The Republic of Grand Strand was one of the many vassal states that composed the Holy Columbian Confederacy. It was among the largest, and the only republic among them for much of the Empire's history. Grandy rulers, called The Lord Proprietors, enjoyed many special exemptions and privileges when compared with their hereditary, noble counterparts. They were exempt from most forms of tribute, instead paying simple cash lump sums yearly, in this way being an effective and consistent moneymaking tool for the empire.
The Lord Proprietors were also not formally considered Dukes of The Realm, and were thus not entitled to a formal styling (all Lords Proprietor are known to have been addressed as simply "Sir") or even a regal ordinal (styling eg. Elrod Doles Jr. as "Elrod II" is thus a common mistake, but technically an anachronism). Throughout much of it existence, despite its republican trappings, it moved between a few powerful mercantile families, especially the Coldstones, whose founder Austin Jack Coldstone was the republic's very first Proprietor.
I honestly don't have much to say due to my lack of familiarity with Paradox titles, nor am as much of the history buff as I want to be or as focused on it as I once was for leisure activity, but for what it's worth I have been reading and liking your write-ups.
The Redcoat Dominion is a name given by historians to an invading force that occupied much of post-Cataclysm New England starting in the late 2700s, in its day, the rulers of the Dominion (titled "High Lord Admiral") considered themselves an outpost and extension of The Third British Empire, dominated by the Thelemic Cults. The name comes from the fact that many contemporary sources referred to the British invaders as "redcoats" or "reds", likely stemming from a combination of their distinctive red outfits and muddled cultural memory from pre-Cataclysm America.
The Redcoats were frequent enemies of both Holy Columbia and the younger Empire of The Riverlands, who jointly repeatedly halted its attempts at expansion further south.
Leonidas IX, often known as Leonidas The Confessor
The Leonidian Period was a historical era of the Holy Columbian Confederacy. So called because it was defined chiefly by the reign of three successive emperors, all taking the regnal name Leonidas. The period began with the death of Emperor John-Kephas III in 2820, which began an internal power struggle within the empire. Prior to John-Kephas' death, Emperors of Columbia had also both formally and in practice been Kings of The Black March and Kings of Florida. Upon John's passing, a group of vassals conspired to split up the power of the Latimer dynasty by dividing these offices before the election of John-Kephas' son, Prince Leonidas. The would-be King of The Black March, Prince Omar-John Maurice, died before he could take office, thus Leonidas inherited both the emperorship and that kingdom normally. Florida however, elected its own ruler, five vassals there electing Leonidas' cousin John-Huey Latimer as John-Kephas IV of Florida. Thus, Leonidas was elected Leonidas VIII of Columbia, and Leonidas II of The Black March, but he would never inherit the Floridian kingdom. His efforts to reclaim that title--and curtail the rights of his vassalage in general--would come to define his rule, and conflicts with the nobility would remain a theme throughout this period.
Leonidas VIII earned his unflattering epithet "Leonidas The Graverobber" from an incident in which a group of men in his employ were found to be digging up the grave of Petunia Christmas, a minor countess and a bitter rival of the emperor's. This was indicative of Leonidas' general demeanor, he was cruel, combative, and petty to a fault. Leonidas clashed with his cousin John-Kephas constantly, and was subject to two large rebellions during the earlier part of his reign. One of which ended with the Proprieter of The Grand Strand locked in the imperial dungeons, and that vassal state's capitol moved much farther north to the Delmarva peninsula.
What ultimately saved Leonidas was likely the Redcoats, who had been at this point making inroads in New England for nearly a decade and had come to dominate much of the region. They were at this point, threatening Keystone, the Deitch Anabaptist kingdom to the empire's immediate north. Leonidas had many faults, but in what would become a recurring narrative of the period, he was able to parley this into a threat not just against the Deitch, or even against the Empire, but against Christendom itself. Christendom--as a united, powerful force--was an ideal of the period even if rarely a reality. Leonidas and his same-named successor were able to secure alliances with a number of Christian states, including Keystone itself, neighboring Alleghania, and most importantly, the young Empire of The Riverlands, whose catholic emperors of the Crockoone dynasty (beginning with the very first, Vick I) would remain unlikely allies throughout the period.
Leonidas VIII would eventually succumb to a chronic illness that had plagued him for most of his life, passing away at 68. His son, Prince Joseph John Latimer, succeeded him as Leonidas IX. This Leonidas took a more diplomatic approach to his vassals and never faced any major rebellions, largely accepting Florida as a lost cause (it did not help that by now it had had three kings wholly unrelated to the imperial family, being of the Turner dynasty, causing a major shift in local politics since the days of John-Kephas IV) and being more willing to make concessions to his vassals. His reign was defined largely by continued campaigns against the Redcoats--under Leonidas IX, a Columbian enclave was conquered within the Dominion, the Duchy of Hudson Valley. Leonidas was also a great scholar of theology, enough so that he often studied directly with the highest-ranking bishops of the Ecumenical Council in person, and is known to be the author of a number of treatises on matters of the faith. These together earned him his nickname "The Confessor" and in the case of his defense of Christian realms, he became one of just two Ecumenical rulers to receive the status of "Blessed", a step removed from sainthood, from the Catholic Church.
Leonidas X had the dubious distinction of inheriting the imperial title when he was just 11 years old. Doubly so, as he had no regnal name for much of that time (in formal contexts he was referred to as "The Emperor-Regnant, Prince Joseph Leonidas", in informal ones, he was often referred to as simply "The Young King") and his position as the actual emperor was precarious, with much of the ruling in his name being done by Caleb Scottsboro, the Ecumenical Council President, a figure whose influence for both good and ill would loom over the remainder of Leonidas' reign.
Leonidas was one of Columbia's first victims of the ruinous (and mysterious to this day) disease known as the Red Death, miraculously, he survived, though the disease destroyed much of his face, and for the remainder of his life he wore a complex mask made of gold-inlaid iron when in public, and in the presence of all but his closest friends.
Leonidas' reign was dominated by the impact of the red plague. Despite widespread blame on the empire's Jewish population (including condemnation from Council President Scottsboro), Leonidas resolutely refused to allow persecution of the Jews--or any religious minority, pagans and heretics were blamed almost as often--in the name of stopping the disease, a stance that at the time, made him wildly unpopular with the peasantry. The red death devastated the entire empire over the course of just three years, ending entire dynastic lines (notably the Blue ducal family, and Council President Caleb's own family, the Scottsboros) and merging several others, leaving one of the most powerful vassals in the realm a mere child, Porter VI of The Outer Banks, who had come via labyrinthine family ties to jointly rule three separate duchies within the empire.
Nonetheless, a side effect of this was that the nobility's ability to successfully challenge the emperor had been severely weakened. It would be decades before peasant populations recovered, and without recruitable infantry, most of the empire's nobility, sans the King of Florida and a small handful of the most powerful dukes, were rendered toothless. It is for this reason--the effective end of a long period of internal strife--that the end of the Leonidian Period is generally marked as roughly 2858, rather than the end of Leonidas X's reign proper.
Map presented to Leonidas X to honor 200 years of his dynasty's rule in Holy Columbia. Contemporary sources report that the map was made by one Martin Honey.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
Ooh, map! And one where I can point to where I live IRL! If this corresponded to real life, I'd live in Cuyahoga.
Omar III presided over a period of relative peace within the empire, though certainly a hard-won one. Omar's reign came to be defined primarily by a restructuring project, called The Imperial Governances. Under this system, the Empire was divided into 8 "imperial governances", large provinces.
Two of these--under the new system--were declared to have existed retroactively, the Kingdom of Florida and its much smaller counterpart The Kingdom of The Indies were entitled to retain their own succession. A third, The Kingdom of The Black March (stretching from Alabama to North Carolina) was formally made The Imperial Demesne, to be administered by the Emperor's dukes more directly.
The remaining five--Magnolia, Appalachia, Virgina, The Northeast, and Cuba--were to be ruled by so-called Imperial Prince Governors, selected from among the many dukes, counts, and minor princes of the empire, they were to reign for life, upon which their title would revert to the emperor, who would then appoint a new Prince-Governor. This was, it was thought, an easy way to reduce the amount of administrative strain the increasingly-sprawling empire faced, and as an unspoken benefit, reduced the number of vassals that the Emperors had to keep on a short leash.
Religious matters were a factor as well, and each constituent Governance or Kingdom was given its own Governance Ecumenical Council, and associated President-Bishop. The Kingdom of Florida in fact, had two, one for the Floridian mainland in Miami, and the second for The King of Florida's own vassal, the Princedom in The Yucatan, in Boca Raton.
Other Vassal Lords of Columbia, incl. Kings, Governors-Prince, and so on
Kings of Florida (also Emperors of Columbia until 2820)
Latimer Dynasty
Huey I (2668-2693)
Omar I (2693-2730)
John Kephas I (2730-2745)
Leonidas I (2745-2758)
John Kephas II (2758-2777)
Omar II (2777-2789)
John Kephas III (2789-2820) [on John Kephas III's death the unification of the K. of Florida title and Columbian Emperor title ended, see here]
John Kephas IV (2820-2836)
Turner Dynasty
Maurice (2836-2839)
Sterling I (2839-2848)
Sterling II (2848-2856)
Christopher I (2856-2870)
Darnell (2870-2874)
Jason I (2874-2898)
Jason II (2898-2904)
Deangelo (2904-2908)
Christopher II (2908-2911)
Dubois (2911-2931)
Huey II (2931-
Kings of the Yucatan (after 2908)
Joel (2908-2924)
Deangelo II (2924-2932)
Sherman (2932-
Kings of The The West Indies
Turner Dynasty
Darnell (2872-2874) [also King of Florida]
Rusk Dynasty
Timothy (2874-2908)
Nathan (2908-
Governors-Prince of Appalachia
Adley Hammond (2883-2891)
Alain Stanfield (2891-2909)
Scipio Hammond (2909-2932)
Terrance Suncoaster (2932-
Governors-Prince of Cuba
Grant Rusk (2877-2895)
Michael Winyah (2895-2910)
Terrance Latimer (2910-2930)
Rufus Rusk (2930-2932)
Eldridge Winyah (2932-
Governors-Prince of Magnolia
Harley Chestnut (2885-2911)
Quantell Chestnut (2911-2930)
Harley Chestnut II (2930-
Governors-Prince of The Northeast
Liam Hatrask (2888-2902)
Lamont Kirkpatrick (2902-2906)
Isobel deBarge (2906-2930)
Chandler Lengacher (2930-
Governors-Prince of Virginia
Huey Christmas (2884-2890)
Eldridge I. Latimer (2890-2904)
Washington Christmas (2904-
Governors-Prince of Peten
Christopher Turner (2910-2911) [Christopher II of Florida]
Jamie Rootes (2911-
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The Empire of The Riverlanders is the name applied (occasionally at the time, and in retrospect almost exclusively) to a large state that stretched from pre-cataclysm Illinois in the north, to Tennessee in the south, capitoled in Cairo, the empire had grown from the merging of two earlier nations, Chicagoland, and the larger but less prosperous Kingdom of Uppland. The Riverlander Emperors of the late 2900s primarily came from the Crockoone family, and it was under Yadkin I that they began to claim an imperial title--backed by the authority of the Second Catholic Pope in New Rome.
One might think that this would put them in stark opposition to Columbia, but, in fact, the nations largely got along quite well. Attributable in part to Columbian Emperor Joseph-David marrying his daughter to the Riverlander child-emperor Nereus II.
The relationship between Columbia and the western post-Cataclysm states is a complex and multifaceted topic. Post-Cataclysm, large swathes of the midwest had been rendered uninhabitable except by sparse tribal communities for almost two centuries. Long enough for deep cultural differences to develop on both sides of the former United States. To a Columbian living in the Imperial capitol of Latimeria, anything west of Texas was effectively mythic. Farther than that, past vast Comancheria, must've been the realm of dreams compared to their everyday life. It is not surprising that when the Columbian historian John Jack Georgian wrote about the Gaians who allegedly lived in the northwest in 2751, he considered them a legend--amazons who were lead by their women and fought fiercely from magnificent mountain cities--and tales of lands beyond the Pacific Ocean were given almost no credulity at all, even as a resurgent Japanese empire and Novorussky cultists looked to the American west as a possible colonial enterprise.
By the late 2800s, this had finally begun to change. Dorothea Latimer, an aging member of the royal family, had sought solitude and peace out west. She came to settle in Wheatland County, a tiny suzerainity ruled by a self-identified "Christian Sioux" named Chief Myatt Still. Able to still command some fraction of the by now-considerable wealth of the Columbian empire, Dorothea had a number of letter-delivering servants on call at any one time. This fact, combined with Wheatland's central position smack dab in the middle of the midwest, made her an excellent conduit for information between many of the larger states on both coasts. By the time of her death, this had brought no small amount of prosperity to Wheatland, which would grow into a hub of communication between the ultimately still-recovering coasts.
Most prominent of Dorothea's many relays, was a letter from The Emperor of California to Columbian Emperor Leonidas XI. The letter has been mostly lost today, but fragments of a copy survive, in which Celestial Emperor Lonan II describes his capitol of Sacramento, and addresses the Columbian Emperor as "my wise equal". While it was for many years in doubt, today the letter is generally considered authentic, as Lonan was among the most prolific writers of the Yudkow dynasty, and his interest in the east is well-documented in other sources. While the temporal power of the Californian Empire was by this point at an all time low, there were more Cetics--of whom the Celestial Emperor was the highest religious authority--on the west coast than ever.
After the reign of Omar IV John, the Columbian Empire began a slow period of decline. While the nation never truly collapsed, the emperor's authority did erode significantly, and by the 3200s, to the point of figureheadship. Many of the southernmost portions of the empire breaking off by the end of that decade.
Today, the Columbian Empire is succeeded by the Columbian Federation, which comprises much--though not all--of its former territory. The emperor today (HIH Joseph III) is still the ceremonial head of state, but following Oxam Provoksh's revolution in 3442, real power is vested in the Prime Minister (today, Dwight Denzel Ferram, Green Party). As knowledge of the world pre-Cataclysm has come back into common circulation, long-view historians have noted many similarities to both the medieval Holy Roman Empire and the later French Empire, but unlike those states, the transition of Columbia to a democracy was largely a peaceful one.
To our country, the Lord, and the Emperor.
--All Excerpted from "Account of The Columbian Federation, In Brief" (Classical/High English Version), by Jaum Kurnhushr Jr., Imperial Historian
Perunism, also called The Perunic Cult, The High Slavic Religion, The Slavic Church, Kamennoye-nebo (каменное небо lit. "Stone Sky")and many other names, is a religion founded in the mid-900s AD. It is strongly associated with the Slavic peoples, and the Baltic region. Perunism, as the name implies, is centered around the worship and reverence of Perun, originally a thunder god, identified with other similar deities (such as Thor in Norse mythology), as well as a plethora of other gods and goddesses, believed to have been accumulated in a semi-syncretic fashion from all over the region, including deities from traditional Norse, Finnish, and Lithuanian paganism under various names. How Perun specifically came to be the central figure of the faith, and how his association grew from simply a god of thunder to his current standing in the religion--as a wise father of all mankind, and a sort of idealized warrior-poet-king embodying all the positives of humanity--has been long debated by scholars, but it is difficult to broach the subject without diving into the history of the religion.
Perunism is traditionally held to have been founded by Yaropolk Kostolom, the semi-legendary first King of Turov (later Ruthenia), and indeed the Perunic calendar begins with his ascension to the throne of Turov in 888 AD. Historians now believe however, that it is more likely that the movement was formally started as such by his grandson, Yaropolk II, though certainly not alone, as a widespread reformation movement of its type--and the rather sudden conversion from many disparate pagan practices into a formalized, or at least more formalized, church was unprecedented at the time, and even today, stands as a rare achievement.
"Thunder Marks", which symbolize Perunism. A simpler, more modern style is shown on the left, while the traditional styling (still preferred by the Perunic High Church in Panslaviya) is on the right.
The formal head of the Perunic High Church--which directly traces its lineage to the original Perunic cult of the middle ages--is the Chernoban, a title that has been compared to that of the Pope in Catholic Christianity or the Caliph in Islam. Neither is quite correct, while the Chernoban is undeniably a powerful, important spiritual leader (and has been for centuries), the fact remains that Perunism's pluralistic stance means that there is no true single spiritual leader. The Chernoban is the first among equals, in essence, and there are today dozens of independent, self-governing Perunic Temples in formal communion with the High Church, that nonetheless do not bow to the Chernoban's authority. There is some evidence that this structure may have been influenced by Orthodox Christianity, with which the medieval Perunists were almost certainly familiar.
Today, Perunism is as diverse as any other religion, and is the seventh-largest in the world, practiced on every continent (though still chiefly in the Baltic region and parts of north and south Vinogradnaya). In the middle ages however, Perunism was very much, at least for a time, the warrior's creed that its historical reputation suggests. Much of the early development and spread of the Perunic faith is attributable to the voiny nebes, or Sky Warriors. It is known from some of the surviving writings of the time that the Dregovich dynasty--rulers of Ruthenia, the world's first Perunic state--considered the rapid proselytizing of nearby groups, such as the conversion of the neighboring Magyars to Catholicism and Bolghar Khanate to Islam--to be a serious threat to not just their prosperity, but their very existence. Something that was not helped by the repeated, forceful attempts by the Byzantine Empire not much farther south, to secure the Ruthenians as religious allies.
These are the circumstances that early Perunism was born in. It is perhaps not surprising in this light, that some of the scarce writing that survives from the reign of the first Chernoban is a blessing assuring a group of warriors that their victory in a coming battle was divinely-ordained by the God of The Stone Sky himself.
"Yaropolk Vechnyygrom", painted by artist and noted Slaviyan nationalist Viktor Vaznetsov, almost a thousand years after the monarch's death.
While his father is revered as a legendary warrior, and his grandfather as a near-mythical embodiment of Perun himself to this very day, it is primarily Yaropolk II of Ruthenia who is to thank for what Perunism, and what Eastern Europe itself, would become. Known by the nickname Vechnyygrom ("eternal thunder"), Yaropolk is known to have been a devout follower of Perun even before beginning the religious reformations that would lead to the foundation of Perunism proper. His reign can be divided in fact, into two distinct stages. A first; defined by conquering, warfare, and rapid expansion of his domain, and a second; defined primarily by religious reform, with only much smaller territorial gains.
The earliest few years of Yaropolk's rule were defined by his unification of the two kingdoms of his grandfathers; Turov, founded by Yaropolk I, and Novgorod, then called Garthariki, by the viking Rurik. This alone nearly doubled the size of his realm, and excursions into Lithuania, Finland, and western Slavic lands would follow in the years to come. By the time Yaroslav had proclaimed the priestess Sbyslava as the first Chernoban, he ruled an astounding for its day personal empire stretching from Pomerania to Novgorod, and from Finland to Kiev.
It has occasionally been suggested that Yaropolk styled himself as an emperor, or equivalent thereof, but most historians now agree that this anachronistic. Despite many later Slaviyan imperial lists retroactively including him (and a few going even farther, including his father and grandfather), there is ample evidence that this was not a priority of Yaropolk's. Chiefly, the many runestones (an invention co-opted from the Ruthenians' Norse neighbors) erected at newly-conquered territories, which describe him as Korol (king) of Ruthenia, Novgorod, Estonia, Lithuania, Vladimir, Chernigov, Finland, Pomerania, etc. etc. etc. The listing of these titles at length, and in this manner, indicates that these were still considered separate entities that simply were ruled by the same person. The idea of a pan-slavic or "Slaviyan" (or indeed, pan-Baltic / Baltiyskiy) identity had not yet taken shape in the way that it would a few decades later.
Nonetheless, Yaropolk remains arguably the single most important figure in the political and religious medieval history of the region. Without his unification of these many disparate states and peoples--speaking some ten to twelve different languages and practicing many forms of worship--there likely would never have been a Slavic Confederacy, and the world as we know it today would look quite different indeed. On the mythical side of things of course, like most of the early Dregovich kings, Yaropolk has been mythologized extensively in the 1,100 years since his death. Claims--most written long after the fact--that he could fell entire armies by striking his sword Klykneba on the ground to summon massive thunderstorms are, we can safely say, probably exaggerations.
The Ruthenia of Yaropolk II at the time of his death.
Great Rus is the name given to a transitionary state, which existed between the earlier Kingdom of Ruthenia, and the later Slavic Confederacy. The state existed for only a relatively short time and has occasionally been referred to as anachronistic, however, the recent discovery of runestones in what would've been the westernmost portions of this empire prove that the term was in use at the time, by the empire's primary ruler Yaroslav Triglavich, whose epithet means "Triglav's Son" (he was also known as the Korol Mecha, the "Sword King"). It is not clear if Yaroslav considered himself an emperor per se (or tsar, a term that later Slavic rulers would use, to equate themselves to the nearby Byzantine Empire), as most of these inscriptions refer to Yaroslav as the Korol-Koroley, a title equivalent to "High King" or "King of Kings", probably intended to demonstrate dominion over his vassal Dobrogost I, the King of Poland. Yaroslav died in 985, and while his successor Trifon continued to use the "Korol-Koroley of Rus" styling for the initial years of his reign, it was soon supplanted by the term Tsar, and of Slaviya, making Yaroslav's time with this title a unique anomaly in the history of the region.
The Slavic Confederacy (also the Slavic Union, Baltic Union, Slaviya, and so on) was a state founded in 996 by its first Emperor, Trifon Zolotoyruchki. Slaviya was created, interestingly, not as a way to consolidate and centralize power, but as a sort of compromise with an increasingly unrestful and disruptive noble class. Slaviya's foundation came about as part of years-long negotiations both secular and religious, and no small amount of bribery and political manouvering. In this way it was very unusual both for the time and place predating the similar Magna Carta in Yorchia by some 200 years, The Slavic Confederacy's structure is laid out in a document called the Grand Charter of Princes, which lists every land-owning noble in the empire at the time, and formally gives them (and their descendants, with some exceptions) the title of Prince. Some of these realms were elevated further, their rulers becoming Grand Princes, based on their size or other factors. One, Poland, was permitted to keep its old identity as the Kingdom of Poland. There are many eccentricities in the signing. Some signatories use old or fanciful versions of their titles. One--Erastos Vidins--appears to have misspelled his own name, and all three Vidins brothers' signatures are cramped close together, overlapping somewhat. The position of first honor on the document was given to Yaropolk, the acting Chernoban of the time. The meaning of the second signature behind some entries is not known.
In a strange way, the Grand Charter would probably not have existed were it not for the character of Trifon himself. Trifon was a tempestuous individual, highly unpopular in his day and often proclaimed to be simply mad. Yet, his piety and especially his ferociousness in battle were undeniable, making Trifon a figure of contradictions--one who has only grown more mysterious in the centuries since his rule.
Princes of The Grand Charter & Their Realms
Yaropolk Synbogov, Chernoban of All Men
Drobynia Dregovich, King of Poland
Prendota Kujawski, Co-Grand Prince of Prusa
Borzyslaw Kujawski, Co-Grand Prince of Prusa
Jacek Ostrogotski, Grand Prince of Naklo
Alvor Rurikid, Grand Prince of Novgorod
Igor Dregovich, Grand Prince of Turov
Dytryk Klakis, Grand Prince of Lower Poland
Erkki Kapravin, Grand Prince of Pereyaslavl
Volodar Belzak, Grand Prince of Vladimir
Klaves Dregovich, Grand Prince of Volhyinia
Alfhilda Gute, Grand Princess of Lapland
Olga Kievsky, Grand Princess-by-Conquest of Moldavia
Dobrynia Slovensky, Grand Prince of Pskov
Vetse of Zemaiteje, Grand Prince of Lithuania
Vsevolod Mikhailovich, Grand Prince of Mordva
Iziaslav Oksakov, Grand Prince of Galich
Voislav Avanich, Grand Prince of Tver
Tatimir Kryvich, Grand Prince of Smolensk
Nikita Seversky, Grand Prince of Bryansk
Bryachaslav Muromski, Grand Prince of Ryazan
Guithrit Nazar, Prince of Novosil
Ilmar Matiki, Prince of Karachev
Rostislava Krasnyapochva, Princess of Red Ruthenia / Fedot Romanovich
Ihanti Haemaelaeinin, Prince of The Finns
Yudki Vidins, Chief of The Latgallians & Prince of Latgale
Erastus Vidins, Prince of Smaeland
Narvait Vidins, Prince of Kurland
Oleg Rurikid, Prince of Bohemia
Tarva Maataiki, Prince of Livonia / Zvenislava Tverdiatch
Havel Jankowskie, Prince of Ruegen
Eufroznya Awdaniec, Princess of Esztergom
Gierolt Lechowicz, Prince Pious of Yatvingia
Mikhail Balashov, Prince of Mazovia
Jurva Tsundit, Chief of The Veps
Alexei Novotorgsky, Prince of Estonia
Vladimir Matveyev, Prince of Lesser Chernigov
Viachislav Kryvich, Prince of Savo
Alexe Boryatinsky, Prince of Abauj
Gleb Glebev, High Priest & Prince of Moskva
Mitrofan Chudsky, Prince of Kostroma
Lev Chudsky, Prince of Chud
Vyshata Rostovech, Prince of Rostov
Viachislav Zelenogokapyushona, High Priest & Prince of Suomia
Demid Seversky, Prince of Merstopol
Valdur Maaitiki, Chief of The Tukums / Are Dundaga
Daniil Seversky, Prince of Kromy
Sviatoslav Jogailaitis, Prince of Rylsk
Murunza Muromidisk, Chief of The Murom
Yemeleyan Slovensky, Prince of Izborsk
Rogneda Drutsky, Princess of Drutsk
Yefimy Radomovich, Grand Hetman of Radom
Lev Kamennykhstrel, Grand Hetman of Sianno
Gavriil Beshankovich, Baron of Beshankovichy
Villvald Iznarvaka, Grand Hetman of Narva
Yaroslav, Alexei Staryy, Alexei Ploskiyy, & Yevstafiy, Priests of The High Church of Perun
Vsevolod Kryvich [no title provided, may have been some kind of overseeing official]
TSAR VSEKH SLAVYAN -- TRIFON SYN YAROSLAVA SILOY PERUNA ["Tsar of All Slavs, Trifon son of Yaroslav, by Perun's Might'}
Trifon I, known by many epithets; most famously Zolotoyruchki ("The Golden Hand"), Radegastovich ("son of Radegast"), and simply Trifon The Great, is a historical figure of many contradictions, about which relatively little can be said for certain.
What is known is that Trifon was the fifth King of Ruthenia, the second Korol-Koroley of Great Rus, and after that title's falling into disuse, most famously, the first Tsar of Slaviya. Much of Trifon's life has become a blend of fact and myth that it is difficult to untangle from each other. His most famous epithet, indeed, comes from the fact that this alleged champion fighter supposedly had a false hand made entirely of gem-studded gold, with a false eye to match. Trifon has been alternatively characterized as a man of great humbleness (pointing to his willingness to compromise in the writing of the Grand Charter), of great egotism (the many, many places named Trifonstopol, Trifongrad, Trifonia, and in one case, Trifonsberg), of surprisingly level-headedness and occasional bursts of inexplicable lunacy.
Still, two things can be said for certain about Trifon's reign. The first is that he was well and truly the first emperor of The Slavic Confederacy (or Slaviya), as there are enough testaments to the immediate and sweeping effects of the Grand Charter that it is certainly genuine. The second is that he participated in--and may have helped instigate--the Kammenaya Voya, the first major religious war of its type, in which thousands of Slavic warriors (some estimates place the number as high as 20,000) seeking to claim glory and stake their claim on new land, invaded the German-Frankish kingdom of East Francia, then ruled by Franz The Gentle. The initial actual impetus for the calling of the Voya is lost to history. Explanations have ranged from things as diverse as a simple show of force by Trifon (or the Chernoban of the time, Fedot I) to an attempt to let loose angry, disruptive warriors on an acceptable target. Whatever the reason, East Francia was wholly unprepared for such an attack, owing to both the state's generally weak centralization and the ill state of Franz The Gentle, then in his last weeks of life (indeed, mid-war he was succeeded by his son, the teenage Prince Michael). In another characteristic contradictory move, Trifon did not actually keep East Francia. The kingdom--commonly called Germany from then on--was granted in its entirety to a minor noble named Norbert Unrouchinger, one of the very few Perunist German nobles of the day.
Youssouf Alsi (1066-1099), Joseph of The Old Spirit | Traditionally held to have retired and become a monk rather than died, wandering into the Sahara Desert, never to be seen again.
Ede (1099-1125), Ede The Missionary
Buk (1125-1128) | Ceased to exist as independent polity. Subsequent monarchs of Wadai were also emperors of Kanem-Bornu
Emperors of Kanem-Bornu
Youssouf Ede / Youssouf I (1128-1140)
Bl. Youssouf Adam / Youssouf II (1140-1171) | Beatified by the Catholic Church
St. Esther (1171-1223) / Esther I, St. Esther The Great | Canonized by the Catholic Church
Y'hezqiel Kosom / Y'hezqiel I (1223-1251), Ezekiel The Sword
Bl. Bolad (1251-1285)
Y'hezqiel Malaz / Y'hezqiel II (1285-1292)
Esther Ber Aarifa / Esther II (1292-1312)
Esther Hamam / Esther III (1312-1346), Esther The Philosopher
Youssouf Y'hezqiel / Youssouf III (1346-1391)
Eustathia Kugurg / Eustathia (1391-1402)
Youssouf IV (1402-1426) | Youssouf comissioned the creation of The Ancestors of Kings, the Kanemian monarchial list, it is the official source of all names and ordinals of monarchs of Kanem-Bornu and is to this day considered legally binding.
Youssouf V (1426-
other notable dynasty members
Youssouf Bakhit | King of Nubia, title passed to Emperor Bolad on death
Chrissa | Queen of Crusader Anatolia, titled passed to Emperor Bolad on death
Nicholas III | Archbishop of Air (1300-1326), Pope (1326-1330), born Afgelgo Bug Kaukabi
flag of Chammasia, attested in some early forms as early as the 1700s.
'Ard al-Chammas, also called Chammasia, was a colony of the Mamluk Sultanate of Arabia, founded in 1585. The continent--also called Chammas--was named after its discoverer (from the Middle Eastern perspective at least), Shaik al-Mahmudi Chammas, also the man after whom the colony's capitol, Port Mahmudi, was named. Chammasia's colonization began as a natural outgrowth of the Sultanate's burgeoning activity in the Pacific, especially in the Mas'udines and Indonesia. The sparsely-populated continent, it was hoped, would hold untold riches. Gold, in fact, was found, near the initial landing point at Turrbal. This was all that was needed to start colonial fever. Hundreds, then thousands of Arabian subjects set out across over a dozen colonial expeditions. While gold discoveries were largely confined to the original mine at Turrbal, the colonists did make their fortune in other ways. Chiefly, through farming. Just a scant 3 decades after its foundation, Chammasia was providing grain, livestock, and more to much of the empire. Serving as a second breadbasket to compliment the already rich lands of the fertile crescent. This, in turn, enabled expeditions even further west. To the continent that the Europeans had come to call America.
Chammasia remained an extremely important colonial holding throughout this time. In 1620, the colony, now comprising both a smattering of respectably-sized settlements up and down the Chammasian coast, as well as several more across the sea to New Hormuz, was given the right to elect its own governing emir. Modeling itself after the mamluk system that was still nominally used to choose the sultans of the empire itself, Nizar Khalil was named the first Chammasian emir.
Nizar I, Emir of 'Ard al-Chammas
Nizar was an ambitious individual, and under his leadership Chammasia expanded significantly over the next several decades.
Arabian colonization of the Americas began near the end of the reign of Sultan Hazza. However, it did not really pick up steam until the reign of his successor, Mas'ud II. Mas'ud had three primary goals in exploring what the Arabs of the time simply called "the new world". The first was to procure valuable resources--primarily gold. The second was to acquire new subjects, to possibly serve as servants in the mamluk tradition. The third was simple prestige. It is known that the Arabs were aware of British, French, Breton, Castilian, Portuguese, and Dutch efforts to colonize a "new world", but it is not clear if they realized that these were two halves of the same continent. Until, of course, the colonists of New Alexandria ran into Frenchmen from New Colombie. Beginning an uneasy period of co-existence. One that sometimes enflared into outright war. Mas'ud was the most enthusiastic of the Arabian colonial sultans, but, the precedent he'd set by funding so many expeditions to these new lands was well in motion. His successors would continue this policy, and by 1675, there were two sizable Arabian south American settlements. One in Colombie, New Egypt, and one in Mexico, Bahr Aldhahab.
Relationships with the native americans in central and south america varied. In many cases, they were openly hostile. The Arabs made no particular distinction between the native nations and other dhimmi, and conquered subjects were officially allowed to keep their own language and faith provided they paid jizya taxes. In practice, things varied. Some emir governors were extremely accepting, others found the practices of their subjects offensive and distasteful, and tried to curb them. While the sultans back in Arabia proper attempted to curb the worst offenders, the simple matters of distance meant it was impossible to remove every bad governor. One way that the sultans attempted to moderate their governors was to send occasional "supervisors" to monitor them. One of these men, the Sumatran muslim convert Sha'ban Aybak, later became emir-governor in his own right after ousting his corrupt predecessor in Bahr Aldhahab.
By the late 1600s, conquest as such was no longer strictly necessary. Many of the remaining atlepetls in Mexico actively sought protection. Either from the Arabs, or from the Arabs, usually with the British.
Germany has had a tumultuous history in the scant 80 years it's existed as a unified state. Initially united by Holy Roman Emperor Johan-Karl, the Duke of Austria and King of Aragon, Germany unites huge swathes of Germans, Czechs, Slavs, and Spaniards. Just before the turn of the century, both peasant and noble uprisings beset the empire from all sides, and the reigning emperor, Wilhelm, was publicly hung in the streets of Wien during a famine riot. Following the French example (see below) a republic was proclaimed, with the "Grand President" assuming many of the functions of the Emperor, and the rest falling to the Reichstag. Moreso even than France, Germany has been keen on "exporting" its revolutionary ideas. Supporting rebellions that lead to the formation of republics in places as disparate as Norway and southern Japan.
This has not always translated to true equality at home. The dutch-speaking part of the republic broke away a few decades ago to re-form the Duchy of Brabant, and in mostly-Catholic, mostly-Spanish speaking Iberia (most of which falls under the Spanien province), rumors of open rebellion have fermented for years. Nonetheless, for now, Germany is the very model for better or worse, of a modern, liberal repbulican state.
The current Grand President, Johann Friedrich Uhlig, is only the fourth in the nation's history. After the long term of revolutionary war hero Ludwig Schave, two weak presidents--Wilhelm Arndt and Johann-Georg Noell--left the nation hungry for strong leadership, something they certainly got in Uhilg. Also a hero of the revolution, Uhlig is wildly popular in the republic's core German-speaking regions. However, his harsh measures against rebellions in Spanien and overseas have left the rest of the republic wary of the old general. His term is nearing its end, and it remains to be seen what President Uhlig's legacy will be, exactly. But his expansionist policies and German nationalism have made many neighboring nations--even longtime German ally Arabia, increasingly wary.
The Mamluk Sultanate of Arabia
Founded: 1550 (Traditional), by Mas'ud I
State Faith: Sunni Islam
Ruler & Style: His Imperial Highness, The Great Mamluk Sultan Abu Aun Idris ibn Timur
Other Key People:
-Gayth Ali, Astronomer and Advisor to the Sultan
-Khusqadam Aybak, Head of The Egyptian Trading Company / Finance Minister
-Tuman Bay Saleh, Notable General and Advisor to the Sultan, expected heir to the throne
Sultan Abu Aun Idris
Arabia is a global Empire with subjects on every continent and a hand in every event. Yet, it all ties back to the nation's command of trade. A network of trade cities--many conquered, some acquired through other means--that stretches the world over assures that no matter whom is trading to whom, or what they're selling, the Mamluk Sultan gets his cut at some point along the line.
Arab colonization is truly extensive. Their colonies in America take up the bulk of the continent, and between them have thousands upon thousands of Arab, native american, and conquered European citizens. Divided chiefly into three divisions--Abu Taleb in North America, Bahr Aldhahab (the "golden coast") in Central America, and New Egypt in South America, plus the smaller Al'Iinka division--the Arabic empire there is quite expansive. These colonies control a large percentage of trade to the Americas, making the Arab sultan rich with gold, chocolate, cotton, and more. Yet, among these colonies, especially Abu Taleb, growing resentment over harsh taxes and a lack of representation in the government threatens the stability of the region.
One would be remiss to not also mention 'Ard Al-Chammas, known to Europeans as Chammasia, the "lost continent" that the Arabs control completely, along with its satellite islands--the large two that make up New Hormuz to the east, and the smaller New Socotra to the south.
The Mamluk system by which the Arabs choose their sultan has since evolved into a highly formalized process, with hypothetically almost any Arab soldier of noble blood able to eventually ascend to the throne. In practice, over the last two centuries, it has been batted between "Arabicized" relatives of the Persian Timurid dynasty and the Malaccan Srivijayas.
The current great sultan is an interesting example. Technically of noble birth, Abu Aun Idris is from the relatively minor port of Qatif, and a career soldier in his own right, having served in several campaigns in India and Africa. This first-hand experience has made Abu Aun quite wary of the prospect of war, and in general he has been a moderating influence, favoring a status quo as opposed to the conservatism of the hardline Legalist faction in parliament, and the more radical Liberals. This choice has not made him especially popular among the Legalists, who are quick to criticize the Sultan as immoral, but may serve him well if tensions in Abu Taleb boil over into open revolution.
Ruler & Style: His Excellency, Defender of The Republic, Consul Guillame de La Tour d'Auvergne
Other Key People:
-Jules de La Motte d'Airan, Head of Finance, has the unenviable task of leading tax collection
-Nyambe Moogo Sadami, head of African Affairs, effectively a consul in his own right of France's African colonies. Native of the Ivory Coast.
Consul La Tour
To say that France has drifted in and out of crisis over the past century would not be an exaggeration. The French Revolution in which the parliament of the people overthrew the Clementine dynasty was long and bloody. By 1731 the (amusingly-named) strongman Clement d'Aulnay was able to take power as a pseudo-king, the Head Consul. For most of the 1730s the French Republic was a model state, an ideal that many both within the republic and without still chase. Then, in 1739, he was assassinated, and it has been chaos in Paris ever since. France's overseas holdings have also shrunk considerably over the past century, being annexed by old rival Arabia or by the Germans. Mostly, the government has been unable to organize an effective response, being too concerned with attempting to keep the day to day functions of the state running as smoothly as possible.
The government of France is fragmented, ad hoc, and inept. The position of Head Consul has nearly limitless power but there is no formal system for peaceful transfer between consuls. Thus, most get their position by political backstabbing or by force. The current, Msr. La Tour, is deeply unpopular despite his attempts to rally public support in a way similar to his German counterpart President Uhlig. Lending even more powder to this potential keg is the fact that La Tour's father Bertrand was also a previous Head Consul, a fact that his political opponents are quick to seize on, accusing him of dynastism.
The Kingdom of Great Britain
Founded: 1525, by Phillip I
State Faith: Church of England (Reformed Protestant Christianity)
Ruler & Style: Her Royal Highness, The Queen of Great Britain, Margaret I
Other Key People:
-Prince Alfred Mowbray, Prince-Consort, Minister of Defense
-Ernest Augustus Bedford, Head of The African Trading Company
-Cinaed Strathbogie, Notable General / Advisor to The Queen
Queen Margaret I
Britain has found success on the national stage by simple matter of staying the course. The past century has brought loss and gain in equal measure to British Empire. Despite having lost much of its valuable American territory in Mexico and the east coast to the Arabs and Germans respectively, it remains financially well-balanced. Great Kongo, long British territory on paper, has also been more properly brought into the fold, becoming an important economic center of the empire.
Britain has adopted a policy of isolationism under the rule of its current monarch Margaret I, affectionately known by her people as Queen Marge. While Margaret is prone to self-righteousness and bluster, little of it has translated into actual warfare or any kind of real conflict for the empire. Indeed, under the Irish general Cinaed Strathbogie, Britain plans to expand into East Asia while leaving Europe herself quite alone. If there is a word for the average Briton of the 1820s, it is "complacent".
Of course complacency has its risks. While the British may feel that Great Kongo is a far-off land that simply brings them riches occasionally, the native Luba, Kongolese, and Yaka are not inclined to agree. As with many places in the world, whispers of rebellion have begun to bubble here. Time will tell how the Queen's Empire handles it all.
Ruler & Style, His Highness, The Sultan of Morocco, 'Abd al-Malik
Other Key People:
-Muhammad Bassir, Finance Minister
-'Abdallah Lahsini, Notable General / Advisor to The Sultan
Sultan 'Abd al-Malik
Morocco has existed in some form for over a thousand years, but it is only over the last century or so that it has climbed the ranks of the world stage. Chiefly, beginning with the reign of Ibrahim II in 1721, Morocco began to expand south, often by relieving European powers of their colonial holdings. This spirit has continued well into the present day, and Morocco is now the source of a good stockpile of mineral wealth and controls much of the trade in the region. Helping Morocco are their close allies the Arabs, who, together along with Funj and Persia, make a large Middle Eastern Islamic power block.
'Abd al-Malik is young, headstrong, and spoiling for a fight. Ascending to the throne at the age of just 17, 'Abd al-Malik has a grand dream of uniting the entire continent under the Moroccan flag. Time will tell if that comes to pass, but in the mean time, he has designs on the French colonies to Morocco's south.
The Transoxian Khanate
Founded: 1307 (Traditional), by Timur
State Faith: Sunni Islam
Ruler & Style: Her Magnificence, Sultana & Great Khan, Jahanara Tamurov
Other Key People:
-Uways Bakr, Minister of the Interior
-Bay Sunqur Akbar, Notable General
Sultana-Khan Jahanara
Directly descended from the empire of Timur The Lame, the Transoxian Khanate is in many ways a state with one foot in the past, and another in the future. The traditional horseback armies of the khanates now ride with rifles, and pillaging and tribute have been supplanted by a modern, highly efficient taxation system. Transoxiana is also a vibrantly multi-ethnic and multi-religious state, and the Sultana-Khan's subjects include Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Slavs, Persians, and Georgians, practicing Islam, Orthodox and Catholic Christianity, Tengriism, and many more faiths.
Jahanara is the first female ruler of the state, and the first to use the title of "Khan" in quite a number of years, appending it to her more modern title as the Sultana. She is wildly ambitious, not unlike her ally 'Abd al-Malik of Morocco, and dreams of equaling, perhaps even surpassing, the empire of Genghis Khan.
The Bahmani Sultanate
Founded: 1347, by Ala-ud-Din Bahman Shah
State Faith: Sikhism
Ruler & Style: His Highness, The Great Sultan of Bahmanis Ahmad Bahmanid
Other Key People:
-Jalal Khan Guri, Religious Advisor
-Vishvanatha Saraf, Economic Minister
Sultan Ahmad
A state in flux, Bahmanis' rulers have carved out most of India as their domain over the course of the past several hundred years. Until recently, they were a Muslim elite ruling over a Hindu majority, but that has changed with the conversion of the current Great Sultan to Sikhism. What the ramifications are for the nation remains to be seen.
The Wu Kingdom
Foundation: 1633, Shuang Wu
State Faith: Confucian Philosophy
Ruler & Style: His Highness, King Jihuang Jiao
Other Key People:
-Jianzhi Yu, Court Philosopher, Advisor to The King
-Youjian Tang, Notable General
King Jihuang
Out of the collapse of the Ming Dynasty came dozens of small principalities vying for dominance. In the centuries since, only six of those remain. Shu, Yue, Shun, Liang, Qi, and the most powerful of all of them, Wu. Wu's rise to power is recent, stemming from cooperation with Arab and British interlopers in nearby Japan and a number of other factors. Far from having any dreams of reuniting China though, the Wu King Jihuang is content for now to simply bide his time. With the dangers of republicanism on his doorstep in the form of the Mori Republic, it would be foolish to expand too far too quickly. Still, Wu is a rising star, and it would be unwise for any potential adversary to discount them.
The War of the Hungarian Succession was a war chiefly involving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, The Archduchy of Austria, and the Kingdom of Hungary.
In 1506, the aging Austrian nobleman Heinrich von Habsburg had been elected by the Sejm as Henry I of Poland, or Henryk in the native Polish. Expecting a weak king, and thus a reprieve from the strong-willed style of his predecessor Vladislav V, they were taken aback by Henry's ambition. Chiefly, he leveraged the Commonwealth's military might to press his claim to the throne of Hungary, a claim opposed both by a sizable chunk of the Hungarian nobility (and their chosen pretender, Matthias II) and Henry's own relatives in Austria.
War broke out, and continued for over a decade. When Henry died in 1523, it seemed logical that the claim would die with him. Importantly though, the new Polish-Lithuanian monarch, Christoph I (Krzysztof) continued, his argument was that the claim passed to him, not through any kind of blood relation, but by his inheritance of the office of King of The Commonwealth. He would eventually succeed, both securing Hungary itself and the entirety of Polish-speaking Silesia from Bohemia, who'd also become involved in the war.
Christoph was generous to his defeated opponents, allowing Matthias II's successor John VII to govern much of Hungary in his stead as the "Grand Prince" of Hungary, a title that was dissolved following John's death.
While the territorial gains would long outlive the Sapieha dynasty Christoph founded, the rest of his legacies were not so lucky. The fact that Henry had established all powerof the kingship--including claims--as ultimately emanating from the office of kingship, something controlled by the Sejm, had far-reaching implications. It would lead to the Sejm's transformation into a broader, more generally-empowered parliamentary body during the latter years of his reign.
The Resignation of John III, and the following Dictatorship of the Sejm, was a turbulent time in Polish history. John III was a Polish noble but had been raised in Austria for much of his life. After the death of his predecessor August II, John III assumed the throne as a fairly popular candidate for monarch. This would not, however, last. John attempted to rule The Commonwealth in the Austrian fashion--largely by royal decree and without consulting the Sejm. When the Sejm attempted to further limit his power--beyond the degree already afforded by custom and law--he simply resigned the kingship, after barely a year in power, returning to his native Austria where he eventually became a bishop.
The Sejm of 1646
This caused something of a crisis in the Sejm. A king had never simply stepped down before, and the law required that the previous king actually pass away in order to elect a new one. Thus, for five years, from 1646 to 1651, the Sejm attempted to govern the country directly, generally to mixed results. Ongoing processes to integrate the Kingdom of Bohemia more thoroughly into the Commonwealth stalled, as did similar processes in Odoyev. Multiple diplomatic relations broke down without royal alliance to secure them, and the nation was dragged into a war against a resurgent Ottoman Empire in 1650. By then, it had become clear that even if there was no king per se, there needed to be a strong executive of some sort.
Thus, in December, the Sejm convened to elect not a king, but a Władca (simply, "Ruler" or "Sovereign"). The voting rules for this session--including, most prominently, a clause that the Władca could be removed by a unanimous vote by the Sejm, and a clause that he should rule for only 5 years unless elected again--would eventually, some decades later, become the foundation for the Constitution of The Commonwealth.
On Christmas Day, the Sejm formally declared the position of King of The Commonwealth abandoned. And Igor Lichnowsky, a minor noble, was elected as the first Władca. Three weeks later, he was also made King of Bohemia under the regal name Wenceslaus VI. Putting him on nominally equal standing with the other heads of state of Europe, even if his low origins meant royal marriages were still out of the question.
Igor Lichnowsky, as depicted by Dutch painter Rembrandt.
It has been noted by many historians that, with no small amount of irony, Igor Lichnowsky himself was probably the most powerful executive the Commonwealth state had ever had. By exploiting the wording in certain legal documents, Lichnowsky was able to use his position as Władca to bypass many of the Sejm's usual checks on the executive position, most of which were worded to refer to the King of the Commonwealth, an office that Lichnowsky did not technically hold. Lichnowsky would probably not have gotten away with this were he not so popular.
Lichnowsky was a sound tactician, and made a point of only entering the Commonwealth into wars he was completely sure it could win. Often, despite them looking rather impressive on paper, such as his campaign to annex much of western Russia, even as the country's eastern and northern borders were being besieged by Kazan and Sweden respectively.
An act of law that just barely squeezed through the Sejm in 1664 extended voting suffrage to all adult protestant male landowners, removing all requirements for nobility and certain levels of education. While in practice these new voters only participated in the elections for the Władca, it was enough to secure Lichnowsky's hold on the office for most of the rest of his life.
In other areas, Lichnowsky was notably less progressive. He had strong anti-"papist" (here encompassing both the Catholic and Orthodox churches) views, and reinstated the program of przeniesienie ("relocation"), by which Catholic and Orthodox populations would be rounded up, have their property confiscated by the state, and be "compensated" by way of being forcibly moved to elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Sometimes this was the eastern frontier in Russia, other times it was the New World to the Polish colonies in New Curonia and Algirdia. While some Polish Catholics and Commonwealth Orthodox persons would find their fortunes in these areas, this was comparatively rare, and it is not without reason that these policies are looked at as bigoted brutality today. These policies were divisive even at the time, as much for using a large amount of state resource as being immoral. They alienated The Commonwealth from longtime (and predominantly Catholic) ally Spain, and may have contributed to Lichnowsky's failure to win a fifth term in 1670. Already in declining health, he died just two months later.
Of note, Orthodox Sejm member Feofan Yalichev was so incensed by the przeniesienie programs that he challenged the aging Lichnowsky to a duel. When Lichnowsky refused, Yalichev resigned from the Sejm and left to the colonies with the forcibly expelled population of his hometown of Oreshek. The city he founded and which would later come to be named after him (Yalichstopol), is today the patriarchal seat of the Algirdian Orthodox Church.
Popular in his day, Lichnowsky is a divisive figure in the long-view of history. While he was undeniably instrumental in founding the Commonwealth as we know it today, his bigoted attitude toward non-Protestants and aggressive expansionism are equally undeniable stains on his reputation.
Karol Ferdynand Lacki, Władca of The Commonwealth of Wends, Slavs, and Hungarians 1677-1692
The Władcate of Karol Ferdynand Lacki was one defined by war. Chiefly, the War of The Scandinavian Succession. Elected in 1677, Lacki's first term was largely uneventful. Being defined by continued expansion into the ever-shrinking Russian frontier and various minor issues. By 1683 though, a major war seemed inevitable.
The King of Scandinavia, Erik VIII of the Skytte dynasty, had died without issue. His closest relative was his first cousin, Ferran III, the Emperor of Spain, whose own house (the de Scito dynasty) were a cadet branch of Erik's. This union united the two great Catholic powers of Europe, and thus, to every nation of any other faith, was unacceptable.
The United Republic of The Netherlands presented its own rival (and Protestant) candidate for the throne, the illegitimate son of Erik's late brother, Erik Wallenburg. Then, when Wallenburg died under mysterious circumstance mid-war, the claim passed to his brother in law by marriage, Thomas van Oranje-Svinhufvud. A man who just so happened to also be the reigning staathalter (elected princely head of state) of The Netherlands.
The war proved popular. The glory of fighting the Papist menace--especially so far from home, where the horrors of war were not readily apparent--made Lacki incredibly popular. This had its downsides though, Lacki was a strict authoritarian, and carrying through the precedent set by Lichnowsky (following a pair of weak Władca in between), this set the tone for the remaining Władca throughout this period.
Like Lichnowsky, Lacki did not survive the end of his Władcate-defining work. He died not long after the peace was signed, from what historians now believe was an infected wound he'd neglected to get treated properly.
Trivia: Lacki was also the final Władca of The Commonwealth to hold the title "King of Bohemia", which he held as Karel VIII from his election until the formal integration of Bohemia as part of the Commonwealth in 1683. He dissolved all monarchical titles associated with the position of Władca, claiming that "the people of the Commonwealth should bend their knees to no King but God".
Portrait of Tancred I. This picture postdates his reign by almost 700 years, it is important to note several inaccuracies: Tancred had a split upper lip, and was known to be of medium-brown complexion, probably owing to his Levantine ancestry on his mother's side.
Tancred The Hammer, also known as The White Knight of The Outremer, was the third Prince of Antioch, as well as its first Emperor. Tancred was the first ruler of Antioch to assert his realm's long-term prospects in the region. Over the course of his reign, Antioch went from a minor principality, to the chief Catholic power in the region, and a major regional player in general.
Tancred inherited the throne at the age of just two, after the untimely death of his father, Bohemond II, in battle. Most courtesans did not expect the young prince to live terribly long, he was a toddler, and in a position of power that could easily have been snatched away by any number of scheming relatives (members of what was at the time still called the House de Hauteville). On top of this, the child was deformed--a split lip combined with the mustache he later grew gave him the appearance of permanently sneering--and was prone to stuttering and stammering. One relative though, did believe in the young prince. His great-uncle Robert The Merry, a minor count of one of Antioch's northern border provinces, Robert assumed the role of regent throughout Tancred's minority, shielding the prince from at least two (possibly more) assassination attempts, and assuring that he was raised to be a proper Christian.
Historians have long debated Robert's motives, but the real answer seems to be the simplest, Robert was genuinely a pious Catholic and believed in both the divine right of kings and the cause of the Crusades, he wanted to ensure that the realm survived, which it could better do under a wizened ruler tutored by himself than by a scheming usurper.
Tancred indeed was in many ways considered to be the very image of a crusader king. He was moderate, even-handed, and devout. He was also massively egotistical, however, as attested to by the existence of The King in The Harbor, the massive statue of himself commissioned in 1180, and not fully finished until several years after his death.
Tancred annexed a large amount of land from the resurgent Kutayan Empire, sometimes today known as the Turkish-Persian Empire. He was a crusader both by his own ambition and at the Pope's beck and call, his armies were instrumental in the so-called reconquista that retook the Spanish kingdom of Castille from the Almoravid Sultanate.
Any other ruler would have very much been content with the praise, prestige, gold, and treasures taken from the crusade. Tancred however, was indignant. Tancred's title was still formally simply that of Prince of Antioch. He felt that as by now the most prominent Catholic power in the region, he deserved a greater honor. Persistent petitioning of the pope, at first the Castilian Alexander VII, and then the Antiochite-Norman John XIX, eventually won him the honor he craved.
Though he was not, as he'd initially asked to be, recognized as the rightful emperor of Rome (that honor still went to the 'Latin' imperial claimant occupying Thrace in the Pope's name after the collapse of the Byzantine empire, and further contested by the German Holy Roman Emperor), he was elevated to the status of Emperor. His title, and that of all his descendants, was elevated to Prince of Antioch, Emperor of The Levant. A unique styling that remains one of a kind in the Christian world.
Tancred's ferocity in his defense of the faith was such that late in life, he became semi-mythologized as the "White Knight of The Outremer", a shining, heroic figure. That Tancred was known to have quite a temper, and that there was some evidence that he may have had multiple political rivals assassinated, did not seem to dampen this legend, which remains popular even today.
Over the course of his 50 year reign, Antioch was elevated from a minor principality to an empire, nearly tripled in size, and became one of the foremost powers in its region. It's recorded that after his death, nobility from as far away as France attended his funeral. He left behind one of the wealthiest and most stable states of its region, and was succeeded by three sons, his heir as emperor, Bohemond Sabas, who became Bohemond III, his second son Henry, who became Duke of Damascus, and third son Robert, the Duke of Oultrejordain.
silver coin from Philippe's reign, depicting the Prince-Emperor.
Philip Sabbas, or Philippe I, ("Sabbas" was an inherited middle name, of Greek origin, shared with his father Bohemond III) was Prince of Antioch and Emperor of The Levant from 1237 until his death. He was also briefly, from 1242-1243, the Latin Emperor of Constantinople. Philippe was a controversial figure in his day. While as the Duke of Sinai from 1212 to his ascension as Emperor, he had continued the crusading, religiously-motivated policies of his forebears, after his crowning as Prince-Emperor, he took a much more pragmatic approach to politics. Something that confused, and occasionally infuriated, his contemporaries.
Most egregiously, Philippe was not above attacking his fellow Christians. His niece Pavlina had inherited the Latin Imperial throne. Pavlina was a teenager, and was Orthodox, making her position vulnerable. Philippe conducted an invasion in 1242, conquering Constantinople and briefly uniting the two empires, before installing the sympathetic Emperor Anthimos (of the same House Gorianos, known originally as the Gorjanski and thought to be of Hungarian or Polish origin, who had originally conquered Byzantium almost a century prior) and annexing much of the Latin Empire's Anatolian territory.
He also ended the long practice of giving Imperial relatives--even distant ones--newly conquered land. Instead preferring to dole out territorial parcels to court favorites such as his marshal Loup The Loyal. This too, earned him the ire of contemporaries, especially dynastic relatives who were now court-bound. Even Philippe's own son, the heir apparent Bohemond Philippe (who would later reign, relatively briefly, as Bohemond IV), was granted only a very small barony near the capitol, as opposed to a larger parcel of land like Philippe himself had been.
What prevented open rebellion was the fact that in lieu of large territorial gains, Philippe often sought sources of finance for his realm. Whether this was in the short-term, such as plunder from military excursions, or long-term, such as trade routes, financial security seems to have driven much of his foreign and domestic policy. Even his installing of a friendly emperor in the Latin Empire seems to have been motivated in part by a desire to get a deal allowing Antiochian merchants to bypass the sound toll when sailing past Constantinople.
For this reason, Philippe's stringent, practicalist foreign policy was tolerated, and there is, subsequently, evidence that the Prince-Emperor was reasonably popular among merchants and craftsmen. Philippe was disliked by many of his fellow contemporary nobles, but over time, historical assessments have improved, painting him as a pragmatic ruler with the best interests of his kingdom in mind.
The Imperial Collapse of the late 12th century gave rise to a number of Byzantine Successor States in the following hundred years. Antioch / The Levant was not a successor state, as its existence predated the collapse by some 70 years.
Some of these states were Catholic, others Orthodox. Most, however, were heavily Hellenized. These states can be divided into two rough groups, those descended from the last ruling Byzantine family--the Kommenos Dynasty--and those not.
In the former camp, the primary powers in post-collapse Byzantium were the Kaneian Empire, who were descended from the branch of the Kommenids ruling Hungary, the Kingdom of Greece, who were descended from the last emperor's youngest brother, and the Kingdom of Trebizond, who were descendants of a branch dynasty.
In the latter, there is the largest byzantine successor state--the Latin Empire, ruled by the Hellenized Gorianos dynasty (originally Hungarian themselves), as well as the duchies of Epirus and Opsikion.
Outremer Naming Conventions were based on Western European--specifically Norman--traditions, but over the middle ages, adopted many practices from Arabic, Armenian, and especially Greek naming conventions.
Norman names such as Bohemond, Tancred, Roger, etc. remained popular throughout the period. Intermingling in many cases with Frankinized versions of Greek names--Apollo from Apollion, Dionice from Dionysus, and Constantine from Konstantinios. Biblical names, unsurprisingly, remained popular as well. Many persons of all classes are recorded with names such as John, Paul, and Joseph. Even occasionally names that were more rare (perhaps due to being associated with Judaism) on the European mainland, such as David, Solomon and Simon. Other names still have etymologies that remain uncertain, such as Ebbon and Philomecre.
Bohemond VI (left) playing chess with his vassal, Paul I of Jerusalem. Bohemond was fond of the game, and matches with Paul--one of his few close friends--often ran late into the night.
Bohemond VI was Prince of Antioch and Emperor of The Levant from 1324 until his death. Following the long reign of the extremely popular Bohemond V, commonly nicknamed "The Iron", Bohemond VI would've had big shoes to fill in the best of circumstances. However, Bohemond had never been expected to inherit the throne. His father had reigned through the dark years of the Black Plague, being one of the few to catch the disease and survive. Bohemond's older brother, the former heir apparent, Prince Philip David, was not so lucky.
Bohemond was not by any means his same-named father's favorite child, something the elder Bohemond made no real secret of. As such, no particular attempt was made to raise Bohemond in proper courtly fashion--to be heir or to be anything else. By all accounts, Bohemond VI was an immensely unpleasant man. Contemporaries, both ally and enemy, describe him as greedy, selfish, unrepentantly lazy, prone to casual blasphemy, and he was close friends with the equally-despised Pope Gregory IX (commonly known as Gregory The Maneater, after a common albeit believed to be false legend that he ate political opponents he had murdered), a man so vile he was after his death dug up, stripped of his papal garments, and beheaded.
Several other factors further hampered Bohemond's reputation. Of his four children, his three sons--Bohemond, Philip, and Apollo--had all died before their second birthday. Only his eldest child, his daughter Alix, survived to adulthood. The Levant had never had an Empress, and the prospect made many dukes of the realm uneasy, given that Bohemond appeared to have no particular desire to produce another male heir (it was said that Lust was the one mortal sin Bohemond was not guilty of).
Further, while the practice had been started by his father--who employed the court doctor Ruhollah, a Zoroastrian "magus"--Bohemond employed several non-Catholics at court, including a Jewish financial minister, Dodai Ligen, as well as several non-Catholic Christians. A count by the highly critical Bishop of Rhodes, Valeran Estouteville, decried the emperor for employing "eight Greek heretics, a pair of Egyptians, an alchemist who [claims to be] able to rebuke the devil, and a smattering of other, lesser sinners...."
A third problem was that he was often unable to claim credit for accomplishments that occurred during his rule. While, for instance, the imperial government did aid the viceroy of Egypt in expanding greatly down the Nile during his reign, it was said viceroys--first Tancred Apollo I, then his immediate successors, his son Ebbon, and grandson Tancred Apollo II--who received the public accolades.
The final nail in the coffin was a series of costly, unpopular wars that plagued the final years of his reign. Beginning with an ill-conceived (and failed) invasion of Crete in 1333, an invasion by the Yemeni Caliph in 1334, which was only barely repelled, and four successive revolts in Nubia, the Levantine Empire's southernmost holding, the wars were a drain on state funds, as well as the reputations of both Bohemond and the empire itself.
When Bohemond caught pneumonia and died in 1336, few mourned more than they had to. Even his daughter, the now-empress Alix, was reportedly curt and short at his funeral, the two having had a rocky-at-best relationship throughout Alix's life. The beginning of Bohemond VI's reign is now generally seen as the end of the Bohemondian period begun by his ancestor St. Bohemond III. The Empire would stagnate in this way until the reign of Bohemond VI's grandson, Bohemond VII.
Bohemond VII was a curious, singular figure in Antiochian history. Bohemond was not born in Antioch, or indeed anywhere near it. Due to the circumstances that his mother, Empress Alix, had ascended to the throne under, the child was born in Ireland, where he inherited his father's title as the petty king of Mide. There, he was known as Bletcu mac Bletcu, and he reigned in Mide for almost a decade before his mother abdicated the throne.
Bohemond traveled far to St. Symeon for his coronation--leaving Mide to his younger brother Philip the Lion (founder of the Irish branch of the House d'Antioche in his own right)--and found himself met with no small amount of opposition. Before even being formally crowned, Bohemond fought off a massive rebellion in Nubia-Egypt, which was by now a massive stretch of conquered Fatimid territory ruled by his third cousin Tancred-Apollo II. Taking up the entire first two years of his reign, Bohemond eventually triumphed, greatly rearranging the layout of the empire in the meantime.
In many ways, Bohemond was the final true crusader king, along with his contemporary Phillip I of Syria. Bohemond's renewed conquests expanded the empire to its greatest extent yet, and it was only his surprising and sudden death--from what historians now believe to be cancer--that truly put an end to his military campaigns. It is perhaps not surprising to learn that Bohemond late in life became obsessed with Alexander The Great, eventually uncovering what he believed to be the Macedonian King's remains in Egypt. The claim that the House d'Antioche is distantly descended from Alexander is in fact, one the house maintains officially to this very day.
If Bohemond VII had lived longer, the world today might look very different, given the markedly different character of his son and heir, Prince Philippe Jourdain.
Portrait of Philip II dating from 1837
Philip II put his name on an era, The Philippian Period, and is considered by some historians to be the earliest incarnation of what we might today recognize as a modern ruler. Chiefly concerned with the welfare of his country, he saw that unending religious crusades were unsustainable. Thus, after fighting off what would be the last major Muslim attempt at a reconquest in Yemen, he set about making peace--or something like it, at least--with his nation's traditional enemies, the Turko-Persian Empire, and the Sunni and Shi'a Caliphates, the latter now largely based in the former Assyria and Kanem-Bornu respectively.
Philip's willingness to "give" at the negotiating table, where his predecessors would've surely pushed for harsher terms, sets him apart. As part of an attempt at a lasting peace with the Caliphates, Muslim pilgrims were permitted full and free access to their holy cities, which had fallen into Antiochite hands almost a century prior. While the wars that had raged across the Arabian peninsula could of course not simply be "undone", it was a remarkable first step.
Of course it was not always so peaceful, and many successors of both Philip himself and especially the Persian Emperor of the day would not find the agreement quite so agreeable. Nonetheless, Philip's policy marks a sea change in Antiochite history.
Even the term "Antiochite" is attributable to Philip. Since the time of Tancred The Hammer, the traditional styling of the Emperor had been Prince of Antioch, Emperor of The Levant, identifying these two polities as separate things, and their ruler as the Prince-Emperor. A status that was only nominally equal to the Holy Roman Emperor, or the Basileuses of The Latin or Kaneian Empires.
Petitioning the pope--his uncle, Pope Victor V--Philip asked for, and received, a new, shorter title; Emperor of Antioch. Indeed, the styling meant that for the next 500 years, the terms Antioch, The Levant, and The Outremer would be used largely interchangeably. Philip was also highly concerned with his own nation's legacy, commissioning the first history of Antioch: A Complete Chronicle of The Holy Lands, attributed to the mysterious Yves of Jabala.
This book also contained the first Antiochite king list, containing the names of every emperor, as well as Bohemond I and II (whose reigns technically predated the title), and Robert The Merry (who would be excluded from later such lists, as he was a regent for Tancred The Hammer). All this in only nine years.
Philip's mysterious demise remains the subject of controversy. The very book he commissioned records that the king was bitten to death by a viper that had been placed in his bedchambers by his enemies, and some forensic evidence has lead credence to this idea.
Emperors and Fylkir ("King of The People") of Northurland
House Konungurhafsing
Ivar I | Ivar The Boneless / Ívarr hinn Beinlausi (855-892)
Guthfrith II* (892-899)
Halsten I (899-900)
Styrkar | Styrkar The Pious / Styrkar Prestakóngur (900-943)
Ivar II | Ivar The Festive / Ivar Auðvelt og Meðfætt (943-964)
Halsten II | Halsten The Dragon / Halsten Drekinn (964-1016)
Ivar III | Ivar Dragonson / Ivar Drekasonur (1016-1034)
Halsten III | Halsten The Trickster / Halsten Villandi (1034-1050)
Valdemar I | Valdemar Irongrip / Valdemar Járngreip (1050-1075)
Valdemar II | Valdemar The Hammer / Valdemar Hamarkristni(1075-1099)
Ivar IV | Ivar The Lion-maned / Ívar ljónskeggjaður (1099-1117)
Ivar V | Ivar The Thoughtful / Ivar Blíðan (1117-1155)
Valdemar III | Valdemar the Broad-faced / Valdemar Bústinn-andlit (1155-1160)
Ivar VI | Ivar Strawbeard | Ivar Stráskegg (1160-1165)
Edward Valdesson (1165-1190)
Valdemar IV (1190-1201)
Erik | Erik The Lame / Eirikr Hinn Halti (1201-1224) || Briefly disputed with Valdemar Dúfan (1219-1221)
Valdemar V (1224- )
*The Nordic Emperors claim legal descent (see entry on Erik The Lame below) from the Kings of Picts and Scots. "Guthfrith" is the Norse equivalent of the Scottish "Gofraid". "Guthfrith I", then, at the time of the composition of the earliest Norse Kinglists, was Gofraid Mac Ailpin, a Scottish King of The Isles who had briefly reigned in the 850s.
An engraving of Valdemar II, made several centuries after his death. Ironically, the engraver, Alderic d'Bolougne, was French.
Valdemar II (also known as Valdemar Hamarkristni, lit. 'The Hammer of Christendom') was Fylkir of the North Sea Empire from 1075 until his death. Valdemar's tempestuous reign was defined by the twin disasters of the Black Plague and the First Crusade (known to the Norse as the Dauðurguðling Intrusion, though modern scholarship prefers the more neutral term of the "First Christian Invasion"). Little record exists of Valdemar's life before he inherited the throne from his father, Valdemar I. It seems likely that Valdemar was the first prince of Northurland to be groomed from a young age with the expectation that he would inherit the throne, as unlike his younger brothers Ivar The Lion-maned and Ormr Valdemarsson he was given no lands to rule when he reached majority. There is some evidence that he spent time in Ivar's court in Kurland, shadowing his brother and learning the art of rulership.
Valdemar would've been in his late 20s at most when the Black Plague struck the shore of Bretland. When his father died of the illness in 1050, he was crowned by a small coalition of local nobles in Strangfjorthr, the traditional Althing declined to formally name him Fylkir until some years later, when the illness had finally subsided. Valdemar's actions during the Plague paint a picture of a desperate man doing whatever he could to get his nation under control. Bowing to popular sentiment, he had a group of some three dozen Christians from all over Bretland that had been accused of "black magic" ritualistically killed. The plague, by coincidence, subsided not long after. Valdemar himself suffered heavy facial scarring from his own bout of the Plague, though he miraculously managed to survive, he wore an iron and wood mask for most of the remainder of his life.
Popular rumor has long been that it was Valdemar's actions during the Plague that spurred on the launch of the First Crusade only a few years later. What is more likely is that the Plague had left much of Christendom looking for enemies, and the Norsemen, who had already conquered most of Europe's northern coastline, were easy targets. Thus, Pope Eugene IV compelled all able-bodied men who were willing to seize Normandy back from the Norsemen, offering forgiveness of sins and material gain in equal measure.
The Crusade had a good measure of early success, with the invading army taking the Norman coastline more or less unopposed. Valdemar's men however were able to stage several counter-attacks by striking the Christians from unexpected angles, largely by using longboats to launch attacks from behind. Over the course of several years, Valdemar's forces and the Crusaders (lead largely by Alderic III of France and then his successor Renaud I) clashed frequently up and down the French countryside. Valdemar made it a point to ritually sacrifice any captured enemy commanders, leading to over a hundred meeting their deaths this way. Among the victims was Anselm The Cruel, the King of Bavaria.
Disillusioned with their prospects and demoralized at the loss of life, the crusaders surrendered in 1098. Valdemar, seeking vengeance, sailed his fleet to Rome, where he sacked the city only to unceremoniously meet his end at the hands of a Christian knight whose name is lost to history. It would be his brother and successor, Ivar, who would finally accept the Papal forces' peace offering.
The Magseni, also known as the European Berber, are the descendants of Gauda Magsen, a Catholic Berber warlord who invaded the Italian peninsula, or descendants of members of his war band. Gauda's origins, and that of the host he used to conquer Italy, are not clear, but historians generally believe that he came from North Africa, perhaps displaced as a result of the Visigothic invasions, and hey may have been the son of a minor displaced Moroccan noble of the same name. Gauda's reign as Gauda I of Italy marked a major change to the peninsula, for the first time since the fall of Rome a major, unified Christian power controlled the region. It is perhaps no surprise that a fair number of Popes in the years to come were Magsen Berber-Italians or Berber-Germans.
And indeed, the Magsen dynasty would find themselves in positions of power throughout central-western Europe for centuries to come. The bevy of Berber loanwords in modern Italian, Romagni, and Upper German is generally attributed to the influence of the Magsen Berber ruling class in those areas.
Ivar V is a curious figure in Norse history. Ivar is the father of modern Norse Theology, and, to greatly simplify, was one of the first who did not consider nordic paganism and the viking lifestyle to necessarily be synonymous. He was also responsible for promoting worship of the Aesir over older gods like Ullr. On the other hand, when faced with the Second Christian Invasion (called by Pope John X in 1130), he was one of the norse world's most ardent defenders. One of his closest companions, Gorm of The Jomsvikings, described him as a man who could be moved to great action, but only by external force, as in his heart, he wanted for very little. This gave rise to some of Ivar's nicknames: The Calm, The Thoughtful, The Content. Of a notably different character than those given to many of his immediate ancestors, such as Halsten The Dragon. All this in context of course, by the standards of his enemies, Ivar was still quite ruthless.
The Second Christian Invasion or Second Crusade as it was once more commonly known, was the largest-scale military engagement in Europe since the fall of Rome. Some dozen different kingdoms and hundreds of smaller polities on the Christian side were involved. On the Nordic, the entirety of the Northurlander Empire came to the defense of, once again, France, which John X declared must be returned to Christian hands. Also present, though of less significance, were the forces of Oiva I of Suomi, and some of the minor nordic pagan orders in the kingdom of Vladimir. Aside from Ivar's own forces, crucial to the defense of Northurland were the armies of Bo The Merry, the Jarl of Mercia and, by Ivar's order, the regent for the Fylkir-Emperor as he campaigned in France. Contemporary sources credit the suspicion that the christians might try to invade the Bretish Isles to Ivar, though it is now believed to have been that of Bo, or of someone close to him. Regardless, the suspicions proved correct, as the Northurlanders who remained on the isles faced a large-scale invasion intending to push into Irland and then into England and Skotland.
Simultaneously, the Norsemen contended with incursions into Normandy and a rebellion by German Catholic Ehrenfried of Metz. The war ran for some eight years, ending at the Battle of Vannes.
Ironically, one of the few major Catholic polities of Europe at the time to not get involved was that of France itself, the still-substantial Catholic kingdom thereof, under the leadership of Bouchard The Confessor, was recovering from some twenty years of internal strife. The Parisian Crownlands, thus, were some of the few left mostly unaffected by the war.
Ivar's death marked the end of what is commonly known as the Ivaric Period, for the frequency of the name at the time, which would from here on out become more rare. The reign of Ivar's three immediate successors; Valdemar III, Ivar VI, and Jedvard Valdesson, would be marked by only a brief lull in the fighting. Indeed, the next nearly 50 years of Northurlander history would be defined by further clashes with Christendom, and by the breaking away of some of the empire's north and eastmost components even as the former Kingdoms of Leon and Galicia were added to the realm under the combined grand thanedom of Suthurfjoell.
Also of note: it is Ivar to whom the last Classical Norse runestone can be attributed. The Evrun Stone, so named for the French town in which it was erected, commemorates his victory in a battle there against the crusaders.
Coin minted during the reign of Folki II of Svithjod. Coins like this, marked with a Latin S, were more common in Folki's southern territories. Elsewhere, including in Sweden proper, they were marked with a Saewilo rune.
The Reign of the Jarls was a period in Northurlander history following the death of Fylkir-Emperor Valdemar IV. By this time, the succession of both the Fylkirate and the Empire had become strictly hereditary, passing from father to son. Valdemar's oldest son, Erik (see below), was only 8 years old when his father passed. As a result, the empire was effectively ruled by more local lords. Often the "Grand Jarls" who governed over large regions, as first created under Ivar III.
The most powerful of these were Folki II, the hereditary King of Svithjod (the only such Kingdom still permitted to exist in the empire), and Ingolf Flatnose, the Grand Jarl of Suthurfjoell in Northern Andalusia. Also of note was the Imperial Regent; Thorbjorn of Reval, or Torbir Pskovich, as he was known to the Russians he ruled, and the warchiefs of the increasingly-influential Jomsvikings; Sweyn The Bastard and his successor Rikulfr Spaki. (Indeed, the reign of Erik The Lame marked the point at which the Jomsvikings eclipsed the more traditional, less-knightlike Uilfurstríðsmenn as the most influential warrior order in Northurland.)
In general this period marked the start of a 200 year downturn in the central authority of the Fylkir-Emperors. Even as the Empire grew to nominally include scattered territories as far away as Italy, the practical temporal authority of the Emperor was often limited to the Bretish Isles--sometimes only as far as Irland itself--and no farther.
Erik The Lame or Eirikr Valdesson was Fylkir & Emperor of Northurland from 1201 until his death. Sometimes called the first modern Nordic Emperor, or, conversely, the Last Viking, Erik was the first Emperor since the foundation of the original Kingdom of The Isles to not also have a thorough education in frontline military matters. He was, in fact, not much of a soldier at all. His education instead came from his regent, the diplomat Thorbjorn of Reval, and as such Erik's skills lay more in organization and diplomacy than in warfare, a skill-set perhaps of greater importance in the increasingly fragmentary Northurland.
His minority was defined by the Reign of The Jarls, but not many years after he'd come to majority, Erik's authority was further challenged by his own brother, Valdemar Dúfan*. The War of The Brothers was fairly brief, lasting only about two years. Erik, known for his diplomacy and political acumen but still not widely respected by his more traditional warrior-king subjects, offered Valdemar up in sacrifice at the Blot of 1220, an act that inspired both a degree of respect and some amount of revulsion. Offering human sacrifice was the norm, offering one's kin could be seen as proof of true devotion, but offering one's own brother was near-unprecedented. It was enough toe secure the (sometimes begrudging) respect of the majority of Erik's vassals for the rest of his reign, though sadly that would not be particularly long. Shortly after his thirtieth birthday, the Fylkir-Emperor was poisoned, sending a shockwave through the Nordic world. The culprit was never caught in contemporary times, though historical research has pinned the blame on Kubrat The Mordvin, a trusted general of the Emperor's whose wife he had been indiscreet with.
Erik is the first Nordic Emperor who took a great deal of interest in histiography. A scholar in his employ, Oervar The Seer, is responsible for the first thorough, prose history of the Nordic peoples: The Saga of The Sons of Ivar, which, despite its epic, sweeping title, was a thorough, intellectual work that both laid the religious-legal basis for imperial authority. The Nordic Fylkir-Emperors, it contends, are both the mortal successors to and representatives of the Aesir's will on Earth, and their bulwarks against the Jotnar, as well as deriving further legitimacy from being the legal successors--by right of conquest--to the ancient kings of the Picts and Scots, chiefly Kenneth MacAilpin.
*meaning "Valdemar the Dove", or more figuratively, "Valdemar The Peaceful". Valdemar was raised by a Jomsviking commander and known for his blustery warrior's demeanor. The nickname was ironic, a tradition that appeared occasionally in Nordic names of the time going back as far as the dynastic founder of the Konungurhafsings, Ivar The 'Boneless', known for his virility.
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The Empire of The Riverlanders is the name applied (occasionally at the time, and in retrospect almost exclusively) to a large state that stretched from pre-cataclysm Illinois in the north, to Tennessee in the south, capitoled in Cairo, the empire had grown from the merging of two earlier nations, Chicagoland, and the larger but less prosperous Kingdom of Uppland. The Riverlander Emperors of the late 2900s primarily came from the Crockoone family, and it was under Yadkin I that they began to claim an imperial title--backed by the authority of the Second Catholic Pope in New Rome.
Kings of Ruthenia
'Ard al-Chammas, also called Chammasia, was a colony of the Mamluk Sultanate of Arabia, founded in 1585. The continent--also called Chammas--was named after its discoverer (from the Middle Eastern perspective at least), Shaik al-Mahmudi Chammas, also the man after whom the colony's capitol, Port Mahmudi, was named. Chammasia's colonization began as a natural outgrowth of the Sultanate's burgeoning activity in the Pacific, especially in the Mas'udines and Indonesia. The sparsely-populated continent, it was hoped, would hold untold riches. Gold, in fact, was found, near the initial landing point at Turrbal. This was all that was needed to start colonial fever. Hundreds, then thousands of Arabian subjects set out across over a dozen colonial expeditions. While gold discoveries were largely confined to the original mine at Turrbal, the colonists did make their fortune in other ways. Chiefly, through farming. Just a scant 3 decades after its foundation, Chammasia was providing grain, livestock, and more to much of the empire. Serving as a second breadbasket to compliment the already rich lands of the fertile crescent. This, in turn, enabled expeditions even further west. To the continent that the Europeans had come to call America.
One would be remiss to not also mention 'Ard Al-Chammas, known to Europeans as Chammasia, the "lost continent" that the Arabs control completely, along with its satellite islands--the large two that make up New Hormuz to the east, and the smaller New Socotra to the south.
The War of the Hungarian Succession was a war chiefly involving the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, The Archduchy of Austria, and the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Resignation of John III, and the following Dictatorship of the Sejm, was a turbulent time in Polish history. John III was a Polish noble but had been raised in Austria for much of his life. After the death of his predecessor August II, John III assumed the throne as a fairly popular candidate for monarch. This would not, however, last. John attempted to rule The Commonwealth in the Austrian fashion--largely by royal decree and without consulting the Sejm. When the Sejm attempted to further limit his power--beyond the degree already afforded by custom and law--he simply resigned the kingship, after barely a year in power, returning to his native Austria where he eventually became a bishop.
The King of Scandinavia, Erik VIII of the Skytte dynasty, had died without issue. His closest relative was his first cousin, Ferran III, the Emperor of Spain, whose own house (the de Scito dynasty) were a cadet branch of Erik's. This union united the two great Catholic powers of Europe, and thus, to every nation of any other faith, was unacceptable.
Tancred The Hammer, also known as The White Knight of The Outremer, was the third Prince of Antioch, as well as its first Emperor. Tancred was the first ruler of Antioch to assert his realm's long-term prospects in the region. Over the course of his reign, Antioch went from a minor principality, to the chief Catholic power in the region, and a major regional player in general.
Bohemond VI was Prince of Antioch and Emperor of The Levant from 1324 until his death. Following the long reign of the extremely popular Bohemond V, commonly nicknamed "The Iron", Bohemond VI would've had big shoes to fill in the best of circumstances. However, Bohemond had never been expected to inherit the throne. His father had reigned through the dark years of the Black Plague, being one of the few to catch the disease and survive. Bohemond's older brother, the former heir apparent, Prince Philip David, was not so lucky.
(1155-1160)
Valdemar II (also known as Valdemar Hamarkristni, lit. 'The Hammer of Christendom') was Fylkir of the North Sea Empire from 1075 until his death. Valdemar's tempestuous reign was defined by the twin disasters of the Black Plague and the First Crusade (known to the Norse as the Dauðurguðling Intrusion, though modern scholarship prefers the more neutral term of the "First Christian Invasion"). Little record exists of Valdemar's life before he inherited the throne from his father, Valdemar I. It seems likely that Valdemar was the first prince of Northurland to be groomed from a young age with the expectation that he would inherit the throne, as unlike his younger brothers Ivar The Lion-maned and Ormr Valdemarsson he was given no lands to rule when he reached majority. There is some evidence that he spent time in Ivar's court in Kurland, shadowing his brother and learning the art of rulership.