Your Berbers are very interesting, and at this point, what was left of Roman civilization certainly may not exude a strong magnetism indeed. But have they not been in touch with it for almost a millennium already? I would expect mere socioeconomic factors of a Berber move towards the fertile coastline to bring some sort of cultural change with them...
The Rise of the White Huns
- Thread starter Practical Lobster
- Start date
Apologies if the latest post is unclear. What I was trying to say is that the most recent generations of berbers have little connection to the Roman Empire or its legacy, which has been shifting northwards.
And the coastline is still largely in the hands of the (by now very distinct) Mauri Berber culture. The inland Berbers are changing, but rather more slowly.
And the coastline is still largely in the hands of the (by now very distinct) Mauri Berber culture. The inland Berbers are changing, but rather more slowly.
Ah, so the Mauri still run the coastline, just their state has broken down. OK, in that case I can absolutely see how the inland Berbers are not assimilating very fast.
Their native religion as you describe it sounds fascinating. Where did you get information about it from? (I have some plans for my own TL which could use fleshing out, but I just can`t find anything useful....)
Their native religion as you describe it sounds fascinating. Where did you get information about it from? (I have some plans for my own TL which could use fleshing out, but I just can`t find anything useful....)
Deleted member 67076
It returns!
Hmm, I think the Balkans might calm down for a bit. Asia is nicely secured but buys, and Italy doesn't have the power to digest all their holdings, so we might see peace by exhaustion come into effect soon enough.
Although the various nomads in Pannonia will still be a problem.
Hmm, I think the Balkans might calm down for a bit. Asia is nicely secured but buys, and Italy doesn't have the power to digest all their holdings, so we might see peace by exhaustion come into effect soon enough.
Although the various nomads in Pannonia will still be a problem.
The UNESCO General History of Africa and some stuff I cobbled together by googling "Berber Paganism" - frankly I think we don't know much that isn't conjecture, for the era in question.
The thing is that the proliferation of local beliefs means that the butterfly effect will be in play. And for your own timeline, the Berbers of Roman times are a bit better documented - the religion of the inland Berbers I believe in that time was an Egypto-Hellenic-Berber synthesis. Some Zeus-Amon analogue wouldn't necessarily be out of place. Lot of local gods tied to regions, as in my timeline.
It may stretch credulity at times, but part of my interest in this timeline is in seeing how I can preserve some of this diversity of religious belief that our antiquity had in a way that doesn't feel contrived or silly. Hence why Mihir is still kicking in the east.
Periphery
The Periphery of the Latin World
"Alone among the nations of Germania stand the Saxons. They acknowledge neither Christ nor the Frankish King, and all their borders are bloody." So wrote the Frankish monk Tescelin of Aires in 812. With its borders reduced to the natural lines of the Elbe, Weser, and Eider rivers, the Saxon people primarily defined themselves by their isolation. A pagan Germanic people surrounded on all fronts, their bonds of kinship and ethnic identity were strengthened by a sort of siege mentality. The Saxons and Franks engaged in raiding which never truly abated, even when they were incorporated into the Frankish Kingdom.
Despite the occasional lip service paid to Christianity by the Saxon rulers, and a not insignificant number of converts among the common people, the Saxon polity remained a tribal confederation based around the role of King as a pagan priest. The holy Sanctuary of Irminsul formed a sort of spiritual heart of the nascent nation, more than any particular royal hall or urban center. Irminsul, to look at it was little more than a pillar of oak - but it stood for the world tree upon which Wuotan the wyrm-slayer, the father of language, hung for nine days and nine nights, and it was here that sacrifices were done in emulation of the gallows-god's suffering.
Ritual sacrifice and regular festival days promoted unity and common identity among the aristocracy and freemen. Despite the lack of many of the systems which characterized "advanced" states, these strong bonds of identity ensured that the Saxons would endure repeated Frankish and Slavic attacks.
Even still, it was not as if the Franks could not have destroyed the Saxons with their tremendous resources. Rather, the Frankish Kings lacked the will to engage in what would undoubtedly be a protracted campaign in the thick forests and marshes of Saxony for little gain. In the short term it was more expedient just to fortify the marches. Rulers such as Clovis and Theuderic had too many distractions and ambitions to turn north and stomp out the Saxon threat. Even at the local level, the lords who might have dreamed of bringing Christ to the Saxons with fire and sword dreamed instead of Constantinople and Jerusalem. This only began to change by about 810-820, when the next generation of Frankish aristocrats, raised on stories of the Votive War more glorious than its reality, began seeking their own Votive War.
They found it in Saxony. In 814, Palatine Audoneus led several thousand soldiers on an expedition to "end the idolatry of the Saxons and bring them into the light of our Lord." Opposing him was the veteran war-leaderErcanfrid, who rallied his kinsmen in defense of Saxony. Such punitive invasions had occurred historically, but never with such single-minded dedication. Traditionally, the Franks would strike deep into Saxony, do damage, and then retreat once more. Instead, Audoneus remained, acting as a conqueror, assigning grants of land and hastily erecting fortifications. This drew Ercanfrid into outright battle against him, and here Audoneus was defeated - fleeing with the bulk of his forces back across the Elbe.
But this was the beginning of the end. Ercanfrid was unable to retake the forts Audoneus had ordered built, and when the royal army arrived three years later with King Clovis at its head, they were able to continue their plan. The next five years were spent establishing castles with Frankish lords over the Saxons. Irminsul was burnt to the ground and Ercanfrid and his kinsmen fled into exile, leading to the rapid submission of the remaining Saxon nobles families - who knew that surrender and conversion would see them able to retain their lands as hereditary lords. Ercanfrid, for his part, would flee north, first to ring-walled Heithabir and then later to the lands of the Geats.
Tales of the fall of the Saxons spread east quickly. The Western Slavs and Saxons had been old enemies, but if the Franks were turning eastward and were again animated by Votivist zeal, then the Slavs desperately needed to unite. Hasty alliances were struck, marriages agreed to. Priests burnt offerings and sifted through the ashes for omens. In the end, a leader named Slavomir was appointed Dravan (sometimes referred to as King or Emperor) of a confederation of all the Polabian tribes - an unprecedented alliance but one which fit the mood of the Slavic elite. Chosen from the relatively small tribe of the Circipani, Slavomir could not personally call on large retainers or many allies. He was a choice which did not threaten any of the existing powers such as the Veleti or the Obodrites.
At first, the confederation would be weak, and patchwork - a network of voluntarily tribal alliances which was neither contiguous or powerful. Many of the initial founders had seen the Dravan more as a spiritual or cultural figure than a military leader, but they soon would change their opinions. In 823, when Gamalher, the Duke of Thuringia raided the burgeoning hill-town of Brenna. The alliance quickly gained members and soon Slavomir's ceremonial kingship became truly powerful. The Sorbs joined shortly thereafter, forming what the Franks described as a "High Kingdom of the Wends" and the Slavs would ultimately call Veletia.
As the border wars between Slavs and Franks began to rise in intensity once more, the more southern of the Western Slavs could not help but be drawn in. As raids on the Czechs and Slovenians began to increase, the Moravians under Kniaz Rastislav became local hegemons, uniting the southernmost of the West Slavic tribes under their thumb.
By 830, the Western Slavic polities in general were becoming more centralized and more complex. Certain well defended fortress-cities, or gords had risen to prominence, and these in turn ruled over lesser fortress-cities scattered across the countryside. Linked to each other by kinship bonds and oaths of loyalty, these localities placed themselves into rough hierarchies. Early legal codes were being formatted, based off of a combination of tradition and Roman law. The Slavic proto-states lacked their own domestic coinage, being primarily agrarian barter-based economies which made some use of foreign currency. Foreign coins were particularly commonplace in the gords, where specialized manufacturing was becoming increasingly commonplace. This rudimentary village industry would transform Slavic society. As these states became more complex in their organizational patterns, religious and cultural legitimacy began to diminish in favor of a proto-feudal system of "alliance."
Much of the foreign influence on these early states came from the looming shadow of the Romans or Franks. Slavic protofeudalism emulated both the Roman "federate" system which had returned in force after the conquest of the South Slavs, and also the Frankish magistrate-lords with their complex bonds of loyalty. Religious sites and sacred groves became increasingly less important to the social cohesion of the state - but they maintained their importance to religious rituals even as Christianization became widespread. The holy sites of the Slavs, groves to Perun and Svarog and countless others were frequently recontextualized into folklore and preserved. The image of the old red-bearded wanderer with a shining axe was a potent one in the mythology of the Western Slavs, and would endure long after Perun himself lost his primacy.
Strong Iranian and Avar influences can be also seen in the material culture of the Morava and Polanes, and Norse culture and loanwords penetrated Wendish civilization to a great degree. As Pannonia embraced its Irano-Turkish heritage the Slavic peoples there were largely subsumed. Elsewhere however, the Iranian culture had less impact. They, like the Slavs were relative newcomers, strangers whose language, gods, and culture were all still trying to adapt to a foreign land. A cabal of wandering Sarvastivada monks from Syarzur established "the Great Refuge" in the Carpathian mountains sometime around 805. It was from this point of origin that Avar-Xasari Buddhism, like the "Sogdian School" would begin to become its own formalized and distinct religious tradition.
Latin Christian and Xasari Buddhist missionaries vied for influence in the courts of the Slavic princes. Unlike the great theological debates of the Eftal, these were less lofty and more pragmatic. Both the Christians and Buddhists had strong material incentives in gaining converts - creating coreligionists meant the possibility of trade and alliances. However, the Christians had critical advantages in this "contest" - they were more numerous and more zealous in their preaching. Their faith seemed at its root to appeal better to the Slavic peoples, and quite possibly worked better as a unifying force. By contrast, the main advantage of Buddhism, its adaptability, was less true of the Xasari-influenced Buddhism, with its elaborate pantheon of Iranian and Turkish deities.
Among the Vistulans and the Masovians, where the Avar and Xasar presence had always been the strongest, Buddhist missionaries enjoyed widespread successes. Elsewhere, however, Christianity seemed far more popular. King Rastislav's son Moymir of Moravia would convert to Christianity in 842. Of the Western Slavs, the only people to convert wholesale to Buddhism were the Polanes. In general, however, we must hold all accounts of these conversions to be somewhat suspect. Archeological evidence shows that the important holy sites of the Slavic faith were in no way abandoned, and especially in Moravia constant edicts against idolatry seem to have gone rather unenforced.
Despite the multitude of foreign influences, the traditions, mythology, and culture of the Slavs remained strong and almost totally isolated from the hearts of both Iranian and Latin civilization. Paying lip-service to Christ and the Buddha became commonplace among the elites, but the actual religious situation was complex and if anything syncretic.
http://i.imgur.com/wvjeYkj.jpg
Political Map
http://i.imgur.com/eCPvaaa.jpg
Religious Map
[The religious map is extremely rough. It may also contradict me in some places, although I hope not! I made it mostly for my own reference, but I thought maybe I could post it.]
"Alone among the nations of Germania stand the Saxons. They acknowledge neither Christ nor the Frankish King, and all their borders are bloody." So wrote the Frankish monk Tescelin of Aires in 812. With its borders reduced to the natural lines of the Elbe, Weser, and Eider rivers, the Saxon people primarily defined themselves by their isolation. A pagan Germanic people surrounded on all fronts, their bonds of kinship and ethnic identity were strengthened by a sort of siege mentality. The Saxons and Franks engaged in raiding which never truly abated, even when they were incorporated into the Frankish Kingdom.
Despite the occasional lip service paid to Christianity by the Saxon rulers, and a not insignificant number of converts among the common people, the Saxon polity remained a tribal confederation based around the role of King as a pagan priest. The holy Sanctuary of Irminsul formed a sort of spiritual heart of the nascent nation, more than any particular royal hall or urban center. Irminsul, to look at it was little more than a pillar of oak - but it stood for the world tree upon which Wuotan the wyrm-slayer, the father of language, hung for nine days and nine nights, and it was here that sacrifices were done in emulation of the gallows-god's suffering.
Ritual sacrifice and regular festival days promoted unity and common identity among the aristocracy and freemen. Despite the lack of many of the systems which characterized "advanced" states, these strong bonds of identity ensured that the Saxons would endure repeated Frankish and Slavic attacks.
Even still, it was not as if the Franks could not have destroyed the Saxons with their tremendous resources. Rather, the Frankish Kings lacked the will to engage in what would undoubtedly be a protracted campaign in the thick forests and marshes of Saxony for little gain. In the short term it was more expedient just to fortify the marches. Rulers such as Clovis and Theuderic had too many distractions and ambitions to turn north and stomp out the Saxon threat. Even at the local level, the lords who might have dreamed of bringing Christ to the Saxons with fire and sword dreamed instead of Constantinople and Jerusalem. This only began to change by about 810-820, when the next generation of Frankish aristocrats, raised on stories of the Votive War more glorious than its reality, began seeking their own Votive War.
They found it in Saxony. In 814, Palatine Audoneus led several thousand soldiers on an expedition to "end the idolatry of the Saxons and bring them into the light of our Lord." Opposing him was the veteran war-leaderErcanfrid, who rallied his kinsmen in defense of Saxony. Such punitive invasions had occurred historically, but never with such single-minded dedication. Traditionally, the Franks would strike deep into Saxony, do damage, and then retreat once more. Instead, Audoneus remained, acting as a conqueror, assigning grants of land and hastily erecting fortifications. This drew Ercanfrid into outright battle against him, and here Audoneus was defeated - fleeing with the bulk of his forces back across the Elbe.
But this was the beginning of the end. Ercanfrid was unable to retake the forts Audoneus had ordered built, and when the royal army arrived three years later with King Clovis at its head, they were able to continue their plan. The next five years were spent establishing castles with Frankish lords over the Saxons. Irminsul was burnt to the ground and Ercanfrid and his kinsmen fled into exile, leading to the rapid submission of the remaining Saxon nobles families - who knew that surrender and conversion would see them able to retain their lands as hereditary lords. Ercanfrid, for his part, would flee north, first to ring-walled Heithabir and then later to the lands of the Geats.
Tales of the fall of the Saxons spread east quickly. The Western Slavs and Saxons had been old enemies, but if the Franks were turning eastward and were again animated by Votivist zeal, then the Slavs desperately needed to unite. Hasty alliances were struck, marriages agreed to. Priests burnt offerings and sifted through the ashes for omens. In the end, a leader named Slavomir was appointed Dravan (sometimes referred to as King or Emperor) of a confederation of all the Polabian tribes - an unprecedented alliance but one which fit the mood of the Slavic elite. Chosen from the relatively small tribe of the Circipani, Slavomir could not personally call on large retainers or many allies. He was a choice which did not threaten any of the existing powers such as the Veleti or the Obodrites.
At first, the confederation would be weak, and patchwork - a network of voluntarily tribal alliances which was neither contiguous or powerful. Many of the initial founders had seen the Dravan more as a spiritual or cultural figure than a military leader, but they soon would change their opinions. In 823, when Gamalher, the Duke of Thuringia raided the burgeoning hill-town of Brenna. The alliance quickly gained members and soon Slavomir's ceremonial kingship became truly powerful. The Sorbs joined shortly thereafter, forming what the Franks described as a "High Kingdom of the Wends" and the Slavs would ultimately call Veletia.
As the border wars between Slavs and Franks began to rise in intensity once more, the more southern of the Western Slavs could not help but be drawn in. As raids on the Czechs and Slovenians began to increase, the Moravians under Kniaz Rastislav became local hegemons, uniting the southernmost of the West Slavic tribes under their thumb.
By 830, the Western Slavic polities in general were becoming more centralized and more complex. Certain well defended fortress-cities, or gords had risen to prominence, and these in turn ruled over lesser fortress-cities scattered across the countryside. Linked to each other by kinship bonds and oaths of loyalty, these localities placed themselves into rough hierarchies. Early legal codes were being formatted, based off of a combination of tradition and Roman law. The Slavic proto-states lacked their own domestic coinage, being primarily agrarian barter-based economies which made some use of foreign currency. Foreign coins were particularly commonplace in the gords, where specialized manufacturing was becoming increasingly commonplace. This rudimentary village industry would transform Slavic society. As these states became more complex in their organizational patterns, religious and cultural legitimacy began to diminish in favor of a proto-feudal system of "alliance."
Much of the foreign influence on these early states came from the looming shadow of the Romans or Franks. Slavic protofeudalism emulated both the Roman "federate" system which had returned in force after the conquest of the South Slavs, and also the Frankish magistrate-lords with their complex bonds of loyalty. Religious sites and sacred groves became increasingly less important to the social cohesion of the state - but they maintained their importance to religious rituals even as Christianization became widespread. The holy sites of the Slavs, groves to Perun and Svarog and countless others were frequently recontextualized into folklore and preserved. The image of the old red-bearded wanderer with a shining axe was a potent one in the mythology of the Western Slavs, and would endure long after Perun himself lost his primacy.
Strong Iranian and Avar influences can be also seen in the material culture of the Morava and Polanes, and Norse culture and loanwords penetrated Wendish civilization to a great degree. As Pannonia embraced its Irano-Turkish heritage the Slavic peoples there were largely subsumed. Elsewhere however, the Iranian culture had less impact. They, like the Slavs were relative newcomers, strangers whose language, gods, and culture were all still trying to adapt to a foreign land. A cabal of wandering Sarvastivada monks from Syarzur established "the Great Refuge" in the Carpathian mountains sometime around 805. It was from this point of origin that Avar-Xasari Buddhism, like the "Sogdian School" would begin to become its own formalized and distinct religious tradition.
Latin Christian and Xasari Buddhist missionaries vied for influence in the courts of the Slavic princes. Unlike the great theological debates of the Eftal, these were less lofty and more pragmatic. Both the Christians and Buddhists had strong material incentives in gaining converts - creating coreligionists meant the possibility of trade and alliances. However, the Christians had critical advantages in this "contest" - they were more numerous and more zealous in their preaching. Their faith seemed at its root to appeal better to the Slavic peoples, and quite possibly worked better as a unifying force. By contrast, the main advantage of Buddhism, its adaptability, was less true of the Xasari-influenced Buddhism, with its elaborate pantheon of Iranian and Turkish deities.
Among the Vistulans and the Masovians, where the Avar and Xasar presence had always been the strongest, Buddhist missionaries enjoyed widespread successes. Elsewhere, however, Christianity seemed far more popular. King Rastislav's son Moymir of Moravia would convert to Christianity in 842. Of the Western Slavs, the only people to convert wholesale to Buddhism were the Polanes. In general, however, we must hold all accounts of these conversions to be somewhat suspect. Archeological evidence shows that the important holy sites of the Slavic faith were in no way abandoned, and especially in Moravia constant edicts against idolatry seem to have gone rather unenforced.
Despite the multitude of foreign influences, the traditions, mythology, and culture of the Slavs remained strong and almost totally isolated from the hearts of both Iranian and Latin civilization. Paying lip-service to Christ and the Buddha became commonplace among the elites, but the actual religious situation was complex and if anything syncretic.
http://i.imgur.com/wvjeYkj.jpg
Political Map
http://i.imgur.com/eCPvaaa.jpg
Religious Map
[The religious map is extremely rough. It may also contradict me in some places, although I hope not! I made it mostly for my own reference, but I thought maybe I could post it.]
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Great Update
Will the Franks now turn northwards, as they did OTL. The turn towards Jutland and the resulting building of Danevirk played a central role in kickstarting the viking assaults on the west.
It is really interesting seeing Budhism functioning as an almost universal religion, streching from Japan in the east to modern Eastern Europe in the west.
Will the Franks now turn northwards, as they did OTL. The turn towards Jutland and the resulting building of Danevirk played a central role in kickstarting the viking assaults on the west.
It is really interesting seeing Budhism functioning as an almost universal religion, streching from Japan in the east to modern Eastern Europe in the west.
Gorgeous update.
i have always loved Early West Slavs, and I've never been so delighted by an althist update about them.
they'll be more defiant in the face of Frankish threats than the Saxons, I'm sure. They're more numerous and better protected, what with all their gords, and incipient centralisation and maybe even trained soldiers.
i have always loved Early West Slavs, and I've never been so delighted by an althist update about them.
they'll be more defiant in the face of Frankish threats than the Saxons, I'm sure. They're more numerous and better protected, what with all their gords, and incipient centralisation and maybe even trained soldiers.
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Sailing
@Zulfurium - hadn't the Danevirk in some form or other been built for centuries now?
Also as much as I thought it would be cool to have the Saxons survive in some form I could really justify such a small region withstanding all the power the Franks could throw at it.
Anyways, here's a quick update!
Savahila and Africa
By the ninth century, the Savahila (or coastal) peoples seem to have begun undergoing radical shifts in demographics once more. The migration of Persian and Arab traders had largely abated - the political shifts in Iran and Arabia ensured that mass exodus was neither profitable nor tenable. Rather, the new migrants were primarily Gujarati and Keralaputran, and they brought with them circa 780 a new plant - oryza sativa, or asian rice. While much of the great coast was unsuitable for rice production, parts undeniably were - and this small-scale production allowed rice and knowledge of rice cultivation to be transmitted to inland tribes of Bantu, where it would take off with astonishing rapidity.
Rice cultivation would change everything for these inland peoples, whose agriculture had previously largely relied on less efficient staples such as sorghum and yam. The arrival of citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons would have a positive effect on the health of these peoples as well. The East African Bantu were uniquely posed to take advantage of a water-intensive crop such as rice - their civilization had largely grown around the rainiest parts of the continent, where fear of the tsetse fly kept the cattle-herding Cushites at bay.
This population growth would spur Bantu expansion, driving the more pastoralist Cushites towards the coast and highlands. Those who remained were quickly assimilated into the growing centralized polities of the Great Lakes. Bantu urban centers grew into the thousands, and increasing specialization of crafts can be noted - the emergence of an urban artisan class and technically proficient blacksmiths meant that for the first time the Savahila cities had a strong incentive to trade with these emergent Bantu kingdoms.
There is a dearth of information about the early kingdoms of the great lakes. What information we do have is shrouded in myth and legend. The earliest chronicles blend mythic gods and historical rulers, and conflating the two is dangerous to our understanding of the region. Kings such as the legendary Isaza or Ruhanga likely never truly lived, but the stories associated with them provide telling details about the civilizations that grew up in the shadow of the great coast cities.
The greatest of these early kingdoms was the Ganda, rivaled only by the Tagama to the south. Settling on the northern banks of the great lakes, these two polities can be safely considered "first among equals" in the patchwork series of kinship-based chiefdoms that formed the early Great Lakes civilizations. The myth of the universalist Banyoro Empire seems to have been invented out of whole cloth - there is no mention of it in the records of the Savahila cities, and it can easily be explained as a myth to provide legitimacy to the local rulers of the region. Stories such as that of the great king Ndahura who abandoned his crown and possessions to travel to the east however, hint at some of the earliest impacts of the Hindi world on the Great Lakes. It was an easy transition for Ndahura to become a god providing comfort to ascetics.
On the coast, migrant populations were reshaping their societies. Hindu rituals were used to set the these newcomers apart from the established generations and the indigenous. These newcomers, familiar with the sangha communities and seeking a similar sort of identity in this new country founded exclusive societies, generally based around heterodox versions of formal religious observances and a personal relationship with a given deity, usually an aspect or avatar of Vishnu or Shakti. These exclusive 'secret' societies grew into prominence rapidly, perhaps hinting that their exclusivity was not as strict as some surviving texts might claim, and that prominent members of society were easily inducted so long as they brought their support to the group.
These societies began to involve themselves in trade as well. Many of the Keralaputran migrants in particular were of lower caste and accordingly found work wherever they could. With agriculture largely the province of the indigenous Cushites, they turned the maritime professions, particularly pearl diving and fishing. The first true sangha of the "great long coast" had been born.
It was a time of growth and expansion. The mud-brick port city of Syamavela was founded off the shore of Mzishima, on an island long considered marginal for human habitation. It would rapidly rise in prominence, with major stone manufactories being constructed by 830. Unlike its predecessors and mother-city across the strait, Syamavela was operated by a ruling ayat, and the theoretical equality of those in the guilds were recognized. A distance inland, up the wide lazy Rhesan [Rufiji] river, a small trading post which serviced the Iringa people grew into the polyglot city of Svarnapura.
Sailing the Middle-World
(circa 830)
The Prince Janaharidama had made quite a stir in Hesanapolis. He had travelled north along the Red Sea, stopping at Berenike for the sake of rest and provisions while they waited for the winds to change. From there he and his chosen companions had come to the city of Clysma, dingy and clogged with men in strange and complicated robes. The air smelled of salt, fish, and excrement. Navigating labyrinthine streets, the Prince-Ambassador finally found his way to the local governor's palace. The governor, a boisterous yet pale man with a squared beard and ruddy cheeks, claimed to have never heard of Izaoriaka, or even the Isle of the Moon. Finally, at the word Sakalava his eyes lit up with recognition.
The Prince-Ambassador was forced to speak with a translator, a weather-worn merchant who changed the strange tongue to Arabic, a language that most locals at least spoke passably. The governor found another translator, one fluent in Greek as well, and hosted the Prince for seven days before they were allowed under escort to travel north to Hesanapolis and to meet with the Basileus Alexandros.
The Imperial Palace was a sight to behold. Janaharidama had always thought that the palace in which he spent his boyhood, great Renivohitra, was magnificent. It had ornate gardens, beautiful engravings, statues of dancing gods in ecstasy. But it was nothing compared to this - the very world of the Basileus seemed golden. The lofty domes! The golden trees! He stared wide-eyed, before remembering to adopt a more serene disposition. Perhaps the Arab traders from far Hadhramut were correct - perhaps they did truly live at the edge of the world. If they did, then this truly was its heart.
On the day of his audience, Janaharidama approached the Emperor, the Equal-to-the-Apostles (he did not know what that last word meant, but his translator assured him it meant something like Priest) and bowed appropriately. Seated on a silver bench dressed in purple robes and gloves, the Emperor Alexandros seemed to be the least impressive part of the whole display. His face was lined with age and he seemed thin, with a faint hint of a repressed stutter that was audible over the meticulous work of the translator. Not a holy man after all, neither saint nor mystic nor god.
Still, Janaharidama treated him with due respect. The ceremonies passed in a whirlwind and soon the two men found themselves looking out over the palace-city together, seated in the Emperor's terraced garden. Wine was brought to them, a fine Gallic vintage imported over the inner sea.
They spoke for several hours together, and despite the difficulties of translation, Janaharidama found himself building a rapport with his counterpart. Several times the Emperor asked Janaharidama if he came to seek religious insight, and each time Janaharidama rebuffed him. They had gurus and wisemen aplenty on his isle. They knew of every single time that God incarnated into human flesh, the Emperor need not fear on that regard.
Finally, the Emperor pried the true reason for his visit from him. "I seek," Janaharidama admitted, "a route to the golden country to the west. I have heard rumors that your merchants know of its location, and I desire to look upon it for myself."
"It is a dangerous road." The Emperor cautioned. "Down the flood-swollen Nile and across the southern desert. The men of the south are savage. It is perhaps best that you remain here. If it is gold your kingdom seeks we have that in great quantities here."
Janahiradama nodded, and pressed his case. However soon his meeting came to a close, and he was no closer to gaining Imperial permission to travel south than when he had begun. The Emperor guarded his secrets closely, cloaking them in warnings about wicked kings and horrific diseases. God punished the region, the Emperor said, for some unspecified ancient crime. Janahiradama left Hesanapolis disappointed. He would have to find another route.
[I tried a short narrative piece just for fun. If you guys like it, I might do a few more, perhaps covering the Norse world?]
Also as much as I thought it would be cool to have the Saxons survive in some form I could really justify such a small region withstanding all the power the Franks could throw at it.
Anyways, here's a quick update!
Savahila and Africa
By the ninth century, the Savahila (or coastal) peoples seem to have begun undergoing radical shifts in demographics once more. The migration of Persian and Arab traders had largely abated - the political shifts in Iran and Arabia ensured that mass exodus was neither profitable nor tenable. Rather, the new migrants were primarily Gujarati and Keralaputran, and they brought with them circa 780 a new plant - oryza sativa, or asian rice. While much of the great coast was unsuitable for rice production, parts undeniably were - and this small-scale production allowed rice and knowledge of rice cultivation to be transmitted to inland tribes of Bantu, where it would take off with astonishing rapidity.
Rice cultivation would change everything for these inland peoples, whose agriculture had previously largely relied on less efficient staples such as sorghum and yam. The arrival of citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons would have a positive effect on the health of these peoples as well. The East African Bantu were uniquely posed to take advantage of a water-intensive crop such as rice - their civilization had largely grown around the rainiest parts of the continent, where fear of the tsetse fly kept the cattle-herding Cushites at bay.
This population growth would spur Bantu expansion, driving the more pastoralist Cushites towards the coast and highlands. Those who remained were quickly assimilated into the growing centralized polities of the Great Lakes. Bantu urban centers grew into the thousands, and increasing specialization of crafts can be noted - the emergence of an urban artisan class and technically proficient blacksmiths meant that for the first time the Savahila cities had a strong incentive to trade with these emergent Bantu kingdoms.
There is a dearth of information about the early kingdoms of the great lakes. What information we do have is shrouded in myth and legend. The earliest chronicles blend mythic gods and historical rulers, and conflating the two is dangerous to our understanding of the region. Kings such as the legendary Isaza or Ruhanga likely never truly lived, but the stories associated with them provide telling details about the civilizations that grew up in the shadow of the great coast cities.
The greatest of these early kingdoms was the Ganda, rivaled only by the Tagama to the south. Settling on the northern banks of the great lakes, these two polities can be safely considered "first among equals" in the patchwork series of kinship-based chiefdoms that formed the early Great Lakes civilizations. The myth of the universalist Banyoro Empire seems to have been invented out of whole cloth - there is no mention of it in the records of the Savahila cities, and it can easily be explained as a myth to provide legitimacy to the local rulers of the region. Stories such as that of the great king Ndahura who abandoned his crown and possessions to travel to the east however, hint at some of the earliest impacts of the Hindi world on the Great Lakes. It was an easy transition for Ndahura to become a god providing comfort to ascetics.
On the coast, migrant populations were reshaping their societies. Hindu rituals were used to set the these newcomers apart from the established generations and the indigenous. These newcomers, familiar with the sangha communities and seeking a similar sort of identity in this new country founded exclusive societies, generally based around heterodox versions of formal religious observances and a personal relationship with a given deity, usually an aspect or avatar of Vishnu or Shakti. These exclusive 'secret' societies grew into prominence rapidly, perhaps hinting that their exclusivity was not as strict as some surviving texts might claim, and that prominent members of society were easily inducted so long as they brought their support to the group.
These societies began to involve themselves in trade as well. Many of the Keralaputran migrants in particular were of lower caste and accordingly found work wherever they could. With agriculture largely the province of the indigenous Cushites, they turned the maritime professions, particularly pearl diving and fishing. The first true sangha of the "great long coast" had been born.
It was a time of growth and expansion. The mud-brick port city of Syamavela was founded off the shore of Mzishima, on an island long considered marginal for human habitation. It would rapidly rise in prominence, with major stone manufactories being constructed by 830. Unlike its predecessors and mother-city across the strait, Syamavela was operated by a ruling ayat, and the theoretical equality of those in the guilds were recognized. A distance inland, up the wide lazy Rhesan [Rufiji] river, a small trading post which serviced the Iringa people grew into the polyglot city of Svarnapura.
Sailing the Middle-World
(circa 830)
The Prince Janaharidama had made quite a stir in Hesanapolis. He had travelled north along the Red Sea, stopping at Berenike for the sake of rest and provisions while they waited for the winds to change. From there he and his chosen companions had come to the city of Clysma, dingy and clogged with men in strange and complicated robes. The air smelled of salt, fish, and excrement. Navigating labyrinthine streets, the Prince-Ambassador finally found his way to the local governor's palace. The governor, a boisterous yet pale man with a squared beard and ruddy cheeks, claimed to have never heard of Izaoriaka, or even the Isle of the Moon. Finally, at the word Sakalava his eyes lit up with recognition.
The Prince-Ambassador was forced to speak with a translator, a weather-worn merchant who changed the strange tongue to Arabic, a language that most locals at least spoke passably. The governor found another translator, one fluent in Greek as well, and hosted the Prince for seven days before they were allowed under escort to travel north to Hesanapolis and to meet with the Basileus Alexandros.
The Imperial Palace was a sight to behold. Janaharidama had always thought that the palace in which he spent his boyhood, great Renivohitra, was magnificent. It had ornate gardens, beautiful engravings, statues of dancing gods in ecstasy. But it was nothing compared to this - the very world of the Basileus seemed golden. The lofty domes! The golden trees! He stared wide-eyed, before remembering to adopt a more serene disposition. Perhaps the Arab traders from far Hadhramut were correct - perhaps they did truly live at the edge of the world. If they did, then this truly was its heart.
On the day of his audience, Janaharidama approached the Emperor, the Equal-to-the-Apostles (he did not know what that last word meant, but his translator assured him it meant something like Priest) and bowed appropriately. Seated on a silver bench dressed in purple robes and gloves, the Emperor Alexandros seemed to be the least impressive part of the whole display. His face was lined with age and he seemed thin, with a faint hint of a repressed stutter that was audible over the meticulous work of the translator. Not a holy man after all, neither saint nor mystic nor god.
Still, Janaharidama treated him with due respect. The ceremonies passed in a whirlwind and soon the two men found themselves looking out over the palace-city together, seated in the Emperor's terraced garden. Wine was brought to them, a fine Gallic vintage imported over the inner sea.
They spoke for several hours together, and despite the difficulties of translation, Janaharidama found himself building a rapport with his counterpart. Several times the Emperor asked Janaharidama if he came to seek religious insight, and each time Janaharidama rebuffed him. They had gurus and wisemen aplenty on his isle. They knew of every single time that God incarnated into human flesh, the Emperor need not fear on that regard.
Finally, the Emperor pried the true reason for his visit from him. "I seek," Janaharidama admitted, "a route to the golden country to the west. I have heard rumors that your merchants know of its location, and I desire to look upon it for myself."
"It is a dangerous road." The Emperor cautioned. "Down the flood-swollen Nile and across the southern desert. The men of the south are savage. It is perhaps best that you remain here. If it is gold your kingdom seeks we have that in great quantities here."
Janahiradama nodded, and pressed his case. However soon his meeting came to a close, and he was no closer to gaining Imperial permission to travel south than when he had begun. The Emperor guarded his secrets closely, cloaking them in warnings about wicked kings and horrific diseases. God punished the region, the Emperor said, for some unspecified ancient crime. Janahiradama left Hesanapolis disappointed. He would have to find another route.
[I tried a short narrative piece just for fun. If you guys like it, I might do a few more, perhaps covering the Norse world?]
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Deleted member 67076
Both Eastern Europe and the Great Lakes are undergoing massive growth. Neat.
The narrative was fun too.
The narrative was fun too.
You have succeeded in creating a complex and engaging world that i cannot learn enough about. I really love the developments in Africa, especially the idea of having rice cultivation spread to the region which should allow them to develop to a much greater degree than OTL.
I liked the narrative bit, though maybe have a caption or post script where you provide a bit of context? I'm not sure where exactly the prince was coming from.
I would love to see more of how you develop the norse
Keep up the amazing work!
I liked the narrative bit, though maybe have a caption or post script where you provide a bit of context? I'm not sure where exactly the prince was coming from.
I would love to see more of how you develop the norse
Keep up the amazing work!
Thanks guys! I'm glad you like the narrative bit.
Zulfurium - if you have any areas you want me to elaborate on let me know. I think often this timeline could go deeper in some areas but I'm always curious what people who read this want to hear about.
The prince bit was perhaps a bit vague, but the fact that the governor "claimed to have never heard of Izaoriaka, or even the Isle of the Moon. Finally, at the word Sakalava his eyes lit up with recognition." was supposed to imply that the Prince-Ambassador was from Madagascar, which is called ITTL by its Malagasy inhabitants Izaoriaka, which in their language ITTL is a shortening of a phrase that means "this island"
(Edit: I had to look up what it actually meant and how I came up with it. The ancient Malagasy and Arabs all had a lot of names for Madagascar. Most tend to be simply descriptive, and in the case of the Malagasy ones, really wordy. I can only imagine if a name for the island was more necessary they'd come up with some sort of shorthand.)
Zulfurium - if you have any areas you want me to elaborate on let me know. I think often this timeline could go deeper in some areas but I'm always curious what people who read this want to hear about.
The prince bit was perhaps a bit vague, but the fact that the governor "claimed to have never heard of Izaoriaka, or even the Isle of the Moon. Finally, at the word Sakalava his eyes lit up with recognition." was supposed to imply that the Prince-Ambassador was from Madagascar, which is called ITTL by its Malagasy inhabitants Izaoriaka, which in their language ITTL is a shortening of a phrase that means "this island"
(Edit: I had to look up what it actually meant and how I came up with it. The ancient Malagasy and Arabs all had a lot of names for Madagascar. Most tend to be simply descriptive, and in the case of the Malagasy ones, really wordy. I can only imagine if a name for the island was more necessary they'd come up with some sort of shorthand.)
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Yep, narrative was cool, too.
Also, a Bhakti republic in East Africa and massive population growth in the Great Lakes region, this timeline is just awesome...
Also, a Bhakti republic in East Africa and massive population growth in the Great Lakes region, this timeline is just awesome...
The Danevirke defences were built from 808 onwards, being regularly updated as technology developed, but it was originally built following the conquest of Saxony by Charlemagne and was a response to Frankish threats of invasion in Jutland. Denmark had rather strong kings when compared to the rest of Scandinavia early on, a benefit of a smaller landmass i guess, and a result King Gudfred decided to invest in significant defences on the southern border.
The Danish kings especially sponsored several early raids and led direct attacks on the Frankish Empire. Gudfred was a badass, in addition to Danevirke he also launched a major raid on Frisia and began claiming rent from the territory, and when Charlemagne prepared a retalitory invasion Gudfred again invaded Frisia to distract him.
Another major Danish king a bit later is Horik, who attacked Louis the Pious and sacked Hamburg. At the same time there are references to another danish viking, some times conflated as Ragnar Lothbrok, who assaulted Paris.
The one thing keeping the Viking raiders out of the channel was Charlemagnes coast guard which was built specifically to ward against Viking raiders. When it was destroyed in the civil war fought between Louis the Pious and his sons the west was basically opened up to the Vikings who streamed into the west, raiding on occasion, trading at others, and playing mercenary to any petty and major warlord willing to pay them.
The major thing to take notice of when looking at the early vikings is that they were viewed as a punishment of god, almost like natural disasters when you read some of the accounts, rather than as human enemies. If you take a look at the way the Mongols/Huns/Magyar/etc. are often described there are many similarities.
What I think will make things very interesting is that there are growing cities and the like springing up across eastern Europe both among the western Slavs (Who felt the depredations earlier and more frequently than just about anyone else OTL, and were later ignored due to their lack of wealth when compared to elsewhere. Slavs were the most commonly taken thralls, which is partly where the word Slave comes from, and as such weren't viewed too fondly.) and along the Ukrainian rivers (which would really interested the Swedish vikings, as can be seen with the states built by Rurik and Dyre in the region).
Sorry for that, sorta went overboard. I hope you can use some of this.
Might be a couple of errors here and there, wrote that off the top of my head, so probably a good idea to double check it.
The Danish kings especially sponsored several early raids and led direct attacks on the Frankish Empire. Gudfred was a badass, in addition to Danevirke he also launched a major raid on Frisia and began claiming rent from the territory, and when Charlemagne prepared a retalitory invasion Gudfred again invaded Frisia to distract him.
Another major Danish king a bit later is Horik, who attacked Louis the Pious and sacked Hamburg. At the same time there are references to another danish viking, some times conflated as Ragnar Lothbrok, who assaulted Paris.
The one thing keeping the Viking raiders out of the channel was Charlemagnes coast guard which was built specifically to ward against Viking raiders. When it was destroyed in the civil war fought between Louis the Pious and his sons the west was basically opened up to the Vikings who streamed into the west, raiding on occasion, trading at others, and playing mercenary to any petty and major warlord willing to pay them.
The major thing to take notice of when looking at the early vikings is that they were viewed as a punishment of god, almost like natural disasters when you read some of the accounts, rather than as human enemies. If you take a look at the way the Mongols/Huns/Magyar/etc. are often described there are many similarities.
What I think will make things very interesting is that there are growing cities and the like springing up across eastern Europe both among the western Slavs (Who felt the depredations earlier and more frequently than just about anyone else OTL, and were later ignored due to their lack of wealth when compared to elsewhere. Slavs were the most commonly taken thralls, which is partly where the word Slave comes from, and as such weren't viewed too fondly.) and along the Ukrainian rivers (which would really interested the Swedish vikings, as can be seen with the states built by Rurik and Dyre in the region).
Sorry for that, sorta went overboard. I hope you can use some of this.
Might be a couple of errors here and there, wrote that off the top of my head, so probably a good idea to double check it.
First Norse, Last Eftal
The Wrath of the Northmen continues
To a contemporary Frankish observer, the "Viking" storm might have seemed to come as a direct response to the invasion of Saxony. Indeed, it would not be hard to link the mast exodus of Saxons north beyond the Danavirki and the subsequent Anarchy of Heithabir[1], where Saxon brigands, Danes, and a Frankish army under the Palatine Audoneus clashed and gave birth to a perfect storm of sorts.
The true events of the Anarchy are relatively unknown, shrouded by its almost mythic status. Audoneus seems to have been acting relatively independently, drawn by the wealth and importance of Heithabir and holding a mandate to bring Ercanfrid, former King of the Saxons back in chains, or with his head on a spear. The Franks feared a scenario in which Ercanfrid returned and raised his countrymen in rebellion, and perhaps rightly so. However, Audoneus seems to have been drawn into a quagmire almost immediately, barely escaping an ambush by Slavs. Shortly thereafter, at least according to Danish accounts, he allied himself with a traitorous group of Saxons and assaulted Heithabir, being repulsed only after the timely arrival of the King of Jutland, Hrolfr.
Paring away the glorious single-combats and scheming villains, history seems to point to a simpler narrative. Heithabir, in trouble after an influx of Saxon refugees and facing routine Frankish raids, turned to the local Jute chieftains and their Slavic neighbors for assistance. Retaliatory raids undoubtedly occurred - Heithabir had a great many ships and was in many senses a dingy armed camp simply waiting to set sail in search of plunder. By 825, the floodgates had burst. As warriors returned to Heithabir with tales of plunder and victory, they inspired their peers across Scandinavia.
Already the Norse were having great successes on the British isles - now they expanded their horizons. Ships sailed as far as Hispania in search of plunder - and soon even further. The Frankish King, Clovis, was ill prepared to deal with this new threat. After his brutal campaigns in Saxony his strength was in many ways spent. Contemporary chroniclers speak of him being haunted by demons only he could see, the ghosts of fallen men - comrades and foes alike from the brutal campaigns. He spoke in tones alternately gloomy and manic of the burning halls and the screaming of women. The Frankish monarchy had built a kingdom however, where the King could not afford weakness. Centralization had transformed the state into a potent offensive force, but on the defensive, as it was now, it was ill-prepared. The concentration of power in Paris left the periphery weak. The sole exception to this rule was the Slavic marches, which were wholly irrelevant to a seaborne menace such as the Vikings.
Attacks on the northern coast, in Armorica and Hispania led to widespread panic. The same chroniclers who mourned the soul of their trauma-haunted king speak of the demonic scourge of the Northmen, whose raids sketched across the countryside, leaving ruin and terror in their wake.
A Viking warlord named Arinhaldr, perhaps related to a Danish King of the same name whose existence cannot be directly proven, led an attack on Paris in 838 of which there is substantial record. Spurred on by the realization of the relative weakness and exhaustion of the Franks, and also knowing that Imbert the White, Clovis' Mayor of the Palace, had travelled to Provence with a large army due to growing tensions between the Romans and the Franks, Arinhaldr sailed up the Siene in force. Having previously struck cities such as Antwerp, Arinhaldr was a veteran of such combats, and here once more he proved his quality.
With some hundred longboats and perhaps up to five thousand men, Arinhaldr invested Paris itself. The swiftness of his arrival prompted panic. Forces were hastily marshaled, but the outnumbered Franks, led by a weak monarch, were quickly smashed in a two day battle. Clovis himself was captured and ransomed, but many of his common soldiers were not so lucky - the Vikings hung many of their prisoners as human sacrifices. The ransom of the King himself, however, paled in comparison to the ransom of the city. These events had a profound impact on the Prince Lothair, who was forced to oversee the ransom. By the time a large army could arrive, hastily drawn up by nearby nobles, the monarchy was already humiliated and the Vikings already fleeing.
By the end of the year, Clovis would be overthrown and his son would smoothly take power, promising his nobles revenge. He would not have to wait long. Arinhaldr struck south towards Hamburg, and the great terror of the Franks seemed made real - the liberation of the Saxons. Arinhaldr would be defeated this time, after a surprise attack by the Franks at dawn prevented his men from preparing for battle. In the hasty retreat to the boats he was struck down and Lothair would be able to hail this victory as the vengeance the Frankish aristocracy craved.
The Last Eftal
Emperor Mansuetus was not slow to take advantage of his new position. Despite his Frankish blood and his relative illegitimacy, neither Valerian nor Asterius could afford to make an enemy of him. Controlling Constantinople and otherwise having the Aegean (and a powerful fleet) between him and his enemies, he sought to expand his power not into the west but rather by going east.
His motivations were more complex than mere power, or even ending a constant threat to his security posed by the Eftal - even if the rump Rhom Shahdom was a thorn in his side. Simply, to gain Imperial title and legitimacy he had been forced to make embarrassing compromises. The cities simply had too much power - his control over them was rough and his economy depended to some degree on their willingness to "lend" money to the Empire. He had to find a way to make his Empire profitable, and the prospect of vast fiefs carved out of Eftal Asia Minor and Syria would be one such way.
So, marshalling his military might, in 813 he marched after a minimal provocation into Eftal Asia. The Rhom Shahdom had seen better days. 6 years ago the Christian Alans had risen against the small Buddhist ruling class, and although Shah Asunwar had survived it was a close-run affair and had depleted the manpower of the Rhom Eftal. Mansuetus won a quick victory and besieged Amaseia, the Rhom capital. The Alans once again rose in rebellion and Asunwar died fighting in the streets, his body never recovered. His legacy however, would endure in several posthumous epic poems. Though Asunwar perhaps did not deserve it and was himself of humble birth, he became memorialized as the last of the Eftal Shahs. With the sack of Amaseia, the last Eftal nation fell. The Alans themselves clung to a portion of the Black Sea coast, and finally after two years of low-intensity warfare, Mansuetus allowed them to retain their independence.
Mansuetus, however, had further ambitions. Having fulfilled his initial goals, he allowed his victorious army no rest before turning on the Aghatsaghids. Well-read, Mansuetus was aware of Alexander, and saw in himself the potential for a Christian imitation of the same.[2] This personal obsession would shape history. Mansuetus seems to have genuinely believed he could be a liberator of Eastern Christendom and stretch his empire to the Indus.
At his disposal was an army far inferior numerically to that commanded by Megas Alexandros. His picked elite cavalry could call upon a good number of their own retainers, and he undoubtedly had mercenaries - Bulgars and Slavs were commonplace. The professional armies of the Asian cities provided disciplined infantry, typically spear-armed. However the combined force was perhaps twenty to fifteen thousand, and the Frankish contingent was small indeed. While the mercenaries and retainers could be expected to remain in the field roughly indefinitely, levies would slowly melt away over the course of a long campaign.
Still, Mansuetus was charismatic and popular. He commanded the loyalty of his men, and paid them amply in plunder and promises of land. He was no slouch when it came to logistics, carting an enormous baggage train over the Cilician gates, preparing for any eventuality. Leaving his brother Carolus (the "King of Galatia") behind in Constantinople as regent and Co-Emperor, he invaded in 816.
The attack it seems took the Aghatsaghids by surprise. Suryagha, the Shah of Shahs in distant Herat, did not seem to grasp the magnitude of the invasion at first, and perhaps not without reason - the local Viceroy of Syria, Kuluj Mihiragula Vaya assured him that all was under control. The Syrians alone could raise some twenty thousand men, many mounted. They had high-walled cities and knew the terrain intimately. Had they not been the scourge of the false Romans in the Levant and Egypt? Had their country not been the grave of untold thousands of Votivists? "Let this new Frankish king come," Kuluj said in his letter to Herat, "let him come and taste the steel of the Ifthal. We will give him and his men a great pyre when the battle is done."
The two armies would meet near Anazarbos. The Franks had over the years learned many anti-cavalry tactics, designed to counteract the swift light cavalrymen they encountered. They had transformed their rigidity into an asset, learning to avoid falling for feigned retreats and standing their ground against a foe that could flank them with ease. After an exasperating day of battle with little progress, Kuluj Mihiragula took a Frankish arrow to the neck and died. The Franks, sensing the disorder of their foes, launched a full charge and swept the Syrians from the field. The Franks however, would not profit greatly from this victory.
Syria was a country dotted with fortifications. Even cities such as Antioch, long past their glory still had high walls and soldiers defending them. Choosing to march on Edessa, Mansuetus became bogged down before even reaching Zeugma. If he did not reduce each fortification, it could serve as a base to harry his supply lines. If he did, his progress was painfully slow. Desertions became commonplace, but deserters frequently found their fate was to be captured by any one of the forces shadowing the army and sold into slavery.
Frustrated, Mansuetus turned north, towards Melitene, a nearby friendly base where he could winter. The next year, he struck into Armenia, where he was greeted as a liberator by the Armenian Christian lords. They offered to assist him in his conquests, and feeling confident, he marched through the rough and mountainous but nevertheless friendly territory. This time, he would make much better progress. An Armenian rebellion seems to have been in the works for some time, and the local Turkish Padivayan was rapidly overthrown.
Shah Suryagha, however, had not been idle. After learning of Kuluj Mihiragula's defeat, he assembled a force of perhaps sixty to eighty thousand men, much of which was mounted. Accompanying the army was a corps of perhaps a thousand elephants from Sind. Rallying the army at the city of Syarzur, he commanded a truly polyglot force. The bulk of it was Turkish and Gandharan, but it contained almost equally significant Iranian, Eftal and Kurdish contingents - and they marched north to find Mansuetus.
The Frankish Emperor still felt confident going into 817. If his army's strength had been sapped by Syria, it was refreshed by Armenian rebels, many of whom were strikingly well equipped. However, he feared a field engagement with Suryagha's vastly superior force. Fleeing out of Adurbadagan, pursued by the local army, he found himself nearly forced to fight Suryagha at a disadvantage several times. The Turkish Shah proved remarkably capable as a leader, in spite of the large and unwieldy force at his command.
As Emperor Mansuetus retreated into Armenia however, the Armenian nobility presented him with an ultimatum. They knew their rebellion was dependent on being able to retain control of the cities, and that reprisals would be likely quite brutal if their country were to fall back into Aghatsaghid hands. They demanded that he fight. To his credit, although Mansuetus was forced to cave to this demand, he chose a battlefield near the town of Hadamakert where his own men were able to deploy with their flanks anchored by slopes and uneven terrain. Suryagha was willing to concede this advantage, counting on pure numbers to win the day.
Mansuetus, it is said, awoke the day of the battle in an uncommonly jubilant mood. Alexandros, his hero, had triumphed against far worse odds than this. He would do the same, he declared. His plan, however, was perhaps not as inspired as those of his heroes. He would rely on the difficult terrain stalling the Aghatsaghid assaults on his flanks long enough for his cavalry to strike for the royal standard at the heart of the Aghatsaghid line. In several prior skirmishes, and the battle of Anazarbos, the Frankish knights had proved their total dominance over the Iranian infantry, utilizing long spears and heavy armor as part of an overwhelming charge.
Suryagha, for his part, played a battle of deception. He sent a unit of his Turkish cavalrymen, recruited from the bandits and nomads of his steppe frontier, around on a secret path revealed to him by a local shepherd while his main army stalled and harassed the Franks. This group waited in ambush until the battle was joined, and then set fire to the Franco-Roman camp, causing panic. As Suryagha saw the Frankish cavalry forming up roughly in the center of their line, he gave permission to the commanders of his own center (composed largely of light and irregular troops) to break and flee. While his Kurdish and Iranian auxiliaries pinned the Frankish flanks, the cavalry was led by their own momentum deep into the center of the Aghatsaghid army. It was at this point that the trap was sprung. The elephants, stationed off-center behind the main line of the army, charged into the cavalry, causing horses to bolt and panic. Simultaneously, units stationed behind his center entered the fray as well.
Badly mauled, the Frankish cavalry retreated. Their flanks were holding (and indeed had badly bloodied the Aghatsaghids) but they had left much of their nobility to the mercy of the Aghatsaghids, and now, seeing the fires rising to the rear, knew that they were surrounded. Mansuetus' less motivated troops began to retreat, but in doing so they allowed themselves to be utterly overwhelmed. The Armenian and Frankish nobility attempted to fight their way out, but the battle turned into a rout and a series of isolated last stands.
Mansuetus himself would be slain in battle, as would most of his Armenian allies. However, while this battle would be deeply demoralizing to the Franks, it would prove inspirational to the Armenians. The few nobles who had risen in rebellion would become martyrs. The Armenian rebellion had begun.
[1] As it was called in the sparse Frankish accounts. The more lengthy Danish accounts are considered typically less factual and more fanciful, exaggerating numbers and events to create the "Ring-wall Saga" - so named for the latter (and anachronistic) additions to the walls of Heithabir.
[2] Other theories, perhaps more charitable, suggest that the Aghatsaghids were supporting the Rhom Shahdom and that it made political sense for Mansuetus to strike against his foes before they attacked him first.
To a contemporary Frankish observer, the "Viking" storm might have seemed to come as a direct response to the invasion of Saxony. Indeed, it would not be hard to link the mast exodus of Saxons north beyond the Danavirki and the subsequent Anarchy of Heithabir[1], where Saxon brigands, Danes, and a Frankish army under the Palatine Audoneus clashed and gave birth to a perfect storm of sorts.
The true events of the Anarchy are relatively unknown, shrouded by its almost mythic status. Audoneus seems to have been acting relatively independently, drawn by the wealth and importance of Heithabir and holding a mandate to bring Ercanfrid, former King of the Saxons back in chains, or with his head on a spear. The Franks feared a scenario in which Ercanfrid returned and raised his countrymen in rebellion, and perhaps rightly so. However, Audoneus seems to have been drawn into a quagmire almost immediately, barely escaping an ambush by Slavs. Shortly thereafter, at least according to Danish accounts, he allied himself with a traitorous group of Saxons and assaulted Heithabir, being repulsed only after the timely arrival of the King of Jutland, Hrolfr.
Paring away the glorious single-combats and scheming villains, history seems to point to a simpler narrative. Heithabir, in trouble after an influx of Saxon refugees and facing routine Frankish raids, turned to the local Jute chieftains and their Slavic neighbors for assistance. Retaliatory raids undoubtedly occurred - Heithabir had a great many ships and was in many senses a dingy armed camp simply waiting to set sail in search of plunder. By 825, the floodgates had burst. As warriors returned to Heithabir with tales of plunder and victory, they inspired their peers across Scandinavia.
Already the Norse were having great successes on the British isles - now they expanded their horizons. Ships sailed as far as Hispania in search of plunder - and soon even further. The Frankish King, Clovis, was ill prepared to deal with this new threat. After his brutal campaigns in Saxony his strength was in many ways spent. Contemporary chroniclers speak of him being haunted by demons only he could see, the ghosts of fallen men - comrades and foes alike from the brutal campaigns. He spoke in tones alternately gloomy and manic of the burning halls and the screaming of women. The Frankish monarchy had built a kingdom however, where the King could not afford weakness. Centralization had transformed the state into a potent offensive force, but on the defensive, as it was now, it was ill-prepared. The concentration of power in Paris left the periphery weak. The sole exception to this rule was the Slavic marches, which were wholly irrelevant to a seaborne menace such as the Vikings.
Attacks on the northern coast, in Armorica and Hispania led to widespread panic. The same chroniclers who mourned the soul of their trauma-haunted king speak of the demonic scourge of the Northmen, whose raids sketched across the countryside, leaving ruin and terror in their wake.
A Viking warlord named Arinhaldr, perhaps related to a Danish King of the same name whose existence cannot be directly proven, led an attack on Paris in 838 of which there is substantial record. Spurred on by the realization of the relative weakness and exhaustion of the Franks, and also knowing that Imbert the White, Clovis' Mayor of the Palace, had travelled to Provence with a large army due to growing tensions between the Romans and the Franks, Arinhaldr sailed up the Siene in force. Having previously struck cities such as Antwerp, Arinhaldr was a veteran of such combats, and here once more he proved his quality.
With some hundred longboats and perhaps up to five thousand men, Arinhaldr invested Paris itself. The swiftness of his arrival prompted panic. Forces were hastily marshaled, but the outnumbered Franks, led by a weak monarch, were quickly smashed in a two day battle. Clovis himself was captured and ransomed, but many of his common soldiers were not so lucky - the Vikings hung many of their prisoners as human sacrifices. The ransom of the King himself, however, paled in comparison to the ransom of the city. These events had a profound impact on the Prince Lothair, who was forced to oversee the ransom. By the time a large army could arrive, hastily drawn up by nearby nobles, the monarchy was already humiliated and the Vikings already fleeing.
By the end of the year, Clovis would be overthrown and his son would smoothly take power, promising his nobles revenge. He would not have to wait long. Arinhaldr struck south towards Hamburg, and the great terror of the Franks seemed made real - the liberation of the Saxons. Arinhaldr would be defeated this time, after a surprise attack by the Franks at dawn prevented his men from preparing for battle. In the hasty retreat to the boats he was struck down and Lothair would be able to hail this victory as the vengeance the Frankish aristocracy craved.
The Last Eftal
Emperor Mansuetus was not slow to take advantage of his new position. Despite his Frankish blood and his relative illegitimacy, neither Valerian nor Asterius could afford to make an enemy of him. Controlling Constantinople and otherwise having the Aegean (and a powerful fleet) between him and his enemies, he sought to expand his power not into the west but rather by going east.
His motivations were more complex than mere power, or even ending a constant threat to his security posed by the Eftal - even if the rump Rhom Shahdom was a thorn in his side. Simply, to gain Imperial title and legitimacy he had been forced to make embarrassing compromises. The cities simply had too much power - his control over them was rough and his economy depended to some degree on their willingness to "lend" money to the Empire. He had to find a way to make his Empire profitable, and the prospect of vast fiefs carved out of Eftal Asia Minor and Syria would be one such way.
So, marshalling his military might, in 813 he marched after a minimal provocation into Eftal Asia. The Rhom Shahdom had seen better days. 6 years ago the Christian Alans had risen against the small Buddhist ruling class, and although Shah Asunwar had survived it was a close-run affair and had depleted the manpower of the Rhom Eftal. Mansuetus won a quick victory and besieged Amaseia, the Rhom capital. The Alans once again rose in rebellion and Asunwar died fighting in the streets, his body never recovered. His legacy however, would endure in several posthumous epic poems. Though Asunwar perhaps did not deserve it and was himself of humble birth, he became memorialized as the last of the Eftal Shahs. With the sack of Amaseia, the last Eftal nation fell. The Alans themselves clung to a portion of the Black Sea coast, and finally after two years of low-intensity warfare, Mansuetus allowed them to retain their independence.
Mansuetus, however, had further ambitions. Having fulfilled his initial goals, he allowed his victorious army no rest before turning on the Aghatsaghids. Well-read, Mansuetus was aware of Alexander, and saw in himself the potential for a Christian imitation of the same.[2] This personal obsession would shape history. Mansuetus seems to have genuinely believed he could be a liberator of Eastern Christendom and stretch his empire to the Indus.
At his disposal was an army far inferior numerically to that commanded by Megas Alexandros. His picked elite cavalry could call upon a good number of their own retainers, and he undoubtedly had mercenaries - Bulgars and Slavs were commonplace. The professional armies of the Asian cities provided disciplined infantry, typically spear-armed. However the combined force was perhaps twenty to fifteen thousand, and the Frankish contingent was small indeed. While the mercenaries and retainers could be expected to remain in the field roughly indefinitely, levies would slowly melt away over the course of a long campaign.
Still, Mansuetus was charismatic and popular. He commanded the loyalty of his men, and paid them amply in plunder and promises of land. He was no slouch when it came to logistics, carting an enormous baggage train over the Cilician gates, preparing for any eventuality. Leaving his brother Carolus (the "King of Galatia") behind in Constantinople as regent and Co-Emperor, he invaded in 816.
The attack it seems took the Aghatsaghids by surprise. Suryagha, the Shah of Shahs in distant Herat, did not seem to grasp the magnitude of the invasion at first, and perhaps not without reason - the local Viceroy of Syria, Kuluj Mihiragula Vaya assured him that all was under control. The Syrians alone could raise some twenty thousand men, many mounted. They had high-walled cities and knew the terrain intimately. Had they not been the scourge of the false Romans in the Levant and Egypt? Had their country not been the grave of untold thousands of Votivists? "Let this new Frankish king come," Kuluj said in his letter to Herat, "let him come and taste the steel of the Ifthal. We will give him and his men a great pyre when the battle is done."
The two armies would meet near Anazarbos. The Franks had over the years learned many anti-cavalry tactics, designed to counteract the swift light cavalrymen they encountered. They had transformed their rigidity into an asset, learning to avoid falling for feigned retreats and standing their ground against a foe that could flank them with ease. After an exasperating day of battle with little progress, Kuluj Mihiragula took a Frankish arrow to the neck and died. The Franks, sensing the disorder of their foes, launched a full charge and swept the Syrians from the field. The Franks however, would not profit greatly from this victory.
Syria was a country dotted with fortifications. Even cities such as Antioch, long past their glory still had high walls and soldiers defending them. Choosing to march on Edessa, Mansuetus became bogged down before even reaching Zeugma. If he did not reduce each fortification, it could serve as a base to harry his supply lines. If he did, his progress was painfully slow. Desertions became commonplace, but deserters frequently found their fate was to be captured by any one of the forces shadowing the army and sold into slavery.
Frustrated, Mansuetus turned north, towards Melitene, a nearby friendly base where he could winter. The next year, he struck into Armenia, where he was greeted as a liberator by the Armenian Christian lords. They offered to assist him in his conquests, and feeling confident, he marched through the rough and mountainous but nevertheless friendly territory. This time, he would make much better progress. An Armenian rebellion seems to have been in the works for some time, and the local Turkish Padivayan was rapidly overthrown.
Shah Suryagha, however, had not been idle. After learning of Kuluj Mihiragula's defeat, he assembled a force of perhaps sixty to eighty thousand men, much of which was mounted. Accompanying the army was a corps of perhaps a thousand elephants from Sind. Rallying the army at the city of Syarzur, he commanded a truly polyglot force. The bulk of it was Turkish and Gandharan, but it contained almost equally significant Iranian, Eftal and Kurdish contingents - and they marched north to find Mansuetus.
The Frankish Emperor still felt confident going into 817. If his army's strength had been sapped by Syria, it was refreshed by Armenian rebels, many of whom were strikingly well equipped. However, he feared a field engagement with Suryagha's vastly superior force. Fleeing out of Adurbadagan, pursued by the local army, he found himself nearly forced to fight Suryagha at a disadvantage several times. The Turkish Shah proved remarkably capable as a leader, in spite of the large and unwieldy force at his command.
As Emperor Mansuetus retreated into Armenia however, the Armenian nobility presented him with an ultimatum. They knew their rebellion was dependent on being able to retain control of the cities, and that reprisals would be likely quite brutal if their country were to fall back into Aghatsaghid hands. They demanded that he fight. To his credit, although Mansuetus was forced to cave to this demand, he chose a battlefield near the town of Hadamakert where his own men were able to deploy with their flanks anchored by slopes and uneven terrain. Suryagha was willing to concede this advantage, counting on pure numbers to win the day.
Mansuetus, it is said, awoke the day of the battle in an uncommonly jubilant mood. Alexandros, his hero, had triumphed against far worse odds than this. He would do the same, he declared. His plan, however, was perhaps not as inspired as those of his heroes. He would rely on the difficult terrain stalling the Aghatsaghid assaults on his flanks long enough for his cavalry to strike for the royal standard at the heart of the Aghatsaghid line. In several prior skirmishes, and the battle of Anazarbos, the Frankish knights had proved their total dominance over the Iranian infantry, utilizing long spears and heavy armor as part of an overwhelming charge.
Suryagha, for his part, played a battle of deception. He sent a unit of his Turkish cavalrymen, recruited from the bandits and nomads of his steppe frontier, around on a secret path revealed to him by a local shepherd while his main army stalled and harassed the Franks. This group waited in ambush until the battle was joined, and then set fire to the Franco-Roman camp, causing panic. As Suryagha saw the Frankish cavalry forming up roughly in the center of their line, he gave permission to the commanders of his own center (composed largely of light and irregular troops) to break and flee. While his Kurdish and Iranian auxiliaries pinned the Frankish flanks, the cavalry was led by their own momentum deep into the center of the Aghatsaghid army. It was at this point that the trap was sprung. The elephants, stationed off-center behind the main line of the army, charged into the cavalry, causing horses to bolt and panic. Simultaneously, units stationed behind his center entered the fray as well.
Badly mauled, the Frankish cavalry retreated. Their flanks were holding (and indeed had badly bloodied the Aghatsaghids) but they had left much of their nobility to the mercy of the Aghatsaghids, and now, seeing the fires rising to the rear, knew that they were surrounded. Mansuetus' less motivated troops began to retreat, but in doing so they allowed themselves to be utterly overwhelmed. The Armenian and Frankish nobility attempted to fight their way out, but the battle turned into a rout and a series of isolated last stands.
Mansuetus himself would be slain in battle, as would most of his Armenian allies. However, while this battle would be deeply demoralizing to the Franks, it would prove inspirational to the Armenians. The few nobles who had risen in rebellion would become martyrs. The Armenian rebellion had begun.
[1] As it was called in the sparse Frankish accounts. The more lengthy Danish accounts are considered typically less factual and more fanciful, exaggerating numbers and events to create the "Ring-wall Saga" - so named for the latter (and anachronistic) additions to the walls of Heithabir.
[2] Other theories, perhaps more charitable, suggest that the Aghatsaghids were supporting the Rhom Shahdom and that it made political sense for Mansuetus to strike against his foes before they attacked him first.
Great update, as always!
A Frankish Alexander called Mansuetus, I sense dramatic irony.
I wonder what will become of Franco-Roman Anatolia after this major bloodlet of its military elite...
A Frankish Alexander called Mansuetus, I sense dramatic irony.
I wonder what will become of Franco-Roman Anatolia after this major bloodlet of its military elite...
Great Update!
I love that you are finally getting to the Vikings. Correct me if i am wrong, but i am pretty sure that Paris was never taken IOTL, so that has got to be a significant change. Is Heidibir(?) the town of Hedeby? The Viking storm seems to finally be making landfall It is pretty interesting that the raids go as far south as Hispania so early.
Loved Neo-Alexandros though it really is too bad that he got hammered there. How does this leave the situation in Constantinople? How depleted are the ranks of the Frankish knights?
I am really looking forward to the Armenian Revolt, they really tend to get the short stick both IOTL and in many typical ATLs.
I love that you are finally getting to the Vikings. Correct me if i am wrong, but i am pretty sure that Paris was never taken IOTL, so that has got to be a significant change. Is Heidibir(?) the town of Hedeby? The Viking storm seems to finally be making landfall
It is pretty interesting that the raids go as far south as Hispania so early.Loved Neo-Alexandros though it really is too bad that he got hammered there. How does this leave the situation in Constantinople? How depleted are the ranks of the Frankish knights?
I am really looking forward to the Armenian Revolt, they really tend to get the short stick both IOTL and in many typical ATLs.