The foundations of a "Slavic Century"
It took roughly five years after the ascension of Knaiz Czimislav to his father's position for the empire Darvan had built to collapse. Lacking the intimate connections to the nobility which Radem had developed, Czimislav lacked his father's personal charm, being stadoffish, sarcastic, and accustomed to power. As such, despite his being acknowledged as the leader of the "Dravanid" Empire, Czimislav only had the loyalty of the Veleti, his own tribe. In 668, at the Council of Radagast, he was formally stripped of his power by a vote, and the various tribes went their own ways.
While this might have had disastrous effects for Slavic influence in central Europe, it did not. Their neighbors were still distracted - the Avars were weak and struggled to contend even with the numerous peoples settling along the Morava river and the Slovaks, both of which raided the northern borders of the Avars at a time when the Khagan could ill afford the additional pressure. Slavic power and influence was on the rise. As early as the 690's, the Vistulans to their north were building ring-shaped hill-forts, establishing a permanent dominion over their territory. Some have theorized that the aggression of their expansion and consolidation is what forced the Slovaks to strike south into Avar territory.
The westernmost of the Slavic tribes, the Obodorites and the Sorbs, were able to maintain relatively consistent pressure on the various Germanic tribes adjacent to them. Indeed, the Obdorites even took to the sea, with small-scale expeditions ranging as far as Jutland. Known as the "Saal Burnings" these events, despite consisting of raiding parties of no more than a hundred men attacking local mead halls for slaves and what limited plunder they could drag off, would have a profound impact on the culture of the southernmost of the early Norse peoples - or at least plant the apocryphal seeds for a rivalry which would last for centuries. The Sorbs meanwhile attacked the Barvarii with great frequency, under the leadership of one Prince Godzomir. As his own prestige increased, Godzomir by the 690's was able to subdue the Moravians and the now weakened Veleti, bringing them among other, lesser tribes, under his newly established Sorb Empire.
To celebrate his newly established power, he added the name "Darvan" to his own as a sort of regal title. In doing so, he implied a connection to the previous regime, hoping to win over at least the Veleti with this gesture of deference.
In the Balkans, the stage was set for a similar period of unification. The Avar Hegemony had been in a state of decline since their defeat by Sergius in 657. Apart from an unsuccessful campaign against the Xasar-Sahu in 665, the Avars would remain largely at peace and with their extensive tributary system intact, but nevertheless, successive Slavic princes had asserted greater and greater levels of autonomy. By 670, Khagan Anakuye faced what was effectively a confederation of Slavic princes to his south. Individually these four petty kingdoms were little threat, but together, unified by shared religion and tired of exorbitant tribute to the Avars who provided essentially no protection, they began seeking alternatives.
It was Prince Casamir II of Thrace who led the push. Like his father, Casamir was an ambitious man and also a pious one. Fortunately, he lived in a time when his piety and his ambition conveniently intersected. He and his fellow Kings, including the Khan Isaac of the Utigurs, another recent convert, approached the Khagan of the Avars in 673, seeking a negotiated solution. Their terms were simply a recognition of the current political situation - a reduction of tribute to mere token levels, the return of select hostages from the Avar court, and in return peace could be maintained. However, the Khagan took the entire party into custody, accusing them of treason.
They were given a summary trial and each one of them was beheaded. The "Martyrdom of Princes" as it came to be known, incensed the Christian population of the Balkans. Khagan Anakuye had made a grave miscalculation indeed, and he would pay for it. He ordered his vassals to elect new Princes, and, so long as there was no implicit threat of rebellion, the Kings and their hostages would be treated with respect and dignity.
While new Princes were certainly elected, such as Theodosius of Thrace, Vladimir of Thessaloniki, and Presian of Epirus, these new rulers would waste little time in declaring war on the Avars. Vladimir of Thessaloniki struck south, dispatching the Kingdom of Attica (which remained loyal to the Avars, seeking to gain territory) at the Battle of Thermopylae (675) and then marching north to meet his fellow Princes. The Slavic armies linked up and marched towards Sirmium, the Avar capital. The three armies, unified under the de facto command of Theodosius, resembled the late Roman armies they had overcome. Equipped in much the same style, but with a stronger cavalry arm and generally lighter infantry, this disciplined army was a far cry from the Slavic warbands that had crossed Danube a century and a half ago.
The Siege of Sirmium in 675 would represent an early setback. The Avar city was defended too well, and as Avar vassals rallied around their Khagan and the Khagan himself returned from defeating the Utigur Khan Yoanes, Theodosius' army beat a hasty retreat south towards the coast. Chased by the Avars, they turned and gave battle at Ulpiana, where they would score a decisive, but costly victory.
While peace would not be signed until 677, the Avars were beaten badly. The terms were not humiliating, but the loss of even a single Avar noble hurt a society whose elite was only a tiny fraction of a much larger population. Henceforth the Avars would be almost entirely on the defensive, reacting to new threats but not adapting.
The Italian Job
Emperor Sergius benefitted extraordinarily from the dynastic struggles and weakness of the Mauri regime. As centralized authority diminished, the Mauri merchants lost their ability to maintain their stranglehold on the Mediterranean. And while Sergius did not desire another direct confrontation with the Mauri, he could pick away at their overseas trading posts. The city of Marsalia [OTL Marseille] remained an important center of trade, with a thriving Mauri quarter. Unlike so many other great cities, it had survived the collapse of the Roman Empire largely intact, maintaining relative autonomy from the Frankish Kings, elegant bathhouses and a thriving intellectual tradition.
Eyeing this wealth with envy, the Franco-Burgunidan King Goscelin of Burgundy, the city's nominal sovereign dispatched a governor to replace the locally-elected magistrate of the city. While Marsalia grudgingly accepted this, they secretly appealed to Sergius for liberation. Sergius responded, mobilizing his famous, experienced legions and marching south into Burgundy, "liberating" the cities along the southern coast. The people of Marsalia rose up and executed the governor, Lothar the Fat in 664. King Goscelin raised an army of his noble retainers and their associated levies and marched south. At the battle of Arles, the Burgundian shield walls found themselves outmaneuvered by the more flexible Italian army and defeated. Goscelin made peace - Sergius, worried of overstretching himself, did not press further up the Rhone.
Marsalia was quickly assimilated into Sergius' Empire, as was all of Provence. A new Rector of Province was appointed by Sergius, named Crescentius. Crescentius' first mandate was to enact a reign of terror against the Mauri merchants, confiscating their stores and ships and redistributing them to Gallo-Roman merchants favored by the state. These acts of aggression were strongly protested by the Mauri King, but there was little that could be done.
On his return to Florentia, Sergius awarded himself a magnificent triumph. But the exaltation of victory was not long to last. A group of his nobles sought to assassinate him and replace him with his infant son, Valerian Constantine, whom they hoped to mold into a more pliant leader. Their grievances were long - they felt that the Emperor had too much influence over the papacy, which was traditionally theirs to control - they felt that the Emperor was willing to exhaust the treasury and bankrupt them in the process, and perhaps most importantly, they felt unimportant to the running of the regime.
The assassin was captured by the Emperor's elite bodyguards, the Xasari Guard, and reprisals were swift. The Romano-Italian patricians, with their sprawling estates and powerful mercenary bodyguards, were not to be trifled with. Much of rural Italy worked and lived and died on their enormous estates, expanded by the conquests of Sergius and the expulsion of the Goths and Slavs. However, they were also utterly incidental to the running of Sergius' army. At its core, Sergius' military was a professional one. While patrician nobles had the potential to rise to towering heights as officers, these men were rarely those who joined in the rebellion. Unable to be assured that they could mutiny as one cohesive force, most officers toed the line and followed their orders.
The Italian nobility, meanwhile, was scattered across Italy, unable to defend themselves. Like dominoes they were beaten or made to flee one by one. The terms of their surrender involved the confiscation of their large estates, which were broken down and divided among the upper echelons of Sergius' officer corps. By 670, the power of the great landholders was broken for good.
The Mahadevist Dilemma
Husrava's regime was based in apocalyptic desperation and fanaticism. His attempts to rebuild Susa and restore the bureaucracy were mired in uncertainty. It had been too long since the Eftal Empire - there was nothing left to build off of but dusty sallow records of better times. As Shahanshah, Husrava's options were few. The main repositories of education and knowledge that remained to him were Nestorian Christian and Sogdian-school Mahayana Buddhist monasteries, both of which were untenable choices for a religiously mandated ruler. The Zoroastrian priestly class, while educated, was unaccustomed to such administrative work and lacked adequate records or survey skills - skills which the monks of Syarzur had been developing during their brief period of political power.
As such, Husrava opted to do the one thing he could - sending messengers to local leaders, he demanded that tribute be brought to him on a yearly basis. Using old Eftal records scrounged from the ruins of Susa he attempted to determine reasonable figures and appointed legates to go forth and bring back what they could. It was a crude system, but it was a beginning. For the first time, loyalties were tested and proven. There were very few attempts among the Mahadevist leaders of his movement to cheat their holy savior of his taxes. In general, their shortfalls were due to massively reduced production and wealth in the conquered areas, rather than betrayal. However, the Christians in particular realized quite quickly that they could exploit this feeble tax policy. No region was more ruined than Arbayestan and Mesopotamia. It followed then that there would be the greatest disparity between actual and expected income there, to the point that Eftal records were useless. As such, the Christians often cheerfully turned over paltry sums, overstating the devastation of Mesopotamia. Their Mahadevist overlords, few on the ground, rarely had the manpower to audit these claims, and were forced to return near empty-handed.
The Shahanshah did not claim to be a god, merely a human harbinger of the end of times. However, it was critical for his image that he maintain some level of health and kingly image. As such, he increasingly sequestered himself in his palace, beginning to refine his role, which became more ceremonial as he attempted to hide any failings or frailty from his subordinates. In the early days of his ascension it had not mattered - his reputation and unstoppable momentum had sufficed. Now he relied more and more on ceremony and Persian conceptions of monarchy to divert suspicions. To some degree this was unnecessary. Few in his inner circle would question, and most of the rest would not for fear of being silenced by the majority.
After 675, it was mostly local leaders who fought to expand the Saosyant's empire. They lacked the resources to make much of a dent. A campaign against the Khalingids was met with disaster, as was an attempt to strike into Osrhoene which died after an abortive siege of Nasibin. What these campaigns did do was sap manpower. Local leaders, regardless of their fanaticism, were forced to call on Turkic mercenaries to maintain order. These mercenaries were often unreliable, but they were numerous. Kimek and Qiriqanid warriors were willing to fight in exchange for land grants and pay, and many would even pledge their belief in the Saosyant if it meant additional money or a higher rank.
The necessity of these mercenaries was proved after an eastern coalition formed. The half-Turkish half-Eftal warlord Tengin Shah brought the southern Asvha, Eftal tribes including the Gorkhanids and Panjadh, and the Kidarites under his wing. With the growing threat of the Mahadevists, he proved himself more than capable of defeating their armies in battle and striking a daring raid into Siraz (680). A worshipper of Tengri and culturally Turkish, he nevertheless represented the Eftal heritage: tolerant and cosmopolitan, he was a fierce warlord who was comfortable either in a city or in the saddle.
As Tengin Shah grew more bold in the early 80's, the Mahadevist Green Banner armies were assembled by Husrava. However, this mostly infantry force was augmented both by an elite force of Eftal-style companions, armored in the cataphract style, and also by thousands of Turkish cavalry, led by the Qarluq warlord Sulukichor, whose recent conversion to Mahadevism had propelled him to leadership of this large mercenary contingent.
Husrava and Tengin Shah met near the town of Yazd, both aware they could not retreat. The former had built his reputation upon being an invincible messianic figure, the latter upon being able to defeat said invincible messianic figure. Both had cobbled together rough coalitions, forces that were mere shadows of what their varying predecessors had commanded. For Husrava, this would be yet another great battle of light against dark. For Tengin, this was a battle for survival.
The first day of battle would consist of a series of duels, of which Husrava's Mahadevists came off better. Towards the evening, Tengin's cavalry harassed the Mahadevist flanks, driving back Sulukichor's cavalry, who seemed cautious, preserving their strength against Husrava's order for a general engagement. The second day, battle was joined. The Asvha, who held the center against the Green Banners, were badly bloodied, but as the sun set the battle was yet again inconclusive. The third day at dawn the Mahadevists attacked Tengin's camp, retreating with heavy casualties, particularly to their lightly-equipped fanatical levies who flung themselves against the camp's walls to little effect. Later that afternoon, battle would rejoin in earnest. Sulukichor's mercenaries, representing perhaps a quarter of the Turkish cavalry, began to retreat from the field, sensing that the battle was lost. The other mercenaries, both Turkish, Alan, and Eftal noticed and began to retreat themselves. However, Tengin's line, exhausted from three days of fighting, broke and the Mahadevists spilled through the center, encouraged by Husrava and his cataphracts. However, in the melee, Husrava was gored by a spear and struck by several arrows. Borne from the field by his royal guards, the Saosyant remained alive but badly bloodied. The only consolation was that Tengin could not follow up on his victory.
Sulukichor and most of the mercenaries did not return to camp that evening. Some distance away they formed a secondary camp and held a council of war. At first, Sulukichor was blamed for the day's events. His cowardice had ensured the Mahadevist defeat and ruined their chances of ever receiving payment. However, when the (inaccurate) news that Husrava had died reached the mercenary council, the tenor of the conversation shifted. One of the mercenaries, an Eftal named Sefandiyar, captivated the assembled leaders, promising to lead them to greatness.The mercenaries represented a large contingent of armed men in a world that was defined by large contingents of armed men. Why should they beg for scraps from this Eftal Shahanshah? Because he claimed to be the Saosyant? His victories had been against feeble, divided opponents. If they acted together, perhaps one of them could be Shah. Perhaps the Eftal Empire could be restored. By the end of the night, casks of Persian wine, liberated from the Mahadevist camp during Sulukichor's retreat were broken open and each of the leaders pledged for follow Sefandiyar to whatever end...
Meanwhile, many miles away, with the armed help of the Syrian Shah Toramana, and money from the Khalingids, the Oadhya clan of Eftal rebelled in Syarzur. Lead by an influential local patriarch named Mihiraban, they quickly gained the loyalty of the monasteries and the local clans, and prepared to assert not merely the restoration of the Syarzur Confederation, but rather of the Eftal Empire...
[I look forwards to seeing thoughts and questions. I think the Mahadevists had too many enemies to prosper in the long run. Too many people who could take advantage of their state and all their legitimacy is based in one man, and one man can all too easily be wounded taking some heroic risk in battle...]
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