The Kuzari or the Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion [Alt-History Steppe AAR]

[Killcrazy13]

Tsar L’if and the Azovian Court

The Kuzari, full title Book of Refutation and Proof on Behalf of the Despised Religion (Arabic: كتاب الحجة والدليل في نصرة الدين الذليل: Kitâb al-ḥujja wa'l-dalîl fi naṣr al-dîn al-dhalîl), also known as the Book of the Kuzarites, was completed in the year 1140 AD at the peak of the Kuzari crusades into central Europe.

The book was written by the medieval Sephardi Jewish philosopher, Judah Halevi, and is one of the most important apologias of Jewish philosophy. While most of the essays are dedicated to Jewish thinking and religious traditions, it uses a literary device of a conversation between an unnamed legendary Kuzarite King and a Jewish Rabbi on the tenets of Judaism and the rabbi’s attempts to correct the King on astray Kuzarite practices such as the toleration of pagan practices, mystical kaballah rituals and the acceptance of adultery by the Azovian people. Setting aside the theological contents, the setting of the book is useful in illuminating the nature of the Azovian court.

Scholars speculate that the King in question is the Tsar L’if. A talented duelist in his youth and the embodiment of knez-hood, tales of the tall and handsome prince greatly enhanced the prestige and glamour of Tsaritsa’s court but behind that chivalrous demeanour was a man who was not used to being refused.

Tsaritsa Quna’s children, her sons L’if and Ezra and three daughters, Devorah, Sarah and Yigid enjoyed the best education that the riches of Azov could afford, and excelled at horse riding, hunting and Azovian courtly practices. While Quna was vicious with her enemies, she was lenient with her family. As they grew into adulthood, Ezra prepared to take on the traditional role of Nasi that the Kozar family had been practicing for generations while the daughters were given court duties. However, marriage was refused for them by the Tsaritsa who had seen the dangers of rival claimants and the support they could gather among unhappy lords during the reign of her father and during her ascension. She wanted to ensure that no such troubles would bother her heir, L’if.

Rumours soon spread in the court that the five siblings had carnal knowledge of each other. Azovians were still new to sedentary life and sex outside marriage did not have the same stigma that it carried in the Christian West. Kuzarite customs dictated that no child could be born a bastard and fornication was not a sin but when the first child of Sarah was born a dwarf, everyone knew it was a child of incest. It was not the last grandchild of sin for Quna and Sarah would bear four more children, with two more accursed with dwarfism. These are the grandchildren that Quna refused to ransom back from King Wezrej, though the Princes L’if and Ezra never claimed any of them as their own.

Spoiler: NSFW painting of Azovian court scene

Beyond the debauchery in the royal household, the court of Kiev played host to wild feasts and an embarrassment of decadent food from across the empire of the steppes. Courtiers would be found fornicating in side chambers and horses stormed through the feast hall. Christian monks maliciously reported that the Azovian people were horse breeders in more ways than one. While the stories out of Quna’s palace turned away the chaste and pious, it attracted many revelers and free spirits who gladly served the Tsaritsa in return for her patronage. Much of the colour described within the Kuzari fit with what we know of Quna's and L'if's imperial court and fit with the description of other visitors.

And so, we come to the reign of Tsar L’if who was a learned man but not a pious one. Upon his ascension, he ordered the dungeons to be cleared of his mother’s many prisoners of war as he intended to start his own collection. Ignoring the accusations of murder, sodomy, inebriety and incest, Tsar L’if had grand plans to build upon his mother’s legacy. What he should not have ignored are the many enemies he had made during his long prince-hood.

It was three years into his reign and he was leading one of the now annual raids into Byzantine territory when his enemies struck. The raiding force was deep inside Thrace and the Basileus had mobilized a force to stop it. Tsar L’if was out scouting with a small force when he was set upon. A single arrow in his eye laid the Tsar low and the Romans came upon the disorganized encampment and routed the leaderless Azovians, with only half of his 7,000 men making it back home.

He had only one true-born child, Princess Ulita, all of 15 years, now Tsaritsa of a sprawling empire forged by her grandmother, a treasury depleted by her father’s ambitions and a host shattered by a vengeful Basileus.

 

[HistoryDude]

Quna had a glorious reign and continued the process of creating a true state. Kiev is a good capital, although it does increase tensions with the Russians.

That was an interesting note about etymology and the modern day...

L'if didn't achieve anything. Let's hope that Ulita can achieve more glory...

Did L'if not realize that he had enemies? Was he simply too proud to acknowledge that he had them? How was he taken by surprise?

It seems as if not all Christians in Jewish lands like the Kuzarites. Will that lead to any schisms or intrafaith warfare?

 

[Killcrazy13]

@HistoryDude
Quna's reign was indeed glorious and Kiev will prove to be a mighty capital for the Tsardom of Azov. L'if's major flaw was believing himself infallible and invincible.

From an out of game POV, I never bothered to debug to find out who his killer was but the man had rivals within the Tsardom and without. He even had his older sister murdered for unknown reasons. The exposed traits were bad enough - Incestous, Sodomite and Drunkard. Not sure how long he could hold the throne if his other traits were revealed - Kinslayer, Murderer and Witch. I suspect it was either one of his siblings, his Grand Chancellor or the Byzantine Basileus.

The Kuzarite faith is going to discover both its crusading zeal and the makings of its own schism in the next century. The Northern Herem Wars will persist for a long time as the Kuzarites put the boot to Orthodox Russia but it's Central Europe that's going to be the battleground of Judaism and Christianity. The Azovians had internalized the Judaic belief that they were God's chosen people, separate and more deserving than the Jews who had broken thier convenant with god. Why else had they been able to defeat the Christians in battle and ruled in their own right, unlike the Israelites who lived and suffered under the thumb of their Christian overlords. The eternal war with Byzantium fed that religious zeal and it's almost become a motif for a Khan to die on campaign against the despised Greeks.

The Beni Kozar had effectively been the leaders of the Kuzarite faith as no formal priesthood had been established and the Khans preferring to do as they wished without a spiritual authority to deny them. They viewed themselves as the protector of pagan ways, across the steppe, Russia and Pannonia. This relative tolerance (Pluralistic and Syncretic Folk Traditions) encouraged many neighouring states to adopt Kuzarite practices slowly to help them more effectively control their lands while mollifying the clan chiefs who clung to the old ways. By the time Ulita had come to the throne, much of Tartaria was Kuzarite while westwards the Catholics had slowly been 'civilising' the Slavic tribes and bringing the gospel of Jesus with them. Only in Scandinavia was paganism still rampant, the fierce vikings would not give up their bloodthirsty ways even as they get left behind by the rest of the world.

All this would come to boil in Tsarita Ulita's reign and the corresponding fallout in decades after.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Tsaritsa Ulita the Lawgiver

The Tsaritsa Ulita would take to heart the lessons of her father and grandmother. Where they were wild and unrepressed spirits, she resolved that her reign would be just and righteous. She surrounded herself with respected Kohens and finalized the Pravda Azovskaya with revisions that fit her vision of the Tsardom.

Her early reign was troubled by restive vassals and a resurgent Byzantine Empire, eager to claim back prestige after losing Mesopotamia, Epirus and the Optimatoi theme over the last century. The easiest and most important to Constantinople was the Optimatoi and war was declared one year into her reign. Tsaritsa Ulita put up token resistance but knew she could not defend her holdings in the Bosphorus with a shattered and demoralized army. She had her loyal Greek vassal and his family evacuated to Kiev after the fall of Anadolukel and northern Bythinia and ceded the field to the rampant Romans.

With an empty treasury, she instead bought off the nobility through grants of titles and vassals, elevating the Grand Princes of Kerch, Khazaria, Turov and Itil to Khans, and defusing the brewing resentment that all rights to rule resided in the lap of a young girl. Professing an affinity to the steppe, she also restored the ancient Kurul-Tai of Khazaria where the horselords had a say in who would lead them, giving these new Khans and other powerful Grand Princes a right to declare who would wear the crown of Azov. The new laws of succession were written into the Halakha and the Pravda, forever a part of Azovian custom. With these gifts and the decentralization of power, the Tsaritsa bought stability and four grateful Khans for the rest of her reign but would have a dire consequences for her successors.

Having already been Bat Mitzvah three years previously, Ulita had the right to choose her own spouse. Cautious of the dangers of marriage with her vassals or dynasty, she sought a partner who would be her strong right arm but not a rival, marrying Gabor Arpad, a scion of the Arpads of Hungary 14 year her senior but who lacked land or claims of his own. Tsar Gabor would prove to be both loyal and loving, protective of the young Tsarina and an able Khagan that tutored her in the stratagems of warfare.

While the rout of the great Azovian raid in 1070 and the loss of the Optimatoi hurt her prestige, Ulita did not immediately press for was despite the bayings of her Khan. Her priority was the Pravda and the rebuilding of Azov’s strength. She issued new coinage, bearing her Tamgha or royal emblem in Tarmacic, now the lingua franca of the steppes, on one side and the seal of Solomon on the other. These initially high purity dinars weighed the same as the more famous nomisma of the Byzantines and were intended to replace the historically trusted coin in the ports of Kerch, Tmuratakan and other important trading centres of Azovia. However, gold shortages would prove to be recurring problems for the Tsardom and Ulita found it difficult to avoid a gradual debasement of her coinage.

Debased dinar bearing the seal of Solomon and Tamagh now worn off, early 12th century

Her newly minted Khans continued their wars of conquest, slowly expanding the borders East-, West- and North-wards but the Tsaritsa’s armies had their hands full with Varangian adventurers seeking their fortunes in the Crimea and around the Black Sea coast. Eventually, she settled on buying them off in order to focus her armies on her goals in the South. She believed that contesting the Bosphorus was impossible but the wide plains of the Danube valley could act as a breadbasket for the hungry empire and ensure Constantinople was within striking distance if a lesson needed to be taught to the haughty Greeks.

In 1101, the Tsaritsa raised her banners and marched into Moesia. It would take nearly three years of campaigning but in 1103, she would crush the core of the Byzantine army in a carefully planned ambush in the mountains of Sozopol. The mountain-bred Monaspan horsemen of Alania would prove decisive as the traditional Roman cataphract armored fist was negated in the terrain. The Battle of Sozopol was Tsarita’s revenge for her father’s defeat and the decisive factor in the Basileus’ surrender. It would take many years for Azov to quell the Christian Bulgarians but a clever campaign of propaganda by her Nasi, Yavdi, reminded the Bulgarians of their ancient steppe origins and slowly Moesia was brought into the empire and became the productive and prosperous province that Ulita had hoped for.

Unlike many of her ancestors, Ulita was devout in her beliefs and did not view the faith as an extension of her will. On her pilgrimage to the ancient and holy silk road city of Samarkand, she discussed the encroachment of Christianity, the collapse of Arpad power in Hungary and the blasphemic idolatry still prevalent in the steppes with her fellow pilgrims. Upon her return, she declared a Herem War against the Muslims of Soghd. It was both piety and opportunity that drove the decision as Seljuk power had faded, riven by constant internal dissension. The armies of Azov marched from Kiev, crossing the Black Sea, the Caucasus mountains and the Caspian. It was a gruelling journey and it’s said she lost a tenth of her force just in the march to the borders of Soghd. The war was shorter then the march had been and she shattered the Sogdian Emir’s army at Firabr. The banner of Azov was raised in Samarkand and the grateful rabbis travelled back with her to Kiev to witness the miracle of the Lord’s Kingdom on Earth. She had also summoned respected rabbi from Itil and Kerch and asked them to nominate who among them would make up the restored high priesthood of Judaism.

Nasi Rotislav would be the first Kohen Gadol of the Kuzarite faith and the newly established clergy urged the Tsaritsa to take a more militant stance against the heathens. Against her better judgement, she accepted their revisions to the Halakha and a more fundamentalist stance on religious matters. The era of crusades had finally arrived in the steppes...

 

[Killcrazy13]

The Great Holy War of Hungary & the Disillusionment of the Tsaritsa

The Sanhedrin of the Kuzarite Kohen Gadol was the body of rabbis or elders who now decided theological matters and the correct practices as listed in the Halakha, making decisions without consulting their Tsaritsa, claiming that a woman had no role in ecclesiastical matters. As a body, the Sanhedrin was more focused on returning to the practices of the old Kingdom of Israel, ignoring the steppe culture they hailed from. Ulita chafed at this division of authority but accepted it. The rabbis now agitated to proselytize their faith in the pagan lands around them and centered their fervor on the shattered kingdom of Hungary.

Hungary had been rent with internal divisions for the best part of the last two decades as the Arpad dynasty warred with itself and their Magyar boyars. When the kingdom collapsed in 1112AD, the Byzantines began scooping up the territories piecemeal. Nasi Rotislav declared that the Taltoist and Christians of Hungary had to be purified and the first Great Herem War was called. The Tsarina answered the call as expected of a devout Kuzarite but the war would leave its invisible scars on her psyche. Initially, the battles were fought in the traditional manner with the crusaders respecting the civilian populations but as the Byzantines mobilized their forces and an unexpectedly harsh winter set in, the fighting grew more desperate. Both sides began looting the small villages of Pannonia for food to replenish their diminishing supplies and the strong defence of the Romans angered the crusading Kanais who sacked and desecrated the simple churches they captured, and tortured their Christian prisoners of war.

The greater zeal of the Kuzarites told in the end but Christian sources put the defeat down to the Byzantine Empire being overstretched and having to fight wars on two fronts against the Seljuks and the Kuzarites. The Anointed Khanate of Hungary was founded and Princess Mariam, the Tsaritsa’s daughter crowned the new Khanum – a promise she squeezed out of the cornered Nasi.

The atrocities of this Great Herem disillusioned the Tsaritsa on future warfare and she would not march against any further enemies except in defence of her people. The reformed faith was not the benevolent and just faith she hoped it to be but a xenophobic and zealous faith dedicated to war and enacting the Lord’s vengeance on heathens.

Ruins of the Golden Gate of Kiev, circa 1960

For the remaining years of the great Tsaritsa’s life, she dedicated herself to great building programs and the enforcement of the newly introduced Pravda Azovskaya, now fully separate from the religious rulings of the Halakha. To reduce the presence of the Sanhedrin in her court, she built them a grand temple in the mountains of Wallachia, far to the south, bordering Roman lands. The Nasi Radoslav claimed it a poisoned gift, aware that the Roman armies lay just across the Danube. While she scattered her largesse around the empire, it was Kiev that saw the erection of the greatest works. The Perches’ka Lavra or the Monastery of the Caves would be a monastery owned and funded by the largesse of the crown, growing into an independent Judaic school famous for its collection of Christian, Jewish and Muslim treatises and in 1119, she began construction of the Golden Gate of Kiev, a grandiose structure marking the entrance of the now large and prosperous city of 60,000 souls.

The Tsaritsa would not live to see its completion, cast away to Sheol in 1124. She would be remembered for her piety, devotion to her subjects and the righteousness of her rule – in many ways the ideal Azovian Tsar, something not even her gender could deny.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Interlude – The World in the early 12th Century

It’s timely at this point for us to take a look at the geo-political situation outside of Azov and the steppes before we move forward in the historical record. By the end of Tsaritsa Ulita’s rule in 1124, a kind of status quo had been in place between Azov and its neighbours.

The most important of these are the Romans of Byzantium. The Empire had held together and still controlled most of the territories it had been limited to since the rise of Islam in the 7th century. Expansion into the Levant had been blocked by Seljuks who expelled them from Mesopotamia in the 1060s and constant border warfare continued between the empires in the Taurus and Cilician mountains. In the West, the Byzantines had annexed the old Roman province of Illyria though the native Slavs now resident there would prove to be source of constant dissent to the Basileus’ authority there. Relations between Constantinople and Kiev had grown progressively colder after the capture of Moesia and the Kuzarite crusade that expelled them from Hungary, and Basileus Kyros instructed his Ecumenical Patriarch to preach holy war against the accursed Jews. While these messages resonated with the citizens with increased incidents of forced conversions and lynchings against the Jews within the empire, the fervour for holy war in what they viewed as the wild and impoverished steppe lands remained low.

The Kuzarite faith had penetrated deep into Siberia and Tartaria and many of them looked to Azov and the Kohen Gadol for spiritual leadership, pledging nominal tribute to the Kiev but still engaging in raids across the border against the weaker marcher lords of Azov. Kiev was far away and the Tsaritsa found it increasingly difficult to protect all borders, accepting minor raids in the East and keeping her army in reserve for graver threats from Scandinavia and the Byzantines.

Norse adventurers still set sail on their longships down the great rivers of Russia, intent on claiming domains within the Tsardom. They were not an existential threat to Azov but Kuzarites always had to keep a reserve to deal, even when at war in the South and West.

With the Azovian presence in Soghd, the exchange of goods and ideas between Muslims and Jews had grown and some in Kiev talked of a grand alliance of the Star and Moon between Azov and Persia against the Christians. Nothing would come of it though and Seljuk might was already flagging in in the 1220s. What did happen was the introduction of Islamic thought and art into the court at Azov, giving rise to the unique architecture of the empire, marrying steppe, Greek and Islamic ideas into a syncretic whole. The Perches’ka Lavra would grow to become the greatest school of Judaic scholarship, rivalling Al’Azhar in Cairo and the House of Wisdom in Baghdad at attracting men of learning.

The Synagogue of Tmuratakan (left image, constructed in 1245AD) combines Christian iconography, Islamic architecture and Jewish Azovian sensibilities while the later Grand Temple of Itil (right image, constructed in 1380AD) displays the confidence of the Azovians in their own cultural arts.

In the east, the short-lived Holy Roman Empire (HRE) forged by Otto II had stretched from Brittany to Poland at its peak but electors refused to unify behind the Ludolfinger dynasty and it fell apart to warring factions in the 1170s. For much of the 10th and 11th century, Catholicism was on the defensive, and even the combined might of the HRE was unable to expel the Muslims from Italy and Hispania. Various popes in history attempted to organize crusades against the heathens but they almost all ended in defeat. In the 1180s, the sitting Pope Honorius III demanded the reclamation of Germany - a few small fiefdoms had fallen to the Kuzarite Kingdom of Polabia and the Pope viewed it as an easy and morale-bolstering war after the batterings by the Muslims in the previous four crusades.

Unfortunately, Honorius had miscalculated severely, The ruling Belenids of Polabia had allied themselves with Azovia and when the Tsaritsa marched to her ally’s defense, her knezs discovered new territories to conquer. Here in Europe, there were no great empires to fight, just a messy collection of warring counts and duchies. The Catholics were defeated and the Kuzarites accepted the open invitation for revenge and conquest in the 12th century.

The stage was set for the most momentous events in Azovian history since its founding by Otemis I in the 9th century.

 

[HistoryDude]

Ulita had a successful reign, defeating the Byzantines, although she did give too much power to her vassals.

Speaking of which, the Byzantines are surprisingly successful given that they keep getting attacked by the Kuzars. Interestingly, rhe HRE was a dismal failure, which the Byzantines probably like.

I wonder when Kuzaria will collapse...

 

[Killcrazy13]

Those wars with the Byzantines are often gruelling affairs. The much greater wealth of the Greeks make it difficult to press claims on their territories. While the Tsardom looks huge on the map, much of it is empty steppelands. The Greeks have better supplies of metals, a larger pool of manpower to call upon and strong forts that make any wars of conquest difficult for the technologically backwards Azovians. The Tsars often strike when there's turmoil in Constantinople or if the Basileus is engaged in another war, preferably against the Seljuks, and then dig in to deter any Byzantine retaliation.

Out of game, the images of the temples in the previous post is AI art done by Dall-e. Some of the images in my previous posts were from the same source. Quite impressed by its ability to create suitable imagery to support the needs of this alt-history AAR.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Tsar Manar the Boundless

Prince Manar was the third child of Tsaritsa Ulita born near the end of her fertile years and only her second child to survive to adulthood. The Tsaritsa had little time to devote to growing the dynasty, prioritizing the demands of empire. None of her children displayed the vitality and energy of previous Khans and some in court wondered if the line would end with her, or even worse having to put the corrupt and incestuous progeny of Tsar L’if’s siblings on the throne.

Princess Mariam and Prince Simeon were sired by Tsar Gabor. When Simeon died from consumption at 7 years old, and no other male heir born to Ulita, the crown was expected to pass to Princess Mariam. Tsar Gabor died when Ulita was 40 and though unlikely, the Sanhedrin urged the Tsaritsa to marry again and to try for another heir. She took as her royal consort, her most loyal Knez, Vladimir of Chornobyl. It was a vain hope but the marriage proved fruitful and the future Tsar Manar was born when the Ulita was 43 years old. He was a sickly child, just like his siblings and much attention was doted on him, a regular diet of volga honey and strict care whenever he fell ill saw him reach adulthood and ready to receive the Tsardom when the Ulita passed on.

The Tsaritsa could not reconcile the old testament faith of the Kuzarite Sanhedrin with her own beliefs of what a good and just ruler had to be, and that shaped the character of Manar immensely. With his mother spending more time in Kiev, Manar engaged her in many conversations on matters of theology and rulership, shaping his later cynical manipulation of religion in service of the state. But Manar was generous and got on well with the various Khans and Grand Princes that made up the conglomerated Azovian Tsardom. At the first Kurultai of Azov, he was universally acclaimed as the only possible candidate to be the next Tsar, establishing the precedent that only members of the imperial family or strong claimants could lay claim to the Tsardom.

Upon his coronation, he rewarded his most powerful vassals with great gifts for their oaths of fealty and obedience and gave them leave to manage their own affairs as long as they fulfilled their vassal obligations. Throughout his reign, the Khans often negotiated for the reduction of these obligations and the Tsar obliged, believing the well of plenty would never run dry. Manar would spend and spend, content to let his vassals wage war against the non-believers while he enjoyed the comforts of Kiev. Feasts at the Qunaskayii ,as the imperial palace became to be called, were grand affairs and they were bounteous as they were frequent. Imperial largesse extended to the Chowgans where steppe martial traditions were practiced and the grand hunts where his retinue hunted tigers and bears in the Don Valley and Caspian Steppes. The Kievan court was embellished to become the rival of Constantinople and Baghdad with finery, entertainment and servants that increased the prestige of the Tsardom.

The Tsardom at its zenith

After the failed Catholic crusade against Polabia, his vassals began to return to the battlefields of Europe. Over his reign, new Khanates would be founded in Poland, Moldavia, Vladimir and Wallachia and near the end of his reign, even in distant Transoxiana , all swearing fealty to Kiev while Polabia and Moravia would be independent Kuzarite states. Hungary had been integrated into the Empire when Khanum Mariam, the Tsar’s sister passed away at the age of 47. He declared Hungary would be a protectorate till the Khanum’s grandchild (and heir) attained his majority and he duly returned the crown but retained overlordship when the boy, Igor, was 18.

The Byzantines were content to focus on their Eastern front, eager to make territorial gains amid collapsing Seljuk authority so the reign of Tsar Manar was one of peace within the imperial heartlands.

The major conflict of Manar’s reign would be religious in nature. A cynical man, Manar would attempt to curtail the power of the Kuzarite Kohen Gadol, revoking land granted to them by his mother. The Sanhedrin had become a vicious and covetous body, finally enjoying earthly pleasures denied them so long, not just the spiritual rewards of their forebears. They were enraged at the curtailing of their power and begin to whisper to any willing Khan about the unfitness of the Tsar to rule. Two inciting incidents would rupture the unity of Kuzarite Judaism.

The first one was Great Herem War to remove Muslims from Jerusalem. The Nasi Discheshu called for all Khans to answer the call and Tsar, the great defender of Judaism, knew he could not refuse the call but he was growing increasingly aware that his profligate ways were impacting his finances and he did not feel any zeal to claim back the Kingdom of Israel, a land he only knew from religious text and legends.

Still, he raised a force of his household soldiers and sailed for the holy land alongside thousands of other would-be warriors of the faith or Kanai. The war would be disastrous for the Kuzarite faithful, 30,000 sailed but only a third of that number would return home. The Tsar himself would see the destruction of his army almost down to the last man. He himself only escaped by ditching his armour and diving into a nearby river. Recriminations were vehement within Azovia and the Tsar demanded more clerical land from the Kohen Gadol to house the widows of the war. The sitting Nasi Dichescu, a scion of Beni Kozar chose to step down after the war and was replaced by Nasi Bulan, after the Sanhedrin blamed him for the war and for giving into to the head of his house.

The second incident arose out of the consequences of the first. Nasi Bulan was common-born, his selection a reaction to the supposed corrupting influence of the nobility within the Kohen Gadol. In 1151, 2 years after the Great Herem War, a plot came to light that the Nasi was planning to kill the Tsar and this made Manar resolve to break with the worldly high priesthood and take control of their holdings. Of course, the collections of the synagogue would also be used directly for the benefit of the people and no one would fault him if a little went to the maintenance of the Azovian court.

He had scholars dig up the records of the consecration of Otemis I more than two centuries ago and declared that through with the blessing of Yahweh on his bloodline, the piety of his mother, the Beni Kozar’s shepherding of the chosen Azovian people and a lineage that could be traced back to Togarmah of the Tanukh, the great Tsar would take on the earthly duty of Nasi and be the protector of Judaism forever more.

In June 1153, he was anointed in grand ceremony in Kiev. Many of his vassals, loyal to the coin he shared freely pledged allegiance to Manar as their head of faith but the newly landed Kanai Khans of East and West refused to recognize his legitimacy. The Khanates of Hungary, Galicia-Volhynia and Transoxiana broke with Kiev and the Tsar recognizing he did not have the coin to fight a multi-front rebellion, released them cursing their disloyalty.

The Divinely Chosen Tsar had truly let the genie out of the bottle. While his revisions were aimed at ameliorating the more zealous aspects of the Kuzarite faith, some, especially within the Perches’ka Lavra felt this revision of doctrine, Otemic in honour of the founding father of Grand Azovia, did not go far enough.

A Lavran monk by the name of Dmitri Vsevolodich began to preach against the intrigues of temple and state, preaching that the faithful had forgotten the roots of their faith. Reminding his audience of the tolerance of the steppe, and merging it with kabbalistic practices, he began to build a following that grew larger by the day. His message resonated with the urbanites of Kiev who felt spiritually adrift amidst the stresses of city life. Mystical practices and nostalgia for the supposed simpler life on the grass sea appealed to many young men and women. Among them was Prince Otemis, the oldest son of Manar. There was now another sect of Judaism fighting for the hearts and minds of Azovia – Hasidism.

Tsar Manar continued the policy of reducing imperial power to appease the nobility that his mother had begun. His domains would be split among his four sons. Otemis would take the crown of Ruthenia, Ezra would be given the southern Khanate of Wallachia, Aristarkh would be Khan in North from his seat in Vladimir and the Khanate of Azov and the Tsardom itself would pass to Simeon, trained to be effective spiritual and temporal leader. Much coin and many oaths were shared to ensure this succession would be peaceful. He made his sons swear loyalty and eternal friendship to each other.

It can be said that fate will curse the best laid plans of mice and men. Khan Simeon, safely ensconced in the traditional seat of Azovian power, Tmuratakan was decapitated one night by insane Otemic extremists who broke into the palace claiming they were looking for the head of the first Otemis. When the news reached Kiev, the Holy Tsar was both aghast and horrified. The death of his favourite seemed to break Manar and it’s said he aged ten years in a single night. In a month, he would be found dead in his bed, a grief-stricken expression frozen on his face. He was 75, having ruled for 49 years amidst frequent bouts of ill-health and seen the both the growth and contraction of Tsardom.

There had been no decision made on the succession of the Tsardom with the death of Simeon and the Khans were eager to weaken the dominance of the throne. Only three legitimate candidates were eligible at the Kurultai of 1173AD. The Khans opted for Aristarkh far in the North to be the new Tsar and Nasi of the Otemic faithful, hoping to keep imperial power far away and give free reign to their ambitions. Otemis was not an option with his heretical beliefs in Hasidism and Ezra’s paranoia of the Byzantine threat worried the Khans that he would restart the Greek wars again.

The next twenty years would be known as the time of troubles as brother fought brother and families tore themselves apart in the frenzy of religious fanaticism.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Realized that I made a mistake in my names, any time I type out Orestes, it should have been Otemis. (Orestes was from a different campaign) I've cleaned it up and caught most of the errors but do let me know if I missed any.

I'm currently two heirs down the line from Manar but that last line about 20 years of troubles probably needs to be revised. It's 1216 AD and it's just been non-stop crisis after crisis. Let's just say the Greatest of Khans just entered stage right.

I probably won't update till next week so I wanted to take this opportunity to request for feedback on what works and what doesn't. What makes historical record AARs like this one interesting to you readers and where are the areas I could improve?

 

[HistoryDude]

Kuzar was large, but it looks like dividing the khanates is somewhat unwise.

A Jewish Reformation? That's interesting. Is this meant to parallel the situation in England in OTL, or is that a coincidence?

The AAR is fine as it is in my opinion.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Kuzar was large, but it looks like dividing the khanates is somewhat unwise.

A Jewish Reformation? That's interesting. Is this meant to parallel the situation in England in OTL, or is that a coincidence?

The AAR is fine as it is in my opinion.

From a gameplay perspective, partition sucks. One of the issues of playing in the steppes is that your development is very low compared to places like Mesopotamia, Byzantium and Italy. Even with the Kerch holy site bonus, most of Azovia is around 8-12 development. Only the Crimea, the Duchy of Azov and Kiev have significant development. It really hurts your innovation speed and I have a mod that reduces tech speed by 50% so you'll find Azovia is behind most of the other great civilizations and slower tech-wise than you would experience in a normal game. Makes your research decisions more impactful and slows down the progress to the late game easy-mode where you have powerful techs like primogeniture and immense domains under your control.

It would be completely out of character for Tsar Manar to not ensure each of his sons received something. If it all went to plan, Tsar Simeon would rule from Tmuratakan, being able to call upon the rich provinces of Azovia. Unfortunately the succession was botched when Simeon died due to the Cultist event where they break in to find a rolling head. The royal election went with Aristarkh and made a mess of centralized control in Azovia.

The religious reformations were logical results of Kuzarite ascendency. We have a steppe people that had only just taken on feudal practices - always a work in progress in such wild lands and a Tsar who needed money (Generous & Profligate traits). It made sense he would want to claim the wealth of the synagogues for himself, especially since most of them were located in the crownlands and surrounding counties. Hasidism was a reaction to both the fundamentalist orthodox Kuzarites and the elevation of the Kozar family. The Lavran monks who started Hasidism were mostly made up of steppe natives under the patronage of the Tsars. While Ulita was pious and concerned with theological matters, the cynical Manas was content to leave the Lavrans to their debates. Scholars with too much time on their hands and given free reign to explore ideas are bound to touch on things their patrons will not approve of.

Some of the ideas came out of ancient era Judaism where the kings were often chosen by god as well as the imperial cult of the Roman empire which was supposed to unify a realm that had grown and absorbed many different cultures. Hasidism was inspired by the Ibadis of Islam who sought a more moderate approach - it would also reflect a pluralism that steppe tolerance encouraged. Happy coincidence of Otemic Judaism and the Anglican church - both were kicked off by someone who needed something from the church.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Nasi Aristarkh the Dung Named and the Brothers’ War

The death of Nasi Manar ignited the tinderbox that was Azovia. Hasidism had spread in the richer regions along the Dnipro and the Don and on the Crimean coast while the Khans and Knezs agitated for donatives from Aristarkh, just like they had received upon Manar’s ascension. The throne proved resistant to such demands; aware the treasury was empty after the profligate ways of Tsar Manar.

Nasi Aristarkh (centre) with his brothers Khan Otemis (left) and Khan Ezra (right)

The first initial test of the blood bonds between Nasi Aristarkh, Khan Otemis of Azov and Khan Ezra of Wallachia was when the Khan of Caspia rebelled against the high taxation exacted by the court in Vladimir. Aristarkh’s siblings supported their Tsar in the war, and a tentative peace was restored for the next two years.

Jewish fragmentation in Eastern Europe and Azovia circa 1180AD. Otemic is the dominant faith of Azovia with hostile Kuzarite faiths to the East and West.

However, the firebrand Hasidic preacher Dmitry Vsevolodich in Kiev agitated for greater proselytization of the faith among the peasants and farmlands of wider Azovia, demanding that the true word of God be propagated beyond the elites of the city. Khan Otemis IV of Azovia knew this would trigger the ire of his brother in Vladimir, as it would go against precepts of the imperial faith established by their father. Justifying his rebellion with claims of religious freedom, becoming the first heresiarch of Azovia and the first Khan to break an oath of eternal friendship within the Tsardom.

The war would rage for six long years as factions continuously shifted within the Tsardom. The Khans supported one brother or the other depending on the nature of the war. Khan Otemis could count on the wealth and taxes of Kiev and the coastal cities of Azovia while Tsar Aristarkh leveraged his role as the Otemic Nasi to call his fellow dynastic Khans in Hungary, Polabia and Khorasan to come to his aid. Much of the fighting was centralized in the steppes of the Levedia and Don Valley, and the forests of Mordvinia. Aristarkh’s forces were larger but more spread out while he found it difficult to pay the imperial army he inherited from his father. Khan Otemis was a gifted war leader, and he kept his army mobile, always looking to strike at any forces he could find before they could all rally around the Tsar. Unfortunately, Khan Otemis IV would never see himself crowned Tsar. He was slain in battle in 1178 and his son Yaroslav was forced to continue the war in his father's name, knowing that Aristarkh would be far more vengeful against a nephew than a brother in victory.

In 1180, Yaroslav shattered the last great host Aristarkh had assembled and Aristarkh was forced to abdicate in favor of his nephew. Azovia would not be a theocracy and power was returned to Kiev. Thus began the rule of Tsar Yaroslav, and his reign would be both magnificent and tragic.

Nasi Aristarkh would often become a target of vitriol of the ascendant Hasidics, cursed for tyranny and megalomania, though modern historians reject his epithet of the dung named as unfair and as attempts to assassinate the character of the Nasi. The Otemic faith would persist in Northern Rus for centuries from the Nasi's seat in Vladimir, continuing the herem wars against orthodoxy and the Norse Asatru while the Hasidic faithful were focused on matters in the south. He would rule wisely for another three decades before passing into Sheol. The office of the Otemic Nasi would be inherited by lineage for another century before being renounced by Nasi Aristarhk's great great grandchild, Hebizh 'the Young' in the year 1267AD.

 

[HistoryDude]

The religious wars look like they're only just beginning...

 

[Killcrazy13]

Tsar Yaroslav the Sword of God

Tsar Yaroslav was the first Tsar to be named in the Slavic style and his reign is often considered to be the start of the high medieval era in Azovia and the evolution of the Tsardom into a Great Power, fully invested in the feuds of Islam and Christianity.

However, Yaroslav had to first pick up the pieces of a shattered Azovia, devastated by civil war and the harsh winters of 1183 and 1185. Famine spread across the land and the dead in Kiev was piled high as the Tsar struggled to feed a city of a 100,000 people. With food scarce, coin shortages affecting the treasury and a country to rebuild, Yaroslav was in no position to refuse when Nasi Aristarkh and several other northern lords in Mordvinia and Caspia demanded their independence. Already reduced from the heights of Tsaritsa Ulita and Manar’s reign, Yaroslav’s empire now only encompassed the core territories forged by Tsaritsa Quna’s and the restive Balkan holdings in Bulgaria and Wallachia.

In Wallachia, his uncle Khan Ezra still stewed about the throne Azov he believed was rightfully his and in an act of desperation, attempted to kill Yaroslav in front of his own court. The attempt was foiled and the Khan was blinded for his offense, starting a blood feud between the thrones of Wallachia and Azov before being ended by Sibel, the Tsar’s daughter.

In 1186, worse was to come as the Kuzarite Sanhedrin, still stung by the betrayal of Yaroslav’s grandfather, Manar, declared a crusade for Azov, intent on reclaiming the holy site of Kerch from the Hasidic heresy. Yaroslav and his religious advisor Dmitry rallied the soldiers of Kiev and Azov to defend their home, exhorting them to courage as the Kuzarite vengeance would be great if they ever claimed the cities and lands of Azov. In a series of magnificent victories, the armies of the Tsardom threw back the Kuzarites from Kerch and the Crimea. The death toll would be tremendous as neither side would give quarter and the fighting was savage. At the end of the crusade, Yaroslav’s army was reduced to just 6,000 battle hardened veterans, as more than half lost their lives in the Black Sea peninsular. These veterans would form the backbone of the Tsar’s army for the next three decades and would become as legendary as the Spartan of Thermopylae or the Silver Shields of Alexander. Most would die fighting in Yaroslav’s wars but the few who managed to retire were gifted land in Levedia and a stipend for the rest of their lives. They would be hailed as the Fellowship of the Tsars or the Tsar’s Druzhina and the tradition of an elite professional guard would be maintained on after Yaroslav’s death.

Dmitry Vsevolodich, the founder of Hasidism was now in his late fifties and spoke to Yaroslav about the need to give structure to the burgeoning Hasidic faith amid the religious schisms and ongoing herems within Azovian communities. He proposed a new Sanhedrin and Nasi for Hasidism but mollified Yaroslav’s misgivings by insisting that the leadership’s focus would be on spiritual matters. All temple holdings would still be under the control of the Tsar. In 1189, the Hasidic Sanhedrin convened for the first time in Kiev and chose Dmitry as their first Nasi. With a clear ecclesiastical structure in place, rabbis were dispatched to the four corners of Azovia to convert the faithful from the priest king practices of Otemic and the intolerant practices of the Kuzarites.

While Judaism struggled within itself, an existential threat was growing in the East. In Mongolia, a warlord named Temujin had unified the Tengri tribes and unified them into a massive horde. Reports of their brutality and slaughter worried the Azovians and they prayed that this Great Khan would die before ever reaching Azovia. This proved to be a vain hope and in 1190, the Great Khan declared Azovia his.

This Great Mongol Invasion would last for 12 years. Even with all of Azovia mobilized to the threat, they could not match the size of the Khan’s armies. It was in this war that the legend of Yaroslav was sealed. The Tsar would win 27 battles against the Khan’s armies, drawing the hordes into the steppes of Azovia before striking at them with his more heavily armoured cavalry. Itil, Derbent and much of Ciscaucia and Caspia would be left smoking ruins amidst the constantly shifting war front. The armies of the Khan were a mix of light calvary and horse archers while the Tsar’s Sipahi lancers and newly formed Druzhina was the mailed fist that would drive a devasting charge supported by archer calvary. Many of these battles would be referenced in military codexes for the next century on the art of horse-mounted warfare. In the end, neither side could claim victory as the Great Khan’s reserves of manpower proved inexhaustible while unable to penetrate beyond Caspia and Caucasia or defeat Yaroslav in battle. Eventually, the Great Khan ordered his armies home in search of softer targets but promised to return.

Tsar was feted upon his return to Kiev, the hero who stopped the Mongols when the Muslims and Kuzarites of the East had failed. Still handsome in his forties, the decade on campaign had added a grizzled ruggedness to the Tsar and the prestige he gained ensured no Khan or Grand Prince would challenge his rulership again.


The Final War

In 1212, the matter of Bulgaria came into focus for both Azov and Byzantium. Yaroslav had married his oldest daughter, Sibel to Dux German of Moesia and their child, Yaroslav, had succeeded his father after German had been died under mysterious circumstances. Sibel claimed Byzantine agents were behind it. Dux Yaroslav also had a claim to the Duchy of Bulgaria. Combined with persistent raids by the Basileus while the Tsar was engaged at war with the Mongols, the situation was fragile.

The Holy War for the Kingdom for Bulgaria would be the last war fought between the Greeks and Azov. The Empires of Azov and Rome would both meet their ends in the decades after, after suffering fatal wounds from the outcomes of this war. The struggle would last another 6 years before Tsar Yaroslav could claim victory. Both armies were exhausted by the war and much of Bulgaria was a wasteland. However, the Tsar had won the biggest victory of his or any of his ancestors’ lives against their great enemy. The lands of Bulgaria was divided among Princess Sibel’s children but the Tsar would not have a chance to deal with the Greek nobility still holding on to territory within his domain – the Mongols had returned.

The Great Khan Returns

Temujin had passed on but the Mongol lords recognized his son, Jochi, as their next Great Khan. In 1219, his armies marched into Azovia again to avenge his father and claim victory over the ‘invincible Tsar of the Jews’. By now, Tsar Yaroslav was old and wizened and he brought his son and heir Manar on campaign with him, intending to teach the young man the art of war and rulership on the steppe. It was an ill-fated decision.

Yaroslav knew that he might not live to see the end of the war if it was as long as the last one and he did not intend to hand a realm at war to his son. So, as the Khan was gathering his army, the Tsar made a daring strike at the rendezvous point of the Mongolian horde. It was a slaughter, 14,000 men stood for the Tsar that morning but only 8,000 would make it to Azov to recover. Among the dead was Manas, the Tsar’s only son and heir. With no more eligible male heirs left, the Khans of Azovia would have to choose Fedot, the Tsar’s brother, according to Azovian Kurultai traditions, but he was captured in the battle and held by Jochi. The war had become truly existential for the survival of both Azov and the line of Yaroslav. It took Yaroslav some time to rebuild his forces but again, he was forced to use the tactics of the first war, ceding the cities of Eastern Azov and hunting the Mongolian army once their supply lines grew strained. Throughout the campaign, the Tsar grew increasingly irritable and turned to the bottle to help him cope with the stress and loss he was feeling.

Twelve long years the war would last and the legend of the Tsar continued to grow. He never lost another battle again after the defeat at Manatau, no matter how drunk or isolated he made himself. Some say the Druzhina functioned like clockwork and the battles could run themselves but the Tsar’s bodyguard’s insisted the Tsar led from the front and it was he who exhorted them to the greatest feats. In 1231, the war ended with the death of Jochi. The Mongolian horselords could not agree on who would succeed them and broke up into the successor Khanates of Chagatai, Mongolia, the Ilkhanate and bordering Azov, the Golden Horde.


The Tsar returned to Kiev to great fanfare but he would not take part in any of the celebrations. His first act after the victory parade was to call a Kurultai to decide the succession. He demanded that his oldest daughter, Sibel, should succeed him but the Khans found their old insurbodinate spirit and claimed that a woman could not lead them, ignoring the examples of Quna and Ulita. Fedot, his brother, would be the new Tsar – of course, it was convenient that Fedot did not hold much land and was more concerned with scholarship and his writings. A weak Tsar who would let the Khans do as they please suited all in attendance except Yaroslav.

Broken by the long wars, the death of his heir and the stubborn insubordination of his Khans, the Tsar tried to take his own life but was foiled by his loyal Druzhina. Despite this failure, the Tsar’s health was poor and he was not long for the world. The alcoholism and trauma of a lifetime of war saw him meet his end in 1232AD. He had ruled for 53 years but spent only a handful of them at peace.

The Great Tsar Yaroslav, the Sword of God, the Protector of Azov had ensured the Azovian way of life would continue and he is venerated to this day. His battle stratagems would find their way into Islamic and Greek military manuals and his record of 67 victories and one defeat is only bettered by Alexander the Great. It's a sore point to the Azovian people that he is not considered part of the Nine Worthies identified by Jacques de Longuyon in his seminal work, Voeux du Paon (1312). His grace in battle was legendary and there would not be a war leader like him for some time to come.

 

[HistoryDude]

I fear that the Mongols will be a threat again... and with the realm as divided as it is, victory will be far more difficult.

What happened to Byzantium? Did it just collapse into civil war?

 

[Killcrazy13]

I fear that the Mongols will be a threat again... and with the realm as divided as it is, victory will be far more difficult.

What happened to Byzantium? Did it just collapse into civil war?

Luckily, with the horde broken up into different Khanates, they no longer had the men to challenge Azov. It still didn't stop the Borjign of Temujin's bloodline from continuing a blood feud. If they couldn't take Azov by the sword, they would do their best to destroy the Tsardom with the dagger. Several prominent members of the Kozar dynasty would be assassinated and Tengri worshippers and Eastern Steppe visitors would be increasingly unwelcomed in the courts of Azovia, each a potential spy or assassin.

I'll keep you in suspense on the fate of Byzantium for a little while more. We've got a couple of short Tsar reigns to cover before we take another look at the world.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Tsar Fedot

Tsar Fedot’s rule would be short but he would prove a steady hand for an empire still recovering from the Kuzarite crusades and the Mongol invasion. He was already 68 when he came to the throne and would rule for another 10 years.

His control on his vassals was limited as his inheritance included some lands within the Duchy of Kiev and Turov but not the imperial capital and the crownlands – all those passed to Khanum Sibel, Yaroslav’s oldest daughter. The Tsar was forced to lean on Sibel and other vassals’ support and donations to pay for the imperial army of Yaroslav. Despite this, there was continual reduction in the Tsar’s Druzhina. By end of his reign, the professional army was only a quarter of what it had been during Yaroslav’s reign.

It would be a relatively uneventful reign for the Tsar personally. He was more interested in matters of scholarship and a pastime in swordsmanship, a hobby he maintained till death took him. He would fend off the occasional Norse invasion but would try for no further expansion of the realm, aware of the limitations of his authority and his treasury.

The central concern of his reign would be the “Bulgarian Inheritance”. Yaroslav had claimed the Bulgar state on behalf of his daughter, Sibel and her children. Yaroslav’s grandson, also named Yaroslav sat in control of the region, defacto Khan of Bulgaria while his mother held the dejure title. Styling himself Yaroslav II, he agitated for the support in the Tsardom, claiming that Fedot had stolen his birthright and that the Tsar in his seat at Zyvahel ignored the incursions of the increasingly aggressive Christians of the South. Combined, his army and Khanum Sibel’s army more than matched Fedot’s.

Where we had last left the Byzantines, they were recovering from the horrific losses they had taken against Azov. The Basileus, Sabbatios Agelastos, sent a request for aid against the accursed steppe Jews to the Pope. This message would re-ignite the fervor of the Catholics. They had grown weary of their efforts against the Muslims, having lost the crusades for Italy, Hispania and Jerusalem. Now, they saw an opportunity to claim back Christendom from a weaker foe, lacking the supposed sophistication and quality of arms of the Jihadis. The promise of rich rewards from the haughty Greeks was a strong consideration too. The 8th Crusade, to reclaim the Christian Kingdom of Bulgaria set forth from Venice on 1220AD. The Byzantines expected it to be over quickly with the Tsar engaged with the Mongols in the East. However, the Venetians who had transported the crusader expected to be paid for their efforts, but the Basileus’s coffers were dry. He had expected the Pope to support him with gold and mercenaries, not hungry ambitious men with noble titles and little land. 30,000 crusaders found themselves surrounded by unfriendly Greeks, with their lords demanding payment and ironclad promises of land grants after victory. The Basileus vacillated as he sought a solution to get these men off Roman territory and put off the demands of the Venetians. We have no credible sources for igniting incident but on 5 April 1221, the crusaders attacked the Byzantines within Constantinople. The city was sacked and the Basileus was murdered. Most blame the Venetians for pushing the crusaders over the edge, in their eagerness to collect their ducats.

1221 is the date most historians use to mark the end of Byzantium and the Roman Empire. Near 900 years of rule from Constantinople was over. The Empire fractured into multiple successor states in Nicaea, Trebizond, Serbia and Croatia while the crusaders established their “Latin Empire” in Constantinople and Thessalonika.

Yaroslav II demanded Fedot stop the raids from the Latin Empire as he eyed an opportunity to capture the great city of the Greeks. Sibel’s children had increasingly begun to identify with their Bulgarian subjects, enjoying the imperial traditions in the lands they now ruled, adopting a haughty superiority over the supposed country manners of Azovia. They even started their own Royal House, Yaros, breaking from the Beni Kozar and placing Tsar Yaroslav the Sword of God, as the founder of their House.

Yaroslav II would be killed by the Mongols but his brother and successor, Hemat, urged their mother to claim the Tsardom she had been so cruelly denied by the Jewish patriarchy. Tsar Fedot bought her loyalty by granting her the Khanate of Azov while he retained the Tsardom for himself and many expected the matter of succession would fade away as the claimants grew older and and would eventually pass on to Olam Haba, and this seemed to be the case as Tsar Fedot would rule peacefully for 10 years.

Fate had other plans. Tsar Fedot’s son, Otemis, was acclaimed Tsar Otemis V, in September 1242 and his reign looked to be one of renewed vigour for the Empire of the Grass and Poisoned Sea. He would be found dead in his bedchamber three months later. The primary sources of that time claim the Cult of Otemis was behind this decapitation, and it bore all the same hallmarks of the death of Khan Simeon, Otemis V’s great grand uncle a century ago, which led to the Brother's War but suspicion fell on the Yaros family and the cunning and feared Sibel.

The Kurultai of 1243 chose Count Marko as the next Tsar. He was of a modest line within the Beni Kozar dynasty with only a single holding to his name. Everyone recognized the mockery the Khans had made of the imperial title. The Khans had no intent to bow to any future Tsars and wanted to rule without fear of any central power.

Tsar Marko would formally dissolve the Tsardom within a year, shattering the Azovian empire founded by Tsaritsa Quna of the Kozar dynasty 180 years ago.

A map showing the shattered successor states of the Azovian and Byzantine empires. In Azov, the single largest holding was held by Khanum Sibel who held the crowns of the Kingdoms of Azov, Ruthenia and Bulgaria while the Khans of Crimea, Caucasia, Caspia, Wallachia, Moldavia and Galicia Volhynia enjoyed their independence.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Interlude – The Collapse of Empires in the 13th Century

The 13th century would prove to be tumultuous. By 1244, the Empires of Byzantium, Azov, Seljuk and Fatimids that dominated their respective regions had all collapsed due to new invaders or internal dissension. The short-lived Mongol Empire had broken up into smaller khanates which would not last more than a couple of decades.

Judaism had become the dominant faith of the steppes and the north, with the faithful forming the majorities in cities and tribes stretching from Novgorod to far eastern Kipchakia.

The struggle for Italy would intensify as the Christians attempted the Reconquista of the peninsular. Unfortunately, it would be stymied by Venetian mercantile interest, who played both sides off for their own interests.

The lands of East Germany and Poland continued to be the battleground of Judaism and Christianity but the followers of Jesus were slowly gaining ground year by year pushing back against Kuzarite Bohemia and Polabia.

In the lands of distant India, the Maturidi conquerors of House Ghurid would capitalize on the lack of central power in Central Asia. In the next decades, it would expand north and westwards, and the Greek Christians, Azovian Jews and Egyptian Shi’ites worried that another global conqueror in the mould of Temujin had arisen.

The next hundred years would see new great powers arise. In the steppes, our narrative will centre on Sibel and House Yaros as they strive to build a new empire in the ashes of old Azovia.

 

[Killcrazy13]

Khanum Sibel the Crow

With the dissolution of the Tsardom, Khanum Sibel held the largest share of territory, more than half of Azovia was under her direct rule and she would not be content with that. The new House was strongest in the Balkans but was split off from the Azovian heartlands by Moldavia and Wallachia.

Khanum Sibel had not been ideal during the decade of Fedot’s rule. She removed the last of the Orthodox lords from Western Bulgaria and the few remaining swore fealty to her and converted to Hasidism. She drafted new laws banning the practice of Kurultai elections and focused on building up the armories, stables and training grounds of Kiev.

Her newly-recruited army, the Kievan Druzhina, was modernized with Bulgar-Greek innovations in siege weaponry and captured Bulgar destriers would form the breeding stock for the new heavy calvary forces she would bring to bear on her enemies. The Druzhina Royal Guard would number 6,000 men and horses and was supported by another 8,000 peasant levies, and cowed any Grand Prince or Steppe Lord from challenging her mandates. Taxation increased throughout the realm to feed the Khanum’s war machine.

In 1250, she marched her armies into Moldavia, citing territorial disputes as her casus belli. The Moldavian Khan Manas held territory that had been part of Azov’s historic borders. Sibel’s Druzhina proved their mettle in the field as they smashed every force they met in their march to the capital in Suceava. When the Khan surrendered, the Khanum had her men shatter his crown and placed her foot on his throat – another Bulgar-Byzantine tradition adopted by the House of Yaros. His lands were transferred to Sibel’s bastard, Prince Nedighe and integrated into Sibel’s domain.

Next, she eyed the Otemic holdout of Wallachia. Since the time of the first Nasi, Manar the Boundless, it had been held by Nasi’s third son, Ezra, and his descendants, the Ezraids. They had clung to Otemic practices throughout the reigns of Yaroslav and Fedot, as the Tsars rarely had the time or ability to deal with schismatics while foreign threats loomed. Raising the banner of a War of Herem, she marched into the lowlands of Muntenia. Her armies swept all before them before sieging the stronghold of Targoviste.

The coronation of Khagan Sibel

Now in control of White Rus, Ruthenia, Azov, Wallachia, Moldavia and Bulgaria, she had the Nasi Gulcicek crown her in the imperial palace of her ancestor, Tsaritsa Quna, in Kiev. Declaring this new empire the Khaganate of the Black Sea, she broke with old traditions, adopting Bulgar court practices and organizing the coronation that was as grand as any Byzantine crowning. The Azovians were day by day, forgetting their steppe roots, and becoming increasingly Hellenized.

Her greatest triumph was still to come. The Latins and Nicaeans had been at each other’s throats since the sacking of Constantinople, severely weakening themselves. The long-held dream of holding the gates of the Bosphorus was within reach. Gathering all the strength of the Khaganate, she marched into Thessalonika. The Latins quivered at the sight of the massive armies, knowing they did not have enough men to protect Constantinople, let alone the rest of the Empire. The war would last three years but most of it was spent sieging the Theodosian Walls, the rest of the kingdom was already under the control of the Jews. On February 1st, the walls were breached and the second great sacking of Constantinople occurred. The Khaganate of the Black Sea now controlled the domain it was named after.

Christian depiction of the Fall of Constantinople

The Khagan Sibel was content to consolidate her new realm. The Yaros were gifted the choicest of the new territories, continuing their domination of Azovian politics. She would rule for another twenty years, allowing herself more time to dedicate to her personal interests while her children ran the realm. These usually involved the experimentation of kabbalistic rituals and torturing the many Greek and Latin prisoners captured in the war. While the Hasidic Sanhedrin were aghast at the stories they heard coming Constantinople – the Khagan’s new capital – they wisely bit their tongue. The Khaganate was a vastly different empire than the comparatively tolerant Azov Tsardom of Yaroslav’s time.

The Khagan would brook no dissent in her land, and the Khans would never be allowed to cheat her lineage of their rightful crowns. The later years of her reign would see the rise of a new challenge. In Anatolia, a new force had emerged after the shattering of Byzantine power. The Osmanaglu Turks had captured the seaside cities of Ephesus from the Nicaeans and they would prove to be a threat in the twilight of Sibel’s rule and a persistent danger for most of her successors.

In 1273, the Khagan passed on and her son, Hemat, who had waited 59 years to succeed her mother, was crowned in Constantinople.