pledge to respect any ‘arrangements’ the Romans make in Italy, while an accommodation is set up whereby they can ransom their many captives in Roman captivity. However because of lack of funds, the vast majority of those Germans end up working and dying in Rhomania, never returning to the lands of their fathers.

Salzburg plus this clause is quite evident of Roman intent to safeguard their future Italian arrangements from German incursion. I think their ambitions include the Veneto and Ravenna at least besides Tuscany. Aside from that, Rhomania has Nile Germans aplenty but is it time for some Mesopotamian Germans?

It is a treaty that could’ve been signed many months before it was, with far less death and destruction inflicted in the meantime.

the three great financial scandals rock the Empire in the late 1630s

I'm quite surprised that the treaty didn't include any financial/economic provisions. Has Rhomania really succeeded in sucking every last penny out of Southern Germany to think reparations similar to their previous payments to the Ottomans will be measly and insignificant?

Well, that's a bit ominous. D3's tax reforms have anything to do with that?

the years 1636-40 see Roman administration shift from its Late Laskarid structure to its modern form

Maybe the reforms came as a need from the scandals. Then again, it may be a bump in history as Rhomania adjusts to their uncertainty about progressive taxation. However, I'm wondering how great the impact of these scandals will be, considering that Rhomania's already in a slump and food prices will only stabilize in 1636.

It will be the greatest Latin armament dispatched to the east in history at that point.

A good place to start would be Goa if they want to increase their influence in India. Or maybe they have their eyes on Indochina. More Roman possessions? The Ottomans? Maybe all of them.

 

[DracoLazarus]

It would be really interesting to see how the cultural identity would form around a Aragon-Arles Union

It would be basically Occitania.

 

[Frame]

I did a rework of the HRE borders, lemme know if there are any inaccuracies

 

[Cryostorm]

It would be really interesting to see how the cultural identity would form around a Aragon-Arles Union

If I remember correctly Catalan and Occitan are pretty closely related and the two regions have historically had close ties, so much so that the King of Aragon had originally been an almost liege to several dukes in the region till the Albigensian Crusade.