Author’s Preamble
So after several years as a lurker and only very occasional poster on these forums, I’ve decided to move forward with my first timeline. It is something of an amalgam, the combination of several different ideas I've had at various times that I've weaved together into (what I hope is) a coherent TL.
The POD occurs shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and will be shown in the first post, and as such I’m reluctant to give away too much here. But the general idea is to tell the story of a world where the late antiquity/early middle ages divide is less severe. Many of the stars of the first portion of the TL will be Romans: noblemen, administrators, priests and especially soldiers, trying to navigate what it means to still be Roman when the Empire has gone. While post-Imperial romanitas is a major focus, I do hope to extend the focus to other concepts, so expect to see certain other things from Antiquity that didn't survive the shift to the medieval world (well, or at all) being thrown a lifeline (I'm a big Freddy Mercury fan, so I may throw Zoroastrianism a bone).
This is not an Imperial Restoration TL. Belisarius isn’t going to march to the Rhine. In East and West alike, Romans will still have struggle hard for their survival. The inspiration for the political structure of much of this TL was China in its periods of division. I wanted to tell the story of a West where from the breakdown of a great empire emerges locally dominated subunits, and how those subunits operate once their leaders accept that humpty dumpty is not going to be put back together anytime soon (though the Memory of the Empire is not forgotten).
Credit is due to many, not least to the Romans for being so interesting. My thanks to all the writers of Byzantine TLs on this board, which have been a major inspiration for this TL, even if it is not quite Byzantine in focus. In particular, thanks to Basileus444, whose Age of Miracles TL has been a favorite lurking spot of mine, and who has done much to warm my opinion of character-driven prose.
Special Credit to Peter Heather, whose work got me excited again about a topic I’d grown meh on. In his honor, I have often adopted his theories with respect to the period as the basis for events in the TL.
I have taken some liberties with the history with regard to matters that we cannot properly understand due to the lack of surviving evidence. I hope you will find that these are not to egregious and do not stretch the TL’s credibility. Sometimes, in the early part of the TL before I can reasonably claim butterflies to defend everything, I have created new characters who have no historical existence. But I have always tried to make these characters appropriate, the kind of people who MIGHT have existed. In general, I'm compensating for the restricted cast history has remembered by adding some original people who should still seem very plausible to the reader.
Finally, with respect to place names, I was wondering what everyone’s opinions were for what names to use for towns and cities in this era. Many well-known settlements, like Soissons, are typically referred to by their modern name in discussion of their history. Obviously using the original names would be more authentic, but I also don’t want the reader constantly referring to reference maps to recall what I'm talking about every time a city is named. Ditto for regions, like Provence. Though I have decided, on this point, to use the modern names for rivers, feedback on the general question would be much appreciated.
I am looking forward to hearing people's opinions, good or bad!
Enjoy!
So after several years as a lurker and only very occasional poster on these forums, I’ve decided to move forward with my first timeline. It is something of an amalgam, the combination of several different ideas I've had at various times that I've weaved together into (what I hope is) a coherent TL.
The POD occurs shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and will be shown in the first post, and as such I’m reluctant to give away too much here. But the general idea is to tell the story of a world where the late antiquity/early middle ages divide is less severe. Many of the stars of the first portion of the TL will be Romans: noblemen, administrators, priests and especially soldiers, trying to navigate what it means to still be Roman when the Empire has gone. While post-Imperial romanitas is a major focus, I do hope to extend the focus to other concepts, so expect to see certain other things from Antiquity that didn't survive the shift to the medieval world (well, or at all) being thrown a lifeline (I'm a big Freddy Mercury fan, so I may throw Zoroastrianism a bone).
This is not an Imperial Restoration TL. Belisarius isn’t going to march to the Rhine. In East and West alike, Romans will still have struggle hard for their survival. The inspiration for the political structure of much of this TL was China in its periods of division. I wanted to tell the story of a West where from the breakdown of a great empire emerges locally dominated subunits, and how those subunits operate once their leaders accept that humpty dumpty is not going to be put back together anytime soon (though the Memory of the Empire is not forgotten).
Credit is due to many, not least to the Romans for being so interesting. My thanks to all the writers of Byzantine TLs on this board, which have been a major inspiration for this TL, even if it is not quite Byzantine in focus. In particular, thanks to Basileus444, whose Age of Miracles TL has been a favorite lurking spot of mine, and who has done much to warm my opinion of character-driven prose.
Special Credit to Peter Heather, whose work got me excited again about a topic I’d grown meh on. In his honor, I have often adopted his theories with respect to the period as the basis for events in the TL.
I have taken some liberties with the history with regard to matters that we cannot properly understand due to the lack of surviving evidence. I hope you will find that these are not to egregious and do not stretch the TL’s credibility. Sometimes, in the early part of the TL before I can reasonably claim butterflies to defend everything, I have created new characters who have no historical existence. But I have always tried to make these characters appropriate, the kind of people who MIGHT have existed. In general, I'm compensating for the restricted cast history has remembered by adding some original people who should still seem very plausible to the reader.
Finally, with respect to place names, I was wondering what everyone’s opinions were for what names to use for towns and cities in this era. Many well-known settlements, like Soissons, are typically referred to by their modern name in discussion of their history. Obviously using the original names would be more authentic, but I also don’t want the reader constantly referring to reference maps to recall what I'm talking about every time a city is named. Ditto for regions, like Provence. Though I have decided, on this point, to use the modern names for rivers, feedback on the general question would be much appreciated.
I am looking forward to hearing people's opinions, good or bad!
Enjoy!
