Babyrage: I think the debate over who is the better general, Andreas Niketas or Iskandar, will be one hotly contested by military history nerds ITTL. Iskandar has already, even pre-Nineveh, been compared to Andreas Niketas, by his soldiers. Andreas Drakos never got that.
And definitely from the Roman perspective the Ottomans really need to be cut down to size.
RogueTraderEnthusiast: Well, the Romans already have a version of ‘Do you hear the people sing?’ so something like that isn’t out of the question.
Yeah, if the Romans really wanted to hurt the Triunes they’d have to find a way to project power out into the Atlantic. They could throw the Triunes out of the Mediterranean without too much difficulty provided they focused on it, but that wouldn’t hurt the Triunes much.
Now I know you're not used to get updates in such quick succession anymore but I'm sure nobody will complain.
"Drink in your full of this tide of glory,
But then children of Priam,
look to your bridles for you will need them,
for all that is old is new again."
-reported final words of the Mad Mahdi of Mecca
1624: The Empire is at peace on all frontiers for the first time in thirty years (disregarding the Indies and southern Egypt but compared to the conflicts since the start of the Great Uprising these are comparatively minor). But now that it is time to sheathe the swords, it is time to unfurl the recriminations.
The first to fall is Alexios Gabras, who is summarily dismissed from the army just four hours after he returns to Constantinople. He had been completely discredited in government eyes ever since Prince Andreas was captured. The only reason he had not been fired earlier is that changing horses midstream, particularly in this stream, seemed a really bad idea and besides, the government didn’t have an alternative horse.
It is a poor end to an illustrious military career that could’ve gone even further. His uncle had served as Domestikos of the West and the commander of the Army of the Sangarius during the War of the Rivers and ended his career with five years as Megas Domestikos. His retirement pension is slashed from that of a Domestikos to a tourmarch and half his assets confiscated to ‘partly reimburse the government for the expenses of the Kaisar’s ransom’. He is fortunate to escape prison and does so mainly for the lack of a specific charge.
Next facing the chopping block is Leo Neokastrites. He had surrendered his unit en masse, an unprecedented dishonor in the annals of the guard tagmata, and many feel that such an affront should not go unpunished. Another charge against him is one initiated by Gabras, who argues that if Neokastrites had held out until the first batch of reinforcements arrived, Gabras could’ve relieved him. Neokastrites counters that he had no way of knowing said reinforcements were even coming, much less their expected arrival. Furthermore continued resistance on his part would’ve endangered the Kaisar’s life.
Many of the senior officers view the Strategos of the Akoimetoi as rather rough and eccentric, but amongst the rank and file and junior officers he is rather popular, an advantage Gabras did not possess. As a result the motion against Neokastrites is far more controversial than the one leveled at Gabras. But what makes the situation even more serious is that the strategos has the full support of Kaisar Andreas.
Andreas has many reasons to be rather put out after returning to Constantinople. Disapproval at court against Anna of Amida, his washerwoman mistress, and particularly Maria of Agra, is rather obvious. Both have had a bastard boy by him. His wife, Elizabeth of Bavaria, is rather put out herself by this, which only serves to alienate Andreas who now rarely sees his wife, spending his time (and nights) with his mistresses, primarily Maria. Odysseus loyally sides with Andreas in all this, which is not surprising considering that both women are quite fond of him and he of them. His little sister Athena also adores Maria.
Leo retires as a way of compromise and he is given the pension of a strategos of a line tagma, although not of the guard. The hubbub from all of this is just starting to quiet down when Demetrios Sideros inadvertently kicks off another firestorm.
The task of coming up with the essay topics for the civil service exams is rotated annually amongst the senior officials of the Imperial bureaucracy and this year it is the turn of the Eparch, his first time. His essay question is ‘If the now Kaisar Andreas were, after becoming sole Emperor, to be called to God without leaving any legitimate issue, to whom should the Imperial throne fall?’
This naturally kicks off quite a stir by itself, but what really escalates matters is when Petros Cheilas enters the fray. He is Protospatharios of the Office of Barbarians, a department that originally encompassed all foreign matters but now refers specifically to the department devoted to espionage. Essentially he is the spymaster of the Empire.
He is also in some hot water himself. More accurate intelligence on the status of the Ottoman Empire has arrived in Constantinople, information which clearly shows that the Empire could well have driven a much harder bargain. As the one who failed to provide this intelligence in a timelier manner, he has much explaining to do. This fray though provides a welcome distraction and potential cover.
Petros strongly criticizes Demetrios for the essay topic, accusing him of self-aggrandizement considering the Eparch’s close family connection to the Imperial line. He goes even further though, all but accusing the Eparch of nothing less than treason. The Eparch had quite a leisurely time in the Ottoman Empire, involved very little with the negotiations. He spent much of his time discussing history and literature with the scholars of the Ottoman court, sometimes with the Shah involved as well. Petros claims the Eparch is now in the pay of the Shah.
Demetrios is absolutely beside him when he hears the accusation and demands the Protospatharios be brought up on libel charges. But Petros is just getting warmed up. He also accuses the Logothete Andronikos Sarantenos and the Kouaistor Bardas Trikanes of being in the pay of the Shah, using that as the treasonous explanation for their poor showing at the negotiating table. This is a bold gambit as Sarantenos is Petros’s boss, but the credit of both men is naturally running low after they returned from Persia.
These accusations of treason need to be investigated, but the one making the accusation is also the one who would be responsible for investigating. Furthermore he clearly has a vested interest in the charges being true as it would help obviate the accusations facing him of being incompetent. Sarantenos would be well within his rights to fire the Protospatharios, but doing so could easily backfire. Also with the treason charges floating around, the Eparch’s libel suit can’t go anywhere.
Both Empress Helena I and Emperor Demetrios II are in ill health while Helena II is too brainless to get involved. Kaisar Andreas is on training maneuvers with the Akoimetoi. The Megas Logothete, the senior-most position of the Imperial bureaucracy (and to whom Demetrios Sideros reported as Kephales of Skammandros and Smyrna), Thomas Autoreianos, has to step in, on his own authority suspending with pay all four officials from their posts for the time being.
Jahzara views all this with mounting fury of her own. Relations with her husband have been cool since the Ecumenical Council but any challenge to Demetrios’s position endangers hers. At a court banquet she gives a tongue lashing to the wife of Petros, before long reducing her to tears.
As the senior officials of the Roman Empire fulminate at each other, it is the time for sovereigns to die. First to perish is the sickly Holy Roman Emperor Manfred and is followed just three weeks later by his mother, the Princess Kristina of Constantinople, the eldest daughter of Empress Helena I. Her grandson Theodor, the son of Manfred, assumes the imperial mantle.
Then comes the turn of the Despot of Egypt, Demetrios III Drakos-Komnenos. [This is not to be confused with the Imperial line who are Komnenos-Drakos. The Egyptian Despots are descended from Andreas Niketas and Maria Dracula; if one were to argue from hereditary connection to Andreas Niketas they are by far the best answer to Demetrios Sideros’s essay question]. He is succeeded by his son, who annoyingly for students is named Andreas, becoming Despot Andreas II.
He inherits a domain still bearing scars from the Great Uprising, but on the mend. The population is at 2.75 million, a quarter million of them Nile Germans, with a fifth of them living in Marienburg am Nil (the former Cairo). Cotton production has tripled since the start of the century, a valuable product for export. The Coptic mesoi class is expanding, getting involved in shipping and eastern merchandise. Joint-stock companies involved in eastern trade now often have Coptic investors. In fact, one ‘evidence’ Petros Cheilas used to show that Demetrios Sideros must be getting money from the Shah is some new expensive purchases the Eparch had been making. In fact Demetrios was reaping the windfall of an investment in a new joint-stock company exporting furs from Khazaria. He put up 15% of the starting capital, a total matched by a consortium of Coptic kaffos merchants.
In the south of Egypt there has been some trouble as more raiders from the Idwait Malik-ate, former inhabitants of the area, attack the Muslim ‘remainers’. It was incidents like these that had spurred the Egyptian attack on Marsa Alam in 1606 prior to the capture of Yanbu but the situation is getting hotter as Malik Haasan is himself in poor health.
Then it is the Despot of Sicily, Alexios I, husband of Empress Helena II and father of Kaisar Andreas. His son travels to Messina and is crowned as Despot Andreas II. He spends two months touring the Despotate, which he has never visited, and on departure appoints his uncle Hektor, his father’s younger brother, as regent for Sicily.
The spate of death of princes in the west is surprising, but in the east it could almost be expected considering what is stirring. Venkata Raya I is not Demetrios II; he will get everything all lined up before he moves. And everything is finally lined up. The workshops and forges of the Vijayanagar Empire have been busy making firearms and cannons, all cutting-edge designs the equal of anything in Europe. Supply depots have been established and filled to capacity, troops mustered and trained. The Kaijeeta Sainya, the Emperor’s standing army, is well drilled and well armed, capable of making full use of their new gunpowder weapons. The Amaranayaka Sainya, the feudal troops provided by Nayakas in exchange for land grants, plus the troops fielded by the vassal princes, are mostly armed with traditional weapons, bow, sword, and lance. They vary in quality but many are of high value, brave and disciplined and quite numerous.
Some of the Kaijeeta Sainya get in some bloodletting earlier than expected when an Omani fleet, supported by seven Roman and five Vijayanagara vessels, attack a Triune convoy, the Vijayanagara getting involved as Venkata Raya views them as Ottoman allies. Driving the convoy up against the Malabar coast, units of the Kaijeeta Sainya burn the ships and butcher the crews.
But that is a minor preliminary, a barely noticeable blip to the unfolding main event. Venkata Raya himself takes the field, commanding the greatest army the Empire has fielded in its three hundred year history. Awed observers claim the combined Vijayanagara forces, split into separate columns for supply purposes, number 300,000. Its purpose is nothing less than to completely drive the Ottomans from India.
Iskandar is not blind to this threat and is in northern India marshalling forces although exactly what he can gather that could stand up to the juggernaut from the south is an open question especially after the carnage Roman arms wrought upon his armies on the Plains of Nineveh. This is a critical moment for the Shah. Ever since he took the throne his heart has been in the east. For all the brilliance of his western campaigns it is here in India that he set his ambitions and hopes. So once again he takes up the sword.
Meanwhile in Constantinople an astrologer brings an urgent message to Emperor Demetrios II. He has determined that a lion statue in the Hippodrome is the Shah’s double. The Emperor, though in his sickbed, wastes no time and immediately orders the statue destroyed. Although the parallels with Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria are rather obvious, Demetrios Sideros records that the statue was indeed identified by the astrologer and destroyed on October 9. Five days later in Delhi, Shahanshah Iskandar, the Terror of the Romans, the Champion of Islam, the Undefeated Sword of God, breathes his last.
